The CW not thinking Smallville; Unsettled days in college sports; Jay Monahan's efforts to ease player concerns and Ticketmaster's strong sales
We have said time and again that the live event business continues to show great strength. Want more proof? Look at Live Nation, which reported its second strongest quarter in company history on Thursday, with over 117 million tickets sold to events so far this year, that is up 20% over last year. Its Ticketmaster unit reported 151 million tickets sold so far this year, that is up 22% over last year. So the bottom line, people are going to live events, sports and music, in very healthy numbers.
And this is your morning Buzzcast for Friday, July 28th. Good morning, I'm Abe Madkour, thanks for listening to the Buzzcast. A big deal for NASCAR and a big deal for the CW as SBJ's John Ran and Adam Stern report exclusively that the first piece of NASCAR's Media package has fallen into place with the CW surprisingly, picking up the rights to the Xfinity Series marking CW's biggest move into sports media so far. The seven-year deal for NASCAR's second tier package starts in 2025 and runs through the 2031 season. Sources report that the CW will pay around $115 million per year for the rights. That comes out to a seven year $800 million deal for NASCAR and that should lead the way for them to close deals for its Cup and Truck series. And NASCAR expects to have those deals done by the fall.
So it's difficult to compare this deal in terms of overall value to NASCAR's current agreement since that was included in its larger deal signed by the incumbents, FOX and ESPN. But for the CW, a big deal, they get 33 Xfinity series races.,They get practice, they get qualifying events. NASCAR productions will produce the races. The CW will have to build an on-air talent group, they'll have to build certainly above-the-line elements for this deal. It's an important one for the CW. It's looking to build its sports footprint and this gives the CW a consistent schedule of live sports over a long season and it will really provide a showcase for its distribution and production capabilities for other leagues to see.
Remember the CW signed a deal with LIV Golf, they have a deal with the ACC for some football and basketball games. And remember the CW is a broadcast network that is available over the air. Its owner, Nexstar, owns around 200 local broadcast stations and it's in more than 80% of the markets wear NASCAR races. So they feel it's a good fit. And trust me, sports properties are very pleased to see a new player like the CW emerge as a bidder for rights.
Now, in terms of the other packages, I expect Fox and NBC to renew their NASCAR deals. I believe a package of around six mid-season races will go to a streaming company, probably Amazon. And for NASCAR, what does this deal get them? Well, this deal prioritizes broadcast television as it marks the first time every Xfinity series race will be available over the air. Currently they're on FS1 and USA Network with only about five Xfinity races on Fox and NBC. The races generally get, or average around a million viewers. So this gets the series broadcast exposure. And while it will be a new maybe unconventional home for NASCAR racing, I'm sure NASCAR and its teams love the distribution and the revenue. So again, this is a big story in sports media and the first piece of NASCAR's media rights deal to land.
Let's move on. PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan is back at work and he knows he has a lot of work to do to win over the trust of PGA Tour players. So we're starting to see some steps he has taken to try and get some alignment with them because the tour is still trying to complete its deal with the Saudi Public Investment Fund. So here's what we do know. Monahan sent a memo to players trying to ease some of their concerns and outlined several new developments around this framework of an agreement with the PIF. A few key points, basically these are olive branches, I would say, to players. First players will get a say in picking the successor to Randall Stevenson who resigned from the Tour's Policy Board earlier this month. And that is a key decision making body. Stevenson did not support this deal or the process behind it and now Monahan said that the players will have an active voice in finding this replacement.
In another step to ease concerns, Jay Monahan also said the Tour has retained The Raine Group's Colin Neville, who has been a long time advisor and friend of many key players on the tour, including Rory McIlroy. Neville has a ton of credibility with the players. As many believe, the Tour sees Neville as a key and trusted sounding board or even intermediary with the players. And so Colin Neville will be part of this discussion, part of this group trying to come to a consensus between the Tour and the players as they look to close this deal.
Monahan also wrote the tour was working to present a player benefit program which would benefit the players who stayed with the PGA Tour and didn't move to play for LIV Golf. And the tour has also appointed a task force to develop a plan for LIV Golfers to reapply to play on the PGA Tour in the future. So a lot of moving parts here, but these are the first real public steps Jay Monaghan has taken since returning to the job. He is expected to meet with players in person next week and that'll be a key meeting. And the best news, I feel, is that Jay Monaghan says he is fully recovered from his health challenge and feeling good. And so that is great to hear because that's what's important.
Let's move on because we talked about it yesterday in the Buzz Cast, the University of Colorado announced formally they will leave the PAC-12 for the Big 12 after the 23/24 season. Here's what school officials said late Thursday. They said it wasn't just about the money, the money's good, it's part of that Big 12 deal, but they also emphasize their desire for stability and the draw of competing in different time zones and the national exposure they'll get from Fox and ESPN. School officials said all of those reasons were major factors in their decision to leave the PAC-12.
But you see some consistencies, ESPN and Fox, so the media deal was obviously very key. Colorado's move marks a return to the Big 12. Remember, they were a member of the Big 12 from 1996 to 2010. And this realignment, these chess pieces will continue to move. Brett McMurphy, a noted college observer reports that the Big 12 is not done. And Brett Yormark will look to add between one and three schools to join Colorado in 2024. They'll first look to the PAC-12. If they don't get any PAC-12 schools, they'll look at UConn, Memphis, San Diego State or UNLV to reach an even number of members in 2024.
So what does the PAC-12 do now? Well, a lot of reports today from a lot of smart people all said that George Kliavkoff and the PAC-12 need to move quickly with their own expansion plans. They need to conclude their media deal, they need to do that to keep the conference intact and prevent any more defections out of the PAC-12. So again, these next few days, they could be critical to watch. We have to see the response from George Kliavkoff and the PAC-12 ,and also just keep an eye on the ACC to see if they now feel the time is right for that conference to try and recruit a school to expand its footprint. Unsettled times in college sports for sure right now.
And finally, we'll end with this. Not great news, but a few months ago it was reported that the NBA offered strict budget guidelines at the league office and told teams to watch overall spending, expenses and even to reduce travel. Now comes the unfortunate news that the NBA took extra steps on Thursday laying off some league employees. An undisclosed number of people at the NBA office were informed of their layoffs during the day on Thursday. Sources close to the situation said only dozens of longtime and short-term employees were among the layoffs. Sources said the cuts were from departments not focused on revenue generation, but more from service areas of the organization. And that as of now, they do not expect the NBA to eliminate any other positions. And yes, this is a consistent theme in this economy. We've seen it in media companies and in other organizations, but certainly never like to see layoffs in the sports business.
And so that is your morning Buzzcast for Friday, July 28th. I'm Abe Madkour, thank you for listening to the Buzzcast. Stay healthy, be good to each other. I'll speak to you on Monday.