BLURB: Anxious at Augusta; Iowa's season ticket surge; Breaking down the markets for men's hoops viewership and Baltimore opens a 'new' arena
I hope everyone enjoys their weekend. Hope you have a nice Passover or Easter. And for those who are at the Masters, hope the weather turns in your favor. And this is your Morning Buzzcast for Friday, April 7th. Good morning, I'm Abe Madkour, thanks for listening to the Buzzcast. By the way, the Buzzcast had one of its best months ever in March. So thank you for listening. And thank you for spreading the word on the Buzzcast.
You know, I was down at Augusta for a brief visit on Wednesday, had meetings, I took in the Double Eagle Club and attended the Golf Writers Association's annual awards dinner. While I was there, there were a few consistent themes. Well, first was weather. Most attendees were certainly discouraged by the forecast for the weekend. Saturday in particular looks like a terribly cold, dreary, and wet day. Sunday doesn't look much better. So that's very, very disappointing for everybody who goes to Augusta. That could certainly push play to Monday. And that would impact a number of things, including viewership.
The second topic was of course how the LIV golfers would fare at Augusta. And as of the first round, many are still in the mix. There was plenty of different opinions from the people I spoke with about whether that was good for the game of golf or not. But we'll see how that plays out this weekend.
And finally, there was great interest in the news that Augusta National will develop a new hospitality space that will sit off of the club's premises outside of the gates. That will be the first time that a hospitality area from Augusta sanctioned by Augusta National will be outside of the gates. We all know the appeal and success of Berckmans Place, which is one of the most luxurious and highly sought after tickets in sports. That really changed the game for hospitality at Augusta National when it was developed and opened 10 years ago on the club's south side.
Well, now the Master's hospitality experience is selling hospitality spots for the 2024 tournament. So next year. It'll be located across Washington Road from the club property, within walking distance to the north gate. So this hospitality area will be high end, it will sell very well. Demand for this high end offering will far exceed the supply of tickets. It's significant because the Masters is clearly one of the top hospitality experiences and events in all of sports. It continues to get more and more premium and more and more executives across sports descending on Augusta for meetings and for seeing people. And having a new hospitality area outside the gates of Augusta National will only continue that trend.
What else did people talk about at the Masters? Well, how about pickleball? I know my colleague David Albright brought this up yesterday on the Buzzcast, but there was plenty of conversations about the inaugural pickleball slam. Most executives were quite impressed by the viewership of nearly 670,000 for a Sunday window at noon eastern time. It was a number that many were encouraged by for pickleball as a television property. So we'll continue to hear more and more buzz about that sport.
And speaking of viewership, SBJ's Austin Karp breaks down the markets that were most tuned in with the NCAA men's basketball tournament. What markets would you have guessed were all about their hoops? Would you have guessed Louisville? Even without their hometown Cardinals playing, Louisville led all US TV markets, across CBS, TNT, TBS and Tru TV for the NCAA men's basketball tournament. Louisville averaged just over a 13 local rating for all the games, well above Cincinnati, which was number two, at just over an 11 local rating. Let's round out the top five. So then Indianapolis was number three, Kansas City number four, and Knoxville rounded out the top five. Now during CBS's coverage of the Yukon-San Diego state championship game on Monday night, not surprisingly, Hartford, New Haven led all markets followed by San Diego, yes, at number two.
Let's stay with college basketball. And the Iowa women's basketball program is really, really hot. And demand for tickets is incredibly strong. It's so strong that the university has paused season ticket sales for next season. The Des Moines Register reported that the season ticket base for the Hawkeyes women's basketball program last season was about 6,500. Now on top of those, the university had already received new season ticket requests for nearly another 7,000 seats for next year. So that would be a total of more than 13,000 requests for season tickets. And that does not even include student tickets or the allotment for the visiting team. And the capacity at Carver-Hawkeye Arena is 15,000. So you can see how quickly that school is running out of runway. The interest in the women's basketball program is amazing. It's great to see. And it should be a very strong revenue producer for Iowa's athletic department.
It is a big weekend in Baltimore. As today, Friday, marks the home opener at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. It also marks the opening of the newly renovated CFG Bank Arena where Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will play tonight, Friday night. And the Eagles will play on Saturday. Now, this is special for me, I used to go up to the old Baltimore Arena in my early twenties when I was working at the Washington Bullets. Because the Bullets would play about four home games a year in Baltimore at that arena. And I'll just say the arena at that time looked pretty tired. And the venue has had numerous names. At that time it was Baltimore Arena, it became First Mariner Arena. There was Royal Farms Arena. And then it sat empty for a very long time during Covid.
The building was bought by the Oak View Group in 2021. It has a new name with CFG Bank Arena. And the building went under a $250 million renovation that was completed in a very swift 11 months. They have basically developed an entirely new building in downtown Baltimore. The old building I think had two suites, this one has nearly 40. It also has two outdoor terraces Looking over downtown Baltimore. It's in a great location. The arena was hosting about a hundred shows per year before Covid. Now with the Oak View Group, they're expecting to host 130 shows per year, including 60 concerts, 40 top tier acts. They expect to draw a million people through that arena over a 12 month period.
You'll also see this facility be in the mix for hosting sports events. They have talked about bidding for future NCAA tournament hosting rights. They will seek to try to lure some Wizards or Capitals games up from the nation's capital up to Baltimore. They're also trying to lure some University of Maryland basketball games to the facility. So a lot at play. But the bottom line is Baltimore has a state-of-the-art new facility that will be in the mix for events along that mid-Atlantic corridor. So that is great news for Charm City.
And so that is your Morning Buzzcast for Friday, April 7th. I'm Abe Madkour. Again, thanks for listening to the Buzzcast. David Albright will bring you the Buzzcast on Monday as I'll be traveling back to Charlotte. I do hope everyone has a great weekend. Stay healthy, be good to each other. I will talk to you next week.