1
00:00:01,840 --> 00:00:04,800
Speaker 1: Hello, I'm Scott So, I'm Evan Novie Williams, and I'm

2
00:00:04,800 --> 00:00:07,920
Speaker 1: Michael Barr. And this is the Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast,

3
00:00:08,200 --> 00:00:13,160
Speaker 1: where that was a harder. We explore the big money

4
00:00:13,200 --> 00:00:15,760
Speaker 1: issues in the world of sports. And let's begin with

5
00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:19,279
Speaker 1: the United States Olympic Committee Report. What's up? What's the

6
00:00:19,320 --> 00:00:21,079
Speaker 1: name of if we're an a capella group? But are we?

7
00:00:21,079 --> 00:00:23,959
Speaker 1: We're like, are we the sport in proofs? Where are we?

8
00:00:25,760 --> 00:00:29,720
Speaker 1: How about the three Bosses? I like it? I like it? Okay,

9
00:00:29,720 --> 00:00:32,480
Speaker 1: there we go. Evan once again rubbing his eyes. It's

10
00:00:32,479 --> 00:00:35,280
Speaker 1: like he's been shot. He has that I need to

11
00:00:35,280 --> 00:00:38,680
Speaker 1: be on an Exceedrian commercial book. I love that he

12
00:00:38,720 --> 00:00:43,600
Speaker 1: goes Exceedrian. That's so. Could somebody please hand me an aspirin?

13
00:00:45,080 --> 00:00:47,400
Speaker 1: But what don't we start? Remember? And of course I

14
00:00:47,440 --> 00:00:50,960
Speaker 1: remember it. Of course I remember. I'm old, he's not.

15
00:00:51,400 --> 00:00:54,760
Speaker 1: That's why the show works. USC report go ahead, no

16
00:00:55,000 --> 00:01:00,840
Speaker 1: woe report? Yeah? Yeah? The the Independent of Instigation into

17
00:01:01,400 --> 00:01:05,120
Speaker 1: USA Gymnastics and the United States Olympic Committee into essentially

18
00:01:05,160 --> 00:01:08,680
Speaker 1: answering the question, how did Larry Nasser abuse this many

19
00:01:08,680 --> 00:01:11,839
Speaker 1: women for this many years and not get not get

20
00:01:11,840 --> 00:01:16,199
Speaker 1: caught ropes? And Gray Law firm published their report this week. Uh,

21
00:01:16,240 --> 00:01:18,920
Speaker 1: it is. It's not full of a lot of new details,

22
00:01:18,920 --> 00:01:21,360
Speaker 1: but it fleshes out some things that we either already

23
00:01:21,440 --> 00:01:24,200
Speaker 1: knew had already had strong inklings of. And it is

24
00:01:24,360 --> 00:01:27,000
Speaker 1: it's ugly. You know that the top two highest ranking

25
00:01:27,080 --> 00:01:30,320
Speaker 1: executives at the us OC were aware of Larry Nassa

26
00:01:30,360 --> 00:01:34,280
Speaker 1: allegations back in two thousand one. Second, I mean this

27
00:01:34,319 --> 00:01:35,759
Speaker 1: is the key word for me and the whole thing.

28
00:01:36,400 --> 00:01:38,920
Speaker 1: So the emails that were sent to Scott black Man

29
00:01:39,160 --> 00:01:43,440
Speaker 1: and somebody else in in positions of power, former CEO

30
00:01:43,560 --> 00:01:46,920
Speaker 1: of the us OC said Nasser the only email he

31
00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:50,360
Speaker 1: received that included the name NASA. You know what he did, bar,

32
00:01:50,800 --> 00:01:54,200
Speaker 1: I'm afraid to ask. He hit the delete button. That's

33
00:01:54,200 --> 00:01:56,600
Speaker 1: what the report tells us. He hit thet He claims

34
00:01:56,600 --> 00:01:58,720
Speaker 1: to have deleted it because he was afraid of it

35
00:01:58,760 --> 00:02:01,640
Speaker 1: being hacked by Russians. Uh. There, there's so much. There

36
00:02:01,640 --> 00:02:04,200
Speaker 1: are little details in this throughout that are that are damning.

