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Its a year late but the federal government is set to introduce a bill to alter a list of protected sporting events free-to-air television broadcasters must show live if they hold the rights.

Under the proposed amendments, free-to-air broadcasters would have more ability to use their secondary channels to show events, because the anti-siphoning list will be split into two tiers.

The first tier would list nationally iconic events, such as the Melbourne Cup and the finals of major international and domestic competitions, that would have to be shown on a free-to-air broadcasters main channel.

Spammers are using holidays and major events to make their mail more appealing.

This is according to the Symantec.cloud Intelligence Report, which shows that more than 10 000 unique domain names were compromised with a redirect script written in PHP that contained a reference to the New Year in the file name.

These redirect scripts were hosted on compromised Web sites, and links to these were included in spam e-mails, says Symantec.

To further entice recipients to open their messages, spammers used additional social engineering techniques by including parameters in the URL to suggest the destination is a social networking site, according to the security software vendor.

Symantec Intelligence expects to see spammers taking advantage of other calendar events like the Chinese New Year celebrations, which ended on the night of 4 February, and the fast-approaching Valentines Day.

We also expect to see plenty of spam and malware taking advantage of some of the major upcoming sporting events this year. We are already seeing references to the Summer Olympics in London (27 July to 12 August) as part of 419 or advance fee fraud messages, says Mark Smissen, business development manager at Symantec.cloud.

Mobile marketing stocks like CommerceTel (MFON) benefit as sporting enthusiasts turn to their mobile devices during the Super Bowl and other sporting events.

I hesitate to call this a riot, considering some of the violence weve seen after big sporting events in the past. Nevertheless, UMass-Amherst students gathered in the streets following the New England Patriots loss in Super Bowl XLVI, resulting in a brief altercation with police. And it was, by all accounts, fairly brief.

Police quickly swooped in following the game, issued an order to disperse, and fired tear gas into the crowd a short time later, according to a MassLive report.

Riot squads on hand well before the end of the game, issued a dispersal order at approximately 10 pm and used flashbang and smoke grenades to disperse the crowd approximately 10 minutes later. Riot squads and horseback officers marched through the crowd minutes after that.

By the time riot squads intervened firecrackers had been set off, glass bottles smashed, one building scaled by one student, and at least one fight had broken out in the middle of a large mass of rowdy rioters. At least one student was restrained by a group of three officers in riot gear.

Heres video that was supposedly shot at the scene, as well.

Hopefully thats the extent of the riots on Sunday night. Elsewhere, all seems to be quiet, with no significant reports of crowd gatherings or violence.

Todays Super Bowl between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots will bring a massive economic boost to Indianapolis, and a taxpayer cost to keep fans safe.

Police officers will direct traffic, and firefighters will stand ready for medical emergencies.

Cities and regions usually bear the public-safety costs in exchange for the crush of visitors and limelight the NFL championship game, and professional sports in general, provide.

Glendale spent about $2 million on public safety when it hosted Super Bowl XLII in 2008, a cost yet unknown for the 2015 Super Bowl at the University of Phoenix Stadium.

Indianapolis expects to spend $4 million on public safety for todays game.

Valley cities pay sizable sums to keep sports fans safe, apart from Super Bowl-size games that come around every so often.

Glendale, after some reimbursements, spent a total of about $3.5 million for public safety at Arizona Cardinals games from 2006 to 2010. The amount climbed to $3.8 million when including the Phoenix Coyotes, who also call the city home.

Phoenix absorbed about $4.1 million in public-safety costs related to Phoenix Suns basketball and Arizona Diamondbacks baseball games over five years from 2005 to 2009.

Those costs come with benefits. Indianapolis has long capitalized on sports and expects Super Bowl XLVI to bring $150 million in direct spending, according to analysis by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Locally, professional sports lured restaurants and hotels to farm fields in Glendale. On game days in Phoenix, fans fill bars and eateries near the downtown sports venues.

Tourists may come for a football game and then come back for shopping opportunities they saw the first time, Glendale Mayor Elaine Scruggs said.

Costs and benefits

Cities are generally the only entities capable of providing the public-safety services required at a sporting event.

Cities and regions compete to host Super Bowls, and the NFL requires the bids to detail such things as public-safety support.

Cities that play permanent host to franchises are usually expected to offer some financial support. City leaders must negotiate who pays the bills with the leagues, whose owners can threaten to move the team if city officials dont give enough, said Timothy James, an economics professor at the WP Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. For instance, the Cincinnati Bengals owner threatened to move the NFL team in 1995, demanding a new stadium. Taxpayers continue to pay the bill.
Still, James said hes not convinced that cities get a bad deal.

