Penn Live obtained Little League International’s Form 990 — what tax-exempt organizations file with the IRS — from 2023, the most recent available year.
The documents revealed LLI’s broadcast deal with ESPN just jumped roughly 50% annually.
ESPN paid $17.4M to broadcast the Little League World Series, Little League Softball World Series and other events and tournaments in 2023 — about $6M more than it had the previous season.
The current deal runs through 2030 and the payout increases slightly each year, a LLI spokesman told Penn Live.
The deal is in the same ballpark as ESPN’s college broadcast deals for G6 football and mid-major hoops — which makes sense.
The LLSWS title game rating was up 139% YoY this summer and the LLWS U.S. and world title games drew 2.8M and 2.4M, respectively — those figures would be among the top-10 college football games nationally most weeks.
LLI still reported a $1.3M shortfall between expenses and revenues in 2023.
A couple of quick thoughts:
1) ABC has had LLWS broadcast rights since 1963, so the LLI-ESPN relationship is effectively closing in on its 65th anniversary.
Only CBS and The Masters have been together longer, as the report points out.
Augusta National has famously left billions of TV dollars on the table due to its unique priorities.
It seems likely LLI could also command millions more on the open market. But it does not need to chase money as a non-profit, so it can take the Notre Dame football/NBC approach and stay with the best fit.
2) I thought this may have been the most important takeaway from the report:
LLI spends about $7.5M annually to operate the Little League World Series.
We need to keep that figure in mind whenever we speculate about if/when/how Unrivaled Sports and/or Perfect Game could eventually make a run at the LLWS throne.
That is not an insignificant chunk of change. And it’s a baseline to provide the experience LLI gives athletes and their families (and everyone else) in Williamsport — another plus of the ESPN deal.
There is nothing inherently unique about Little League Baseball compared to other youth sports, besides the fact that it essentially gets “Kleenex” treatment as the OG brand of youth baseball.
Plenty of other youth championship events could yield substantial broadcast value. Indeed, flag football is well on its way. Ripken as well.
What sets the LLWS apart is its production quality. ESPN rolls out its A-team and treats it just like an MLB event— in fact, maybe puts even more effort into it.
This is why the juxtaposition between the LLWS on ESPN and the Ripken (the organization) World Series on CNBC - which was just a beefed up NBC SportsEngine stream with broadcasters - was so jarring. The quality of play was likely more or less the same, but the LLWS felt like (and is) an event.
But expect more youth events to get higher production value, and soon.
And to detour off James’ point about the cost of the event: I have no doubt that for-profit rights holders could more efficiently pull off a similarly compelling event.
The LLWS may be The Masters, but something else is just begging to be The Waste Management.🤳 Follow Buying Sandlot on Social
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