A new day for tennis players and their commercial rights; Amazon Just Walk Out an early hit; gridiron comes to Ireland and it was 20 years ago today....
Let's lead the Buzzcast with a question. Today marks the 20th anniversary of one of the most significant advancements in all of sports, media, and technology. It was groundbreaking at the time, but it seems like just a normal part of our day today. Can you guess? Well, today is Friday, August 26th. This is your Morning Buzzcast. Good morning, I'm Abe Madkour. Thanks for listening.
First, there is big news in the tennis world before the start of the US Open as the newly formed Professional Tennis Players Association has named Ahmad Nassar as its first executive director. Remember, this is a player-focused group started by Novak Djokovic and Vasek Pospisil. They have also launched a for-profit business to benefit pro tennis players called the Winners Alliance. This will all be backed by $26 million in funding from Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Foundation, private equity firm, Prysm Capital, and Nassar. Ahmad Nassar held the meeting with players Thursday night, last night, in New York ahead of the Open to introduce himself and the group licensing concept.
Ahmad Nassar has always been out front on the concept of group licensing rights and monetizing those rights. He started at the NFL PA. He founded OneTeam Collective in 2016, and he later led OneTeam Partners before stepping down in June. Remember, OneTeam Partners represented the commercial interest of men's and women's athletes in many sports. We're talking the NWSL, the WNBA, MLS, the women's national soccer team. Winners Alliance will try to emulate OneTeam's success for tennis players, starting with the establishment of group licensing rights or group licensing programs around video games, around trading cards, novelty items. It could be merchandise, collectibles. That's where Nassar will really try to push and move the business for tennis players.
But the Professional Tennis Players Association, the PTPA, will represent all men's and women's tennis players. That'll be a bargaining and representation group. Winners Circle will be the commercial arm. Now, Ahmad Nassar will report to a Winners Alliance board which is headed by Ackman and Prysm Capital and others. The PTPA and Nassar will be based in Washington, DC. Nassar said he envisions a staff of about 10 by the end of this year. But this is big news in the tennis world. The PTPA will represent players, and Winners Circle will look to commercialize and monetize player rights. So a very, very interesting day in tennis before the US Open.
Let's move on. Here is a new concept when it comes to food and beverage at sports facilities that you will likely experience this fall. We are hearing more and more about it. It's Amazon's Just Walk Out store concept. It's getting very good reviews in its early deployment. You have seen these. Shoppers enter a store, grab what they want, and move on. Amazon One's palm recognition is available for entry in some stores. Otherwise, you just enter the store by inserting your credit card, and the Walk Out technology tracks what you select as you shop. Then the credit card or account is charged once you leave the store. Now, if you're buying alcohol, there is an attendant to check IDs.
You are going to see more and more of these within sports facilities. The Seahawks announced plans for one of the stores at their facility this season. The Mariners already deployed one at T-Mobile Park. The Mariners are so pleased with this they want to install more. They said transactions are up three to four times what they were at a similar location before it became a checkout-free store and that the increase in transactions has been much faster than the team anticipated and expected. They said that they are also picking up sales because they've been offering cold food. They're putting in salads and wraps, hoagies, sushi into these Just Walk Out areas, and those are strong sellers. The Mariners also said the efficient setup and structure of the Just Walk Out stores allows for more concourse space because there are no lines that extend into the concourse. So a very, very buzzed-about concept right now.
In addition to T-Mobile and Lumen Field, Amazon Stores are at Minute Maid Park in Houston, the TD Garden in Boston, UBS Arena in New York, and there are three stores opening at Texas A&M's Kyle Field. Teams like the speed and efficiency and customer benefits, so get ready to see more of these Amazon Just Walk Out facilities at sports complexes.
Speaking of something to get ready for, get ready for FanDuel TV. That was formally announced. It will launch in September. Really, this is one of the first major efforts by one of the industry's sportsbook operators into the media business. We keep saying these operators are really wanting to become media companies. Well, FanDuel TV is all about being in the media business. Others do content, but this will be a 24-hour TV network. Yes, coming at a time when most new bets are being placed on streaming services.
Now FanDuel TV isn't starting from scratch. It will revamp and take over the TVG cable network. Remember, that cable network's largely focused on horse racing, so they're rebuilding TVG as FanDuel TV. The vision is for touchpoints everywhere. One executive envisioned every single frame on the screen will have something that viewers can interact with or even place a wager on. So this will be a national cable network, FanDuel TV. There will be an OTT platform, FanDuel+. Now, the network will feature big personalities. NFL Network's Kay Adams will be the face of the network. There'll be Pat McAfee on the network. Bill Simmons will be on the network. So FanDuel really becoming one of the first sportsbooks to position itself as a full-fledged media company. This is obviously one very interesting story to watch.
College football hits Ireland this weekend. Yes, Nebraska faces Northwestern in Dublin on Saturday in the first regular season international game in five years. Now, Ireland had a deal or has a deal for a five-game series. The first two games, one featured Notre Dame, didn't take place in Ireland because of COVID. So this one here is the first. Saturday's game is expected to draw more than 30,000 fans, including almost 15,000 fans coming from the United States. The game will be held at Aviva Stadium in Dublin. That's a nice facility. Officials are talking to more teams about next year's game, but the teams have not been announced. Like I said, Saturday's game, the first regular season college game to be played outside of the US in five years. Kick off, 12:30 Eastern time on Fox or 5:30 local time in Ireland.
Get ready for this. This was fun. It was 20 years ago today that Major League Baseball became the first pro sports league to livestream a regular season game. That game, the Rangers and the Yankees, the first regular season game to be live-streamed, August 26th, 2002. I can almost recall the quizzical interest, the belief that no one, no one would ever watch a sports game on a phone or a computer. This was sure to fail. When this launched, let's just say it wasn't the smoothest of launches. There was major buffering. There was crashing.
But don't ever overlook the early investment in Major League Baseball Advanced Media by Major League Baseball owners, that included $120 million gathered from the 30 clubs. I believe it was a million dollars from each club over four years beginning in 2000. So the clubs really stepped up and funded this. Many of them did not want to do this, but Major League Baseball Advanced Media, or BAM, then launched MLB.TV. That was so ahead of its time, 20 years ago.
To mark the anniversary, Major League Baseball today will allow fans to stream games for free in honor of this 20th anniversary. I just will say again, baseball, what a pioneer in how they led the way on streaming. It is amazing just how MLB owners took such a risk. That has changed, I would say, media consumption. That has changed sports consumption and sports engagement forever. Because I remember baseball's investment was laughed at by many people, and now it has just become the norm. Baseball's certainly ahead of its time, 20 years ago, becoming the first pro sports league to livestream a regular season game.
That is your Morning Buzzcast for Friday, August 26. I'm Abe Madkour. Thanks for listening. Stay healthy. Be good to each other. Have a great weekend. I'll talk to you on Monday.