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Speaker 1: Hello, I'm Scott Sask, I'm Evan Novie Williams, and I'm

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Speaker 1: Michael Barr. And this is the Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast,

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Speaker 1: where we explore the big money issues in the world

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Speaker 1: of sports. Today. We begin with March Madness. All those

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Speaker 1: TV ratings because this is one of the wildest ones

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Speaker 1: we've seen in a while. Yeah, but I'm loving this

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Speaker 1: because you know your breakdown ratings and half hour increments.

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Speaker 1: So the game, that's of course, Candice and Duke went

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Speaker 1: to overtime. The game was supposed to be over at

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Speaker 1: seven o'clock. Now, if you know anything about weekend television,

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Speaker 1: seven pm CBS forever has been sixty minutes, sixty minutes.

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Speaker 1: This week was promoting Yes, jonas Anto de Compo. But

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Speaker 1: the huge get was the interview was Stormy Daniels. So

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Speaker 1: you're wondering, are you getting those tuning in to see

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Speaker 1: Stormy Daniels. They find overtime of a basketball game, they

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Speaker 1: know the name Duke, I'm gonna hang around and watch this, right,

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Speaker 1: it's an overtime. Therefore it gets some months to number. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: we talked so much about how live sports leading into

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Speaker 1: some other telecast can promote the ratings for that telecast.

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Speaker 1: This seemed to be an example where the opposite happened.

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Speaker 1: Scott talked about those increments. The rating was eleven point

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Speaker 1: one at seven o'clock, fourteen point nine seven, fifteen sixteen.

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Speaker 1: You know, this is a rating that was definitely bolstered

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Speaker 1: by the fact that a lot of people around the

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Speaker 1: country turned on CBS around seven o'clock expecting to find

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Speaker 1: the story Daniel's interview exactly cutting. But the beauty is

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Speaker 1: they had Duke in Kansas playing two other teams. That

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Speaker 1: might have been like, whatever, I'll come back. There's still sometime, Duke,

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Speaker 1: and can just you stay and watch You're in overtime

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Speaker 1: of that game. People stayed and watch. That's twenty plus

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Speaker 1: million viewers and the luckiest folks of the whole thing.

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Speaker 1: And I know we joke about it in the intro there,

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Speaker 1: but the Milwaukee Bucks. This could be the top watched

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Speaker 1: piece of basketball content all year that folks were watching

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Speaker 1: johnas Ante the Cumpo, waiting for Stormy Daniels or they

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Speaker 1: stuck with the program. What I mean, if you have

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Speaker 1: to promote a guy on your team, that was the

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Speaker 1: show and that was the night. Also a nice reminder

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Speaker 1: for college basketball fans that as much as you know

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Speaker 1: your loyal the Chicago steal the spotlight from a social

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Speaker 1: media standpoint and the buzz. If you want good ratings,

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Speaker 1: you need Kansas and Duke. You know, you need these

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Speaker 1: blue blood programs. The Cinderella stories are nice, but when

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Speaker 1: it comes to the hard numbers of TV watching, uh,

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Speaker 1: you would rather have If you're a network executive, you'd

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Speaker 1: rather have two of these blue blood programs, and you

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Speaker 1: would have the upset special. Well, you want the upsets,

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Speaker 1: but you want the twelve five upset. You know, you

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Speaker 1: don't want the quoting here. You don't want sixteen over one,

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Speaker 1: fifteen over two. That's not the kind of upset that

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Speaker 1: TV executives go for. They want the known commodities, the

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Speaker 1: big names, the big coaches, and for whatever is left

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Speaker 1: in the college basketball world these days, the biggest name

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Speaker 1: players at the big program. That said, last year this

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Speaker 1: this slot was UNC Kentucky, so two other you know,

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Speaker 1: classic college basketball programs, and the ratings their thirteen point one,

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Speaker 1: so well below what we saw yesterday. There was conversation

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Speaker 1: we talked about it here as well, about this ongoing

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Speaker 1: scandal in college basketball, whether it might turn viewers away

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Speaker 1: if they suddenly quote unquote realized that that all this

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Speaker 1: wasn't happening in the in the purest form of amateurism.

