An Olympic floor for viewership and a historic day for US Soccer and women players.
Major League Baseball management and the union met for more than five hours yesterday, that's Monday, in Florida. While it's hard to discern how much progress was made, they are at least meeting and they plan to meet a again today on Tuesday if they can string together a few good negotiating sessions that's a good sign. Also, today, Race: Bubba Wallace, a Netflix six episode docuseries debuts. It explores Bubba Wallace's journey as the only black driver in NASCAR's Cup series and Bubba Wallace was just seconds from making history on Sunday coming in second at the Daytona 500. Race: Bubba Wallace debuts on Netflix tonight. And this is your Morning Buzzcast for Tuesday, February 22nd. Yes, 2/22/22, I had to say it.
We at least hinted at it, and it's no big surprise, but the Beijing Winter games are the least watched Olympics on record with NBC averaging a total average audience that's the network and streaming of just 11.4 million viewers for its primetime coverage. That's below the previous low, which was this past summer's Tokyo games, which averaged 15.6 million viewers. The 11.4 million viewers for Beijing is well off the previous low for a winter game. That was in 2018 from PyeongChang, NBC averaged nearly 20 million viewers in 2018. So when you do the math, they're almost down 50% overall. Now remember the Beijing games got off to a tough start. The opening ceremony was down 43% compared to 2018, and that started a similar trend over the two weeks.
Now let's be fair, for proper context, the 11.4 million viewers still ranks as among the most watched programming on television so far this year or for this television season. It's second only to the NFL. It's well ahead of any other primetime programming, but the numbers just aren't typical Olympic esque, the numbers were good for the Peacock streaming network. It saw its best streaming audience over 18 days in its history. Primetime streaming of the Beijing games saw an average minute audience of just over 500,000 viewers. That's the most streamed winter games on record. Now, what are we looking for here? NBC officials have stated publicly that they warned advertisers of the potential for lower viewership, but we will be watching whether make goods will be delivered to advertisers who didn't receive the audience numbers they were guaranteed.
That's a story to be looking for in the next couple of weeks. But, again, count NBC very eager to put Beijing behind them and look toward the promise of Paris in 2024. Shifting to some big news in women's soccer, which is breaking just this morning as we record this, the U.S. Soccer Federation and women's soccer players have reached a landmark agreement that will end a six year legal battle over equal pay. The AP is the first to report this, this morning in a deal in which the women's team players are promised $24 million plus bonuses that match those of the men's team. In one of the biggest points, U.S. Soccer has committed to providing an equal rate of pay for the women's and men's national teams subject to collective bargaining agreements.
Meanwhile, U.S. Soccer and the women announced a deal that will have players split 22 million and U.S. Soccer establish a fund starting with two million to benefit players in their post soccer careers. Now the AP noted this morning this deal is seen as a win for the players and for U.S. Soccer President, Cindy Parlow Cone. It should be noted that Parlow Cone finds herself facing a reelection battle for leadership at U.S. Soccer against former U.S. Soccer President, Carlos Cordeiro, whose relationship was tenuous at best with the players. A big deal here today in women's soccer. More details as this story unfolds on sportsbusinessjournal.com throughout the day.
More positive news around women's sports is that ESPN is sold out of advertising inventory for this year's women's basketball tournament. There will be 22 advertisers for this year's event, 14 of which are NCAA corporate sponsors. ESPN's Sean Hanrahan told our Terry Lefton that brands are starting to realize that women's sports attracts a very highly engaged audience and that it delivers good ratings, and they're starting to see women's sports as a solid performing advertising vehicle. This year's women's basketball tournament tips off on March 16th and 17th. The final four is April 1st and 3rd. It's held at the Target Center in Minneapolis. Capital One is returning as presenting sponsor of the tournament. You also have big deals with Target and Unilever's Degree deodorants, they will be major advertisers throughout the tournament.
We all know how challenging a brand change is and how challenging it is to, I would say, introduce a new brand. And in Washington, Jason Wright and the leaders of the local NFL football team are finding a very, I would say, muted reaction to the new name Commanders. I'm a bit surprised as to some of the negative reaction to the name. A new survey from the Washington Post shows that close to half of Washington, D.C. residents have a negative view of the name Commanders, and only four out of 10 residents have positive feelings about the name and only 5% of those surveyed claim to love the name Commanders. Well, let's turn the clock back because the Washington Post also asked D.C. residents which of the three names that the team has had since 1933 that they prefer the most?
I was surprised to know that 43% of D.C. residents said they prefer Washington Football Team, 26% favor Commanders, and 22% say they prefer the name Washington Redskins. So right now the Commanders name may not be very popular, but I do think fans will get used to it and the team will play the long game here. Please share your thoughts on the name Commanders with me when you get a chance. One issue we failed to talk about on the Buzzcast on Monday was the failure of college leaders to approve an expansion of the College Football Playoff. We talked almost all throughout 2021 that an expansion to 12 teams was going to happen. But we know, late last week, the College Football Playoff board voted eight to three against expanding from the current four teams. And the ACC, the Pac-12, and the Big Ten voted against any expansion.
I've said this on the Buzzcast, there are a lot of hard feelings here. First, the College Football Playoff board chair and Mississippi State President, Mark Keenum, went public with the vote outcome and there wasn't much holding people back who were upset with that. Pac-12 Commissioner, George Kliavkoff, didn't appreciate the vote being shared publicly and said he was disheartened by the disclosure and cited a lack of trust among the group. It's clear from my sourcing that there are significant tensions throughout the leadership of college sports. The bruised feelings are real and many college leaders cited their frustration with the entire process. In fact, I have never seen leaders in college sports so publicly vocal about their displeasure with their colleagues.
So why did the College Football Playoff fail to expand? Well, there are a number of reasons that expansion didn't get approved. First, the ACC said publicly they didn't feel it was the right time to expand. The Big Ten has said publicly that it wanted automatic qualifiers, and both the Big Ten and the Pac-12 were concerned about the future of the Rose Bowl. Where does that leave us? Well, the College Football Playoff will remain at four teams for the foreseeable future with any new format to start right now at the earliest of 2026. And, finally, we continue to talk about how U.S. investors are looking overseas for their next investment in sports. Well, here's another example.
Investors, led by Boston Celtics co-owner, Steve Pagliuca, have invested in the Serie A team at Atlanta. The group does not get majority control but Pagliuca becomes co-chairman. Sources said the deal values the franchise at around $560 million. At Atlanta reached the quarter finals of the champions league in 2020. So U.S. investors, why are they doing this? They see a real upside in buying these clubs. They feel there's a lot of financial growth, and Reuters reports that nine of the 20 top Italian clubs have some form of U.S. based investment. I predict we will continue to see more U.S. investors look overseas to invest in sports properties. That is your Morning Buzzcast for Tuesday, February 22nd. I'm Abe Madkour. Hope everybody has a great day. Stay healthy, be good to each other. I'll speak to you tomorrow.