Leonsis' sports portfolio to expand? Harris Blitzer gets new investor; CFP continues to make progress to 12 teams and COTA braces for big weekend.
Happy Friday. Hope to see some of you at our Game Changers conference. We have a fantastic lineup of speakers and we will celebrate our honorees, all on Wednesday, October 26th at MetLife Stadium. Still time to register. Go to sportsbusinessjournal.com to buy your ticket today.
And today is Friday, October 21st. This is your morning Buzzcast. I'm Abe Madkour. Thanks for listening to the Buzzcast. Spread the word on the Buzzcast if you enjoy it.
Let's get to today's news. A group led by Washington Wizards, Capitals, and Mystics owner, Ted Leonsis, is emerging as the front runner to buy the Washington Nationals from the Learner family. That's according to a report today in The Athletic. Now, this would mark a major deal, for various reasons. It would give the 65 year old Leonsis complete control of the Washington DC mid-Atlantic sports marketplace, and he'd only be the second owner to currently have teams in three of the four biggest men's professional sports leagues in the US.
There are many things that make Ted Leonsis owns an appealing owner for the Nationals. One, he has a track record, a successful track record, and he has the capital. So he is a very appealing suitor. His partner in the bid is Carlisle Group co-founder and billionaire David Rubinstein, who has a reported net worth of $3.1 billion. So big capital in this prospective ownership group.
Now, The Athletic is reporting that a deal is not close and it may not be completed until 2023. But as of now, it looks like Ted Leonsis is getting closer to landing the Nationals. Remember, he already purchased the regional sports network, NBC Sports Washington. That gave him a hold of the local sports media landscape, and if he lands the Nationals, Ted Leonsis would become one of the most powerful and influential owners in all of sports.
Staying with team ownership, there's a new investor in Harris Blitzer Sports and Entertainment, as billionaire David Adelman is buying a large part of Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin's ownership stake in Harris Blitzer Sports and Entertainment. That, of course, owns the Philadelphia 76ers and the New Jersey Devils. Now, why is this significant? Well, David Adelman is a Philadelphia area native, but he's also leading the development of the 76ers new arena plans. So in addition to becoming a limited partner, Adelman, who is 50 years old, is looking to build, or is taking the lead, he is the development leader in the plan to build that 1.3 billion, 18,000 seat arena, which will be downtown. They hope to have that arena completed by 2031. That would move the 76ers away from being a tenant in the current facility at the Wells Fargo Center, to owning their own building.
So the sale overall of Rubin's stake is not a surprise. Rubin announced in June that he would sell his stake as Fanatics started expanding into new sectors. He told us at our World Congress of Sports that as Fanatics continued to grow, he saw more and more conflicts of interest with what he was building at Fanatics to what his responsibilities were as a team co-owner, or as a team limited partner. It should be noted, Michael Rubin loved, loved being part of this ownership group, especially having a say in the Philadelphia 76ers. I'm sure he will keep in touch with his players, but now he is no longer a formal limited partner. Now, terms of the sale were not disclosed, but Forbes estimated that a 10% stake in Harris Blitzer Sports and Entertainment valued at roughly 250 million.
Let's move on. We touched on this yesterday. The timetable for the college football playoffs expansion to 12 teams. Well let's just say the devil's in the details, and it's still a work in progress. The College Football Playoff Management Committee, which includes 10 conference commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick met for a full day in Dallas on Thursday. It was their third in-person meeting since the presidents who oversee the CFP voted to expand the playoffs to 12 teams by 2026 at the latest. But this committee has been meeting to see if they can do it earlier, and they have reportedly made progress. They would ideally like to have the 12 team playoffs in place for the start of the 2024 college football regular season, but there are a number of issues left to resolve.
Now, they were able to resolve the host cities for the championship in the first couple of years, as it seems, seems like Atlanta and Miami are able to host the title games the first two years. That could be January of '25 and January of '26. But other issues, including scheduling logistics, there's existing bowl contracts, there will also be media rights considerations, those still have to be finalized. But it does seem that the playoff committee is making progress and getting closer. So four teams in the CFP for now, but 12 teams seems to be on the horizon quite soon.
And finally, let's end with this. A big weekend in Austin, Texas, as Circuit of the America hosts its annual Formula 1 race, and it's a special one, because it is celebrating its 10th anniversary of hosting Formula 1 in Austin. Now, if you go back all 10 years, you know it hasn't been easy. There have been some rough weekends of Formula 1 racing at Coda. Many didn't think Coda would remain on the schedule, but here it is, and it can be said, Coda now is a very hot ticket. The Formula 1 race weekend is set to pass last year's three day record of 400,000 fans in attendance. And last year's event was up for sports event of the year at the Sports Business Awards. So there's some real energy behind this race, and it is stable because Formula 1 has renewed its contract with Circuit of the Americas through 2026.
And if you've never been there, or are going this weekend, you'll see there's going to be a lot of growth at that facility. It's a 1500 acre complex and it keeps expanding. There's a major concert venue there. It's being expanded from 14,000 seats to 16,000 seats. They are putting in a 5000 seat soccer or multi-use mini stadium. There are even plans to develop a major amusement park at Circuit of the Americas. So Circuit of the Americas continues to expand, but it's anchor is the Formula 1 race weekend this weekend, celebrating its 10th anniversary in Austin.
So that is your morning Buzzcast for Friday, October 21st. I'm Abe Madkour. Thank you for listening to the Buzzcast. Have a great weekend, stay healthy, be good to each other. I'll speak to you on Monday.