Ofsted is launching a league table ranking local authorities according to inspectors' ratings of schools.
AC Milan legend Paolo Maldini has launched his own team in 'The Magic City' in the second-tier North American Soccer League while David Beckham, despite some setbacks, is hoping to launch a Major League Soccer team in the same city.
USA Rugby is also looking to launch a professional league, in its case before the 2019 World Cup in Japan.
No wonder Vince McMahon thought then that the time might be approaching to launch a competitor league to the NFL.
The idea, floated at executive committee meetings that preceded aUefa meeting in Dubrovnik last month, would see Uefa using existing dates for friendlies in the international calendar to launch a new league involving all 54 member nations.
New Zealand cricket's governing body is part of a joint-venture aiming to launch a Twenty20 league in the US, but that has been pushed back from this summer to next year at the earliest, in an illustration of the challenges sports face in raising enough money and finding suitable facilities to launch in America.
Mr Beckham has travelled to the city frequently in recent months to launch a Major League Soccer (MLS) club.
Eventually, thinks Mr Stern, there may be potential for the NBA to form a partnership with a Chinese enterprise to launch an NBA-affiliated league.
Organizers in Lancaster, Pa., launched a city league two years ago to cater to its urban population because another area league concentrated more on outlying areas.
Brett Gosper, the head of the International Rugby Board, told reporters last April that he had been in discussions with USA Rugby, the US governing body, about the feasibility of launching a professional league in order to drive popularity, with a view to North America one day hosting the World Cup.
