MLB next big showcase; A day of mixed Olympic messages in Paris; The Jazz go over-the-air and continue a trend and a big promotion at Fox
I am heading to New York City this afternoon as SBJ is hosting nearly 30 top executives for our tastemakers and trendsetters dinner, where we will facilitate a conversation on some of the most pressing issues in the sports business with these leaders in sports. I'll fill you in on what we heard on Friday. And this is your Morning Buzzcast for Wednesday, June 21st. I'm Abe Madkour. Thanks for listening to the Buzzcast.
We all know the great success that Major League Baseball has seen with its Field of Dreams games as the first two took place in '21 and '22 in Dyersville, Iowa on the same field that was featured in the film Field of Dreams. MLB is taking a year off from a Field of Dreams game this season because the facility is undergoing a major renovation. Now, in what promises to be one of the highlights of baseball's schedule next summer, the league will celebrate Willie Mays and the Negro Leagues in Birmingham, Alabama as the Giants and Cardinals will play in the 2024 Field of Dreams game at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, June 20th. It's another solid effort by Major League Baseball to showcase regular season games in unique settings.
Rickwood is the oldest baseball park in America and was once the home field where a young Willie Mays played with the Birmingham Black Barons in the Negro League. Let's just repeat it. It's older than both Fenway Park and Wrigley Field. It opened in 1910. The Birmingham City Council has approved more than half a million dollars in renovations for the facility. The facility has a seating capacity of about 11,000. MLB is having the game coincide with Juneteenth and the game will feature a variety of activities to celebrate the history of the Negro Leagues and Willie Mays. Like I said, the games have been great events and promotional vehicles for baseball, and again, I anticipate this being one of the most high-profile events on Major League Baseball's schedule next year, June 20th in Birmingham.
In a conversation with an NBA CEO last week, they talked about the increased interest of regular over-the-air networks for sports programming. You know the over the air networks, the networks that all you have to do is put out an antenna and rabbit ears and you get reception. Well, the thinking is that with the demise of the regional sports cable networks, these over-the-air channels have a need for programming, and they also have widespread local distribution, which is what sports teams covet.
So you saw a move like this in Las Vegas with the Golden Knights. You saw what the Suns did in Phoenix. Both of them went over the air. Now you're seeing it in Utah as the Jazz will not have a regional sports network deal for the first time in decades, but instead partnered to have Jazz games on a Sinclair over-the-air KJZZ Channel 14, like I said, a local broadcast station. It will become the official home of the Jazz, and the team also plans to launch a direct-to-consumer subscription service this fall, although details of that launch aren't as clear. Now, this move comes because Jazz games had been carried on AT&T SportsNet. And remember that was a regional sports network that is shutting down.
Here's what's interesting for the Utah Jazz. AT&T SportsNet only reached about 40% of homes in the Utah area, but new owner, Ryan Smith, wanted to change that. So he has launched SEG Media, which stands for Smith Entertainment Group Media. They'll produce and distribute the games and shoulder programming, and now they believe that distribution will go from about 40% of Utah to 100% of Utah homes, and it will be extended into Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana. So that is the goal. Widespread distribution, more people having the ability to watch these games. The team will receive a rights fee, but it's certainly not like its previous agreement, but they think that will be balanced because they have a compelling offer that will be accessible by more fans and viewers and potentially more interesting for advertisers. So again, you're seeing a trend, local over-the-air broadcast stations starting to pick up more and more sports programming.
We talked about possible NBA expansion last week on the Buzzcast. We mentioned Las Vegas, we mentioned Seattle. And this week The Athletic, I thought, had a fun survey of more than 100 Major League baseball players on which city they thought would be the best for a new franchise. Perhaps not surprisingly, Nashville was the clear choice receiving almost 70% of the vote. Montreal was second, a far, far second with 10%. Charlotte and Austin were third with 5%. So again, many insiders do expect Rob Manfred and baseball to push for expansion, to expand by two teams, to get to 32 teams over the next few years. Certainly Nashville, Montreal, Charlotte, Austin, Portland, Salt Lake City, they have all been mentioned as possible expansion candidates.
