SBJ Morning Buzzcast
SBJ Morning Buzzcast: July 11, 2024
(upbeat music) We had visitors to SBJ's Charlotte Office and that leads the morning buzzcast for Thursday, July 11th, good morning. I made Mad Court, thanks for listening to the buzzcast. Like I said, we had the Charlotte Sports Fellowship class of 2024 in our SBJ office on Wednesday. And those are young people spending close to 12 weeks at various sports organizations in Charlotte. This is the third year of the program and local sports organizations including SBJ partner with sports biz careers to provide college students who identify as unrepresented in the sports industry, professional experience and mentorship. So these young people are at organizations like 2311 Racing, bespoke sports and entertainment, UNC Charlotte Sports Foundation, Elevate, Hornet Sports and Entertainment, NASCAR, RFK Racing, Tepper Sports and Entertainment, truest, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Speedway Motorsports, their CAA icon and Fox Sports. And so the program began in mid-May, ends in mid-August. And as part of the program, the fellows spend a day at every one of the organizations generally once a week. And yesterday, they were at SBJ. They toured our offices, they met our staff, they met with members, specific members of our staff and had lunch as a group. My colleague and buzzcast producer, Reginald Walker, puts on this event for the Charlotte Sports Fellows. And Regia, I wanna ask you, what did you take away from the meeting yesterday? - I thought it was really interesting listening to them talk about being behind the walls of the different organizations to really see the full scope of the business operations. There was a lot of discussion about realizing how many other tentacles SBJ has outside of just the journal and obviously our editorial publications, they were made much more aware of the process behind some of our conferences and events as well as award shows. So it's very, very enlightening for them. And they all raved about the experience they were getting at their respective organizations. I sat with them for a bit and there were questions that were just really great, Regie. They asked about skill sets that they should really work on. They asked me about challenging times in a career and how you get through them. They asked about how they build their network and they really wanted to know hints and ideas at good ways to prepare for an interview. Any other question they asked it out to you? - I thought it was very interesting and you brought it up a second ago with building the network. They wanted to know how to really build authentic networks in terms of what are the ways to build a relationship and build a rapport beyond just sending an email. They were very, very curious about that process. And then the other thing that I was asked several times was about finding and staying on the path to where your goals align and how do you keep that alignment as you grow in your career, especially trying to find the balance of changing organizations versus staying where you are. They were really, really curious about how that process, how to think through that process. - Absolutely well said, a very strong group of young future leaders. SBJ is certainly proud to be part of this program. And this program could be mirrored in other cities. If you're interested to know more, just let me know. But let's move on 'cause the big news on Wednesday was the MBA going a bit more public and stating that it's locked up its respective media rights deals with ESPN, NBCUniversal and Amazon totaling $76 billion over 11 years. So there was nothing really new to this. It was just more clarity about the deals. And the more formal approval is expected next week when the NBA's board of governors will vote on these overall deals. Now, after the deals are signed, the league can submit those contracts to its incumbent media partner, Warner Brothers Discovery, who reportedly will have five days to match any one of those packages. And that's something we've talked a lot about on the buzz cast. Warner Brothers believes it can match any of the current game packages. And so we'll have to see if they match or does the NBA potentially carve out a fourth deal unlikely to me. So to serve as a reminder, here's the deal as it stands. ESPN has the A package. That's worth approximately $2.6 billion per year. They'll get the finals every year, a conference final, and WNBA games. NBC's B package, that's worth $2.5 billion a year. That includes a Sunday night basketball game. That's after the NFL season. There'll be some Tuesday night games during the season. They'll get early round playoff games. And of course they'll have some games on Peacock. The WNBA sources said also could be in play for NBC and Amazon C package worth $1.8 billion. That includes alternating conference finals, weekly broadcast on either Friday or Saturday nights, Thursday night games after the NFL season, and the in-season tournament and WNBA. But the next steps is figuring out what Warner Brothers discovery will try to match, if anything. Finally, I know a lot of you are interested in this because I get a lot of questions regarding the NBA's media package. Sources tell our Tom Friend that about 50% of the W's package will be spread between ESPN, Amazon, and probably NBC, though the rest will be negotiated separately in the future. And that's where the W could go out to other partners. So 50% locked in potentially with these partners and 50% left to distribute. So the bottom line, this is an incredible deal for the NBA. Adam Silver and Bill Koenig, boy, they deserve major, major props. This deal is stronger and healthier than I anticipated, and many of my sources anticipated. It has to raise eyebrows at the NFL who surely feel their rights now are significantly undervalued. So we'll have to see how much money is left for other properties coming up, but the NBA getting closer to formally unveiling their media deals. You had more than 70,000 of Bank of America stadium as Columbia top Uruguay in the Copa America semifinals, but the celebration of such an event in my hometown was certainly marked as Uruguay players went into the stands to confront fans. A fight did break out before security personnel stepped in. This was not what anyone was hoping for, but Sunday will be a big day for global soccer, Argentina and Columbia and the Copa Finals in Miami and Spain, England and the Euro Finals in Berlin. And for all of you soccer fans hoping for a bold face name to replace Greg Beralter, I'll just say this, there has been a big emphasis at US Soccer for equality. And so any big coach will want a big payday, and I'm not sure US Soccer is willing to tip the salary scales and pay any new coach a lot more than they paid Emma Hayes to coach the women's team. That is something to keep in mind. And finally, I find this always to be interesting. The NHL unveiled their Stanley Awards for 2024. They did it at their club business meetings in Boston. And this recognizes just achievements and innovation among their clubs. A couple of interesting category winners of note. The Social Media Club of the year, the Philadelphia Flyers, the best sponsorship activation of the year, the Boston Bruins for what they did around JetBlue and Centennial Jersey's launch program. The ticketing initiative of the year was to the Calgary Flames for their Scratchy Tuesday initiative, game presentation of the year, probably not a surprise. They always deliver, and that's the Golden Knights. And for strategy, analytics, and innovation, certainly an area of interest, the Dallas Stars won that for their dynamic ticketing initiative. So these are some best in class programs. You could look it up to learn more, or let me know if you have any questions. But those are part of the award winners, the Stanley Award winners for the NHL. And so that is your morning buzz cast. For Thursday, July 11th, I made Mad Corps. Thanks for listening to the buzz cast. And thanks for letting us talk a little bit about the Charlotte Sports Fellowship Program, which we find to be important and impactful. So stay healthy, be good to each other. I'll speak to you on Friday. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)