Oak View Group launches new venture to help sustainability for sports facilities, the Orlando Magic moving forward with mixed-use development project and the NY Knicks select Sportfive to sell their jersey patch.
A big thank you to all who checked in on me yesterday and asked about my wellbeing after I was on the IR for a week, just want to say all good. Just got hit pretty hard by a flu bug. Back at it now, ready for next week in New York with the CAA World Congress of Sports. That is next Tuesday and Wednesday at the Time Center. We have a very strong turnout of boldface names, a great agenda with fantastic speakers. There are events, dinners, receptions, all of these things you won't want to miss. Register today at worldcongressofsports.com.
And this is your Morning Buzzcast for Tuesday, October 4th. Good morning, I'm Abe Madkour. Thanks for listening to the Buzzcast. Well, Major League Baseball's regular season ends tomorrow and the playoffs start this weekend, all the races are virtually decided. One organization I've talked a bit about on the Buzzcast has been the continued success of the Atlanta Braves, who will likely win the NL East division. Right now they sit at 100 wins with two games left. If they do win, it would be their fifth straight NL East crown.
Well, in timely fashion, SBJ's cover story this week is a profile of Braves CEO, Derek Schiller, who has played a leading role in constructing such a model franchise in Atlanta. Derek Schiller is well regarded in sports circles. I even had one source email me yesterday after reading the profile and suggested Schiller as a future candidate to be the commissioner of Major League Baseball. He's been innovative, aggressive, hit all the right notes in his leadership, but it hasn't been easy.
Remember, when the Braves left the City of Atlanta for Cobb County, the team was largely criticized. Many didn't believe in the team's goal of moving closer to its season ticket base in that part of the state. And that was of course tied to the development of The Battery Atlanta, which opened in 2017, which many felt was way over-engineered. But this real estate development, The Battery, which lies right next to Truist Park, is the go-to model for other sports franchises who are looking at the business opportunities around mixed use development.
Virtually everyone I speak to in sports leadership now wants their own version of The Battery, showing again how out front the Atlanta Braves have been in business development. So, I encourage you to read Erik Bacharach's strong profile and cover story of Atlanta Brave's CEO, Derek Schiller.
Next week at the CAA World Congress of Sports, I'll be sitting down with Tim and Todd Leiweke, and talking to those two brothers. It'll be great, it'll be a fun discussion, and I'm sure we'll ask Tim Leiweke about the latest with his Oak View Group as he has been a leader in climate standards and sustainability, nowhere more evident than all the work done around Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle.
The latest effort has Oak View Group launching GOAL, which stands for Green Operations and Advanced Leadership. Now, this is a membership platform that will help venues and arenas operate in a more environmentally friendly way. So, if you are a participating organization in GOAL, you will receive software that features a roadmap of things to do, a library of resources of vendors, progress tracking tools, and exchange of knowledge and ideas and expertise among fellow members. So, it's like a membership club around sustainability.
Oak View Group has partnered right now with the Hawks and State Farm Arena and Fenway Sports Group on this initiative, and those organizations each have equity in GOAL to get the initiative off the ground. Oak View Group has also hired Kristen Fulmer to run GOAL. She assumes the title of Director of Sustainability. She'll report to OVG360 President, Chris Granger. So, if you're a member, you'll pay an annual fee that varies based on the size and type of the venue or the building.
The average arena will pay in the mid five figure range to be a member of GOAL, but this issue of sustainability around our sports venues is growing in importance and obviously Oak View Group sees a business around it, hence why they launched GOAL, Green Operations and Advanced Leadership. And again, I look forward to asking Tim Leiweke more about this next week in New York.
Staying on topic, the NBA returned to Seattle on Monday night for a pre-season game, and the game at Climate Pledge Arena felt almost like a homecoming of the NBA. And it certainly showed the market's love of basketball as old school Sonics fans came out in heavy numbers, the Clippers beat the Trailblazers in the first game between two NBA teams in Seattle since 2018. Clippers owner, Steve Ballmer, who of course is very familiar in Seattle, spoke to the crowd from mid-court before the game, the game drew a capacity crowd of nearly 18,500 at Climate Pledge Arena. Many of the fans were decked out in old Sonic's gear. Remember, there was a lot of believers that the NBA can work in Seattle again, it is seen as a prime NBA expansion market and nights like Monday night where they draw more than 18,000 to Climate Pledge Arena certainly helped the city's cause.
Monday was a very difficult day for women's soccer when a highly anticipated investigative report into abuse in women's soccer, found sexual misconduct, verbal abuse, emotional abuse by a number of coaches over the years in the NWSL. This report stemmed from the issues last year that led to the resignation of many of the NWSL leaders after players spoke out about the systemic culture of abuse. And this report issued yesterday was damning, as it found former leaders of the NWSL and the US Soccer Federation, as well as owners and executives and coaches at all levels, failed to act on persistent reports of abuse by coaches. And really, the lack of action and accountability let these abusing coaches move from one job to another.
The report was commissioned by US Soccer and the findings show that abuse was common throughout the league and that leaders were more concerned really with being sued than in doing the right thing. It was really a terribly eye-opening report and US Soccer did announce some actions it plans to take after the report. But as new commissioner, Jessica Berman, works hard to change the culture around the NWSL and women's soccer, this is another strong wake up call that strong reform and most importantly, diligence and accountability continues to be needed in this sport.
It seems every day we could talk about a new mixed use development anchored by a sports team, and the latest right now is one around the Orlando Magic, who have had an ambitious plan on the drawing board for years. But they are finally close to starting construction on a long awaited $500 million-plus downtown sports and entertainment district that will really remake downtown Orlando.
They hope to break ground by the end of March 2023. And again, this project has been discussed for nearly a decade. It's expected to take two years to complete, so it could be done by 2025. It's around nine acres, just north of the Amway Center, very close to the team's new training facility. The project will include everything you would expect. It will include a hotel tower, restaurants, meeting and retail space, parking, and a lot of office space that the team's offices will be part of this sports and entertainment district. Again, they could break ground as early as March of 2023. Hope to complete it in two years. And again, this will really, really reshape Downtown Orlando as the Magic have big goals for their mixed use development project.
And finally, we'll end with this, we keep bringing up the competitive marketplace for agencies selling jersey patches. Jersey patches in the NBA, in Major League Baseball, in the NHL, and Sportfive has landed another marquee client. They are already selling for the Chicago Bulls and they're also selling the jersey patch for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Now the agency has landed the New York Knicks.
The Knicks selected Sportfive. They want Sportfive to secure their jersey patch sponsor, but also look for partners for the Knicks with international brands. This is part of the NBA's International Team Marketing Program, where they can do deals in different territories around the world. When it comes to jersey patch deals, we know there is more supply than demand, so we'll have to continue to see how these deals sort themselves out and the price point that teams can get. But right now, Sportfive lands another big market team, landing the jersey patch assignment for the New York Knicks.
So, that is your Morning Buzzcast for Tuesday October 4th. I' Abe Madkour. Thanks for listening to The Buzzcast. Stay healthy, be good to each other. I'll speak to you tomorrow.