Navy-Notre Dame bringing more than a football game to Ireland, the Pelicans' NBA Cup promotion, MLB and the Phillies execs pleased with Go-Ahead Entry.
The Morning Buzzcast is coming to you this morning from Jupiter, Florida, where I'm speaking in a few hours at the 23XI Racing Partner Summit. As 23XI Racing President Steve Lauletta asked me to talk about the top issues in the sports business. I'm looking forward to hearing what's on their mind, as this organization has been an influential addition to the sports world. And this is your Morning Buzzcast for Thursday, August 24th. Good morning. I'm Abe Madkour. Hope everybody is doing well today. College football, this Saturday. Yes, that has a nice ring to it, and it's a big, big weekend for Notre Dame, which travels to Ireland and will play Navy, the first time the Fighting Irish will play in Ireland in 11 years. Now, this is a very big opportunity to grow the brand in a very friendly market to a new generation of potential Irish fans.
Notre Dame plays Navy at Aviva Stadium in Dublin on Saturday. Now, Notre Dame has played in Dublin twice before, but this is the first home game the Irish are staging, and they are bringing some serious energy from South Bend. More than 30,000 Irish fans are expected. Overall, more than 40,000 US fans are expected to travel for the game. Now this game is part of the College Football Classic, which is a five-game series organized by Anthony Travel. Anthony Travel is part of on location owned by Endeavor, founded by Notre Dame alum John Anthony. Now, Notre Dame Navy were supposed to play in 2020, but that was canceled due to COVID, but they have the game this Saturday. It'll be played in front of a sold-out crowd of 48,000 fans. Aer Lingus, the top airline in Ireland, provides charter flights to the games for the teams, also serves as the game's title sponsor.
There is a lot going on than just football, as the schools are using this for a big marketing event. Notre Dame is hosting more than 30 different events this week in Ireland. Navy is having VIP alumni dinners and receptions. The Notre Dame and Navy rugby teams are playing each other on Friday. There are bold face names in Ireland all week, Dan Patrick will broadcast his show live from Dublin, AD Jack Swarbrick was a guest yesterday. Will Ferrell is on the ground onsite in Ireland, and if you're in Ireland, you know there's going to be plenty of beer, and Guinness is an official game sponsor. Guinness plans to send 250 people. It's top executives, employees, customers, distributors to Dublin for the game. There'll be a big event today, Thursday, at the Guinness Storehouse, as more than a thousand fans and guests of the Fighting Irish are expected to attend. So it's a party, it's hospitality, it's spreading the brand of football and Notre Dame and Navy all this week in Ireland.
This week, a lot of us in our office in Charlotte talked about the NBA Cup, and it's new in-season tournament, and it's prospects for success. There was genuine interest in the event from staff, and most of the teams I've spoken with are very excited for it. Here is what one team is doing to promote the in-season tournament. The New Orleans Pelicans are first out with a $1 million "We Win, You Win" sweepstakes, and they become the first NBA franchise to really introduce a promotion around the NBA Cup. Here's how it works. If the Pelicans win the NBA Cup Championship in Las Vegas in early December, a hundred fans who purchased and used a mobile ticket to attend an in-season tournament game at their home venue, the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, will win individual $10,000 prizes, so some real money behind it.
The team believes the promotion will help amplify the tournament and why it's important to win. And for a way to get their fans engaged and create a playoff-like atmosphere around the games at Smoothie King Center, the Pelicans are paying the full cost of the sweepstakes. But let's watch to see if other teams adopt a similar type of promotion around their games and the in-season Cup to generate fan interest and really begin to educate fans on what this concept is and what it means.
Last week, we talked about how Major League Baseball was introducing a new technology that would impact ingress and the way that fans could get into a ballpark for games. The Phillies, on Monday, were the first baseball team to have Go-Ahead Entry as an option for fans at Citizens Bank Park. It was on the First Base Gate, fans who completed registration for the program on the MLB Ballpark app got a facial scan and were able to walk through and have their tickets automatically scanned.
