Big East turns 40 at MSG; Apple dials up Friday Night baseball; People on the move.
One event that's on my bucket list? The Big East Men's Basketball Tournament. It starts today and celebrates its 40th anniversary at Madison Square Garden. The Big East Tournament was first played at Madison Square Garden in, get this, 1983. And it now marks the longest running post-season championship at the same location in college basketball. So many memories, so many great games.
And if you read his SBJ college newsletter last night, you would see that Michael Smith listed the highest average get in price per ticket for the conference tournament, and the top one is the Big East Semi-Finals going for $185 on average. What a great session that would be.
The Big East Men's Tournament starts today, celebrates its 40th anniversary at Madison Square Garden. Congratulations to Val Ackerman and so many others connected to this great event. And this is your Morning Buzzcast for Wednesday, March 9th.
Good morning, I'm Abe Madkour. Hope everybody is doing well. I believe today will be pivotal in baseball's negotiations as the sides spent nearly 17 hours bargaining on Tuesday. They will resume talks today. Wednesday, the league let its deadline to reach a deal pass before canceling the next round of games.
The two sides talked until 3:00 AM in the morning, and the union said it wanted to take MLB's latest offer to its membership for feedback before responding to it. Let's hope the union responds favorably. Let's hope they can continue this momentum. I will say this, the two sides are working hard as they should to try and find a deal. Big day today on baseball's labor talks.
Meanwhile, MLB announced its long expected deal with Apple for, get this, Friday night baseball. Yes. Are you ready for baseball on Friday nights? Well, that is part of Apple's comprehensive rights deal. It will include a weekly Friday night baseball double header on Apple TV. The multi-year deal does start this season as soon as the regular season begins. No terms were announced, so it wasn't clear how much Apple is paying for the rights, but it would be noted the Friday night games will be exclusive to Apple. They will not be carried by the team's regional sports networks. Major League Baseball will produce the games. Now Major League Baseball is still negotiating with NBC's Peacock for another package of over the top streamed games. So MLB chief revenue officer Noah Garden and Jim DeLorenzo who heads up sports for Apple TV were the point people on the Apple MLB get together. In addition to the Friday night double header, Apple will debut a live highlight show every weeknight called MLB Beginning. So what does this mean?
Well, this is very good news for the sports industry, a sports industry that has been waiting for Apple to really start investing in live sports rights. And this deal marks Apple's first, I would say significant sports rights deal. Now Apple main not be done as our John [inaudible 00:03:21] has reported a number of times that Apple is considered a front runner along with Amazon to pick up rights to NFL's Sunday ticket package and possibly part of the NFL's media business.
So Apple makes a big deal with MLB and could be looking at other sports. Let's shift over to golf because the Players' Championship in Ponte Vedra is a great golf event. All the leaders in the business side of golf are in Ponte Vedra for the week and before the event tees off the PGA Tour commissioner always meets the media. PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan met the media yesterday on Tuesday and he reiterated that the PGA Tour feels it has the right to ban players who sign on with any rival golf tour such as the proposed Saudi backed Super Golf League supported by LIV Golf Investments and Commissioner Greg Norman. Jay Monahan also said the PGA Tour is very confident in its legal standing should LIV Golf follow through with a threat to sue the PGA Tour.
So Monahan said the PGA Tour is moving on from the distraction of any rival golf tour and he wants to continue to build on the momentum the PGA Tour has built up so far this season. Interestingly, he said he has not spoken to Phil Mickelson since published excerpts of an upcoming book confirmed that Phil Mickelson was behind and supportive of the Saudi golf effort. Jay Monahan said the ball was in Phil Mickelson's court. He didn't say if Phil Mickelson has been suspended or will face any disciplinary action from the PGA Tour. So most observers who watch Jay Monahan's press conference agree that the PGA Tour leader feels very good about moving beyond the Saudi golf threat and pleased where the PGA Tour is heading into this big weekend at the Player's Championship. Meanwhile, staying with golf, tonight, Wednesday night, is a big night in golf as both former PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem and Tiger Woods will be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.
Tiger Woods has chosen his 14 year old daughter, Sam, to introduce him Wednesday night while Davis Love will be introducing Tim Finchem, who I regard as still one of the most underrated sports commissioners of the modern era. Meanwhile, Judy Rankin will introduce three time US Open Women's champion, Susie Maxwell Berning. So this is the first time since 2013 that the World Golf Hall of Fame induction ceremony is in Florida during the Player's Championship. The ceremony will be televised live on the Golf Channel tonight. We mentioned the Big East tournament at the top of the Buzzcast, and we're all looking forward to the NCAA tournaments, CBS Sports and Turner Sports said that advertising inventory has sold very well. And for the men's basketball tournament, it's sold out. While the tournament has sold out in the past, of course, it has never sold out this far in advance. And our Michael Smith reported last night that the two media companies have generated record ad revenue this year. Autos, insurance, fast food, those are three categories where ad sales very, very strong. An executive said the category that showed the greatest bounce back was Hollywood Studios.
So expect a strong number of movie ads running during the NCAA Men's Tournament over the month of March and into early April. Remember, the NCAA's corporate champions and partner program is a very strong ad base for both CBS and Turner. Those 17 companies, those 17 partners affiliated with the NCAA purchased more than 60% of the ad revenue for the event. So you have that base. That's a nice base to work off. Let's end the Buzzcast around people. Yesterday, we talked about interested sports owners looking to maybe grow their portfolio by buying the Premier Club Chelsea. Well, add Josh Harris to that list. He of course from Harris Blitzer Sports and Entertainment, 76ers and Devils, he is exploring a bid to buy the Premier Club Chelsea.
Any bid by Josh Harris for Chelsea would likely mean he would have to sell his shares in the EPL club, Crystal Palace in which he is an investor. So now you can add Josh Harris to those who have expressed an interest in Chelsea, including Todd Bowley from the Dodgers and the Lakers, the Ricketts family from the Cubs, Woody Johnson, from the Jets and Vivek Ranadive. From the Sacramento Kings. Chelsea is expected to sell for more than $2 billion and a shout out to four women leaders in sports business, Women in Sports Events or WISE holds its 26 annual awards luncheon today in New York City. It's a great event. I wish I was there. They will honor four women of the year., the NHLs Susan Cohig, Disney and ESPNs Rosalyn Durant, Wasserman's Elizabeth Lindsey and MLSs, JoAnn Neale. They will be honored today. Congratulations to each of those women WISE women of the year.
And finally the Coyotes, the Arizona Coyotes have named former National Lacrosse League commissioner, Nick Sakiewicz, to the newly created position of chief business officer. A couple of weeks ago on the Buzzcast, we noted that Nick Sakiewicz was moving on from the National Lacrosse League. Well now he lands at the Arizona Coyotes in this new position of chief business officer. He will report to Coyotes President and CEO, Xavier Gutierrez. Nick Sakiewicz will lead all aspects of the Coyote sales and marketing efforts.
And I hinted at it yesterday, but check out the latest SBJ I Factor presented by Allied Sports. I spoke with Smack Entertainment CEO and co-founder Constance Schwartz Marini who talked about her journey in the sports business. It's a great listen. She started at the NFL before joining up with NFL Hall of Famer, Michael Strahan to co-found Smack Entertainment. It's a great story of grit and determination and perseverance. You can into the SBJ I Factor wherever you get your podcast or watch the video version on SBJ TV or YouTube. So that is your morning Buzzcast. It's Wednesday, March 9th. I'm Abe Madkour. Hope everybody has a great day. Let's pray for peace, stay healthy, and please be good to each other. I'll speak to you tomorrow.