A wild PGA Championship weekend; NBA and WNBA records; teamwide LV Aces sponsorships; and thoughts on the Preakness.
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Joe Lemire:
Happy Monday morning to you. I'm SBJ senior writer Joe Lemire filling in on the Morning Buzzcast. For most of this exciting week in the industry, highlighted by the Sports Business Awards on Wednesday evening and preceded by 4SE, a sports and entertainment event co-produced by SBJ and Leaders in Sport. The last Buzzcast was published on Friday morning just as the world's number one ranked golfer, Scottie Scheffler, who basically had the word boring tethered to his name as an ever-present modifier, was arrested and charged with a felony and three misdemeanors while on his way to a second round tee time at the PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky. The details of the case are still not entirely clear, but the morning started with a tragic turn, a tournament volunteer, John Mills, was struck by a shuttle bus and killed in the early hours. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.
That led to a large police presence and traffic slowdown outside the country club. Scheffler driving a player-courtesy car was stopped by an officer while trying to make his way around the commotion and into the club, and this is where the details are in dispute. Scheffler said in this statement that there was a "big misunderstanding of what I thought I was being asked to do" during what he described as a "very chaotic situation." The officer, Detective Bryan Gillis wrote in the police report, "The subject refused to comply and accelerated forward dragging Detective Gillis to the ground, which led to injuries such as pain, swelling and abrasions." The report then concluded with a detail few have seen in a police document before. Detective Gillis's uniform pants valued at approximately $80 were damaged beyond repair. Scheffler reportedly spent his brief time in jail warming up for a second round in which he managed to shoot a 5 under 66 to keep himself in contention. In Saturday's third round, however, he went 2 over 73, snapping a streak of 41 rounds without exceeding par.
He said later that the gravity of the situation caught up to him a bit. He was also without his usual caddy who had flown home for his daughter's high school graduation. Scheffler then finished with a 6 under 65, and somehow managed to finish in the top 10. There is an arraignment scheduled for 9:00 AM on Tuesday morning. The Editorial Director of golf media site No Laying Up, Kevin Van Valkenburg, who previously was a longtime ESPN writer, reported a source saying that charges were expected to be dropped. We shall see how it plays out.
All of that news overshadowed a compelling weekend of golf in which Xander Schauffele won his first major pulling past Bryson DeChambeau by one stroke and Viktor Hovland by three. With the win, Schauffele shed his own persistent identifier: the best active player to never win a major.
The NBA had a pair of conference semifinal Game 7s yesterday. Notably both [inaudible 00:02:43] teams won, even the Minnesota Timberwolves who trailed by 15 at halftime in Denver, the largest comeback win in Game 7 history. But they managed to eliminate the defending champion Nuggets and the Indiana Pacers set their own NBA playoff record by shooting 67.1% from the to knock off the Knicks. That's better than two out of three. Not bad. The Pacers now tip off with the Celtics and the Timberwolves play the Mavericks. Credit where it's due. Just as the NBA playoffs were getting started, in an office conversation, our own Abe Madkour predicted the Timberwolves would be a dangerous team making a deep run.
Speaking of basketball records, Caitlin Clark is already helping set new standards in the WNBA. That's as part of a group I should note, but the Indiana Fever rolled through New York on Saturday and the Liberty not only sold out the Barclays Center, but a source told the Associated Press that it was the first individual game to generate more than $2 million in ticket revenue in WNBA history. That's before concessions and merchandise, and at least one Liberty executive posted on LinkedIn that Liberty gear was "flying off the shelves." It's no secret that Clark has rock star status right now, and WNBA teams everywhere are benefiting as she rolls through their town. The trick, of course, is turning this touring act into a residency and having much more consistency. All trend lines suggest that's possible, and that $2 million figure is a helpful concrete financial indicator of the typically oblique bookkeeping in the sports world. Each team plays 20 home games per season, and we now know the upper end of a typical gate.
It also is another strong data point of overall fan interest as the W approaches its media rights negotiations. The league is estimated to receive about $60 million per year currently from ESPN, ION, and Amazon with hopes on getting at least double that as Commissioner Kathy Engelbert has said. Even if a full doubling is more of an anchoring number for negotiations, eclipsing that $100 million threshold and getting into nine figures certainly seems achievable.
Speaking of finances in the W, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority approached the two-time defending League champion Aces players and proposed $100,000 sponsorship agreements for each member of the 12 woman roster. The Las Vegas Review Journal reported that the LVCBA entered into separate sponsorship agreements with players by approaching their agencies and not apparently informing the team. That's a critical detail because it helps avoid a possible salary cap violation. If team management is aware, then it could be seen as a way of circumventing league rules. That's worth highlighting because the salary cap per team is set for $1.4 million per season, and this is now $1.2 million in sponsorship dollars, nearly doubling the income of the roster.
A day after that news broke, the WNBA opened an investigation into the agreement a source told the newspaper. Convention Authority CEO Steve Hill indicated that he had not yet heard from the league, but said, "We did this the right way. We're happy to answer any questions they have." Hill likened the sponsorships to the NIL deals that college athletes are eligible to receive, which also need to fit under similar guidelines of not being courted by school or team officials.
We just enjoyed the third Saturday in May, which means the Preakness Stakes was held. Seize the Grey, a nine to one long shot won the race wire to wire, besting Kentucky Derby champ Mystic Dan by more than two lengths. It has now been six years without a horse winning both of those races, thereby robbing the Belmont Stakes of its status as the possible Triple Crown coronation. This year's Belmont will still be unique, however, as it is the first of two races that won't be held at its namesake, Belmont Park. The New York Racing Association is renovating the Long Island venue and will instead hold the race at Saratoga. As for the Preakness, the intermittent rain held down the crowd a bit at Pimlico with estimates of just under 50,000 fans in attendance, which is about half of what it has drawn in its heyday.
Betting was up 6.7% or almost $4 million over a year ago, but the total of about 58 million was still more than $10 million shy of the record set in 2021, according to The Daily [inaudible 00:06:45], but the track will soon be undergoing its own major renovations. In a deal called Pimlico Plus, the current owners, the Stronach Group will transfer the property rights to the state of Maryland for a dollar and also license the Preakness itself at a cost of $3 million annually, plus 2% of gross betting handle. The Maryland Stadium authority will then undertake the renovation of Pimlico, which is expected to impose a 1-year hiatus in which the race moves to Laurel Park in Maryland in 2026 before returning to the modernized venue in 2027. The Kentucky Derby has provided a master class in fan engagement and venue operations in recent years, building its brand and providing premium experiences that set it apart from its Triple Crown brethren. But the other two tracks are on their way to their own upgrades in what can only be seen as a positive for the long-term health of horse racing.
One interesting note the Preakness winner, Seize the Grey is its unusual ownership structure. Rather than a typical single individual, family or company owning the horse, instead, it is owned by a consortium of micro-shareholders through a company called MyRacehorse. The 2020 Kentucky Derby winner, Authentic, also had a portion of its ownership sold through MyRacehorse. In the case of Seize the Gray, there are 2,570 owners from 42 states who bought 5,000 shares priced at about $127 apiece. MyRacehorse's founder Michael Behrens said in a Saturday news conference, "That the goal is to allow all people the thrill of owning a horse." He said, "We just had 2,570 people experience one of the greatest thrills in racing." A lottery was held to determine which of the shareholders could stand in the winner's circle. That's all for today. I hope to see many of you in New York this week at 4SE and or the Sports Business Awards. Make the most of your Monday and I'll be back in your podcast app tomorrow. This is Joe Lemire signing off for the May 20th Buzzcast. Thanks.