NFL's global run continues in Mexico City; the first week of the Iger era 2.0 and early takeaways from Qatar.
NFL's global run continues in Mexico City; the first week of the Iger era 2.0 and early takeaways from Qatar.
As a reminder, we will bring you the morning buzz cast through Wednesday and then we will be off for the holiday. Wishing everybody a fantastic Thanksgiving week. In addition, I hope to see many of you at our Media Innovators discussion next week in New York City at the Western Times Square we have ESPN's, Jimmy Pataro, NBC Universals, mark Lazarus. They will both be with us and it should be enlightening conversations at a very interesting time in sports media. Hope to see you there. You can register today@sportsbusinessjournal.com and this is your morning Buzz cast for Tuesday, November 22nd. Good morning, I'm a mad core. Hope everybody is doing well. Thanks a lot for listening to the Buzz Cast. Let's start with the nfl. The league continues to show its strength in global events just a few weeks after holding very successful NFL games in London. The league drew nearly 80,000 fans in Mexico City Monday night as the 49ers beat the Cardinals on Monday night Football.
It was the fifth regular season NFL game played in Mexico City and the first since 2019. Now it was technically a Cardinals home game, but the crowd of more than 78,000 at Estadio Azteca heavily favored the 49ers and if you watch the game, you could hear the energy and the loud atmosphere at the venue. All in all good news for the NFL and the NFL has to continue to feel good about its global growth efforts cuz you're seeing some real energy about playing games, not just in London but Germany was a huge hit. And now Mexico City drawing nearly 80,000 fans. Let's move on. The Bob Iger era 2.0 enters its second day at Disney. And here is what we know Disney investors were very happy with i's return as on Monday. When the Dow was slightly down, Disney's shares ended up more than 6%.
There was also a bit more detail about how Iger return went down. Multiple reports indicate this wasn't or hasn't been in the works for months, but talks started Friday with the board and ended Sunday. Just remarkable. Speed here was such a big change. Bob Iger was also fast to announce some of the changes he will enact. Bob Chap X right hand and influential executive Kareem Daniel will leave Disney. Iger said that Disney will also begin implementing organizational and operating changes within the company in a way that respects creativity as the heart and soul of Disney. Also with an eye on keeping costs down or controlling costs. So remember the theme of creativity was certainly a different thread under Chopek. That is under Iger. Iger is looking to restore that. I would say that mindset around creativity at Disney. Iger also put together a committee to lead that discussion about creativity, which includes ESPN's Jimmy Pitaro, who's standing continues to rise at Disney.
So what else do we know? Well, according to the New York Times, many of Disney's leadership team had lost faith in Bob Chopek and threatened to resign if he remained as ceo. So a lot of insight, a lot of color as s BJ's John Iran reported in his s SPJ media newsletter Monday evening. Agers return is good news for ESPN as Iger has always been a strong ESPN supporter and I don't anticipate any major shifts in ESPN's business or how ESPN conducts business under Bob Iger. Let's move on to soccer. The US men's team playing to a one one draw against Wales really had to sting. I know I was surprised and while several players quoted after the game expressed disappointment with the draw, they did feel that they played well and they were happy with their overall performance. They will need a great overall performance when they play England on Friday in what will be a very tough match.
But now getting outta that draw has become a little bit more difficult for the US team. Meanwhile, drop me a note. Let me know how you are finding the overall coverage of the World Cup. So far a lot of the narrative has been around the coverage of both Fox and Telemundo. Fox has been very clear they're going to cover the matches and not look to spend a lot of time and resources covering controversial issues surrounding the host's guitar. Their philosophy is that viewers come to watch the matches and not really interested in news about human rights or political issues in the host country. And there are a number of controversial issues. Just look at the first day of the tournament, you had a group of seven European teams dropping plans to where the One Love rainbow arm bands after FIFA reportedly threatened the players with yellow cards if they wore them.
In addition, you had players on the Iran team not singing the country's national anthem as a protest against their country. So there are plenty of political overtones throughout this tournament. Even starting in day one as a contrast to Fox's coverage, Telemundo Deportes has taken a different approach and over the weekend they aired a segment on the state of political affairs in Qatar Telemundo. President Ray Warren has said the network will cover anything that occurs that would affect the tournament and they will not ignore any geopolitical issues. But let me know how you have found the coverage so far. Let's stay with soccer cuz one league that's interesting and people are keeping their eye on and talking about is the MLS Next Pro League, which is the developmental league for Major league soccer. So the latest city getting a team in the mls. Next Pro league is Cleveland, which will have a next pro team beginning in 2025.
And the club's owners are bullish on soccer. They wanna bring an NWSL expansion team to the city. So what is MLS next Pro? Well it will include 28 teams in 2023 made up of MLSs. Uh, developmental teams mostly in the same market, but some are independent teams. So the Cleveland Club will be the third independent club in Next Pro. There's an independent club in Rochester and in Carolina. So next pro hopes to include up to 10 to 20 independent teams by 2026. So again, this is a growing league. They'll include 28 teams in 23. They wanna grow more. Now in Cleveland, the team will be owned by the Cleveland Soccer Group and that consists of film distributor, gravitas Ventures, founder Nolan Gallagher and his former president Michael Murphy. So in addition to the next pro team, uh, Cleveland Soccer group wants to bring the NWSL to Cleveland and they have applied for the latest round of NWSL expansion.
Remember we've talked on the buzz cast. The NWSL wants to expand from 12 to 14 teams for the 2024 season. Add Cleveland to the mix of cities interested in the nwsl. Let's stay on team ownership because if you're interested in buying the Ottawa Senators, you will be given a month. Yes, the month of December to study the team's financial information. That's according to the Ottawa Sun. As many as six groups and likely more have contacted investment banker, gala Sports Partners out of New York and expressed interest in the club. So look bidding for the club to begin around the new year. And there are hopes that a deal to finalize a new owner for the Ottawa Senators could be done by June. Remember, actor Ryan Reynolds is surveying the field. He is very interested in the senators he has spoken to Commissioner Gary Bettman to express his formal interest in the club.
Of course the NHL would love to see someone like Ryan Reynolds as part of any group. Uh, so the sale of the Ottawa Senators is heating up. You know, we touched on it yesterday. I wanna close the loop on it because the sites for the women's basketball Final Four are set through 2031. Portland, Oregon will be a new host. They will land the Women's Final Four for the first time. So they selected host sites from 2027 to 2031. They are Columbus at Nationwide Arena in 27, Indianapolis at the Game Bridge Field House in 28. San Antonio at the Alamo Dome in 29. Portland at the center in 2030 and Dallas at American Airline Center in 2031. Like I said, Portland is set to host. Its first ever. Women's Final Four. Well the full schedule. Just so we have it clear, Dallas will host the Women's Final Four in 23.
Cleveland at Rocket Mortgage Field House will host in 24 Tampa, an Olay Arena in 25 and Phoenix at the Footprint Center in 2026. I know you'll remember all those. I know you're marking them in your calendar, but now the schedule and the sites are set for the women's basketball Final four through 2031. And let's finish the buzz cast with this. Put it in the books. Christiana Reinaldo has become the first person to reach 500 million followers on Instagram. Quite a number, quite a display of his following around the world. So that is your morning Buzz cast for Tuesday, November 22nd. I made Mad Core. Have a great day. Thanks for listening to the Buzz Gas. Stay healthy, be good to each other. I'll speak to you on Wednesday.