MLB continues its negotiating road to nowhere, NBA ratings are back to ’20 levels and NASCAR hauls impressive sponsor roster into Daytona.
Spring training should be in full swing, but you know it's not. The good news if you're looking for a fix, is that it's opening day for the college baseball season, and many games will be televised across linear and streaming services. In other positive baseball news, the Oakland City Council voted to certify the environmental review of the A's Waterfront Ballpark project and surrounding development, an important step that moves the city and the team one step closer toward an agreement.
Good morning. It's Friday, February 18th, and this is your SBJ Morning Buzzcast. I'm David Albright filling in for Abe Madkour. Continuing with the other end of the baseball spectrum, the bargaining session between MLB and the Players Union Thursday produced little progress toward a deal and lasted just 15 minutes according to sources. The union offered tweaks to its arbitration demands while asking MLB for more money in a pre-arbitration bonus pool.
In its new proposal, the union asked for 80% of players with two years of service time to enter the arbitration system down from a previous request of 100%. Under the new offer, 20% of second year players would remain in the pre arbitration, but the union also increased its request to $115 million in the pre arbitration bonus pool for the top 150 players. The union previously had asked for 100 million in the pool, but also wanted all players with two years of service time to reach arbitration. Arbitration is just one major issue that needs resolving before a deal can be reached. Players also aren't happy with MLBs offers regarding the competitive balance tax as the sides remain far apart on thresholds and penalties.
Fanatics has acquired lifestyle brand Mitchell & Ness from Juggernaut Capital Partners in partnership with a group of celebrity investors, including Jay-Z, Maverick Carter, Meek Mill, and others. Fanatics will own 75% of the company while the other investors will own the remaining 25%. Baird served as exclusive financial to Mitchell & Ness and which will continue to operate as a separate brand within the Fanatics commerce division. Mitchell & Ness CEO Kevin Wulff will assume the same role reporting directly to Fanatics brand president Joe Bozich. Deal closed on Wednesday and valued Mitchell & Ness at about $250 million.
NBA games across TNT, ESPN and ABC are averaging 1.62 million viewers heading into All-Star weekend, a figure that is flat compared to the same period two seasons ago. Reports are Austin Carp games are also up 6% compared to the period before the All-Star break last season, which was delayed until early March after the league started in late December because of COVID delays. ABC is averaging 3.76 million viewers for its games, down slightly from two seasons go at the same point, but up big from the 3.17 million for the 2021 All-Star game. The network's Saturday Nights Late excluding Christmas is averaging just over 3.09 million, its best starts since the 2018/2019 season. The overall ABC audience numbers would be even higher if not for the competition from two NFL games on Christmas this past year, which took a huge bite out of that NBA audience.
ESPN and TNT are both averaging 1.4, 3 million viewers for games to date. TNT is off to its best start since 2018/2019, and up 8% from two years ago, that it is up from 1.39 million last season before the All-Star game. ESPN on the other hand is down 3% from two years ago, but up big from 1.2 million last season. The other interesting notes here are on ESPN and TNT female viewership this season is up 27% compared to last year and now makes up one third of the NBA audience. Also, on 42 of 52 nights that NBA games have aired on ESPN or TNT, the network airing the NBA game has been the most viewed cable network in primetime among males aged 18 to 34.
Heading into the start of the 2022 season, NASCAR has secured its deepest roster of official sponsors on record, that's according to analysis from SBJ Atlas, American Express, Southern Computer Warehouse and Steps Transportation were all added to the fold in the past few weeks, giving NASCAR 51 official sponsors this year. Of note, more than half of NASCAR's official sponsors have held that status for just four seasons or less. Meanwhile, Coca-Cola whose activation includes Dasani water and the automotive paints and finishing company Axalta Coating Systems are the sports' most tenured partners with relationships that each date back to 1998. Mars Inc, NASCAR sponsor since 2000 will exit the sport after this coming season.
CBS averaged 769,000 viewers for the broadcast networks coverage of the first leg of the Real Madrid - Paris Saint Germain UEFA Champions League match up on Tuesday afternoon marking only the second time that a UCL round of 16 game has topped 700,000 viewers on English language TV in the US. The game played in Paris was up 128% from the comparable match in 2020 on TNT, that was between Atlético Madrid and Liverpool. Real Madrid - PSG also is the most streamed UCL round of 16 match yet for Paramount Plus.
F1 reported a 4% rise in its total TV audience in 2021 aided by more than 100 million viewers for the seasoned finale in Abu Dhabi. F1s global TV audience of 1.55 billion last year was 4% up on the same figure from 2020 and the number of unique viewers was 445 million, that's up 3% on a year over year basis. The season finale in Abu Dhabi was the most watched race of the season drawing 107.8 million viewers.
And finally, consider this a personal service announcement. If you haven't already it's time to save the date of May 18th, that's three months from today for the 2022 Sports Business Awards. The ceremony will be live and in person at the Marriott Marquis in New York city. For more information on the program and how to attend, go to the events page on sportsbusinessjournal.com. May 18th, mark your calendar. And that's your SBJ morning Buzzcast for Friday. I hope everyone has a great day and even better weekend. We'll see you back here Monday morning.