Tiger's reasonable response to PGA Tour conflicts; Inside the NFL's sponsorship renewal season and the Sounders set to invest in new team HQ.
Negotiations aimed at ending Major League Baseball's lockout will resume Thursday, today, with the Players Association set to respond to the latest offer from MLB management, which was made last week. Remember, spring training was scheduled to start this week. Let's hope the sides are able to make some progress, even baby steps, in today's meeting. Also today is the start of US soccer's She Believes Cup, the woman's soccer tournament. The top ranked American team will face the Czech Republic today on Thursday in Carson, California at the Dignity Health Sports Park. They'll play New Zealand on Sunday. Next week, the US team will host Iceland Wednesday in Frisco, Texas. The She Believes Cup starting today in California.
And this is your Morning Buzzcast for Thursday, February 17th. Good morning, I'm Abe Madkour. Hope everybody is doing well. Don't look for Tiger Woods to join the rival Saudi golf tour, the tour that will rival the PGA Tour and led by Greg Norman, anytime soon. Woods said yesterday he will stay loyal to the PGA Tour. He has said that plenty of times. He says he has been a part of the PGA Tour for more than 25 years. Tiger Woods did acknowledge that players do have concerns about their media and image rights within the PGA Tour's bylaws. That's what Phil Mickelson criticized a few weeks ago. And Tiger did say that there's hope that players can have more control of those rights in the future.
He did credit PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan for trying to find a solution about what's best for the players and what's best for the tour. I thought it was amazing, the different tone between the very reasonable Tiger Woods yesterday and the, I would say very overly critical, Phil Mickelson of a few weeks ago. Mickelson ripped the PGA Tour for what he called obnoxious greed. Tiger certainly much more measured in his response. But overall, do not underestimate the efforts of Greg Norman and LIV Golf, as there are reports that that Saudi tour, that rival tour, has signed a number of players, including some top name players. They're said to be offering massive financial guarantees to the players, and many have called the money very, very appealing.
So there's a lot at stake here. There's a lot at play here. We know how the PGA Tour feels about this rival tour. The PGA Tour will do all it can to stop players from playing on both tours. But the interesting element to me will be what will happen with the Majors. What will the leaders at Augusta and the RNA do if players decide to play on the Norman led Saudi tour? This could get pretty ugly pretty soon, and it's one of the biggest stories in sports business that I'm following.
Let's shift to the NFL, because there's some major NFL sponsorship news from our Terry Lefton in our SBJ Marketing newsletter last night. The talk in Los Angeles was on the number of major sponsorship deal that the NFL has up for renewal. Here's what we can tell you so far. Marriott, a longtime NFL corporate sponsor, will be back. Pepsi, Frito-Lay, and Gatorade will also renew. But the news here is that Pepsi will reportedly not renew its 10 year old sponsorship of the Super Bowl Halftime Show. Now, the Super Bowl Halftime Show is a very appealing high profile sponsorship, and the NFL is reportedly reimagining what that Halftime sponsorship could look like, and they could take it to the market at an asking price of 40 to 50 million dollars per year. Yes, you heard that right, per year, for sponsorship of the Super Bowl Halftime Show.
Meanwhile, Ford, which has held rights in the truck category since 2016, will also not renew, but the NFL will look to revamp its auto category and its truck category into a major comprehensive package that could also hit the market at 50 million dollars per year. One category that's still up for negotiations is Bose. Bose of course has their brand on coaches' headsets. They are still talking about renewing their rights with the NFL, but there is a chance that the NFL will be looking for a new sponsor of that highly visible inventory on a coach's headset. NFL sponsorship rights run through the end of March, so there's still time in those renewal talks. So some interesting news on the NFL sponsorship landscape by our Terry Lefton last night.
Another tough story facing the NFL and its most marque organization, as ESPN broke the news yesterday that the Dallas Cowboys have paid more than two million dollars after four members of their cheerleading squad accused former Senior Vice President of Communications, Rich Dalrymple, of voyeurism in their locker room as they undressed during a 2015 event at AT&T Stadium. So these are reportedly nondisclosure agreements of more than 2.4 million dollars. Dalrymple has called the allegation false. The 61 year old Dalrymple earlier this month announced his plans to retire, but the Dallas Cowboys in the news, and not for the right reasons.
One of the most business savvy teams in Major League Soccer is the Seattle Sounders. They are always smart on the pitch, and they have a very good business. Well, that looks to continue as the Sounders yesterday unveiled plans for a really sparkling new headquarters and training center in Renton, Washington. It's going to be called Sounders FC Center at Longacres, and it's a 50,000 square foot facility, including four full size training fields. It's being designed by Generator Studio, and will sit on the site of Boeing's former headquarters. Now, the venue is expected to open in 2024. So what does this mean? Well, the bottom line is anytime a Major League Soccer team can invest so much in a headquarters and training facility, it certainly helps recruit players and it certainly helps team performance. So the Seattle Sounders putting some real investment in a brand new headquarters and training facility in Washington, which will open in 2024.
And finally, I know some fans will love this, some fans will never watch this, but Apple TV has ordered The Dynasty, which will chronicle the Patriots' past two decades and the era under Bill Belichick, Tom Brady, and Robert Craft. It is a 10 part series on Apple TV. It's from Imagine Documentaries and NFL Films, and it's based on Jeff Benedict's book of the same name, The Dynasty. No release date was given for The Dynasty on Apple TV, but here's the bottom line on this, and we've said this before, we'll say it again. There are so many content ideas getting funded, meaning so many pitches for docu-series, documentaries and shows. Any content that will be seen as driving subscriptions and signups for so many of these streaming services, they're getting funded. So expect more and more sports pitches to be approved and given the green light to go forward. That's the marketplace we're in right now, so expect to see more and more sports content across all these streaming platforms.
Finally, a few housekeeping items. First, our Celebration of Service Award, which recognizes the power sports has on improving society and in building communities, is open for submissions. So if you know an organization doing right through sports, please consider nominating them. Finally, two new podcasts this week. The Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast looks at all things around Super Bowl media, and The I Factor, presented by Allied Sports, talks to former ESPN executive Carol Stiff, who spent 31 years at the network before leaving to launch her own sports media company. Those are on sportsbusinessjournal.com, both really good listens if you get the chance.
So that is your Morning Buzzcast for Thursday, February 17th. I'm Abe Madkour. My colleague David Albright will be with you tomorrow. Until I speak to you again on Monday, stay healthy, be good to each other. I'll speak to you again down the road.