Sports and entertainment group Endeavor has secured a $260m loan to help it through the Covid-19 downturn, the Wall Street Journal reports. The loan supplements an existing $2.8bn loan, and has an interest rate of just under 11 per cent. JPMorgan Chase & Co and Oaktree Capital Group are among the financial institutions involved in arranging it. The Journal said Endeavor’s revenue has fallen 70 per cent due to the pandemic. A report in Variety carried additional details.
The English Premier League is considering cutting short its 2019-20 season for the first time, as talks continue about how to restart following the Covid-19 shutdown, the Financial Times reports. Several clubs are pushing back against proposals to play matches at neutral venues, to avoid fans turning up at their home stadiums, Reuters reports.
Spanish football’s LaLiga hopes to restart on June 12, president Javier Tebas said. The schedule will be spread out so that there will be matches every day, he added.
The launch of Japan’s planned new domestic rugby union league may be delayed by a year, Kyodo News reports. The league was scheduled to begin next autumn, but may be pushed back to early 2022 due to the move of the Tokyo Olympics. The league is planned to have three divisions, and include teams from the existing Rugby Top League, second-tier Top Challenge League and a number of other clubs. Japanese rugby union team the Sunwolves are aiming to compete in a scaled-down Super Rugby competition in Australia, its chief executive Yuji Watase said yesterday.
A spokesperson for CCTV, speaking in reference to the Chinese state broadcaster’s dropping of NBA coverage following last year’s controversy about Daryl Morey’s Hong Kong tweet, told media that it currently has no contact with the American league, and “On issues concerning China’s sovereignty, our attitude is serious, clear, and consistent, and there will be no room for ambiguity and manoeuvre. NBA executives should be clear about this.”
The Chinese Athletics Association and technology company Huami Technology are creating an athletics ‘laboratory’ that will research systems that can be used to aid athletes and the sport, SportsMoney.cn reports. The initiative follows the signing in March of a partnership between the two organisations.
Professional sports teams in the Australian state of Victoria have been given permission to resume training tomorrow, Reuters reports. A large number of teams are in the state, including 10 from the AFL, National Rugby League team Melbourne Storm, and three A-League football teams.
The Williams Formula One team has appointed Simon Roberts to a newly-created role of managing director, Reuters reports. Roberts was previously chief operations officer at the McLaren team.
Turkey has cancelled its basketball and volleyball leagues’ 2019-20 seasons.