BofA doubles down on marathons; Range Media lands advisory practice and Comcast Spectacor lands a big hitter in Philly
Sports Business Journal's largest event of the year is coming to LA Live. April 18th and 19th. The C A A World Congress of Sports brings together the entire sports industry to network and discuss the current state of sports business. You can view the entire speaker lineup and register for the C A A World Congress of Sports at world congress of sports.com. Sign up today because I certainly look forward to seeing you in la. We hit on it yesterday. Let's close the loop today. South Carolina, Virginia Tech, they join Iowa and LSU to round out the women's basketball. Final four. So starting on Friday in Dallas, we'll see South Carolina play number two, Iowa. Then in the other semi we'll see LSU Face, Virginia Tech, so some familiar schools and a new program like Virginia Tech in the Women's Final Four. And this is your morning Buzz cast for Tuesday, March 28th.
Good morning, I'm Abe. Madkour, nice to be with you this morning. Hope you're all doing well. You know, we touched on it on the Buzz Cast Monday, but the N W S L has put some more resources around ticket sales in the local markets. And at least for week one, it has seemed to pay off. The N W S L broke its record for average attendance on the opening weekend of a regular season for the second year in a row. The six games average 15,000 up from an average of 10,000 last year. Now certainly that was boosted by the more than 30,000 fans that attended Snapdragon Stadium. That was a record N W S L crowd for a home opener. Another marquee market, of course, is Los Angeles, where for the second year in a row, angel City FC drew a sellout of 22,000 for its home opener.
Another good marker was in DC where the Washington Spirit drew more than 11,000 Audi field. That's a record for its home opener. So we are going to continue to watch these numbers because for the league to grow its fan base and to grow revenue ticket sales are going to be critical. Staying with women's sports, a new sports venture fund called Monarch Collective, led by Angel City FC co-founder Karen Nortman and Miami Venture capitalist Jasmine Robinson is focused on investing in women's sports teams, leagues, and related businesses around women's sports. Now the fund is well capitalized with a hundred million ready to deploy, and additional investors in the fund include Billy Jean King among others. Now Kara Norman said that Monarch Collective will target sports with a large, global or domestic audience. So they're looking at women's soccer and women's basketball. So a 100 million fund, a pretty significant fund and it further drives so much of the interest and investment we're seeing around women's sports.
Let's move on. N H L Commissioner Gary Bettman was in Ottawa on Monday and met with city officials and he sounded confident about the progress being made on the sale of the Ottawa Senators. Bettman said there are a number of strong bidders among the six that have moved on to the second phase of the bid process. So the next stage is likely non-binding bids for the team and that sets up a possible nice bidding war for the N H L, which would of course drive the price up around the franchise. Bettman did acknowledge that phase two, which will be non-binding bids and an auction could take up to six weeks. The belief is that it will be about mid-summer before a deal for the Ottawa Senators is finally closed and papered. Let's shift to a sport we don't talk a lot about on the bus cast, but Bank of America continues to step up and support marathons and participatory running as the Boston Marathon is gaining a new sponsor but keeping its main name, that's ideal for any event or property.
So Bank of America will become the racist presenting partner beginning in April of next year. Bank of America will take over after 38 years of John Hancock as the race's primary sponsor. So Bank of America does a 10 year deal that will rebrand the race as the Boston Marathon presented by Bank of America for Bank of America. Their marketers said the deal made sense because it hit all the right buttons. It was about the community of Boston, it was about runners, charity impact on local business, wellness and diversity. So for Bank of America, the marathon hit every one of those buckets. So that's why it's appealing for that company. So many of these deals are title sponsorships where the corporate brand name would supersede the Boston Marathon, but Bank of America takes a secondary presenting role. Now it is interesting they felt the need or the interest to sponsor another marathon because they have a history here.
