SBJ Unpacks: A classic Fall Classic

Big teams. Big markets. Big stars. Big hopes.

The 2024 World Series between Aaron Judge’s New York Yankees and Shohei Ohtani’s Los Angeles Dodgers is the showdown the sport has been waiting for, and it provides the ultimate showcase opportunity for Major League Baseball and everyone associated with it.

“It’s a dream matchup for the league, its TV partners and its ticketing partners,” Chris Leyden, director of growth marketing at SeatGeek, said before the Series began in Los Angeles on Oct. 25.

This marks the first time the Yankees and Dodgers have met in the Fall Classic since 1981, despite the two behemoths both reaching the postseason 12 previous times in the wild-card era that began in 1995. It’s the first time the top seeds in each league have squared off in the World Series (after a full season) since 2013; the first time two players who each hit 50 home runs (Judge, 58; Ohtani, 54) have ever matched up in the Series; and just the second time in the last 35 years that the presumptive MVPs in each league have met.

It also comes on the heels of a remarkable two-season stretch for baseball that has included an epic World Baseball Classic in March 2023, back-to-back years of attendance growth with totals that topped 70 million each season and well-received rule changes that have sped up the game. Television viewership for this year’s dramatic postseason is up 5% compared to last year.

For all the hard numbers the Series will produce by its conclusion, it’s something less tangible that might be just as important.

“The buzz that’s generated, people are talking about it,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred told Sports Business Journal last week prior to Game 1 of the Fall Classic. “We’ve worked really hard to increase the interest in what’s a great matchup.” 

Judge and Ohtani, the likely MVP winners in the American and National leagues, respectively, will be at the center of it all. MLB did an ad for the 2024 postseason featuring the two superstars and the slogan, “Once in a Generation. Twice.” In the run-up to and during the World Series, the ad was scheduled to get increasing play on Disney’s live sports programming, including NFL and college football games, as well as on TikTok and YouTube. MLB also created 10-second spots featuring two other former MVP winners on these Series rosters, the Yankees’ Giancarlo Stanton and the Dodgers’ Mookie Betts.

“Obviously, Ohtani and Judge may be the two best players in the game,” Manfred said. “But it’s important not to look past the other players. I mean, Mookie Betts and [Yankees outfielder] Juan Soto are pretty good, too. I just think it’s a really great opportunity to showcase great players and two really good teams on the biggest stage.” 

MLB is also looking to promote the history of the matchup. This is the 12th time the Yankees and Dodgers have met in the World Series, the most frequent clash in World Series history, with New York holding an 8-3 advantage. 

“For our traditional fans, when you think about it: Joe DiMaggio and Jackie Robinson, Mickey Mantle and Sandy Koufax, and now you’ve got Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge,” Manfred said. “It’s kind of like a continuation of a really important part of our history.” 

Not surprisingly, the ticket market is booming. As of Oct. 21, World Series tickets on the secondary market were averaging approximately $1,600 in Los Angeles, and nearing $2,000 in New York, according to SeatGeek, the official ticket marketplace of MLB. The highest ticket sold for a guaranteed game at Dodger Stadium was around $18,700, with Yankee Stadium coming in at around $12,150, also according to SeatGeek. 

“We’re probably on pace to have the most in-demand World Series tickets we’ve ever seen, if not second,” Leyden said, referencing 2016, when the Cubs broke their 108-year title drought against Cleveland.

That series also set records for sales of licensed merchandise, but early indications were that this year would set a new record. “I would be shocked if it doesn’t,” MLB Deputy Commissioner Noah Garden told SBJ’s Terry Lefton, noting the lines outside the Legends-operated MLB store last week, even before it opened in the morning. “What we’re wondering now is whether this can last into the holidays and even beyond.”

In another callback to 2016, that year also marked the only time since 2005 that the World Series has averaged 20 million viewers. Justin Beitler, director of media rights consulting at Octagon, set his TV ratings projection at an average of 20.5 million viewers should the series go long, “with these two markets, and this kind of star power.” 

For comparison, none of the past four World Series Game 6s reached 17 million viewers, but each of the seven World Series Game 7s since 2000 have topped 23 million, led by 40.1 million for Cubs-Indians in 2016, the most viewers for any non-NFL game on U.S. airwaves this century.

