The Buzzcast is coming to you from Los Angeles all week as SBJ presents the CAA World Congress of Sports and then our ALL IN conference on Thursday. So a big week and if you’re here, I hope you do say hello.
The Buzzcast is coming to you from Los Angeles all week as SBJ presents the CAA World Congress of Sports and then our ALL IN conference on Thursday. So a big week and if you’re here, I hope you do say hello.
Abe Madkour:
The Buzzcast is coming to you from Los Angeles all week as Sports Business Journal presents the CAA World Congress of Sports, and then we present all in on Thursday. So it's a big week if you're in Los Angeles at either one of these events. I hope you do say hello. And this is your morning Buzzcast for Monday, April 17th. Good morning, I'm Abe Madkour. Thanks for listening to the Buzz.
I took in my first game at Dodger Stadium on Sunday as they hosted an afternoon tilt against the Cubs. If you have never been to Chavez Ravine, you owe it to yourself to check out a game there. They have poured $100 million in a renovation that was done over time in stages and completed really last year. It was overseen by the extremely talented Janet Marie Smith, who of course was behind Oriole Park at Camden Yards and the renovated Fenway Park. She always has the right touch on history and a team's tradition, and she did that in this renovation as the facility feels like a museum of Dodger Blue. I love the sight lines.
I really thought they've done a great job in opening up a new Centerfield Plaza that has plenty of food options, a beer garden, a lot of play areas for kids. I also love how you can walk the entire ballpark's perimeter a full 360 degrees. There are a ton of fans in Dodger Blue. And even for a home team's loss, the ballpark has a great nice flow to it and feel to the building. So again, if you've never taken in a game at Dodger Stadium, I advise that you put that on your bucket list. You will not be disappointed.
Let's stay with baseball because Major League Baseball celebrated Jackie Robinson Day on Saturday with players wearing number 42, of course, in honor of Robinson. Now, this celebration comes amid new data that shows a historically low number of Black players in baseball. Only 6.1% of the players on this year's opening day rosters are Black. That's the smallest percentage since 1955. Five baseball teams don't have a single Black player on their major league roster, and nine other baseball teams have just won. Now, overall, baseball does have a broad range of diversity when it comes to international players as there are 104 players from the Dominican Republic, nearly twice as many players from the Dominican Republic as Black players on this year's opening day rosters. I know baseball's working hard on this. I know that they put a lot of time and energy and resources behind making the game more diverse, and these numbers show that they still have a lot of work to do.
Let's shift to the NFL. I can't stress enough how the vibe and the tenor of the sports fans in Washington, DC have changed so quickly, so dramatically with the news that Dan Snyder is selling the Commanders. In principle, all of the local coverage has focused on this deal in the last four days. For example, the Washington Post ran six stories on the deal in Friday's edition. The Washington Times had four stories. That heavy coverage continued over the weekend as Sunday's Washington Post had an extensive story under the headline How Washington Fell Out of Love with its NFL Team and Came to Despise its Owner.
So everyone in the market is ready for this deal to be approved. And while NFL team owners are optimistic about approving this tentative $6 billion deal, the deal may take some time as the Washington Post also reported that some NFL owners have concerns related to the sale process and the sale price. Yes, there are some owners who thought this team was worth $7 billion. So the bottom line is this deal still has a little ways to go to get over the finish line. And then there is a lot to do for any new ownership group, but that will not sap any of the excitement and the enthusiasm of Commanders fans in DC who are ready for a new era.
Let's pivot over to some golf news because during the Masters, one of the biggest stories was the performance of Texas A&M golfer, Sam Bennett, who became the first amateur since 2005 to finish in the top 20 at Augusta. Now, Sam Bennett is looking to benefit and cash in, and he has signed a name, image, and likeness deal with T-Mobile where he will promote T-Mobile through social post and event appearances. Now, T-Mobile branding will not appear on his golf bag or his apparel, but the deal does run for the duration of Bennett's time at Texas A&M. He is 23 and Bennett is expected to turn pro later this year. Now, Sam Bennett does have other deals. He has a deal with Ping. He has a deal with Suncast and Aggieland Golf Cars among others.
