W expansion; Ishbia's real-estate play; Flames arena gets shovel ready and NWSL league office continues to grow.
W expansion; Ishbia's real-estate play; Flames arena gets shovel ready and NWSL league office continues to grow.
Abe Madkour:
Dick Butkus, who personified the Bears and the linebacker position, dead at the age of 80. A moment of silence honoring Butkus was held before the Bears played and beat the Commanders Thursday night at FedEx Field. Butkus was one of the first to transition from football to the broadcast booth and become a commercial pitch man and actor. As the Bear's George McCaskey said, "Butkus was the ultimate Bear and Chicago's son who exuded what that city is all about."
This is your morning Buzzcast for Friday, October 6th. Good morning, I'm Abe Madkour. Hope everybody is doing well. Thanks for listening to the Buzzcast. Let's get right to it.
The Warriors were awarded a WNBA expansion franchise, which will begin play in the 2025 season. This will be the league's 13th franchise and its first new team since 2008. The team will play at the Chase Center. They'll practice and work out of the Warriors' previous practice facilities in Oakland. The team's name and brand will be announced at a later date. Now, we've said on the Buzzcast that Warrior's owner, Joe Lacob, has a long history around women's basketball and he's been interested in a WNBA franchise for several years. I think this organization will be incredibly successful, and it's a great indicator of the growth and interest around the league. Just think about it. There has been the $75 million capital raise for the W, the ratings continue to grow around the league, the impact and the influence of the W clearly is on the rise, and now there is expansion. Those are all very positive growth metrics, and the WNBA is not done. Reports have that the league is in the process of adding a second expansion franchise in Portland. More details on that to come.
Let's stay with basketball. Continue to keep your eye on new Suns and Mercury owner, Matt Ishbia. We've seen a lot of the things he's already done, and now he is financing the construction of a new $100 million team headquarters just three blocks from the Footprint Center in downtown Phoenix. By relocating the team's offices to this new campus, he will also create space for new premium areas and restaurants at the arena.
Overall, it's a 123,000 square foot development. It's set to open this coming spring. Listen to this. It will feature office space for the 400 staffers with indoor and outdoor basketball courts, there'll be a pickleball court, a putting green, arcade, a workout facility, kitchen and communal areas. Not a bad work environment at all. It will also include a practice facility for the Mercury, which Ishbia says will be state-of-the-art, and have all the amenities of the Suns' modern practice facility. He flatly said it will be the best WNBA practice facility in the country. Meanwhile, he said the open spaces at the Footprint Center will be renovated into clubs and restaurants following the '23, '24 season. So Matt Ishbia continuing to be very aggressive in making moves to try to improve that franchise, the fan experience, and the working environment for his employees.
Well, another regional sports network is shutting down and that means more sports programming for over-the-air broadcasters as the Coyotes and Scripps Sports reached a multi-year deal to televise Coyotes games locally over the air within the team's broadcast territory. This deal comes as the Coyotes and Diamond Sports Group ended the Coyotes' previous agreement. Under the Scripps deal, the Coyotes will produce all the games. This is similar to Scripps' deal with the Las Vegas Golden Knights. So Scripps is also partnering with the Knights and are becoming a bigger player in sports media.
This also comes as Diamond is looking to shut down Bally Sports Arizona because it basically doesn't have any more rights. The Suns and Mercury already cut ties with Bally Sports. Remember, they'll have their games over the air on Gray Television. The D-backs are a free agent after their deal ended, and now the Coyotes have a deal with Scripps Sports. So major changes in the Phoenix media market around all the sports teams, and we're continuing to see more local over-the-air broadcasters get involved in sports programming.
So it's another week, another new arena is on the books. This one around the Calgary Flames, who will be getting a new arena as part of a massive event center and entertainment district near the city's downtown. It will represent over a billion dollars worth of development. The team, Calgary Sports and Entertainment, will contribute more than $350 million or 40% toward the arena project.
The overall plan includes the full mixed-use elements: mixed-use retail, restaurants, concerts. The overall plan includes all the mixed-use elements we have come to expect. Construction is set to start right away. An opening date for the arena is expected around 2026 or potentially 2027. At that time, the Flames' current arena, the Saddledome, will be demolished. Remember, the Saddledome got its name because of the saddle shaped roof, and that building was built for the 1988 Winter Olympics. So you can imagine that the Flames dearly needed a more modern facility. This deal comes with a 35-year commitment for the Flames to stay in Calgary. CAA ICON will serve as the development manager for the project. But the bottom line, another new arena on the books, this one for the Calgary Flames.
The NHL season starts next week and the Bedard Effect has hit the Chicago Blackhawks. ESPN is reporting the Blackhawks have nearly doubled their season ticket base thanks to the arrival of the 18-year-old rookie, Connor Bedard. He was of course the first overall pick in the 2023 draft. The Blackhawks said they have nearly doubled both their full season ticket packages and their partial season ticket packages for this season. To further demonstrate the impact, the Blackhawks are expecting more than a 17% increase in tickets sold and a 26% jump in revenue, and that's over their initial projections for the '23, '24 season. They are over-indexing their initial projections by double digits, so a big business boost for the Chicago Blackhawks. Connor Bedard plays in his first regular season game Tuesday night at Pittsburgh.
We'll end the Buzzcast around people. First, the NWSL did some staff reorganization as Commissioner Jessica Berman has named Julie Haddon to oversee all marketing and commercial activity for the NWSL. Haddon is a 2023 SBJ Game Changer. She left the NFL to become the NWSL's first CMO in August 2022. Now, just over a year later, she will become Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer. Basically marketing, media, sponsorship all under one umbrella, so marketing and commercial sales comes under Haddon.
It's a big role. Jessica Berman wants her to restructure the sponsorship model and target specific categories for sponsorship growth. Julie Haddon also believes the league can grow in licensing and consumer products. But of course the big new element is the new media deal which is in the works for the NWSL. So a lot on the plate for Julie Haddon. As part of this reorganization, Chief Revenue Officer, Mitch Poll, will shift to Executive Vice president, Partner Strategy and report to Julie Haddon.
Meanwhile, the NWSL is not done. They have retained Nolan Partners to help fill several open positions. They want a head of business development. They're looking for a senior vice president of revenue. The league is also searching for a chief operating officer who will report directly to Jessica Berman. The headcount at the league office is up to 52 employees. That is up from 21 when Jessica Berman was named Commissioner in March 2022. So we're already seeing significant staff growth at the NWSL League office, and I anticipate additional growth in the coming years. So more and more growth around the NWSL.
That is your morning Buzzcast for Friday, October 6th. I'm Abe Madkour. Joe Lemire will bring you the morning Buzzcast on Monday. I'll be in Boston over the weekend. Hope you all have a great weekend. Thanks for listening to the Buzzcast. Stay healthy. Be good to each other. I'll speak to you next week.