Tonight in Unpacks: MLB will honor the Negro Leagues with a special game Thursday night at the oldest stadium in pro sports, and SBJ’s Joe Lemire reports on what the game means to veterans of segregated baseball -- and what went into getting the ballpark ready for the event.
Also tonight:
- MLB see its best weekend attendance since 2008 with 1.69 million fans
- MLB helmet decals could drive $76 million of brand value for league-wide sponsors
- Shaun White launching new snowboarding league
- Op-ed: Follow these steps for athlete-beauty brand partnerships
Listen to SBJ's most popular podcast, Morning Buzzcast, where SBJ’s Abe Madkour kicks off the week with Shaun White launching a winter sports league, the U.S. getting another member on a key IOC board, Carlos Alcaraz's big Nike extension and more.
Rickwood Field: Field of forgotten -- and renewed -- dreams
MLB arrives at Rickwood Field this week for the first official regular-season game at the 114-year-old ballpark, the oldest professional stadium in the country. MLB at Rickwood Field: A Tribute to the Negro Leagues will feature the Cardinals and Giants on Thursday evening at a renovated Rickwood Field, and it comes just weeks after MLB announced that Negro Leagues statistics would be formally recognized by MLB and that it would pay retirement benefits to all living former players.
The game itself follows a week of community events. There will be a screening of the 2022 documentary “Say Hey, Willie Mays,” including a post-film panel with his son, Michael; Play Ball clinics for local Boys and Girls Clubs and Nike RBI programs; a New York Life-organized symposium with financial advice for Black-owned businesses; a Negro Leagues Family Alliance luncheon; a celebrity softball game co-produced by MLB and Uninterrupted; and a minor league game with the Double-A Birmingham Barons playing at Rickwood instead of their current home at Regions Field.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred described the Negro Leagues as “a crucial part of our history,” and added, “I hope that the programming around it leaves a real imprint on the people in Birmingham in terms of appreciating how important that field is to the history of the Negro Leagues. A focus on the history of the Negro Leagues is consistent with our efforts to produce diversity on the field and in the front office,” as SBJ's Joe Lemire reports in one of two cover stories in a special edition of this week's magazine.
Coverage of the historic game at Rickwood Field includes:
MLB see its best weekend attendance since 2008 with 1.69 million fans
MLB enjoyed its best attendance weekend since 2008, reports SBJ's Joe Lemire, with its 45 games drawing 1.69 million fans for an average of 37,527 per contest. Both the total and averages were the best since the weekend ending Aug. 22, 2008. The Sunday, June 16, total of 612,066 was also the highest since 2008, when the final Sunday of that season attracted 612,699.
A few traditional and regional rivals played this past weekend, highlighted by Red Sox-Yankees and Cardinals-Cubs. The Phillies and Orioles, who own two of the three best records in MLB this season, squared off at Camden Yards (with a healthy dose of Phillies colors in the stands). The league’s attendance through the first month of the season had been up nearly 1% when measured against a comparable number of games in 2023 and was the best average since 2017.
MLB helmet decals could drive $76 million of brand value for league-wide sponsors
The Zoom helmet decal featured in the MLB London Series games provides tangible insight into the potential value to sponsors from future league-wide adoption of the asset, Hive President Dan Calpin told SBJ's David Broughton.
The decal -- displayed on both the Phillies' and Mets' helmets -- earned an average of six minutes of identifiable exposure per game of televised screen time, according to Hive's data. By comparison, the season-to-date average for MLB jersey patches is 13 minutes and 6 seconds of exposure in games where both teams have patch sponsors.
The higher exposure time for jersey patches is the result of additional camera shots while players are in the field or in the dugout, as opposed to only when at bat with the helmets, said Calpin.
