You are witnessing one of the most dramatic U.S. Opens in history. On Tuesday, two amazing five-setters, Francis Tiafoe and Ben Shelton. In major victories at the U.S. Open, Ben Shelton upsetting Carlos Alcarez, pulling out a fifth-set tiebreaker that ended after 3.30 a.m. Wednesday morning. And that's just on the men's side. The U.S. is guaranteed to have a representative in Sunday's men's final as it seeks its first men's major at Flushing Meadow since Andy Roddick.
won in 2003. Also more history. The match between Shelton and Tiafoe on Friday will be the first major meeting in the semifinals or later between black American men in the open era. One will become the first black American man to reach a U.S. Open final since Arthur Ashe in 1972. Again, an amazing U.S. Open taking place in Queens. And oh, by the way, the NFL season officially starts Wednesday night tonight. Patriots Seahawks on NBC at 820 Eastern time.
And this is your Morning Buzzcast for Wednesday, September 9th. I made Madcore a lot of news. The 24-team playoff is getting a bit closer to a possibility as leaders of the CFP will open a 30-day negotiating window with ESPN. This is the most dramatic step, the first step, to have a discussion about what the value of a 24-team playoff would be, meaning media rights value. It's possible the negotiating window could start as soon as this week. And in this process, the conferences and CFP leaders will see if this 24-team field will generate enough revenue to compensate for the loss of conference championship games. So that's the key here. What will be the media marketplace for a 24-team playoff? There are some other elements here. The season would begin on what is now called Week Zero, and it would end on Thanksgiving weekend. So the calendar would definitely change.
And yes, that would impact the Army-Navy game. They would have to figure out the scheduling of that. If ESPN and the CFP don't reach agreement in this 30-day period, the CFP can then go to the marketplace and shop these additional games to the open market. ESPN would have the ability to match certain rights. What else is interesting? The 2014 playoff would consist of the 23 best teams and one spot for the group of six.
So some very interesting, I would call them machinations going on here. We'll see what the next step is. But the next step for now is taking these games to ESPN and figuring out what the media rights value is of a 2014 playoff. But this is getting closer and closer to happening. Let's move on. Shifting to golf. Live Golf, not surprisingly, filed a restructuring support agreement with BC Partners Advisors. This is the credit business of BC Partners that is likely to be the next financial partner of Live Golf. In the filing, Live indicated it had between 100.
to $500 million in assets and between $500 million and a billion dollars in liabilities. Of the 30 creditors listed, the top seven were made up of players, Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson. That is not surprising. They're owed money now, and they're also owed money for long-term deals. Now, other advisors were IMG Media, GSE Worldwide, Outlier. So all of these companies are owed money by LiveGolf. Also disclosed in the filing was that the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund would provide LiveGolf with more than $49 million in bankruptcy financing.
So the Public Investment Fund has invested more than $5 billion into LiveGolf since its first tournament in June of 2022. And again, LiveGolf wants to get beyond this. Their 2.0 product is envisioned to be a 10-event global schedule, and that would happen over the next few years. And again, they have to get past this bankruptcy filing, they have to pay off creditors, and they have a vision for a 10-event global schedule in the future. You know, we talk about major revenue streams in sports. One piece of sponsorship inventory we often overlook is shirt sponsorships in the EPL. Take a look at the Premier League Club Liverpool. They signed a deal with Turkish Airlines to replace the international banking company Standard Chartered as their new main shirt sponsor beginning next season. And this is a deal that will pay over five years more than $400 million. It's around $80 million a year to have the airline's branding on the front of the men's team, the women's team.
and the academy team. Again, major inventory, a major deal. Standard Chartered had been the main front of kit sponsor since 2010. They've kind of shifted their sponsorship to other sports, including F1. And so they will stay a sponsor of the team, but spend less. Here is a major deal, though, for Liverpool. It's more in line in terms of the value of Manchester United's deal with Snapdragon. Now, but think about that. $80 million a year. That is higher than a facility naming rights deal.
