The Magic get a new naming-rights sponsor for their Orlando venue; the Jumpman Invitational continues to highlight a trend of holiday hoops events; more record viewership numbers for NCAA Volleyball; and Josh Krulewitz takes over ESPN PR.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Austin Karp and this is your Morning Buzzcast for Wednesday, December 20th, the penultimate Buzzcast of 2023. Let's start with some breaking news, courtesy of my colleague, Tom Friend.
The Orlando Magic's Arena, opened in 2010 is Amway Center, has a new naming rights sponsor effective today and Kia Center will be the name of the venue. The automaker has been a sponsor of the team for around 15 years now, and also has a league deal with the NBA. But it's a big step-up for the brand, which doesn't have a naming rights deal at any other pro arena in the US. It does have entitlement rights at the Kia Forum in California, but that's primarily a music venue now. Kia does have its name on the tennis grounds in Melbourne, home to the annual Australian Open Grand Slam. The Magic negotiated deal in-house with some assistance from Allied Sports, while Kia America used 160over90 on the talks. Only one other NBA team has an automaker with naming rights to its facility. If you knew that that was the Rockets and Toyota Center, two points for you this morning.
Moving over to college basketball, Abe Madkour and I had the pleasure of taking in the second annual Jumpman Invitational at Spectrum Center here in Charlotte last night. This is the men's and women's event involving four of the original Jordan brand schools, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Michigan, and Florida. The court once again looked sharp with Jumpman branding. I loved seeing like the Florida coaching staff wearing matching throwback Jordans.
It was a great game to get things started as well. Florida's men's team beat Michigan in double OT and the place was rocking. Even here in Charlotte, plenty of Gator and Wolverine fans in the crowd making their presence known. It also meant a later start for the Oklahoma and North Carolina women's teams, which had to play afterwards. I'm not sure that tipped until closer to 10 and tonight, North Carolina will play Oklahoma on the men's side, Florida-Michigan on the women's matchup. It's great to see a bunch of folks in attendance like Oklahoma AD Joe Castiglione, Chapel Hill AD Bubba Cunningham, longtime Hornets exec Fred Whitfield, Charlotte Sports Foundation's Danny Morrison and many others.
It's also just a great time of year for this type event. You see similar events this weekend, such as that in Phoenix starting tonight with Jerry Colangelo's Hall of Fame series that'll feature Arizona, Arizona State, Fresno State and Gonzaga. I think these events are great ways to, one, highlight college basketball during Bowl season, football season, really get people into the flow of college basketball. And, two, I think it's a great complement to Bowl season in particular creates this almost holiday sports week for local fans. I know here in Charlotte the Jumpman Classic is a great example. It's a lead-in to next week's Duke Mayo Bowl. Just another strong example of how sports makes good use of the calendar this time of year.
I want to stay in college and talk some TV numbers. Abe Madkour mentioned the big numbers for the women's volleyball semifinals on yesterday's Buzzcast. Now it's the Texas-Nebraska championship number as ABC delivered the most-watched NCAA volleyball telecast on record on Sunday, even up against NFL action, 1.7 million viewers for the match. And that superlative joins a record NCAA semifinals, a record regionals, and a record regular season for ESPN networks.
The numbers support a refrain we heard quite often from college stakeholders at the Intercollegiate Athletics Forum earlier this month, volleyball continues to be on the rise and these NCAA numbers come at a great time for the organization, as this event is part of that ESPN package of championship events that is headed to market. Look for some people to be bidding for that with these strong volleyball numbers. You've seen strong softball numbers, gymnastics, everything that's outside of the men's NCAA tournament has continued to perform well. I want to see where that package goes. Does it go back to ESPN? Does another bidder come in? Does it get split apart? A lot of options there for the NCAA.
Let's hit on some stadium news for a moment. Yes, the Orioles and the State of Maryland celebrated a lease, keeping the Birds at Camden Yards for 30 years. But the lawyer in me is still sweating the fine print here. The deal does not yet lease public land to the Os for development, and this is crucial for the team, like all teams these days. From Titletown in Green Bay to the Battery for the Braves and on down the line, having that ancillary development around your facility to increase revenue is a must-have.
So what happens if the two sides cannot hammer out a development deal by 2027 in Baltimore? That then gives the Os the right to make this 30-year deal become a 15-year deal. Now we'll see if the two sides can finish up the details there and there's still a ton of rumors on the future of Orioles' ownership so that's another potential complicating factor.
Just up I-95 in Philadelphia, it really feels like the 76ers are going to have a bumpy road getting shovels in the ground for a proposed downtown Philly arena. A draft plan for the $1.6 billion venue in Center City generated hours of sharp question during its first official review from a city-appointed panel of architecture and planning experts just the other night. Last month, some local protestors were kicked out of a public meeting on the arena for holding up critical signs.
If there's any good news, it's that Philadelphia mayor-elect Cherelle Parker last month gave an indication that she is going to likely end up backing this project, but it's going to continue to be a tough one for Harris Blitzer Sports and Entertainment. Once again, it's a project where the team could develop around the arena, something that Comcast currently controls at Wells Fargo Center right now where the 76ers play. So the Orioles, the 76ers, two developments I'm definitely watching as we continue on into 2024.
Some quick hitters to wrap things up. ESPN in a plan-pleasing move plans to keep its UFC pay-per-view prices the same in 2024 at $80 a pop, and that ends a multi-year streak of increases. The NHL and BetMGM have agreed to a multi-year extension of their partnership that designates the Sportsbook as one of the league's official sports betting and gaming partners in North America.
What caught my eye on this one, the NHL now has 14 betting partners across North America, US-only, Canada-only, Sweden and Finland. Not to mention a global data rights deal with Sportradar, Gary Bettman and company definitely taking full advantage of this category in recent years.
Florida State was back in the news last night with reports that the school has renewed in-depth discussions about its long-term future in the ACC. That follows the Seminoles getting shut out from the college football playoff, even with an undefeated record. But any school that wants to leave the ACC, again, would have to pay an exit fee that's around 3x the conference's operating budget or around $120 million, still a very steep figure there.
IT firm Cognizant is upping its sponsorship layout in golf, taking on the title spot for the PGA Tour event in Palm Beach County, Florida. That event had long been in title by Honda. Cognizant also is a sponsor at the PGA Tour-run President's Cup and it's also involved with LPGA through the Founder's Cup.
And finally, a big congrats to Josh Krulewitz, the 32-year ESPN vet who will now lead all communications for the company effective December 31st. He'll be replacing the legend, Chris LaPlaca. I've known Josh a long time now. He's one of the nicest people in this business, an incredibly effective executive who has worked on just about everything ESPN does at one point or another. If you look at the response from colleagues on social media, you'll clearly see how well-respected and loved he is by his team up there. So fantastic news for a fantastic person as we head into 2024. Big congrats to Josh.
That is your Morning Buzzcast for Wednesday, December 20th. I'll be taking next week off to recharge for the new year. Abe Madkour is back tomorrow to bring you our final Buzzcast of 2023. So Happy Holidays, Happy New Year to everyone listening. Thank you so much for spending just some of your time with SBJ and I look forward to talking to all of you after the first of the year.