Race for Chelsea down to its own final four of bidders; a new soccer league launches; and NFL meets in Florida.
Well, yes, there were some early round upsets, but the traditional powerhouses are prevalent in the men's final four. Number one Kansas will play number two Villanova, while number two Duke will face off against number eight North Carolina. Semifinals will be held Saturday. Championship, obviously, Monday, April 4th. Sitting here and living here in Charlotte, North Carolina, this will be a true rivalry week. On the women's side, half of the final four is set. You have Stanford, South Carolina already in Minneapolis.
Two other games tonight determine the other two slots, Yukon-NC State and Louisville-Michigan. And while everyone is talking about the slap during last night's Oscars, and let's just say it was wild, there were sports connections to last night's winners at the Academy Awards. The Queen of Basketball, which has Shaquille O'Neal and Steph Curry among its executive producers, won the Oscar for Short Subject Documentary. Will Smith won best actor for his portrayal of Richard Williams and King Richard.
Summer of Soul produced by Jeffrey Lurie's play action pictures won the Oscar for Best Documentary. That marks the third Academy Award for the Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie. Certainly some ties to sports from last night's Academy Awards. And this is your Morning Buzzcast for Monday, March 28th. Good morning. Start of another week. I'm Abe Madkour. NFL owners are in Palm Beach, Florida for their annual spring meeting, and there isn't a lot on the agenda.
Our Ben Fisher reported that the league is expected to renew its agreement with Ticketmaster through the 2026 season, but most of the action concerns a possible change on the field in overtime rules. Peter King is reporting this morning, he anticipates a change in overtime rules for playoff games particularly, where each team will get the ball. But Peter King wrote he is unsure if there will be a change for the regular season overtime games. It will take, of course, 24 votes for any resolution to pass. Overall, there are only five rule changes up for a vote.
That's a very small number. No proposed changes to instant replay or play or safety issues. The bottom line indicates that team officials and owners are happy with the current state of the game, but we could see some news on the new Bills stadium as the team got approval for some of the private financing around the $1.4 billion stadium plan in Orchard Park, New York. A source said that the NFL's joint stadium and finance committee has recommended league approval of a maximum $200 million loan to Bill's owners Terry and Kim Pegula.
All 32 teams will vote on the proposal today, Monday, in Florida. Approval is considered a formality. Once this is approved, we'll then be looking for an announcement from New York State and Erie County about a final deal, and today's New York Times outlines the political challenges of New York Governor Kathy Hochul, who is a huge Bills fan. She is a hardcore Bills fan, but she does face political challenges of approving a billion dollars in public financing for a new stadium for the Bills and the Pegula's.
But that deal is expected to be announced soon, but there are some interesting dynamics with public funding for the Bills stadium. Let's move on. During meetings last we week in New York, a topic of who will purchase the EPL club Chelsea was brought up time and again. Everyone asked me who would land the club and at what price. Well, the four contenders buying for Chelsea will submit final bids on April 11th, meaning that the team could have or should have a new owner by the end of April. Now, bidders will have the opportunity to improve their initial offers.
The groups have also been told by the Raine Group that they must commit at least $1.3 billion to future investment in the club. This will be a big price tag for Chelsea, and the contenders for the team are a group led by Martin Broughton, who is the former British Airways and Liverpool chair. Part of that group is Seb Coe, who, of course, the former Olympian, and Josh Harris and David Blitzer. That group also includes NBA Kings owner Vivek Ranadivé. Also a second group bidding, Dodgers co-owner Todd Boehly.
A third group is the Ricketts family along with hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin, and the fourth group Celtics owner Stephen Pagliuca. Those are the groups that are submitting bids. Final bids are due for Chelsea in about two weeks. And again, everybody keeping an eye on this deal. Deshaun Watson and Brown's ownership and management met the media on Friday for the first time since Watson became a Brown and media reaction really wasn't very positive. Here's what was said.
First, Brown's owner Jimmy Haslam said the franchise is not seeing major cancellations in season tickets since trading for Deshaun Watson, and that more people are renewing tickets than canceling their tickets. Now, also Brown's General Manager Andrew Berry said that they understood that a portion of the fan base is not pleased with the deal. The team did follow their information and they feel good about Deshaun Watson and believe he can do a lot of positive in the community.
Now, Dee and Jimmy Haslam also said they understood there'd be negative reaction to the deal, but they did express confidence that Deshaun Watson would be able to regain trust of the fans. Jimmy and Dee Haslam them also said that their daughters, Whitney and Cynthia, were involved in the decision to trade for Deshaun Watson. Like I said, the Haslam's and the Browns didn't get great response to Friday's press conference.
There were some criticism for the Haslam's not appearing in person alongside with Watson or coach Kevin Stefanski or the General Manager Andrew Berry. The two had a previously scheduled trip out of the country, which prevented them from being in Cleveland. Now, there is a lot of pressure on Jimmy and Dee Haslam right now, and they are likely not the most popular owners at the league meetings this week in Florida. They were the ones who signed off on the trade for Deshaun Watson.
They will have to face any of the consequences is or criticism, and it is a huge, huge risk for that organization. Now, here's an example of a player signing driving new business, the Twins sold more than 100,000 single game tickets, group tickets, and monthly passes in the four days since signing short stop Carlos Correa. That deal has certainly helped the Twin sell tickets. We'll have to continue to watch that fall out or the impact of Deshaun Watson's trade to the Cleveland Browns.
A new soccer league was born over the weekend, as MLS NEXT Pro's inaugural game was in St. Louis and saw the St. Louis City 2 beat Rochester New York FC in front of about 6,000 fans at St. Louis University's Herman Stadium. Now, MLS NEXT Pro is a developmental league for Major League Soccer. For the opener, commissioner Don Garber and MLS NEXT Pro President Charles Altchek we're onsite in St. Louis. MLS NEXT Pro launched with 21 teams, 20 of which are affiliated with MLS clubs. The independent team is that Rochester New York FC.
But a new soccer league launching over the weekend, MLS NEXT Pro. The Outback Bowl is no longer. Yes, Outback Steakhouse dropped its title sponsorship of the ballgame, ending at streak as the longest running college bowl game title sponsorship in history. The game will now be called the Tampa Bay Bowl. Outback had been title sponsor of the game since 1995. They recently extended this title sponsorship through 2026, but it wasn't clear why the two sides split earlier than its contracted deal terms, but the Outback Bowl no longer.
It is now called the Tampa Bay Bowl. We'll end the Buzzcast like we do around people. Former Wasserman Senior Vice President of Properties Zack Sugarman has left Wasserman to become chief strategy officer at Demand Inc. That is a sales tech company that focuses on lead gen. Sugarman is well known in the sports industry. He had more than 15 years of total experience at Wasserman, the last few working very closely with sports properties. But now Zack Sugarman leaves Wasserman to go on to Demand Inc.
I hope you'll join us this Wednesday and Thursday for SBJ All In, our virtual conference dedicated to amplifying and elevating conversations about diversity, equity, and inclusion. It is a great agenda. Again, go to our website, sportsbusinessjournal.com, to sign up. Registration for the two day virtual conference is complimentary. That is your Morning Buzzcast for Monday, March 28th. I'm Abe Madkour. Hope everybody has a great start to their week. Stay healthy. Be good to each other. I'll speak to you tomorrow.