A(nother) Chicago story; USC AD role is a good job and it goes to Jennifer Cohen; Blank's check to TGL and people on the move
Make your plans early as our drive conference will be in St. Louis, September 19th to the 21st. If you work for a team, a league, a venue, or are doing business with any of these entities, you'll want to be there at this conference. You'll also get site visits of the Enterprise Center, Ballpark Village, Busch Stadium, City Park. It's going to be a very valuable week. I do hope you'll join me, sign up and register on our website or just let me know if you have any questions. And this is your Morning Buzzcast for Tuesday, August 22nd. I'm a Abe Madkour. Thanks for listening to the Buzzcast.
Crain's Chicago Business has an intriguing report out that the Chicago White Sox have begun quietly looking at future options and that knowledgeable sources say that team owner Jerry Reinsdorf is considering moving the organization from Guaranteed Rate Field when the team's lease expires just about six years from now. Now, among the possibilities, according to the report are moving to a new stadium in Chicago or the suburbs. And there's even some chatter among team insiders that Reinsdorf may seek to sell the White Sox while keeping ownership of the Chicago Bulls.
Now Jerry Reinsdorf is a legend. He's 87 years old, but we know that things have changed. Reinsdorf's longtime business partner, Rocky Wirtz of the Blackhawks recently died and I'm sure that's impacted Reinsdorf as the two were quite close. It's long been felt that Jerry Reinsdorf would never sell the White Sox, which are really his baby, but with his son Michael Reinsdorf overseeing the Bulls perhaps the decision will be to part with the Sox and keep the Bulls. Meanwhile, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who is becoming a key sports figure, is already working to try to keep the Bears in the city and now his administration is planning to hold meetings with the White Sox about that team's future. Nothing is reported to be close or imminent, but this will get a ton of interest and be closely followed. Chicago, a major market, the White Sox and Bulls major brands, and Jerry Reinsdorf easily one of the most influential owners of the last 30 years or so.
Let's move on to college sports. Some big news in the ranks of leadership as the University of Southern California has named its athletic director and its University of Washington AD Jennifer Cohen. She replaces Mike Bone, who resigned from his position back in May. Now this is an interesting move as Jennifer Cohen goes from one school, Washington going to the Big 10, to another school in USC, both going to the Big 10 next year. She knows the college landscape. She's been at Washington since 1998. She's been athletic director since 2016. She was part of the CFP selection committee.
She knows the terrain. She is also the first female athletic director in USC history. Largely I think this is a good job. It's a high profile job. It's got football turning around, but with it being so high profile, a lot of issues seem to follow USC. And this is a big hire by President Carol Folt. Remember, she was the one who led the institution out of the PAC 12 into the Big 10. She hired Mike Bone. Now she'll go and hire Jennifer Cohen. So again, a big hire for this president. And you know how I feel about the majority of college presidents when it comes to decision-making around college sports. But Jen Cohen, well-regarded among her peers, she was nominated for Athletic Director of the Year at the 2019 Sports Business Awards. This search easily the most high profile search in college sports at this time was done by Parker and Associates and now all speculation turns to who will replace Cohen at Washington.
Sports leader Arthur Blank is delving deeper into golf. Blank is already the owner of the successful PGA Tour Superstores and now becomes the third owner in tomorrow's sports' TGL Golf League that launches in January. The Atlanta team will fall under Blank's AMB Sports and Entertainment, which also includes the Falcons and of course the United. Dick Sullivan, who runs PGA Tour Superstore for Blank will oversee the operations of the team, which will announce the name and branding later.
Now, Arthur Blank is the third team owner to be announced in the TGL Golf League. First was Alexis Ohanian, the tech entrepreneur. Ohanian will own a club in Los Angeles. Fenway Sports Group was the second owner announced. That'll be led by Tom Werner and John Henry and have their franchise of course in Boston.
Now this is the golf league that will be played in a small venue in Florida and include some real life hitting and applications, but also golf simulation. There will be six teams in all. There was a lot of interest and buzz and questions about this concept. The events will be on a Monday evening during a soft part of the sports schedule. Business insiders are curious how the golf and sports fan embrace this new style of competition. So TGL Golf League getting its third owner in Arthur Blank.
