MLB bullish on post-season; NWSL takes prime time slot for title game and LIV Golf set to conclude its inaugural season
Fresh off Game Changers in New York. It was filled with energy and great speakers, and our Game Changer ceremony was hosted by the classy Ann Meyers Drysdale. Wonderful to see so many familiar faces and to meet so many new people, especially loyal listeners of the Buzzcast. I'm glad to be able to join you on your morning run or your morning commute. That was great to hear. I'm scheduled to be in Iowa on Saturday for some Big 12 football. If you're taking in Iowa State, Oklahoma, let me know, I'd love to see you there. And finally, the Elon Musk era begins at Twitter as Musk on Thursday night, closed his 44 billion deal to buy the platform, and all eyes are seeing what changes he will make, because he's already started to make them. And this is your Morning Buzzcast for Friday, October 28th. Good morning, I'm Abe Madkour.
Thanks for listening to the Buzzcast. Spread the word on the Buzzcast if you enjoy it. Let's begin with the World Series. It begins tonight, Friday, eight o'clock on Fox with the Houston Astros hosting the Philadelphia Phillies. For Houston, it marks the fourth World Series appearance in the past six seasons. While the Phillies returned for the first time since 2009. The Astros are the series favorites. Houston hasn't lost in the post-season this year. They swept both the Mariners and the Yankees. Meanwhile, the Phillies, they're a popular pick as the underdog. Remember they finished third in the NL East and they would not have made the postseason in the previous format. Remember, the expanded postseason certainly helped the Phillies. Meanwhile, baseball is feeling very bullish about the matchup. And baseball will cap off a very successful season regardless of the outcome. Chief Revenue Officer, Noah Garden said that 2022 season, which started a week late due to the lockout, will finish with record sales for corporate sponsorship and licensed merchandise.
They are particularly pleased about late in the season, as they hoped, an expanded playoffs would mean that more fans would be interested in September and October and the league said that worked. September was great across the board with greater attendance, more fans involved around more teams and staying with the game for longer periods of time. So baseball, very happy about the expanded playoff system. Garden also said that corporate sponsorship sales were up double digits. They have new sponsorship deals with Constellation Brands for its Corona brand. Also, Capital One replaced Bank of America for banking and credit card. They will be the presenting sponsor of the World Series and there's a new sponsor around the Fall classic. The first CBD sponsor, Charlotte's Web will get bullpen branding in both Houston and Philadelphia as part of its recent baseball sponsorship. And when it comes to merchandise sales, a top executive from New Era said that both the Phillies and the Astros represent strong markets with strong demand.
So if win orders for both teams are very healthy, but there's definitely a lot of pent up demand in Philadelphia. So if the Phillies win, expect to see even stronger merchandise sales. But all in all, baseball feels very good about its business as it starts the Fall classic. Also, this weekend you have the Portland Thorns against the Kansas City Current in the NWSL Championship. That'll be Saturday night. It'll be seen live, eight o'clock, on CBS and Paramount Plus. Now, this was a major feat, to get that game live and it included lobbying and an ad spend, a significant ad spend, by key NWSL League sponsor Ally Financial. We heard from Andrea Brimmer this week about their support of women's soccer. This weekend in Washington DC and this championship match at Audi Field should have a lot of energy and a lot of interest.
And there is definitely a feeling of momentum around the NWSL that they hope to build on. So keep your eye on that final on Saturday night. Let's shift to some news around the Olympics. Utah's odds of hosting the 2030 Winter Games did improve significantly this week following the announcement that British Columbia will not support Vancouver's Olympic bid for those winter games. Now, Vancouver was seen as a major competitor and a very strong potential bidder for 2030, but without the support of the British Columbia government, it is now expected the field will be down to Salt Lake City and Sapporo, Japan. One will be expected to be, I would say, focused on as early as December. But the British Columbia government just said it was going to be too much and too many liabilities and too many risk in hosting the games. And that was a little bit of a surprise, because remember, the 2010 games in Vancouver were seen as a great success.
