Takeaways from PGA Tour's appearance on Capitol Hill; MLB departs Seattle while Messi lands in FL and Netflix launches "Quarterback"
Major League Baseball does big events and touching moments better than just about any other sport, and I felt last night was no exception. The All-Star game was touching, it felt grand, and the visuals on Fox from Seattle I thought were awesome. I also thought Fox's player mics were great last night. Kudos to MLB the MLBPA and Fox for working together on that because last night's insights, especially John Smoltz, talking to pitcher Nathan Eovaldi while Eovaldi worked his way through the second inning was some of the inside access I had never seen before, and I loved it. So well done to all involved.
And this is your Morning Buzzcast for Wednesday, July 12th. Good morning. I'm Abe Madkour, thanks for listening to the Buzzcast. Well, I didn't take much away from the PGA Tour's appearance before a Senate subcommittee in Washington DC on Tuesday. To me, it was a pretty partisan split, a lot of theater like there is when Congress focuses on sports issues, or issues that they aren't really engaged in. Now, there is a lot of uncertainty on what Congress could even do here in terms of trying to slow or even spike a deal of a private business. But US Senator Richard Blumenthal, who was an Attorney General in Connecticut, and has a history of taking action against deals like this, said he will continue his probe.
There were a few interesting nuggets that were shown during the hearing, such as the call list for PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan on the day the agreement was announced with the PIF. There were also details of a proposed Global World Golf Series team event that would conclude in Saudi Arabia. There was a proposal for LIV Golf continuing to operate as a tour. There was news that Greg Norman would be removed from his role as CEO of LIV Golf. There was speculation that Tiger Woods and Rory Mcllroy would take ownership of a LIV Golf team and participate in LIV Golf events, and there were details of a membership to Augusta National and the RNA for Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the Governor of the PIF, who certainly could be one of the most powerful people in golf if this deal is finalized.
So are any of those truly surprising? Not really. Let's go through a couple of them. In terms of having events in Saudi Arabia, that's what the PIF wants. They want to elevate the Kingdom, and they will go above and beyond to do that. They want big events in Saudi Arabia and they want them on TV. They want to showcase Saudi as a new place to do business, they want to appeal to a younger generation and a global audience. That's what they did with F1, with the UFC, with the WWE, and they certainly want golf events in the Kingdom. Greg Norman not being a part of the future is not a surprise at all. Everybody knows there is no love lost between the PGA Tour and Greg Norman, and Greg Norman and the PGA Tour. There was no way those groups could coexist. So Norman not being a part of this future is not surprising. In terms of Tiger Woods and Roy Mcllroy's participation or even ownership, to me, that's all theoretical and hypothetical at this point. Tiger's silence on this deal to this date is not a good sign at all. So none of those details were really surprising.
What else came out of the hearing? There was a lot of talk about the anti-disparagement clause against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, potentially by players on the golf tour. There were questions about why the PGA Tour took the PIF's investment when there are a number of other private equity groups or sovereign wealth funds who would have been interested in investing in the tour. When asked who would gain influence and power, Jimmy Dunne, the architect of this deal between the PGA Tour and PIF, said he believes that the PGA Tour would gain power because it would stay intact, and become more powerful. And he also said that Yasir Al-Rumayyan would gain a larger role as an influential member in golf. When asked who could be the loser in the new deal, Jimmy Dunne said he believed lawyers would be the loser because litigation would end. So there was plenty to unpack, but in the end, I felt both the PGA Tour's Ron Price and Jimmy Dunne handled themselves well. There were no eye raising flubs or miscues, and now we'll see what Blumenthal does next.
But the bottom line is this. Hearings like this do not make the ability to close this deal any easier. Remember, the PIF and the PGA Tour have the framework of a deal, and both Dunne and Price said the public spotlight like these hearings are going to make any final agreement harder to finalize, and harder to close. And if this deal doesn't get done, wow, all bets are off, and it's back to square one.
