First NFL sportsbook opens in AZ; MLB preps for on-field changes; Saudi Arabia eyes World Cup '30 bid
Who wouldn't be excited for such a big sports weekend? We've got college football the US Open men's and women's finals, and a full schedule of NFL openers on Sunday. Should be fantastic viewing. Remember, we will be in Nashville next week for our access sports facilities, franchises and ticketing symposium. There is still time to join us in what will be three great days in one of the most exciting sports cities in the US.
If you're interested in registering for the event, go to our website, or just let me know. This is your morning Buzzcast for Friday, September 9th. Good morning, I'm Abe Madkour, thanks for listening. Our thoughts of course are with the people of England, after the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, on Thursday. We are thinking of all of you.
Let's get to the news today. Major league baseball is ready to make changes to the game. Yes, including installing a pitch clock in a bid to shorten games and they hope with these other rule changes, increase offense. Baseball's competition committee is set to adopt the rule changes on Friday, mandating a pitch clock of 15 seconds, with no runners on base, 20 seconds with runners on base. The MLB clock will be just seconds longer than the version experimented with in the minor leagues this season. That has seemed to really work.
There will be other changes and all will start during spring training. For example, there'll be a limit on pick-off attempts, or how many times a pitcher can step off the rubber. Sizes of the bases will increase. There will be tighter time increments between half innings, and there will be a 32nd clock between batters. Those are just some of the rule changes.
Again, they should be announced on Friday and rolled out next year, all in an effort to both quicken the game and increase offense, so baseball, not standing still in trying to change its game. Let's move to college sports, because the college football playoff management committee, while they met Thursday in Dallas Fort Worth, and began to work out the details of expanding the college football playoff from four to 12 teams.
Now, we've touched on this on the Buzzcast. There are a lot of issues to work out. There's media rights, there's revenue sharing, there are existing contracts with the ball games. Details also were discussed about where and when all the additional playoff games can be played. Now, availability of venues and availability of television time slots could determine whether this expansion to 12 teams happens sooner than 2026. Now, most said, all of this can happen earlier, but it will be very difficult.
This also mark, the first college football playoff management committee meeting for new Big 12 commissioner, Brett Yormark. He said he spent most of Thursday's meeting asking questions, but the bottom line, a lot to do, and so we'll continue to see the pace of change for the college football playoff management committee as they go from four to 12 teams.
Let's move on. We saw the latest in a retail sports book yesterday, Thursday, as BetMGM and the Arizona Cardinals took the wrapper off the very first Sportsbook at an NFL stadium. That's of course in Glendale. Now, the facility is not in State Farm Stadium, but it's located on what is called the Great Lawn, as one walks toward the stadium. The BetMGM Sportsbook is a two story, 17,000 square foot building, there's a huge video walls, there are nearly 40 televisions. Yes, we have seen these at ballparks and we've seen them at arenas, but this is the first one based around an NFL stadium. This is noteworthy and we again see Arizona being a leader in the space.
The facility will have 25 bedding kiosk. There'll be a bar and grill with indoor and outdoor dining. There's also plans to use the outdoor space as a theater for concerts and other acts. The BetMGM Sportsbook will open Sunday. The Cardinals play their first home game, of course on Sunday. When you can, take a look at the images, because it's quite an interesting facility, and again, as we've said on the Buzzcast, we're going to see more and more of these retail Sportsbooks. This one is the first at an NFL stadium.
Let's move to NASCAR, because NASCAR and Speedway Motorsports, going back to their roots in a very retro move, they will move the 2023 All Star Race from Texas Motor Speedway to the North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina. This is a track in North Carolina that hadn't run any races for years. It was almost abandoned and so to take this race from Texas Motor Speedway, to North Wilkesboro, is quite noteworthy. One of the reasons for the move, is that there was interest by Fox Sports in bringing the race to more traditional tracks around the country. Our Adam Stern reported that this is also seen as a trend to take sports back to certain areas of their roots. This is certainly indicative of that.
The race is expected to run on May 21st. It'll come as NASCAR celebrates its 75th anniversary, and it comes as the state of North Carolina allocated 18 million in renovations for that track. Look for NASCAR to release its full schedule in the next week or so, but they will move their All Star Race from Texas to North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina.
Easily one of the biggest stories of the year, has been Saudi Arabia's interest in growing its sports footprint and growing its influence in sports. We've seen it with LIV Golf specifically. Well, now Saudi Arabia has its sights set on the 2030 World Cup. Remember 2026 will be held Canada, United States, Mexico. Well, now Saudi Arabia is set to announce a joint bid with Egypt and Greece to host the 2030 World Cup. Saudi Arabia would be the lead partner and would take the lead on contributing to infrastructure costs for both Egypt and Greece. This would be big news. The bid is expected to be announced in the next few weeks that Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Greece would bid for the 2030 World Cup. Other competitors really haven't quite formed yet. We'll have to see how this race develops, but certainly interesting news in global sports there.
Let's end the Buzzcast today, as we do around people. WWE has hired former Raiders president, Dan Ventrelle, as their executive vice president of talent. Now, he was president of the Raiders before departing in May. He did work with the WWE last year, when Allegiant Stadium hosted Summer Slam, and in his new role, he will oversee the WWE's talent development and he'll report directly to chief content officer Paul Levesque. But Dan Ventrelle, joining the WWE after spending years with the Las Vegas Raiders.
Finally, staying with talent, a change at endeavors WME Talent Division impacts one of the more influential executives in that company's sports division. WME on Thursday named Richard Weitz and Christian Muirhead as co-chairman of its Talent Division. They will succeed Lloyd Braun, who will leave the company and is well known, certainly in Hollywood talent circles. The interesting move for sports business insiders, is that Christian Muirhead will move from Endeavors corporate division, to the Talent Agency WME. Now, Christian Muirhead is well known in sports business. He served as chief communications officer for Endeavor and for the company's entire sports and entertainment assets. Since 2014, he was key in a lot of areas that we're familiar with, including acquisitions, and in taking Endeavor public. He has seen a lot over the years. He first joined WME in 2004, and again, Christian Muirhead has played a role in many of the company's sports efforts for years and now will shift over to WME and oversee its Talent Division with Richard Weitz, a significant move there at Endeavor.
That is your morning buzz cast. Again, for Friday, September 9th, I'm Abe Madkour. Thanks for listening to the Buzzcast. Have a good weekend, stay healthy, be good to each other. I'll speak to you on Monday.