The MLB League Championship Series are set, the business impact of Connor Bedard on the NHL, and Coach Prime sounds off about late kickoff times.
Major League Baseball's league championship series are set. We have Rangers at the Astros game one on Sunday at 8:15 Eastern time on Fox that is up against the Giants-Bills NFL Sunday night football. Then you have the D-backs at Phillies game one on Monday, 8:00 PM Eastern on TBS. Now, I don't think many predicted these matchups and I would have to think Fox is at least rooting for the Phillies to represent some portion of the East Coast. An Arizona Texas World Series would likely have limited national appeal, but the league championship series are set and start Sunday night. This is your morning Buzzcast for Friday, Friday the 13th. Yes, Friday, October 13th. I'm Abe Madkour. Thanks for listening to the Buzzcast.
Let's start with Major League Baseball. Because of the four remaining teams, a surprising postseason run could really help the Arizona Diamondbacks as the team has some key business decisions this off season, including about the future of its local media distribution as well as the potential future new ballpark.
Let's start with the ballpark. We know the issues around Chase Field. It's a downtown facility which opened in 1998, but I'll say the facility has shown its age and is a little dated, and team officials have been exploring options for either building a new ballpark or making major renovations with some public help to the existing facility. So there's no doubt about it. The D-backs have a ballpark issue and there's also no doubt the team officials have a better story to tell coming off the excitement of this year, and they'll look to make some progress on the future of a new facility.
The D-backs will also have to decide on their media distribution. Do they stay with an MLB produced broadcast for next year or do they go with another company? This year, MLB produced and distributed their games and certainly helped by the team's performance, ratings were up 25% over last year. But overall, the bottomline is the Diamondbacks have picked a fortuitous time to win and make a deep post-season run.
Let's shift to hockey because the interest around Blackhawks rookie, Connor Bedard, the number one pick in this year's draft is real. Bedard made his NHL debut this week and he already has the NHLs bestselling jersey. In addition, Bedard's debut with the Blackhawks has drawn major viewers for both ESPN and TNT to start the season.
Let's start with ESPN. Tuesday night, Bedard's debut drew 1.4 million viewers for the game against the Penguins that is ESPN's best NHL regular season audience on record. Yes, their best game on record. It topped the previous mark of 1.3 million on ESPN for a Penguins game in 2000, which featured the return of Mario Lemieux. Yes, 23 years ago. So you're seeing the significance of the viewership number. Bedard's debut is the best opening night ever on cable TV for the NHL. It was up 92% from the Lightning Rangers opener last year, so that was Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Bedard's second game against the Bruins, that earned TNT just over 900,000 viewers. That is TNT's third-best regular season audience since becoming a media partner of the NHL a few years ago. So some very strong early viewership numbers and very strong interest around Connor Bedard, which certainly bodes well for the Chicago Blackhawks and the NHL.
Let's talk about some football. Taylor Swift made another NFL appearance last night, Thursday night. The Chiefs go to five and one. The Broncos fall to one and five. And boy, new ownership in Denver is facing a rough start. Things don't look good in Denver, and I believe that's going to be a long season. Hard to believe the NFL season is going to be one third completed by the end of this weekend. So it's going fast. And here are a few teams I'm continuing to watch and they may surprise you because there are teams that are not performing very well.
First, obviously you have to be keeping an eye on what's going on in New England and the one and four Patriots where there are so much fan pressure and unrest about Bill Belichick and that will be a storyline throughout the season. Also in Carolina, I found the remarks from Panthers' coach Frank Reich this week very telling. He admitted that he and owner, David Tepper, have had regular meetings during the team's oh and five start, and he said they weren't very fun meetings.
Now, Frank Reich has been around the NFL. He has been on the sidelines in Philadelphia, not as a head coach, but then in Indie where he worked for Jim Irsay. So he knows there are different philosophies in ownership. Some owners stay away from football and don't engage while other owners do engage. And certainly, David Tepper is very engaged and wants to win and he hasn't won in his five plus years in the league. Frank Reich admitted the super competitive Tepper is not going to sit idly by and not do anything. So I'm continuing to watch that situation as the Panthers have gone 29 and 58, have never made the playoffs during Tepper's tenure of five plus seasons.
So I mentioned Denver, I mentioned New England, I mentioned Carolina. Finally, it's worth keeping your eye on the Arizona Cardinals who have been in the news for off off-field issues throughout the past year. And the athletic this week wrote about the culture around the Cardinals and reported that owner Michael Bidwill contributed to a culture, "Where many employees felt constantly on edge." In response to the athletic story, Bidwill issued a statement that acknowledged he has room to grow. And with the benefit of hindsight, he would have done some things differently over the years. So some different reasons that I'm keeping my eye on some different teams in the NFL.
