Jags do double dip in London; NWSL eyes more expansion; why A's ballpark shift could make a difference and long time team operator Heck close to Aston Villa deal
The NFL begins to slowly roll out its schedule. And that's our lead item for this morning's Buzzcast. For Wednesday May 10th, good morning, I'm Abe Madkour. Hope everybody is doing well. Like I said, the NFL announced five international games to be played in the upcoming season across London and Frankfurt, Germany.
And here is the key takeaway. The Jags will play two games in London this season, which marks the first time an NFL team will play two games outside of the United States. That news will surely open up some eyes, especially in Jacksonville. But it should be noted that only one of those games is a home game for Jacksonville, the other one sees them as the road team, so it won't be taking two home games away from the Jacksonville market.
Other details of the games, we know there are no games scheduled to be played in Mexico because of the renovations at Estadio Azteca for the World Cup. The league is also adding a second game in Germany after the overwhelming success of the inaugural game in Germany last year.
So here is the schedule. October 1st, Falcons and Jags at Wembley. October 8th, Jags and Bills at Tottenham. October 15th, Ravens and Titans at Tottenham, November 5th, Dolphins and Chiefs in Frankfurt Stadium in Germany. November 12th, Colts and Patriots, also at Frankfurt Stadium. So that is the schedule for the five international games for 2023.
Let's move on to baseball. An interesting shift in the A's possible relocation to Las Vegas as the team has altered their plans for a new ballpark, which they hope will make it more feasible to move forward. The A's have moved away from their plans to build a ballpark at the west part of the city, they've moved it to the east part of the strip and have entered into an agreement with Bally's Corp to build a 1.5 billion, 30,000 seat ballpark where the Tropicana now sits. This deal would mark a significant change to the makeup of the Las Vegas strip. The Tropicana is a well-known facility and marker, it will now be torn down for a partially retractable roof ballpark. So, in moving the ballpark site east where it will be surrounded by resorts, the A's are hoping to reduce the amount of public funding they will be seeking from the state. Remember, they were looking for more than $500 million, now this latest report has them seeking about $395 million from state funding.
If this moves ahead, the ballpark would be across the street from T-Mobile Arena and eventually Bally's would build a new 1500 room hotel casino across from the ballpark once it's completed. The hotel casino would be separate from the ballpark. So, if they move forward with this deal, which it seems like they will, this would undo the agreement the A's had a couple of weeks ago with Red Rock Resorts for nearly 50 acres on the west side of Interstate 15 on the Las Vegas strip. So, a new location, more centrally located. And so, more news around the A's and their possible relocation to Las Vegas.
On a call yesterday with a connected agency executive, one topic was discussed in depth, and it was the investment in women's sports. And then a few hours later I read the NWSL Commissioner, Jessica Berman told the Washington Post that the league is ready to possibly expand again, from expanding from 14 teams in 2024 to possibly adding two more teams to have 16 by 2026. So let's look at the recent growth. The NWSL currently has 12 teams for this season. Remember, they added the very successful Angel City FC and San Diego Wave, they both joined last year. The Utah Royals are returning in 2024, they'll be owned by David Blitzer and Ryan Smith. Last month, the NWSL granted an expansion franchise to the San Francisco Bay area at evaluation of $53 million, that would take them to 14 teams. We also know that the league is in advanced talks to bring an NWSL team to Boston, that would bring them to 15 teams. And that team could begin play by 2025.
And now Jessica Berman is suggesting that one more market could land a new franchise in the next few years. The location to be determined, but there will be plenty of interested markets in trying to bring in an NWSL team. The league knows right now it has momentum and with the increasing valuations, any further expansion can help the league's financial picture and it would take them to an even 16 teams. So, NWSL expansion still possible on the horizon.
I want to hit on some recent viewership numbers from SBJ's Austin [inaudible 00:05:25] because they are interesting. The NBA, boy, it's still having a very strong post-season, certainly fueled by the Lakers-Warrior Series. And overall, the NBA Conference semi-final round is having its best viewership since 2011. And so, those are some very, very strong numbers. Meanwhile, the Kentucky Derby on NBC on Saturday was down 8% year over year. And that maybe the storylines of all the horse deaths at Churchill Downs impacted the numbers, but the numbers were down 8%. NBC got about 14.8 million viewers for the race, that was down from 16 million last year. Now this year's race was still up 2% from 2021. And the audience for this year's race is the best sporting event on TV since the Super Bowl in February. So the numbers are still good, just down. Louisville was easily the top market followed by Cincinnati and Fort Myers, Naples.
