Las Vegas continues as sports business epicenter with historic day, while the Red Sox and Fenway go carbon neutral with Aspiration.
Well, the U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team can officially book its ticket to Qatar this fall. Remember, the U.S. Men's National Team did not qualify for the World Cup in 2018 in Russia, but last night, even though the team lost to Costa Rica two to nil, it's still qualified for the World Cup. This is very good news for U.S. Soccer. We've talked about this on the Buzzcast, U.S. Soccer continues to try and grow and build as a sports property. The men's national team qualifying for the World Cup is a very positive step.
Meanwhile today, Thursday is day two of SBJ's All In. You'll hear from leaders across sports. They'll offer their point of view on diversity, inclusion, and equity efforts. The two day virtual conference is free, register on sportsbusinessjournal.com. Remember, all the content from SBJ All In can be viewed on demand.
And this is your Morning Buzzcast. It is Thursday, March 31st ending the first three months of 2022. How quickly this year is going. I'm Abe Madkour, hope everybody is doing well. Got to start with Las Vegas. What a very big day Wednesday was for one of the hottest sports cities in America. First, the news broke Wednesday just after we recorded Morning Buzzcast yesterday that Oak View Group and Tim Leiweke are bringing a new arena to Las Vegas, developing a facility just south of the Las Vegas Strip. The plan is to break ground on a development next year. Now, this is being positioned as a $3 billion entertainment campus with a 20,000 seat arena. There'll be a casino, there'll be a hotel. The arena alone is estimated to cost a billion dollars. For Tim Leiweke, this caps a long time dream to bring a sparkling gleaming new arena to Las Vegas.
He wants it for sport, he wants an arena for music, he wants an arena for cultural events. And of course, when we talk about sports, he wants to bring an NBA team to Las Vegas. Leiweke admitted yesterday that he and his Oak View Group and local officials would aggressively pursue an NBA team for the facility. There are so many interesting elements here to this story. First, former Raiders President Marc Badain partnered with Oak View Group to lead and consult on the arena project. So that's an interesting name.
Second, Badain worked with Francesca Bodie, who of course is Tim Leiweke's daughter, and she will oversee the business transactions and operations around the new building. Now, Francesca Bodie did significant work on Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, the Moody Center in Austin, Texas. So she will be a very important figure in the development of this complex. And remember, there is a history here. There is a facility already in Las Vegas, T-Mobile Arena. Who owns T-Mobile Arena? AEG. Where did Tim Leiweke used to work? AEG. So there's a lot of connections here.
Tim Leiweke expects the new project, the new arena to be completed by 2025. That could certainly mesh well for any possible NBA expansion. We know there have been groups that have been on the record publicly disclosing their interest in a future NBA team. So this is all going to be very interesting because Tim Leiweke is a tremendous force in sports business, and he generally accomplishes what he sets his mind to. So this will be a heavily talked about project with a lot of implications, and it certainly poses the question about Las Vegas. You have the Golden Knights, you have the Raiders. We've talked on the Buzzcast, Las Vegas will get likely an MLS team.
We know the As are negotiating to develop a ballpark in Las Vegas, and now you could have an NBA team in just a few years. You have a lot of things going on in that marketplace. How big is the market? Can it support all these sports entities, is a very valid question. And now in Las Vegas, you also have a Formula One race. Yes, the city formally announced last night that it will host a new Saturday night race to the Las Vegas Strip next November, November of 2023. Some details around the race, including the actual date, when it will occur still need to be figured out. But the days around the race and race days all in, it is expected to draw close to 170,000 people to Las Vegas. So this will be a very big event.
It will also mark the first Saturday race in Formula One since 1985. And it's the first ever U.S race that will start in prime time hours. So this is a very high profile for the race. In terms of the race details, it is expected to shut down key areas of the Strip because the race circuit will be around a four mile circuit on the actual streets of the Strip in Las Vegas. The race will go across several landmarks in the city. They mapped it all out last night during a very glitzy announcement. They have put a lot of time, energy, and thought into this race and I think it's going to be a home run. Now, this race gives Formula One three races in the United States starting in 2023. Remember, they'll have one in the Eastern Time Zone in Miami, they'll have one in Austin, Texas, that's Central Time Zone, they'll have a Pacific Time Zone race in Las Vegas.
Now, the three races in the United States will be the most of any country in the world. That's just amazing and underscores Formula One's desire to capitalize on the growing fan base here in the United States. On the same day, you have Formula One announcing its Vegas race, there was a release that said that Formula One again, set TV viewership records with its second race of the 2022 season. Yes, continue interest in the United States around Formula One. Yes, ESPN announced that its second Formula One race of the '22 season drew nearly 1.5 million viewers. It was on Sunday afternoon. It was up against college basketball, but that figure alone marked ESPN's best Formula One audience since 1995. And last year was ESPN's best year for Formula One in the United States, that was in 2021. Already this season in 2022, after two races, ESPN is already seeing a 52% increase in viewership through two races this season.
If you take a step back and you look at those numbers, it is amazing to see the interest and growth in Formula One. A lot of questions, is it sustainable? Does it keep growing? Does it level out? Regardless, Formula One is an incredible story right now in the United States. Yesterday was a very big day with the announcement of a Las Vegas race on a Saturday night in November of 2023. We'll end today's Buzzcast around baseball.
First, Major League Baseball continues to study and launch efforts to grow the game globally, and that is the idea behind a new event. Major League Baseball, Home Run Derby X, it'll go on a global tour with stops in London, Seoul, and Mexico City this year. Now, Home Run Derby X is kind of an exhibition. It will feature former NBA players, Adrian Gonzalez is one of them, Jonny Gomes, Nick Swisher's one of them. They'll compete as part of teams on a smaller version of a baseball field. There'll be other theatrics to make it very dramatic, but it's certainly an exhibition event geared toward increasing interest in the game of baseball to showcase the sport. It will debut in London on July 9th. And like I said, they'll have stops this year in Seoul and Mexico City, but all an effort by Major League Baseball to grow the game around the world.
Staying with baseball, Fenway Park will be the first carbon neutral Major League Baseball facility, as the Red Sox announced a partnership with climate finance company Aspiration. Aspiration will use a portion of ticket pro seats to Red Sox games to purchase carbon offsets. Now, fans will not have to pay a surcharge for this effort on their tickets. Now keep your eye on Aspiration. Why? Because Aspiration, well, first it recently agreed to go public. It's got evaluation of north of $2.2 billion. It also has an existing agreement with the Los Angeles Clippers.
Remember, Aspiration did a significant deal with the Clippers as a founding partner of the new Intuit Dome that is being built by Steve Ballmer in Los Angeles. So Aspiration spending a little bit more and more money in sports. They have a Clippers deal, now they do a big deal with the Red Sox. And again, keep your eye on that company. And remember, SBJ All In continues today on Thursday. Peer leaders around sports offer their point of view on diversity, inclusion, and equity efforts. The two day virtual conference is free. You can still register, go to sportsbusinessjournal.com. Remember, all the content is available on demand. Yesterday was a great day, I anticipate today to be even better. Hope you can join us. So that is your Morning Buzzcast for Thursday, March 31st, the last day of March. I'm Abe Madkour, hope everybody has a great day. Stay healthy, be good to each other. I'll speak to you tomorrow.