Why the ACC selected Charlotte; Commanders signing sponsors despite challenging storylines around team and closing the books on a solid WNBA season.
Why the ACC selected Charlotte; Commanders signing sponsors despite challenging storylines around team and closing the books on a solid WNBA season.
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 Tuesday and Wednesday, October 11th and 12th. Register today by going to world Congress of sports.com or reach out directly to me for questions or comments. And this is your morning buzz cast for Wednesday, September 21st. Good morning. I made mad gore. Thanks for listening to the buzz cast yesterday. I heard from someone listening to the buzz cast from Uganda, and that made me feel great to know this is a buzz cast without borders. Let's get right to the news. Big news from my hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina, the ACC is officially moving it's headquarters from Greensboro to Charlotte leaving its home location. After being founded 69 years ago in Greensboro, while the ACC has been looking for a new home for the past year presidents and chancellors of the ACCS 15 schools selected Charlotte after considering Charlotte Greensboro and Orlando.
Charlotte has a lot in its favor. It has hosted, uh, 11 of the last 12 ACC football championship games. It is the home of the ACCS preseason football and basketball gatherings. Of course, the ACCS media partner, ESPN has a big facility and a presence here in Charlotte and the state of North Carolina budgeted 15 million for the ACC. If the conference remained in the state for 15 additional years and held a number of conference championships in the state. So that was a big incentive to stay. The ACCS new headquarters will be located in uptown Charlotte, just a block from the home of sports business journal. It'll be part of the legacy union's bank of America tower under development. Now the ACC will use the next year as a transition period to complete the relocation, but this is a shot in the arm for the Charlotte sports business scene and should position the ACC well to be in such a growth market like Charlotte, let's move on.
Don't say the Washington commanders can't attract new sponsors, despite all the challenging narratives and storylines around the team, the commanders have signed a new naming rights partner as S BJ's. Terry Lefton is reporting that OrthoVirginia is the new naming right sponsor for the Virginia complex, where the commanders have trained since 1992, it's a 162 acre facility. It will now be called the ortho Virginia trading center at commander park. Ortho, Virginia has been handling some of the commander's medical functions and medical duties, but they haven't had marketing rights. At least for some time, this deal continues a business turnaround for the commanders, as they say, they have seen a 20% increase in sponsorship revenue. This season commanders, chief partnership, officer Ryan Morlin handled the deal for the team. And this deal makes ortho, Virginia. One of the commanders five largest team sponsors. So a big deal for the Washington commanders set to be announced today about a week or two ago, I think we said, expect the NFL viewership numbers to see a decrease this year.
Well, so far that has not been the case. And in week two of the NFL season, CBS saw its best Sunday national window in three years and its best September window, since returning as an NFL media partner in 1998, yes, CBS saw its best September viewership number since 1998 around the NFL. They had the 4 25 window that of course had the Cowboys eeking out a last second win over the Bengals. That game averaged more than 27 million viewers, which is a great number for that late window on a Sunday. So the NFL is off to a very nice start in drawing viewers. Two weeks in will continue to monitor the viewership trends around the league. Speaking of viewership trends, we can close the books on the w N B a season, and it was another successful season for the league as the w N B a saw its best post-season audience in 15 years.
That's according to our Austin carp. Now the w B finals did see a overall 4% drop in viewership, but that was certainly impacted by two consecutive weekends, going head to head against the NFL on a Sunday afternoon, but for the entire playoffs, w N B a viewership was up 22% from last year. And this strong performance came on the heels of a regular season. That was up 20% from the previous year. And that marked the w B's best regular season viewership in 14 years. So again, we are seeing some very healthy numbers around the w as they closed their season and look to build on those numbers. Next year, let's shift to college sports, PAC 12 commissioner George Coff made a rare public media appearance on Tuesday and set a few interesting things. First. He said he does not anticipate any PAC 12 teams or any more PAC 12 teams exiting for the big 10 or going to the big 12.
He also said the Lee continues to negotiate its next meteor rights deal. He spoke to John Kenza and John Wilner, two very strong college sports business reporters. And Coff said that PAC 12 remains United. And that if any school was considering leaving the PAC 12, they would've left by now. He also said again, more strongly than ever that no PAC 12 schools would depart for the big 12. Remember the big 12 reportedly has been targeting Arizona, uh, Arizona state, Colorado, Utah to join that conference. But CLE Koff said that will not be happening. Finally, he predicted a new media rights deal for the PAC 12 will be completed in the near future. And that's what everyone is waiting on to see if the PAC 12 can nail down a media rights deal because most believe any PAC 12 expansion would occur after the media rights deal is finalized and many are watching the sea who lands a media deal.
First, the PAC 12 or the big 12, cuz that would be a key indicator. But George Coff, again remaining strong emboldened and saying the PAC 12 is unified as they continue their media rights talks. Meanwhile, one of the most influential owners in all of sports will continue to stay that way. As maple leaf sports and entertainment chair, Larry TBA was unanimously reelected as chair of the NBA board of governors. Now he has served as chair as 2017 and this role of course, wields tremendous, uh, power and influence over the NBA's policies and rules and approach to business and the widely respected Larry TBO of course has key roles across three leagues. The NBA of course, with the Raptors, the NHL of course, with the maple leaves and MLS with Toronto FC. So Larry TBO remains chair of the NBA board of governors and will continue to have tremendous influence on that league sports business journal released the fourth annual class of our new voices under 30, which is presented by Anheiser Bush, MGM resorts and turnkey ERG.
These 30 leaders are positioned as just that future leaders of the sports business. And they were selected by an outside panel of more than 20 judges. So more than 200 nominees were considered and 30 new voices under 30 were selected. Learned more about this year's class in this week's issue of sports business journal. And this week S BJ's David Broon takes the wraps off the best minor league markets in America. Can you care to guess who has the top spot? Well, I'll help you out. Charleston, South Carolina came out as the number one minor league market. Read all about it on sports business journal.com for David Broughton's extensive list on the top minor league markets in the us. So that is your morning buzz cast for Wednesday, September 21st. I made Matt gore. Thanks a lot for listening. Stay healthy. Be good to each other. I'll speak to you tomorrow.