What Mets' moves mean for business, a big baseball weekend in Baltimore, fans respond to the NFL's Back Together Weekend and LIV Golf makes partnership pitch.
Yes, today is the last day of July. It's hard to believe as we head into the final month of our summer. That goes way too quickly. This is your Morning Buzzcast for Monday, July 31st. I'm Abe Madkour. Thanks for listening to the Buzz Cast. You know, it's been an interesting summer of soccer. We've had Lionel Messi's arrival. We've had the Premier League Summer Series, and we've also had MLS League Cup happening this month. Also, Saturday night in Texas, Barcelona defeated Real Madrid in what was the highest-attended El Clasico in the United States, with more than 82,000 fans at AT&T Stadium. That's a very impressive turnout, and the fans were evenly represented between both clubs. But the turnout of more than 82,000 represented the highest-attended club soccer match in the history of AT&T Stadium.
It came at a great time because we all know that AT&T Stadium is in the running to host the 2026 World Cup final and that huge crowd on Saturday night certainly will get the attention of FIFA as they look to make their decision. But again, AT&T Stadium proving it can do big events very well. And the summer of soccer continues. MLB's trade deadline is tomorrow, Tuesday, and we seem to have our answer as to what Mets owner Steve Cohen wants to do. With his team sitting at 49 and 55 as of Sunday, he's going to be a seller, and who would ever have thought that at the start of this baseball season? But that strategy seems to be clear. As the team traded both pitchers, David Robertson to the Marlins, Max Scherzer to the Rangers, it now seems certain that Cohen will shift to building up his farm system. Many felt, with the record-high payroll, the Mets would be one of the best stories in baseball and one of the best teams in baseball this season.
That is certainly what Steve Cohen expected with a $345 million payroll. But after more than half of a season, it's clear the Mets just weren't a very good baseball team, and Steve Cohen and his executives have to figure out where everything went wrong. More and more clubs are seeing that high payrolls don't translate to winning. Look around the league. You have the Orioles and Rays doing well. You have the Reds and the Brewers doing well. You have the twins in first place. They all have medium or lower payrolls, and that's going to be the story of baseball as we sit here heading into August. Let's stay with the O's because that is one of the best stories in all of baseball, and I know you hear about the Orioles a lot with my colleagues, John Oram and Austin Karp, but it was a big weekend for baseball in Baltimore.
That is great to see because that's where I got my start in baseball, working for the Orioles in the early 1990s, and it's a great baseball town that has had some rough years as of late. But this weekend showed its strength. The Yankees visited the ALE's first place Orioles at Camden Yards over the weekend. Saturday night, the Orioles drew more than 42,000. It marked the second sellout at Camden Yards this season. Sure, many seats were filled with Yankee fans, but it was a sellout, and that's a great feat for the Orioles as sellouts have been rare. The team even opened up the left field upper deck seats for one of the few times all this season. The only other sellout this season for the club, yes, their home opener, and yes, also against the Yankees. Saturday's crowd of more than 42,000 fans was the largest at Camden Yards for a non-home opening game since August of 2017. So you see where baseball has been in Baltimore.
Meanwhile, on Friday night, they drew over 34,000 fans for an Orioles walk-off win. Of course, the Orioles' appearance last night on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball was the first time Camden Yards has hosted Sunday Night Baseball since August of 2018. So again, one of the best stories in baseball happening in Charm City, Baltimore.
Let's shift to the NFL because it was back to football Saturday over the weekend. While that marketing effort of back to football may not be getting as much traction as the league wanted, you are seeing some real interest in plenty of markets for the start of this NFL season. Of course, one of the hottest markets for NFL football right now is, yes, I'm going to say it, Washington, DC, as Josh Harris's ownership has fueled new energy around the commanders, and the team drew more than 10,000 fans for a practice on Saturday.
That is the highest total since 2015, fans started lining up at the Ashburn, Virginia, facility before 7:00 AM. The fans are really fired up, and by all accounts, the players are noticing the energy around the fan base since the change in ownership. Let's stay with football because one of the best pieces of news I heard all weekend was that Bill's co-owner, Kim Pegula, made her first public appearance in over a year. She attended yesterday's Sunday's training camp, watching the Bills. Kim Pegula, of course, has kept a very low profile. She has been away from the Buffalo sports scene since having a medical emergency last June of 2022. But on Sunday, she watched the Bills practice from an SUV parked behind the end zone with her husband and co-owner, Terry Pegula. That was just great news to hear. So many of us have been thinking about Kim Pula over the last year.
Staying with the Bills, there remains a ton of energy and excitement around that franchise, as the Bills on Friday drew 4,000 fans for their practice. It was a sellout, not a surprise, because tickets sold out less than a half hour after they were available to the public when they went on sale a month ago. Meanwhile, another market that seems to be excited for football. Yes, Detroit, more than 2,500 fans were at Allen Park on Saturday to get a glimpse of the Lions as they prepare for their season. Some fans lined up as early as 6:00 AM, and it was raining. The big star of Lions camp right now, according to the reports, it's not any players on the Lions, but much of the fan support is focused on Lions head coach Dan Campbell, who has become quite a popular figure with that franchise.
Let's shift to some golf news. Don't tell the people who work in LIV Golf that their future is uncertain because LIV Golf is going full steam ahead, business as usual. Actually, LIV Golf hosted more than a hundred key brands, advertising agencies, and sports marketing agencies in New York, Manhattan, last week to tout LIV Golf and its business. Now, this was an invite-only event, according to the Washington Post, and it was touted as LIV Golf's upfront. That, of course, is a presentation to the buying community. LIV Golf rolled out its stars. They had Greg Norman, they had Dustin Johnson, Cameron Smith, Bryson DeChambeau. They talked about the circuit, they talked about the team format, they talked about their demos, they talked about their growth. Sponsors and brands were told about the different tiers of sponsorship available at LIV Golf. They also saw a slide that showed that 60% of LIV Golf's ticket buyers are under 45, and 30% of those were attending their first golf event.
So again, LIV Golf is trying to showcase its different demographic. It's a young demographic. Phil Mickelson and Ian Poulter appeared on a video screen, speaking to the audience virtually. So despite some uncertainty about the future, LIV Golf executives are focused straight ahead, see it business as usual, and looking forward to their next event.
Finally, if you want to get some insight on successful team sponsorships, best-in-class activations, and team partnerships, I always look to see who the leagues award their top honors to because each league does their top team partnership awards, and the NBA releases their team partnership award winners for their 2022-2023 season on Friday. A couple of familiar teams took home the top honors. First, the Warriors won Team Partnership of the Year for their deal with Rakuten. The teams' Empowered, presented by Rakuten, campaign was centered around the teams City Edition uniform.
Those are the Nike City Edition uniforms, and it also celebrated women in sports and culture. So that was the program that got the Team Partnership of the Year award from the NBA. Meanwhile, the Toronto Raptors were named Changemaker of the Year for their partnership with Amazon Web Services, as they created a sports technology research and development lab called SportsX. Finally, the Cavaliers won the Team International Strategy Award for their effort in recent years to build out their fan base in Brazil. So these are always good examples of how brands and teams are working together effectively to optimize their partnerships. So if you want a best-in-class case study, you might want to check out those three award winners.
So that is your morning Buzzcast for Monday, July 31st. I'm Abe Madkour. Thanks for listening to the Buzzcast. Stay healthy, be good to each other. I'll speak to you tomorrow.