And it's even more than many teams' local media deals. So shirt sponsorships, very lucrative, especially in the Premier League. Look no further than Liverpool. You know, we talked about Unrivaled the other day seeking to expand its footprint. And they will continue with that strategy.
The three-on-three basketball league announced it will open its third season with two games in Boston at TD Garden on January 8th. And again, the league looks to capitalize on women's basketball's void in that region. There's no women's basketball team there. Remember, the WNBA Connecticut Sun will relocate to Houston. So Unrivaled saw an opportunity or sees an opportunity in New England. They will open their season at TD Garden. Now they are going to play 10 nights in larger venues across the country. Smart strategy.
They did it last year in Philadelphia and Brooklyn. They bring in new fans. They amplify the exposure around the league. And of course, we've already talked about they will return to Barclays Center for two games in January. The other stops are yet to be announced, but a smart strategy because Unrivaled played most, if nearly all of its games at its Miami Arena, Sephora Arena. Now they are broadening their reach by games at other cities in other venues. Staying with women's sports, SBJ's Rachel Axon, she reported.
on some very interesting findings, as despite recent progress, coverage of women's sports in television, news, and highlight shows remains below 10% of the overall coverage, below 10%. This is a study Communication and Sport released. It showed overall coverage of women's sports accounted for just over 9% in highlight shows, and that's a number that really hasn't been increased over the last two decades, and that's unfortunate. Now, women's sports coverage has increased. among newsletters or women's sports-specific media outlets. But again, when it goes to television news and highlight shows, coverage is still hovering just under 10%. But in a boost to women's coverage, Austin Carp is reporting that ESPN will extend its Women's Sports Sunday's initiative into this fall. This is when they're showing women's sports Sunday nights. It used to be for Sunday night baseball. This fall, they will add women's college volleyball, college basketball, the Women's Tomorrow Golf League, and MVPW Boxing.
to that Women's Sports Sunday programming mix. So again, still not enough coverage of highlights on the new shows, but we are seeing more women's sports programming among major sports networks. And I have to bring up this. The SEC has scheduled a vote of the conference presidents on whether to actually expel LSU from the league. The SEC is not expected to take such action, but they did make a filing that indicates the seriousness of the conference as it attempts to really show their legal rights to enforce its own rules.
And the presidents and the chancellors will meet this Thursday to decide whether to terminate LSU as an official SEC member. And the presidents and the chancellors have the power and authority to do so. And of course, all this comes back to football coach Lane Kiffin and his comments about disagreeing with the professionalism rules in the conference. The SEC really putting its flag in the ground about enforcing its own rules. And they will have the opportunity to vote this coming week.
on whether to expel LSU from the league. It's not likely to happen, but it shows the seriousness and the tension in the SEC as of today. And takeaways from today's Buzzcast, number one, what will be the market for extra college football playoff games in terms of media rights? We're about to see what it is as the CFP and its leaders begin an exclusive negotiating window with ESPN. Takeaway number two, shirt sponsorship inventory in the Premier League.
proving to be one of the most valuable pieces of inventory in sports. See Liverpool's lucrative deal with Turkish Airlines. Takeaway number three, coverage of women's sports still has a ways to go to be on par with men's sports, but there is more and more networks showing women's sports. From Ion Scripps with the PWHL to ESPN's expanded initiative around women's sports Sundays, there is progress. And I hope you will join me at Access Drive September 22nd through the 24th in Indianapolis. We have a great couple of days of programming, site tours, a fever game. We will sit with Pacers Sports and Entertainment Chairman Herb Simon. There will be so many other thought leaders in sports business there over the three days. Join more than 600 sports executives at Access Drive September 22nd through 24th in Indianapolis. Let me know if you have any questions. I'd love to see you there. And that is your Morning Buzzcast for Wednesday, September 9th. I'm Abe Matgore. Thanks for listening. Stay healthy. Be good to each other. I'll speak to you tomorrow.