The end of soccer's nightly news show

By Paul Kennedy

Fox Soccer Report helped put Winnipeg on the soccer media map with the production of the nightly news show doneeach night from a tiny studio of the corner of the 30th floor of the CanWest Plaza, one of the tallest buildings in Canada.

But the show is going off the air by the end of September andwill be replaced by a yet-to-be-named soccer newscast produced by Rogers Media out of Toronto, writes Oliver Tse in an exclusive at EPLTalk.

Shaw Media produced Fox Soccer Report since 2001 under the terms of a Canadian law that 15 percent of content be Canadian-produced.

GM’SGLOBAL SOCCER BET. How important is the global market for an American company like GM? It has decided to stop advertising during the Super Bowl and is instead betting on a five-year sponsorshipof the Manchester United to bolster its Chevrolet line in the first test of the brand’s new global marketingstrategy.

“It’s clear that global football presented us with a significant opportunity to spread Chevrolet around the world,” said Paul Edwards, GM executive director. “We recognized thatit’s not only the world’s biggest sport but also the world’s most engaged fans.”

GM decided to halt paid advertising on Facebook and forgo the 2013 Super Bowl. When Manchester Unitedplayed against Manchester City “that audience around the world scaled to 600 million people,” Edwards said. “Compare that to the Super Bowl here in the States, which is roughly 110, 115 million, andyou’re talking five times that audience watching one regular-season game. It’s significant.”

(As part of its move into soccer, Chevrolet announced today a three-year partnership with the One World Futbol Project, creators of the One World Futbol that will result in1.5 million virtually indestructible footballs being donated to youth in war-stricken zones, refugee camps, disaster areas and other disadvantaged communities.)

LOEW NO SOCIAL MEDIA FAN. Germany national team coach Joachim Loew will impose no ban on his players on his players posting on Facebook ortweeting during Euro 2012, which begins Friday, but he is no fan of social media.

“I respect that the players use it,” Lowe told the tabloid Bild.”It’s their way of communicating, but not mine. I think this type of exchange is rather dangerous. For me, it is utterly incomprehensible how people share their private life, from truly confidentialand intimate things, indiscriminately with thousands or even millions of people. I myself have just heard that my lawyer had to lock pages that someone has run under my name. The fact that someone canmake something like that under a false name is already indicative of the whole system.”

FOLLOWING A DREAM. SebastianPodesta, a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and a big River Plate fan, is working on a documentary about the PDL’s BrooklynKnights.

“They are really talented players, they love soccer and dream of being professional players,” Podesta told the New York Times. “Some will make it, most of them won’t. They haven’t made it yet. Somewon’t. But still have the passion.”

Podesta is raising money for the project — its working title is “Going Pro: American Soccer” — on Kickstarter.com.

QUAKER AND FIRE TEAM UP. Quaker Oats is leveraging its sponsorship agreement with the hometown Chicago Fire by launching new retailinitiatives across the Chicagoland area that include Fire and Quaker branded in-store displays.

A number of promotions have been developed. The big prize: an Ultimate Chicago Fire FanExperience. The winner will have the opportunity to receive a travel package that includes round-trip airfare, accommodations and Fire away jerseys for six people for the Oct. 6 NewYork-Chicago matchat Red Bull Arena.

NUMBERS GAME. If you had a hard time reading the numbers on the back of the new U.S. red-and-white-striped jerseys during theUSA-Scotland game, you weren’t alone. By Wednesday’s game against Brazil, the light gray numbers were replaced by navy blue numbers. The cost to U.S. Soccer of the change: “nearly six figures” an”informed source” told si.com’s Grant Wahl.
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