Early peek at Amazon's numbers; Steve Cohen's spending paying off - for now; and sights and sounds from the road.
Early peek at Amazon's numbers; Steve Cohen's spending paying off - for now; and sights and sounds from the road.
I hope to see you at our CAA world, Congress of sports in New York, the week of October 10th, which will be a great few days to do business and reconnect with industry colleagues. Our team has put together a fantastic agenda for the CAA world, Congress of sports with two great days of discussion and networking on Tuesday and Wednesday, October 11th and 12th. After spending a few days in Nashville at our access sports facilities, franchises and ticketing symposium, I can just tell you the energy is off the charts for people to be together. Catch up, grab a drink, or a meal and talk business. And next month's world. Congress will offer the perfect opportunity to do that register today by going to our website sports business journal.com or reach out directly to me for questions or comments. And this is your morning buzz cast for Tuesday, September 20th. I'm Abe Madkour.
Good morning. Good to be back with you after a week away, two big blowouts on Disney's dual game, Monday night football on Monday as both the bills and the Eagles rolled to big wins in games that had some overlap on ESPN and ABC in a rarity of two games on Monday night football while it was great for viewers, I can't imagine the viewership numbers will be very strong, but while we are still waiting for Nielsen's numbers on Amazon's Thursday night, football streaming viewership, S BJ's John Iran reported that an internal memo indicates Amazon expects the audience for Thursday's chargers chief's game last week, easily, easily to suppress 10 million viewers. Now, if so that viewership number would be a huge win for Amazon. As many guests, it would fall between seven to 8 million viewers. So this number would certainly be higher than that. According to the memo, Amazon executive Jay Marine sent to staff late on Monday afternoon, the viewership figure should exceed the 12.5 million benchmark that was promise to advertisers.
That again would be a huge win. Marine also said Thursday night marked the biggest three hours for prime signups ever in the us in the history of Amazon. That includes topping prime day, cyber Monday and black Friday. Yes, more people signed up for the prime service on Thursday night before that football game, then any of those other days. So if these numbers hold up and continue, this deal will be a real driver for business for Amazon. Let's move on post season. Baseball is back for the New York Mets who clenched their first trip to the post season in six years by beating the brewers on Monday night, it's the 10th postseason appearance for the Mets in their 61 season history. And the first, since the Mets lost to the San Francisco giants in the 2016 nation league wildcard game. So big energy in New York city. Meanwhile, the AP reports that Steve Cohen spending is certainly helping the Mets succeed on the field as the team is on track to have baseball's highest payroll for the first time since 1989.
Yes, since 1989. So the Mets entered the last month of the season with a payroll just north of 273 million. The Dodgers are second followed by the Yankees. Remember the Dodgers let him payroll in both 2020 and 2021. But Steve Cohen has continued to spend on payroll this year. They will top the league. And when you look at the big picture, there are a record tying, six baseball teams set to pay the luxury tax. So the Mets at the end of the year could pay a luxury tax of almost $30 million this year. But for Steve Cohen, getting to the post season is likely worth it. And I'm sure he doesn't just want to get into the post season. So the Mets, the Dodgers, the Yankees, the Phillies, the red Sox and the Padres are the six teams likely paying the luxury tax this year, all teams except the red Sox are currently in the mix for the post season.
You know, while we were speaking about our recent conferences, I've been on the road for about a week and I can't talk enough about the energy in the city of Nashville. We were there for our conference and you can't look up in that city without seeing a crane. And it speaks to the growth, the investment in the energy in that city. You know, it's been years since I've been in Nashville, but with the streets around lower Broadway, filled with pedestrians taking in the sites, the sounds, the food, the bars, the city has a real pulse to it. And that leads to the sports scene as there's great. Uh, they call it co-opetition between the teams from the predators, uh, the Titans, Nashville, SC, uh, the racing speedways and other sports entities. You also have the campus of Vanderbilt just up the street of Broadway. And so why is the sports business so hot there right now?
Well, you have the fantastic location for Bridgestone arena, right? In the middle of Broadway. That's a magnet for everything. We went to Nashville, sea's Geodis park, which is just outside the main downtown. And that's a stunning facility, the largest soccer specific stadium in the us seats, 30,000 that will lead to more development in that area. And you have real energy for a dynamic new stadium for the Tennessee Titans, which would hopefully be built just east of the team's current facility. The team's current facility, Nissan stadium is unfortunately really outdated. So you can see the need for a new facility there. So you combine this sports energy with more and more development around other parts of the city. And it seems to bode well for the future of sports business in Nashville. If you haven't been lately, you really have to check it out, quite impressive energy around the sports scene in Nashville.
And finally, on the way back, I was able to take it and tour of the lake point sports complex that sits about 40 miles north of Atlanta, just off I, 75 in Emerson, Georgia. Now I've heard a lot about this facility. It's sports focus mix use development. It is a year round youth sports destination that hosts competitions in various sports. And it's truly a state-of-the art facility. It has eight baseball diamonds, three multi-use fields, 10 beach volleyball courts, a champion center that can hold up to 12 full court basketball games or 24 volleyball games. So it is a living, breathing youth sports campus, and they have ambitious plans to expand the campus. It currently draws more than a million people a year. Uh, the complex is very impressive. I was there on a bustling Sunday. You could watch high quality travel team baseball games, and in the future lake point sports envisions more athletic fields.
They need more parking. They can see more mixed use development, as well as recruiting more premium hotels and sit down dining in the small like village of Emerson. So yes, youth sports has a lot of challenges. It's fragmented with various leagues and various operators. It's certainly expensive and it often lacks accessibility. But when you see a facility like lake point sports, and you realize that it's a draw 12 months a year, 365 7, and they're really trying to leverage new technology data and content creation. You really see the potential of this complex. So again like Nashville, if you haven't visited lake point sports in Emerson, Georgia worth your time as it is a bustling campus around youth sports. And so that is your morning buzz cast for Tuesday, September 20th. I made mad core. Thanks for listening. Stay healthy. Be good to each other. I'll speak to you tomorrow.