SBJ Morning Buzzcast
SBJ Morning Buzzcast: August 16, 2024
(upbeat music) This is your morning buzzcast for Friday, August 16th. Good morning, I'm Abe Madkor. It was the grand opening of the Intuit Dome on Thursday night. The privately financed $2 billion facility, the new home to the Los Angeles Clippers. They had a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony. Star-studded red carpet. And then you had Bruno Mars, who's performing the first of two concerts to open the LA-based venue. But the night did start off with a little bit of an issue as a tech issue with the Intuit Dome's ticketing system brought entry to a standstill. Ticket holders also claimed they were having issues transferring their tickets from Ticketmaster to the Intuit app, which is required for entry. But after about 30 to 40 minutes, they were able to get the scanners back online ticketing resumed. It did delay the Bruno Mars concert by about an hour. But this should not deter from the impressive venue, which I toured in April. You're gonna hear a lot about the Intuit Dome. You're gonna hear a lot about the building's Halo Board, which costs nearly $100 million. It's double-sided. It hangs high above the court. Fans in any seat can watch the action from that Halo Board. Steve Ballmer, he also wants you in your seat. He wants you watching the game. He doesn't want you waiting in any lines. So there are 20 or so food spots with checkout via tap to pay or facial recognition. That will speed everything up. In addition, each seat in the building has a phone charger. And I've read that each seat has a decibel meter that detects your energy in the building. And the loudest fans will receive discounts on food and merchandise. So this building is very interesting, very state of the art. And we'll see how the concert season goes before the Clippers open in late October. But congratulations to all involved. As this building has been in the works for years, it's been under construction since 2021 and the formal opening on Thursday night. Let's move on. Bank of America has signed one of its biggest sponsorships ever. It's taking a new direction in becoming a global sponsor of the World Cup in 2026. And this marks the first time that FIFA has signed a global sponsor in the banking and financial category. Now this is a significant deal. As Bank of America's global sponsorship is at the second highest tier in FIFA's corporate partnership hierarchy, an industry source said that deals at this level cost around $100 million. And this will be Bank of America's largest sports marketing investment and will be only for the one World Cup in 2026. So it's a little bit of an uncharacteristic investment by B of A. They do deals with the NFL. They have a deal with baseball. They have a deal with NASCAR. They have a lot of team deals. But this is rare in terms of a global deal around soccer. I can see though why Bank of America liked this deal. This will be activated in major markets in the United States in 2026. It will represent massive brand exposure that will be aligned with an elite event like the World Cup. And they'll be offering unique customer experiences for all levels of their customers, from high end to just regular entry level customers. They can really offer once in a lifetime experiences for so many people around the World Cup. So you can certainly see why Bank of America was intrigued by this opportunity. And so they complete a massive deal around soccer and the World Cup. A big weekend for fanatics. So fanatics will launch an ambitious event. Starts today Friday in Manhattan. It'll continue a three day fan convention at the Javits Convention Center in New York City. It's called Fanatics Fest. Thousands of people will pay up to $60 a day to attend. And fanatics is calling this New York's largest collectibles show ever. But it's really a sports festival. There'll be athlete appearances. Tom Brady will be there. Kevin Durant will be there. Derek Jeter will be there. They are expecting about 50,000 attendees from Friday through Sunday. It is a huge fan fest. There'll be lots of activation areas. And there'll also be discussions. Adam Silver from the NBA will be there. Roger Goodell will be there. Like I said, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning will be there. Eli Manning will be there. Dr. J will be there giving discussion points and partaking in interviews. Also, a number of sports broadcasts will be telecasting from Fanatics Fest. And of course, there'll be athletes signing autographs. Cal Ripken Jr., Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. So it's a star studded event. And Fanatics said the long-term vision is to do a few of these large events in the United States every year and then look to international markets. There are plans for a West Coast Fanatics Fest next spring, likely in Los Angeles. They'll continue the one here in New York. But again, Fanatics Fest, three-day event this weekend at the Javits Center. And you are seeing more of these larger type of fan conventions kind of like Comic Con. And remember, the NBA had NBA Con at the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas. And now you're seeing Fanatics Fest as well. Moving on, are you ready for a new soccer league? We'll get ready because the USL Super League, a women's professional soccer league similar to the NWSL, is set for its inaugural season. It launches this weekend, eight new clubs around the US. Like I said, debuting with games this weekend. There'll be eight clubs this year. They hope to add eight clubs next year. I'll be going to the inaugural match in Charlotte here on Saturday night. The Charlotte ascent will play. Other markets for the league, Brooklyn, Dallas, Washington DC, Fort Lauderdale, Lexington, Spokane, and Tampa Bay. Each team will play 28 games in a season. Games will be seen on Peacock. Yes, expectations to start are modest. In Charlotte, for example, they're expecting about 8,000 fans for Saturday nights opening a match. And the team hopes to average about 5,000 to 6,000 fans per match over 14 home games. The schedule goes from August to June with a two month winter break. So they're aligning it with an international calendar. So again, a new league, the USL Super League, a women's professional soccer league in eight markets, debuts this weekend. And finally, we've talked a lot about different uses of Wrigley Field. We talked how Northwestern is playing some football home games at Wrigley this year. And I love the multiple uses of that ballpark. Now we'll see more hockey at Wrigley Field this winter. The Big Ten will play two days of double header hockey games at Wrigley in January. They're calling it the Frozen Confines, the Big Ten hockey series. On January 3 and 4, there will be one day of men's hockey, followed by a day of women's hockey. This will be a busy, busy year at Wrigley as the two days of college hockey will follow the winter classic game between the St. Louis Blues and the Chicago Blackhawks. That takes place December 31. That will be the second winter classic to be held at Wrigley Field. So after the winter classic, you'll have the Big Ten hockey series, January 3 and 4 at Wrigley. Of course, we also mentioned that Northwestern will play football games at Wrigley. So again, you've got to tip your hat to the Cubs for their various and different uses of that ballpark. And so that is your morning buzz cast for Friday, August 16. I made mat core. Have a great weekend. Stay healthy. Be good to each other. I'll speak to you on Monday. [MUSIC PLAYING] (upbeat music)