Tony Petitti era begins at Big Ten; Can the Senators really land a $1B deal? Rare insight into WNBA revenue and PLL adds Mike Levine to BOD
This is your Morning Buzzcast for Monday May 1st. Good morning, I'm Abe Madkour. Hope everybody had a good weekend. First new Big Ten commissioner, Tony Petitti was introduced on Friday as the conferences seventh commissioner. Outgoing commissioner Kevin Warren attended the introduction along with several athletic directors and other media executives. Now, Petitti listed four immediate priorities in taking over as commissioner. Number one: integrating USC and UCLA into the conference in 2024. Number two: participating in the CFP expansion process and the next media rights agreement related to the CFP. Number three: getting his arms around NIL and NIL rights. And number four: completing the Big Ten's new seven-year media rights deals with Fox, CBS and NBC.
Now he said he was also bullish on the growth of women's sports and specifically mentioned Caitlin Clark a few times in his press conference. Petitti played it straight and gave little specifics on what changes he has in mind for the conference. But we did get a little glimpse into the process in landing Petitti as University of Maryland President, Darryl Pines, who oversaw the commissioner search, said that more than a hundred applicants were considered, including other conference commissioners and athletic directors. He said it was Petitti's media experience, especially as the conference was bringing on new media partners, that jumped out as one of the several advantages in Tony Petitti's background. So Tony Petitti officially on board at the Big Ten.
Let's shift to the NHL. The bidding for the Ottawa Senators is heating up and Ryan Reynolds seems to have the sports bug. After his success at Wrexham he is part of the Remington group, which is on the verge of making an aggressive bid for the senators. The Ottawa Sun reported that the group, which is led by Vancouver born actor Reynolds and real estate executive Christopher Bratty, is prepared to bid more than $1 billion in US money to buy the Senators and the Canadian Tire Center.
New York based banker Galatioto Sports Partner, who has been hired to sell the team has set May 15th as the deadline for the final bids. It is believed the proposal by Ryan Reynolds and Bratty includes a commitment on building a new arena as part of a mixed use entertainment district. But the bidding for the Senators is hitting the home stretch, and if it does get to a $1 billion dollars, boy, that would be a huge win for the NHL.
Let's shift to women's basketball because one of the most interesting stories over the weekend looked at the start of the WNBA season and Bloomberg News reported that the W prepares to enter its 27th season and the league is projected to bring in between $180 and $200 million in league and team revenue this year. That is up from about 100,000,000 in 2019. So we're seeing good growth, revenue growth at the W. This is one of the first detailed breakdowns of the W's revenue that I've ever seen, and this will be a benchmark going forward, and these numbers will be used in collective bargaining. As an analysis by Bloomberg News showed that base salaries as a share of total revenue actually decreased to just over 9% in 2022 from 11% in 2019. So the bottom line is players are getting right now, less of the overall revenue, and that will be negotiated in the next collective bargaining agreement.
For this upcoming season, the WNBA's minimum salary is 62,000 and the maximum salary is 234,000. The collective bargaining agreement runs through 2027, and there is an option that allows either side to opt out at the end of the '25 season. The union is certainly expected to opt out and that'll be a pretty fascinating CBA negotiation as we see the W's revenues increase and players will want their share.
Let's stay with the WNBA. This is a strong positive story for women's sports and the W and it's happening in Las Vegas. As the WNBA Las Vegas Aces are setting the standard when it comes to new facilities in women's sports, the team has moved into their new practice facility in Henderson, Nevada, just outside of Las Vegas. They moved in over the weekend and this marks the first practice facility complex built solely for the use of a WNBA team in the league's history. The new facility includes basketball courts, a locker room with individual vanities for each player, a player's lounge that includes a kitchen, weight and training rooms, family rooms, a film study room. It is at the highest standard and this will set the bar for the WNBA. The facility is located near the Raider's headquarters as that isn't a surprise as Raiders owner, Mark Davis also owns the Aces, but the Las Vegas Aces setting the standard when it comes to team facilities in the WNBA.
Let's move on. St. Louis is a pretty hot sports city right now. We know that St. Louis City SC is off to a strong start as an MLS expansion team and the St. Louis Battle Hawks were the XFL's most successful team in terms of attendance and television viewership despite not making the playoffs. So this market was very successful during the XFL's last iteration in 2020, and the success continues. The St. Louis Post Dispatch noted that the battle hawks drew an average of over 35,000 fans to their five home games. And that was more than double the 15,000 fans that the next highest team, the Seattle Sea Dragons drew in their market. The Battle Hawks were so dominant at the gate that their home games ranked numbers one through five for all contests in the league in attendance, so they dominated attendance. They also had the strongest local TV viewership ratings for the league. Now the ratings were small, but St. Louis was the top draw. San Antonio, the second, Houston third and Knoxville and Albuquerque tied for fourth. So those were the top five markets in terms of viewership of XFL action.
Shifting to baseball, a very successful weekend in Mexico City for baseball, and we are seeing positive early attendance figures around baseball, largely pacing ahead of last year. We will have more details on this later in the week, but one example is in Texas where the draw of the Yankees over the weekend helped the Rangers set a single series paid attendance record this weekend at Globe Life Field with a four game total paid attendance of more than 146,000 fans. That was from Thursday through Sunday. The paid attendance for Saturday's game was just over 40,000 fans. That set a record for a game at Globe Life Field, which of course opened in the spring of 2021. So some strong numbers in Texas over the weekend. We're seeing an increase in attendance throughout baseball. Like I said, more details to come, but a very strong weekend with the Yankees as the draw at Globe Life Field.
And let's end around people. So many of us know Mike Levine of CAA Sports. Vino is an avid listener of the Buzz cast and now we have him in the news as the Premier Lacrosse League has elected Mike Levine as a member of its board of directors. This formalizes his role with the league. He's already invested in the league. He's advised the league for many years. The PLL is entering its fifth season and looking for its next phase of growth, and Vino will certainly be able to help there with his deep ties in the sports business. Vino is an avid lacrosse fan. He played lacrosse at Cornell. He's always been a big advocate of the sport. He's worked closely with the Rabil Brothers, both Paul Rabil and Mike Rabil, and I'm sure Vino will even invest more time and energy into the Premier Lacrosse League. But the bottom line is Vino will certainly continue to help grow this league as the 18 premiere Lacrosse league will hold an 11-week regular season starting June 3rd and fourth in Albany, New York.
And so that is your Morning Buzzcast for Monday May 1st. I'm Abe Madkour. Thanks for listening to the Buzzcast. Stay healthy, be good to each other. I'll speak to you tomorrow.