37
00:02:04,720 --> 00:02:06,960
Speaker 1: The most damning, in my opinion, is the fact that

38
00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:08,960
Speaker 1: Alan Ashley, who was the number two with the U

39
00:02:08,960 --> 00:02:11,200
Speaker 1: s SoC, and Scott Blackman, the number one, both new

40
00:02:11,200 --> 00:02:14,120
Speaker 1: in two thousand fifteen. It took another eighteen months until

41
00:02:14,240 --> 00:02:16,920
Speaker 1: the Indianapolis Star blew the cover off this thing. And

42
00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:21,320
Speaker 1: in those eighteen months, you know, dozens more women were

43
00:02:21,440 --> 00:02:23,959
Speaker 1: sent to be cared for by Larry Nasser and abuse

44
00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:25,920
Speaker 1: ball doing and what ticks me off, as you said,

45
00:02:26,040 --> 00:02:29,280
Speaker 1: after another eighteen months, and this is something that could

46
00:02:29,280 --> 00:02:32,080
Speaker 1: have been taken care of a long time ago, could

47
00:02:32,080 --> 00:02:34,160
Speaker 1: have shown. But from the business perspective, the big question

48
00:02:34,160 --> 00:02:37,280
Speaker 1: here is did it halt the proceedings of of them

49
00:02:37,280 --> 00:02:41,880
Speaker 1: trying to de certify USA Gymnastics. There's some disagreement. I mean,

50
00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:44,720
Speaker 1: U s OC says it's full steam ahead, but it

51
00:02:44,760 --> 00:02:49,040
Speaker 1: does push the pause button on several items related to

52
00:02:49,120 --> 00:02:52,120
Speaker 1: the business and that it has to be discussed the

53
00:02:52,160 --> 00:02:55,520
Speaker 1: business part of what's going on absolutely, and the we

54
00:02:55,600 --> 00:02:58,560
Speaker 1: know kind of what the there's been huge ramifications for

55
00:02:58,680 --> 00:03:02,720
Speaker 1: USA Gymnastics. You all, the leadership has gone board gone uh,

56
00:03:02,800 --> 00:03:06,040
Speaker 1: they're they're facing de certification. They filed for bankruptcy last week,

57
00:03:06,040 --> 00:03:09,720
Speaker 1: which we talked about. Uh. Now the question is what

58
00:03:09,919 --> 00:03:11,960
Speaker 1: happens with the U s o C. You know, USA

59
00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:14,720
Speaker 1: Gymnastics lost all its sponsors. It's the reason it's bankrupt

60
00:03:14,800 --> 00:03:16,840
Speaker 1: right now. I've reached out to all twenty two U

61
00:03:16,880 --> 00:03:19,239
Speaker 1: s OC sponsors. I have not heard of peep back yet.

62
00:03:19,919 --> 00:03:22,960
Speaker 1: The question now, as Scott said, are our sponsors gonna

63
00:03:23,040 --> 00:03:26,840
Speaker 1: to flee? Most likely not um, but but are they

64
00:03:26,840 --> 00:03:30,239
Speaker 1: gonna Are they gonna go their separate way? And to uh?

65
00:03:30,280 --> 00:03:32,799
Speaker 1: Does anything in this report make it more likely that

66
00:03:32,919 --> 00:03:35,480
Speaker 1: the U s O C as partner in lawsuits? The

67
00:03:35,560 --> 00:03:38,160
Speaker 1: kind of huge, massive civil suits Again we're talking about

68
00:03:38,200 --> 00:03:41,040
Speaker 1: three hundred plus women. Uh, the kind of civil suits

69
00:03:41,080 --> 00:03:44,200
Speaker 1: that could really make a financial damage to the U

70
00:03:44,240 --> 00:03:45,920
Speaker 1: s S. But what was the insurance policy? Like two

71
00:03:45,920 --> 00:03:48,800
Speaker 1: million dollars? And the USA Gymnastics had a few different ones.

