Arena League, Players Reach Labor Agreement

Arena Football League officials and the player’s union have renegotiated a collective bargaining agreement that could provide the indoor game with labor peace through 2010.

In the agreement, the Arena Football League Players Assn. made several short-term financial concessions, including agreeing to keep the league’s salary cap at $1.64 million per team through the 2003 season.

In exchange, league owners agreed for players to share in future franchise expansion fees, and a percentage of the increase in franchise value.

“This agreement will give everyone -- owners, players, fans, sponsors -- a stable labor situation, which gives the league a long-term stability,” said Casey Wasserman, Avenger owner and chairman of the league’s negotiating committee. “We have now created multiple areas in which we’re solidifying the sport.”

The Players Assn. will vote to ratify the agreement in January.

“This agreement affords the league the best possibility for success and growth,” said Gene Upshaw, the Players Assn. executive director. “The players recognize that and will benefit from it.”

The current labor agreement runs through 2006. Both the owners and the Players Assn. can terminate the new pact after the 2006 season as long as they give notice to the other side at the end of the 2005 season.

-- Mike Terry

Horse Racing

Azeri, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Distaff and the favorite for horse-of-the-year honors, will be sold along with 57 other horses as part of an out-of-court settlement between trustees of the Allen Paulson Living Trust.

The trustees had been in litigation over the horses, who were owned by Paulson at the time of his death in July 2000. Azeri is scheduled to be sold, along with some of the other horses, at the Barretts auction at Fairplex Park in Pomona on March 4. Under the agreement, the 4-year-old filly will not be allowed to race before the sale. After the Fairplex sale, the balance of the Paulson horses will be sold at three other dispersals later in 2003.

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Steve Sexton and Cliff Goodrich, who worked on the same management team at Santa Anita in the 1980s, have been reunited in the Churchill Downs Inc. racetrack group, Sexton becoming president of the flagship track and Goodrich having been named to the top executive position at Arlington Park.

Sexton, 43, is leaving Arlington to take over at Churchill Downs, it was announced by the parent company. Goodrich has been appointed executive vice president at Arlington, with the understanding that he’ll be moved up to president after a short transition period.

Goodrich, 59, was assistant general manager of Santa Anita when Sexton took his first racing job as sales promotion manager at the track in 1983.

Miscellany

Christy Martin, the World Boxing Council women’s champion, sued a Michigan promoter for allegedly failing to pay her $300,000 for a fight last weekend.

Martin said Peter Klamka and Revolution Fighting Inc. of Ann Arbor, Mich., failed to pay her for a bout against Mia St. John at the Pontiac Silverdome last Saturday, according to papers filed at U.S. District Court in Detroit.

Martin, who scored a 10-round decision over St. John, was supposed to be paid $200,000 by Klamka after the fight and $100,000 by Revolution Fighting out of pay-per-view proceeds, court documents said.

Klamka, the chairman of Legend Mobile Inc., said in an e-mail that he hadn’t seen the suit and, therefore, declined to comment.

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U.S. runner Leon Settle was stripped of his June victory in a 300-meter race in Turkey for failing a drug test. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said he tested positive for ephedrine. The 27-year-old runner from El Paso also was issued a warning. It was his first offense.

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Austrian skier Benjamin Raich received the Olympic bronze medal taken away from Alain Baxter for failing a drug test. Baxter, the first British skier to win an Olympic medal, tested positive for the banned stimulant methamphetamine after finishing third in the slalom at Salt Lake City in February.

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Croatia has chosen an indoor carpet surface in Zagreb for its first-round Davis Cup match against the United States on Feb. 7-9, the International Tennis Federation said.

Goran Ivanisevic, the 2001 Wimbledon champion, is expected to make his return from left shoulder surgery and play a doubles match.

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The home and offices of International Olympic Committee Vice President Thomas Bach have been searched in connection with a tax evasion and embezzlement case in Mannheim, Germany. Bach told the German sports news agency SID “there is nothing in the accusations” regarding his involvement.

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Notre Dame football Coach Tyrone Willingham, who led the Fighting Irish to a 10-2 record and a Gator Bowl berth in his first year at the school, was selected sportsman of the year by the Sporting News.

Passings

Les Costello, the former Toronto Maple Leaf player who left the NHL to become a priest, died after being injured during a charity hockey game. He was 74.

Costello was admitted to Toronto’s St. Michael’s Hospital last week after suffering a head injury during a Flying Fathers game in Guelph, Canada.

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Werner Elmer, a 19-year-old Swiss skier, died after crashing in a downhill event at Verbier, Switzerland, the Swiss ski team said on its Web site.

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Joseph Giannelli, longtime golf coach at the University of Connecticut, has died of leukemia. He was 76. Giannelli, who died Monday, also coached football and lacrosse during his 37-year tenure at the school.