NFL hype machine questioned; Rays discouraged by lacking support; Chicago OKs year two of NASCAR race while F1 disrupts the Vegas strip
Well, some, including the Kelce brothers, feel the NFL is going overboard in all the hype surrounding Taylor Swift's new NFL fandom. The NFL says it's only leaning in to a pop culture moment and has seen an incredible amount of positivity around the sport. What are your thoughts? Let me know if you think the NFL is going overboard in all the Swift hype.
And this is your Morning Buzzcast for Thursday, October 5th. Good morning. I'm Abe Madkour. Hope everybody is doing well. Thanks for listening to the Buzzcast.
Have to say, that was quick. You had a four sweep day on Wednesday in MLB's Wild Card round, and you'll now see the divisional round start Saturday, four games, Twins, Astros, Phillies, Braves, D-backs, Dodgers and Rangers Orioles. I am betting Fox Sports wants a Dodgers-Orioles World Series, but that's just my hunch. What do you think? Let me know.
Meanwhile, for the Rays a sudden exit after such a strong start of the year. Remember, they were 13-0 at one time. Also, the franchise has to be discouraged by its playoff attendance as fans just didn't show up to support. While during the regular season, there was signs of life at the Trop, there was very little of that during the two game postseason. Tuesday's game one drew 19,700 and Wednesday's game two drew a little better, just over 20,000 fans. And these were the two worst non-pandemic postseason turnouts of the last 100 years. So the bottom line is that's certainly not how the Rays wanted to end their year and build on any momentum on a new ballpark in St. Petersburg.
Let's shift to soccer. Inter Miami's playoff hopes took another hit as they lost to the Chicago Fire, but the Fire had a rare, rare sellout based on the hope that Lionel Messi would play. But Messi didn't even make the trip as he has missed five of Miami's last six matches. But that didn't stop fans from coming to Soldier Field as the team announced that a franchise record 62,000 fans attended the game. That is more than four times the Fire's season average of around 14,000. So you see, the still continued incredible draw of Messi, even when it was unlikely he would play. And from all reports, the game was a party and the atmosphere was fantastic at the game. And the Fire did try to use this to build on its fan base for the future.
As we noted, the team offered fans who bought tickets a chance to get a $250 credit toward a season ticket for next year or a $50 credit for those to use for a future game. They couldn't offer refunds or they didn't offer refunds, but they did try to do something to ease the sting for fans who really wanted to see Messi.
I will say the buzz has definitely dulled with Messi not playing. And it's unfortunate. Miami does have three games left to play. It's behind two other teams for the final playoff spot in that division.
And let's stick with soccer because while all eyes are on the '26 World Cup in the US, Canada, and Mexico, FIFA announced they will bring the '30 World Cup to Morocco, Spain, and Portugal. So those three will be the main host. But in an interesting twist, the opening three matches of the World Cup will be played in Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay to celebrate the tournament's 100th anniversary, the 100th anniversary of the World Cup. So they wanted to play some matches in South America.
The 2030 World Cup will be the first to be played across six separate countries and three continents, Africa, South America, Europe, Portugal, and Morocco, are first time hosts, and like I noted, it marks the first time the World Cup will be played in North Africa. So it's spread out across the Atlantic. And one reason may be to help defray hosting costs for each country. By spreading out the games, you do reduce the required infrastructure development. And so that helps those host countries.
But this will be a big, broad tournament. And now with 2034 World Cup in view, we know that Saudi Arabia is interested in hosting in '34, and Australia also is interested in hosting the World Cup after its success co-hosting the Women's World Cup this summer. So we're set with '26. We know 2030 will be Morocco, Spain, and Portugal. And now all eyes will be where will the 2034 World Cup be played?
Let's shift to NASCAR because NASCAR will return to Chicago for the second straight year as the city of Chicago agreed to a second race next July with NASCAR agreeing to a tighter setup and a teardown window to minimize disruption.
NASCAR has included the Chicago Street Race on its 24 schedule slated for Sunday, July 7th. We know the story of NASCAR's first race in Chicago last July. It saw epic rainfall, but NASCAR was still very pleased with the results and the outcome.
A study showed that the race drew more than 47,000 unique attendees and generated more than $100 million in economic impact during that weekend. Now, that was a little short than expectations. The two-day event drew almost 80,000 total attendees. They had projected 100,000 attendees. So even though it did fall short of attendance projections, the return on investment proved enough for the city of Chicago to commit to its second year.
But the city did put on some qualifiers. NASCAR must reduce the setup by four days and the teardown by two days and pick up additional costs around the race. So NASCAR has agreed to both the reduced time on setting up and tearing down because that disrupted a lot of the normal flow of traffic in and around the city for weeks surrounding that NASCAR event in July. But all in all, a win for NASCAR to return to Chicago as it continues to look to draw new fans in new markets.
And as a sidelight, you're also seeing a similar story in Las Vegas as F1 officials are really working hard to get that city ready. Six weeks left for that inaugural event, November 16th and 18th in Las Vegas. There have already been a number of reports about the setup of the race and the effect that that setup has had on roads, area, traffic, and just overall flow throughout the city. So that's something F1 officials and the city of Las Vegas are working on now, but they'll also have to work to reduce that impact on the city leading up to future races. That's a storyline in Las Vegas I would definitely keep your eye on in terms of F1's preparation for that race and its impact in Las Vegas.
Moving on, we talked about TMRW Sports TGL. That's the golf league that will start up in January. And we noted earlier this week its big sponsorship deal with SoFi. Now, the TGL announced a multi-year media rights deal with ESPN that will see the golf competition air across ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN+. Terms were not available, but SBJ's Josh Carpenter is reporting that ESPN is paying a fee for the rights to TGL. And the first match will be played Tuesday, January 9th at 9:00 PM Eastern on ESPN. So the schedule now has a start date.
CAA's Evolution Media Capital advised TMRW Sports on its media negotiations. Now TGL will look for international media deals to go along with its domestic media deal, but it's clear that things are moving forward for the Mike McCarley, Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy startup golf league TGL, starting officially January 9th.
And finally we'll end the Buzzcast around people. Columbus Crew President of Business Operations, Kristin Bernert has stepped down from her position to pursue new opportunities around advancing women's sports. She joined the club before the 2022 MLS season and for now, the executive team at Haslam Sports Group will oversee the Crew's business operations for the remainder of the season. Kristin Bernert was a game changer in 2016. She served over 10 years in executive roles at MSG. She's already involved in women's sports through a minority investment in the NWSL Club, Gotham FC.
And so that is your Morning Buzzcast for Thursday, October 5th. I'm Abe Madkour. Have a great day. Stay healthy. Be good to each other. I'll speak to you tomorrow.