Cities boast sales-tax hauls and brand themselves as hubs for professional sports.

Glendale, once little known outside Arizona, has been mentioned on national television thousands of times since the Cardinals and Coyotes arrived.

Its a big way of increasing the recognition of the brand name of the city itself, James said.

As for tax hauls, a 2010 Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority report showed Valley cities collect about $11.5 million a year in taxes from Arizona Cardinals operations.

The city said spending in its sports district, from the NFL and NHL venues to Westgate restaurants, added $33 million to city coffers from 2006 to 2010.

The majority covered the citys debt to build the arena, about $10million annually, and to a lesser extent, for stadium infrastructure.

The Glendale mayor said a front-end investment is required to get that sales-tax revenue. She pointed to Arrowhead Towne Center. The city initially saw a spike in police costs, but the mall has since become the citys top source of sales taxes, she said.

Phoenix officials estimate their sports venues draw 5 million of the roughly 7 million eventgoers to the citys downtown core each year.

Assistant Phoenix City Manager Ed Zuercher said the citys downtown brings in $5 million to $6 million in annual city sales-tax dollars, although he could not say exactly how much sporting events contributed to those figures.

Not everyone agrees that the benefits of professional sports teams outweigh the costs.

Glendale Councilwoman Norma Alvarez, who was elected years after the city went down the pro-sports path, is critical of sports-related public-safety spending as city staffers endure furloughs and residents see service cuts.

I dont think we should be giving anything for free, Alvarez said. The NHL and the NFL are profiting. Theyre getting money for tickets so, of course, I feel the city should be fully reimbursed.

A look at the agreements

Each sports venue comes with piles of agreements, including details on how a city will provide security for the facilities.

Those that draw the biggest crowds summon more resources.

On Cardinals game days, the sports authority requires police officers to direct traffic and ensure the safety in and around the stadium. Firefighters must provide emergency medical and ambulance services. Police wont provide specific staffing numbers but Glendale pays overtime to its officers and firefighters who work at games. Officers from other agencies get a set rate.

The citys agreement with the Coyotes requires a similar, but less elaborate, effort.

The sports authority, which owns the NFL stadium, and the hockey team, which manages the arena, cover some public-safety costs, particularly staffing inside the stadium and the arena.

The sports authority contributed nearly $3.7 million to the $7.2 million in public-safety costs at the NFL stadium from 2006 to 2010.

The hockey team contributed nearly $2.6 million to the $2.8 million in public-safety costs at the arena during the same time period.

At a Cardinals game last fall, two Glendale police lieutenants stood on the roof of Jobing.com Arena, watching traffic flow on Loop 101 and communicating with dozens of officers stationed outside the stadium. A helicopter, which Glendale rents for $435 an hour, flew overhead to look for traffic snarls.

Elsewhere, police monitored parking lots from a 25-foot tall tower purchased with grant funds. Officers rode bicycles in parking lots and tailgating spots.

Such facilities come with an obligation to make sure visitors feel safe and enjoy themselves, Glendale City Manager Ed Beasley said. The purpose is to create a destination point so we have a responsibility to keep people safe.

A violent incident can affect a city or teams ability to attract fans in an instant, as happened last spring when a San Francisco Giants fan was beaten outside the Los Angeles Dodgers stadium. Dozens of police officers have since been assigned to work the baseball games.

How other cities compare

Each city has a different approach for game days.

In Phoenix, the Diamondbacks contract with police who direct traffic and provide some security outside Chase Field. The team reimbursed the city for less than a quarter of related costs over five years, leaving Phoenix with about a $3.3 million bill.

Phoenix police offer support to the Suns but spent about $830,000 after reimbursements from the NBA franchise.

Phoenix firefighters who provide emergency medical support and Maricopa County sheriffs deputies who work inside Chase Field get a better deal. Public records show both agencies are fully reimbursed by the Diamondbacks. Neither work for the Suns, who largely contract with private providers.

Most Glendale leaders say public-safety costs come with the territory, although some would like the state to chip in for the Super Bowl.

Thats a refrain Mike Kennedy, chairman of the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee, has heard since mid-2000. He acknowledged the state needs to consider sharing the burden as in Texas, where state sales taxes can offset the cost to cities for major sporting events.

Kennedy said its not a top priority during the economic recovery. He wouldnt commit to lobbying for a state funding mechanism by the 2015 Super Bowl.

Whoever pays the public-safety cost, the Super Bowl advocate emphasized, the investment comes with a return.

I have an aversion to the discussion of costs taking place in a vacuum without consideration of the benefits, Kennedy said.