Now, the Phillies believe this would, of course, quicken the pace of entry for fans, and the early reviews are positive. One fan who went told me yesterday, they went through it and they called it super easy. They said they walked right up to the gate, gave their name, confirmed how many people were in the party, and walked right through without stopping. They likened it to having an easy pass when everyone else had to stop at the toll booth. They, in fact, gave it five stars. We have a story from our Rob Schaefer on sportsbusinessjournal.com, and that too outlined how pleased both Phillies' executives and baseball executives were with this Go-Ahead Entry, and you're going to see this implemented at more ballparks in the future.
Let's move to some personnel news. Amy Latimer, who is well-known to people in the sports business, she is the longtime president of TD Garden in Boston. She's the chief development officer for Delaware North. She has been promoted to a big job, executive vice president and chief operating officer for Delaware North. Amy Latimer will now be based out of Buffalo in her new role, which of course is the home of Delaware North. She will remain living in Boston, where she has lived for years, ever since I have known her. She replaces Jim Hauser, who is retiring after a 45-year career with Delaware North. She begins her new role in mid-October. She'll report to Delaware North's three CEOs, that's Jerry Jacobs Jr., Lou Jacobs, and Charlie Jacobs. No word yet on how the company plans to fill her current TD Garden role. Now, Amy Latimer has been in the business for a while. She joined Delaware North in 1995. That was a year after I started at Sports Business Daily. She was an initial member of the TD Garden leadership team, I remember that was a new arena at that time.
She's risen through the ranks. She's touched pretty much every role at that facility. She reached the role of TD Garden president in 2012. Like I said, I've watched her take on every role possible, and she has been a leader in sports business for years. She oversaw two significant renovations in the last decade at the facility in Boston that totaled nearly $200 million and it really remade the entire facility. But this new job, it won't be easy. She takes on this role while Delaware North is having to look at new business lines. She'll work with leadership on business development and new lines of revenue. As we all know, there's more competition in this space. And Delaware North's major line of business has been in providing concessions, food and beverage, and retail services for hundreds of sports venues. But there are more players and more ways to do business, and Amy Latimer will work with leadership to try to develop those for Delaware North. But a big move for Amy Latimer becoming COO of Delaware North and now working out of Buffalo on a daily basis.
And finally, I wanted to bring this up. A few items from our newsroom that you may find of interest. SBJ's managing editor, David Albright, who of course handled the Buzzcast so adeptly when I was not around, has left Sports Business Journal to become a professor at Fairfield University in Connecticut. He'll teach journalism and sports media. He has long had a love of the classroom, and these two subjects, journalism and sports media, are two of his real passions, so it's a perfect fit for him. Personally, I want to give a hat tip for David Albright, an incredible partner over the last three years, and I know he has found the perfect role in his personal and professional journey.
Meanwhile, SBJ has brought on a new college sports business writer, Ben Portnoy, and he will focus on college sports and work with our legend Michael Smith in covering this very important space. Ben joined Sports Business Journal from the state in Columbia, South Carolina, where he covered the University of South Carolina's football program for one of the largest newspapers in the state. Prior to that, he was the Mississippi State beat reporter for the Columbia Commercial Dispatch. He graduated from Indiana University, where he covered IU football for the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. Ben impressed us with his success in building relationships and his smart reporting skills. He will work with Michael Smith, who is a true leader in the space, to make college sports business this important area of coverage even more impactful for Sports Business Journal. He'll be based in Columbia, South Carolina, but will come up and work out of our Charlotte office very frequently. Please welcome Ben at bportnoy, P-O-R-T-N-O-Y, @sportsbusinessjournal.com. That's bportnoy@sportsbusinessjournal.com. We're excited to have him.
And that is your Morning Buzzcast for Thursday, August 24th. I'm Abe Madkour. Thanks for listening. Stay healthy, be good to each other. Have a great day. I'll speak to you on Friday.