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Speaker 1: It certainly at least doesn't seem as though there are

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Speaker 1: some jaded college basketball fans out there turning away now

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Speaker 1: because players may be getting paid out of nothing about

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Speaker 1: the nice viewing was pure except froto the compo Kansas

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Speaker 1: Villanova one game in the Final four. The other game

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Speaker 1: Michigan against Loyola Chicago, the Cinderella team, and they've got

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Speaker 1: Sister Jean behind. Don't you want to just kind of

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Speaker 1: think which one of these is not like the other

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Speaker 1: Loyala Chicago, Like what, really, you got to give it

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Speaker 1: a year old sister Jean Schmidt. She is the she's

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Speaker 1: been to the games. They haven't been in a long time.

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Speaker 1: And yeah, I would say which you will power or

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Speaker 1: prayer or whatever. But the team is now in the

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Speaker 1: Final four, and now, according to ESPN, she has said, Okay,

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Speaker 1: if you guys the school want to use my name

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Speaker 1: for marketing stuff, She's not making a dime, by the

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Speaker 1: way of it. By the way, I want to add that,

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Speaker 1: but if you guys want to use my name, go

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Speaker 1: right ahead for my money. Sister Jean is the story

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Speaker 1: of the n c A tournament. There there are folks

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Speaker 1: out there that track how much people are mentioned in

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Speaker 1: stories around the tournament. Sister Jean has more stories that

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Speaker 1: mentioned her than Mike Sachowsky and Bill self, the coaches

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Speaker 1: of Duke and Kansas have combined. You know, that's how

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Speaker 1: prevalent the coverage and the consumption has been so far

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Speaker 1: of Sister Geane and the Ramblers. I hate to use hyperbole,

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Speaker 1: but right now she's more popular than the Pope religious wise,

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Speaker 1: because everybody's talking about her. There was a quote, now

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Speaker 1: I'm still trying to see if this is true or not.

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Speaker 1: Someone has to she said, what are you giving up

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Speaker 1: for lent? And she said losing? Yeah, yeah, this is

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Speaker 1: the power again, We'll go to it. Why like the

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Speaker 1: D League isn't really an option for like one and

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Speaker 1: done players. You want to go to college for a year.

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Speaker 1: And this is the reason also why the NBA doesn't

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Speaker 1: want the right from high school to the pros. Think

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Speaker 1: about Sister Jean. It's been how final four, so they've

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Speaker 1: played four games, right, she has now become a national

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Speaker 1: nay An International brand all because of four basketball games

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Speaker 1: in this tournament. This is why the NBA wants those

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Speaker 1: one and done kids in college for one year. Because

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Speaker 1: a guy like Carmelo Anthony, he's sure p we know

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Speaker 1: his name, and he's big throughout the regular season, but

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Speaker 1: he goes and plays six games in March and he

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Speaker 1: becomes a household name, ready made star, our commodity when

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Speaker 1: he hits the NBA. It's free marketing. That's why they

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Speaker 1: don't want to give it up. And also the commercial

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Speaker 1: opportunity also underscores the length at which U e tail

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Speaker 1: e commerce has caught up with these flash sports moments.

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Speaker 1: As Scott's talking about, I mean the fact that companies

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Speaker 1: like Fanatics out there can sell you a Sister Jean

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Speaker 1: shirt within an hour of the game ending. You know,

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Speaker 1: this is gonna end at some point for Loyola in

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Speaker 1: the next seven days. It's either gonna end in the

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Speaker 1: Final four or it's gonna end in the finals for

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Speaker 1: good or for bad. Uh And in the past you

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Speaker 1: would have to sell a Sister Jean shirt weeks or

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Speaker 1: months later. You know, people that are buying these five

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Speaker 1: thousand bubble heads bought them on the spur of the

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Speaker 1: moment because it was Loyala Chicago. If you can hit

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Speaker 1: a Loyala Chicago fan right after they go to the

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Speaker 1: final four, when this kind of euphoria, it must be

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Speaker 1: at some sort of like van what's you just finished

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Speaker 1: your wilderness? Of course here what's coursing through your body

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Speaker 1: when you won more than a journalist? So you've got

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Speaker 1: adrenaline on top of dopamine, and you've got someone hitting

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Speaker 1: you with a text message saying, hey, one touch by

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Speaker 1: this now and you do it. There's a psychology and

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Speaker 1: and a physiology behind the by power. So yeah, and

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Speaker 1: they're in fanatics is taking advantage of it. It's these

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Speaker 1: kind of moments. And onto a much more serious topic.

