COPA AMERICA VENEZUELA 2007 WILL GENERATE BUSINESS WORTH MORE THAN US$500 MILLION

Likely the Most Impactful Sporting Event of the Year

MIAMI, February 12, 2007 – Traffic Sports, exclusive owner of the global commercial rights (including broadcasting, sponsorship and merchandising) of Copa America Venezuela 2007, announced today that the event will generate more than half a billion dollars in business.

This amount includes, among other things, the acquisition costs of the rights, commercial revenues of the tournament, the renovation and construction of stadia in the host country, and expected tourism.

“The incredible amount of 500 million dollars and the presence of global brands as sponsors confirm that Copa America is one of the most important sporting events in the world. Along with the Venezuelan Organizing Committee, we can say that this will be the best and most important Copa America of all times,” declared Julio Mariz, President of Traffic Sports.

Twelve countries will participate in the 2007 edition of Copa America, that will take place between June 26 and July 15: 10 South American countries that have traditionally participated in the tournament, plus Mexico –a participant since 1993– and the US –absent since 1995 due to scheduling conflicts with Major League Soccer (MLS)–, both as invitees.

Traffic Sports says that Copa America will be broadcast via television in a record number of countries increasing from 160 three years ago, when the competition took place in Peru, to over 170 this year.

“With the United States participating in 2007, and the games being broadcast in 3 languages (English, Spanish and Portuguese) we can truly consider a potential audience of more than 800 million people in the Americas alone with a cumulative buying power of over 12 trillion dollars”, commented Aaron Davidson, VP of Traffic Sports.

A record number of 3,500 local and foreign news media members are also expected to cover the event, a significant increase over the 3,000 accredited journalists who covered Copa America Peru 2004.

Nearly four billion people cumulatively watched Copa America Peru 2004 games on TV, a number that is also expected to be surpassed in 2007. This will be the first time in the history of Copa America that the event will be broadcast by at least two networks in the US: Univision/Telefutura and Fox en Español. In addition, Traffic Sports is currently negotiating with English and Portuguese-language broadcasters in the United States.

“These television deals were closed not only because of the growing importance of the tournament, but also because the quarter final game between Mexico and Brazil and the final between Argentina and Brazil, during Copa America 2004, were the most watched sports events of all times in the so-called US-Hispanic market,” says Enrique Sanz, VP of Traffic Sports.

Although high-definition broadcasting has been tested regularly during recent months, this will be the first time that a sporting event based in Latin America will be fully broadcast in HD.







A recent inspection by local authorities and representatives from Traffic Sports confirmed that the on-going construction on the nine stadia where the competition will be held is progressing at a good pace. The committee that inspected the Copa America stadia came out even more optimistic about the competition.

“Never before in the history of this competition, the oldest international soccer tournament in the world, has Copa America had stadia so well built and ready to receive not only the audience, but also the members of the press and players, while meeting the needs of the sponsors,” said Silvana Gonçalves, event coordinator for Traffic Sports and member of the inspection committee.