Let's move on. We will see how the Ratings do from Tuesday night on Fox. I was a bit surprised to see that the Home Run Derby on Monday night from Seattle drew its lowest audience since 2018. But the numbers still delivered a primetime win for ESPN. The numbers were down 11% from last year, last year's event, which was in Los Angeles, and this year's event was the least watched Home Run Derby since 2018 when Bryce Harper won. I'm sure this will cause baseball to go back to the drawing board a bit to see what they want to do to inject some new energy into the event. But before you call the Home Run Derby dead, our Austin Karp did note the telecast likely lost some viewers from the New York market when the Mets' Pete Alonso exited after the first round of the derby. ESPN also does not get the benefit of the Toronto market, and viewers who may have stayed around for Vladimir Guerrero's win on Monday night.
So there are some factors there that could have suppressed the viewership number, but we're all about context here, and this is interesting. Even with the decline, the Home Run Derby will be ESPN's most watched event of the summer months, and likely the top telecast on all of cable television this summer. And the Home Run Derby is only 3% lower than the most recent Pro Bowl in February, and it gets more viewers than this past season's NBA All-Star Game. So some interesting numbers in context for the Home Run Derby. Meanwhile, the MLB draft, which was Sunday night, that saw a 5% audience decline this year across ESPN and MLB Network. MLB's working hard to amplify and reenergize the draft, but the numbers, 5% down from last year.
Let's shift to soccer. We've talked about FIFA's efforts around equal pay and the Women's World Cup, and every player participating in this year's event will earn at least $30,000. That's according to the AP, and the amount will increase the further along a team progresses in the tournament. Each player on the winning team for the Women's World Cup will receive $270,000. Overall, a 152 million fund was set for this year's Women's World Cup, which has 32 teams. That is up significantly from the 2019 Women's World Cup, which had a 40 million fund, with 30 million in prize money. So a pretty substantial increase. Now, in contrast, the prize money pool for the Men's World Cup last year was 440 million, so still a big delta remains. But FIFA's working in other areas, it's made an effort to ensure the travel and accommodation conditions the players will experience in Australia and New Zealand are equitable to those provided to the men. Now, FIFA's President Gianni Infantino said the ultimate goal is equity between the men's and women's games by the '26 Men's World Cup, and the '27 Women's World Cup. Remember, the Women's World Cup starts next week, Thursday July 20th, from Australia and New Zealand.
Staying with soccer. The Messi effect is starting to hit as Lionel Messi landed in Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday and is getting set for a formal introduction by his new club Inter Miami on Sunday. The event on Sunday has been called The Unveil. It starts at 6:00 PM at the team stadium where season ticket holders will receive free admission. Now, the team is starting to capitalize on Messi's arrival on the business side. They signed Swiss Logistics Company, Fracht Group, to what is believed to be the most valuable jersey sleeve partnership in MLS on an annual basis. Now, this deal appears to be the company's first effort into sports sponsorship, and the company also receives branding on the authentic jerseys that will be sold at retail. And you can believe there will be plenty of those sold at retail. Now, Messi will first appear on the pitch for Inter Miami on July 21st. Fracht will pay Inter Miami roughly three times what its previous sleeve partner was paying, 3X for this deal. So it's just the start of Inter Miami beginning to monetize the arrival of arguably the greatest soccer player in the world.
And finally, the early reviews for Netflix new eight part series, Quarterback, which debuts tonight, Wednesday night, and gives a behind the scenes look at NFL quarterbacks, Kirk Cousins, Patrick Mahomes, and Marcus Mariota are quite positive. I plan to check this out because the reviews have been good. The Minneapolis Star Tribune said Kirk Cousins comes across very well in the show as it focuses less on his on-field efforts, but instead, his work ethic, his charity work, and his religious beliefs. The Chicago Sun-Times wrote that the hardcore football coverage is nicely balanced by the at-home and behind-the-scenes footage. Cousins, Mahomes, and Mariota come across as decent, thoughtful, passionate family men on and off the field. That's according to the review in the Chicago Sun-Times. The series is a partnership between the NFL and Netflix. NFL Films, 2PM Productions, and Omaha Productions produced quarterback, and that debuts Wednesday night, tonight, on Netflix.
And so that is your morning Buzzcast for Wednesday July 12th. I'm Abe Madkour, thanks for listening to the Buzzcast. Stay healthy. Be good to each other. I'll speak to you tomorrow.