MLS Season Pass subs approach 1 million; A new faster form of tennis; PLL moves forward on local market strategy and a new era for the Hornets
It's certainly going to be one of the most discussed questions in all of sports over the next week or so. Put yourself in the shoes of Angels owner, Arte Moreno. Do you trade Shohei Ohtani or not? More to come for sure. And this is your Morning Buzzcast for Tuesday, July 25th. Good morning, I'm Abe Madkour. Thanks for listening to the Buzzcast.
One of the most talked about deals this year has certainly been MLS' deal with Apple for various reasons. The first mover aspect, the move to put most of MLS games on one platform outside of the linear cable bundle, the cost of the service, and the production quality of the games. It's also been unique in that the results or usage or engagement numbers have not been made public as Apple is notoriously tight-lipped about sharing any data on viewership. But SBJ's John Ourand and Alex Silverman reported that for the most part, league officials and club executives are happy with the deal, and they're not making any broad conclusions so early into a 10-year pact.
But they also reported that MLS Season Pass is approaching 1 million subscribers. That's according to several sources, and this is the first time that sub-levels have been disclosed. It's a healthy number, and that includes MLS season ticket holders. I would assume there would be about 400,000 season ticket holders who are automatically MLS Season Pass subscribers. Meanwhile, T-Mobile customers also can access the package as part of their plan. But league officials say the number shows good growth, especially considering that it had 700,000 subs in early June, and now approaching a million. Numbers should increase even more as Lionel Messi plays in more games. But one unanswered question that is interesting, how many of the subscribers are in the United States? That's something certainly team officials will look at closely as they of course are looking for broad exposure in their marketplace.
Meanwhile, some MLS team executives would like MLS to revisit its new schedule. Remember, the new schedule has the majority of games on Wednesday nights and Saturday nights, and this is the first time I've heard any slight pushback on the schedule, which I thought was pretty well received. But team executives feel that the Wednesday, Saturday schedule makes it harder for fans to watch games that don't include their favorite team. So yes, that does make sense. Some clubs have pushed for exclusive windows like a Monday night game that could feature the league's top teams or top players. So let's keep our eye on how MLS approaches its schedule in the future.
But some key findings from the MLS All-Star Week in Washington, D.C. An interesting tennis event over the weekend. Many of you know I am a tennis guy. I wanted to bring this up because I found it to be a new way to present the sport. The Ultimate Tennis Showdown took place at Dignity Health Sports Park just outside Los Angeles. It's a new format of tennis. It's very quick, very action-packed. Matches are divided into four, eight-minute quarters. And it's really set up to, I would say, foster interaction between players and fans. And right now, the Ultimate Tennis Showdown is exclusively a men's competition, but creator Patrick Mouratoglou, who of course was the longtime coach of Serena Williams hopes to stage a women's series. He plans three more events this year. He just did the one in Los Angeles. There'll be one in Germany. They are finalizing details for an event in Asia and then a finale in the Middle East.
So what is he looking for to determine success? He says he's looking at a few things. He wants to see fan engagement, fan reaction, comments from the players. He's also looking at ticket sales and media exposure. Right now, they don't have much media exposure. I saw most of my highlights via Twitter, but Ultimate Tennis Showdown has some good players. The court is modified, the play is fast. It's a new test concept. So check it out, go to Twitter and look at some of the video. Right now, it's just another storyline in the number of storylines around racket sports that is getting attention. I mean, the recent conversations I've had focused on investment and growth around the number of racket sports, whether it's tennis, whether it's pickleball, whether it's padel, has been quite, quite noteworthy. So here, Ultimate Tennis Showdown, a different way to present tennis.
In a conversation over dinner last week, a sports executive said he was very bullish on the increased valuation around lacrosse. And he specifically mentioned the team model that the Premier Lacrosse League will embark on. The person felt this had great promise. Now, the Premier Lacrosse League over the weekend named 26 markets that could be a future home of its eight teams as it will eventually move to a home team model. Remember, currently the Premier Lacrosse league is kind of a barnstorming tour where they go from market to market, and next year it'll be a hybrid between a traditional home and away model and the current system. But eventually, the eight selected sites, which will be revealed later this year and begin operating in 2024, will eventually become, in about four or five years, a traditional home, in a way, model with a team playing half its games in its home market and the other half on the road.
The Premier Lacrosse League would ideally like teams to own their own venue, but they could also share a venue with other pro teams in that market. So like I said, the PLL introduced 26 markets. The markets listed are mostly strong lacrosse markets. You have the Carolinas, you have the Baltimore/Washington section of the country, you have the Midwest and the Pacific Northwest all listed. So the final eight will be picked through a combination of ticketing performance, customer data, fan voting, and venue availability. But I do like how the PLL is moving to this traditional home team market, and you'll see those eight selected sites revealed later this year.
I've been keeping my eye on an interesting story in Buffalo as Pegula Sports and Entertainment confirmed that the Pegula family has sold its majority ownership of ADPRO Sports to Legends. Now, ADPRO sells branded and licensed merchandise and apparel. It was founded by former Bill CEO Ron Raccuia, who parted ways with the Bills just about last week or two weeks ago. Raccuia sold a majority share of ADPRO, a company he founded, to Kim Pegula and her three children in 2017. He remained a minority shareholder and president of the company, but with the acquisition by Legends, he is now leaving ADPRO.
So there's a few things to think about here because one, Legends continues to do more and more business with the Pegula family and the Bills. Legends is handling premium sales at the new venue. They did naming rights at the new venue. They did a stadium feasibility study for the new venue. They also won the food and beverage business at the new building, and now they acquire ADPRO Sports from the Pegulas. In addition, this shows a clear and definite break and parting of the ways between the Pegulas and Ron Raccuia, who had worked with that family for a long time. They've had a relationship that is dated more than a decade, but that partnership seems over as ADPRO Sports sold by the Pegula family to Legends.
And finally, we'll end with this, a new era for the NBA in my hometown of Charlotte as the NBA has approved the sale of the Hornets to a group led by Rick Schnall and Gabe Plotkin. That will end Michael Jordan's 13-year run as the majority owner. The Board of Governors voted 29 to one to approve the sale. And apparently, only Knicks owner James Dolan voted against the deal. The deal will reportedly close in the next week or two. Jordan will keep a minority stake in the franchise. Now, Plotkin has been part of the Hornets as a minority partner for some time. Schnall was a limited partner at the Atlanta Hawks, and of course sold that in order to become the majority owner of the Hornets.
So both Plotkin and Schnall have history in the NBA ownership circles, and I can't imagine the new owners will make any drastic changes as the team from a business perspective is run quite effectively. But there's a lot the team wants to do, around renovating the Spectrum Center where they play. And the team is also still working with the city of Charlotte on a new training facility and office space across the street from the Spectrum Center right in the heart of downtown Charlotte. So there's a lot of opportunities for the Hornets to continue to grow their business.
For Michael Jordan, although the success was never what was intended to be on the court, it was a good financial deal. Michael Jordan paid Bob Johnson roughly $180 million in 2010 to take majority control, acquiring roughly 65% of the team's equity from Bob Johnson. So at that time, the total valuation of the team was roughly $300 million. Now, 13 years later, Michael Jordan turns around and sells at a total valuation of $3 billion. Not a bad deal indeed. So a new era begins for the NBA's Charlotte Hornets. And that is your Morning Buzzcast for Tuesday, July 25th. I'm Abe Madkour. Thanks for listening to the Buzzcast. Stay healthy, be good to each other. I'll speak to you tomorrow.