SBJ Morning Buzzcast
SBJ Morning Buzzcast: September 30, 2024
(upbeat music) - It was great to see everybody at Game Changers, and thank you for all saying hello who were there. What a productive few days in New York City, and also let me know if you have watched any of Mr. McMahon on Netflix and what you think of the series so far. Finally, I do wanna give a thanks to all those who have reached out asking about the safety and security of everybody here in Charlotte at Sports Business Journal. Yes, we are all fine, but we are thinking of our friends in Western North Carolina. The damage and scenes from that part of the state have just been horrible, and certainly we are thinking of our friends in Western North Carolina and others impacted by Hurricane Helene. And so this is your morning buzz cast. For Monday, September 30th, I made Mad Corp. Major League Baseball is down to an extra day. Yes, a doubleheader today, Monday, between the Braves and the Mets at truest park that will decide the post-season fates of three teams. Yes, the Braves and the Mets make up their final two games of the regular season. Remember those were postponed last week. Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks have finished their season, but are impacted by the results. Three teams in the mix for the final National League wild card spot, the Braves need one win. To make the post-season, the Mets need one win. To make the post-season, the Diamondbacks need one of those teams to sweep the doubleheader to make the post-season. The games will be on ESPN2, starting at 1 p.m. Eastern. I think this is great entry. Play-off baseball, or pretty much play-off baseball, is one of the most intense experiences in sports. But frankly, I'm a little surprised more people aren't talking about this extra day. If you go on ESPN.com on Monday morning, baseball's extra day is pushed far down the homepage, not even on the right rail of headlines. That to me wouldn't have been the case years ago, but let's give credit where it's due. And that's the ability of Major League Baseball to continue to draw significant audiences over a long period of time. Now, we will have the final attendance numbers later in the week, but MLB is expected to finish this season with increased total and average attendance for the second straight year. That is not insignificant. In fact, it's the first time baseball's attendance has grown two seasons in a row since 2011 and 2012. So well over a decade, baseball is on pace to finish with between 71.1 to 71.3 million fans. That would surpass 2,023 per game attendance, roughly 29,300, a slight increase from last year. And this year's final total attendance is expected to be up about 10% from 2022. That was the last year before the implementation of rule changes designed to speed up the game. And remember there was concern about baseball backsliding on its pace to play this year? That clearly didn't happen as the average time of game in 2024 this season is faster, two hours and 36 minutes. That's four minutes faster than last year. And it's MLB's quickest pace of play in 40 years. Yes, back to 1984. So those changes have continued to reap dividends. Also, the ratings were solid as ESPN's Sunday night baseball was up 6% over last season. And they saw growth in some key demos, adults 18 to 24, and women 18 to 34. Fox is relatively flat for its baseball viewership. And FS1 will finish up. And as the wild card playoffs start Tuesday, you will see a lot of T-Mobile as it's the presenting sponsor of the best of three wild card round. The opening round, the wild card, had not previously been sponsored. SBJ's Terry Lefton reported that sources who had seen the sponsorship package said that baseball had an asking price of $5 million for the wild card sponsorship. So if you put all that together, baseball has a pretty good story to tell going in to its post season and will certainly touch on it more. SBJ's Ben Fisher broke the news late Friday that Pistons owner Tom Gores has a deal in place to acquire 27% of the Los Angeles Chargers. And if the deal closes, this deal would resolve a long running dispute between current Chargers limited partner Dia Spano's Berberian and her three siblings, including principal owner Dean Spano's. Now Dia Spano's Berberian will exit her position in the team, Tom Gores would become one of the NFL's largest non-ownership family equity owners in any team. Now the deal does not include a path to majority control of the team for Gores. And precise terms are not known, but the Chargers have been valued from $5.1 to $5.8 billion. So Gores, of course, owns the Pistons. His worth is close to $12 billion. And while he will have no formal say in league or team governance, Tom Gores is a big deal. He is wealthy, he's in LA, he has great relationships and that will help both the league and that will help both Dean Spano's and that will give Tom Gores some informal influence across the NFL. And it clearly shows he is in the sports business to stay. So this transaction is expected to be on the agenda when NFL owners meet in Atlanta October 15th and 16th. You know, let's shift to soccer. We have a lot of global soccer coming up. We all know about the World Cup in 26, but now we also have the 2025 club World Cup. That'll be next summer FIFA unveiled its venues and just like the World Cup final, MetLife Stadium will host the club World Cup final. That'll be July 13th. The tournament will begin play June 15th. They'll also be games at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Bank of America Stadium, TQL Stadium, the Rolls Bowl, Hard Rock Stadium, Geodice Park, Camping World Stadium, Inter and Coast Stadium, Lincoln Financial Field, Lumen Field and Audi Field. The Club World Cup is being primarily played on the East Coast to avoid any clash with the Gold Cup matches that will be centered on the West Coast around the same time. So the Club World Cup finalizes venues, but there's still a lot to be decided, training camps, sponsors and a media deal have yet to be announced, but this was the most forward signal yet that the 32 team competition will move forward. Overall, it's a big event, a big bet by FIFA and a big warmup in terms of organizational approach, operations and logistics before the World Cup in 2026. Let's shift to tennis, Wimbledon is getting bigger. Yes, there are plans to expand Wimbledon that will ensure this grand slam tournament does not fall behind the Australian, French and US opens in terms of prestige and appeal and overall real estate. There will be 39 new courts developed and built. There'll be an 8,000 seat stadium and this will all be allowed to amplify qualifying, to give Wimbledon more space and it also brings Wimbledon close to par with the other grand slams. Wimbledon can now become a three week event in line with the other majors, they'll amplify qualifying, they'll do things like kids day, open practice sessions, all that can boost attendance and revenue. Now all of this will take some time. As qualifying on this new site will likely not take place into 2030, the full project reaching completion in about 10 years, 2033, but it's a big move forward for the All England Club. A couple of quick hitters, if you listened to last week's sports media podcast on SBJ, you heard our conversation with ESPN's MLB insider, Jeff Passen and he covered a lot of ground. Well, over the weekend, Andrew Marshan reported that Passen has emerged as a candidate to switch sports and replace Adrian Wojnowski as ESPN's lead NBA newsbreaker. So there are a lot of reasons for this potential. Of course, we know that ESPN is really investing a lot in the NBA and while Passen is apparently aware of ESPN's interest, it is not known if he would agree to switch sports from baseball to basketball if offered. So keep that on your radar and finally we'll end with this. It was a gut punch to learn of this on Friday, Newcastle United CEO Darren Eales will step down after being diagnosed with a chronic form of blood cancer. Now Darren Eales is 52 years old. He'll remain in his post until a successor is appointed. I first met Darren when he was with Atlanta United. He was so successful there, very well liked, very well respected. Certainly all of us here at SBJ wish the best for Darren Eales. And so that is your morning buzz cast for Monday, September 30th. I'm Abe Madcor. Thanks for listening. Stay healthy. Be good to each other. I'll speak to you tomorrow. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)