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Speaker 1: Let's talk about the NFL owners meetings, and more importantly,

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Speaker 1: let's talk about the owner of the Texans, Robert McNair.

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Speaker 1: He has said that the national anthem is going to

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Speaker 1: be a hot topic during the meetings. The owners must

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Speaker 1: be the owners must be sitting there going one, I

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Speaker 1: cannot believe we're still talking about this. Two, I cannot

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Speaker 1: believe that we are not in kind of unanimity here

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Speaker 1: and figuring out what to do. And they are not.

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Speaker 1: If this drags into the next football season, that is

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Speaker 1: an awful job the NFL. This thing has got to

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Speaker 1: be solved. Remember, Bob McNair is the owner who a

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Speaker 1: few months ago in a in a closed doors meeting

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Speaker 1: said that, you know, the protests were like letting the

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Speaker 1: inmates run the prison, you know, which he profusely apologized for.

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Speaker 1: These comments came not only rehashing a lot of this

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Speaker 1: protest stuff, also came in a pretty staunch defense of

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Speaker 1: Cherry Richardson, Uh, the owner of the Panthers, who is

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Speaker 1: now selling after allegations that he made racial racially insensitive joking.

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Speaker 1: You know, it comes from a different time. It's just joke. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: there is a lot of different folds of this Bob

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Speaker 1: McNair interview, none of which I would imagine is happy

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Speaker 1: reading for for the folks over in Park Avenue and

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Speaker 1: Roger Goodell, I'm just wondering, is this one of the

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Speaker 1: reasons why the rebirth of the XFL and uh Eversol's

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Speaker 1: son and his project for his league. I'm wondering why

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Speaker 1: if this is starting to get traction now, well, I

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Speaker 1: don't know if it's getting traction, They're they're trying it.

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Speaker 1: I don't know if the appetite, if if they sort

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Speaker 1: of sold it that everybody will stand and all that.

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Speaker 1: I'm not sure the NFL fan who's being turned off,

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Speaker 1: even though we know they're not really turning off the

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Speaker 1: TV because of it. But I'm not sure they're gonna say, yeah,

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Speaker 1: this is my new thing. I'm watching this other league

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Speaker 1: with lesser talented players just because they change the rules.

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Speaker 1: That remains to be seen. But this, this is PR

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Speaker 1: one oh one. And if the messages, and it seems

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Speaker 1: to be coming from Bob McNair, that protest and politics,

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Speaker 1: that that shouldn't be anywhere near the football field, you know,

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Speaker 1: let's just play the game. This is not what our

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Speaker 1: this platform is for. Well, then please tell me why

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Speaker 1: you're accepting money from the armed forces to pretty much

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Speaker 1: put on commercials on the field and flyovers. Ta's taxpayer money.

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Speaker 1: These are commercials. So I'm just not sure that he's

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Speaker 1: standing on Terra firma with this. This is not what

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Speaker 1: this is about. I also wonder how much of this

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Speaker 1: is a age divide. You know, I don't have the

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Speaker 1: stats in front of me. I would think, just thinking anecdotally,

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Speaker 1: the NFL owners are the oldest ownership group in the

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Speaker 1: major sports uh and and a lot of the older ones,

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Speaker 1: you know, Jerry Jones, Jerry Richardson, Bob McNair seemed to

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Speaker 1: be the ones that are generating a lot of the

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Speaker 1: negative headlines or are speaking a bit out of turn.

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Speaker 1: Uh lost. I think in this conversation this weekend, Chris Johnson,

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Speaker 1: Woody Johnson's younger brother, who is now kind of running

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Speaker 1: the Jets day to day, kind of had the opposite approaches.

