Start your morning with Buzzcast with Austin Karp: Warner Bros. Discovery thinks it can match Amazon's NBA deal; Jim Phillips comes out swinging during ACC Media Days; Calgary looks to finally be getting a new NHL arena; and Ohio State football fans are buying up season tickets in bulk.
SBJ Morning Buzzcast
SBJ Morning Buzzcast: July 23, 2024
Start your morning with Buzzcast with Austin Karp: Warner Bros. Discovery thinks it can match Amazon's NBA deal; Jim Phillips comes out swinging during ACC Media Days; Calgary looks to finally be getting a new NHL arena; and Ohio State football fans are buying up season tickets in bulk.
- Duration:
- 7m
- Broadcast on:
- 23 Jul 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
(upbeat music) Rise and shine. This is your morning bus cast for Tuesday, July 23rd. I'm Austin Carp, and I used to remember July as a slower time in the sports business, and well, those days seem long gone. If you're an insider outside council for the NBA, or Warner Brothers Discovery, you're about to get off the bench and into a key moment up the game. WBD, a 40 year partner of the NBA, let the league know yesterday afternoon that would have looked to match Amazon's C package of streaming rights as part of a new media rights pack that the NBA has signed. That's a deal costing around $1.9 billion over 11 years, and it includes WNBA rights. I spoke yesterday on this pot of our reports of a poison pill potentially in Amazon's deal that called for three years of payments up front. Apparently that wasn't a deal breaker for David Zazloff, as sources told SBJ, that WBD apparently has a letter of credit covering such an amount, likely around $5.85 billion. Right now, the metaphorical ball is in Bill Koenig's court. Who is that? He's a former proscour litigator, and now the NBA's lead in-house negotiator on this, and he's gonna be looking over this match offer that came over for WBD over the coming days before the league issues some sort of formal response. Expect the lead to argue that Warner Brothers Discovery's offer doesn't match exactly what Amazon's deal and tale, and that'll put the ball back in David Zazloff's court, and there are a few moves likely available there for WBD. So does Warner Brothers Discovery seek some sort of settlement? Is a financial only settlement that they're gonna seek from the NBA? Do they want a smaller fourth media baggage? I don't believe so. I can't imagine that Warner Brothers Discovery wants to go over being a 40-year partner, one of the most well-known NBA media partners. The fourth of four, I don't see that as something that Warner Brothers Discovery and David Zazloff are gonna wanna do, so do they sue the NBA? It's not exactly the best look when a media partner sues a league partner. Not only does TNT have another season remaining with the NBA, but it has other league partners and they are paying attention, and so is Wall Street. ACC Media Days got underway Monday down the street from SBJ headquarters here in Charlotte, and to say it's kind of awkward with Florida State and Clemson in the room while those schools are suing the conference is likely in other statements. But ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips came out swinging in his remarks, saying that they will fight as long as it takes against lawsuits from those two schools. He called and was by Clemson and Florida State damaging and disruptive. But the general truth in realignment has been that if schools really want out of a conference, they usually figure out a way to do that in the long run. ESPN's Ryan McGee noted that the big 12 is even IH Florida State, and the SEC could be lurking for schools like North Carolina or Virginia. Personally, as an ACC alum, all very tough to watch going down the conference. And the dominoes don't really stop there. The athletics Chris Benini had a good piece looking at what seemed like a great marriage idea between the Mountain West at PAC two schools around nine months ago and how that isn't necessarily a given any longer. Why? Oregon State and Washington State want to remain part of big-time college football. They look south and they see Stanford and Cal. They got ACC invitations and they see Florida State and Clemson looking for an exit from that conference. If that's the case, does merging with the Mountain West still make sense. And while the Mountain West doesn't want to be seen as a backup, it's in a tough spot. Yes, an expanded college football playoff would mean more options for its champion to get into that playoff. But the league is also eyeing a new media rights deal on a couple years and having schools like Oregon State, Washington State would look a little better for potential media partners. Sticking in the mountain time zone, the city of Calgary has been trying to get a new NHL arena deal done for most of the time that I've been here at Sports Business Journal. And it looks like that might be closer than ever to getting done. The Flames current home, Scotia Bank Saddledome is just plain old. It was built for the 80D Winter Olympics, actually built in 83 and was last renovated back in 1995. On Monday, my colleague Brett McCormick reported that the city of Calgary and Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corp have unveiled the designs for a new downtown arena. It's going to be called Scotia Place and serve as the home of the NHL's Flames at a cost of around $581 million with an expected opening in the fall of 2027. The city will cover around 56% of the overall arena cost, plenty of surrounding land for bells and whistles like a community ice rink, indoor and outdoor plazas, four restaurants, a Flames team store, and other lots for future development. It's also another win for architectural firm, HOK, which is designing NFL renovations in Jacksonville and Charlotte, as well as a new venue for NYCFC and NLS. Let's fit on shop things with a little buy, sell, hold around this morning. Buy, sell, hold that opening ceremony on the send, I'm a buy, but swimming events in the send, I'm going to remain a hold, even though we've seen some politicians and other officials get in and prove it. I want to see that this works out for the Olympics there. Buy, sell, hold, Logan Paul's prime hydration drink. I'm a sell there. The brand has been getting killed in market share year to date after a rapid rise over the recent years. Now it's getting sued by the USOPC for what on its face looks like obvious copyright infringement. Ohio State football season tickets, I'm a big buyer. 56,998 season tickets sold for this coming season and back. That's the best for the school in 15 years, looking like Ross Bjork made a good call stepping into the top chair there in Columbus. NLS have the all-star break. I remain a buy, even though I'm still just a little hesitant on the TV future there, but here's why. 153 matches sold out so far this season. That's a mid-season record for NLS. Spots of revenues up 10%, 17 new brands there. Jersey sales up 17% social media interactions up 230%. If you have not been to a live NLS game in a spot like Atlanta, Charlotte, gotta check out those events, an incredible feel, and you'll see what I'm talking about. VSIN, the sports betting TV and radio network. I'm a sell there. That was the group started by Brent Musburger and his family. And apparently draft things thought this was a sell as well. They bought the company for 70 million in 2021. The US today sold it back to the company founders for an undisclosed amount. I'm sensing a situation here close to what 10 national had to do with Barge stool. When I sold that back to Dave Pournon for around a dollar, who knows what this actual price was, but VSIN just did not work out for draft games. Well, that does it for your morning bus cast for Tuesday, July 23rd. I'm looking forward to the release of episode four of Hard Knocks with the New York Giants tonight, really liking this off-season version of the show. Everyone make good choices out there, and I will speak to you again soon. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)