You know what a massive shot in the arm for NASCAR and NASCAR team ownership yesterday as one of the biggest questions I get is when will new owners invest in the sport? We know some of the current owners have been in the sport for generations or for years, but lately we have seen some new owners. We've seen Michael Jordan, we've seen Justin Marks. Well, now we'll see one of the most successful operators in sports getting involved, not in Formula One, but in NASCAR as Harris Blitzer Sports and Entertainment have acquired a minority interest in Joe Gibbs Racing. We all know that Harris Blitzer brings some of the most interesting and most aggressive owners in sports to NASCAR.
Terms were undisclosed, but SBJ's Adam Stern reported that it's said to be a significant size stake that HBSC has purchased in the Joe Gibbs Racing team. And it brings together Joe Gibbs, who of course has a history with the Commanders as a former Hall of Fame coach, and Josh Harris, the prospective new owner of the Commanders. Don't expect major changes in the team. Joe Gibbs and team President Dave Alpern will continue running the day-to-day operations of Joe Gibbs Racing, while Harris Blitzer will provide value with areas like marketing, sales, sponsorship. But the bottom line here is a deeply funded, well-respected sports operator just made a significant investment in one of NASCAR's top teams, and that is always good news for the sport.
Let's shift to the Olympics. What a day around the Paris Olympics. In France yesterday, NBC Universal's Molly Solomon, who of course has such an influential role in broadcasting the Olympic Games, was speaking about the excitement and promise around the Paris Summer Games in 2024. She said that the games would be a return to normal after the recent games in Tokyo and Beijing, and she acknowledged that NBC would cover them with a lighter tone.
Well, on the same day news broke of a possible corruption investigation into Paris organizers. French police searched the Paris Olympic organizers' headquarters as part of a corruption investigation into contracts linked to the summer games. Now, this is not new for the Summer Olympics. There have been previous allegations around the last two summer games around alleged corruption, but Olympic advocates were truly hoping to turn the corner from the Tokyo and Beijing games and were depending on Paris to help get the games back on course. Now, this is early. It may not result in anything as Paris organizers strongly defended their contracts that it has awarded around the games. But again, so much hope, so much promise riding on these Paris Summer Games that any prolonged public and ugly scandal would be another tough blow to the Olympic movement.
An interesting story is Wake Forest University. It's on a great run here as they are the number one seed in the Men's College World Series and national attention is on the Demon Deacons and athletic director John Currie. SBJ's Michael Smith reported that one of their sponsors, Truist Bank, is shifting its support around the campus. It is ending its naming rights deal for the football field at Wake Forest and will become instead the presenting sponsor of all women's athletics at the school, as well as becoming the official banking partner at Wake Forest.
Now, Truist's new sponsorship, it targets education, leadership, and career support initiatives, including financial literacy for all female athletes at Wake Forest. Every Wake Forest team captain will also have access to the Truist Leadership Institute. So it's interesting that Truist is shifting dollars around to amplify its support of women's sports and female athletes. We've seen this with a few other brands and sponsors. I think it's a trend likely to continue in this time of greater purpose-driven marketing. And so Truist doing an interesting deal at Wake Forest.
And an executive transaction to know, one of the good guys in sports and one of the must follows on Twitter is Fox Sports' executive, Mike Mulvihill, and he has been promoted to President of Insights and Analytics. This is a perfect role for him, as he's long been out front in identifying viewership trends and viewer behavior and insights around sports programming. Now he'll have oversight of research, analytics and strategic planning across Fox Sports, Fox Entertainment, and Tubi. So this is a big job. Mike Mulvihill is a former Forty Under 40 honoree. He has great relationships around sports. Like I said, this is a big job as understanding viewer trends becomes more and more important. And like I said, few better than Mike Mulvihill at understanding that. And few better to follow on Twitter than Mike Mulvihill. He is a must follow and he's just promoted to President of Insights and Analytics at Fox.
And so that is your Morning Buzzcast for Wednesday, June 21st. Like I said, David Albright will bring you the Buzzcast on Thursday. I'll return on Friday. So I'm Abe Madkour. Thanks for listening to the Buzzcast. Stay healthy, be good to each other. I'll speak to you again later in the week.