The clock is ticking for a new NBA CBA, Ally Financial signs first of its kind deal with ESPN and ACC and NASCAR partners with an HBCU
David Albright:
Happy President's Day to those of you out there who may be enjoying an extra cup of coffee this morning while contemplating what to do with a company holiday. As you're doing so, ask yourself, what was your favorite part of a very busy sports weekend? Sure, we're still in the NFL hangover period, but the rest of the sports world certainly tried to deliver cures on many fronts.
There were the NBA All-Star festivities out in Salt Lake City. The NHL played an outdoor game in Raleigh and the raucous atmosphere felt like big time college football. The Daytona 500 officially green flagged the NASCAR season with its longest race. Tiger Woods played 72 holes of tournament golf. There was an overflow of college basketball games, both men's and women's as bubble watch season is in high gear. And the XFL 3.0 kicked off with owners, Danny Garcia, Duane Johnson, and Jerry Cardinal in attendance at all four games in Arlington, Houston, San Antonio, and Washington DC. There certainly was no shortage of options to keep you going over this long holiday weekend.
Good morning. It's Monday, February 20th. This is your SBJ Morning Buzzcast. I'm David Albright filling in for Abe Madkour.
NBA Commissioner, Adam Silver, during his All-Star game press conference on Saturday echoed that the statement made by NBPA executive director, Tamika Tremaglio, declaring that it's an absolute priority to get a new CBA done by the March 31st deadline. Silver said it's his hope that the deal will be done by then. If you remember back on February 6th, the league and the Union mutually agreed to extend the deadline to opt out of the current CBA from February 8th to March 31st while both sides continue to negotiate a new agreement. If either side exercises the opt out, the CBA's term will conclude on June 30th.
Silver also addressed NBA expansion, which remains off the table for now. The commissioner repeated the stance he has taken multiple times over the past year or two, which is that the NBA is focused on finishing up the current collective bargaining agreement talks then getting its new media rights deals done before again making expansion of front burner topic.
The Milwaukee Bucks are going to submit a bid to host either the 2025 or 2026 NBA All-Star game. The Bucks initially were interested in hosting in either 2022 or 2023 once PHI Serve form had opened back in 2018. A secondary arena is necessary to host an All-Star game, and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Panther Arena was part of the 2018 pitch to the NBA. The last time Milwaukee hosted an All-Star game was 1977. Boston is also expected to apply for the 2026 game, and that one could be a formality once the NBA processes the application.
Ally Financial has finalized a one year multi-million dollar sponsorship deal with ESPN and Disney that funnels 90% of its overall investment into women's sports, as well as a separate three and a half year agreement to become the first title sponsor of the ACC Women's Basketball Tournament. As part of the landmark agreement, the digital financial services company will sponsor a monthly S ESPN Sports Center segment called Moment Worth Saving, presented by Ally, that will feature top plays from female athletes.
Ally is also creating a custom content alongside the Disney Creative Works team that will air exclusively during the Women's World Cup and highlight Ally's pledge to create media parody between women's and men's sports. As a result of the deal, which was negotiated in concert with the MediaCom agency, Ally will become the umbrella sponsor of the ACC Women's basketball, lacrosse, and soccer championships. The company will simultaneously invest in the ESPN owned ACC network's production of women's sports and has structured the media portion of the partnership so that other financial companies can also sponsor the league's women's sports events.
Ally will air branded commercials during the ACC telecast and contribute monthly ACC women's highlights across all sports on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. Ally executives predict that by the end of 2023, they will be able to reduce their split in men's versus women's media spending down to 60/40 in favor of the men with an even 50/50 split perhaps possible for 2024. The deal with ESPN, which is one reason for that optimism, is a first of its kind partnership that was negotiated by Rita Farrow, the president of Disney Advertising. You can read more about this new deal and the team of female executives at Ally that are driving this initiative in this week's issue of Sports Business Journal.
NASCAR is partnering with Bethune Cookman University to launch a new program that will see the Racing series work in a myriad of ways with the HBCU that is also based in Daytona Beach. The initiative will be called the NASCAR Campus Labs Program, and the sanctioning body is funding it with an initial $100,000 donation that was announced on Sunday morning hours before the Daytona 500. Bethune Cookman will integrate NASCAR into its university curriculum in several ways, including internships, guest speakers at the college, and using racing as a way to get students hands-on STEM learning. This is part of NASCAR trying to diversify a sport and make strides in the DEI realm, and the series is also looking at striking some similar deals with other HBCUs. NASCAR Vice President of Diversity Inclusion, Brandon Thompson, helped set up the partnership.
Tampa Bay Ray's president, Brian Ald, on Saturday addressed the decision of St. Petersburg Mayor, Ken Welch, to move forward with the team's plans to develop the historic gas plant district. Ald was speaking during fan fest at Tropicana Field and said, "We're going to keep pursuing every single path to a finish line." The last game played in this building is going to be at the end of the 2027 season.
Speaking of baseball, I forgot to mention it off the top, as spring training hits its stride this week. The first games are this Friday with a pair of Cactus League matchups followed by all 30 MLB teams in action on Saturday. With that, you can definitely see spring is on the horizon even if the weather doesn't always cooperate. That's your SBJ Morning Buzzcast for Monday. I hope everyone has a great day and we'll see you back here tomorrow morning.