Big names make major investments in growth sports, Dale Jr expanding his media reach and the Big XII adds to its leadership team.
The images from Hurricane Ian show major devastation in everyone here at Sports Business Journal is keeping those impacted by the storm and our thoughts. We wish you the best as recovery begins in some places and still is yet to come in others. And this is your morning bus cast for Thursday, September 29th. I'm Reginal Walker filling in for Abe Mad Corps. Let's start with big demonstrations of confidence into growth sports. How many of you are now hooked on pickle ball or have friends who are hooked on pickle ball? It's one of the sports we asked about most here at Sports Business Journal and the sport received another infusion of investment. That's right. LeBron James and business partner Maverick Carter have joined the ranks of pickleball investors taking a major stake in a major league pickleball expansion team through their lr Mr. Ventures family office. Other members of the ownership group include private equity firm, SC Holdings, NBA players, Draymond Green and Kevin Love Spring Hill Company, cmo Paul Rivera and relevant Sports Group CEO Daniel Siman.
MLP will expand from 12 to 16 teams for 2023 when it plans to host six tournaments. Existing MLP owners include Bucks. Co-owner, Mark Lare, former NFL player, Drew Bre, former tennis star, James Blake, and entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk. MLP is expected to announce the ownership of its additional expansion teams in the coming weeks. Their in just in pickleball occurred like so many others from playing a sport together over the last few years. Longtime Racket Sport executive and Worcester, who is a consultant to Major League Pickleball said negotiations began with the group in July and ended with the meeting at the US Open Tennis Tournament in August. Terms were not disclosed, but these franchises are not expensive. There's not a premium price point yet, but these investors see this as a major growth opportunity. So that's right. LeBron Draymond and Maverick Carter, among others invest in Major League Pickle Ball.
It was a big day for the growth of women's volleyball as League One volleyball. The startup property with plans to launch an indoor volleyball league alongside a grassroots network of local junior clubs has raised more than 16 million in a series A funding row with investments from headliners, including David Blitzer, Billy Jean King, and Kevin Duran. The funding round was led by investment firms Bolt Vet One Heights and Vers Capital League One calls itself the biggest volleyball business in the country and expects to double its revenue next year. The newly raised capital will be used to further support League One Volleyballs Club roll up strategy and accelerate growth around events, media and the plan. Pro League volleyball is a growth sport. It's second only to track and field in participation among high school girls. And the collegiate women's volleyball attendance record has already been broken multiple times this year.
The long term plan is to build a full season Women's Pro League and combine that with a network of youth volleyball clubs. Details around the Pro initiative's venue plan and other operational details remain scarce. But getting more than 16 million in funding is surely a shot in the arm to the strategy and another indication of the growing investments in women's sports. Another investment is in youth sports as brand Velocity Group has made its first acquisition in sports buying score sports, a 47 year old maker of youth team, uniforms and equipment. It's brand velocity Groups First Deal since Eli Manning became a partner in January. The investment group includes a bevy of other sports figures including Carmelo Anthony, Nolan Anato, Andre Drummond, Steve Hutchinson, Carly Lloyd, the Manning family, which includes Peyton, obviously Eli and Cooper Manning, as well as Marcus Smart, Tim Tebow, Isaiah Thomas, and Clay Thompson.
Among others, Score manufactures products across all ages and major youth sports brand Velocity Group believes Score can benefit from its founders operational and marketing experience along with their networks in sports and entertainment and connections to specialty brand marketing agencies. It is the first acquisition by Eli Manning and certainly telling that he's bullish on youth sports. Dale Earnhardt Jr. Continues to explore so many different areas of interest in his post racing career, including media. Earnhardt Jr. Is a natural in talking about sports and now he's doubling down on the company's audience strategy. His Dirty Mo Media has signed a podcast deal with Cadence 13 that will result in a number of new shows this fall. As reported by Axios Dirty Mo Media launched in 2013 with a weekly podcast called the Dale Junior Download, which is one of the top motor sports podcasts in the country.
Now with this deal, Dirty Mo Media will launch three new shows this fall in addition to its four existing shows. Dirty Mo has said that the new shows will focus on more than motorsports and play into the passion of southern sports fans. So expect content around college football as well. This is a big bet on content for Cadence 13 and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Who has emerged as a likable and popular sports media personality with a strong following. Switching over now to a little bit of soccer, could the World Cup final in 2026 be headed to Dallas? Well, it wouldn't surprise anyone considering the appeal of the stadium and the influence of Jerry Jones, but nothing is official. This obviously is a huge event and all the big players want it. However, Dallas officials are mom on a report that the 2026 World Cup final will be played at at and t Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
ESPN's, John Ziff had the initial report, which was then tweeted out by former US mens national team member and ESPN analysts, Hercules Gomez. If it does happen, it will be a home run for Dallas and obviously at and t Stadium as it would be the most coveted and high profile event ever at that facility, even more than of course, the Super Bowl. Now, let's be be clear that this report is premature as final site selection by FIFA wasn't expected until next year. The favorites were believed to be and still may be LA or New York with SoFi Stadium as the front runner. So if this report does hold, it would be considered a slight upset, but we'll see if this comes to fruition. Again, there's always appeal to be in Texas. We know at and t Stadium was built for events like this and the Jones family can be very, very persuasive.
And finally, as we head into week four of the NFL season tonight, as the Dolphins and Bengals face off tonight on Amazon, the viewership numbers around the NFL are off to a strong start. According to our Austin Carp, NFL games are averaging 17.2 million viewers through week three, up 1% from the same point last year in the League's Best market at this point since 2016. So very good numbers so far for the NFL that we will continue to monitor here at Sports Business Journal. Now let's end the buzz cast around some names in the news. Brett, your Mark continues to reshape the Big 12 corporate office making some internal changes last week and now he's bringing in some outside talent to Dallas. The two most recent hires are from the same organization. Your Mark poaching, two from the Detroit Pistons as the big 12 name Pistons, VP brand and marketing strategy, Tyro Kirkham, it's first ever CMO and Piston's, Director of Communications, Clark Williams as its VP brand Communications. Your Mark has been very open about revitalizing the Big 12 brand and making it more relevant in pop culture. And these two moves are further evidence of that strategy. So that is your morning Buzz cast for Thursday, September 29th. I'm Reginal Walker filling in for a mad core. Thanks for listening to the Buzz Cast. Have a great Thursday and join us right back here tomorrow morning.