Arena News & Notes: Orioles Bringing Glamour to Sarasota?

The
Baltimore Orioles have offered to bring their spring training operation to
Sarasota,
Florida
— for a price. The Orioles are asking for a $65 million deal that would include
a new stadium and more room for their minor league to train, but they will
throw in a youth baseball camp from Cal Ripken.
…The
Baltimore Orioles want a new stadium and more room for their minor-league
training complex and are asking for a $65
million deal to bring spring training to Sarasota,
FL.
But they are also offering a few sweeteners: a youth baseball camp by Orioles
legend Cal Ripken and an advertising deal worth up to $2.3 million that would
put
Sarasota on TV sets in Baltimore and
Washington
…
…The organizers
of the 2012 Olympic Games are set to scrap plans to build a new combined venue
for the badminton, rhythmic gymnastics, and paralympic volleyball in an effort
to save £40 million as their £9.3 billion budget continues to be put under pressure because
of the credit crunch. The London 2012 Organizing Committee had planned to build
a temporary, 6,000-seat arena in north
Greenwich,
but a report from its accounting consultant, KPMG, has recommended the events be
relocated to an existing venue…
…Wider
concourses, more restrooms and about 2,000 video screens and monitors will
greet football fans at the new
stadium being built by the New York Giants and New York Jets. Team owners
John Mara of the Giants and Woody Johnson of
the Jets
hosted a tour of the
facility Thursday. It’s about 60% done, and both men say the project
currently is ahead of schedule and under budget…
…Juventus
Football Club presented plans for a new
40,000-seat stadium this week that will be built on the site of the old
Stadio DelleAlpi in Turin, Italy. Juventus has played in the rebuilt 25,442-seat Stadio
Olimpico the past 2 1/2 seasons and wants to move back into a
biggerfacility. The new stadium, which will be named after a sponsor,
will cost an estimated €105 million ($131.69 million) and be ready by May 2011.
Construction is set to begin inMarch…
…Houston is nearing the
end of its 40-year wait for the Final Four to come back to town. But the NCAA
has wasted no time booking a return date. The NCAA announced Wednesday that Reliant
Stadium will be the site of the 2016 men’s basketball Final Four, setting
the stage for the city to host one of the nation’s premier sporting events
twice in six years since the 2011 event is already slated to be held there…
…The NCAA men’s Final Four is the second major
non-football sporting event scheduled for the Dallas Cowboys’ new stadium. The
possibilities are endless, Cowboys spokesman Brett Daniels said, for other sporting
events that could land at the $1.1 billion facility. He said a bid
was placed last month to get one or more of the college lacrosse championship
tournaments between 2010 and 2012…
…Hundreds
turned out for the open house of the new Carolina
First Basketball arena this week. It took two years and $45 million to
build the new facility at the
College
of
Charleston, S.C. Kids
enjoyed taking shots on the court while student athletes passed out programs
and foam cougar paws to fans and visitors munched on free food. Athletics
Director Joe Hull says the old arena will be used as a practice and rehab
facility.