Thunder's long-term future in view; takeaways from Charter/Disney dispute; The NFL's record start and United's windfall
This is your Morning Buzzcast for Wednesday, September 13th. Good morning. I'm Abe Madkour. Thanks for joining the Buzzcast.
Very big news in the NBA, as on Tuesday night, the long-term future of the Oklahoma City Thunder seemed to be solidified as city officials said they have finalized plans for a new arena for the Thunder, expected to cost at least $900 million. That's on the affordable end on NBA arenas recently. City leaders will present a plan to the city council later this month, who, if they approve that, would send a referendum to voters for a vote on December 12th.
As part of this proposal, the Thunder would commit to playing in the city for the next 25 years in the new arena if the vote passes. Now, the new arena would be primarily funded by a six-year extension of the city's 1 cent sales tax. That is an existing tax. No new taxes on local residents. Again, this is an extension of an existing tax.
The Thunder will contribute $50 million toward the new arena. They'll continue playing at Paycom Center while the new arena is designed and built. The idea is to open the new venue by the 29/30 season, if not sooner. Overall, this is a very positive step forward. We know how much the Thunder mean in that Oklahoma City community. There are no new taxes on this proposal. The team has committed to a long-term lease and will also contribute $50 million. I think this looks good for the long-term future Because, remember, there are markets that would love an NBA team right now. Vegas and Seattle, among others, stand out. Keeping the Thunder in Oklahoma City... Critical to that market and the NBA.
Let's move on. We said earlier this week it seems that we're all ready for the return of football. We've seen very strong ratings for college football. Now, we are seeing some massive early numbers for the NFL. Take Monday night. Despite Aaron Rogers' awful injury, viewers stayed with that game. It ended up being the most viewed Monday night football game yet for ESPN. That network first acquired the package in 2006, and this is the most-watched Monday night football game on ESPN. Just amazing. The game drew more than 22 million viewers. That is a very strong number.
Now, of course, yes. It was on ESPN, ABC, and ESPN2 with the ManningCast, but this topped the previous high, which was in 2009. That's when Brett Favre faced the Packers when he was playing the Vikings for the first time. Yes, a very strong number. Marks a great start for Monday Night football. It was up 14% from the opening week broadcast last year. That was Broncos-Seahawks in week one.
But it's not just Monday Night Football. CBS and NBC both had their best starts to the NFL season since 2015. We talked about the Lion's Chiefs on Thursday night that led all games over the weekend, even the 40-to-nothing shellacking by the Cowboys over the Giants. That drew almost 22 million viewers on Sunday night. CBS had a very strong window in the four o'clock window. They had the second-highest-rated game of the weekend. Eagles-Patriots was the most widely distributed on that network. Again, big numbers. Some of them... all-time highs. Some of them... the best numbers since 2015. But, overall, a very bullish start for the NFL.
But it's not just the NFL. Let's talk about college. Texas-Alabama let all college football games in week two. But it was still an impressively strong showing by Coach Prime, Deion Sanders, and Colorado. First, the game between the future SEC rivals, Texas-Alabama, delivered almost 9 million viewers in primetime. That was on ESPN, ESPN2. That marked ESPN's best regular season college football game since, yes, 2015.
FOX had the number two game of the week. Sanders' home debut, with Colorado against Nebraska, also drew strong ratings: 8.7 million viewers. That's for the big noon Saturday window. That's an amazing number for so early in the day. It built upon the number in week one. Remember, in week one, that big noon Colorado TCU game drew 7 million viewers on FOX. One week later, they had almost 2 million more viewers for that big noon Saturday window, both driven by Deion Sanders and Colorado.
Bottom line: very, very healthy college viewership. It's driven by big brands, yes, Texas and Alabama, and driven by big names like Deion Sanders. I have to say, I haven't seen a start like this around college football for as long as I can remember.
Let's move away from viewership and around big stories of the day. Some challenging times for Buffalo Bills owner Terry Pegula. We documented many of the management changes at the Bills and the Sabers. On Tuesday, most damning is that Terry Pegula was charged with allegedly making a racist comment about Black players in the NFL. This was part of a racial discrimination lawsuit against the NFL filed by reporter Jim Trotter. Pegula has denied making the comment. It's clearly, right now, he said, he said situation, but obviously not the type of headlines Pegula or the NFL want. This is a lawsuit that could linger and only gain more exposure.
The lawsuit also cites comments made by Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, which Jones called not accurate. Now, Trotter's employment at NFL Media, which oversees the NFL Network, ended earlier this year. His lawsuit names the NFL and NFL Network as defendants and alleges that Trotter was terminated because he challenged Roger Goodell and others regarding the NFL's record of race discrimination and for the lack of diversity. Trotter is seeking unspecified damages. The league and owners surely won't want this lawsuit lingering and in public discovery and in the headlines. We'll be keeping our eye on how this lawsuit proceeds.
Do you want more proof on the global appeal and the brand strength of Manchester United? Well, how about this? Manchester United has signed the biggest shirt sponsorship deal in global soccer with nearly a 75 million per year agreement with Qualcomm's Snapdragon. Snapdragon is part of Qualcomm, which is already a global partner of United. The length of the deal has not been revealed. This is a key business-to-business deal. This is all B2B. Snapdragon processors are used in products such as smartphones and gaming devices.
Snapdragon replaces TeamViewer, which was Manchester United's previous shirt sponsor. TeamViewer was paying an estimated $50 million a year. The sponsorship deal will start with the 24/25 season. It will cover Manchester United's men's and women's teams. Remember, this comes after Manchester United announced a record-breaking 10-year kit deal with Adidas. That was worth around a billion dollars. You add this up, you see the financial windfall Manchester United's reaping right now. It shows the global strength of that brand.
A few final thoughts on the Disney charter resolution. First, ESPN's Jimmy Pitaro was pleased with the deal. He believes Disney was able to secure long-term protection for its primary entertainment channels, namely sports, ESPN and FX. Pitaro was also pleased that the deal protects the traditional business model of carriage and distribution, one that's been very good to ESPN, i.e., keeping ESPN in the bundle.
Disney was also able to secure pretty healthy carriage rates and minimum penetration, meaning that at least 85% of Charter Spectrum subscribers would be receiving ESPN in the bundle. That could change as the future progresses. But Pitaro also believes it will eventually enhance and increase the distribution of ESPN Plus and help viewers get comfortable with a direct-to-consumer application and environment. Pitaro added that giving ESPN Plus greater reach could help the company as it looks to acquire new sports rights, so i.e., more reach equals more money, allowing ESPN to pay more for sports rights.
While Charter had talked about getting out of the video and cable business during these negotiations and during this dispute, the bottom line is this deal offers Charter and Disney a partnership in both cable and direct-to-consumer streaming. There's more on this deal, but those are some early final takeaways.
Well, I'm heading to Vermont for a family funeral for the rest of this week. I appreciate all the notes and thoughts on the passing of my mother at the age of 89. She lived a rich, happy life. Now, she is with my dad. But, yes, a gut punch when it happens. Thanks for all your support. My great colleague, Joe Lemire, will bring you the Buzzcast the rest of this week. I'll see many of you in St. Louis, where we'll be bringing you the Buzzcast from our drive conference all next week.
That is your Morning Buzzcast for Wednesday, September 13th. I'm Abe Madkour. Stay healthy. Be good to each other. I'll speak to you next week.