Bills and Sabres shake-up; Nissan to step up for new Titans stadium; Toyota's big NFL bet and why the PGA Tour turned to Elevate
It could be just me, but boy do I feel for Major League baseball right now because its postseason hasn't had any of the traditional excitement, especially building off such a great season. Way too many series sweeps. It seems the playoffs just started and yet we already have three of the four teams in the League Championship Series. We have the Rangers and Astros in the AL. We have the D-Backs awaiting the winner of the Braves, Phillies in the NL. I can tell you, this isn't what Major League Baseball or their network partners wanted, and we'll see how the postseason continues to progress, but right now it's been a bit underwhelming to say the least. And this is your Morning Buzzcast for Thursday, October 12th. I'm Abe Madkour. Thanks for listening to the Buzzcast.
Boy, more changes at the Buffalo Bills and the Buffalo Sabres happened late Wednesday, as both teams will be undergoing another management shakeup. John Roth, the chief operating officer of both teams, and Kathryn D'Angelo, the senior vice president of business administration of the Bills, were both dismissed yesterday, Wednesday. And the moves come less than three months after both Roth and D'Angelo were elevated to their leadership positions. Now, reportedly Roth was involved in a romantic relationship with D'Angelo, who reported to him, and thus created an unethical situation. The teams will now reportedly look to hire replacements from outside the organization. And this is sudden, and this really throws the planning by owner, Terry Pegula, upside down. John Roth was seen as the key executive, as part of a major mid-July shakeup of the Bills front office. We talked about this on the Buzzcast.
Terry Pegula installed an entirely new leadership team to oversee both the Bills and the Sabres, after firing Ron Raccuia, who was the Bill's chief operating officer, and of course who led the team's negotiations with the state and county for a new stadium. So we have mentioned this before, but there have been several shakeups involving the top management at the Bills and Pegula Sports and Entertainment over the years. And of course, Pegula Sports and Entertainment was dissolved in August to allow the Bills and the Sabres to be run separately, with Terry Pegula as president of both teams. Now, with John Roth out, Terry Pegula is back to the drawing board and will have to bring in new leadership, and I can't stress enough, how much this organization misses Kim Pegula, who of course, has been dealing with her own health issues. But Kim Pegula brought some sense of stability and leadership, and certainly a reassuring face of leadership in the Buffalo community and at the league offices, where she is very well-liked. But now more changes in Buffalo, Terry Pegula back to the drawing board in bringing in new leadership.
Let's move on. It looks like Nissan will remain as a naming rights partner of the Tennessee Titans and their new stadium. Nissan has held naming rights to the Titans Home Stadium since 2015. Now, sources tell SBJ's Terry Lefton that Nissan has committed to continuing that title sponsorship at the new 62,000 seat $2.1 billion stadium, that is set to open in time for the '27 NFL season. Now, the deal is not done, but sources have said the commitment has been made for at least a 15-year deal. And we have talked about how important this facility will be. It's in Nashville, one of the hottest cities in America. It's a growing sports market. I could see this stadium hosting a number of marquee events, and I believe Nissan saw the value there. Nissan of course, has a huge presence in Nashville. So they saw the benefit of continuing this relationship. Again, the deal is not done, but a commitment has been made. Elevate is consulting with the Titans on partnership sales.
Let's stay in the auto category because get ready to see more of Toyota around the NFL as the league signed Toyota as its car and truck sponsor. Toyota is already, already a major media buyer around NFL Games. They are the title sponsor of the halftime show of Sunday Night Football. But now, the NFL fills one of its premium categories. Toyota becomes the NFL's official automotive partner. They will get activation rights at the league's biggest events, including the Super Bowl. The deal's length was not disclosed, but it includes cars and trucks in the United States. For the NFL, Hyundai last had the car category in a deal that expired in 2019. Ford had rights to trucks, that expired in 2021. Now Toyota gets both. Toyota said it like the alignment because the brand is focused on growing market share among women, and young drivers, and diverse communities, and they believe those are the growth areas for the NFL. So they like the alignment with the deal. MKTG assisted Toyota on negotiations and will be the sports marketing agency on activation. But this is a big, big deal for Toyota. I know a number of people who are in Plano, Texas, at their headquarters, celebrating this deal yesterday. Remember Toyota's already a sponsor in Olympic Sports, NASCAR and Motorsports, and now they become a big partner of the NFL.
