03/15/18: NASCAR brings in Busch as their official beer

Good morning. It’s Thursday March 15, 2018 and this is your first early morning Sports briefing.

NASCAR and Anheuser-Busch announced today a multi-year agreement that welcomes the global brand back as an Official Partner and designates Busch Beer as the “Official Beer of NASCAR.” The new partnership builds upon Busch’s industry-wide presence and includes sponsorship of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Busch Pole Award, rewarding the driver with the fastest qualifying time each week. Busch replaces Coors Lite as the official NASCAR Beer sponsor.

“We are continuing to evolve our presence in NASCAR because we believe in the power and loyalty of NASCAR fans,” said Chelsea Phillips, Vice President, Value and Beyond Beer brands, Anheuser-Busch. “Returning as the Official Beer of NASCAR strengthens our deep-rooted history in the sport and will provide fans with even more opportunities to enjoy a crisp, cold Busch beer on race day.”

Anheuser-Busch’s history in NASCAR dates back decades to 1978, when it sponsored the Busch Pole Award. Additionally, Busch was the “Official Beer of NASCAR” from 1988 through 1997. Beginning in 1998, Anheuser-Busch sponsored the Bud Pole Award through its Budweiser brand, which also became the “Official Beer of NASCAR” through 2007.

ON THE AIR

Highlighted by the Villanova Wildcats’ thrilling overtime win in Saturday’s championship game, the 2018 BIG EAST Tournament on FOX and FS1 averaged 379,000 viewers across nine games, the tournament’s best-ever performance with FOX Sports. The 2018 average is up an impressive +21% over last year’s tournament, which averaged 314,000 viewers on FOX and FS1. The 2018 BIG EAST Tournament Championship Game averaged 1,491,000 viewers on the FOX broadcast network, with Villanova coming out on top in overtime against the Providence Friars in the network’s most-watched BIG EAST Championship Game ever. The 2018 matchup was up +37% over 2017’s battle between the Wildcats and the Creighton Bluejays, which delivered 1,085,000 viewers.

Conference USA Commissioner Judy MacLeod announced new multimedia rights partnerships. making CBS Sports the primary rightsholder for C-USA football and men’s basketball, televising the conference’s best games, including the championship game in each sport on CBS Sports Network. MacLeod also announced that Stadium has expanded on last year’s partnership and will receive a strong selection of C-USA football and men’s basketball games. CBS Sports also has reached a deal with Facebook to sublicense and produce select C-USA football and basketball games that will broadcast exclusively on Facebook. The agreement allows for three football games and six basketball games per year to air on Facebook. The games will be a CBS Sports production, with CBS Sports announcers, graphics and branding.

CBS Sports and Turner Sports have added head coaches Brad Underwood (Illinois) and Frank Martin (South Carolina) as guest studio analysts for the 2018 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship airing across TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV. Underwood will join the Atlanta studio team – host Casey Stern and analysts Brendan Haywood, Candace Parker and Seth Davis – on Thursday and Friday, March 15 and 16, with Martin in Atlanta on Saturday and Sunday, March 17 and 18. BTN today announced its 2018 baseball and softball schedule, featuring over 400 games on BTN/BTN2Go and BTN Plus throughout the upcoming season.

The Big Ten Network announced its 2018 baseball and softball schedule, featuring over 400 games on BTN/BTN2Go and BTN Plus throughout the upcoming season. Big Ten Network’s television coverage of Big Ten baseball begins with a non-conference showdown between Pittsburgh and Penn State on Wednesday, March 21, at 6:30 p.m. ET. BTN’s television coverage of Big Ten softball begins Friday, March 23, when No. 22 Michigan visits Iowa at 6 p.m. ET.

Nashville Predators games on FOX Sports Tennessee continue to deliver significant growth during the 2017-18 season. Through Sunday, March 4, Predators games televised on FOX Sports Tennessee are averaging a 2.0 HH rating through 57 games, a 150 percent increase versus the same number of games during the 2016-17 season. Two Predators regular-season games on FOX Sports Tennessee this season have broken ratings records dating back more than ten years. The Thursday, March 1, game against the Edmonton Oilers did a 3.2 HH rating in the Nashville DMA, marking the highest-rated since the 2006-07 season. The Thursday, Feb. 22, game against the San Jose Sharks was the second-highest with a 2.8 HH rating. Predators games streamed on the FOX Sports GO app during the same timeframe are still realizing triple-digit growth, with average minutes streamed per game up 600 percent, unique streamers per game up 400 percent, and total streams per game up 376 percent.

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The Cynopsis Sports Media Awards

April 12 at the New York Athletic Club in NYC

We’re ready to celebrate the work of the most talented producers, hosts, sponsors and executives in the sports industry, saluting the initiatives that drove audiences and turned sports viewers into fans. Category finalists will be announced this week and – In addition to our phenomenal category finalists, we’ll be awarding these sports media leaders with the annual Luminary Awards. See you in April!

