LA28 presents 5 sports for Olympic inclusion; Storylines around the NHL season; MLB Wild Card viewership down and executives on the move
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And this is your Morning Buzzcast for Tuesday, October 10th. Good morning. I'm Abe Madkour. Good to be with you today. Thanks for listening to the Buzzcast. We're going to start with the Olympics because Monday was a big day specifically for flag football and cricket because those two sports were among five sports that LA28 proposed adding to its Olympic program. LA28 will also put forward baseball, and softball, lacrosse, and squash. So those five sports will be proposed to the IOC, whose executive board will review them and put them to a vote on their inclusion next week. That vote is generally a rubber stamp of the suggestions.
LA28's chair, Casey Wasserman, called all the sports relevant, innovative, and community-based. The goal here is to bring new athletes to the Olympics and diversify the fan base and the audience. And they believe these five sports do that. Now, the big winners obviously were cricket and flag football. LA28 proposed cricket in its shorter 2020 format, that is a shorter form of the game, and we'll touch on flag football in just a little bit. But LA28 said it considered sports on a variety of criteria, including gender equity, fan interest, and youth relevance. Now, what sports did not make the cut? They did not select breaking, karate, kickboxing, and motor sports. Those were sports that did not make their shortlists. But let's look at the others.
Baseball and softball have been in and out of the Olympics for decades. They last appeared in Tokyo in 2021 but are not part of the Paris program. Lacrosse had been contested in the games, most recently as a demonstration sport in 1948. So this is a big win for lacrosse. Also, if approved, squash would make its Olympic debut in Los Angeles.
Let's drill a bit more into flag football, as this is a big win for the NFL because this will be five-on-five football. This will sink well with the NFL's goal to globalize American football and generate revenue around the world. The Olympic tournament in five years will be leveraged by many parties invested in the growth of the NFL. Just think how the NFL will get behind this. Teams will get behind this, so will media partners and sponsors. Casey Wasserman personally lobbied for flag football, believing that the Olympics will benefit big time if the NFL was involved in promoting the event. So five sports suggested by LA28, and those are big, big wins for those sports to be included in the Olympic program.
We'll have more on this when the IOC votes on this next week. Let's get to some other news.
The puck drops on the 2023-24 NHL season today on Tuesday, with game slated all afternoon and evening on ESPN. At 5:30, you have Nashville and Tampa. 8:00, you have Chicago, Pittsburgh. 10:30, you have the Seattle Kraken and the Stanley Cup champ, Vegas Golden Knights. Plenty of interesting storylines in the NHL. Of course, you've got Connor Bedard debuting with the Blackhawks in Pittsburgh tonight. The game seems to be in a very good spot.
NHL revenue is expected to top $6 billion. That would be another high watermark for the league. It just seems like the league is really finding its stride. In addition, you'll see more player deals coming this year and into next year because the NHL is preparing for a big jump in its salary cap in the summer of '24 and beyond. This will be the biggest jump in the salary cap in years. You could see it grow by more than $4 million per team. That's a huge jump for NHL standards that will lead to an influx of player deals, overall record revenue around the game. And with more inventory coming into the game, like jersey and helmet ads and digital dasherboards, I think the revenue will just continue to increase. That's good for the league. That's good, of course, for the teams, and it's also good for the players. So the NHL season starts today.
Some other interesting news, Saudi Arabia formerly informed FIFA that it will bid to host the men's World Cup in 2034. Right now, it's easy to see that the kingdom would be the favorite to land those games. Now, Australia has shown an interest in the tournament as well, but Australia may be short of FIFA's requirements around stadiums. Saudi Arabia, which is preparing to host the 2027 Asian Cup right now, meets most of FIFA's criteria. Again, it's an expedited decision. Bids are due by the end of November. So Saudi Arabia right now could be seen as the leader in the clubhouse to land the men's World Cup in 2034.
