The NFL Draft's future after Kansas City; Big XII Commissioner Brett Yormark seeks international exposure; NASCAR's media right future and another former professional athlete gets into soccer club ownership.
Well, I am in New York City for two days of judging the Sports Business Awards. There is always some enlightening and intense debate during these two days. And tomorrow, Wednesday, the latest episode of SBJ Live, looks at the start of the WNBA season. Join SBJ's Austin Carr at 12:30 Eastern time, on Wednesday, as he leads a panel of insiders, in a discussion focused on the future of the WNBA, for this season and beyond. You can sign up for SBJ live on our website. And this is your Morning Buzzcast for Tuesday, May 2nd. Good morning, I'm Abe Madkour. Hope everybody is doing well.
Well, the NFL has to feel good about its draft from Kansas City, over the weekend, as it drew more than 312,000 fans, which slightly exceeded a pre-draft estimate of about 300,000 fans. Overall, the size of the crowd was a real positive, real momentum generator. It was mentioned a number of times as, several commentators noted the size of the crowd during the draft. So, Kansas City hospitality was a hit. And as I said last week, I don't think anyone could have predicted the growth of the NFL draft to the level it is today.
Now it's on to Detroit. Detroit will host next year and a contingent of nearly three dozen officials from the city of Detroit were in Kansas City over the weekend, to observe the draft. Meanwhile, the athletic reported a contingent of Charlotte leaders were also onsite targeting a future draft. The Carolina Panthers have expressed interest in hosting the draft, and the earliest it could come to Charlotte would be 2026. But the city of Charlotte had a five person team in Kansas City this week. And I'll just say as someone who lives in Charlotte, Charlotte's compact downtown footprint would make for a great site for the NFL draft.
Let's move on to some media news. We have talked about some of the next big media rights deals to come up. We know that the Pac-12 is still looking to land its rights deal. The NBA will be the biggest media rights story of the next two years, as that deal will be a real indicator of the marketplace. We also have the NWSL and the WNBA deals coming up very soon, as well. One that shouldn't be overlooked is NASCAR, and that deal could be coming into shade pretty soon, as SBJ's, John Ourand reported, that NASCAR executives are taking meetings with a number of digital media companies today, Tuesday and Wednesday, as NASCAR's exclusive negotiating window with Fox and NBC ended earlier this week.
So, NASCAR has decided if, or how, it would have a digital streaming package, but it will hear from the executives of Amazon, Apple, and Google YouTube, to see what their ideas are. Now, it's unlikely NASCAR will offer its marquee events such as the Daytona 500, or its playoffs, to a streaming service. But Ourand writes that a possible mid-summer package of races, similar to the six race package that TNT carried years ago, could be in the works here.
So even though that NASCAR let its exclusive negotiating window of Fox and NBC laps, it still appears likely that NASCAR will renew with those two broadcasters, possibly by the end of June, at the earliest. Both Fox and NBC have said they want to keep NASCAR. The question of course comes down to how much they are willing to pay for NASCAR. That is generally the case, when it comes down to these media rights deals. But again, NASCAR's media rights deal, beginning to heat up,
As it has more and more talks with interested parties. Let's shift to some college news because the Big 12 and conference commissioner Brett Yormark, continue to think of new approaches and to think differently. And the Houston Chronicle is reporting that the Big 12 is looking to host regular season football, and men's and women's basketball games, in Mexico, within the next two years. Now, this would fit into Yormark's mission to grow the conferences exposure and footprint, and the schools are reportedly on board with his vision.
Now, the University of Houston, which is set to join the Big 12 on July 1st, has expressed interest and is on the shortlist of men's basketball teams that could play in Mexico City, as early as this upcoming season. And Yormark recently visited Mexico, meeting with officials and touring potential sites. One facility in Mexico City is the arena CDMX. It is a 22,300 seat venue in Mexico City. That is a candidate to host basketball games. A football game could be played at the Estadio BBVA, which has a capacity of more than 53,000 seats. That has been targeted for a 2024 or 2025, football game in Monterey. So we saw how successful Major League baseball was over the weekend hosting two games in Mexico City, and I'm sure that opened many eyes and now the Big 12 is looking to possibly play some games in Mexico, within the next two years.
Last week on the Buzzcast, we wondered if more celebrity owners would get involved in team ownership after the success of Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney at Wrexham. Now, I'm not saying there is any connection, but yesterday came the news that JJ and Kealia Watt, have acquired an undisclosed equity stake in the British Soccer Club, Burnley FC, and this comes months before the club returns to the Premier League.
So, the Watts joined the American-based ownership group. They've committed to making regular appearances at Burnley matches and events around the small northern England city. So, Kealia Watt will be involved in building the women's team and Burnley Chair, Alan Pace, said he brought on the Watts to build up fan engagement.
Now, Pace's Group acquired Burnley from local buyers in 2020, for about $271 million. So, JJ Watt said that the Burnley deal developed pretty recently, just over the last few months, though he has been looking at investment opportunities in soccer for years. Now, JJ Watts said he sent his great interest in the EPL among US fans, but that they're kind of free agents when it comes to team allegiance, and he thinks that they can make Burnley a fan favorite of US-based EPL fans, so that'll be interesting to see. Now, Burnley was relegated in 2022, after six years in the Premier League, but they will go back into the Premier League later this year. Interestingly, another NFL'er, Malcolm Jenkins, also holds a small stake in Burnley. So again, bottom line, more celebrities, seemingly getting involved in team ownership.
Let's stay with soccer in the UK because more signs of strength around women's sports, as Arsenal set a new record for English women's soccer, with a sellout crowd of more than 60,000, attending the Women's Championship League semi-final on Monday, at Emirate Stadium. That is a big, big number. That team continues to grow in popularity. Remember, Arsenal's women's team, won the Women's Euro, in the UK, last summer. So again, bottom line, more than 60,000 fans onsite, at Emirate Stadium on Monday, for Arsenal's win in the Women's Champions League semi-final. These numbers continue to get bigger and bigger around women's sports.
And finally, sometimes we end the Buzzcast on people. We won't end it on people this time because don't look for too many line judges in men's tennis going forward because the ATP, the Association of Tennis Professionals, will use electronic line calling, live, for all of its outfalls, in all matches beginning in two years. So yes, there will still be a chair umpire overseeing the match, but the line judges will no longer be present on the court.
So again, we're seeing more and more technology playing a key role in some of these sports. Tennis is no exception. I've always loved the Hawk-Eye technology that helps ensure more accurate line calls. But remember, this will only impact the men's events, the ATP events. The WTA said it is still looking at the technology options. The Grand Slams can make their own decisions and their own policies, as they're not run by the ATP. But in the next couple of years, you are going to see more electronic line calling in men's tennis.
And so that is your morning Buzzcast for Tuesday, May 2nd. I'm Abe Madkour. Thanks for listening to the Buzzcast. Stay healthy. Be good to each other. I'll speak to you tomorrow.