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SPONSORSHIP & PROMOTION

Drone Racing League has added BMW as a global sponsor. DRL will collaborate closely with the luxury automaker to host a 2018 DRL Allianz World Championship Season Race at BMW Welt on Saturday, July 28 in Munich, Germany. Together, they will also build the fastest racing drone in the world, aiming to break the Guinness World Record that was recently set by the DRL RacerX along with other global activations.

Kingsford has signed on as an official partner of Major League Baseball, promoting Opening Day March 29 with the likes of Vin Scully, Johnny Bench, David Ortiz and Noah Syndegarrd in a multimedia campaign.

The Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority unanimously authorized $500,000 to “fund an extension” of its Pac-12 men’s basketball tournament sponsorship through 2020.

For the second consecutive year, Major League Baseball will host special ‘PLAY BALL’ events at the Cactus and Grapefruit Leagues during Spring Training presented by Camping World. The events will be hosted in collaboration with the Chicago Cubs and the Pittsburgh Pirates, respectively, on Saturday, March 17th. Free and open to the public, they will feature local youth participating in a series of informal baseball- and softball-centered stations, including home run hitting, running bases, bat & ball games and more. College and high school players will help run the kids through the stations as Pirates minor league players will staff each station at Pirate City. Major and Minor League players, MLB executives, and the wives of Cubs players in Arizona will make special appearances. Attending kids will receive a bat & ball, PLAY BALL-branded t-shirts and wristbands to take home.

The Ladies Professional Golf Association and Diamond Resorts announced that the 2019 LPGA Tour season will begin with the inaugural Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions, to be held from Jan. 17-20, 2019, at Tranquilo Golf Club at Four Seasons Resort Orlando in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Winners from the last two LPGA seasons, along with numerous celebrities and fan favorites, will gather in Central Florida to compete for a $1.2 million purse and celebrate the beginning of another season of world-class competition.

DIGITAL AND STREAMING

Continuing the Real Series 2018, Real Snow launched on XGames.com, with six never-before-seen urban-snowboarding video parts debuting on XGames.com. A full World of X Games episode will air March 24 on ABC, featuring all six video parts, behind-the-scenes footage and athlete interviews. The videos are judged by a panel of industry experts, with their selections for which athlete/filmer teams will be awarded X Games gold, silver and bronze medals announced on the ABC broadcast. Cash prizes will be awarded to the medalists. Fans will also have a chance to view and vote for their favorite videos online at XGames.com/RealSnow, with the Fan Favorite winning an additional cash prize.

The Complete SET Agency took a look at the most active coaches in March Madness on social:

Only four coaches of the 68, Kentucky’s John Calipari (1.77 million), South Dakota State’s T.J. Otzelberger (300,000) Kansas’ Bill Self (239,000) and West Virginia’s Bob Huggins (130,000) have in excess of 100,000 followers on Twitter.

On Instagram, 11 of the 68 are active, with Kentucky’s Calipari leading the way with over 300,000 followers. North Carolina Central’s LeVelle Moton is second at over 43k, with Virginia Tech’s Buzz Williams third with just over 8,000 and Texas’ Shaka Smart fourth with 6,400.

In this week’s edition of Cynopsis Esports & Gaming…

Esports gets bigger in Texas
Red Bull’s Sphere of influence
Valve’s $1 million Artifact
Collegiate StarLeague’s new home
2018 Esports Upfront takes root
Snickers rides Rocket train
Ninja looks ahead

ROSTER MOVES

The Charlotte Hornets promoted Fred Whitfield to President & Vice Chair, Pete Guelli to Exec VP & COO and James Jordan to Exec VP & Chief Administrative Officer. Hornets Vice Chair Curtis Polk, a “longtime key adviser” to team Owner Michael Jordan, has been promoted to Managing Partner.

THE MAIN EVENT

March Madness tips off across the networks of Turner and CBS beginning at noon.

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ON THIS DAY in 1954: A young Henry Aaron homers in his 1st exhibition game for the Milwaukee Braves.

In the Know: The first televised NCAA game was at Madison Square Garden in 1940. Who played in the game? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company and city.)

Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question: Which two teams in the NCAA Tournament are known as the Bulldogs? Answer: Gonzaga and Butler. Andy Pittman TAMU, Traci Liner, Endeavor, Chris Schwartz ISC, Troy Perlowitz , ESPN, Mark Lehman Atlanta Braves, Tony Ferranti MMSI, Joe Schreiber 3 Penny Films, Matt Sautter WideOrbit, Tom Moore, Kalt Productions, David Westberg SAG•AFTRA Federal Credit Union, Stephanie Ann Inside Lacrosse, Bob Ramsey Palm Springs, Michael Goodman, Atlanta, Ga. and Alexandra Randall, FOX

Later – Chris

Chris Pursell @VegasandVine
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