Football Partnerships

Beavercreek has been selected to host a national youth soccer tournament next year, bringing with it millions of dollars in economic impact.

Read the rest of the article

By João Gonçalves

Although professional sports tend to be immune from economic woes, the current global crisis is making some dents in all sports, including American soccer.

Earlier this month it was announced that the Arena Football League is taking a year off; the Houston Comets, the flagship of the WNBA, also closed down for good; the National Football League, probably the richest league in the planet, is laying off people and even NASCAR, which had seemingly been swimming in sponsorship deals, is making cuts.

At the central offices of the various leagues, cuts have been the order of the day as all major sports have been affected. NBA announced that it will cut its staff by nine percent, the NFL sliced off the same percentage of its workforce and Major League Baseball instituted a staff hiring, as well as a salary freeze, while cutting vacation in 2009 by 20 percent.

Read the rest of the article

By Paul Vieira

Like nearly every country, Brazil is sustaining its share of collateral damage from the credit crunch. Lending terms are less favourable; the currency has been sideswiped; and public and private projects, involving infrastructure refurbishments or new factories, have either been delayed, or, at worse, halted.

Even as all this transpires, it is tough to sense panic among the men and women who work and play in Sao Paulo, the country’s main financial hub. If anything, there’s a spring in the step of most Paulistas, as the residents of the city are called.

Restaurants near the financial district, in particular the quintessential churascarias, or steakhouses, are bustling at lunchtime as blue and grey-suited businessmen discuss cash flows while waiters with skewers of picanha walk around offering patrons a slice of the premium cut of meat, cooked to a perfect medium-rare.

Read the rest of the article

By Charlie Smith

The Mississippi Valley State University soccer team wasn’t the only winner this weekend at the SWAC women’s tournament.

The Valley campus and Greenwood’s economy took home victories as well.

“It’s been great,” said Kelly Brooks, associate commissioner of the SWAC. “Valley did an incredible job of preparing for the arrival of the tournament. Their facility is beautiful.”

Read the rest of the article

By Simon Canning and Stuart Honeysett

Several top-line football clubs may be forced to drop their asking price in the hunt for sponsors as the business world tightens its belt amid the global financial downturn.

NRL premier Manly and wooden spooners the Bulldogs are so far without major sponsors for next year while in the AFL, Richmond, Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs are in the same condition.

Experts say while the Australian economy has been protected to a certain extent from the full force of the market meltdowns in the US and Europe, the timing could not have been worse for those without major sponsors.

Read the rest of the article