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Speaker 1: McNair um essentially saying that the owners have no business

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Speaker 1: telling players whether they can protest the way in which

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Speaker 1: they do it, what they say, etcetera. UM. I do

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Speaker 1: wonder if, as we see more teams popping up for

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Speaker 1: sale Tom Benson passed away last week, there's a chance

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Speaker 1: that that team might hit the market. We may see

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Speaker 1: a shift in the way that the NFL owners approached

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Speaker 1: topics like this, just by virtue of a newer, maybe

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Speaker 1: younger generation taking their ins This strikes me more than age,

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Speaker 1: more than anything else. You gotta know who your customers are,

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Speaker 1: who you know who comes to my games, And this

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Speaker 1: is a market driven decision. This is red state, blue state.

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Speaker 1: And if you're in Texas, I think we know more conservative.

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Speaker 1: I mean, you can just look at the political maps

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Speaker 1: if you're in San Francisco. Something tells me the owners

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Speaker 1: of the forty Niners will not come out and say

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Speaker 1: that you must stand for anything because their customers, their

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Speaker 1: constituents probably or a large majority of them, don't think

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Speaker 1: the same way. They're more accepting of players kneeling. So

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Speaker 1: you're you're you wonder if what kind of what sort

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Speaker 1: of polling is going on behind the scenes? Are what

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Speaker 1: are these franchises relying on to make these decisions at

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Speaker 1: this point? And how should I back? How should I

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Speaker 1: conduct my business when it comes to this player protest.

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Speaker 1: Let's talk about where things go from here. We're five

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Speaker 1: or six months away from the start of the next

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Speaker 1: NFL season. Uh. These protests during the last NFL season

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Speaker 1: led to possible ratings dips. It led to feuding publicly

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Speaker 1: with sponsors like Papa John. It led to other owners

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Speaker 1: speaking out against Roger Goodell in the Central League office.

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Speaker 1: Is there a chance that this continues through the off

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Speaker 1: season all the way into the next season and we

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Speaker 1: start having these same midseason problems again? I would say no.

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Speaker 1: Only in that Roger knows that it can't be that way.

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Speaker 1: He knows one way or the other. They have got

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Speaker 1: to have finality on this and get the focus back

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Speaker 1: onto guys who carry the ball, throw the ball, kick

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Speaker 1: the ball. That is what they need to do. I

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Speaker 1: want to read a quote exactly from McNair. He said,

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Speaker 1: we're going to deal with it in such a way

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Speaker 1: I think that people will understand that we want everybody

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Speaker 1: to respect our country, respect our flag, and then he added,

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Speaker 1: and our playing fields. That's not the place for political statements.

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Speaker 1: And I'm wondering if that's the part where all you

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Speaker 1: know what's going to break loose. It could be they

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Speaker 1: tried to have detante, they tried to broker meetings between

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Speaker 1: players and league and owners, and they just can't seem

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Speaker 1: to come to a meeting of the minds on this issue.

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Speaker 1: Players are saying, we're grown men and they are willing

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Speaker 1: to take whatever happens because of their stance, whether it's

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Speaker 1: Eric Reid or Colin Kaepernick. Kaepernick probably had a good

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Speaker 1: idea that he may not get another contract if he

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Speaker 1: comes out like like this, and that is exactly what

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Speaker 1: we've seen what Eric Reid said. He's already come out

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Speaker 1: and said, I will not do this again next season.

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Speaker 1: I will find another way, because he probably realizes that

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Speaker 1: is keeping him from employment. Another thing that the next

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Speaker 1: sentence in that Bob McNair quote Michael, is, Uh, the

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Speaker 1: playing field is not the place for religious statements either.

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Speaker 1: You know, that's a whole different can of worms that

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Speaker 1: I don't think an owner has waited into before this. Uh.

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Speaker 1: Anyone who's watched a game on Sunday sees players cross themselves.

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Speaker 1: If you listen to a postgame interview, everyone is thanking God.

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Speaker 1: Religion is a very, very fundamental part of football, and

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Speaker 1: certainly more prevalent in the game right now than political

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Speaker 1: protests are. I'm also curious to see kind of how

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Speaker 1: his statement on religions place in football ages as we move.

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Speaker 1: This market probably wants that exactly. This is the Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: Business of Sports podcast on Michael Barr along with Scott

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Speaker 1: Sasnik and Evan Nobi Williams. We are here each and

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Speaker 1: every Monday and Friday exploring the world of money in sports.

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Speaker 1: Join us again at the end of the week when

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Speaker 1: we speak with the biggest and brightest in sports business.

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Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio

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