Mike Mulvihill, president of insights and analytics for Fox, did not want to commit to a specific ratings benchmark for success. But he was expecting a significant increase over last year’s World Series, won by the Texas Rangers against the Arizona Diamondbacks, which averaged around 9 million viewers.  

“This matchup is so rich in storylines and superstars that you just want it to go as long as possible,” Mulvihill said. “If it were up to me, this would be a best-of-13 series. I would just like to have more games and more opportunities for these guys to square off.”

Entering the World Series, Fox and FS1 have averaged 4.7 million viewers through the postseason, up 33% year-over-year. “Once every couple years, there just seems to be an October where everything comes together for baseball and you get one of these magical postseasons, and this just seems to be one of those,” Mulvihill said. 

Television ratings in Japan are also expected to be massive. Approximately 12.9 million viewers tuned in for Game 5 of the National League Division Series, featuring Japanese-born starters Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Dodgers and Yu Darvish of the Padres. MLB took out 113 out-of-home ads in Tokyo, showcasing each one of Ohtani’s 54 homers and 59 steals. 

Coverage of the World Series won’t end after the Commissioner’s Trophy is presented. Apple TV+ announced that it is doing a documentary on the 2024 Fall Classic, with MLB and Oscar-winning director Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment. However, that project was acquired by Apple months before the World Series matchup was decided. It was originally a multiyear content deal between MLB and Imagine Entertainment in 2023, before conversations began with Apple through the “Friday Night Baseball” relationship. Howard will serve as an executive producer. 

“This is an effort to reach kind of a broader audience beyond people who want to watch the actual games, and give them the behind-the-scenes look,” Manfred said. “Obviously, it’s a real trend in sports, and we’re trying to take advantage of that.” 

MLB has also continued its effort to reach younger fans on social media through music. Dominican performer El Alfa’s “Soto Shuffle” music video premiered in time for the ALDS and racked up one million views on YouTube in its first two weeks.

“We’re trying to use the spotlight of this big series to continue to push all the things that we work on every day,” Manfred said. 

On the memorabilia side, Topps Now released in-the-moment trading cards featuring big plays and the athletes who made them, with game-worn relics inserted. Ohtani’s 50th home run ball to complete his historic 50-50 season sold at Goldin Auctions for nearly $4.4 million on Oct. 22 amid an ongoing dispute over its ownership, the highest ever for a sports ball.

It all makes for a matchup years in the making, but one that many around the sport surely wouldn’t mind seeing again, just as when these teams faced off eight times from 1941 through ’63, and three times from 1977 through ’81. Their 1977 and ’78 meetings marked the last time any two teams have battled in consecutive years. No MLB team has repeated as champion since the Yankees won three titles in a row from 1998-2000, and despite the annually huge payrolls (the Dodgers ranked No. 2 this year, the Yankees No. 3), the teams have combined for just one title (the Dodgers in the COVID-shortened season of 2020) since 2010.

“The issue of disparity in baseball is one that we watch on a continual basis,” Manfred said. “But I think that our record in terms of competitive balance, there has not been dominance by big-market teams. We had Arizona in the World Series last year. I think the mix of teams has been good, and you also have to recognize that when it turns out the Yankees and the Dodgers make it to the World Series, it’s really good for our business in a way that’s really good for all of our markets.” 

The Austin Gamblers , fresh from winning the PBR Teams Championship on Oct. 20, are planning how to capitalize on their first title.

Activations will be taking place in Austin soon and a slew of merchandise is set to hit before the holidays. But before the Gamblers can begin to plan anything, the club has to dust off old plans. After failing to turn regular-season success into postseason glory for the past two years, the Gamblers decided against making any contingency plans for what to do if they won the championship.

“Sure enough, I don't know if it was karma or a sports jinx, but now we’ve had to go back and find those old plans and try to update them,” said Austin Gamblers CEO J.J Gottsch. “We're not starting from square one, but we're definitely playing catch-up right now.”

T-shirts and hats are the easy go-to option for the Gamblers, and the team plans to have championship merchandise out in the coming weeks. But the three-year-old team wants to find ways to use the PBR’s unique visuals, like its championship belt buckle, and blend it into its already-existing partnerships.

“The addition of this championship and being able to have this gold buckle has drastically changed those conversations,” Gottsch said. “We're talking right now not only about some championship parties but also taking it [the buckle] on tour and integrating it with current and potentially new partners. It gives us some exciting inventory.”

