Rise and shine. This is your Morning Buzzcast for Thursday, July 30th. I'm Austin Karp. I took in the MLS All-Star game here in Charlotte on Wednesday night. It was the coup de grace for five days of MLS events in the Queen City. You got around a little over 35,000 in the lower bowl of Bank of America Stadium. That's a sellout in that NFL venue. But it was really great to see the MLS All-Stars took home the win. I think the star of the match was probably LAFC's son. And if you weren't going to have Leo Messi in the building, having your second biggest star.
score the first two goals, and really show what he can do. That was great for MLS. Sierra, she did the halftime show. She's obviously a minority stakeholder in the Sounders. That was the connection there. But really great five days of events for Major League Soccer. Next big thing coming up for that league is going to be this coming week, the process for the league's next commissioner to replace Don Garber. That's poised to come to a head with presentations for the two finalists there in LAFC co-owner Larry Berg.
and former Fox Sports executive David Nathanson. Now, prior to the All-Star Game Wednesday night, SBJ, we very happily opened our doors to more than 200 sports business executives. So many prominent folks from the soccer community. You had hometown soccer holding CEO Tom Glick, FC Cincinnati's Jeff Burding, the New England Revolutions' Brian Bellello, and newly hired Minnesota United CEO Christina Hennington, among others. Also, so many folks from the growing Charlotte sports business community that included a number of executives from Tepper Sports and Entertainment, the Hornets, and elsewhere. Just want to say thank you so much to everybody that was able to come by. Really great event.
Sticking with some soccer news, shares of Adidas on Thursday, they fell the most on record after the German brand's marketing splurge around the World Cup. That resulted in some lower than expected quarterly profit. You had around, you know, $242 million in spending. for marketing around the World Cup. That kind of weighed on the results there for Adidas. The stock now down around 10% this year. Now, Adidas, they did sell four times as many jerseys and twice as many soccer balls during this World Cup compared with the tournament in Qatar four years ago. Mexico's jersey, that was the best-selling national team for Adidas. Let's switch over to the local media space, and obviously, all eyes are on DAZN and what they are doing, being a big entrant now into the market for MLB, NHL, and NBA teams. Well, the news this morning, the latest, the Minnesota Timberwolves, they're going to be taking their games over to DAZN for the 2026-27 season.
That includes a high-end rights fee and a possible equity grant. That's per my colleague, SBJ's Tom Friend. Now, sources told SBJ that DAZN and the Timberwolves do each have one-year mutual out clauses, but the sources noted that any equity grant for the Timberwolves, that number, believed to be above $10 million, that would not kick in if the team does opt out after one season. And the Timberwolves, in their Main Street Sports, their previous deal with Main Street Sports Group, that deal was closer to $25 million, just shows you the shifting economics here on the local side. Their sister team, the Lynx, they are remaining on Victory Plus for now for their local streaming, but this comes on the heels of the news Tuesday.
That big news, that DAZN is going to be taking the local streaming rights for MSG and Yes Network, all those teams in the New York market going to DAZN next season. The Yankees, they'll shift there next season. You'll continue to get that on the Gotham app, but it just shows you how much DAZN wants to get into this U.S. market and feels like this is what they're going to be able to do, aggregate as many local teams as possible, and then maybe be there for these leagues, NBA, NHL, maybe even MLB, when they go to market with these national packages of local streaming rights. DAZN wants to be that partner. Some sponsorship news, courtesy of Terry Lefton and his SBJ Marketing Newsletter on Wednesday night.
Sleep Number, which had been an NFL sponsor since 2018, they are out in that category. The company had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy back in June. NFL Ventures, it's owed $2.6 million as part of that. Now, during its time as an NFL sponsor, Sleep Number also got in with a number of teams, the Bengals, Chiefs, Cowboys, Rams, Vikings, and even had player deals with the likes of Dak Prescott, Matthew Stafford, and Travis Kelsey. Kelsey even had a 5% equity stake in the company, so that category opening up for the NFL. The AVP also getting a new title sponsor.
In Progressive Insurance, they're going to have all the usual jerseys, flagged courtside LEDs with their branding category exclusivity, which is believed to be the first for the insurance sponsor. Category exclusivity obviously also included. Progressive is also believed to be the first insurance sponsor in the 43-year history of the AVP. Their events airing on CBS, CBS Sports Network, and the CW. Ben Sterner's leverage agency, he repped the AVP in this deal. Nivea was AVP's last title sponsor back in 2010.
Some news from the legal front. Former longtime NFL general counsel Jeffrey Pasch, he's going to be joining Proskauer as a partner in its sports law group. That solidifies the firm's reputation as the top source, a top source of outside counsel for major sports properties. Pasch, he left the NFL April 2025 after a 28-year career with the league. Why is this big? Well, the fight for sports legal work has never been more competitive. The top firms all around the globe, they are opening sports practices in recent years and really attempting to lure away top talent. You saw Proskauer just a couple of years ago, two of their senior sports partners in Jason Krochak and John Orm.
they left for other firms. All of this focus on mergers and acquisitions and private equity investments. Within sports, you got to have the top legal talent, Jeff Pasch, taking his talents over to Proskauer. Let's move over to some basketball. The NBA's investigation into whether the Los Angeles Clippers circumvented the salary cap to pay Kawhi Leonard. That could now drag into 2027. That's what sources told ESPN. A lot of issues as to whether the parties can agree on the findings or whether any proposed settlement involves punishing the Clippers for this. You also have the matter of Kawhi being traded to the Raptors and whether that can go through. So a lot going on here. Sources close to the NBA players union. They said the union would not hesitate.
to take the matter to arbitration if the NBA saw penalties without sufficient evidence, proving the claim that the Clippers had denied since the league's inquiry began almost 10 months ago. Sticking with basketball, LeBron showing he's still got power with merchandise and sales. He broke Fanatics record for jersey sales in the first 48 hours after a player joins a new team. That's across all sports. So that's 76ers, number 23 jersey, really moving. Fanatics, they also noted it sold more LeBron-related 76ers merchandise in the first 24 hours after his decision to go to Philadelphia.
than when he announced his decision to go to the Lakers back in 2018. So LeBron still bringing it. Philadelphia fans really buying up that jersey. And finally, this week on the SBJ Sports Media Podcast, Josh Carpenter and I, we talk about why MSG and Yes Network are taking their streaming talents from the Gotham app over to DAZN and what it means for DAZN cracking the U.S. market. Plus, we break down what MLS could look at getting in its next media rights deal, the sports angles related to Paramount Skydance's upcoming court case, and the WNBA's incredibly strong half on TV. Well, that does it for your Morning Buzzcast for Thursday, July 30th. I'm Austin Karp.
Hope everyone makes good choices out there, and I will talk to you all again soon.