Inside Super Bowl viewership; USFL next up; St. Louis' MLS team getting noticed and Ty Votaw set to retire.
Well, there's good news for Drive to Survive fans. The Netflix docuseries based on Formula 1 will debut March 11th and be stretched over 10 episodes. So more love for Drive to Survive. Speaking of Formula 1, another massive deal today for Red Bull's Formula 1 team. Last week, Red Bull signed Oracle to a major deal. Today, it has signed what it has described as, "The most lucrative annual cryptocurrency sponsorship in sports." The deal is with Bybit and is worth more than $100 million across three years. And of course, that's something we'll be talking about tomorrow on Buzzcast, about more deals in the cryptocurrency space and more deals in the Formula 1 space.
This is your Morning Buzzcast for Wednesday, February 16th. I am Abe Madkour. I hope everybody is doing well. If you're going to be in Cleveland for the NBA All-Star game, let me know. Love to say hi. Let's get into the numbers, because the Super Bowl numbers are in and they are very, very strong for the NFL and NBC. NBC on Sunday drew the best Super Bowl audience in five years, with the Rams' win over the Bengals averaging a total of 110 million English language viewers. Now, that's TV. That is streaming. That is out of home audience, but that is only English language viewers. You're going to see some variation of the numbers, but it's anywhere between 110 to 112 million viewers regardless. It's the game's best audience since the Patriots came back after being down 28 to three against the Falcons. That game in 2017 on Fox drew 113 million viewers and did not include the out of home audience.
So what does this year's number look like? Well, it's up big. Last year's Buccaneers-Chief's game on CBS had 99 million viewers. Other metrics from the big game, 11 million viewers streamed the game. That marks a record for a US event. That is 10% of the audience that streamed the Super Bowl. It's interesting because in Los Angeles last week with a top media executive, they predicted just over 3% would stream the game. They were off on that number, obviously, because a very strong 10% of the audience streamed the Super Bowl.
All in all, very good numbers for NBC and the NFL. Where does it rank in the last five years? Well, let's go over it real quick. Eagles-Patriots in 2018, 105 million viewers. Patriots-Rams, 2019, 100 million viewers. Chiefs-49ers, 2020, 101 million viewers. Bucs-Chiefs, 2021, 99 million viewers. And this year, Rams-Bengals, 110 million viewers. So very strong numbers for the NFL.
So what is next for football? Well, surprisingly, when I was in LA last week, there was some real buzz about the upcoming USFL, which will debut in April. Of course, the league will feature the branch from the old USFL all playing in Birmingham, Alabama. Games will be on Fox and NBC. Fox owns and operates the eight team league. So look for games, the regular season to run from April to June, and then there'll be the playoffs. From what I'm being told, this is a league that will focus heavily on how it's presented on television. It's a media driven property first. Meanwhile, the USFL yesterday signed Sportradar as its distributor of official league data for sports betting operators. And the league also hired its first vice president of communications, Darren James, who was previously at AMB Sports and Entertainment. That, of course, is Arthur Blank's sports company. Now, so what you're seeing is the USFL coming into shape before its debut in April.
Let's move to MLS because its expansion club, St. Louis CITY SC, has been lauded for making a lot of strong moves before it launches next season, in 2023. Yesterday, the team took a big step forward by signing a 15 year naming rights deal with Missouri-based healthcare company Centene. They will put their name on the 22,500 seat facility where the club will begin playing in '23. The facility will be called Centene Stadium. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Centene does have some limited sports sponsorships. They are involved in soccer. They have a multi-year deal with Charlotte FC, but this is their biggest soccer investment. Now, construction on Centene Stadium is slated to finish this summer. So, St. Louis CITY SC will be playing in Centene stadium when the MLS team launches in 2023.
I was at a dinner last night and someone asked me to help explain sports and the metaverse. I politely changed topics because it's really something I'm not fully up to speed on. It's very complex. I find it complicated. But here's something to maybe help us all and to keep our eye on. The Atlanta Braves unveiled the creation of Digital Truist Park. Now, what is that? That's a photo realistic digital twin of the team's home venue, and it marks the first venture into the metaverse by a baseball team. Now, they're using technology from epic games to develop a virtual platform that allows fans of the Braves to experience Truist Park and The Battery in Atlanta. It's a multiplayer environment streamed directly to browsers.
Braves president Derek Schiller told SBJ that there are avid Braves fans who understand what the metaverse is and what the type of digital experience might be like. So the team has been a first mover in this space. Fans will be able to create avatars. They'll be able to explore areas of Truist Park. There'll be exclusive content in this digital platform. And they'll also be able to meet and greet with other Braves fans. So again, the Braves, a first mover in this effort. If you're interested to check it out, go to the Braves website, braves.com/digitaltruistpark and you can see the Braves' effort in looking at the metaverse and its connection to its ballpark.
Attention all sports marketing and consulting agencies, USA Swimming and USA Track & Field are looking to sign an agency to package and sell sponsorships for both of the national governing bodies. Now, these national governing bodies are among the nation's largest, USA Swimming and Track & Field. They've sent out an RFP looking for an agency to secure sponsorships in categories like airline, consumer packaged goods, financial services, cryptocurrency. Now, the winning agency will also play a role in media deals covering television, digital and social. It is rare that you see two national governing bodies like this combined for such an effort. And so they hope to have these presentations made to them sometime in April and then make a decision. But again, USA Swimming, USA Track & Field, two of the largest NGBs in the US, have a lot of assets, and so this would be a real coup for any agency landing this business.
So let's end around people. A long-time golf executive is retiring. Ty Votaw is retiring from the PGA Tour in June. He'll remain with the tour in a consulting role, but Ty Votaw has touched virtually every area of golf. He was commissioner of the LPGA from 1999 to 2005. He went to the PGA Tour. He was at CMO. He is currently executive vice president of International Business. He was one of the key voices in advocating for golf's return to the Olympics in 2016. And again, he's touched virtually every aspect of the game of golf. Ty Votaw retiring in June.
And two internal announcements. Sports Business Journal's 2022 Celebration of Service Award recognizes the power sports has on improving society and in building communities. We are looking for submissions for organizations that you think use sports to help improve society and use sports to help people. If you have a company in mind, go to our website and submit them for our Celebration of Service Award. And be sure to check out the new episode of SBJ I Factor, presented by Allied Sports. This week's episode focuses on the career of Carol Stiff, who spent 31 years at ESPN before leaving to start her own sports media business. She is a pioneer in sports media and in women's sports. It's a great listen. I thoroughly encourage you to check it out. Look for SBJ I Factor, presented by Allied Sports, wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. So that is your morning Buzzcast for Wednesday, February 16th. I'm Abe Madkour. Hope everybody has a great day. Stay healthy. Be good to each other. I'll speak to you tomorrow.