Last call for Brewers' concessions policy; NFL set to drip, drip, drip schedule release; legalized sports betting five years later....and does it really feel like five years?
There is certainly buzz back in Chicago for the Blackhawks. A team that has certainly struggled the last few years got a major boost in winning the NHL draft lottery Monday night, earning the right to select Connor Bedard. Bedard is 17 and is considered the best player to enter the NHL since Connor McDavid went first overall to the Oilers in 2015. He is seen as that type of generational talent, so it seems there could be brighter days ahead for the Chicago Blackhawks.
This is your Morning Buzzcast for Tuesday, May 9th. Good morning. I'm Abe Madkour. Hope everybody's doing well. Thanks for listening to the Buzzcast.
Despite a report early on Monday from Peter King saying the NFL schedule could be delayed, the league did finalize it and will release it Thursday at 8:00 PM. SBJ's John Ourand had some good insight into what had to be resolved on Monday to get the schedule over the finish line. Some games will be announced as soon as Wednesday with the international games in London and Germany announced, and the first-ever Black Friday game will also be announced. So there will be bit-by-bit release of the schedule over Wednesday and Thursday across multiple media outlets.
One other element, one other change is that teams this year can be on Thursday Night Football twice, and not every team is guaranteed to play in primetime so the schedule release on Thursday for the NFL.
Staying with the NFL or football, one naming rights deal to keep your eye on is right here in my town of Charlotte, North Carolina as Bank of America's naming rights deal for the Panther Stadium and Charlotte FC Stadium expires at the end of this year. Bank of America purchased naming rights in 2004, under a 20-year agreement for $140 million or $7 million per season according to the Charlotte Observer, but it is unclear if Bank of America will renew the deal or if the Panthers want to search for a new naming rights partner.
Remember, that deal was done at the highest levels between then Panthers owner Jerry Richardson and Bank of America CEO Hugh McColl. They were longtime friends who saw the value of doing a business deal together. But as we know, the market has changed a lot in 20 years, the Panthers have changed a lot in 20 years, and the Panthers under owner David Tepper will be far more aggressive in seeking its next deal, easily looking for something north of $15 million a year. That's just my hunch, my guess. I have no inside knowledge on this.
But Bank of America is still a great building. It has very good bones, had a recent renovation. It's home to the Panthers and Charlotte FC and is now hosting concerts. It's an active facility in a very attractive market, and I think the Panthers are only going to get better on the field with their new number one pick and quarterback, Bryce Young.
So bottom line, I think Tepper Sports and Entertainment is in a good spot to go to the marketplace. I think they have a lot of things going for it, very active building in a great market, and so we'll have to see how this naming rights deal plays out over the next few months, but I think it's going to be really one to watch.
Let's shift to baseball. There were some pushback on Major League Baseball teams who decided to extend beer sales because of the faster pace of the game this year. And while I've heard murmurs, I haven't heard enough de facto evidence of the faster game times impacting per-cap sales.
Well, the Milwaukee Brewers are one team who have changed their mind about extending beer sales beyond the seventh inning of home games. They were among the teams that extended sales through the eighth inning in response to the shorter games this season because of the pitch clock. But now the Brewers are going back to their previous policy of shutting down beer sales after the seventh inning.
The Brewers called the move to extend sales an experiment and said their move to revert back wasn't due to any fan behavior or backlash, but more because sales of all concessions dropped in the late innings so it wasn't worth it to keep the concession stands open in the eighth inning and later because the sales just weren't there.
There are other teams that have extended alcohol sales through the eighth inning, the Diamondbacks, the Astros, the Baltimore Orioles, the Twins and the Rangers. But again, we'll see if other teams change their policy. We are actively keeping our eye on per-cap sales to see if there's any discernible impact from the shorter games.
Now, the average game length in Major League Baseball through Sunday was two hours and 39 minutes. That is a 27-minute drop from last season. Major League Baseball hasn't completed a season with games that short since 1984 so you're seeing just how significant these changes are to the pace of play on the field by that figure alone.
Let's move on to the NBA. Last night I caught the Heat-Knicks. That was a good game. Heat looked tough and the Lakers, boy, they are showing their stuff in the West. I think the rest of these playoffs are going to be some real must-see TV.
Meanwhile, SBJ's John Ourand in his media newsletter reported that ESPN's budget cuts will now extend to its NBA pre-game show. Yes, for the first time in at least a decade, ESPN's NBA studio show will not travel to the league's conference finals. Instead, ESPN will continue to produce its pre-game, its halftime and its post-game shows for the conference finals from its New York studio.
ESPN still plans to take the show on the road for the NBA finals. Those are scheduled to start on ABC June 1st. Remember, all these decisions and all these cuts come as Disney is in the middle of a process that it expects will cut $5.5 billion in cost.
We'll end around something we don't touch a lot on on the Buzzcast, but it's about legalized sports betting. This Sunday will mark five years since the Supreme Court ruling allowed for legalized sports betting and right now more than 35 states have legal sports betting, more states will likely join in the coming months or the next year.
Since it's become legal, Americans have bet over $220 billion on sports. That's according to the AP. That figure includes wagers through the end of March. That is up from $125 billion that had been wagered at the four-year mark. So even in just a year, it's up by nearly a hundred billion dollars. Over five years, Americans have bet over $220 billion on sports, but there still needs to be vigilance and transparency as we have had some recent scandals that have put the spotlight on safeguards and wagering safeguards.
One of the greatest fears once sports betting was legalized was that competitors would wager on sports and that's why so many strict guidelines were put in place over fear of breaches of integrity and we've seen some fissures begin to appear. We had the issue at the University of Alabama last week, and now the University of Iowa announced that 26 athletes across five sports and one employee of the athletic department are suspected of wagering on sports in violation of NCAA rules.
In addition, Iowa State acknowledged that about 15 of its athletes across three sports are also suspected of violating gambling rules. And I noted this comes days after Alabama fired its baseball coach amid an investigation into suspicious betting activity on the Crimson Tide's game against LSU on April 28th.
Again, this was everybody's greatest fear, any impact on the integrity of the game, and it would certainly be a massive blow to sports wagering and cause officials to revisit their guardrails. That is something we all have to be very aware of and keep our eye on because breaches of integrity and the violation of gambling rules would send shockwaves throughout the sports business.
So that is your Morning Buzzcast for Tuesday, May 9th. I'm Abe Madkour. Thanks for listening to the Buzzcast. Stay healthy, be good to each other. I'll speak to you tomorrow.