Sports BIZ

COORS NAMED OFFICIAL BEER SPONSOR OF NASCAR
(Howard Bloom) - Coors Brewing Company and the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) today announced a multi-year partnership, making Coors Light the official beer of NASCAR and its millions of fans nationwide. The five-year sponsorship agreement gives Coors Brewing Company category exclusivity starting with the 2008 NASCAR season. The sponsorship agreement gives Coors Light exclusive rights to NASCAR logos in advertising, packaging and promotions, as well as the right to brand the Pole Award. In addition, Coors Light will build distributor and consumer promotions giving fans exclusive access to one-of-a-kind NASCAR experiences.

MLB SETS NEW ATTENDANCE RECORD
(Howard Bloom) - For the fourth consecutive year, Major League Baseball has broken its all-time attendance record, and with a week to go, is on pace for more than a 4 percent increase over 2006. Through Sunday, MLB games had drawn a record 76,215,082 fans, shattering last year's single-season record of 76,042,787. Average attendance per game in 2007 is 32,710, up more than 1,000 per game from last year's average of 31,423 per game. Baseball's growing popularity in recent years can be attributed to many factors, including such dramatic innovations as the Wild Card and Interleague Play, increased competitive balance because of the significant economic changes that have taken place in the sport over the last decade and the construction of fan-friendly ballparks in many Major League cities. Having more teams in contention later in the season is another draw, and for the third straight year, nearly two-thirds of MLB's 30 teams were in contention as late as Labor Day.

NFL MAY SELL ADS ON TEAM WEBSITES
(Sports Business Journal) - The NFL is closing in on a new digital media model that would see the league for the first time sell advertising across all 32 team Web sites while clubs would keep sponsorship space for themselves as well, team sources said.