After securing a bronze medal in the 2004 Olympics, American wrestler Rulon Gardner walked away from the mat for the final time, leaving his shoes behind as a symbol of his retirement. It seemed a fitting end to his legendary career, an emphatic punctuation mark for a man who had shocked the sports world in 2000 by dethroning Russian champion Alexander Karelin for Olympic gold.

But like so many elite athletes, Rulon couldnt stay away. Following a stint on the hit TV show The Biggest Loser (and losing 173 pounds), Gardner relocated to Colorado Springs in 2011 and began training for a return to the sport that had made him famous.

On Jan. 28, at the ripe age of 40, Gardner took to the mat once again at the Kiki Cup, an international wrestling duel held at the Olympic Training Center. Gardner finished the day 4-0 and feeling good about where he is.

My performance today, I felt was pretty good, Gardner said to the Colorado Springs Gazette. For me to be able to come back here to get back into the sport of wrestling after eight years, this has been a pretty amazing experience.

With weight still to be shed, and the United States Olympic wrestling trials fast approaching in April, Gardners comeback is far from complete. But its a start.

In Colorado Springs, stories like these are common, as the city is home to the United States Olympic Committee, as well as the national governing bodies of over 20 sports.

Aside from wrestling tournaments, Colorado Springs annually hosts multiple other international sporting events. The next high profile event coming to Colorado Springs is the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships, held at the World Arena and World Arena Ice Hall from Feb. 6-12.

The Four Continents Figure Skating Championships is a competition that pits the top figure skaters from North America, Asia, Australia and Africa against one another. This years event features a strong field that includes multiple American champions, Olympic medalists and 2011 Colorado Springs trained world champion, Canadian Patrick Chan.

This month, the Olympic Training Center will also play host to the Olympic Boxing trials, slated to take place from Feb. 27-March 2.

For students who are interested in Olympic sports at the highest level, there are few locations better than Colorado Springs. With a plethora of Olympic athletes living and training within the city, opportunities to watch international events are never in short supply.

Could there be a relation between cardiovascular events and environmental stress in the form of sporting events, making winning or losing a life or death issue? asks Robert A. Kloner, MD, PhD, in this months Heart journal.

Well, yeah. But Kloners editorial is not new. It originally ran in May 2003, as noted by Heart.

What hasnt been emphasized in news reports is the curious reduction in heart attacks among fans of winning teams!

Kloners study of Los Angeles County death records around the 1980 and 1984 Los Angeles Rams Super Bowl games — the first an emotional loss (to the Steelers), the second an easy win (over the Redskins) was finally published in The American Journal of Cardiology in 2009. While heart attack-related deaths increased after the loss, during the two weeks following the win, Angelenos experienced a lower rate of all-cause deaths, including heart attacks.

Results are even more plentiful in European studies. French researchers F. Berthier and F. Boulay measured lowered heart attack mortality in French men the day France won the 1998 World Cup.

The 1998 World Cup was the biggest sporting event ever held in France. Mounting expectations for final victory had a powerful impact on the general population as France won game after game. The final, watched by 23.6 million television viewers (40% of the French population), began at 9 pm and ended at 11pm on Sunday, July 12. Consequently the decreased mortality from myocardial infarction in French men on July 12 basically occurred during the hours preceding the final. Such a positive effect of a major sporting event on national mortality data has never been reported.

Mortality from myocardial infarction in men was almost 30 percent lower on the day of the final compared with the five days on either side. The researchers concluded that:

The combined effect of a day off work, a national holiday, and the euphoria of victory might also explain the fall in mortality from myocardial infarction two days later on July 14. It is noteworthy that a decreased workload in accident and emergency departments was also reported when England hosted the 1996 European football championship. Moreover a reduction in the number of emergency psychiatric presentations occurred in Scotland during World Cup final competitions and was attributed to enhancement of national identity and cohesion.

The team France beat in 1998 was Brazil. Then 18-year-old Brazilian soccer fan Gisele Bundchen, now wife of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, prays theres not a repeat of 1998 or Super Bowl 2008 when Giants QB Eli Manning dominated. See you on Day Five.

Megan Parmenter, Yale Heart Study Research Associate, contributed to reporting this blog.

February is American Heart Month. Please take a few minutes to visit the Yale Heart Study site and complete the heart attack survivors survey, or forward it to someone you know who has survived a heart attack. https://heartstudy.yale.edu/hacs/

Questions? Contact heart.study@yale.edu, visit facebook.com/YaleHeartStudy, or phone me at: 203-785-4872.

Disclosure: Suzanne OMalley is a Senior Research Associate for the non-profit NIH-funded Yale Heart Study, a Faculty member of the Yale Writers Conference Associate/Director of Yale Summer Film Institute.

