MLB's new postseason aims to keep fans engaged longer; Blue Jays quietly have strong year; NASCAR'S "RFTC" lands on Peacock and names in the news to know.
MLB's new postseason aims to keep fans engaged longer; Blue Jays quietly have strong year; NASCAR'S "RFTC" lands on Peacock and names in the news to know.
We will be coming to you next week from New York City in the CAA World Congress of Sports. We'll give updates on the themes and the key topics discussed in the room. You'll feel like you are in that room. Look for those next week as part of a special morning buzz cast. And if you are in the room in New York City, I certainly hope you'll come by and say hello to me. And this is your morning Buzz cast for Friday, October 7th. Good morning, I a Mad Core. Thank you for listening to the Buzz Cast. Let's start with Major League Baseball. The playoffs start today, a 12 team post season that sees four games starting on Friday, all on ESPN or abc. This marks a new era for baseball with a new playoff system. Eight teams are taking part in four best of three series with the higher seed in each matchup hosting every game.
This is all different. The top two teams in each league get a buy, so to speak. Now remember, this was the result of the negotiations from the lockout between management and the players union. It was an effort to generate more playoff inventory, more revenue, and more TV Windows. MLB Commissioner Rob Manford predicted the new format could result in one of the best postseasons ever for Major League Baseball. He also said The league believes the broader format will keep more fans engaged in the post season. And hopefully more fans engaged for longer parts of the postseason. Hope they stick with baseball's, postseason all the way through to the World Series. So again, this is a new era for baseball's post season, and one team that is hosting a wildcard series is the Toronto Blue Jays and how nice it must be for that team to host a playoff game when they were nomads for the past few seasons.
Remember they couldn't even play in Canada. They played in uh, Buffalo and Dunedin, Florida. But the Blue Jays have quietly had a very good year on the business side as well as on the field on the business side. They have seen dramatic increases in both viewership and attendance this year. On Sports Net, the Blue Jays ratings were up nearly 40% from last year. And on the attendance front, they ended up seventh in baseball in overall average and in total attendance, they were up nearly 52% in total attendance versus the last full season at the Rogers Center in 2019. So comparing that to 2019, and they were up 52% in attendance this March. The Blue Jays first year over year increase in attendance since 2016. So very strong numbers for the Blue Jays and President and CEO Mark Shapiro. I know they're very excited for the post season.
Meanwhile, the ever popular St. Louis Cardinals who will host the Philadelphia Phillies in the playoffs had the best local regional sports network rating in Major League baseball. For the second straight season. They average 140,000 viewers in that St. Louis market. That's up 31% from 2021. And the team's best figure since 2016. How popular are the Cardinals regionally for the 13th straight year, Cardinals baseball was the number one programming in prime time in St. Louis during the Major League baseball season. Again, that is super strong. Cardinals programming draws the most viewers throughout the summer, and that's why you see the value of live sports. So there are some good team stories on the MLB front and the playoffs really should be great for the game. On the overall attendance front, the 30 MLB teams drew nearly 65 million fans for the regular season. That of course is up from 45 million fans in 2021.
Remember, that's when attendance was limited. But this year's numbers are still down from the 68 million who attended games in 2019. That's the true comparison because that's the last season that wasn't affected by the pandemic of course. So breaking it down a little bit more, the 2022 average attendance was 26,800 per game. That's down 5.3% from the 2019 average. So baseball will work to try to level set those numbers. The Dodgers led baseball with 3.8 million fans. They average 47,000. The a's finished drawing just 787,000 fans. They average less than 10,000 per game. So we will break down more attendance numbers in Sports Business Journal, but again, overall the league down 5.3%. MLB will surely focus in the off season on somehow leveling off their attendance or try to grow it for 2023. Let's move on to racing because you can now watch NASCAR's Race for the championship docu-series.
It'll start on Peacock on Friday. Up until this point, the show had only aired on USA Network and YouTube. But starting Friday today, subscribers of Peacock will be able to stream the first six episodes of this docu-series and the remaining four episodes will continue to debut on USA Network before being available on Peacock the next day. Peacock has 15 million subscribers, so this is good for nascar. I encourage you to watch Race for the Championship as NASCAR is producing this series during their season. So they're telling a story in real time as it's happening. Unlike some series that run well after a season race for the championship tells its story. Now as of this writing, I'm through episode five, that's through the Coca-Cola 600 race. And I'll just say I've enjoyed it far more than I've anticipated. I've learned a lot about this sport. I have a lot of respect for the business of motor sports.
I don't follow it very closely competitively, but it's been entertaining to learn about some of the drivers. Joy Lagano. He's seen as a jerk on the track with few friends, but then you watch 'em at home with his wife and he's a laughing dotting almost goofy father. They follow the likable and smooth Ryan Blaney. There's storytelling around little known Corey La Joy from Concord, North Carolina. So the show has good storylines. I've really enjoyed it more than I thought to help tell the story. The show leans heavily on media talent who helped shape the narrative with their insider perspective on the state of the NASCAR season. And all those voices are effective. But Dale Earnhardt Jr's commanding voice really carries the show in that part. It just feels real. And I think producers have done a nice job presenting the best storylines around so many different drivers.
Again, I'd encourage you to watch Race for the Championship. I know I'm enjoying it. You can now stream it on Peacock if you miss it on Thursday Nights on USA Network. Let's move on to women's sports because more positive development in the area of women's sports. Like I said, it's a welcome development. The nwsl, Kansas City current last night had a groundbreaking to Star Construction on their 117 million stadium, which will be the first women's team soccer specific stadium funded by owners, Chris and Angie Long. This is a real precedent setting move. Like I said, this will be the first stadium devoted to a woman's team. It's 117 million. It's a real reason to celebrate, and the hope is this will be a blueprint for other organizations in women's sports. To follow the fun part, last night they had 11 and a half minutes of fireworks. That's symbolic of the capacity in the new stadium, which will be 11,500.
But great move by the Kansas City current. And Chris and Angie Long to start development on their new soccer specific stadium and we'll end the buzz cast around some names in the news. First, Telemundo Deportes. President Ray Warren is retiring early next year after six years in that position, and nearly five decades in sports business. So the World Cup will be his last major event. They'll be having that on Telemundo. He joined Telemundo in 2016, but he has been at NBC Sports. He's been at the Karate Media group. He has been at Raycom Sports. He worked in sales roles at abc. He's got great stories. He has been a very well regarded executive in this business with a long successful track record in media. Ray Warren retiring early next year after five decades in the sports business. And finally, the New York Road runners have a new CEO and it's longtime media executive Rob SingleCare, who takes over November 15th, he'll oversee all personnel and operations for the organization.
Now, SimpleCare is a two time New York City marathon finisher. He's a native New Yorker. He spent nine years at ESPN before joining NBC Sports Ventures. You also may have seen him on air. He anchored MSNBC's coverage of the 2012 and 2016 summer Olympics. He's also appeared on a number of other networks as an anchor. So while SimpleCare has had a long history in the media business, he now joins the New York Road runners as ceo. The New York Road Runners of course, have seen management changes in a management overhaul over the last year or so. So that is your morning buzz cast for Friday, October 7th. I made Matt Core. Like I said, I'll be coming to you from New York City next week from the CAA World Congress of Sports. I look forward to that. Thanks for listening to the Buzz Cast. Stay healthy, be good to each other. I'll speak to you next week.