So, Salt Lake said it's ready to host either 30 or 34. But this move by Vancouver pushes Salt Lake more in the 30 race, which if you think about it, if they land the 2030 Winter Games, think of that run, we'd have the World Cup in 26, the summer games in 28 and the Winter Games in 2030. That would be amazing. Meanwhile, Mexico has launched an official bid for the 2036 summer games. Mexico City hosted the Olympics in 1968. There's a lot of interest in those games. The UK, South Korea, Egypt and Germany have all publicly expressed interest in hosting the Olympics in 2036 as well, but now add Mexico to that list of interested cities. Let's move to investments in sports. Liberty Media and the Baupost Group, that's a hedge fund, have invested in The 33rd Team, that is the football analysis content company that was founded by former NFL executives, Mike Tannenbaum and Joe Banner.
They both worked for teams for years. And so, with this investment, The 33 Team brought on two former high profile baseball executives to help its growth as they have hired founding MLB network President, Tony Petitti as co-CEO, He'll work alongside Mike Tannenbaum. Meanwhile, Petitti's longtime colleague, John Entz, has also joined The 33 Team as Chief Content Officer. Now, John Entz helped launch Major League Baseball's network. He later served as president of productions at Fox Sports, both Tony Petitti and John Entz are former SBJ Forty Under 40 winners. Petitti of course, also is at Activision Blizzard. As you know now, The 33rd Team currently is really focused on football. They have football analysts, they also have football gambling and fantasy experts. It produces a lot of content. Tony Petitti said he'll focus on the marketing and the branding and the reach. And while he didn't specifically identify baseball as a possible expansion vertical for The 33rd Team, he did say that the approach The 33rd Team does around content, it's possible to duplicate that in other segments.
So bottom line is, The 33rd Team has more capital and a deeper leadership bench as it continues to grow its brand. Let's move to golf LIV Golf's inaugural season. Its inaugural controversial season concludes this weekend in Florida. And certainly, what a year it has been for LIV Golf. The bottom line for this, they have disrupted the sport like few had before. Now a source cited in SI said that LIV Golf's first year expenditure is pegged at nearly $800 million, in the first year. While another billion dollars is committed for next year. Because remember, the schedule will increase from eight to 14 events. And LIV Golf has really looked at 2023 as the year of the formal launch of the league. So again, nearly $800 million spent in 22, a billion dollars earmarked for 23. We'll have to see the crowds this weekend. We'll have to see the interest this weekend.
It'll be a good indicator of the interest around LIV Golf, as it heads into its off season. And what will happen in the off season, who knows? But it's clear, the players want a compromise. They want to see the two tours, sit down.... The PGA tour and LIV Golf. They want to see the two tours, sit down and try to see what can come out of that, what kind of compromise and resolution they can come up with to work together. I do not see that happening anytime soon, but it's clear that's what the players want because this is really dividing the players in significant ways. And we'll end the Buzzcast around people. The NBA has a new Chief Marketing Officer as it has named Tammy Henault as its new CMO. She joins the NBA from Paramount Plus, where she really helped launch that service.
She oversaw a team of 150 employees and led the marketing strategy for the launch of Paramount Plus. Prior to Paramount, she was at the New York Times and she will report directly to Deputy Commissioner and COO, Mark Tatum and starts November 21st. Search firm Egon Zehnder was used in this hiring process. And the National Basketball Players Association, the NBPA, has a new leader for its commercial arm, THINK450. They promoted interim President, Que Gaskins, as full-time president. Now Que Gaskins has been at the NBPA for some time. He was chief Brand and Innovation Officer. That's a job he's held since 2017. He will give up that job to focus on THINK450. Remember, THINK450 is the union's commercial arm. They develop partnerships and financial opportunities and group licensing rights for the players. Que Gaskins is no stranger to the sports world. He's spent more than 20 years.
He's been at Reebok, he's been at Nike, Def Jam Recordings and now president of THINK450. And finally, if you're looking for a new job, a new opportunity, a new challenge, the NFL and Search Consultant, Nolan Partners, have launched a formal search to replace Damani Leech, the former COO of NFL International. Remember, he became president of the Denver Broncos in August. The new job is titled Senior Vice President, Head of International. The job description suggests the league is aiming high and seeing great opportunities for global growth. They're looking for someone with proven experience, leading within a global organization and expanding a significant portion of the operations or its business, COO or CEO experience is preferred. So there you go. Have at it. Take your shot to become the NFL's top international executive. So that is your Morning Buzzcast for Friday, October 28th. I'm Abe Madkour. Thanks for listening to the Buzzcast. Stay healthy. Be good to each other. I'll speak to you on Monday.