Early takeaways and winners from Super Sunday; The week in LA; And people on the move.
Abe Madkour:
Well, the early line this morning, the game was good, the ads were solid, and the halftime show delivered. And this is your Morning Buzzcast for Monday, February 14th, the day after Super Bowl 56. Good morning, I'm Abe Madkour. I will say it's how Rams owner Stan Kroenke drew it up to win the Super Bowl in Los Angeles. I can still recall sitting in a press conference years ago when the Super Bowl was in New York city in 2014, I believe, and the report that day was of Rams owner Stan Kroenke purchasing land in Inglewood, California. At the time, the Rams of course were playing in St. Louis.
Now, it's hard for me to believe that eight years later or so, how the puzzle pieces came together. Stan Kroenke maneuvered his way out of St. Louis amid great controversy. He and the NFL were sued and had to settle the suit. The league, led by Jerry Jones, went with the Inglewood project instead of a stadium plan in Carson, California. The Rams end up building the most expensive sports facility ever in Inglewood, and signed one of the most lucrative naming rights deal ever as well. Stan Kroenke signed a young coach. He signed a number of marquee free agents and made big trades along the way, and it resulted in a Super Bowl title last night, in all places, SoFi Stadium.
I'm sure this doesn't go over well in St. Louis and Missouri, but like I said, I'm sure it's how Stan Kroenke had it in his head and drew it up. So, congratulations are in order for the team that wins the Super Bowl just six years after returning to the City of Los Angeles. For the Cincinnati Bengals, you have to think their future is bright, and that city must be feeling good about its NFL prospects for years to come.
Now, how will this game translate when it comes to viewership? Our John Ourand predicted just over 103 million viewers. Our Austin Karp predicted a close game should allow the Super Bowl to climb back over a hundred million viewers. Remember, we had a trend all season of NFL ratings being up, so you would think there would be a strong number for this year's game. Remember, the trends for the last few Super Bowls, Eagles-Patriots, 105 million viewers. Patriots-Rams, a hundred million viewers. Chiefs-49ers, 101 million viewers. Bucks-Chiefs from last year, 91 million viewers. So we're going to see if they can move the needle from last year's 91 million viewers to over a hundred million viewers. We should have some insight into the viewership number later, Monday into Tuesday.
Meanwhile, I thought NBC Sports had a very clean production, a very clean game. That's expected with this team. This also could be Al Michaels' final game on NBC, and if it was, he went out with another strong performance, I thought he and Chris Collinsworth were steady and insightful during the broadcast. Michaels and Collinsworth were both subtle about the future, and when they acknowledged that it be the last broadcast for Michele Tafoya, Al Michaels did say it wasn't clear what the future holds for the broadcasting duo, but they both saluted 13 years together. And what a phenomenal team Al Michaels and Chris Collinsworth have been over more than a decade.
So what else stood out from Super Bowl 56? For me, so my personal outtake of winners, it was hard to miss the constant promotion of NBC's Peacock service. That was clearly one of the winners in terms of overall promotions during the evening. I don't have my pulse on the advertising community. My favorite spot of the evening was FTX spot with Larry David, where he basically dismisses every great invention in history. He called the wheel a miss. He said things like toilets, electricity and democracy were overrated or ridiculous. And of course, the ad closes with Larry David rejecting FTX, and then a warning: "Don't be like Larry, don't miss out on the next big thing." I thought that was a fun ad.
I thought Verizon's ad with Jim Carey revisiting his role from The Cable Guy was fun. That was Verizon 5G Wireless Network spot. I thought the Amazon mind reader spot with Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost was one of the better spots. And of course, the halftime show produced by Roc Nation, is getting very strong reviews this morning. And the biggest loser for me? Wow, I hope the intro that The Rock did before the game is one they will never do again for an NFL game. That one just didn't feel right to me. But overall for the sports business, Los Angeles and the Super Bow, very strong week. Yes, there were geographic challenges of getting around the city, that's to be expected, but the beautiful weather all week in Los Angeles and the return of in-person meetings really invigorated everyone in the sports community.
I was there from Tuesday. I returned to Charlotte yesterday. I'll just say that the business meetings and the networking were up there of previous Super Bowls. There was great energy in being back in person and seeing each other live. Onsite sponsorship activations were certainly not fully back, but it did seem that this was a great week for both business, and I would say morale in the sports business community. And for the NFL, they really should feel good about being in Los Angeles. Clients loved it, fans loved it. You saw how the NFL really leaned into it. So did NBC during the broadcast yesterday. You had NBC's opening around the history of football in the movies, and you saw NBC Sports show the constant celebrity sightings at SoFi Stadium during the broadcast. I'll just say this, you'll see Los Angeles be a mainstay for big events going forward now that SoFi Stadium is in that market.
We can't talk about the Super Bowl without talking about sports betting. On Sunday, Peyton and Eli Manning did their Monday Night Football Manning Cast and a Super Bowl show presented for a live audience of 750 VIPs at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. And that was also streamed to about 10,000 of the casino chain's best customers at 50 properties in 16 states. Now, if you watched the broadcast, you also saw the debut of Caesars Super Bowl commercial. It's their first ever Super Bowl spot, and that built on the campaign that featured Peyton, Eli, but also Archie and Cooper Manning. Caesars, of course, doubling to out on both the Mannings and the Super Bowl and the NFL. That was one certainly that stood out. So, the end of another NFL season, now we move into an off season, that of course will be interesting. A lot of storylines out there, specifically around Sunday Ticket and investment in the NFL's media assets.
But let's move on to some other news. In my talks with sources in Los Angeles, there wasn't a great deal of optimism of a labor deal in baseball anytime soon. Here we are, February 14th, and the two sides don't seem to be very close. Major League Baseball on Saturday presented some new proposals to the union, but those weren't it very positively or optimistically by the union and players. Spring training will likely be delayed, though Major League Baseball reportedly has no plans to make an official announcement. Now, Major League Baseball did slightly enhance their proposals on some core economic issues on Saturday. So you would think if they can continue to move toward each other on the core economic principles, a deal could get done. But bottom line is there's a lot of work to do, and as we sit here on February 14th, no real end in sight to the lockout affecting Major League Baseball.
A couple of quick hitters, as we end the Morning Buzzcast. This could be a big week for the future of The A's in Oakland, as the Oakland City Council is scheduled to vote Thursday on an environmental review of The A's waterfront ballpark and surrounding development. This could really be a key indicator of whether The A's can stay in Oakland and will end around people. Ilitch Sports & Entertainment has named Ryan Gustafson as Senior Vice President, Business Operations Strategy. Ryan Gustafson was formally the XFL Seattle Dragons President. He will report to the new President and CEO of Ilitch Sports & Entertainment, Chris McGowan.
And finally, Real Salt Lake has new owners in David Blitzer and Ryan Smith. And in one of their first moves, the owners have named Interim President John Kimball as President in a multiyear contract. Kimball had been Interim President since September of 2020. They take away the interim title and make him full-time President leading Real Salt Lake, and of course, David Blitzer, Ryan Smith, the new owners of that MLS franchise. John Kimball will be the team President.
So that is your Morning Buzzcast for Monday, February 14th. Let me know your thoughts on the Super Bowl, on the advertisers, on the halftime show, or just about the Super Bowl in Los Angeles. Love to hear your thoughts. I'm Abe Madkour. Stay healthy, be good to each other. I'll speak to you tomorrow.