For more by Suzanne OMalley, click here.

For more on personal health, click here.

What strikes one when you look at these events from the
sidewalk or the river bank or the beach is that you see the middle and upper
classes enjoying themselves. What looks like mass events are actually highly
selective. To prepare and participate, you need serious disposable income.

I was shocked when I joined my daughter to a cycle shop to find out that
there are these straightforward-looking bikes selling for R100,000 plus. Entry
level would set you back at least R9,500. And because you cannot just ride in
shorts, tekkies and a T-shirt, the extras will add another R5,000 if you go very
basic. If you think of transporting your bikes, add another R3,500 for a rack or
R6 500 for a tow-bar. There goes R20,000 and then you have not added in the cost
of getting to the events, paying for accommodation, and buying the right
supplements.

I have not done costing on canoes or Orca suits or state of
the art running shoes, but the story will probably be roughly the same: The line
between the haves and have-nots is drawn long before the starting line-up. This
gives the participants a sense of achievement in the same way you buy a new car
or a flat on the beach-front or a Carducci suit.

I am because I have.

Mass sporting events also implicitly confirms the ideal of the Olympic
body. That our society is totally body-mad – striving for the image of the
six-pack man or the cat-walk girl – is clearly evident from two highly
profitable but dubious businesses: slimming products and supplements. We know
that we are sold nonsense with no scientific basis not subject to any
independent verification. But because we are sold on the bodily ideals of
Cosmopolitan and Mens Health, we spend billions of rand on nothing.

That is why discrimination against over-weight people is so rampant.
Business research shows that fat people earn less than equally qualified lean
people, and find it tougher to be promoted, because they are seen as lazy,
ill-disciplined and a bit stupid. So much for the ideology of physical
attraction.

What makes Oscar Pistorius special is not that he runs fast,
but because he challenges our fundamental convictions about body and
normality. He literally broke the barrier set up by our collective ideals
about what kind of body is in and what is out.

Whether mass
participation is driven by weight loss or not (this is not the point), it
implicitly reinforces our collective ideals of what is physically acceptable and
what is not. So that tomorrow we can exclude those that fall outside our narrow
definitions.

The same holds for the implicit reinforcement of sexism.
Yes, biologically women are generally physically weaker than men. That is why
prize-money for men and women differ; that is why womens events attract less
sponsorship and viewers.

The reason has nothing to do with physical
strength – it is has to do with the tendency to reinforce the pillars of a
vicious, patriarchal psychology from this seemingly empirical truth that women
are the weaker sex.

That is why men pay them less, beat them up if they
argue back and rape them when we know deep down they are in so many ways our
equals and our superiors.

Again: this says absolutely nothing about the
motives and character of participants in mass sporting events. They are good
people, like my parents were good people without knowing they were supporting an
inhumane political system. The lines are blurred, but they are nevertheless
there on a deep social level.

The saddest of all this, is that mass
sporting events – especially the really gruelling ones – reinforce our tendency
to socially reward explicit physical heroism instead of courage contributing
to the moral and common good in society. Do not be misled by those who do this
to collect money for the orphans. This is a false veil.

When someone
tells you with tears in their eyes how they had this life-changing event by
completing the Comrades, please feel sad. Ask inside yourself what kind of
society fosters and rewards such a selfish goal that takes up so much time,
energy and resources in a country where millions need our skills, time and
voluntary service.

Political power loves it when the people keep
themselves occupied with sport. It is an escape from realities and a
confirmation of social identity so that real power is not challenged.

You wont find the mass sport people marching for freedom of
information.

They are too busy training.

Prof Piet Naude is the
former head of the Business School and currently Deputy Vice-Chancellor:
Academic at the Nelson Mandela Metro University in Port Elizabeth. He writes in
his personal capacity. This article is to inform and educate, not to advise.

Posted at 08:45 AM ET, 02/03/2012
The Super Bowls: Celebrating lesser-known sporting events
By Maura Judkis

This year will be the 46th Super Bowl — and for nearly as many years, the cliched phrase “The Super Bowl of [something]” has been used to describe intense competition off of the gridiron. Many of the Super Bowl designations don’t even apply to actual competitions — or they’re competitions so trivial that the “Super Bowl” designation is a blustering hyperbole. It’s a writing cliche similar to calling a creative person “The Picasso of [something]” which was previously examined on this blog.

Though the Giants and the Patriots won’t take the field until Sunday, Friday we celebrate some of these lesser-known Super Bowls.