After the Gamblers get through working with Austin partners like Dell Technologies, Yeti and Tecovas, they want to begin looking toward producing a documentary series based on the team’s 2024 season.

“Those discussions have really just started. We wanted to get through the season first,” Gottsch said. “So now it’s full steam ahead. Once we get through some other championship planning, that [docuseries] will probably be one of the next things we try to tackle before the end of the year.”

Lightning owner Jeff Vinik is paying out approximately $20M in bonuses to the organization’s more than 300 employees after selling a majority of his equity in the NHL team in a deal valuing the club at $1.8B. Full-time Vinik Sports Group staff members were informed Thursday that they would each receive a gift of between $50,000-66,000. In a memo to employees obtained by SBJ, Vinik wrote, “In recognition of the hard work and dedication that has made VSG a world-class+ organization, I’m pleased to announce that all full-time staff will be receiving a bonus on behalf of the Vinik Family. .. Thank you for the role you’ve played in making the Vinik Sports Group and the Tampa Bay Lightning an organization of which we can all be proud. Together, we have built something truly special.”

The NHL Board of Governors at their Oct. 1 meeting approved Vinik’s sale of a portion of his stake in the Lightning to a group of investors led by Blue Owl Capital co-CEOs Doug Ostrover and Marc Lipschultz. Under the deal, which values the franchise at $1.8B, Vinik will remain in control of the organization and continue to act as its governor for three years before transferring control to Ostrover and Lipschultz. The duo is reportedly buying just over 50% of the team. Arctos Partners, which introduced Vinik to his new partners, also sold a portion of its minority stake in the club to Lipschultz and Ostrover but remains a stakeholder.

“As we look toward the future, it’s important for me to be thoughtful and strategic in how we continue to grow,” Vinik wrote in the memo. “Bringing in the right partners with the right values and commitment to our culture is the way we ensure lasting success for Vinik Sports Group and the Tampa Bay Lightning.”

Vinik’s turnaround of the Lightning since purchasing the club for $93M in 2010 ranks among the NHL’s top success stories this century. Under his stewardship, the club became a consistent playoff contender, ultimately winning back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2020 and 2021. That on-ice success has helped the club become a top 10 revenue generator in the league and an example of how professional hockey can succeed in the southern U.S. Vinik has also played a major role in the redevelopment of the area surrounding the team’s home venue, Amalie Arena, in downtown Tampa.

In addition to Ostrover and Lipschultz, the new Lightning ownership group includes Adam Gerry, Nicole Sanzosti Padgett, Brian Schwartz, Perry Sook, Scott Dahnke, Pete Labbat, Daniel Och, David Moore and Bill Janetschek. Vinik was represented by Hogan Lovells and Andalusian Sports Advisors, while Ostrover and Lipschultz were represented by Katten Muchin Rosenman and Inner Circle Sports.

Key NFL and team execs are deep into a project of rewriting the handbook dictating how the league and clubs make money on the internet. Their decisions carry potentially far-reaching ramifications for teams’ media and sponsorship divisions -- and key league strategies.

At issue is the “internet resolution,” a document first written in 2001, which by digital content standards may as well be before the Gutenberg Bible. Put briefly, it dictates what intellectual property belongs to the NFL and what belongs to teams, how and when each entity can monetize it online and who controls the message. It’s been updated over the years, but the underlying document is badly in need of a refresh -- and the stakes are high.

Here are a few of the questions on the table:

• How much game footage (league property already licensed to broadcasters) can clubs use in their social media highlights?

• Should teams be able to stream their preseason games in the same way they sell local linear TV rights?

• Is it OK for teams to be putting their behind-the-scenes docuseries on YouTube -- which might be good for reach, but bad for monetization -- when the NFL has put so much effort into monetizing similar concepts via its “Hard Knocks” collaboration with HBO and all the new projects coming out of the NFL Films-Skydance Sports venture? 

This tug-and-pull between teams and the league is natural, and nobody’s suggesting the NFL abandon the basic notion of league supremacy in media. But teams’ local revenue hasn’t grown at nearly the pace that league revenue has, one source said, and some insiders think they can address that problem by giving teams more freedom while not undermining the league content business. 

To be clear, the total revenue generated by all this activity is still dwarfed by the NFL’s bread and butter -- the licensing of live game rights to giant media networks. But some people think the status quo approach to digital and social content is leaving a lot of money on the table.

