Opening in Happy Valley; LIV Golf has big plans but no players yet; UFC touts best financial year ever.
Certainly an exciting day. We wish everyone a happy St. Patrick's Day. Good luck on your basketball pool as the first round of the Men's Tournament tips off today at 12:15 Eastern time. And yes, Major League Baseball's Spring Training begins today, so a pretty exciting day.
It is Thursday, March 17th. This is your Morning Buzzcast. I'm Abe Madkour. Hope everybody is doing well. Let's start with college sports. I recently asked some leaders in the Big 10, what should be on my bucket list for a Fall Saturday among Big 10 football experiences? Well, they all agreed the Penn State White Out, which happens once a year around the biggest game of the year was a can't miss. I bring this up because Penn State was in the news yesterday, and in a major move in the college athletic director ranks, Penn State Athletic Director, Sandy Barbour, will retire this summer after eight years at the university. Barbara's contract was previously set to run through the '22-'23 academic year, she'll leave a year early. The school will conduct a national search for her replacement.
Now, since the start of her tenure in 2014, Penn State's had a lot of success. They've won six team national championships. She has presided over the resurgence of football, certainly. She has also spent heavily on new facilities and has a master plan for facilities of the future, so that'll be a big part of her legacy. She's also up for Athletic Director of the Year this year at our Sports Business Awards. But going forward, this will be a very high profile opening in the collegiate ranks. It will coincide with Penn State naming a new President. And every Athletic Director wants to know who they'll be working for, so that hire will be a key point in any new Athletic Director. But there will be a great deal of interest. Penn State is seen as a good job. Happy Valley is seen as an attractive market, but back to the Big 10.
What's your bucket list for a Fall football Saturday in Big 10 country? Let's move on. LIV Golf rolled out its first series of events with the LIV Golf Invitational Series. It'll consist of eight events in the US and abroad beginning in June, so just a couple of months away. That first event, June 9th through 11th, in London. Now here's what stands out, the total prize purse for the '22 season is north of $250 million. And LIV Golf Investments is providing a massive $400 million in seed money to launch the effort. So the bottom line, they are putting a lot of money into this. They are certainly trying to attract players with major purses, and they're promising premium events. What don't they have right now? Yes, they don't have any players.
So that's what we'll get back to in a minute. But each of the eight events will be a 54-hole event, 48 players comprising of 12, four-man teams. Each team will have a name, will have a logo, will have certain colors and brands to them. What else stands out? The schedule will not conflict with golfs four majors or international team events like the Ryder Cup and the President's Cup. If you go through their schedule, they're generally matched up against some of the mid tier or lower tier PGA Tour or European Tour events on the same week in the schedule, so that was certainly by design. So the PGA Tour has fought this off very successfully, and now LIV Golf is putting invitations out to players. Players have to accept these invites, and that's what we'll have to watch. Will players start saying yes to this? Because the money is big, the plans are big, but right now, there are no players.
Another final interesting angle to watch here, LIV Golf Investment CEO, Greg Norman, tried to distance the venture from its controversial Saudi roots. He said yesterday, "This is not the Saudi Golf League. It's LIV Golf, and the LIV Golf Invitational." The whole narrative around Saudi Golf League is wrong. Norman will continue to be pushed on this fact because the Saudi Public Investment fund is the main investor in LIV Golf, so that is a storyline worth watching. But a lot going on with LIV Golf announcing its plans for his invitational series.
Let's move on to football. It's official, ESPN's Monday Night Football is going all in. They announced formally, Joe Buck and Troy Aikman will be in the booth next year, as the two have left Fox. Andrew Marchand of the New York Post has been all over the story from the start. And his premise is that within the walls of ESPN, they believe this pairing of Buck and Aikman will restore Monday Night Football to its previous glory. They believe Monday Night Football will now be a much more attractive ad buy, much more attractive to advertisers, and it will sell more advertising at higher rates.
ESPN officials also hope that NFL rewards them, rewards them for investing $165 million for top talent in the booth with an A plus schedule. Now we all know the Monday Night Football schedule hasn't been an A plus schedule for years. Now with Buck, Aikman, and the Mannings, ESPN is really hopeful that the NFL will give it some of the best games on Monday night. So, that's what we should be watching when the schedule is announced. Another good tidbit by Marchand, the deals will take them through 2027. That's when ABC ESPN will broadcast the Super Bowl. But by leaving Fox, Joe Buck and Troy Aikman pass on the opportunity to call two of the next three Super Bowls, which will be on that network, and we all know what a high-profile assignment that is.
Now the favorites to replace Joe Buck at Fox are Kevin Burkhardt for football and Joe Davis on baseball. Greg Olsen is the favorite for the top NFL analyst job, that's according to Andrew Marchand. I'll also be interested to see how ESPN uses Joe Buck in other sports. Think about baseball, college football, even NBA. So, a lot of moving pieces to this storyline. Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, officially at ESPN.
Moving on to news about the agency world. Endeavor reported fourth quarter earnings yesterday, and their sports properties performed well again. Yes, the Endeavor-owned sports properties include the UFC and the PBR. They had revenue of 1.1 billion for the year. That was up 16% compared to the prior year. They'll certainly take that. That's a nice uptick. The company said that the UFC delivered its best financial year in its 28-year history.
And we'll end around people. Sports PR veteran, LeslieAnne Wade, well-known to many of the listeners of the Buzzcast, has joined the Endeavor-owned agency, 160over90, as Vice President of PR and communications. She'll be working with the company's brand clients. Wade has a long history of sports PR, having spent 17 years running the CBS Sports Communications Department. So LeslieAnne Wade joining 160over90.
All week, we've talked about the nominees for the 15th Annual Sports Business Awards. Let's look at the nominees in Best in Agency Creativity and Innovation. This is a very challenging category. This looks at all the agencies who are coming up with strategic solutions on how brands grow their business through sports sponsorship and sports marketing. The nominees this year are 160over90, CAA Sports, Genesco Sports Enterprises, Jack Morton Worldwide, MKTG Sports and Entertainment, Octagon, Optimum Sports, and Wasserman. So, those are the nominees. The winner will be determined by a group of sports industry experts who will serve as judges for the Sports Business Awards. It's always one of the toughest categories to determine. The Sports Business Awards will be May 18th in New York. It'll include a tribute to Robert Kraft, who will be presented with Sports Business Journal's Lifetime Achievement Award.
Really hope you can attend that. It's going to be a great night. So that is your Morning Buzzcast for St. Patrick's Day, Thursday, March 17th. I'm Abe Madkour. Hope everybody has a great day. Stay safe out there. Be good to each other. I'll speak to you tomorrow.