Talking sports business with Will Ferrell; The strong early buzz on baseball rule changes; Haslam Sports Group builds out its sports portfolio and college conferences in the news
This is your Morning Buzzcast for Tuesday, February 28th, the last day of February. Good morning. I'm Abe Madkour. Thanks for listening to the Buzzcast. It was great to see so many old friends at the National Sports Forum on Sunday and Monday in Los Angeles, and wonderful to hear from so many loyal Buzzcast listeners. Your support means a great deal. I've been going to the event for so many years, and reconnecting with leaders across sports is always a high point. Meanwhile, thanks to all of you who reached out about ideas for questions or just support for my interview on stage with Will Ferrell, who talked about his ownership role in LAFC. Here's a bit about the interview that I did with Ferrell and LAFC co-president Larry Freedman.
A few days before the event, I asked Freedman, who knows Ferrell well, what it would be like. Would Will Ferrell be in character, or would he be serious, or would he be always joking? His response was, "It's all one and the same." And boy, did Larry nail it. Ferrell was just that. He's kind, gracious, funny. Well, very funny. Has an endearing way about him, but also thoughtful. He was very engaged during the discussion. He had no movie star air to him at all. Incredibly approachable and genuine.
So, during the interview we talked about his interest in sports. He played high school soccer. He was a kicker on his football team. We talked about how he majored in sports information at the University of Southern California. He had dreams of being a sports broadcaster, but trust me when I said the room erupted when we all agreed we were very happy he didn't become a sports broadcaster and instead became one of the top comedy forces of all time.
He talked about the growth of the LAFC brand. He talked about how he works with other owners. He talked about engaging with the supporters group and how he recently took in soccer matches around the world during a recent trip. He said his days of running marathons are over and that his days of refereeing his son's soccer games are in the past as well. He had great stories of parents pseudo-heckling him, saying, "Nice call, elf" on the sidelines while he refed his children's soccer games. He also talked about his two upcoming projects this summer. One, a movie called Stray, which he hysterically called an animated dirty story, R-rated, about stray dogs that he will star in with Jamie Foxx. He will also be starring as the Mattel CEO in the upcoming film Barbie. But the bottom line is Will Ferrell is just how you would hope him to be: funny, witty, and very, very likable.
So a very fun day at the National Sports Forum, sitting on stage with Larry Freedman and Will Ferrell. A couple of things I didn't get a chance to chat with you all about on Monday, as David Albright brought you the Buzzcast. But first, MLS had a very strong opening weekend at the gate. Yes, the league missed a great opportunity to have nearly 80,000 fans at the Rose Bowl for LAFC LA Galaxy on Saturday night. But the weather was so bad in southern California, it would've really put a damper on that game. Instead, you'll see that game made up on July 4th. But you had nearly 70,000 fans in Charlotte and in Atlanta. You had a great energy and great numbers in Nashville around Nashville SC's tribute to Johnny Cash during their home opener in front of nearly 30,000 fans.
Will Ferrell even was talking to me about St. Louis SC's upset opening win in Austin. I was home Saturday night watching MLS on Apple, and I found the launch of the MLS presentation on Apple to be very, very effective. If you missed it, you're going to want to check it out. It's pretty elegant, it's intuitive, the broadcasts feel different, and it's all right there in front of you. So overall, a very good start for Major League Soccer. Another good start was for Major League Baseball. At the Sports Forum, there was more and more talk among team executives about the pitch clock and how that will change the game.
And the early results coming out of spring training are really eye-opening. The new rules, which also limit the number of times a pitcher can throw to first base, have helped cut more than 20 minutes from spring training games through the first weekend, dropping from an average of three hours and one minute last year to just two hours and 39 minutes. And even the hardened baseball media is showering the league with praise for getting this right. They all say there is a noticeable pace improvement and a quickness to the game that has been missing for years. Now, if this holds, and it should, this could be one of the biggest and most positive stories in sports this year and a potential game changer for baseball.
The Haslam family and Haslam Sports Group is continuing to grow its sports portfolio, and we mentioned this before on the Buzzcast. Haslam Sports Group is closer to fruition that they will buy into the Milwaukee Bucks, buying co-owner Mark Lasry's stake in the team, in a deal valuing the bucks at $3.5 billion. Haslam Sports Group will join the ownership group with current co-owner Wes Edens. The Haslams own the Browns, and they are looking for a stadium solution in Cleveland, and that could be a very intriguing project.
Haslam Sports Group also owns the MLS Columbus Crew, and now it owns a stake in the Bucks. And I wouldn't be surprised if they continue to look for additional sports investments to grow their portfolio. But this does not mean Mark Lasry, who is very well regarded, is leaving sports. Sources said he will continue to pursue business opportunities in sports, including potentially buying another team. ESPN reported Lasry may create a sports investment fund inside his existing firm, Avenue Capital. Mark Lasry has been active in sports. He was an early investor in Major League Pickleball, and he is interested in potentially buying into other teams, buying into other leagues, potentially media and real estate, so I expect to see more of Mark Lasry in the future.
I want to shift to two stories in college sports. There continues to be more and more discussions about the future of the Pac-12 and how that conference comes through its pending media rights deal. There's a lot riding on this deal, because over the weekend was more and more speculation that if some of the Pac-12 schools don't love this deal, it could cause them to look at another conference, possibly the Big 12. We know the Big 12 is interested in adding schools and much of it revolves around the influence and appeal of new Colorado football Coach Deion Sanders. The narrative is that Deion Sanders would not like any scenario that sees all the football games on a streaming service and not on a national linear network. It's also been mentioned that the schools most often being considered as possible defectors, or even on the mind of the Big 12, are Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah, mostly because of the appeal of Deion Sanders and also the schools' geographic location. So this is all moving pretty fast, and if there will be more of a realignment, it will come in the next few months.
Staying with conference news, keep your eye on the ACC, as over the weekend, two influential athletic directors spoke out about the revenue gap between the ACC and the SEC and the Big 10 and how it impacts their institutions. Athletic directors from Florida State, Michael Alford, and Clemson, Graham Neff, said their schools contribute far more value to the conference than they are being compensated for, and they want to see a change in the distribution of revenue. For example, Alford said that Florida State and Clemson combine on around 24% of the value in the conference's media rights deal, but receive only 14% of that deal. Both athletic directors said the conference needs to change the revenue distribution, called it a pretty urgent issue. So they increase the pressure on ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips and the other schools, and they clearly want to see some changes sooner rather than later, or else they could make more dramatic suggestions in the future.
I want to end on a sad note that many of you may have already heard, but that is that the staff of Sports Business Journal is very sad about the death of Mandy Jenkins of breast cancer at the way too young age of 42. Mandy is the wife of top SBJ reporter Ben Fischer. She earned a stellar journalistic reputation during her career and she died on Sunday. She was surrounded by her husband, Ben, and her family in Ohio. All of us here at SBJ can't stop thinking about this and we can't stop thinking about our colleague, Ben. We are thinking of Ben, we're thinking of the family of Ben and Mandy, and again, we continue to have them in our thoughts and prayers. We would appreciate if you would as well. And that is your Morning Buzzcast for Tuesday, February 28th. I'm Abe Madkour. Thanks for listening to the Buzzcast. Stay healthy, be good to each other, and appreciate what you have. I'll speak to you tomorrow.