Pro sports teams continue to eye new horizons to showcase their sport and their product. The NHL said this week that Mexico City is on its shortlist for future international games. The NHL would love to expand its exposure south, and the Coyotes have already expressed their interest to play in Mexico considering the team's base in Arizona. There has been speculation that the league could try to play a game at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, which seats more than 100,000 fans. But because of the climate, an outdoor game there would be a major challenge, so the NHL is also exploring indoor game options in Mexico City, but that would be a real coup for the NHL to be playing in Mexico.
Meanwhile, the NBA played a preseason game in Madrid this week, and the league said it was so impressed with the new stadium in that city that it would explore playing a regular season game in that market. It was the NBA's first preseason game in Madrid since 2016. NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum called Germany, Spain, and Italy important markets for the NBA. And to me, it comes down to facilities.
For years, there was a facility problem outside of North America. There just weren't enough world-class venues in Europe and in Asia, but that is changing. There are more and more premium top venues and facilities across the world, and that is opening up more opportunities for these leagues to showcase their product around the globe. So continue to watch that story.
Let's end the Buzzcast around names. First, Coach Prime is not a fan of late night game starts and he let his feelings known he doesn't like playing while the rest of the country is maybe sleeping and not tuning in. The Colorado Buffaloes have a late start tonight, Friday, when they host Stanford at sold out Folsom Field. The game won't start until around 8:00 PM Mountain time. That'll finish, oh God, 11:30, maybe even midnight Mountain time, maybe even early Saturday morning.
Sanders asked on his radio show who sets the schedule he called the late starts both the dumbest and stupidest thing he's ever seen. He wanted to know who wants to wait up until 8:00 for a game. He questioned viewership on the East Coast and wondered how it would impact viewership and ratings. He doesn't know what he'd do with himself all day and staying around the hotel until the late start. But while Coach Prime doesn't seem to like the late starts or the late finishes, that hasn't slowed or impacted viewership for the Buffalo games this year, at least one late night game, September 16th, that was the Colorado, Colorado State overtime thriller that wrapped up at 2:00 in the morning Eastern time and still drew more than 8 million viewers. So despite Coach Prime's concerns, viewers will stick with a compelling game despite how late it seems to go.
I'm a Food Network fan. I watch it all the time, so I'm familiar with G. Garvin. He's one of the food networks celebrity chefs. I watch Road Trip with G. Garvin often, and now the Hawks and State Farm Arena are continuing to push boundaries and they have hired G. Garvin to oversee food experiences throughout the arena. He is their new chief culinary officer. This is the first time he has worked for a pro sports team. Garvin is an Atlanta native and this role is a new role within the Hawks and Levy Restaurants handles the venue's concessions. G. Garvin will be employed by the Hawks and State Farm Arena as well as Levy, and he'll oversee the entire Levy operation on the ground in Atlanta.
So why is this interesting? It's interesting because teams are putting more and more emphasis and resources behind the fan experience, and we know food and beverage and culinary are vital to that experience. We talked about the hospitality in premium markets continuing to be strong. People are paying for top level experiences. They're paying for top level food, alcohol, culinary experiences, and the Hawks bringing on G. Garvin show they really want to emphasize this type of premium culinary experiences for fans, and you'll see more of these efforts around sports.
And we'll end with this. The Edmonton Oilers have hired former National Women's Hockey League Commissioner Dani Ryland Kearney as a regional scout. So she will join the team's hockey operations department. So why is this interesting? Well, the 36-year-old Ryland Kearney founded the NWHL in 2015 and she was commissioner of that league until she stepped down in 2020. Now, she stayed on in a role overseeing four teams until March of 2021. Remember, the National Women's Hockey League was rebranded as the Premier Hockey Federation. The Premier Hockey Federation is now part or eventually merged with the Professional Women's Hockey League, which launches in January. So it's an interesting story. It's the story of a pioneer in women's hockey, but she stays in hockey as a regional scout for the Oilers, former NWHL Commissioner Dani Ryland Kearney now a scout for the Edmonton Oilers.
And so that is your morning Buzzcast. A busy Friday, October the 13th. I'm Abe Madkour. Thanks for listening to the Buzzcast. Have a great weekend. Stay healthy. Be good to each other. I'll speak to you on Monday.