SBJ Morning Buzzcast
SBJ Morning Buzzcast: June 24, 2024
(upbeat music) We have an NHL game seven tonight on Monday, the NBA draft on Wednesday, and the NHL draft this weekend, a busy week in sports. And this is your morning buzzcast for Monday, June 24th. Good morning, I'm Abe Madcourt. Like I said, tonight the Edmonton Oilers will face the Florida Panthers in game seven of the Stanley Cup final. The Oilers will try to become the first team in 82 years to win the cup after losing the first three games in the best of seven series. The Oilers are also trying to become the first Canadian franchise to bring home the cup since 1993 a lot on the line tonight. And of course, the NHL loves a game seven. Meanwhile, the league is also putting the finishing touches on its NHL draft, which is Friday and Saturday. It'll be the first sports event held at the sphere in Las Vegas. I know many of you have seen you two or dead and cold at the sphere. I've never heard one negative thing about the experience. And so now the NHL goes to the sphere and on sportsbusinessjournal.com yesterday, we showed off the first photos of the unique imagery, attendees and viewers can expect to see during the draft. And the draft will be the sphere's first live televised event. So there's a lot going on. The league has been working six months on planning for the draft at the sphere this weekend. You know, let's move on 'cause some really interesting operational and facility changes for the LA 28 summer games were reported by my colleague Rachel Axton on Friday. Here's what you need to know. LA 28 is moving its swimming to SoFi Stadium, giving swimming its biggest venue it has ever seen with a 38,000 seat capacity. But it also requires organizers to shift the game schedule. But it does show how bullish organizers are on swimming for the LA summer games. And we've seen the swimming trials all week draw very well at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, which has a capacity of 32,000 for the event. And that has represented the biggest venue ever for swimming and has set world records for attendance. But LA 28, thinking they can even go bigger around this. And there's also a financial element around it. Organizers expect swimming to bring in $56 million in ticket revenue by moving swimming to a larger facility. They believe they can significantly increase the ticketing revenue around this sport. But there are other changes that LA 28 made, including taking some sports out of California. Yes, they will take softball to Oklahoma City because of its facility. They will take canoe slalom to Oklahoma City because of its facility there. So again, some pretty interesting moves. Also, they will move basketball out of crypto.com arena to the Intuit though. They will move gymnastics from the forum to crypto.com arena, which has more seats. So there's a real financial benefit to all these changes because according to the LA 28 committee, these moves generate an estimated $156 million in savings and in revenue and for a privately financed Olympic Games, that is key. So if you get a chance, dig into these changes because it's quite interesting. I'll be speaking to the Atlanta sports community on Wednesday. And I guess one topic, sure to be discussed, will be Caitlin Clark's appearance in Atlanta on Friday night. The fever dream game was moved to State Farm Arena, drew a sellout of more than 17,500. That set a franchise record for a single game for the Atlanta dream. It broke the one that they set in 2008, for its first ever game at then, Phillips Arena. And so the dream's usual home is Gateway Center Arena. That seats about 3,500, but they moved to State Farm Arena and there was a real reason and the fans came. Also, I'm very intrigued by all the media coverage surrounding Caitlin Clark and the W. There were three main stories in the Atlanta Constitution about the game on Saturday and one focus largely on the fan base who attended and noted that it crossed boundaries of age, gender, and race. USA Today's Dan Wolken, a very good columnist, wrote that Caitlin Clark has proven again that she can be a major draw. And he says, "A lot of people paid real money in Atlanta "to fill an arena that even some very good NBA teams "have struggled to sell out in years past." So his point being there are a lot of fans, new fans, and existing fans going to W Games right now. And on Sunday afternoon, I went to get take out of my local establishment. People were asking for the fever sky game on ESPN. And it was a packed house of just under 10,000 at Wind Trust Arena in Chicago for that game. The secondary market had tickets going north of $350 the most for a WNBA game on record. The five highest average ticket sold in the W are for upcoming fever games. Just think of all this energy now. And celebrities came out to Chicago to see the game. There was Chance the Rapper, Jason Sudeikis, the next star Jalen Brunson, Cheryl Swoops, all there to see the action fever, sky, great game on ESPN on Sunday. Yes, Caitlin Clark was wondering why they didn't move it to the United Center? Well, they had concerts. Justin Timberlake was playing Friday and Saturday. There was a concert on Sunday, and it's hard to move into these venues. But again, every market seeing a big boost in attendance around the WNBA. Speaking of which, a couple of weeks ago, I sat on a panel with Las Vegas ACES President Nikki Fargas. She is a very strong executive. We've seen how successful that team has been in that market. They're attempting to become the first team to win three straight W championships since the Houston comments won four from 1997 to 2000. Now the Las Vegas ACES have become the first team in WNBA history to sell out each of their 20 regular season home games. So a very strong number. They play most of their games at Michelangelo Ultra Arena, which has a capacity of about 12,000. They also play two games at T-Mobile Arena. And last year, the ACES led the WNBA in attendance, averaging 9,500 fans per game. So Las Vegas ACES showing their strength in that marketplace. And finally, I'll end with this a big week in my home city of Charlotte, North Carolina, as the Charlotte City Council will vote Monday night on approving a plan to contribute $650 million in public funds toward renovating Bank of America Stadium. But city leaders also have their sights on a new stadium years after this round of renovations are completed. And tonight begins the process of earmarking funds for studies and analysis of a new facility. Of course, there is no idea how much a new stadium would cost at that time, or how much the city would look to invest into the project, but they're beginning the process. So why is this important? Well, it shows the urgency that Charlotte City leaders have to try and keep the Panthers in Charlotte. There is always an underlying fear in this market that the team is vulnerable to leave or be relocated, which I find crazy when you think of how hot and how strong the market in Charlotte is right now and what a growth market it is throughout the Southeast Corridor. But bottom line, big, significant votes tonight and this week on the future of pro sports in Charlotte. We will have more on this news later in the week. And so that is your morning buzzcast for Monday, June 24th. I made Matt Corps, have a good start of your week, stay healthy, be good to each other. I'll speak to you on Tuesday. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)