NHL Fines Thrashers’ Co-Owner $250,000

The NHL fined one of the owners of the Atlanta Thrashers $250,000 on Tuesday for saying the league would use replacement players next year if a new collective bargaining agreement isn’t reached, Associated Press has learned.

Steve Belkin, a businessman in Weston, Mass., and a member of Atlanta Spirit, LLC -- the group that bought the Thrashers this year -- was fined because of comments he made over the weekend to the Boston Herald, a league official said on the condition of anonymity.

“I deeply regret the comments I made to the Boston Herald, which were my personal, uninformed views, and not those of the Atlanta Thrashers’ ownership and management -- nor those of the National Hockey League,” Belkin said in a statement.

Tennis

Seventh-seeded Venus Williams defeated Russian qualifier Alina Jidkova, 6-4, 6-4, in the first round of the Kremlin Cup at Moscow.... Olympic men’s champion Nicolas Massu of Chile defeated Karol Kucera of Slovakia, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-4, in the CA Trophy tournament at Vienna.... Top-seeded Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia beat Victor Hanescu of Romania, 6-4, 6-4, in the first round of the Open de Moselle at Metz, France.

Soccer

Coach Mark Krikorian of the U.S. Under-19 women’s national team has selected 21 players for the FIFA U-19 Women’s World Championship, which takes place Nov. 10 to 27 in Thailand.

The roster includes defenseman Rachel Buehler (Del Mar and UCLA), midfielders Stephanie Kron (UCLA), Stacy Lindstrom (Laguna Niguel and UCLA), Alexa Orand (Orange) and Angie Woznuk (El Cajon), forward Amy Rodriguez (Lake Forest) and goalkeeper Kelsey Davis (Thousand Oaks).

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England captain David Beckham told British newspapers he drew a foul intentionally in a 2-0 World Cup qualifying victory over Wales on Saturday because he knew he would already sit out tonight’s game against Azerbaijan because he had broken a rib a few minutes earlier.

Beckham got himself suspended so he would not have a yellow card hanging over him for subsequent matches.

A spokesman for FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, said disciplinary action against Beckham for unsportsmanlike contact had not been ruled out.

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Manchester United’s largest fan group is launching a registration drive to stop Malcolm Glazer, who owns the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, from buying the English Premier League club.

Glazer owns a 19% share in the soccer club and steadily has been increasing his share.

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Uruguay was held to a scoreless tie by host Bolivia in a World Cup qualifying game at La Paz.

Uruguay is in sixth place in the 10-team South American qualifying race with 11 points, Bolivia is in eighth place with 10 points.

Olympics

The Athens Games set global TV viewing records, with nearly 4 billion people tuning in, International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge said.

Rogge said 3.9 billion people watched an Olympic broadcast at least once during the Aug. 13-29 Games, beating the previous record of 3.6 billion viewers for the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

In the United States, 203 million people watched at least some of the Games, a record for any Olympics held outside the country.

Miscellany

Two-time NASCAR champion Terry Labonte, 47, officially announced he was scaling back to a limited racing schedule. Labonte said he planned to drive in only 10 races a year for the next two seasons, with 2006 as his final year of competition.

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Former New York Islander coach Butch Goring signed a one-year contract to coach Germany’s DEG Metro Stars, a professional hockey team in the country’s Elite League.

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An International Assn. of Athletics Federation World Cup track and field meet that had been planned for the Home Depot Center in Carson in 2006 has been moved and reopened for bids.

Michael Roth, a spokesman for the sports complex, said the IAAF did not want organizers to withhold taxes on athletes’ prize money, but Roth said they are compelled to do so by law.

He also said the facility is holding dates for the 2005 U.S. outdoor track and field championships even though the contract for the event has not been signed.

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Gonzaga was the choice by West Coast Conference coaches to win its fifth consecutive men’s basketball conference title.

St. Mary’s was picked to finish second, although the Gaels received three of the eight first-place votes, with Pepperdine third and Loyola Marymount seventh.

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Tickets will go on sale Saturday for the John R. Wooden Classic at the Arrowhead Pond on Dec. 5, which will match UCLA vs. Boston College and Arizona vs. Mississippi State. For information, visit www.woodenclassic.com.