Meanwhile, could Formula One ratings in the US be starting to level off? We will need to see more to declare at a trend, but viewership around the Miami Grand Prix was down nearly 25% from last year's inaugural race. Now the viewership still ranks as the third best Formula One race in terms of overall viewership on US television. It is the second best live race ever in the US. The top rated F1 race was a Monaco Grand Prix on Delay. Sunday's race Drew 1.96 million viewers on ABC, that's down from 2.6 million last year. Interestingly, viewership was higher for the Wells Fargo Championship, which went head to head with the Formula One race, that was on CBS, as well as the NASCAR Cup series race from Kansas City on FS1. So both of those events drew more viewers than the Miami Grand Prix. So, we will keep watching the trend lines on US viewership as the F1 series progresses.
I think Pat McAfee is one of the hottest talent brands in sports and the New York Post is reporting that his Pat McAfee show could land on ESPN. It's been well known that McAfee is considering ending his current deal with FanDuel. He already has a relationship with ESPN as a panelist on college game day. Pat McAfee said his future would be made more clear within the next two weeks. I'll just say, this contract for Pat McAfee, whatever it is, wherever it is, will be a big one. As his current deal with FanDuel, McAfee currently makes more than $30 million a year in that deal with FanDuel. So, keep your eye on the future of Pat McAfee.
I want to end the Buzzcast around people. Longtime team executive Chris Heck is close to returning to team sports. He would go to the EPLs Aston Villa in news that was first reported by the Athletic. Now, Chris Heck is the former president of the Philadelphia 76ers, but a long history in team sports. I'm told he will be named Chief Operating Officer very soon. Now, one of Aston Villa's co-owners, Wes Edens, would have been familiar with Chris Heck's work. Edens, of course, is a co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks. And he and his business partners are really trying to jumpstart the Aston Villa business.
Like I said, Chris Heck, a long history of team operations. He left his role in 2022 after nine years with the 76ers, where he worked alongside Scott O'Neill to really drive a very successful ticketing and sponsorship business for that franchise. Before that, he did work in the soccer world as he was president of business operations at the MLS Red Bulls. So, add Chris Heck to a growing number of US based executives at the Premier League. You have Tom Glick at Chelsea, you have Billy Hogan, who's spent at Liverpool for a long time. You have Todd Klein at Tottenham. Those are just a few, and of course there are more, but these are exciting opportunities for these executives who are trying to drive these businesses to be more commercially sound. And so, Chris Heck is a highly capable team operator. So that should be fun to watch to see what he does at Aston Villa.
Staying with soccer, the United Soccer League has named Paul McDonough as USL President and Chief Soccer Officer. McDonough was most recently Chief soccer officer at Wasserman. He had previous soccer experience at Inter Miami where he was COO and sporting director. It seems to me that Paul McDonough would take over many of the responsibilities of Jake Edwards. Jake Edwards left his role as President and CEO of the USL just a few weeks ago, and he had been the key executive at that league for years. I anticipate Paul McDonough to take over many of Edwards' responsibilities as the new president and chief soccer officer at the USL.
And finally, I want to extend my sympathy, this is a sad note, to a longtime friend of mine and someone a lot of us know in the sports business. St. Louis Blues President and CEO of Business Operations, Chris Zimmerman, he is certainly hurting after losing his wife, Emily Hunter-Birch, who passed away Sunday at the age of 63 after a battle with pancreatic cancer. Many know Chris Zimmerman. He worked at Nike, Bauer, the Vancouver's Canucks, and he's been with the Blues for a number of years.
He met Emily in 1987 at 3:00 AM at a club in Soho in New York City. They got married exactly 53 weeks later. And over their magical journey of nearly 35 years, they had two children. And again, a very, very loving marriage for nearly 35 years. Everyone at SBJ is thinking of our friend Chris Zimmerman at the St. Louis Blues, who is certainly hurting after losing his wife, Emily.
So, if you know Chris Zimmerman and if you want to reach out, I know he would love to hear from you. And that is your Morning Buzzcast, for Wednesday May 10th, I'm Abe Madkour. I'll be going to Vermont to spend time with family. Speaking of family, over the next few days, David Albright will bring you the Buzzcast on Thursday and Friday. I'll talk to you again on Monday. Until I do, stay healthy, be good to each other and I'll speak to you next week.