Big news on the global agency front as Dalian Wanda Group dealing with financial pressures is seeking to sell the sports marketing agency Infront. This is according to Reuters. Deutsche Bank has been retained to advise on a possible sale of Infront sports and media and this is a process that could take months to complete. This will certainly be of interest to private equity firms because Infront is a legacy player when it comes to sports rights.
It's based in Switzerland. It oversees media rights for such leagues as Serie A and the international media rights for the Premier League. So it's got very good properties. It has a big sponsorship sales division. It sells rights around the world. It also handles event operations. So it's a big player and a big player in the Olympic world as well.
Now Dalian Wanda bought a majority stake in Infront for over $1 billion in 2015. So you see the value here. All of the major equity players will be looking under the hood of Infront and see if they can monetize the assets better because it's a hard business to be in because there are such hefty revenue guarantees for the properties. But Infront will still be of great interest to, again, private equity firms or others looking to acquire sports rights.
If you watched Monday Night Football on ESPN, last night you saw Scott Van Pelt was the host of Monday Night Countdown and that's where he will be this season joined by Marcus Spears, Ryan Clark and Robert Griffin III. Van Pelt replaces Suzy Kolber, who of course was let go at the end of June as part of ESPN's layoffs.
ESPN also signed Van Pelt to a new multi-year deal. In addition to his NFL role, Van Pelt will continue to host the late night, very successful SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt. He'll also be a part of ESPN's golf coverage. Van Pelt is such a breakout star. He's so good, has such a following that ESPN keeps him in the fold and gives him more responsibility.
Staying with ESPN, SBJ's John Ourand reported that just five days before ESPN produces its first college football game of the season, it has parted ways with the executive overseeing all of college football at the network. ESPN parted ways with Lee fitting a 25-year company employee who oversaw college and pro football production at the network.
The move left more questions than answers. ESPN said it will soon announce a new production structure for the NFL and college football. This was sudden and the move shocked staffers and anyone close to college football as Fitting oversaw College Game Day and other college programming, including the College Football Playoffs. So pretty surprising news at ESPN.
And let's end the Buzzcast around two names. First, the Arizona Cardinals have made a critical hire in naming Jeremy Walls as their new Chief Operating Officer. He'll oversee the team's entire business operations. Jeremy Walls was an SBJ 40 under 40 honoree in 2017. He spent the last 10 years at the Dolphins most recently as SVP and Chief Revenue Officer since 2020. But he had a big, big role in Miami under Tom Garfinkel. He also handled the commercial responsibilities for the F1 Miami Grand Prix also had a role with the Miami Open.
Now Jeremy Walls has held a variety of roles in sports. The Padres, the Suns, the DBacks, the NBA. He started by selling tickets at the Suns at the age of 22. Born in Ontario Jeremy Walls is one of the nicest guys in sports. He's an avid tennis player. He now joins the Cardinals reporting to owner Michael Bidwell and the Cardinals get a top operator who learned from one of the best in the business, Garfinkel and Jeremy Walls should really push the Cardinals business forward.
And the Green Bay Packers landed a top MLS team executive, Minnesota United Chief Operating Officer Maureen Smith will go to the Green Bay Packers as Chief Financial Officer. She'll succeed Paul Bennell. She will join the Packers in September. She'll also oversee the Packers IT department. Maureen Smith has been with Minnesota United for seven years and she was a key figure in the construction of the $250 million Allianz Field.
She's a smart, charismatic leader. She was a member of SBJ's Game Changer class of 2019. Bennell will retire from the Packers in October. He previously worked for 16 years with the Brewers before joining the Packers in 2009. So Maureen Smith going from MLS to the NFL and the Green Bay Packers as Chief Financial Officer.
And that is your Morning Buzzcast for Tuesday, August 22nd. I'm Ade Madkour, thanks for listening to the Buzzcast. Stay healthy, be good to each other. I'll speak to you tomorrow.