Watch this space for more.

Any worries EA Sports may have had about the performance of FC 25 must have dissipated almost immediately after the first sales number rolled in, as it didn't just set a record for the launch of a soccer game -- it did so with double-digit growth from the series’ debut last year, reports tracking firm Circana from its September 2024 video game sales report.

EA Sports College Football 25 also continued to set records, becoming the No. 2 best-selling sports video game in Circana’s tracking history for U.S. full-game dollar sales, behind only NBA 2K21.

“It was a pretty good jump this year for EA Sports FC! PS5, [Xbox Series S] and Switch all saw increases year-on-year.” Circana Executive Director/Video Games Mat Piscatella said. “I'm not sure if this is incredibly surprising; perhaps it’s a mild surprise. Soccer has been a growth area for many years now, and EA has more than successfully shifted from the FIFA branding to EA Sports FC. OpenCritic has the consensus slightly higher for EA Sports FC 25 compared to last year's version. But overall, it’s very strong start for EA Sports FC 25 with absolutely no hangover from the shift away from the FIFA branding.”

EA Sports FC 24 also showed growth beyond its predecessor, FIFA 23, when it debuted in 2023.

September is a big month for the launch of sports games. NBA 2K25 debuted No. 7, and that was just for physical sales (2K doesn’t report digital sales). EA Sports’ NHL 25 debuted at ninth.

“Looking at NBA 2K units, which are both physical and digital across both releases in our tracking, while Take-Two Interactive digital revenue reporting is subject to a 13-week delay, they're down slightly compared to last year's launch with similar weeks in market,” Piscatella said. “NHL also looks to be down year-on-year, although the launch timings are misaligned, so we'll need a bit more time in the market to get a better read. NHL 25 has received a less favorable critical reception than NHL 24 enjoyed, so it wouldn't be a surprise to see a drop-off in volume.

Madden NFL 25 and College Football 25 continue to display the strength of EA’s sports games. Madden went from No. 1 in August to No. 3 in September. EA Sports College Football 25 dropped from second to fifth. Sales are still strong for both, especially College Football 25.

“EA Sports College Football 25 has now generated the highest full game dollar sales of any football game in U.S. history, and this does not include any volume from the EA Sports MVP Bundle,” Piscatella said. “The record had been held by Madden NFL 07. This is a big one ... Madden NFL 07 still holds the unit record. … It's safe to say that EA Sports College Football 25 is doing alright.”

Now with both games on the market together for two months, the EA Sports MVP Bundle (Madden and College Football) came in at 20, falling from No. 4 in August. It’ll be interesting to watch how this first-ever football bundle works for EA going forward.

“It depends on what EA decides to do with promotional pricing. It could stick around through December if its price promoted, or perhaps not,” Piscatella said. “I'm looking forward to seeing what happens here as well, as this one doesn't have a lot of comparable benchmarks to look at. I'm assuming it will stick around on the charts through at minimum January, but we'll see!”

What they’re playing (over and over again)

On Xbox Series X/S, the top three didn’t change -- Call of Duty HQ, Fortnite and Roblox. EA Sports College Football 25 dropped a slot to seventh, but Madden climbed from 11th to ninth. Forza Horizon 5 was the only racing game on either console’s top 10 in MAUs at 10th, leaping from 15th.  

• Two new clubs, part of the largest renovation project in Barclays Center’s dozen-year history, will be unveiled when the Nets open the 2024-25 NBA season at home this weekend against the Bucks, reports SBJ's Bret McCormick.

• The Islanders and UBS Arena named Viam as their first official AI technology partner in a multiyear agreement that will include branding on the players’ helmets and a collaboration to apply AI to fan experience and venue operations, writes SBJ's Joe Lemire.

• Evolv Technology announced an internal investigation into its sales practices, prompting the company to warn shareholders and the general public to not rely on past quarterly financial reports from Q2 2022 through Q2 2024, notes SBJ's Ethan Joyce.

• AT&T, Capital One, Cisco and Deloitte are the founding members of the Athena Pledge, a platform launched earlier this month to boost women's sports, reports SBJ's Rachel Axon.

• Churchill Downs Inc. brought in a company-record $628.5 million in revenue during its third quarter according to an SEC filing earlier this week, notes McCormick.