Morning Buzz

Publicis is acquiring WME’s sports/experiential agency 160over90. The purchase price will be more than $500M, per the Wall Street Journal. The move continues the recent flurry of consolidation and brings another multibillion-dollar holding company into the sea of sports agencies competing with Omnicom’s.

For Publicis, striving to build a meaningful sports practice to match its media-buying prowess, the move is the latest in a series that began with last year’s acquisitions of agencies Adopt and Bespoke. The acquisition gives Publicis unprecedented sports-marketing reach. Last year, 160over90 activated more than 500 events in nearly 30 countries and across 38 states.

Pairing sports marketing with media buying is not a novel idea, but it has been difficult to make it work.

“The scale involved makes it very intriguing,” said a longtime sports agency head. “The question everyone will be asking is how a media conglomerate can manage the cost center of running high-level activation and production. That has been challenging for all of them.”

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A new asset is coming to Wisconsin athletics, as the school is slated to announce an expansion of its sponsorship deal with UW Health that will include the company’s logo being featured on Badgers uniforms in women’s basketball, hockey, volleyball and softball. The deal was brokered through Badger Sports Properties, Wisconsin’s local Learfield affiliate.

“This sponsorship overall is a long-term investment for us with UW Health,” Wisconsin Deputy AD Mitchell Pinta told Sports Business Journal. “... Women’s sports have such a powerful and storied legacy at Wisconsin. This really felt like the next evolution of that and one we’re really excited about.”

UW Health has long been a supporter of Wisconsin athletics and most recently inked a deal to be the presenting sponsor of its women’s sports teams, which included varying signage around ice hockey, volleyball and more.

That agreement also included language and terms centered on a jersey patch component contingent on their being made allowable under NCAA rules (The NCAA approved corporate patches for regular season play in January).

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Netflix drew 3 million viewers for its debut MLB effort featuring the Giants and Yankees, but maybe most importantly for the league, the youngest MLB Opening Day audience since the delayed start to the pandemic season in July 2020. Excluding that pandemic year, it would be the youngest audience for an MLB opener in a decade. The audience among adults 18-49 was the best for Opening Day since 2017.

Overall, Netflix’s audience of 3 million was behind the 3.2 million viewers the following night on NBC/Peacock for D-Backs-Dodgers. It was higher than the 2.6 million that Fox drew for its first regionalized window of the season on Saturday night. Netflix’s MLB debut is even with what Fox drew early last month for the U.S.-U.K. pool play game in the World Baseball Classic.

The final audience number for Netflix was delayed by a number due to a data processing error, but the 3 million figure (Big Data) matched what the preliminary number was, sources told SBJ. Regardless, the 3 million viewers was above Netflix’s internal estimates and the company is pleased headed into its two other games this season -- the Field of Dreams Game and Home Run Derby.

Beyond baseball, 3 million for Netflix matches what CBS drew in primetime in the first round of this year’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament for St. John’s-Northern Iowa, or what ESPN drew on New Year’s Eve for Nebraska-Iowa in the Las Vegas Bowl.

ESPN on-air personality Marty Smith has signed what he called a long-term contract with the network as he celebrates 20 years with the Worldwide Leader this fall.

Smith will continue covering college football for “College GameDay,” as well as co-hosting “Marty & McGee” with Ryan McGee. He’ll be on site at the Masters next week and will continue contributing to the network’s PGA Championship coverage, NFL Draft and Kentucky Derby.

Additionally, Smith has been TGL’s sideline reporter for the past two years and said he’s a proponent of ESPN renewing with the league, should the network have an appetite for it. “If you work at our place, you got to be damn good,” Smith said. “And I’m just grateful that they believe enough in me to continue on with this.”

Though his plate is already full, Smith said he’s open to taking on more. “I’m invigorated by being challenged to acclimate to something and study well enough and learn the personalities well enough to try to offer that storytelling to the world,” he said.

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Tickets for the 2028 L.A. Olympics “go on sale Thursday,” with the first round of purchases “limited to a pool of pre-registered local applicants selected through a random drawing.” Eligible residents “in Southern California and Oklahoma City who signed up in advance” will be “notified by email if they were chosen for a purchasing window during the initial sale,” set for April 2-6. A “broader public sale” is set for April 9-19, when remaining tickets “will be made available to fans worldwide.” Each selected buyer “will be allowed to purchase up to 12 tickets, plus an additional 12 tickets for Olympic soccer matches.” Purchases for the opening and closing ceremonies “will be capped at four tickets per person.” Organizers “cautioned that buyers may encounter online queues when accessing the ticketing platform” (ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER, 4/1).

