L.A., Paris Companies Gear Up for Bicycle Races

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Anschutz Entertainment Group, owner of the Amgen Tour of California cycling competition, is going on a tandem ride.

AEG has teamed up with Amaury Sports Organisation, the owner of the legendary Tour de France bike race, to form a joint marketing and sponsorship alliance in a deal announced last week. The two organizations will work together on getting American sponsorships for the Tour de France and European media coverage for the Amgen Tour.


“We are going to use all of our marketing clout and institutional assets to promote each other’s races,” said Andrew Messick, president of AEG Sports.

Starting with the 2009 Amgen Tour of California, Amaury, which is based in Paris, will help negotiate international TV and digital distribution for the California race in Europe. The Amgen race features teams from around the world and has the largest prize purse, $150,000 in 2008, in North America. It has set attendance records in each of its first three years.

“We think that cycling is a terrific sport for television and a great ad for the state of California,” Messick said, who added that the race could be broadcast in up to 100 countries.

In exchange, the partnership calls for AEG to help ASO secure sponsorships for the Tour de France from U.S.-based companies. The 2008 Tour de France is scheduled to begin July 5 this year.

ASO was created in September 1992 to operate the Tour de France, the Dakar cycling race and the Paris Marathon. It has expanded to include golf events, equestrian sports and just launched a mountain bike race.

Promoting the Tour may be a challenge due to the ongoing doping scandals in the sport. But Messick believes that the scandals that have plagued past champions, including 2007 Tour de France winner Floyd Landis, can be prevented with tougher drug testing.

Landis, who was stripped of his victory, is still challenging the testing.

“We believe that teams, riders, fans and sponsors want to see cycling clean from drugs,” said Messick, adding that ASO shares in the vision of a clean sport.

Messick said Amgen Tour of California has instituted the strictest drug testing program in bicycle racing.

“Our drug-testing program is much stricter than the Olympics,” he said.


Basketball Camps

Rapper Percy Miller, known as Master P, and his son, Percy Romeo Miller Jr., known as Romeo, have teamed up to launch a series of youth basketball camps for inner cities across the U.S. through the Los Angeles-based Master P Foundation.

The father and son both have successful entertainment careers as well as dreams of playing basketball professionally. Master P has twice been signed to participate in preseason National Basketball Association games but was released both times. Romeo, a graduate of Beverly Hills High School, committed to playing basketball for USC starting in 2008-2009.

The millionaire rappers have used their own money to conduct basketball camps and celebrity games. The first camp was held in Memphis, Tenn., and others are scheduled throughout the country.


Pomona Park

The city of Pomona will open a soccer complex with the help of Nike Inc. and the U.S. Soccer Foundation.

Veteran’s Park Soccer Complex, which will feature four soccer fields with synthetic turf surfaces, debuts June 28.

Pomona spent $6 million converting an industrial location into the soccer site. Nike and U.S. Soccer gave a $100,000 grant for the field installation.

The opening ceremonies will include a youth clinic conducted by the Cal Poly Pomona soccer team.


Juice Jump

Azusa-based Naked Juice has become a sponsor of the AVP Crocs beach volleyball tour for the remainder of the 2008 season. The one-year sponsorship deal brings the fruit juice and smoothie-maker’s name to the tour’s remaining 16 events, including the famed Manhattan Beach Open. The tour has six events in Southern California during the summer season.

The deal calls for Naked Juice to receive signage, retail space and other site promotions at Association of Volleyball Professionals events. The company also will receive tickets it can give to clients, and will be able to bring guests to its hospitality booth at tournament sites.

Los Angeles-based tour operator AVP Inc. will stage more than 35 events throughout the United States in 2008. The tour features many of the top athletes in the sport, and several of them, including defending female gold medalists Misty May and Kerri Walsh, are expected to compete at the Beijing Olympic Games.


Staff reporter David Nusbaum can be reached at

[email protected]

or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 236.

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