Talking points from Sun Valley; Pac-12 retains Sports Media Advisors; Oak View Group to sell Top Golf national sponsorships and Rapino remains influential with new deal at Live Nation
Raiders owner Mark Davis is set to break his silence today about the state of his organization, as he meets the media to introduce a new leadership team, including a new team president. The Raiders have been dealing with plenty of controversy about its workplace ethics and workplace culture, as several top executives have left the organization over a 10-month period. And today, Thursday, we will supposedly hear how Mark Davis plans to turn things around.
And this is your Morning Buzzcast for Thursday, July 7th. Good morning. I'm Abe Madkour. Hope everybody is doing well. If you hear the interviews out of Allen & Company Sun Valley retreat this week, which draws the leaders in media, finance, entertainment and sports, you will hear a consistent drumbeat on the value of live programming, including live sports, and how that will be a foundation of the changing dynamic of consumer consumption from linear television to more streaming services.
And this is very good news for sports because the leaders of industry understand that live sports will be incredibly significant to the success of all these media companies, be it linear or streaming services. As Casey Wasserman said on CNBC yesterday, and featured in Closing Bell, sports, as a value driver, is "predictable and unique in a world where almost nothing else is." That is exactly what commissioners and team owners and people in sports want to hear, and it bodes very well for the increasing demand for sports rights. So continue to watch some of the coverage coming out of Allen & Company Sun Valley retreat.
Yesterday, we mentioned how the Pac-12 has decided to seek out a new media rights agreement, and they have named an industry veteran to help them in that effort. Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff has hired Doug Perlman and his sports media advisors to guide the conference on its media rights valuations and negotiations. That's according to SBJ's Michael Smith. Remember, the Pac-12 is accelerating its timetable on its next media rights deal. After USC and UCLA defected to the big 10, the Pac-12's current deals with ESPN and Fox run through 2024, but the Pac-12 is moving with a sense of urgency to find out what its next media deal might bring in an effort to hold the conference together.
So Doug Perlman, George Kliavkoff are long-time friends whose relationship started when they intended law school together at the University of Virginia. Doug Perlman is an SBJ Forty Under 40 Hall of Famer, and he founded Sports Media Advisors in 2009. His clients have included the NFL, NASCAR, and Little League Baseball, among many others. Now, he's working with the Pac-12, as that conference looks to shape its media future.
Earlier this week, I was jotting down my top 10 stories of 2022 so far, and one story not quite making my list was the launch of the USFL. It was largely a successful launch, but it didn't seem to really resonate tremendously outside of the core base, but SBJ's Austin Karp looked at the ratings for the spring football league's championship game last Sunday on Fox, and the numbers proved that the USFL can draw even though the game was in prime time, but it was on a holiday weekend. It was Sunday at 7:30 Eastern Time. Overall, the game drew 1.5 million viewers on Fox.
So let's do some comparisons. That USFL title game drew more viewers than the MLS Cup final that was on ABC last fall in the afternoon. The USFL title game, remember, wasn't prime time, and it had a bigger audience than a premier league game on NBC or any US network. It had a bigger audience than ESPN drew for the Formula 1 race in Monaco, the Monaco Grand Prix. And we've talked about the growing audience around Formula 1. The USFL title game also outdrew the NHL Winter Classic on TNT.
So what does this all mean? I wouldn't make too much of the numbers, but the bottom line is that spring football can draw some healthy viewership numbers that put it on par with other sports during this time period of the year, and therefore Fox, which owns the USFL, sees it as a valuable and viable product to try and build.
Here's an interesting story that SBJ's Terry Lefton broke last night, and that's Oak View Group is taking sponsorships to Topgolf across the country, meaning that Oak View Group will look to sell national sponsorship deals to Topgolf's 70 locations in the United States. And of course, we all know that Topgolf is a part of a driving range. It's a bar. It's a restaurant. It's a party environment. It's really one of the biggest success stories I've seen in these entertainment destinations of the last 10 years.
So Topgolf currently has 70 locations. They add around 10 locations a year, and they currently draw almost 30 million people a year at their facilities. That's an extraordinary strong number, and the demographic is very appealing to potential advertisers and sponsors. Attendees at Topgolf are 61% male, 43% in that 18- to 34-year-old demographic, and 67% with household incomes exceeding $70,000. So like I said, very, very appealing demographic. And Oak View Group sees opportunities to sell national sponsorships in food and beverage, automotive, financial services and technology, and they believe they can find seven or eight partners that will spend between 3 to $5 million to have a national deal at Topgolf for signage, for product integration, and for ads on the in-house television network. So this will be an interesting test case, if brands can see the appeal and the value of Topgolf's scale and its audience.
Let's move on to some other news. The Athletic is reporting that Colin Kaepernick is investing in Ice Cube's Big3 basketball league and that reportedly Big3 was on the verge of possibly shutting its doors, but Kaepernick's investment will continue to operate the league. We all know that the Big3 is a 3-on-3 basketball league. It began in 2017. And The Athletic is reporting that Kaepernick's investment will help the 3-on-3 league continue to operate and continue to expand.
In NFL news, the Kansas City Chiefs have hired Sportfive to help sell sponsorship and media in Germany. That's where the Chiefs are one of four NFL teams with commercial rights. So Sportfive is a German-based agency. They are also, of course, in the United States, but they have offices in Hamburg and Frankfurt and Munich, and they will work with the Chiefs on strategy and sales. So this is Sportfive's second engagement with an NFL team. They will also sell for the Jets who have the UK as its home market. So we've noted that a bit in the Buzzcast, NFL teams are looking at outside agencies to help them sell sponsorship and media in those international markets where those NFL teams have acquired rights.
And let's end the Buzzcast around some names in the news. Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino, well, he will continue to be one of the most influential executives in music and sports, as he assigned a new five-year contract with Live Nation, which, of course, operates and promotes and manages live events and ticket sales for those events. Live Nation, of course, also owns Ticketmaster. Rapino will lead Live Nation through the end of 2027 and, again, will remain one of the most influential executives in sports.
And finally, we're seeing more and more diversity hiring, especially lately in the NHL. Yesterday, we mentioned that Mike Grier became the first black man to be named general manager of an NHL team at the San Jose Sharks. And you're seeing more and more women taking on larger roles across NHL front offices. The New Jersey Devils promoted Kate Madigan to assistant general manager, making her the first female assistant general manager in that team's history. And she currently, and she becomes the fifth female to be an assistant general manager in the NHL. Now, her promotion came just after the Maple Leafs promoted Hayley Wickenheiser to assistant general manager of player development. Now, Hayley Wickenheiser has been at the Toronto Maple Leafs since 2018, and this is her third role with the organization. So again, more and more women taking on leadership roles within NHL front offices, and that's good to see.
And so that is your Morning Buzzcast for Thursday, July 7th. I'm Abe Madkour. Hope everybody has a great day. Stay healthy. Be good to each other. I'll speak to you tomorrow.