LIV Golf's third event takes place in the spotlight; baseball scores in NYC; Camping World moves on from NASCAR's Truck Series; and MLB eyes loyalty program.
News breaking as I record the Buzzcast. Washington Commander's owner, Dan Snyder will participate remotely in a sworn deposition today, Thursday morning with the House Committee on Oversight and Reform after he and the committee agreed on the terms of the interview. Dan Snyder is speaking to the committee this morning under oath on the team's workplace culture. Look for news throughout the day on sportsbusinessjournal.com. And today is Thursday, July 28th. This is your Morning Buzzcast, and I'm a Abe Madkour. Hope everybody is doing well today.
We mentioned it yesterday, but yes, baseball is back in a big way in New York City. It has to be the talk of the town. The Mets walk off three to two win on Wednesday night. Gave them a two game sweep of the Yankees in the Subway Series, where both teams were in first place or are in first place in their divisions.The two teams will meet for two more games next month in the Bronx. And who knows? These two teams could play again in the fall. This is all good business for baseball and New York. It's good business for the Mets. They drew another standing room only crowd of more than 43,000 at Citi Field.
Also, the games are scoring big on television and with viewers. The Mets win on the first night of the Subway Series, drew strong numbers on TBS. Our Austin Carb noted, "They were the cable network's best regular season baseball audience in 13 years." Tuesday night's game also became TBS's third best regular season game audience since becoming an MLB national media partner in 2008. I find that amazing. The top two games also featured the Yankees. The number two most watched game was a Yankees Mets matchup in 2008. So again, you're seeing very strong numbers.
Locally in New York City, the YES Network drew nearly half a million viewers for Tuesday night's game. And to show how well the Yankees are drawing, this was the 24th game already this season that the YES Network has drawn over 400,000 viewers. The network accomplished such a feat only nine times in 2021. So, the game on Tuesday also marked the 17th time in the last 20 primetime game telecast that the YES Network was the most watched network for the night in the New York City media market. So that's a big, big accomplishment.
And also, the top two watched networks in all of New York City on Tuesday night, the most watch network was YES. The second most watched network was SportsNet New York for the game as well. So again, baseball is scoring big in New York City. Let's stay in the New York market. A great deal of attention will be on Bedminster golf course in New Jersey this week, as LIV Golf holds its third event starting today with a program that will feature former President Trump playing. We should start to get more clarity on Charles Barkley's future and see if he will join LIV Golf in its broadcast booth.
There was a pre-event party last night at Midtown's Gotham Hall with Trump. LIV Golf players were there, Greg Norman was there along with rapper, Nelly performing. So LIV Golf, taking over the New York sports and social scene. Meanwhile, Bubba Watson is reportedly the latest player to join LIV Golf. He will play in the next tournament in Boston in the first week of September. Bubba Watson is believed to be receiving a fee in excess of $50 million. That's right, a fee in excess of $50 million to play on LIV Golf. He will be one of the team captains on one of the 12 four man teams in the 48 man field.
Meanwhile, LIV made an announcement yesterday that was expected, but now is formalized. It will be called the LIV Golf League in 2023. It will feature those 48 players on those 12 team franchises. They will have a 14 event schedule next year. Fourteen events, dates and locations are yet to be announced. LIV will play in locations all around the world. Now here with some news players will compete for more than $400 million in total prize money. That's up from the $250 million in prize money for this year. Team captains next year will be able to make franchise decisions based on fan and sponsor interests. There are also plans for promotion and relegation of those teams. So again, some interesting ideas from LIV Golf as they start to make their plans for 2023 more clear.
Let's shift to college sports. We talked about the big 10 and possible expansion yesterday. Well, CBS Sports' Dennis Dodd, who has his pulse on college sports is reporting the conference is evaluating, adding Cal, Oregon, Stanford, and Washington from the PAC-12 to expand the Big Ten to at least 20 teams. Those are according to his sources. Now the idea of adding those schools would be to establish quote, "a western bulkhead" end quote, that would be academically appealing enough for Big Ten presidents to approve further expansion. So Dennis Dodd reporting that four schools from the PAC-12 are within the eyes of possible more Big Ten expansion.
Shifting over to motor sports. Our Adam Stern reported that Camping World is ending its longtime title sponsorship of NASCAR's truck series after this season. And Stern also reports that NASCAR is close to signing a potential replacement. Camping World has been title sponsor of NASCAR's truck series for more than a decade, and has been paying an estimated $5 million per year. Stern reports that the leading candidate to replace Camping World is believed to be Craftsman, the tool brand that was the original sponsor of the truck series when it initially debuted. It was title sponsor from 1996 until 2008. So Camping World out as the title sponsor of NASCAR's truck series, and we could see Craftsman in. But that remains to be seen.
A couple of other quick hitters as we end the Buzzcast. The NFL's finance committee approved Rob Walton's proposed $4.65 billion purchase of the Broncos. The sale now goes to the full 32 NFL owners for approval, which is expected. It looks like the new owners of the Broncos should take over before the start of the NFL season.
And finally, new major league baseball, chief marketing officer, Karin Timpone said she and her marketing team have been exploring, creating an MLB frequency and loyalty program. And that's pretty interesting. Now she said any program will not be enacted until next season at the earliest. But she told our Terry Lefton that it's something she's interested in. Now, Karin Timpone, once headed Marriott's well regarded frequency and loyalty program. And if you're a part of that, you know all the perks you get. But she said this loyalty program will be different from traditional programs. That baseball is looking at behaviors and incentives aimed at the next generation of fans.
She said that baseball is less interested in a loyalty program that allows fans to store points for gifts, but more interested in increasing engagement of fans or in moving casual fans further down that marketing funnel. So, this is a pretty interesting form of a loyalty program. I know this is something that other leagues and teams will be watching. We will keep you updated on any type of frequency or loyalty program being introduced by major league baseball.
So that is your morning Buzzcast for Thursday, July 28th. I'm Abe Madkour. Hope everybody has a great day. Stay healthy, be good to each other. I'll speak to you tomorrow on Friday.