Two more MLB teams go over the luxury tax; Tanenbaum among those added to Chelsea mix; Amazon lands Michaels and Lazarus returns to sports at NBC.
Well, the interest in the EPL Club Chelsea only intensifies. A new name entered the mix, Maple Leaf Sports chair Larry Tanenbaum has submitted an offer with a partner for Chelsea. New names continue to emerge, and many reports peg the eventual price tag at more than $3 billion, which would be a record for a professional sports team. The Raine Group out of New York is understood to have told the British government that it intends to have a deal signed with a new owner for Chelsea by the end of April.
And this is your Morning Buzzcast for Tuesday, March 22nd. Good morning, I'm Abe Madkour, hope everybody is doing well. Speaking of spending, keep your eye on baseball teams as baseball teams are continuing to hand out big contracts, or continuing to spend money. One day after the Boston red Sox agreed to go over the luxury tax, the Philadelphia Phillies signed Nick Castellanos, and the team's projected payroll this season is now expected to be around 240 million, which would be about $10 million over the competitive tax threshold. So we talked a lot about this during the collective bargaining talks, that competitive balance tax threshold, it was increased. Remember, last year only two teams, the Dodgers and the Padres, were over that initial competitive balance tax level. Now in just two days the Red Sox went over it, and the Phillies went over it. So more and more baseball teams continuing to feel comfortable to go over the luxury tax. That's a story you definitely want to keep an eye on, the union likes to see that, we'll see if other teams follow.
Let's shift to the NFL, because the NFL is in free agency, as we know, but their broadcast talent free agency continues, and our friend Andrew Marchand of the New York Post is all over it, reporting that Al Michaels has a deal in place with Amazon Prime Video to lead its Thursday night football coverage this fall. Michaels is expected to sign a deal that would pay him close to what Joe Buck was paid by Disney and ESPN. Buck received a five year deal worth an estimated $75 million with ESPN to call Monday night football games with his longtime partner Troy Aikman.
Now Andrew Marchand also reports that Al Michaels will still do a game or two for NBC. Michael's partner in the Amazon booth will be Kirk Herbstreit, who will also continue to work on ESPN's College GameDay and Saturday college games on ESPN and ABC. So a lot of moving pieces here, you have Buck and Aikman on ESPN, you have Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit on Amazon, you have Romo and Nantz on CBS, and likely Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth on NBC. Still to be sorted out is the top team for Fox Sports, but the dollars being spent on top NFL talent continues to increase.
On the Buzzcast we've talked about Endeavor's efforts to buy a number of minor league baseball teams, but that plan may be in jeopardy as the company may be required to sell either its minor league baseball teams or its WME Sports baseball representation practice. This would have to be done to resolve an investigation by the Major League Baseball Players Association into the matter, and whether Endeavor violates its agent regulations or is in conflict of interest. Remember, the Player's Association has stated there is a conflict of interest for Endeavor to have both baseball agents representing talent at WME Sports while it also buys minor league baseball teams. So the teams are operated in a separate entity from WME Sports called Diamond Baseball Holdings, and Endeavor has never agreed that there's any conflict of interest here, but in an SCC filing Endeavor did acknowledge the issue may include a sale of either the baseball agency business, or a sale of Diamond Baseball Holding, so that's a story I'm certainly keeping my eye on.
Let's shift to the Olympics, I know the Olympics, we just talked about it a lot in the last year, but we've also talked about the energy and enthusiasm around the Paris Summer Games in 2024. Well, here's more evidence around that enthusiasm. Paris organizers are hoping to sell a record number of tickets to the '24 Summer Games. They are buying a record 10 million tickets sold. Now London in 2012 was the recent high mark, that was a very successful summer games, and they sold around 8.2 million tickets. Remember Atlanta in 1996? Well, Atlanta sold a surprising 8.3 million of 11 million tickets available. So in Paris ticketing revenue will represent about a third of the total revenue, so they really want to maximize this opportunity. The most affordable tickets for the Olympics would be a very reasonable $26, so some interesting pricing, a very aggressive strategy, registration for ticket sales will start by the end of this year, but Paris really wants to nail a record of tickets sold for its Summer Games.
We'll end the Buzzcast with a couple of items around people. First, the interest around cryptocurrency continues to increase. Naomi Osaka has taken an equity stake in FTX, that is the cryptocurrency exchange. She will be receiving compensation in crypto. Now she signed a long term partnership with FTX, she'll be focusing on bringing women onto the crypto platform, and she will also play a role in directing and producing content for FTX. She'll also have an FTX logo while she plays tennis on her apparel. She joins Tom Brady, Shohei Ohtani, Steph Curry, they are also endorsers of FTX, but Osaka is the first major female athlete to join FTX.
A noteworthy move in sports media as NBC Entertainment Head of Sales Peter Lazarus is returning to sports, meaning that he will now run NBC sports' entire ad sales division. Now Peter Lazarus is the brother of NBCUniversal Television chair Mark Lazarus. Peter Lazarus is also a former SBJ 40 under 40 honoree. He will now be handling advertising sales across NBCUniversal's entire sports portfolio, PGA Tour, Sunday Night Football, Premier League, the new USFL, among others. So yes, it is a big job. Peter Lazarus first started at NBC in 1996 as an account executive before overseeing several Olympic games. He kept working his way up the ad sales ladder, then he became head of entertainment, now Peter Lazarus heads back to sports.
And finally, if you missed it, do yourself a favor, Google the of University of Texas Athletic Director Chris Del Conte's trip from Austin to Milwaukee to watch the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. It included him jumping in his truck and driving with two other Longhorn fans to the team's men's basketball games at Fiserv Forum after their flights were canceled in Austin. It's a great just fun read about the adventures of 18 hours on the road, and the efforts they took to make sure they didn't miss these basketball games. A really good read, do yourself a favor and check it out, it's a lot of fun from a very colorful character and Chris Del Conte.
So that is your Morning Buzzcast, it is Tuesday, March 22nd. Hope everybody has a great day, stay healthy, be good to each other, I'll speak to you tomorrow.