Draft hugs to hit the Vegas strip; the Pens' longtime leader moves on; women watch NHL on TNT; and David Tepper talks up Charlotte.
Well, it's NFL draft round one. Today is Thursday, April 28th. Good morning. This is your Morning Buzzcast. I'm Abe Madkour. Hope everybody is doing well. The NFL's connection to Las Vegas becomes even more pronounced as the first round of the draft will be held tonight, eight o'clock, ABC ESPN live from Las Vegas. Remember, this was scheduled to take place in April of 2020, but was pushed back to 2022 due to COVID. It's amazing to see how quickly the NFL's relationship to the Las Vegas market has changed as just a few years ago, I mean, less than a decade ago, the league had very little to do or wanted very little to do with Las Vegas. Now, of course, the Raiders are in the market. The Pro Bowl was played there. The draft will be a major spectacle over the next three days, and in the biggest show of them all, in February 2024, Las Vegas will host a Super Bowl.
Now for tonight, there is little consensus on which players will be taken at the top of the draft. For the second year in a row, the Jacksonville Jags have the number one pick. They're likely to focus on the offensive or defensive lines or so what I've read. It's not a strong year for quarterbacks as Pittsburgh's Kenny Pickett or Liberty's Malik Willis will likely be the top quarterbacks after the Jags, you have the Lions, the Texans, the Jets, the Giants filling out the top five picks. So expect to see a lot of shots of the Caesars Forum and connections to league partner, Caesars. We do expect the NFL to also announce the game for Amazon Prime's debut. That will be the second week of the season, September 15th. So the league is scheduled to drop teasers to its full season schedule, the first one being tonight in announcing the Amazon Prime kickoff game on that Thursday, September 15. So buckle up, next three days should be pretty exciting in NFL land.
Let's shift to the NHL. A big change at the Pittsburgh Penguins, but one not totally surprising as the Penguins and Fenway Sports Group announced last night, Wednesday evening, that Dave Morehouse, the longtime executive who helped the team win three Stanley Cups and open up PPG Paints Arena has resigned as team president and CEO. Morehouse said it was time to spend more time with his family, take a little break, and look forward to his next challenge. He said the Penguins are in a good state. With new ownership, he feels the team is on solid footing with organizational colleagues and he feels comfortable stepping away now. Remember, the team was purchased by Fenway Sports Group in November from Ron Burkle and Mario Lemieux.
For now, Fenway Sports Group said the team will be run by president of hockey operations, Brian Burke, and chief operating officer, Kevin Acklin, but let's not make any mistake and let's not have this go unnoticed. Dave Morehouse was a very successful leader for this organization. Like I said, under his watch, the team won three Stanley Cups. They improved their facilities dramatically, not just their main arena, but also their training facility. The team became one of the NHL's strongest franchises with excellent ticket sales, excellent local support, excellent corporate support, and like I said, with state-of-the-art facilities. The Penguins are always among the best run franchises in the NHL and we know the impact they have had in that market. So Dave Morehouse has been a very good steward of that franchise. I'll be interested to see what John Henry and Tom Werner from Fenway Sports Group have in mind for the future leadership of the Penguins.
Do they bring in someone from their Fenway Sports Group or Boston Red Sox or Liverpool or Roush Fenway Racing stable? Do they look to the outside or do they look from within the Pittsburgh Penguins' organization? That's what I'll be watching, but Dave Morehouse stepping down as president and CEO of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Let's stay with the NHL because it should be noted, the NHL had a very strong year when it comes to television viewership with its new US media partners. Remember, they have TNT, ABC, ESPN. The first year of that new deal and the league's regular season viewership across those networks were a strong increase and it represented the best numbers in the US since 2016 and 2017. So that's something the NHL can feel very good about. Again, overall, the NHL's numbers were up about 18% season over season. That's according to SBJ's Austin Karp.
Remember last year, it was on NBC and NBC Sports Network. When Austin Karp broke down the numbers, here was one interesting stat I think we should all focus on because I do think it shows the benefit of going to a network like TNT. TNT had a lot of the NHL's games this season. I think they had 51 telecast and TNT games saw a 50% increase in female viewership over last season. It shows the appeal of having these games on a network which is not solely associated with sports. TNT has a lot of other programming that draws a very wide demographic of viewership and that shows, specifically here, females were watching more hockey because it was on TNT. I'm sure the league loves that figure and that surely drove this increase in viewership for the NHL. So good numbers on their first season with TNT, ABC, and ESPN.
Let's shift to the NBA. The NBA handed out its team business awards this week and I think it shows a pretty interesting window into which teams are over-performing, over-indexing on the business side. The Miami Heat took home the most awards across the league with five. The Heat won awards for total season tickets, group tickets, full season renewals, game satisfaction, and digital media growth. So a very strong performance across the board for the Miami Heat. Three other teams, the Nets, the Lakers, and the Jazz each took home the second most awards. They won four awards each. Other notable winners were the Washington Wizards. They won for team innovation and the Philadelphia 76ers won for inclusion innovation. Again, you get a window into some of the teams that are performing very well on the business side, the Miami Heat, the Nets, the Lakers, the Jazz, the Wizards, and the 76ers. Congratulations to each of those organizations for winning a business award by the NBA.
Let's end the Buzzcast around news about two teams. First, in my local market, the Carolina Panthers. Carolina Panthers owner, David Tepper, met the media for the first time in over a year yesterday and he wouldn't go into details about the team's dispute with the city of Rock Hill, South Carolina. The team is in dispute over the development of a possible headquarters. The team terminated its agreement on the project. Surprisingly to me, Tepper did suggest that he was committed to keeping the Panthers in Charlotte, not 20 miles south in Rock Hill. He said he likes the current stadium, Bank of America Stadium. He likes the location. He said it was most logical for the Panthers to stay in Charlotte. He also said the team is in the process of a feasibility study on Bank of America Stadium, which is among the older stadiums in the league, but is still a fantastic venue.
The study should be done in the next few months. So David Tepper revealing little in meeting with the media on Wednesday. Finally, today could be a big day for MLS Inter Miami and ownership David Beckham and Jorge Mas as the Miami City Commission is set to vote on Inter Miami's plan to turn a city golf course into a $1 billion privately-financed, mixed-use development that would include a soccer stadium, hotel, office space, a public park. Now this is a very big deal for Inter Miami. The vote has already been rescheduled or postponed four times. They need four out of the five city commissioners to approve the deal in order for the plan to move forward. This is a big part of David Beckham and Jorge Mas' vision for the long term future of the team, so it's an important vote for them. We should have the results in time for tomorrow's Buzzcast, but that is one story to watch in Miami.
So that is your Morning Buzzcast. It's Thursday, April 28th. First round of the NFL draft tonight. I'm Abe Madkour. Don't forget, we're less than a month away from the Sports Business Awards at the Times Square Marriott Marquis, May 18th. It's going to be a great night. The room is going to be filled with VIPs, heavy hitters, and just good people in the sports business that you will want to meet. Go to our website, sportsbusinessjournal.com to reserve your seat today as tickets are selling very fast. We'd love to see you at the Sports Business Awards on May 18th. So that is your Buzzcast. I'm Abe Madkour. Stay healthy. Be good to each other. I'll speak to you tomorrow.