The owner of the Professional Bull Riders and Ultimate Fighting Championship is planning to buy nine baseball teams of minor league.
As per Bloomberg news, Endeavor Group Holdings Inc wants to acquire teams like Scranton/Wilkes Barre RailRiders, an affiliate of the New York Yankees organization, and Iowa Cubs belonging to Chicago Cubs, among others who participate in the Major league Baseball. The details are not disclosed yet.
Owning properties like PBR and UFC, the Endeavour Group is using its expertise in the sports business and wants to convert the minor baseball league into a major league. It has formed Diamond Baseball holdings which are expected to look after ticket sales, naming rights, sponsorship, operations of food and beverage, and media rights for the nine teams acquired.
In an interview, Mark Shapiro, President of Endeavor, said,” We have plenty of professional and personal experience in building such kind of opportunities.”
Diamond Baseball Holdings will be run by Peter B. Freund and Pat Battle, who are veterans in the sports industry. Freund is the owner of Memphis Redbirds, the team Endeavor is acquiring, and also a minority owner in New York Yankees.
This year, Major league baseball restructured the minor league by reducing the teams by 25%. MLB franchises employ these players, but business operations are separate. The teams bought by Endeavor are owned by big league clubs and third-party owners like Racoon Baseball Inc and Goldklang Group.
Baseball players start their sporting careers in the minor league and then move up to the majors. The minor league salaries are much less than the millions of dollars that Pros in the big league earns. Many, however, do not make the cut.
In 2020 many teams in minor leagues lost money due to pandemics. Unlike other big sports, they did not have the media rights to fund games with empty stands.
Shapiro wants to change all that by taking advantage of the booming demand for live sports telecasts on social media. Endeavor plans to increase UFC’s business through sponsorships and TV deals. Its PBR has secured an increase in rights fees for ten years in the deal with CBS in 2018.
Diamond baseball holding will be selling the acquired teams advertising rights, negotiating with streaming services for the live telecast of minor league games. It also plans to modernize the stadium facilities with concessions like allowing fans to order food from their seats. It will also book concerts.
Shapiro wants to have fun and create a family-like experience with his new experiment. He also has first-hand experience in managing teams in the minor league. Like Freund, he is the co-owner of Oklahoma City Dodgers and an affiliate of Angeles Dodgers.
