What's next for baseball's negotiations and Turner Sports gets into soccer with national team deal.
I enjoyed being in Round Rock and Austin, Texas over the last few days at the National Sports Forum, where I gave the keynote address and talked about the issues I'm keeping a very close eye on in sports business. I'll say there's a ton of sports energy in that Austin marketplace. It was great to see people, and I appreciate all the support for the Morning Buzzcast. And this is your Morning Buzzcast for Wednesday, March 2nd. I'm Abe Madkour. While both Major League Baseball and the Union have agreed to resume negotiations in Manhattan, no date has been given on when they will meet next, and with players and owners unable to agree on a labor deal, Commissioner Rob Manfred canceled the first two series for each of the 30 baseball teams. Now, this move cuts each club's schedule from 162 games to around 156. A total of 91 games were canceled yesterday by Manfred.
So how did we get here? Remember, there was optimism going into Tuesday after a marathon session on Monday. On Tuesday, management sent the players a best and final offer. It was on the ninth straight day of negotiations, but the players rejected that offer and baseball moved to cancel the games of the first two series. I will say both sides, management and the Union, have moved closer to each other, but the luxury tax remains the single most difficult issue, and we have talked about that on the Buzzcast. Players view this luxury tax as a cap and want it as high as possible, while Major League Baseball feels a luxury tax levels the playing field. Management has proposed raising that tax threshold from 210 million to 220 million, and then raising it from there. Players want it to start a 238 million and increase it over time. So they are closer, you can see, but they're almost 20 million apart on the level of the initial tax. So there is a deal here to get worked out.
So where do we go from here? Well, Manfred said that players will not receive salary or Major League service time for the games that are missed. That will start on April 1st. Manfred said rescheduling games is likely impossible, but the Union will push for the canceled games to be rescheduled when the talks resume. Overall, players would lose 20 million in salary for each day of the season that is canceled. That's according to The Associated Press. It's always more difficult to know the losses each team would incur. So from a PR perspective, Commissioner Manfred is getting the brunt of the criticism on Twitter and in the media and among baseball columnists. And it's clear that Manfred and Tony Clark have the most to lose here the longer this goes on.
That we are here at this time is unfortunate, but to me not surprising. They are close. Now, can the two sides hunker by act down and get a deal, and is that the owners' best deal? That's what I'm looking at. Will owners move more, or will players move closer to the owners' deal? That's what I'm keeping an eye on, and unfortunately I believe if they don't meet soon and try to just get over this precipice, it could be a while and we could miss more games. So that's where we are with baseball as we sit here on March 2nd.
Now, when baseball does return, our Terry Lefton reported last night that the League will announce it as struck deals with two different beer brands as official sponsors, as for the first time Major League Baseball will split the beer category. Anheuser-Busch InBev is Major League Baseball's longest corporate sponsor, supporting baseball for 42 years, and it has renewed its relationship to secure domestic beer, premium light beer, and hard seltzer marketing rights. The keyword there, domestic. And now baseball is close to securing Constellation Brands that will gain import rights for its Corona Extra brand.
Lefton reports that Constellation's Corona brand will get the designation of Major League Baseball's Official Cerveza, and it hopes to expand the already appeal of Corona Extra. Now, last season, Corona had MLB team sponsorships with the Orioles, the Twins, the Mets, the A's and the Giants. So they had five team deals. Anheuser-Busch of course has more than that. They have relationships with 20 MLB teams. So when baseball does come back, you'll see a split beer category for the first time.
Let's move on. More fallout from Russia's invasion of the Ukraine, and it directly impacts Alex Ovechkin. CCM Hockey will stop using Ovechkin and other Russian NHL players in any global marketing initiatives. Ovechkin has been amongst CCM's most visible pitchmen. Meanwhile, MassMutual has pulled its television spot featuring Ovechkin as well after Russia's invasion. The ad featuring Ove and a Capitals teammate debuted in October, and it has been seen frequently during NHL broadcasts in the United States. MassMutual said its relationship with Ovechkin was limited to that one commercial and that commercial is no longer airing. Now, it's been pretty public that Ovechkin has been roundly criticized recently for his support of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and that support right now is impacting his commercial relationships.
Let's move onto soccer. Big news in the soccer world broke yesterday. Turner Sports signed an eight year deal to carry the US soccer men's and women's national team games through 2030. Turner Sports will pay an average annual fee of between 25 to 27 million dollars per year for the rights, that's according to our John Ourand. Remember, US soccer bet on itself last year when it ended its relationship with Soccer United Marketing and set out to sell its rights on its own. So, US soccer went out on its own and they put their markets to the marketplace, and right now they landed this deal with Turner for an English language rights deal. Now they're expected to announce a domestic Spanish language deal in the next several weeks, and also international deals in the coming months. So, US soccer splitting up its rights, and at the end of the day, they believe when they combine all of those deals, that they will almost certainly see a boost in revenue.
Here's what's interesting about the deal. It starts in 2023, includes more than 20 games. Those are World Cup qualifiers, those are friendlies, the She Believes Cup. Now, the key here, and an interesting component, is HBO Max. HBO Max will stream all of the games live and the details show that HBO Max will carry around 10 games per year exclusively. And this is one of the first, I would say, most pronounced efforts by HBO Max to carry live sports exclusively. So that's the US soccer deal with Turner Sports. Now we anticipate Major League Soccer's media deal. We believe that could come within the next six weeks, but the bottom line is there's more soccer on and more soccer on multiple media platform in the United States.
And let's end with this, around the WNBA. The W has had a nice run lately. Remember, it included getting $75 million in new investment, but a story from SI shows that the League still has some tense areas to resolve, to improve relationships and considerations and conditions for players. The New York Liberty, who are owned by Joe Tsai, were reportedly fined half a million dollars for chartering flights to away games during the second half of last season, and for other violations of League rules, including an unsanctioned trip for the team to Napa, California. A couple of things at play here. Joe Tsai is one of the richest owners in sports. He paid for the flights and the trip with his wife. They purchased the Liberty and the Brooklyn Nets in 2019.
Joe Tsai has been very, very public about advocating for better travel accommodations for WNBA players, but the League doesn't like owners going off on their own and providing perks for players. The League believes this creates a competitive advantage for teams whose owners can afford such perks. So clearly, this puts Joe Tsai at odds with the WNBA and Commissioner Cathy Engelbert. Cathy Engelbert has stated that the League needs to increase revenue to be able to cover these expenses, but players will love Joe Tsai for doing this. Joe Tsai will continue to push on an issue that is very important to the players, and of course, it's not a good look for the League when players have to struggle with their travel conditions. So clearly, this story about WNBA travel accommodations, and even travel structure, is a story worth keeping your eye on.
So that is your Morning Buzzcast for Wednesday, March 2nd. I'm Abe Madkour. Good to be with you again. I'll be in Boston for the Sloan MIT Sports Analytics Conference. I'll be there on Friday, so if you're there, please stop by and say hello. Until then, stay healthy, be good to each other. I'll speak to you tomorrow.