Marathon Monday returns in Boston; decision day nears on Chelsea bids; and docu-series on Magic Johnson debuts Friday.
Hope everybody had a great weekend. Big week coming up. You have a four-part series about Magic Johnson, They Call Me Magic, starting on Friday on Apple TV. This is your Morning Buzzcast. It'll be an abbreviated Morning Buzzcast for Monday, April 18th.
Good morning, I'm Abe Madkour. Today is tax deadline today, but it's also a great day to be in Boston. Yesterday you had the thriller game one that was won by the Celtics in the last seconds over the Nets. Today is Marathon Monday and the traditional Patriots' Day, the first one, really, in three years. You will have 30,000 runners ready to run. It's great to see. Remember the last Boston marathon was in October, and so you will have the shortest turnaround ever between races. Today's race will see a return to the typical field size. Remember the fall race was capped at 20,000 for safety reasons. They'll have 30,000 runners today. All runners are required to provide proof of vaccination to run. Meanwhile, there is the Boston Marathon exhibition at the Heinz Convention Center over three days where there will be displays and seminars and presentations. So that's good to see. Also, of course, today on Patriots' Day, you have the traditional Red Sox 11:00 AM start as they will host the Twins. The weather looks beautiful today in the city, so a very big day in Boston today.
Let's shift to EPL news because expect more news this week, perhaps even a decision, on the bids to land Chelsea as the news broke Friday after the Buzzcast, that Ricketts family ended their bid after opting not to submit a final offer before the deadline. So now there are three bidders in the final stage in the sales process, which, of course, is handled by the Reign Group. You have one group led by Lakers part owner, Todd Boehly. You have another group led by British businessman, Sir Martin Broughton, and a third group headed by Celtics co-owner, Steve Pagliuca. So those are the three finalists. We could have a decision on Chelsea as early as this week. And let me just say, everybody in my orbit are asking about who will land Chelsea and at what price.
Shifting to football, how many of you took in the USFL over the weekend? I watched a little bit Saturday night, some yesterday. It debuted Saturday, and there were games yesterday as well. On Saturday night, the USFL debuted on Fox and NBC, both networks showing the game. The league put out a release that had drew a total audience of 3,000,000 viewers, which is in the ballpark for the debuts of both the XFL and the AAF when they debuted on a Saturday in 2019. So again, a total audience of 3,000,000 viewers for Saturday's debut. Peter King reviewed the USFL's opening weekend in his weekly Monday column, he had the following takeaways. He said, "Don't make any predictions about the long-term future of this league. It's too early." But he did say the USFL has some deep-pocketed networks behind it, but you just don't know if the ratings will justify a long-term future for the league.
He said that even though the weather was terrible on Easter Sunday in Birmingham, attendance at the second game on Sunday, he called it grim. He called it a high school JV game crowd. So he also said the attendance has to pick up. It may, but I remember talking to Eric Shanks at Fox and he said this would be a made for television broadcast. In-person attendance was nice to have. They aren't putting a lot of resources to game attendance. But again, a very light crowd over the weekend on Sunday for the second game.
Peter King also parades some of the innovations that were on the broadcast. You could hear coaches call plays. He loved that. He wasn't a huge fan of the helmet cam. I found the helmet cam a little bit distracting when I watched, but overall all it's a work in progress. Bottom line it's week one, it's early. We will have more reaction to the USFL's opening weekend on sportsbusinessjournal.com today. But again too early to say how this league will perform. We'll look at the ratings. We'll see ratings growth, the ratings erosion over the next couple weeks, but the USFL made its debut over the weekend. And one thing is for sure, we have spring football.
Let's stay with football because the New York Post's Andrew Marchand is reporting that Melissa Stark will be NBC's new sideline reporter for Sunday Night Football. She will replace Michele Tafoya. Melissa Stark is currently at the NFL Network. She was a sideline reporter during ABC's Monday Night Football from 2000 to 2003. She will replace Michele Tafoya on the sideline for Sunday Night Football.
Boxing stays big in Texas, and it's a bet that Jerry Jones continues to make, as a crowd of nearly 40,000 was at AT&T Stadium on Saturday night as Errol Spence Jr. won his boxing bout. He was fighting in front of his fans, really hometown fans, in Dallas at AT&T Stadium for the third time. Again, Jerry Jones very bullish on boxing, and so 40,000 at AT&T Stadium over the weekend.
And finally, we'll end around people. The New York Mets named the Citi Field press box in honor of Jay Horwitz, the team's Media Relations director from 1980 to 2018. The team held a ceremony before Sunday's game dedicating the press box. Jay Horowitz is 76. He is currently the team's Vice President of Alumni Relations and team historian.
So again, an abbreviated Morning Buzzcast for Monday, April 18th. Hope everybody has a great Patriots' Day if you're in the Boston market. I'm Abe Madkour. Stay healthy. Be good to each other. I'll speak to you tomorrow.