Super League 2.0; early MLB postseason numbers strong; is Big 12 media deal close?
Well, it's being called a sports equinox in North American sports, with all five major US based men's sports leagues in action today, Thursday, Thursday night, including the post-season in both Major League Soccer and Major League Baseball. So here's what you have.
You have Astros/Yankees, you have two MLS playoff games, you have Cardinal/Saints on Thursday night football, you have 12 NHL games, and two NBA games. Interesting note, it'll be the first time the five major men's leagues are in action on the same date since October 31st of 2021. So nearly a year ago. So your sports equinox today. And today is Thursday, October 20th. This is your Morning Buzzcast. I'm Abe Madkour. Thanks for listening to the Buzzcast.
Let's lead with Major League Baseball, as we had a work function last night at Sports Business Journal and most of the crew was gathered around watching Padres/Phillies, the early game, and you are seeing a nice uptick in interest. MLB drew its best average viewership for the league divisional series round, AL and NL, since 2017 according to our Austin Carb. So those are 16 games across Fox, FS1, and TBS. Like I said, they were up around 20% from last year, and the best numbers for Major League Baseball since 2017.
Now we'll have to see if losing the Dodgers in the National League hurts Baseball's viewership. Of course, we still have the Yankees in the American League. Padres/Phillies will be a good test of the viewership following of the postseason. Remember, part of the goal of Major League Baseball in expanding the playoffs was to have more teams involved in the postseason, more fans involved in the post-season, and hopefully fans would get more interested and stay tuned for the entire post-season, and stay engaged. That will be tested, and we'll see if that's the case in numbers for the championship series and the World Series.
Let's move on. We know everybody is talking about and watching the next round of media rights around the Big 12 and the Pac-12. And we know new Big 12 commissioner, Brett Yormark, has been especially bullish on a new deal for that conference. Well now comes a report that the Big 12 believes it could have a deal before the Pac-12. CBS Sports's, Dennis Dodd is reporting the Big 12 could have a new media rights deal in place with ESPN and Fox within a matter of weeks. Now, we know the Big 12 has been looking for a new deal ahead of its negotiating window in 2024. The Big 12's current deal with ESPN and Fox expires after the '24-'25 academic year. But they've been in the market. They want to get a new deal early. Now it's not certain that this deal will get done, because there has been buzz and talked among those close to the Big 12 that they were close to a new deal for a couple of months now. So we have to temper expectations. But certainly if they're able to do a deal before the Pac-12, it would impact the market and have downstream implications.
Brett Yormark expects the per-school media rights revenue to increase from its current deal, and he says that despite losing both Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC beginning in 2025. But I'll just say, everybody in sports business circles is watching the Big 12 and the Pac-12 media rights negotiations.
Staying with college sports, the College Football Playoff Management Committee will meet in Dallas today, on Thursday, to continue to look at the timetable for expansion, and see if they can complete expansion of the college football playoff earlier than the current 2026 timetable.
Now let's shift to a story we were talking about a year ago. Yes, the Super League. The Super League is back. This is the concept that looks to change European soccer. Remember, the failed efforts around a Super League was one of the top stories of 2021, and it's been known that leaders in European soccer are still bullish on the concept, which would have the top teams being a separate league and play each other more frequently for more money. While the project has been reinvigorated and it has hired a new leader. A German TV executive, Bernd Reichart, is the new CEO of A22 Sports Management. That is a Madrid based company that worked with the 12 teams from Spain, England, and Italy to create that breakaway league. It was in April of 2021 when the Super League was first floated. Reichart said that a new league, a new super league, could be up and running by the 2024-25 season.
Now, many see some sort of Super League as inevitable. But you may not see it launch with that name. Reichart did admit they need to rebrand this concept and reintroduce this concept. The concept is still very controversial. It was conceived as a new league with as many as 20 teams playing for big, big money. But the notion and concept was so unpopular, remember, the idea collapsed really within about a week or 10 days in 2021, but many of the top clubs still talk about it. They see a major payday, and it really comes out of fear from other leagues that the Premier League is just out distancing itself from its rivals. But there remains strong opposition to any type of Super League concept, especially among UEFA. So there's still a long way to go.
This story comes as we talked about yesterday, the Premier League is looking at staging a new pre-season tournament in the United States that would feature six Premier League clubs playing in several United States cities. It would create a new television ticketing and sponsorship package, which would be quite popular, and that would certainly extend the Premier League brand in the US. So keep your eye on the Super League as it continues to develop with a new CEO of that Madrid based company looking to take the lead on the concept.
Staying with some European sports, Legends will be the exclusive sponsorship sales agent of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Germany, where the Bucs have commercial rights through at least 2026. This is part of the NFL's international marketing program. The Bucs play the Seahawks in Munich on November 13th. That is the NFL's first regular season game in Germany. And of course there is major interest. The NFL feels it will do very, very well in Germany, and the Bucs obviously are looking to build interest as that game approaches.
Now, this will be Legend's first sales relationship with an NFL team via that international marketing program. Legends likes the deal because it hits on two of their goals, they tell us. It increases business by adding services to existing clients. Legends already runs concessions at Raymond James Stadium, so they have a preexisting deal with the Bucs. Also, this expands Legends influence in Europe, where they're very bullish, they see sports fandom growing, and they're trying to grow their business in Europe. So Legends, again, will be the exclusive sponsorship sales agent of the Bucs in Germany.
So that is your morning Buzzcast for Thursday, October 20th. I'm Abe Madkour. Thanks for listening to the Buzzcast. Have a great day, stay healthy, be good to each other. I'll speak to you tomorrow.