Friday Dump 🥟 - NFL's Presidential competition, Massive WNBA Deal, Tropicana 2.0

Author

Michael Sheinfeld
July 19, 2024

Pass a towel, the Friday Dump 🥟 is out

Each Friday, we’ll breakdown 3 sports business stories that have caught our eye throughout the week. They will be assembled in the following format:

🔴 - Stories that make us stop, think, and question.

🟡 - Stories with a hint of risk and unpredictability.

🟢 - Stories that make us feel good to go and empowered.

It’s too hot for a joke right now.

🔴 NFL vs. U.S. Elections. With all the insanity going on in today’s news, it’s hard not to stay away. It might be so hard to stay away that it could effect NFL viewership. It’s no secret the entire country has its eyes on Joe Biden vs. Donald Trump in the 2024 Election — especially after the most recent assassination attempt and the god-awful, yet entertaining (?) first Presidential debate. The debate raked in over 51M viewers…however numbers for the most recent debate were down 30% compared to its comparable 2020 debate, as ~22M fewer viewers tuned in this time around. Even the TV turnout and ratings for the Republican National Convention through the first 3 nights in Milwaukee were down 6%. Even though these numbers don’t look all that promising in comparison, the NFL still has a little competition during election years.

  • In 2016, overall in-game viewership dropped 8% versus the year prior.

  • By the end of the regular season, the NFL’s network partners were averaging 1.4M fewer viewers than in 2015.

  • For background, in 2023 the NFL accounted for 93 of the top 100 most-watched U.S. broadcasts.

  • Last year’s in-game viewership rose 7% to ~18M viewers per window, tying the 2010 season as the 2nd most-watched on record.

In a dumpshell…it’s something to keep in mind as headlines will more than likely be released the first few weeks of the season with, THE NFL LOST ALL THEIR VIEWERS or DOES THE NFL HAVE A PULSE?! Because, this might be one of the most interesting elections we’ve had in decades and even though the numbers are low in comparison to 2020 — let’s not forget, all we had available to us that year was homemade sourdough bread, Zoom mixology courses, and our TVs.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves too much. The NFL will continue to thrive from an advertising standpoint. Why is that? Because advertising rates will still be high as brands will want to continue using these games to market their products/services. Not to mention, the majority of the NFL’s biggest in-game spenders are locked in for multiyear deals — so it’s not like their losing much in ad revenue to News networks for the election.

Pictured: A’ja Wilson (left) and Angel Reese; Photo: Melissa Tamez/Getty Images

🟡 The ladies struck gold. We don’t know about you guys, but we don’t think we’ve ever seen a more pro-WNBA newsletter. We dare you to find one, seriously. And to continue down the positive path, we’ll give you insight into a massive WNBA media rights deal! On Wednesday, the league announced they are set to receive ~$2.2B over an 11-year period (that’s an average of $200M per year) with ESPN, NBC, and Amazon. But we have to give some flowers to their male counterparts (relax don’t cancel us, it’s not what you think) — they helped out with the negotiations in reaching agreements with the same networks on an 11-year, ~$75B set of contracts. Though we’re still waiting on Warner Bros. Discovery to make their move 😬, let’s review the deal…

  • The WNBA’s current media deals, valued at ~$50M annually, are set to expire after the 2025 season, as they’re currently in bed with Disney, Ion, CBS, and Amazon.

  • The new rights fees could have as much as 6x the league’s current media rights fees. And there’s multiple reasons for it…

    • First, this leaves room for the league to negotiate separate deals worth more than $60M annually — apparently the WNBA anticipates it will sell 2 additional rights packages.

    • Second, the main partners agreed to revisit the value of the deals 3 years in since the new deals leave room for the WNBA to bring in new partners.

In a dumpshell…although we’re unsure of how the NBA determined the value of the WNBA at $200M, it’s still nice to see the historical rise this league is making in professional sports. And with Indiana Fever rookie, Caitlin Clark helping fuel ratings records on every channel she plays on, sticking with the WNBA would seem like a no-brainer for networks and streamers.

And with that increased popularity comes advertising revenue jumping to record highs. According to EDO, WNBA ad revenue has nearly doubled from $6.6M in 2022 to $12.4M in 2024, with fans 44% more likely to engage with league commercials so far this season compared to the same period last year.

Even though all of this is positive, there are still some Negative Nancy’s out there when they line up the WNBA valuation number next to the NBA. Because let’s be honest, the WNBA dwarfs in comparison. But let’s not forget, this is the start of something great. An inflection point when it comes to women’s basketball. Popularity is soaring, advertisers are drooling at the mouth, and sports merchandise is through the roof.

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🟢 Tampa, you can breathe now. After years and years of playing the waiting game and praying further work be done on their stadium, the residents of Tampa Bay and St. Petersburg, FL will finally get their wish and more. At least the ones who still find it fun to go to the ballpark in the Tampa region. On Thursday, city council approved the club’s proposed $1.3B stadium and mixed-use development. Here’s what we know…

  • By the same 5–3 margin as a preliminary vote last month, the council gave the green light to a new, domed Rays stadium near the club’s current facility, Tropicana Field.

  • The Rays’ plan for the new ballpark calls for the club to pay $700M plus cost overruns, with the public sector contributing the remaining $600M.

  • This now moves to the Pinellas County Commission to approve $312M in tourist tax dollars, but this was the hurdle vote St. Petersburg needed to continue with the process.

In a dumpshell…there was plenty of doubt that the Rays would be relocating due to such low attendance numbers throughout the years. Now, the city is in prime position to keep their beloved (?) Rays.

With this vote, there will be even more pressure for the team to establish themselves further with their fans. As we know, new stadiums don’t increase popularity — it’s up to the team to engage with the fanbase and create an environment where they feel excited about attending baseball games and cheering on their home town squad. Nevertheless, it’s a great start for the people of Cigar City.

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