San Diego State is still a member of the Mountain West, the Pac-12 still doesn’t have a new media rights deal and Northwestern will initiate two external reviews.
MLS commissioner Don Garber yesterday laid out a vision of success for the league at the midway point of the 2023 season. He touted the league's renewal with Adidas saying it's likely the brand's largest partnership in its portfolio. Garber noted that the inaugural league's cup between MLS and Liga MX is pulling in above what the league was expecting. The commissioner said that the real success factor is not how Messi signing with Inter Miami translates in ticket sales, but how it speaks to the league's reputation. The MLS All-Star Game will kick tonight at 08:30 PM, Eastern. You can watch the stream for free, exclusively on MLS season pass on Apple TV or online @tv.apple.com.
Good morning. It's Wednesday, July 19th. This is your SBJ Morning Buzzcast. I'm David Albright filling in for Abe Madkour. The Mountain West and San Diego State are finalizing paperwork on an agreement for the school to remain in the conference, but with conditions. San Diego State will pay the Mountain West legal fees and will agree in writing not to retroactively use a controversially worded June 13th letter to invoke a smaller exit fee, should it receive an invitation from the Pac-12 or another conference before next year.
Mountain West Commissioner, Gloria Nevarez, is scheduled to deliver a state of the conference address today at Football Media Days in Las Vegas, that is expected to reference the resolution. San Diego State's decision to accept the Mountain West's terms can be viewed as an admission that a Pac-12 invitation might not be coming anytime soon. Speaking of the Pac-12, it will not unveil the details of its media rights deal on Friday in Las Vegas during its football media day, but a deal still may be in the near future. Pac-12. Commissioner George Kliavkoff is expected to give an update on Friday and it's possible that new entrants have come in. The media deal is expected to include a linear component and a streaming element. The Big 12 inked deal last year that will give its members an annual distribution of 31.6 million per school, and the Pac-12 is confident it will land in the same ballpark.
Northwestern will initiate two external reviews into its athletic department in the wake of investigations into hazing and bullying that resulted in the firing of football coach Pat Fitzgerald and baseball coach Jim Foster. University President Michael Schill, in a letter to Northwestern faculty and staff said the reviews are needed to ensure appropriate accountability for the athletic department. One review will examine how Northwestern detects threats to its athletes and implements accountability within the athletic department. The other review will assess the culture of Northwestern Athletics and its relationship to the academic mission. Both reviews will be made public, unlike the football hazing investigation, and an investigation of bullying and a toxic environment under Foster in the baseball program, she'll address the litigation Northwestern faces, following the football and baseball investigations, but said he cannot publicly discuss specifics. A former Northwestern player on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the university. Schill, Fitzgerald and other school leaders and trustees alleging they were negligent in allowing hazing to take place within the program.
The firm that filed the lawsuit expects to represent other former Northwestern athletes, while a separate firm is representing 12 former football players in potential litigation against the university. Both sets of attorneys say they have spoken to former Northwestern athletes in other sports who might join the lawsuits. Visa has renewed its sponsorship of US Soccer through 2028 ensuring the company will continue its association with the US National teams through a series of major events on home soil, reports Alex Silverman. The renewed agreement will pay the Federation a seven figure sum annually. The financial service companies deal with US Soccer previously ran through the end of 2023. Visa will remain the presenting sponsor of the annual SheBelieves Cup, Visa also will continue to be the presenting sponsor of the mobile fan studio pop-up retail experience at US soccer matches, and Visa card holders will continue to receive benefits including complimentary jersey customization and ticket pre-sales.
The WNBA All-Star games first primetime appearance on ABC delivered the game's best audience since 2007, and the fifth-best audience ever for the game. ABC on Saturday night had 850,000 viewers for the telecast from Las Vegas, which is the WNBA All-Star Game's best figure since 950,000 on ABC back in 2007. This year's game is up 16% from the 734,000 viewers last year on ABC during a Sunday window, while the WNBA All-Star Game was up big for the league, it was easily out drawn by other primetime Saturday programming on Fox, CBS and NBC including 2.1 million on Fox for regionalized Major League Baseball action. Today's SBJ Live episode will feature a panel discussion looking at the most important technology powering the upcoming Women's World Cup. At 04:00 PM Eastern, senior executives from Roblox and Globant will join SBJ's, Joe Lemire to dive into digital content innovation and delivery, venue technology, ticketing technology and cybersecurity technology.
You can sign up for this free webinar @sportsbusinessjournal.com. We'll close on a programming note in this week's Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast, Bank of America's securities analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich joins host Andrew and John to discuss ESPN's Future. Reif Ehrlich dissects Bob Iger's CNBC interview from last week when he spoke about looking for a strategic partner for ESPN. She talked about who the likely partners for ESPN would be, when ESPN would take its main channel direct to consumer, and whether Disney is a stronger company without ESPN right now. Reif Ehrlich also analyze where the multichannel universe is headed, the companies that are best situated for the changes in media and the decision facing the NBA as that league takes its rights to market. You can download the Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. That's your SBJ Morning Buzzcast for Wednesday, I hope everyone has a great day, and we'll see you back here tomorrow morning.