The Walt Disney Co. has sold out ad sales for ESPN and ABC’s first-round coverage of the 2023 NFL Draft on Thursday night.

A handful of spots remain for coverage of Rounds 2-3 on Friday night and Rounds 4-7 on Saturday, but Disney could completely sell out by Monday, according to Jim Minnich, senior vice president of revenue and yield management for Disney Advertising.

Disney has signed 14 official sponsors and nearly 100 advertisers across 50 product categories. There will be 15 more categories than last year.

The Mouse declined to comment on total ad spending, but sources said Disney is expected to book more than $16 million in ad dollars across ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2.

Minnich pointed to several reasons Disney is reaping strong ad sales around the NFL Draft.

• It’s the NFL’s most valuable content and its premier offseason event.
• For the fifth year in a row, Disney will offer draft coverage on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN Deportes channels.
• The addition of ABC’s more college football-focused coverage with Kirk Herbstreit has attracted new sponsors.

“You’ve got Courtyard by Marriott presenting ESPN’s [coverage]. They’ve been with us for years. But then we have Home Depot, which is also the presenting sponsor for ‘College GameDay.’ They present the ABC window,” Minnich said. 

The NFL Draft is a live event, which resonates with viewers, Minnich said. He also noted the traveling roadshow nature of the draft, which brings excitement and new visitors to different cities yearly.

The Oakland A’s took major steps to move to Las Vegas this week — but still have to strike a deal with state and local governments for public funding. 

The team is planning a $1.5 billion stadium and entertainment complex west of the Las Vegas Strip that would seat 35,000 and boast a retractable roof.

A’s leadership is seeking $500 million in public financing through bonds issued by Clark County, to be repaid through stadium-related taxes and the surrounding development of the 49 acres purchased by the team.

Nevada hasn’t introduced formal legislation around this issue, and its current legislative session ends on June 5, though negotiations could be extended. The A’s must come to an agreement on a new stadium by January 2024 to remain recipients of MLB’s revenue sharing.

The team could withdraw from their land-purchase agreement if no deal is reached, according to the Nevada Independent.

Raiders Owner Opposes A’s

The Las Vegas Raiders, who moved from Oakland in 2020, aren’t thrilled to see their former co-tenant at the Oakland Coliseum potentially following them.

“They squatted on a lease for 10 years and made it impossible for us to build on that stadium,” Raiders owner Al Davis told the Las Vegas Review Journal. “I just have, again, a lot of personal animosity toward the front office.”

Davis received $750 million toward building Allegiant Stadium, which he repaid with hotel taxes.

Over half the Formula 1 teams may have blown past the cost cap, at least according to its leading team.

Red Bull principal Christian Horner said that inflation costs may have resulted in six of the 10 Formula 1 teams exceeding the cap in 2022.

F1 introduced a $145 million cap on team spending in 2021 to bring parity to the sport and improve profitability. It was lowered to $140 million in 2022, but F1 later added $1.2 million to account for an added race and may have adjusted the cap for inflation accordingly.

Red Bull was fined $7 million and had its wind-tunnel time reduced this season for violating the cap in 2021, and Aston Martin received a $450,000 fine for going over. The punishment has done little to slow down Red Bull, who has seen one of its drivers win all three races this season, and its other driver finishing second twice.

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur said that the Red Bull team has done quite well but is receiving long-term benefits from overspending — and that the punishment can’t cancel those out.

Mercedes driver George Russell believes Red Bull is purposefully holding back so that F1 doesn’t alter its regulations to make the sport more competitive.

“For sure, they’re holding back,” Russell said. “They’re almost embarrassed to show their full potential because the faster they seem globally, the more the sport is going to try and hold them back somehow.”