Now, T-Mobile, like many brands, really likes the NIL space and has other NIL deals with Georgia softball player, Jayden Fields, and Alabama softball player, Montana Fouts among others. Now they're doing a deal in golf with a deal with Sam Bennett, again having Bennett do social post and event appearances for the T-Mobile brand.
Staying with golf, the Sports Agency Legends continues to get more and more involved in the golf business as now the LPGA has a new partnership with Legends Golf. Legends Golf will oversee some select event retail operations and they'll handle e-commerce and licensing for the LPGA. Legends Golf will also develop new products and expand current merchandise items for the Women's Tour. Now, legends Golf will run retail operations for the LPGA at the Drive on Championship, the CME Group Tour Championship, the Solheim Cup, and other events. Now the LPGA deal does mark the latest effort for Legends Golf. Legends Golf also partnered with the PGA of America and is leading the sales efforts at the upcoming US Open at LA Country Club. Now, Legends Golf, of course, a subset of the agency Legends, was founded last year.
And boy, I don't know about you, but what an exciting time of year. We have baseball. We have NBA and NHL playoffs. And here in Los Angeles there is real excitement, especially after the Lakers win on Sunday in game 1 of their playoffs against the Grizzlies. While we're on the subject of the Lakers, the Lakers are the team that sold the most merchandise in the NBA in the second half of this season. The bestselling player in the second half of the season was of course LeBron James. He had the top-selling jersey during the second half of the NBA season. So LeBron was number 1 in terms of the top-selling NBA jersey in the second half of the season. Number 2, Steph Curry. Number 3, Jason Tatum. Number 4, Giannis. Number 5, Luca. At number 6 and number 7, you have two Suns players. At number 6, you have Kevin Durant. At number 7, you have Devin Booker. Number 8, Grizzlies' Ja Morant. Number 9, Damian Lillard from the Blazers. And number 10 is Kyrie Irving. So those are the players with the top-selling NBA jerseys in the second half of this season.
Before the CAA World Congress of Sports starts on Tuesday, I caught up with CAA Sports co-head, Mike Levine and Vino, one of the most well-respected and well-liked executives in sports, talk to me about what he is looking forward to the most over the next few days. So let's check out my conversation with Vino.
You've been going to the World Congress for years. I obviously have been as well. For first timers who are listening or watching this and going to California, going to LA Live, walking in that room, it can be pretty intimidating. There'll be 1,200 leaders of the sports business. Any advice that you have for people on how to really make the most of it?
Mike Levine:
Yeah, and it's probably not going to shock anybody, but I think it's one of those events with the more that you put into it, the more you're going to get out of it. I think that just like the industry in general, get yourself out of your comfort zone and put yourself in a position where you're really trying to utilize those couple of days to network to really learn something and listen to someone who you might not necessarily know anything about. And then during the networking periods, really make time to try and seek some people out and build the relationships. To me, the best thing about the sports industry is our people. And for me, growing up in it, so much has come from those times outside of the office. Whether it's at big events or at conferences like the World Congress, there's really nothing better than sharing interests with people that are colleagues in the industry that you may not necessarily have know, you've read about, you've seen articles about them. Go up and introduce yourself, say hello and be outgoing.
Abe Madkour:
You see Vino. If you see me, please come up, grab our arm and introduce yourself and tell us about you and just share stories and get to know people because it's a very warm and welcoming event and industry. So make the most of it. Well, I know Vinoo enjoys the two days he gets the most out of it. I'm looking forward to it. We look forward to seeing all of you at the CAA World Congress of Sports in Los Angeles. Have a great day. We'll see you soon brother.
Mike Levine:
Thanks so much my friend.