Legends adding to it's arena and facility management portfolio in acquiring ASM Global; Steve Cohen's grand plan around Citi Field, Nashville Yards district to add CAA's Nashville office and college athletes to discuss their rights at the White House.
It is a big earnings day today, Wednesday, as Disney will release its earnings, and so will Endeavor. Those will be closely poured over. If you want to dig into the numbers, get into the earnings report for the TKO Group, which reported earnings for the first time as a public entity on Tuesday and stated it took in 450 million in the third quarter. That, of course, covers the UFC and the WWE. Those numbers were up 32% for the same period last year. There's a lot more worth checking out in that inaugural TKO Group financial report.
This is your Morning Buzzcast for Wednesday, November 8th. Good morning. I'm Abe Madkour. Excuse me as I battle a little bit of a cold. I recall being at a dinner recently where a team owner said the issue that kept him up at night was all the spending outside of player payroll, all the things teams are doing and the investments they're making, and coaches and analysts and trainers and assistants.
The owner said it was getting to be too much. That crossed my mind as the Cubs made a surprising hire in former Brewer's manager Craig Counsell to replace the fired David Ross in a deal that is believed to be a five-year deal reportedly worth a record $40 million. $8 million a year for the manager. To be fair, that's a lot less than coaches make in other leagues.
Monty Williams will be paid north of $13 million a year by the Pistons. NHL coaches make north of $4 million. We know what the NFL coaches make: well, well north of 8 million. But this does set a new bar for Major League Baseball. You think about all the trickle-down impact this would have on any organization.
Also, in coaching news, Kansas coach Bill Self signed a lifetime contract that will pay him $53 million over the first five years. He now tops Kentucky's John Calipari for the richest deal ever given to a college basketball coach at a public university. We're seeing the revenues coming in. The dollars are being spent. Coaches are seeing an increase in their salaries and their value.
Meanwhile, another big item for today, The Athletic is reporting that the Biden administration is going to look into the issues of the rights of college athletes with an event at the White House on Wednesday with former college football players, including Andrew Luck. They will discuss revenue sharing, safety standards, and athletes having a voice in decisions.
Why is this important? Well, it's the first time the Biden administration has really weighed in on this issue. We will have to see what they say coming out of today's event. We know what the NCAA wants in terms of name, image, and likeness, oversight, and protection from Congress. We'll have to see if the Biden administration begins to lean in a bit more on these issues facing college sports.
Let's move on. Legends will become an even bigger force in the arena and facility management business as it acquires ASM Global in a deal that sources tell SBJ is valued over $2 billion.
What does this mean? Well, it greatly increases Legends' operation of sports venues and facility management. These are the people who run and operate many of the sports venues that you attend for all your games. Now, Legends will add ASM Global's estimated 350 arenas and stadiums, and convention centers worldwide to their portfolio. That is real scale for Legends that they can sell against and, of course, book events around.
ASM Global was formed in 2019 through a merger between AEG facilities and SMG. We're seeing more consolidation now as Legends becomes a massive player in the facility management space.
Shifting to golf, we have a completed lineup for the TGL, as Tiger Woods and David Blitzer will join to own the sixth and final team in this startup golf league. Now Tiger Woods' TGR Ventures and Blitzer will own Jupiter Links Golf Club. Now, Woods is also the first player added to that Club's four-man roster. He believes he'll be healthy enough to play in the league, which starts in January.
For David Blitzer, one of the true good guys in the sports business, this continues a run of investments in sports. He has equity in five North American major sports teams. He's got equity in the Sixers and the Devils. He owns a stake in the Guardians, the Commanders, Joe Gibbs Racing. He's also a partial owner in various soccer teams around the world, including Real Salt Lake of MLS, the Utah Royals of the NWSL, and Crystal Palace of the Premier League. David Blitzer is the real deal. Now, he joins with Tiger Woods on the TGL.
The TGL begins play in January. It will consist of six teams with four-man rosters. The inaugural season will include 15 regular season matches. The matches will be on EPN, ESPN2, ESPN+. Still a lot of interest and questions about this league. I watched an interview, I believe, yesterday with Rory McIlroy and Tom Werner. They're bullish on this league. The investors are big-time names in this league.
Meanwhile, Mike McCarley, the founder and CEO of TMRW Sports and the TGL, joins the Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast as the big get this week. He tells the story of how he, Tiger, and Rory decided to launch this new golf venture. You want to check that out.
Meanwhile, Mets owner, also a TGL investor, has big ambitions for the area around Citi Field. He unveiled a casino plan in Queens, which is an $8 billion development. It's a gaming center, hotels, music venue, all near Citi Field. This area is ripe for development. Cohen has a lot of work to do. He would still need state help to allow commercial development, but his plan is aggressive and ambitious. It calls for a casino and an entertainment complex to be built on a 50-acre parking lot in Queens next to Citi Field. Cohen is, of course, vying for one of the coveted state licenses to build a full-scale casino. He would partner with Hard Rock. If he's granted that license, it would be quite the development and a development you have to keep your eye on because there would be Citi Field. There would be this development. There would also be the new stadium for NYCFC, all in Queens.
Speaking of new developments, the Broncos have new ownership, and these new owners want to make a statement. They are building a new $175 million headquarters and training facility on the site of their current training center in Englewood, Colorado. Now, this is a privately financed effort. You have to look at the renderings. It looks amazing.
It'll include outdoor practice fields, a three-story, 205,000-square-foot training facility. The team's headquarters will be connected to the Pat Bowlen Fieldhouse. This project is the second major facility's investment by the owners of the Broncos in just over a year. Remember, they pumped in over $100 million this off-season in renovations of Empower Field at Mile High earlier this year. This new training facility and team headquarters... They will break ground next year. The expected completion is by 2026. The facility is being designed by HOK and the Rockwell Group. It will be bigger than the current one by more than 30%. This is quite a complex. Again, check out the renderings, if you haven't seen it, on sportsbusinessjournal.com of the Broncos' new $175 million headquarters and training facility in Englewood, Colorado.
Let's stay with the development theme. We know that Nashville is a hot sports city. One agency moving into a larger space in Nashville is CAA, which will move its Nashville office in late 2025 to the Nashville Yards mixed-use district. That's right in the city's downtown.
Now, this office will cover 75,000 square feet. It'll be across two floors. If you've been to Nashville, you've seen the development of Nashville Yards. It's really right downtown, off-Broadway. This will feature office, residential, retail, restaurants, and a music and event venue developed by AEG. CAA has a number of sports divisions in the city, including baseball, football, parts of hockey, and brand consulting and property sales, also their owner's rep vertical, CAA ICON. But Nashville, again, very hot city. Here, you see a new development around Nashville Yards, where CAA Sports and CAA will call its Nashville headquarters in late 2025.
That is your morning Buzzcast for Wednesday, November 8th. I'm Abe Madkour. Thanks for listening to the Buzzcast. Stay healthy. Be good to each other. I'll speak to you tomorrow.