I'm sure you're all watching MLB's postseason. Right now, it's off to a little bit of a disappointing start with viewership as the wild card round had four series sweeps, and that led to viewership to drop 18% from last year, according to SBJ's Austin Karp. Overall, ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2 combined to average 2.2 million viewers for games on Tuesday and Wednesday. That was down from 2.7 million viewers last year. The series that drew the best overall average viewership, Phillies and Marlins. The least watched series was the Twins over the Blue Jays. But that had late afternoon starts, and that also had no measurement of the Toronto market. So that could have easily led to those numbers. But baseball hopes to build on the divisional round because the wild card round viewership down 18% compared to last year.
Let's shift to golf. There's a new golf event to have on your radar, as the World Champions Cup team golf event has signed its first official sponsor. Shell Oil is on board for the tournament that makes its debut in Florida in December. Now, what does this event? It's a Ryder Cup-style tournament featuring golfers 50 and older. Teams represent the US and Europe as well as an international squad, so they're obviously drawing on the appeal of the global game. Shell signed a multi-year deal. They'll have branding on the course. They'll get media spots on ABC and ESPN as well as a spot in the tournament's pro-am. Intersport has launched the World Champions Cup alongside the PGA Tour. Like I said, ABC and ESPN will cover the event. It will be held at the Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Florida. So an interesting novel event launches this year. Let's see the early appeal and if it can grow into a staple on the golf calendar.
Let's end the Buzzcast around people. First, Playfly Sports is promoting Craig Sloan to president. So the longtime sports executive will oversee the agency's four core divisions, global partnerships, media, sports properties, and tech. Sloan, who has been COO since joining Playfly in 2021, will continue to report directly to founder and CEO, Michael Schreiber. Sloan will remain based in New York. Sloan said one of the first things on his to-do list is to grow the sports consulting business at Playfly across brands, properties, events, experiential, hospitality, and game day services. While another potential vertical for expansion for Playfly is talent representation, so Craig Sloan promoted to president at Playfly Sports.
More changes at the Premier League club Chelsea, who was named Jason Gannon as COO of the club. Gannon had previously worked as the managing director of SoFi Stadium. He was a key executive in the development and the success of that venue. He's very, very well-regarded operator. And now Gannon is expected to lead the way on Chelsea Stadium development plans. They could be looking to renovate Stanford Bridge. They could be looking at a new site for a venue. A lot of changes at Chelsea, as in addition to Gannon, they brought on a new CFO and have recruited the CRO from AC Milan to become Chelsea's Chief Revenue Officer as the club looks to grow revenue.
We've talked previously Chelsea's president of business, Tom Glick. His departure was announced in May. He has officially left the team. I'm sure with his strong background, Tom Glick will have a lot of people interested in talking to him. And finally, Chelsea's director of communications and public affairs, Toby Craig, will leave the club at the end of the year. So a number of changes at Chelsea, including Jason Gannon coming on as chief operating officer of the club.
And finally, we'll end at college sports a very strong hire, in my opinion, at the University of Washington, as the school has hired Tulane's athletic director, Troy Dannen. As its new AD, Dannen will be introduced at a news conference today on Tuesday. He has served as Tulane's athletic director since December of 2015. He has really turned around that athletic department. He's also become a very well-respected, influential figure across the collegiate landscape. He serves on a number of committees. He's very active on the NCAA's football competition committee. I have seen him speak many times on key issues facing collegiate sports, and he's very reasoned, very thoughtful, and he will be Washington's first outside athletic director hired since Todd Turner was hired in 2004. The previous athletic directors, Scott Woodward and Jennifer Cohen, were internal promotions. So Troy Dannen replaces or succeeds Jennifer Cohen, who, of course, is now the athletic director at the University of Southern California. So Troy Dannen becoming the athletic director at the University of Washington.
And that is your Morning Buzzcast for Tuesday, October 10th. I'm Abe Madkour. Thanks for listening to the Buzzcast. Stay healthy. Be good to each other. I'll speak to you tomorrow.