Bank of America has been the title sponsor to the Chicago Marathon since 2008. Now the Sports Agency Sport five assisted the Boston Athletic Association with the sale of the presenting sponsorship. And like I incumbent John Hancock will end it's 38 years of sponsoring the Boston Marathon with the next race in just a couple of weeks. On April 17th, moving over to Motorsports, a key deal for IndyCar, which for the second time in three years has secured an extension with N T T and N T T data on a title sponsorship deal with the Indie Car series. So this new extension will kick in starting in 2024. It will keep N T T as an indie car partner for at least a six year and that would make N T T and N T T data the second longest tenure title sponsorship in IndyCar history. So this is a critical deal.
Keeping N T T and N T T data into the fold is a very positive step for IndyCar R, which is seeing a little bit of momentum and interest. Certainly keeping this sponsor in the fold, always, always a good sign. Shifting over to Sports Agency News, a new player on the agency scene has added to its offering with media consulting Range sports. That is the management and production agency run by Will Funk, who worked for years at Turner Sports and Greg Luckman, who for years worked at C A A and then Allied Sports have acquired Clay Gate Advisors. Now, sports Media veteran David Sternberg launched Clay Gate Advisors, which is a media rights advisory firm. Eight years ago, he was joined at the firm in 2020 by Dan Granick. So now David Sternberg and Dan Granick are co-heads of media consulting for range sports. This will allow range sports to be a player in the media rights business.
Uh, range Sports launched just last July as a division of Range Media Partners and that was started by agents from C A A and UTA and WME. So this is a new business, but agencies really like being in the media consulting business because there are ways it really grows business relationships with properties and networks and you can draft off that and get into other lines of businesses. And so Clay Gate Advisors currently advises Chelsea, uh, the Indiana Pacers Athletes Unlimited and US Ski and Snowboard among others. But this deal becoming part of Range Media allows Claygate, which was a two person shop to have access to more resources and it will really help the company grow. So range sports, acquiring media advisory firm, Claygate Advisors, you know, staying with media. These will be tough times at Disney and ESPN, so certainly keep that in mind when having interactions with executives there.
Disney CEO Bob Iger said the company has started laying off staffers following his announcement last month that the company would have to cut 7,000 jobs. Iger said that the layoffs will occur in three different waves ending just before the start of the summer. So some challenging and unfortunate times with layoffs pending at Disney. And finally we'll end with this. A big hitter is taking on a key sports role in the big city of Philadelphia during a critical time. If you read this week's Sports Business Journal, you probably read Bret McCormick's piece about the massive renovation at the Wells Fargo Center done by Comcast Spectacle, all while the Philadelphia 76ers are pursuing a new arena in downtown Philadelphia. It's a big, uh, controversial story with a lot of subplots and everybody is talking about it in that city. And now comes a changing of the guard at Comcast Spectacle and atop the Philadelphia Flyers as Dan Hilferty will succeed retiring Dave Scott atop the organization.
So Dave Scott is retiring after 30 years with Comcast and Hilferty who joined Comcast Spectacor as CEO just last month will succeed Scott as both the company chair and the Flyers Governor. So two big roles. Now, Dan Hilferty is a very big hitter in Philadelphia. He led the city's successful bid to host the 2026 World Cup. And his ascension into the top role is just a continuation of the changes at the flyers. Remember, the team dismissed president of hockey operations and general manager Chuck Fletcher. And so there's a new kind of vibe around the flyers, spectacle, sports and entertainments. Valerie Camillo will report to Dan Hilferty and she'll oversee the Wells Fargo Center and the flyers, business operations. But this is still important and interesting because like I said, Hilferty is very, very connected. And the Philadelphia Inquirer noted his reputation as a mover, a shaker, and a problem solver.
So he has a big job ahead of him. He's got to get the flyers connecting again with the community, with the city, and at the same time firmly hold the value of the Wells Fargo Center and probably advocate for one Philadelphia arena and not two facilities. So Dan Hilferty has deep local connections that give him great credibility in the Philadelphia marketplace, and that is exactly what the flyers sought and what they really need at this time. So the flyers are an interesting organization and what's happening in Philadelphia is a very interesting story to keep your eye on. And so that is your morning buzz cast for Tuesday, March 28th. I'm Abe Madkour. Stay healthy, be good to each other. I'll speak to you tomorrow.