If adopted across the entire MLB season, Hive projects helmet decals would generate $76 million in equivalent media value for sponsors. The breakdown:
- Regular-season games on RSNs: 46%
- Regular-season games national TV: 14%
- All-Star Weekend + Postseason games (national TV): 23%
- Social media and other non-game sportscasts: 17%
Decals, such as Zoom's on the helmet of Phillies RF/3B Nick Castellanos, could be a valuable asset for brands, Hive research shows
Shaun White launching new snowboarding league
Snowboarding legend Shaun White is launching The Snow League, a new winter sports property that will debut next March with a $1.5 million prize purse across a five-stop global season, reports SBJ's Chris Smith. White and his financial backers -- Ares Management, David Blitzer’s Bolt Ventures, Ryan Ventures and Will Ventures -- are aiming to fill the void as top pro snowboarding properties, like the Burton US Open, Dew Tour and X Games, have downsized or folded in recent years.
The inaugural, five-event season will kick off in March 2025 and wrap up following the 2026 Winter Olympics. The league has not finalized its host resorts but has plans for global event stops. Each tour stop will feature a $250,000 prize purse, split evenly between male and female competitors. White noted that, when including an additional $250,000 in payouts for season-long performance, the $1.5 million total purse is the largest ever assembled for a pro snowboarding competition.
U.S. Open: Inside NBC's commercial load at Pinehurst No. 2
NBC followed through on its vow to run fewer ads during the U.S. Open, reports SBJ's Josh Carpenter, airing just under 46 minutes of commercials for the final round from Pinehurst No.2 on Sunday as Bryson DeChambeau won his second major. NBC’s commercial time Sunday totaled 45 minutes, 45 seconds from 2pm-7pm ET. SBJ tracked the same 2:00-7:00 window last month for CBS’s coverage of the PGA Championship. CBS aired 48 minutes, 40 seconds of commercials for Xander Schauffele’s win. It did not have a commercial-free final hour.
SBJ tracked three types of commercial time Sunday: full-screen ads, “presented by” segments and “Playing Through,” which features a double-box of the competition and ads at the same time. NBC also ran a 30-second highlight package near the middle of the telecast that was sponsored by USGA partner Amex. NBC and lead producer Tommy Roy front-loaded the broadcast and cut back as the day went on, culminating with a Rolex-sponsored commercial free final hour from 5:43pm until DeChambeau finished around 6:35 pm.
Op-ed: Follow these steps for athlete-beauty brand partnerships
Tonight's op-ed is from Loeb & Loeb's Arash Khalili and Melanie Howard and the FDA's Kristen Klesh on the importance of being aware of regulations when making deals between athletes and beauty brands.
"Beauty brands and female athletes can reap enormous benefits by engaging in endorsement and brand partnership arrangements so long as due consideration is given to the legal issues and strategic advice is obtained on how avoid common pitfalls. Brands and athletes should be mindful of and seek counsel on regulatory, intellectual property and contractual issues to protect themselves as they capitalize on the intersection of beauty, luxury brands and sports."
Read the full submission here.
Speed reads
- After his U.S. Open win on Sunday, Bryson DeChambeau noted how Sportsbox AI helped improve his swing, giving it a heady endorsement as the company ponders adding a pro player consultancy to its business model, reports SBJ's Joe Lemire.
- USA Swimming moved its Olympic trials to Lucas Oil Stadium Indianapolis this year, putting a 50-meter pool in an NFL venue for the first time in part to draw more fans, and it set attendance records on Saturday and Sunday, writes SBJ's Rachel Axon.
- WME Sports is launching talent representation and brand consulting services for padel, the fast-growing global racquet sport, and the new division’s first signee is a significant one -- World Padel Tour’s No. 1-ranked player, Arturo Coello, notes SBJ's Rob Schaefer.
- The Sounders’ ownership group and global investment firm The Carlyle Group officially announced their previously reported $58 million purchase of the NWSL Seattle Reign FC from France's OL Groupe, reports SBJ's Alex Silverman.
- The International Cricket Council is releasing an immersive viewing experience for the Apple Vision Pro that puts T20 World Cup highlights into 3D, writes Lemire.
- IBM and The All England Club are collaborating on a new digital fan offering powered by generative AI for this year’s Wimbledon, notes Schaefer.