The USTA's record Open; Dan Loeb retreats on spinning off ESPN; Bears talk new team President and MSG Sports names Hopkinson as President & COO.
The USTA's record Open; Dan Loeb retreats on spinning off ESPN; Bears talk new team President and MSG Sports names Hopkinson as President & COO.
On September 12th, 1994 in a large Victorian townhouse in Arlington Virginia. The first issue of sports business daily was published. I was there along with the likes of Jeffrey Pollock, Steve biller, and meet the presses, Chuck Todd among others. Well, that was a start of a fun ride because today S SPJ daily celebrates its 28th anniversary. And like I said, it's been a great ride serving the industry with news information and networking, and we plan to keep on going. And this is your morning buzz cast for Monday, September 12th. Good morning. I made mad core. Thanks for listening. It was a wild opening NFL weekend, but let's start with tennis and what a us open. You really had it all. You had the draw of Serena in week one and you had the crowning of two young impressive champions in week two. This tournament had it all for the U T a and the fans kept coming as this year's us open, broke the events all time.
Attendance records. The two week main draw attendance was more than 776,000 people surpassing the previous record set in 2019. When you add a third week fan week, you had nearly 900,000 people on the grounds of the Billy Jean King national tennis center. This year's event also marked the first time in Arthur Ash. Stadium's 25 years that every session in the stadium with a capacity of around 24,000 was sold out. So the fans came and drove a very successful two weeks for the S D a they have to be feeling great about that concluded us open obviously in the mix for sports event of the year already. Let's move on. Good news for ESPN and Jimmy Pitaro as investor Dan Loeb said he will back off in calling for Disney to spin off ESPN. He's reversing a position he had pushed about a month ago, but he said on Sunday that he now sees the value of keeping ESPN as a vertical within Disney.
And this comes as CEO. Bob Chopek said Disney has very ambitious plans for its sports division and added that Disney has something really good with ESPN and that they will soon reveal a strategic plan to investors on where ESPN and sports fits into Disney's vision for the long term. So obviously a story that bears watching with ESPN and Disney, you know, we talk about league innovation all the time and changing the way that sports leagues present a product to make it more appealing to fans. While we have two leagues making pretty significant changes to their format, all in an effort to drum up more fan support and to build appeal. First, the athletic is reporting that the framework of an NBA in season tournament is taking shape and could be implemented as soon as the 2020 3, 24 season. So the tournament games would reportedly run through November and eight teams would advance to a single elimination round in December.
Now they are still working the union and the league are still working to finalize the in season tournament, concept and prizes and other details. But this is on the fast track and we could see an in season tournament as early as the 2324 season. Meanwhile, a significant change from major league baseball that we talked about on the buzz cast on Friday, as new rules were officially approved, that will start next season, start at spring training, and you could see it dramatically changed on field product. You'll see pitch clocks, and those are the biggest change. And that is an effort to speed up the game. And whenever I listen to MLB announcers, so many of them just lament the product on the field these days, and these moves to speed up the game. Feel like baseball's leaders recognize they need a stronger product. And this is a way towards that.
I do think fans will really appreciate the pitch clock and other time elements all meant to speed up the pace. And this is a big win for MLB commissioner. Rob Manford, as many team executives that I've spoken with over the years have wanted Manford to implement these changes to the game on his own. He had the right to do that because they really believe these new rules and tighter games will grow the sports appeal and following. But Rob Manford has always wanted to do it collaboratively with the union. So they left it to a competition committee, which has six ownership level representatives, one umpire, four players. Interestingly, all four players voted against the pitch clock, all six owner reps and the umpire voted in favor of the pitch clock. So that final vote was seven to four and it should be noted that it seems like the players and the players' union continue to fight any changes to the game by voting against these changes.
It makes one wonder the approach of the players and the union. And it makes you wonder if they're just voting against these changes because management wanted them, or maybe they think the game is perfect the way it is, but one columnist over the weekend. Wondered if the players today are more out of touch with paying customers than ever before end quote, but bottom line major changes coming to the game of baseball starting next year. You know, we have talked about the interest in the president position at the Chicago bears, which will soon be open as longtime leader. Ted Phillips is retiring bear's chair. George MCK McCaskey said on Friday that the team does not anticipate in any change in its current structure. When they hire a new president to replace Ted Phillips, that means they do not expect to create separate presidents of business and football operation.
So it looks like one team president. They could have football experience, they could have business experience. It's not clear quite yet, George McKowski and the bears are working with Nolan partners on the search. And again, this search will be one of the most highly watched searches in sports. You know, a change at Madison square garden as president and CEO of MSG sports. Andrew Lugar is stepping down at the end of this year. He'll join MSG sports' board of directors, Dave Hopkinson, who joined the company in 2020 has been named president and chief operating officer. So he'll oversee all of the business operations for the KNS, the Rangers, uh, the G league team, an AHL team, an eSports team. So a lot of sports teams in that portfolio, um, MSG sports has chosen not to name a new CEO at this time. Jim Dolan of course will continue to oversee team operations for the KNS.
And the Rangers Lu garden is a former S BJ 40 under 40 honoree. He's run the business side for the KNS and the Rangers since April of 2020, his performance has been strong MSG sports posted record profits in the last quarter, but a change at Madison square garden. Dave Hopkinson is the new president and COO of MSG sports reminder. I will be in Nashville for the rest of this week for our access sports facilities, franchises and ticketing symposium. If you're there please say hi, I'd love to say hi to you. There's still time to join us in what will be a great three days in one of the most exciting sports cities in the us. If you're interested in registering for the event, you can go to our website or just let me know managing editor. David Albright will be bringing you the buzz cast for the rest of this week. So that is your morning buzz cast for Monday, September 12th. I made mad corre have a great week, stay healthy, be good to each other. I'll speak to you again soon down the road.