The NFL is taking the pads off for the Pro Bowl; Amazon Prime’s Thursday Night Football continues to see strong viewership numbers and U.S. Soccer has found it’s CEO.
The NFL is taking the pads off for the Pro Bowl; Amazon Prime’s Thursday Night Football continues to see strong viewership numbers and U.S. Soccer has found it’s CEO.
Just two weeks to sign up. A sports business journal will be hosting the CAA World Congress of Sports in New York City on Tuesday and Wednesday, October 11th and 12th. It will be held at the Time Center on 41st Street s. BJ will also host its E-Sports Rising Conference on Thursday of that week, and attendees can also take in Riot Games League of Legends competition at the Hulu Theater that evening. It promises to be a productive and inspiring week. You don't wanna miss it. Register today at world congress of sports.com. And this is your morning Buzz cast for Tuesday, September 27th. I'm Reginal Walker filling in for a Mad Corps. So long Pro Bowl as we knew it. The NFL is replacing the Pro Bowl with a weeklong skills competition and flag football game. The new event will replace the tackle base game and will be renamed, quote the Pro Bowl games, and feature both football and non-football skills over several days.
The events will be held in Las Vegas with the Flag football game at Allegiant Stadium. One interesting note, Peyton Manning and his Omaha Productions company will help shape programming and promote the events content throughout the week. Verizon is on board as the presenting sponsor. With this concept, the NFL is clearly moving in an entirely different direction and looking to reshape the week long event. We know the league felt some pressure because the quality of the Pro Bowl has been criticized and even seen as a glorified exhibition. The connection to Flag football is smart because that should make for a fun contest. And Flag football is a true participatory growth category, and the NFL has an interest in seeing it grow as it partnered with the International Federation of American Football to bring flag football to the World Games in July with an eye on the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
The NFL's, Peter O'Reilly, the league's Executive Vice President Club business and League events was a key executive in the move staying in the nfl. We told you we're gonna keep you updated on the NFL's viewership trends on Prime video for Thursday night football. We knew they came out strong and our question was would they be able to maintain that momentum? Well, the early numbers are encouraging as Prime Video drew 11 million viewers for Steelers Browns Thursday Night Football in week three. That is up 39% from 7.96 million in week three last year when the NFL network on its own aired Panthers, Texans with no Fox component. Now to be fair, the numbers for Steelers Browns is below any audience that Fox drew for Thursday night football last season when games also aired on NFL network. So in two weeks they got 13 million for Chargers chiefs and 11 million for Steelers.
Browns and Amazon in the NFL will certainly take those numbers. Another interesting fact from s BJ's Austin Carp, after two games, Amazon's median aids for Thursday night football is six years younger than the average for NFL linear TV games this season so far, 46 years old where it was 52. Moving on a lot of news on the Super Bowl halftime show. First last week, Apple Music announced it was onboard to sponsor the halftime show in a five year deal that was reported to be worth 50 million. Now comes news that the halftime show has found its main act in Rihanna, who will perform at the February 12th game in Glendale, Arizona. DPS with Rock Nation and Jesse Collins will produce the telecast with both serving as executive producers while Hamish Hamilton serves as director as part of its deal. And something hinted at Apple will produce the behind the scenes previews and other content ahead of the game.
One note to remember, Rihanna was previously offered the stage at the 2020 championship, but turned down the job in support of Colin Kaepernick. The guys at Dude Perfect continue to get noticed. They are doing their alternate cast during Thursday night football, which you'll want to check out. And now the Sports Entertainment Group has AMA more than 58 million subscribers on YouTube and have revealed plans for a new corporate headquarters and entertainment destination that will feature a 330 foot tower. No site has been selected by Dude Perfect and their developers are talking to various partners across the country about the venue and plan to announce a location in the near future. Here's a hit. There's a high probability. It's built close to Texas as Dude Perfects five co-founders and owners are all from Texas and when love for it to be nearby, construction is expected to take about two years to complete.
The group has its headquarters in Frisco, Texas, but will relocate to wherever their new project lands. And yes, the venue like Dude Perfect is very unique with 330 foot Tower, which should allow for plenty of improbable trick shots. Inside will be a dude perfect museum that will chronicle the group's origin story and surrounding the building will be two acres of public outdoor park space for large gatherings. This is no JV operation as the architects behind this previously worked on such well known sports facilities as SoFi Stadium, at and t Stadium and US Bank Stadium. Dude, Perfect are creative and they see this facility as the next evolution of the brand and a good one for them. US Soccer continues to build out its leadership team and has hired JT Batson to serve as CEO and Secretary General as it prepares to bring its commercial rights in house next year and host the World Cup in 2026.
He succeeds. Will Wilson, who announced earlier this year that he would be stepping down. Batson will relocate to Chicago from New York where he was CEO of Hudson mx, an advertising software company. While Batson's professional experience is mostly outside sports, he is very much from the soccer worlds, including spending time as a member of the US Soccer Finance Committee from 2013 to 2017. He was also a student assistant at the Men's and Women's Soccer programs during his undergraduate years at Stanford. Batson will be the final key piece to a number of hirings for the national governing body, which will bring its commercial rights in house in 2023. The organization has been staffing up in advance of that transition. Turnkey Zg handled the search for US soccer. So that is your morning buzz cast for Tuesday, September 27th. I'm Reginal Walker filling in for a Mad Corps. I hope everyone has an excellent day. Thank you for listening to the Buzz Cast. We'll see you back here tomorrow morning.