Let's shift to golf because the PGA Tour has turned to Elevate, to help it sell premium hospitality around select events. So the Tour's championship management group runs the tour's season opening event, The Sentry, along with the Players Championship and the Tour Championship in Atlanta. That's the season ending event. It also manages The Presidents Cup. So as part of this deal, which will go through the 2026 Presidents Cup, Elevate will assist with premium hospitality sales, strategy and services at these events. So why is this important? Well, Elevate handles similar programs at the US Open with the USTA. They also sell hospitality at the Circuit of the Americas for the Formula 1 race, and so they're very good at selling these type of events.
They will have three or four salespeople who will be embedded at the PGA Tour's headquarters in Florida, and this will be Elevate's first official partnership in the PGA Tour and professional golf space. And this is why it's also important, because sales of high end hospitality is surging like never before. So every property is looking to amplify its sales around special experiences and high end hospitality. Every property I speak to, they will try to build out more and more high end experiences, because that is what people are paying for. So the PGA Tour turning to Elevate to help it sell those premium experiences and that premium hospitality around select events.
A couple other things to hit on the Buzzcast, Saudi Arabia, well, it's staying in the sports game. It will host another major sport as the UFC will hold its first event in the Kingdom next March. And this shows Saudi Arabia's influence on combat sports continuing to grow. So this UFC bout will be held Saturday, March 2nd, next year. It's part of the Riyadh Festival. Financial terms were not revealed. Now, the deal was set up by the Saudi General Entertainment Authority, which also has set up boxing bouts, slated for early next year, in the Kingdom. So the UFC has been hosting fights in Abu Dhabi and the UAE for several years now, but this will mark its first bout in Saudi Arabia, and again, we are seeing Saudi Arabia's continuing influence on global sports by luring the UFC to the Kingdom, next March.
And finally, Yankee's President Randy Levine is never shy to speak out. He's never out to make a ton of friends. And yesterday, at a conference in New York, run by our friends at Sportico, he called out the Marlins and the Rays for receiving revenue sharing from large market teams while not doing enough in their local market to draw fans and boost attendance. You see this debate often between big market and small market teams. So the Marlins were 29th among 30 teams in average attendance. The Rays were 27th out of 30 teams in average attendance. And Randy Levine said, "More focus has to be on these individual teams to do better business, and not rely on revenue sharing from the likes of the Yankees." He said, "You can't have two Florida teams averaging 15,000 fans." He said, "You don't see that at the NFL or the NBA," and he believes in baseball, there's been a dependency issue that's got to get better.
Meaning he thinks these teams, i.e., the Marlins and the Rays, are too dependent on revenue sharing. So again, a longtime debate. This is nothing new, but it's always a little bit fun when teams call each other out. So what's the bottom line there? Well, Randy Levine is always known to be direct and provocative, and he again, calls out teams who receive revenue sharing for not optimizing their own local business. I'm sure those comments will make their way through the league office and be very much talked about among the individual teams.
And don't forget, SBJ's Media Innovators is just a few weeks away. I hope you can join me on November 2nd, in New York City. We see such a dynamic media landscape and this event will look at how teams, how leagues, how partners, how media companies are navigating these challenges. Learn more and register today by visiting the events section of sportsbusinessjournal.com, or just reach out to me and let me know if you want more information. And that is your Morning Buzzcast for Thursday, October 12th. I'm Abe Madkour. Thanks for listening to the Buzzcast. Stay healthy, be good to each other. I'll speak to you tomorrow.