F1's big renewal with Disney/ESPN; NACDA lands in Vegas; NHL ends season amid growth among female fan base.
Well the NHL has a new champion as the first new champion since 2020, as the Colorado Avalanche defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning in game six to capture the Stanley Cup. Congratulations to the entire organization. What a year for Stan Kroenke, who now has three championships this year, a Super Bowl with the Rams, the National Lacrosse League championship with the Colorado Mammoth, and now the NHL Stanley Cup with the Avalanche. A pretty good run. Meanwhile, the NHL is feeling good about where it's at after the Stanley Cup final, it talked with the associate press about specific growth metrics. The NHL is seeing major growth among women as research shows that 37% of hockey fans are female, and that's seen a growth of 26% in that demographic since 2016, so strong growth in the NHL's female fan base, nearly 40% of all NHL fans are under 50. So the NHL feeling well positioned for the future.
And this is your Morning Buzzcast for Monday, June 27th. Good morning. I'm Abe Madkour. Wimbledon starts today and the tournament opens without the men's world number one player, Daniil Medvedev, and there are no tennis players from Russia and Belarus, who have been barred from participating at Wimbledon. A report in the New York Times states the move is popular in Britain, according to opinion polls, but remember this moved has received real pushback from the men's and women's tennis tours. And this will certainly be a storyline throughout the fortnight at Wimbledon with no players from Russia and Belarus participating at the All England Club.
Let's shift to some other news, a big deal. First reported by SBJ's John Ourand and Adam Stern late Friday, Formula One has apparently agreed to renew its rights deal with ESPN through 2025. Remember F1 is one of the hottest sports properties, and it was expected to stay with ESPN, but the longer the deal took to complete, the more questions were being asked. Disney and ESPN beat out Amazon and Comcast who were both surprisingly strong bidders for the package. Sources say that ESPN has agreed to pay around 75 to 90 million dollars per year for the rights. Currently, ESPN pays in the neighborhood of five million dollars per year for the rights. They signed a three year 15 million dollar deal in 2019. Now you see what a significant increase this is for F1. Now ESPN's deal allows it to put some, a few, races on ESPN plus, but most will be carried on ABC or ESPN. Now sources tell John Ourand and Adam Stern that Amazon put forth the highest bid, around a hundred million dollars per year. Comcast's offer was similar to ESPN's monetarily.
Surprisingly, Netflix had discussions with F1 and actually made an offer, but apparently that offer was not very lucrative. Now, F1 executives made it pretty clear in its decision to go with Disney and ESPN, that it's not ready to put all of its races on a streaming service quite yet, but in its decision to go with Disney and ESPN, F1 executives made it clear that they're not ready to put all of its races on a streaming service just yet, but again, a very big win for Formula One, one of the hottest sports in the business right now.
Let's stay with motor sports because NASCAR started its season coverage with NBC starting with yesterday's race in Nashville and NASCAR has to feel good about its first half of the year. It's seen increases in ratings, it's had strong attendance, and mostly exciting races and various winners at the track. In terms of ratings for Fox's half of the season that ended of this month at Sonoma Raceway, after 16 events, NASCAR's ratings were up 6% over last year. When you add in two exhibition events, like the Bush Clash from the Coliseum viewership is actually up 8% and the best numbers since 2017. So bottom line is NASCAR's having a nice run of its season as well.
Let's move on. I'm hosting a small dinner in New York City this week. And one topic that will surely be discussed is Saudi Arabia's interest in sports business. We know their support of LIV Golf, well the New York Times reported over the weekend that Saudi Arabia has approached the WTA about hosting an event, possibly the WTA tour finals. But as of now, the WTA has not really considered playing a tournament in Saudi Arabia, and it would face a number of questions about having an event in a country with a very controversial record of rights for women. Now, Saudi Arabia has targeted tennis in the past, but it hasn't landed any official tour event on the men's or women's side, despite making some serious inquiries and offers. But this does show that Saudi Arabia very interested in expanding its sports investments.
Now let's shift to LIV Golf, which host its first event in the U.S. this week at Pumpkin Ridge in Oregon. So here's the latest around LIV Golf. First, it was reported that LIV Golf will reimburse players who have been hit with fines from the DP world tour for playing in the first LIV Golf series event outside of London a couple of weeks ago. So LIV Golf will pick up those fines and those fines could be more draconian if golfers continue to take part in the series. Now more players are expected to join LIV Golf. Today, Monday, Matthew Wolff is a 23 year old golfer. He's expected to announce today he is joining LIV Golf. There's speculation around Tommy Fleetwood and Henrik Stenson. So keep your eyes on the players who are officially joining LIV Golf.
Meanwhile, LIV Golf rolled out its first advertising effort by running full page ads in the Wall Street journal and the New York Times on Friday. Now the ads feature texts written in all caps over a photo of a golf ball being teed up. The ad's message is about evolving the game of golf. It's about golf as a force for good. It's about super charging the game and growing the game. So I'm interested to see if LIV Golf takes out more advertising and more promotion as they try to get their narrative about the series out to the public.
And finally, let's end with this. The NACDA convention kicked off Sunday and will run through Wednesday at Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas. This is big as it's the first time in three years that NACDA, which is the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics has gathered in person, and they're expecting more than 6000 attendees. The event was scheduled to be in Las Vegas two years ago, but COVID canceled it. Orlando was set to host the event last year, but it was held virtually instead. This is a big event. It's also very big for the city of Las Vegas. For years, it was a no-no for college sports to host events and competitions in Las Vegas, but it's a different city and you're seeing more and more college championships held in Las Vegas. And to have NACDA's convention in Vegas will give so many college leaders a firsthand look at the venues and the layout and the vibe around Las Vegas.
This will only help Las Vegas, and NACDA will return to Las Vegas in 2024. So the city is already part of the convention rotation, but again, NACDA, a huge, huge event. So many athletic directors, so much business gets done and it really sets the tone for the upcoming year. They're going to be talking a lot about name, image and likeness and the transformation committee at NACDA over the next few days. It ends on Wednesday.
So a lot going on in the sports business. Today is Monday, June 27th. That is your Morning Buzzcast. I'm Abe Madkour, stay healthy, be good to each other. I'll speak to you tomorrow.