The PWHL Takeover Tour in Calgary on Wednesday night between the Ottawa Charge and Toronto Sceptres drew 16,150 fans to the Saddledome -- a crowd that “was loud and cheered just as wildly for local products ... as the fans in the stands usually do for their Calgary Flames favourites.” The crowd “was young, too, especially for a game that had a” 7:30pm MT start time “on a school night.” Who knows “how many thousands more would have been clamouring for tickets on a weekend matinee.” There is “no question that this week’s stop in Calgary was a resounding success for the PWHL.” Hundreds of fans “showed up for open practices at WinSport on Tuesday and thousands more attended Wednesday’s game,” where the Sceptres outlasted the Charge for a 2-1 win. The players “definitely think” a full-time, Calgary-based PWHL team is “possible” (CALGARY HERALD, 4/1).

The Mercury on Wednesday unveiled that Hero Bread “will be the team’s new official jersey badge partner during the 2026 season.” The S.F.-based bread company is the Mercury’s third jersey badge sponsor after partnering with Partake Foods and Flipper’s over the past two years. However, it will be the first partnership to be featured on the team’s new jerseys following a rebrand in November. Mercury President Vince Kozar said that this is the latest of the team’s "rotating badge platform." The Hero Bread jersey badge “will make its debut on April 25” when the Mercury take on the Sky in South Dakota in the team’s first preseason game (ARIZONA SPORTS, 4/1).

The city of Charlotte on Wednesday “received the green light” to sell $650M “of debt to help pay for upgrades” to Bank of America Stadium. The North Carolina treasurer’s office “approved the deal, which will support” the revamp of the stadium. Tepper Sports & Entertainment “will pay for the remainder” of the balance. The funds from Charlotte will “finance work needed to bring the stadium ‘up to current NFL standards.’” In 2024, the city council approved Charlotte’s plan to seek municipal financing for the project, but it “also needed clearance” from the Local Government Commission (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 4/1). The $650M from the city “accounts for 80%” of the planned $800M makeover (CHARLOTTE BUSINESS JOURNAL, 4/1).

On this week’s pod, host and SBJ media reporter Austin Karp is joined by SBJ special contributor Richard Deitsch to break down the impact of Big Data on viewership for both the men’s and women’s NCAA basketball tournaments. They duo also breaks down the future of NFL media with streaming partners and how Tiger Woods stepping away from golf could impact the media rights discussions around the TGL.

MLB Network’s “Intentional Talk” will broadcast live from Cooperstown’s Doubleday Field on May 22 in a special episode dedicated to the Hall of Fame Military Classic and the Baseball HOF’s America 250 celebration. Former MLBer Ryan Dempster will be joined by Siera Santos as the show’s hosts, with Baseball HOFers and additional Hall of Fame Military Classic players joining the show throughout. The weekend will feature a roundtable conversation hosted by broadcaster Gary Thorne and featuring Hall of Fame Military Classic players with ties to the military. The Hall of Fame Military Classic: A Tribute to Service and Sacrifice will be played on May 23 and feature HOF managers and coaches along with recently retired MLBers in a seven-inning legends game at Doubleday Field. The game will feature Baseball HOFers Wade Boggs, Rollie Fingers, Todd Helton, Ferguson Jenkins, Tony La Russa, Scott Rolen and Joe Torre along with more than two dozen former big leaguers (MLB Network).

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday revealed “restrictions on betting ads spanning stadiums, uniforms, TV, radio and the internet,” but “stopped short of the complete ban on online gambling advertising.” The changes, which the government “hopes will take effect next year,” will include a cap on “the number of TV ads from betting agencies to a maximum of three per hour between 6am and 8.30pm,” and would “ban all gambling ads on radio during school drop-off and pick-up times.” The restrictions will also include a “ban on cross-promotion that mixes sporting commentary with betting odds, an end to advertising on jerseys and in stadiums, a ban on online advertising to people under 18, and blocking illegal gaming sites.” The “use of celebrities and sports players in gambling ads will also be banned” (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 4/2).

“Mark Twain wrote the quip that on this day of the year, ‘we are reminded of what we are on the other 364.’”