Leadership changes with the Warriors and LA Galaxy; MLB to take over producing Padres' games; the XFL makes changes to marketing strategy.
Well, I certainly got a lot of texts and emails about the season finale of Succession, and I guess I'm not the only one who felt a little bad for Kendall Roy, but the series finale of Succession drew 2.9 million viewers on Sunday night, that marked the largest audience for the show during its four year run. Now, I was one of the millions more who watched the episode on demand, so that number will of course grow from the 2.9 million. Now, Austin Karp put that 2.9 million in some sports perspective. He noted that's what ESPN drew for Game 1 of Celtics Hawks first round series this year. Or it is just above the 2.7 million viewers that the Stars Kraken Game 7 did earlier this month. So Austin Karp, putting the finale of Succession and total viewers in comparison to some sports playoffs.
And this is your Morning Buzzcast for Wednesday, May 31st. Good morning. I'm Abe Madkour. We're going to start with two pretty high profile moves in sports business. First, it's the end of an era at the Golden State Warriors, and I have to wonder if Steve Kerr could be next. The Warriors, Bob Myers, a two-time executive of the year, and one of the key executives behind the team's four NBA titles announced on Tuesday that he was stepping down as team president and general manager. He said it was just time to move on. His contract expires at the end of June. He did acknowledge the Warriors offered him a contract extension that would've made him one of the top earning executives in the NBA. Bob Myers has been with the Warriors for 12 years. Before that he was an agent at Wasserman, and he at one time was an SBJ 40 under 40 honoree.
At a news conference on Tuesday, Warriors owner Joe Lacob said, he frankly couldn't understand why Bob Myers was leaving. Quote, "I'm not going to sit here and tell you I understand it because I don't." End quote. That was according to Joe Lacob. While no successor has been named, expect to see more responsibility coming from Lacob's son, Kirk Lacob, who is an executive vice president of Basketball Operations, as well as Mike Dunleavy Jr., who is vice president of Basketball Operations. But back to Bob Myers. We have talked on the Buzzcast that he will be one of the most sought after executives in sports. He could run a team, he could run an agency, he could go into private equity, investing in sports and sports teams and organizations. He could also go into the media. He's that talented and that respected.
But let's think about it for a second. With the Warriors, first it was the legendary Rick Welts moving on as the team's leader. Now, Bob Myers is leaving, and you have to wonder what the future is for the great Steve Kerr. Those three had something pretty special and they built something very special and I'm afraid we're seeing it end. And in addition to Bob Myers's future, Steve Kerr's is the one I'm going to be keeping a very close eye on. Let's move on. Another prominent executive on the West Coast is leaving his role as the LA Galaxy fired President Chris Klein on Tuesday. This is coming after another disappointing season that has seen plenty of fan protests in Los Angeles. Chris Klein was in his 11th season with the Galaxy and at one time he was one of the golden executives in Major League Soccer as league and team officials greatly respected his acumen and leadership.
In fact, he too was on SBJ's 40 under 40 list at one time. I wasn't sure that AEG, the owners of the Galaxy, would move on from him, because AEG President and CEO Dan Beckerman is a huge ally of Chris Klein's. But Beckerman had seen enough and terminated Klein on Tuesday after 11 years. The Galaxy are not good. They are last in MLS. They have been shut out seven times in 14 matches. But remember, there is a real strong history of success with this franchise. Chris Klein had very early success. The Galaxy won the MLS Cup in his second season as president, but they haven't been back to the title game ever since. And that is the longest drought in team history. They are the winningest team in the history of MLS. They are a five time league champion, but they have lost a lot of ground to LAFC in the local LA market.
And the Galaxy have lost more games than all but two Western Conference Teams in the last seven seasons. So you see the performance on the pitch, there have also been issues off the field. These have been well documented as the team has faced penalties that it violated MLS rules. And there has been a boycott by some of the club's main supporter groups who have refused to attend home games as long as Chris Klein remained in charge. And attendance has suffered. It's down more than 2000 this season. So as the Galaxy drifted further and further apart from the rest of the league, AEG felt it had no choice and it has moved on from Galaxy President Chris Klein.
Let's move on because there is more intrigue around the Regional Sports Network business as Major League Baseball will now take over broadcast of the San Diego Padres games, beginning Wednesday, today, after Diamond Sports missed a rights fee payment to the Regional Sports Network's parent company and they let the grace period expire. So Diamond Sports stopped making its rights fee payment to the Padres. So again, the media rights revert back to the team. And as MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has said, Major League Baseball has stepped in. Major League Baseball will produce the Padres game tonight, Wednesday, in Miami with the same announcers. They are employed by the team and with many of the same producers, directors, and camera operators who work as freelancers. MLB will stream the teams games for free through Sunday. And after that, Padres fans can buy a new direct to consumer subscription for 20 bucks a month, I believe, or $75 for the rest of the year on MLB.TV. The league also plans to make the games available on other outlets, including linear carriage in the San Diego market.
Remember, as Diamond filed for bankruptcy around two months ago, it has been negotiating with baseball and its teams to get access to streaming rights. Diamond Sports said it would pay its full rights fee over the lifetime of its contracts in exchange for those streaming rights. But those talks according to SBJ's John Ourand, have not progressed well, and Diamond is looking to cut its contracts like the Padres where it is losing money. Diamond is in the middle of a 20 year, $1.2 billion deal with the Padres that runs through 2032. It's a great deal for the team, not a good deal for Diamond, and so that's why Diamond made the move. Meanwhile, a big day today, Wednesday, as a bankruptcy judge could decide whether Diamond can reduce its rights fee payments to other teams. So a big day, a lot of fluidity to the Regional Sports Network news and Diamond Sports. But as we said before, baseball is ready to step in and produce the games once Diamond moves away.
Let's shift to the XFL, SBJ's Ben Fischer reported on some changes at the XFL, which of course recently completed its first reconstituted season. The XFL has dismissed top leaders in its marketing department. It's part of a broader set of job cuts generated by a review of the league after one season. XFL officials declined to say how many jobs were eliminated, but the most high profile job eliminations came in the marketing division. And this was reportedly done after a review, which determine the XFL should shift from a brand marketing approach, which was seen as more appropriate during the launch of the league to a more revenue driven marketing approach to maximize ticket sales and sponsorship sales heading into its second season. So the bottom line is, you will likely see a shift in the marketing strategy around the XFL that's going to enter into its second season. The XFL is owned by a group led by RedBird Capital Partners, including Gerry Cardinale and Dany Garcia and Dwayne, The Rock, Johnson. We could see more changes for the XFL as it goes into its second season.
And finally, a personal shout out and congratulations to Learfield's publicist, Jennifer Duncan, whose last day at Learfield will be today as she heads into retirement. I've known Jennifer Duncan since her early days at Streetball Partners and Hoop It Up, that was in the mid to late 1990s. She was getting Sports Business Daily by fax at that time, and she often tells me that story. She has been a total pro in her role in handling corporate communications for the last 17 years. And everybody at Sports Business Journal wishes Jennifer Duncan, all the best. And that is your Morning Buzzcast for Wednesday, May 31st. I'm Abe Madkour. Thanks for listening to the Buzzcast. Stay healthy, be good to each other. I'll speak to you tomorrow.