What's next for women's tournament on revenue and media? MLB outlines ad patch process; turnover at the Commanders and WWE hits AT&T Stadium
Just saying, this will be an April Fools Day free zone, nothing like that here on the Buzzcast. We noted yesterday, the US men's national soccer team qualified for the World Cup. Well today, they will learn their matchup. The World Cup draw will be Friday at noon in Qatar. Television coverage in the US will be on Fox Sports 1 and Telemundo starting at 11:30 AM Eastern time.
And this is your morning Buzzcast for Friday, April 1st. I made Abe Madkour, we made it to Friday. Okay, I missed a couple of things this week on the Buzzcast. First, a very close listener noted that yesterday I failed to mention the Las Vegas Ace's when I was talking about the competitive Las Vegas sports team market. And that was my bad so I apologize for that oversight. And the Ace's certainly are another key franchise in that market.
I also missed the story that Barcelona broke the attendance record for a women's soccer match on Wednesday as more than 90,000 fans watched FC Barcelona's women's team beat Real Madrid at Camp Nou and reach the champions league semifinals. What a great number, more than 90,000 fans. Well done. So let's move on to some big news this weekend. Of course, the women's Final Four starts tonight in Minneapolis. NCAA President mark Emmert is happy with how the NCAA has elevated the women's event, but said there is still a lot of work to do and that there's only been early discussions about distributing tournament revenue to women's programs. Emmert said they're focusing on first negotiating a new television contract for the women's tournament, and then potentially having a similar revenue distribution model as the men's tournament. Remember, at the men's tournament, the conferences receive hundreds of thousands of dollars per tournament game involving one of their schools.
That is money they then distribute to the schools. There's no such system on the women's side, but Emmert warned that adopting such a payment structure for the women's side will not be easy. It would mean that several NCAA committees would have to approve this process. We know what that means. That means a more bureaucratic process. But he did say that they are in early discussions about such a revenue distribution. On the media front, as we've talked about before on the Buzzcast, remember the women's tournament is currently bundled in with other women's championships for TV rights. The current contract with ESPN is up in 2024, and Emmert said that would be the window to reexamine how they negotiate the media rights to the women's basketball tournament. Overall, I would say attention and coverage given to the woman's tournament has definitely been increased and amplified. I've noticed it across many media outlets, especially at ESPN and espn.com.
ESPN of course has both semifinals tonight on Friday. Great matchups. You have Louisville, South Carolina at 7:00, UConn, Stanford at 9:30. What a final four on the women's side. Men's Final Four begins Saturday on TBS. You know the matchups, Villanova, Kansas, Duke, North Carolina. I was reading my local Charlotte Observer this morning on Friday and the Duke, UNC matchup is of course the only story on page one and there are three full pages of coverage in the newspapers first six pages devoted to the matchup. One full page story, I think it was on page five, had the headline, How Stressful the Duke UNC Game Could Be On Your Health. So you see the areas of coverage around the Duke, UNC game, that is just a taste of how big this game is in North Carolina. Speaking of the men's side, the Buzzcast producer, Reggie Walker has Villanova winning it all.
So he's still in it. I won't even dare to tell you the results of my bracket. Let's shift to some other news. Major League Baseball has shared with its teams finalized specifics around the new uniform ad patches, which will be on uniform sleeves starting next season, the 23 season. Meanwhile, ad decals on batting helmets could be here as soon as Major League Baseballs postseason. Remember baseball, the league office is selling the batting helmet decals, Major League Baseball clubs and agencies have been in the market selling the ad patches for months. Our Terry Lefton said that two deals at least are already done. Lefton also reports that in many cases, the asking price for the uniform patch deal on the sleeve, the asking price is for more than the club's naming rights. So you see how big a deal these patches can be for teams.
You can expect to see those patches in 23, but helmet ads as soon as this postseason. These will be big revenue drivers for Major League Baseball and its teams. More challenging news for the Washington Commanders as the Washington Post reports that the congressional committee that has been investigating the NFL's handling of the sexual harassment cases in the Commander's workplace and work environment is now looking into allegations of financial improprieties under Dan Snyder's ownership at the Commanders. Now details are very, very scarce and only the highest levels of the congressional committee are aware of any financial investigations and it's said to be a very sensitive matter right now, but certainly more challenging news for the Commanders. This comes amid some major turnover at the Commanders. Zaheer Benjamin is leaving the team 11 months after he became the team's first vice president of business analytics and intelligence.
He came from Real Madrid. He also was at the Phoenix Suns and Chelsea before going to the Commanders. His departure comes as the team is reorganizing its analytics department according to sources. Meanwhile, separately, four vice presidents have left the Commanders in recent weeks. You had Christian Matthews leave, he was vice president of strategy and sponsorships. You had Hugh Nicholson leave, he was vice president of sales and bookings, Lewis Schreck, who is vice president of partnership sales and marketing has departed, and finally vice president of corporate partnerships, Ryan Calvo has departed the organization as well. So four vice presidents have left the Commanders in recent weeks, in addition, Zaheer Benjamin leaving as vice president of business analytics and intelligence. But a team spokesperson for the Commanders said despite those recent departures, overall head count has increased in 2022 for the Commanders, but overall, still some tough storylines surrounding the Washington Commanders.
Let's finish this Buzzcast with a couple of quick hitters. First, we talk about Netflix continuing its foray into sports documentaries. Well, now they're planning a series around the Tour de France. Yes, the series will follow eight teams and feature eight episodes. Filming will take place around this year's event from March to July and they will release the show or the documentary next year early in 23 on Netflix, an eight part documentary on the Tour de France.
And finally, we said what a big sports weekend it is and it includes WrestleMania 38. That will be held over two nights at AT&T stadium in Dallas. WrestleMania was last at AT&T stadium in 2016, when they set a WWE attendance record of more than a hundred thousand at WrestleMania, that's a record that still stands. WWE President Nick Khan said the decision to have WrestleMania over two nights was because they sense an appetite for more action and that ticket sales were very strong and that two nights made sense.
We said that Nick Khan and the WWE are thinking big about their growth, especially around their content and their library of historical content. So we'll have more on Monday on the WWE's big week weekend in Dallas, but after attending a recent WWE SmackDown in Charlotte, I can tell you, that live event is an all out assault on the senses. It was one of the more entertaining event productions I've ever witnessed live. So WWE WrestleMania at AT&T Stadium this weekend.
So that is your morning Buzzcast for Friday, April 1st. Hope everybody has a fantastic weekend. Enjoy the Final Fours men's and women's. I'm Abe Madkour, stay healthy, be good to each other. I'll speak to you on Monday.