Morning Buzz

On Location says it has “allocated” more than 500,000 individual hospitality packages for this summer’s FIFA World Cup, which is being held in 16 venues across the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

The firm said hospitality sales for the first 48-team World Cup have already surpassed all previous editions of the tournament, more than doubling the prior revenue record and exceeding the record number of packages sold.

“It’s the largest World Cup hospitality program in history, and larger than anything else we’ve ever done or anyone’s ever done in the world of hospitality,” On Location CEO Paul Caine said.

That’s not to say there aren’t more packages to sell.

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A day before MLB was expected to introduce a salary cap and floor system as part of its counter-proposal to the union in early CBA talks, Commissioner Rob Manfred said the sport’s payroll disparity is “not a fair fight” for small-market teams. A labor battle is expected, with the union having been vehemently opposed to a cap for decades. The current CBA expires Dec. 1.

“Our payroll gap from top to bottom is $446M. That’s not a fair fight,” Manfred said Wednesday night on “The Pat McAfee Show.” “And the numbers really bear out that it’s not a fair fight. If you have a high payroll, you’re much more likely to make the playoffs. And if you have a high payroll, your chances of going to each of the successive rounds are massively higher than a low payroll club. And fans want competition. That’s what it’s about at the end of the day, and we need to get that one fixed.”

The Dodgers this season are attempting to become the first team since the Yankees (1998-2000) to capture three consecutive World Series titles. Meanwhile, the last small market team to win the Fall Classic was the Royals in 2015. Small market teams, including the Rays, Brewers and Guardians, however, have been consistent winners with lower payrolls in recent years, albeit failing to win it all.

The union, which made its initial economic proposal Wednesday, largely based on revenue-sharing reform in lieu of a cap, does not believe owners desire a salary cap for the purposes of competitive balance. Rather, it believes a cap would provide owners with fixed-cost certainty, with the goal of raising franchise values.

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NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said he expects the league to be able to implement an automated officiating system “fairly quickly” that will “take all those so-called objective calls out of the hands of the referees,” such as possession out of bounds. Silver, appearing on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Wednesday, compared a potential system to what tennis uses with Hawk-Eye for line calls. “Those calls will be done by an AI-automated system with cameras lined around the court,” he said. “It’ll be instantaneous, it’ll be automatic. Just play on, let’s go, Spurs inbound and you’ll move on. You won’t have to deal with challenges on those calls.” Silver said using automation will allow officials to “give their full attention” to the “more difficult subjective calls.” Silver: “There’s often contact on every play. It doesn’t mean there’s a foul, and they’re trying to measure whether that contact is impeding the player, how hard that contact is. It’s something that can’t just be done on camera, they’re actually feeling the contact because they’re there on the floor with the players” (“The Pat McAfee Show,” ESPN, 5/27).

The NBA BOG on Thursday will “vote on -- and all but certainly pass -- a new anti-tanking reform” called the “3-2-1 lottery.” It is a “fairly revolutionary overhaul of the system designed to immediately curb the league’s annual race to the bottom and incentivize more teams to compete late in the season.” Sources expect that the lottery itself -- not just the “airing of the results” -- will “become a live, televised event,” with the “potential for tremendous theater.” How a new lottery would play out is yet to be determined. The NBA’s current method -- the first ping-pong ball selected determines the first pick, and so on -- is “certainly one possibility, although that would eliminate much of the drama.” The entire process will be revisited before the 2030 draft (ESPN.com, 5/27).

T-Mobile is increasing its investment in golf through a new multiyear deal with the USGA that covers the U.S. Open, U.S. Women’s Open and other championships the organization hosts. T-Mobile becomes the official 5G network partner of the tournaments and also said it will be providing a mobile “Rules Review” for the USGA, which governs the sport’s rules.

Starting at the U.S. Women’s Open next week at Riviera Country Club, on-site rules officials will use an “optimized 5G network slice” to ensure they’re able to access information and video reviews in a timely manner. That same network slice will be used for ticket scanning, USGA social posts and other point-of-sale operations at the organization’s events.

In terms of member benefits, T-Mobile users can show their “Magenta Pass” at next week’s U.S. Women’s Open and receive two complimentary gallery tickets at Riviera’s main ticket office. T-Mobile also is sponsoring the driving range at the USWO and U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, and the network’s users will have access to complimentary lawn chairs, giveaways and reserved grandstand seating in certain areas.

Financial terms and the exact length of the deal weren’t disclosed. CAA worked on the deal for T-Mobile, while OVG Global Partnerships and Dan Wise led talks for the USGA. It’s the first cellular/mobile sponsorship in the history of the USGA.

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The Lakers have “conducted layoffs across multiple departments” on Wednesday. The layoffs are a “part of a reorganization following the sale of the team” from the Buss family to Mark Walter at a $10B valuation nearly a year ago. The firings “followed a widespread restructuring over the last few months,” including Lon Rosen replacing Tim Harris as President of Business Operations, Michael Spetner being hired as Chief Strategy & Growth Officer and Ryan Kantor being hired as VP/Global Partnerships. The team also recently hired former Virginia men’s basketball coach Tony Bennett as a draft consultant and advisor, as well as Rohan Ramadas as an Assistant GM of strategy and data system (CALIFORNIA POST, 5/27). Sources said that at least 15 people “across multiple departments, including communications, marketing and sales, would be laid off” (L.A. TIMES, 5/27). On the basketball side, “input from the Dodgers has been notable as well.” Dodgers President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman and special advisor Farhan Zaidi have “had a role in the reorganization of the Lakers’ front office” (ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER, 5/27).

Just Women’s Sports has closed a new investment round as the women’s sports calendar enters what founder and CEO Haley Rosen calls “the heart” of a pivotal year for the space. The round is led by Bolt Ventures, the family office of sports investor David Blitzer, which is doubling down after participating in JWS’ 2022 financing. Rosen declined to disclose specific terms but confirmed the fresh capital is a seven-figure investment tied solely to this new round.

Rosen said the funding will go toward expanding JWS’s news and content infrastructure, growing its team and “doubling down on what’s working” across digital, production, social and events. That includes investing in more original, athlete-led programming and adding more voices to its shows including “Between the Lines with Lisa Leslie,” “Court Vision with Angel McCoughtry and Ros Gold-Onwude,” “Time Wasting with Kelley O’Hara and Ali Riley” and “The Late Sub with Claire Watkins.”

A key focus for JWS will be growing out its event business. The company has built out a slate that includes an annual NWSL championship party which last year featured a performance by Kesha, that draws athletes, team owners and front-office executives out. It also hosts intimate industry dinners around major tentpole soccer moments, with figures such as WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert and other prominent sports executives in attendance, as well as fan-facing activations like last year’s WNBA All-Star event that brought roughly 600 fans through in a single day, Rosen said.

“Fans and brands are excited about the in-real-life element of this, so it’s become very important to us to get really good at being in real life,” Rosen said.

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On this week’s pod, SBJ’s Austin Karp and Josh Carpenter dig into the NBA and ESPN getting the Knicks back in the NBA Finals, what Stanley Cup Final matchup would be best for the NHL, takeaways from NASCAR and IndyCar on Memorial Day weekend and what to make of the recent Excel Sports-WIN Sports tie-up. Finally, with just two weeks until the FIFA World Cup, Karp sits down with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard to talk about their podcast and what to expect from the event as it hits North America.

“Published in 1868, ‘Études sur le Vinaigre’ was one of this man’s groundbreaking works.”