The Super Bowl of Birding has nothing to do with ravens, eagles, falcons or seahawks.
(Sam Panthaky – AFP/Getty Images)

• The Super Bowl of Birding took place on Jan. 28 in Essex County, Mass., and Rockingham County, N.H. “It’s not THE Super Bowl, but it brings out the ‘sport’ of birding for those who participate,” the Newburyport News helpfully points out. The Maine Outdoor Journal says this year’s winning team scored 202 points, with scores awarded for the rarity of birds spotted.

• The Super Bowl of Friendship is a celebration of “girlfriendology,” according to the blog of the same name. Points are awarded for kindness and being there for a friend, and all of the game time snacks are low-cal.

• The Super Bowl of Hymn Festivals is not about praying for a touchdown. According to the Milledgeville News of Georgia, it’s an event presented each year by the Macon Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. it will take place on the same day as the actual Super Bowl, Feb. 5.

• The Superbowl of Chick Fights, according to blogger spunkybean, took place on last week’s episode of “The Bachelor.” You could be on either Team Courtney or Team Emily, two women who are totally in TRUE LOVE with Ben. They both got roses at the end of the show, so presumably the Superbowl of Chick Fights resulted in a tie? Or does that mean it’s going into overtime?

• The Super Bowl of Chicken was a delicious event at Gates-Chili Middle School in upstate New York last year. Seventh grader Elijah VanEpps gave local news anchor Nikki Rudd a taste of chicken tortilla soup while Buddy the Tyson Chicken loomed over his shoulder. No word on whether or not wings were served.

• The Super Bowl of Lobbying: A battle over a moratorium on uranium mining in Virginia that’s pitting miners and businesses against environmentalists. Jeff Schapiro, political columnist for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, gave the match-up the football moniker, noting that the battle could last as long as a year.

• The Super Bowl of Weather Conferences — the American Meteorological Society meeting — was dubbed so by the Post’s own Capital Weather Gang. CWG’s Chief Meteorologist Jason Samenow was a spectator at this year’s bowl, which took place last month in New Orleans.

• The Superbowl for Women could be any of several events: Black Friday, the Miss America pageant, the Academy Awards, the royal wedding, and, shamefully, the film “Sex and the City 2.”

By Maura Judkis
 | 
08:45 AM ET, 02/03/2012

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Its now little more than 24 hours until the kickoff of the biggest foot-ball game of the year.

Now some proud Canadians might take issue with that statement, since were obviously referring to the Super Bowl, a game played by American athletes in an American city in an American league. And to be sure, the Super Bowl is the most watched sporting event in the US In fact, last years Big Game – Super Bowl XLV – was the most watched American television pro-gram in history, drawing an average of 111 million viewers. Super Bowl XLVI is expected to break that record.

But what does any of this have to do with Canada? A lot, as it turns out, since the Super Bowl is also the most watched football game – and one of the most watched television broad-casts – in Canada. Indeed, while last years Grey Cup – in which all British Columbians watched the BC Lions emerge triumphant – drew an aver-age of 4.3 million viewers across Canada, last years Super Bowl attracted an audience of 7.3 million viewers, or nearly 70 per cent more people than the Grey Cup.

That gives you some idea of the Canadian appetite for the Big Game. Several sporting events have drawn bigger Canadian audiences than the Super Bowl – including 8.76 million viewers for Game 7 of last years Stanley Cup Final between the Vancouver Canucks and the Boston Bruins and about 16.6 million viewers, an all-time record, who watched all or part of the 2010 Olympic gold medal hockey game between Canada and the US – but the Super Bowl has become the most-watched annual sporting event in Canada.

Advertisers obviously recognize this fact, as a 30-second spot during the Big Game now costs north of $300,000. But thats nothing com-pared to US advertisers, who will pay at least $3.5 million for their 30 seconds of fame before a crowd of more than 100 million. Although Canadian broadcasts will not play those commercials, so popular are they that many Canadians head to YouTube to see what theyve missed.

Moreover, the commercials arent the only non-sporting attractions during the Super Bowl. The half-time show, which in recent years has featured rock n roll royalty such as Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, Prince and Michael Jackson, often draws more viewers than the game itself. This year is likely to be no exception, with Madonna, Nicki Minaj and Cirque du Soleil performing at the 50-yard line.

So while the halftime show is likely to be better than ever, the biggest football game of the year could well be bigger than ever. This match between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants is, after all, a rematch of Super Bowl XLII. And not just with regard to teams – rather, both head coaches (Bill Belichick and Tom Coughlin) and both starting quarterbacks (Tom Brady and Eli Manning) are returning from the Super Bowl four years ago.

So go ahead, indulge yourself. It might be an American game played by American athletes in an American city, but the Super Bowl – and more generally, football – is truly a game without borders.