72
00:03:48,800 --> 00:03:51,640
Speaker 1: They have a sexual assault and melo station policy that

73
00:03:51,760 --> 00:03:56,360
Speaker 1: covered two men, a few other umbrella policies, etcetera. They

74
00:03:56,400 --> 00:03:58,720
Speaker 1: claim that that if you take all the the insurance

75
00:03:58,720 --> 00:04:01,920
Speaker 1: in totality, that it's roughly in line with what they

76
00:04:01,960 --> 00:04:04,119
Speaker 1: think these lawsuits are going to end up costing them.

77
00:04:05,080 --> 00:04:07,440
Speaker 1: The clearest indicator that our young Novie Williams, with the

78
00:04:07,440 --> 00:04:09,760
Speaker 1: crow'sfeeded growing up right before our very eyes, is that

79
00:04:09,840 --> 00:04:13,520
Speaker 1: he without without fail, without anything that concern starts talking

80
00:04:13,560 --> 00:04:16,360
Speaker 1: about umbrella policies, I means a homeowner. He's probably got

81
00:04:16,400 --> 00:04:19,080
Speaker 1: a five thousand dollar umbrella policy. Personally, I love this.

82
00:04:19,160 --> 00:04:21,400
Speaker 1: Gotta have an umbrella. Five years ago Novie Williams like,

83
00:04:21,839 --> 00:04:25,119
Speaker 1: umbrella Wait what not? Right off the tip of his tongue.

84
00:04:25,360 --> 00:04:28,520
Speaker 1: Umbrella policy up right before He's going to be the

85
00:04:28,600 --> 00:04:30,679
Speaker 1: Leae Steinberg if somebody else's guest of the sports business

86
00:04:30,720 --> 00:04:32,560
Speaker 1: world in ten more years. You watched two and a

87
00:04:32,560 --> 00:04:43,320
Speaker 1: half group Oakland Raiders. Oh my and the whole city

88
00:04:43,360 --> 00:04:47,359
Speaker 1: of Oakland. They have filed a lawsuit against the team. Well. St.

89
00:04:47,400 --> 00:04:49,720
Speaker 1: Louis files a lawsuit against the Rams when they leave.

90
00:04:49,800 --> 00:04:51,280
Speaker 1: This is sort of par for the course when a

91
00:04:51,320 --> 00:04:54,680
Speaker 1: team leaves the city file suit for what revenue they're

92
00:04:54,720 --> 00:04:57,400
Speaker 1: going to be missing. Now that the question is for

93
00:04:57,440 --> 00:04:59,839
Speaker 1: the Raiders, because they're not staying in Oakland, there's no

94
00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:02,720
Speaker 1: are to play in Las Vegas for the nineteen season.

95
00:05:02,960 --> 00:05:04,320
Speaker 1: What are the Raiders gonna do? Where do they go?

96
00:05:04,320 --> 00:05:06,920
Speaker 1: Where do they play? Yeah? My money says they end

97
00:05:06,960 --> 00:05:08,600
Speaker 1: up where U and l V plays, you know, which,

98
00:05:09,080 --> 00:05:12,400
Speaker 1: which is a small crappy by NFL standards stadium, But

99
00:05:12,440 --> 00:05:14,480
Speaker 1: it's better than where the Chargers play, right, It's it's

100
00:05:14,480 --> 00:05:17,919
Speaker 1: almost twice the size. Um. Yeah, that's called leverage the

101
00:05:18,040 --> 00:05:27,240
Speaker 1: rate the way I'm sorry, UNLV online forever UNLV is

102
00:05:27,240 --> 00:05:28,720
Speaker 1: getting a new stadium. I don't think it's a I

103
00:05:28,760 --> 00:05:30,479
Speaker 1: don't think it's any secret that the one they have

104
00:05:30,640 --> 00:05:34,360
Speaker 1: is not is not great. Um. Yeah. This lawsuit alleges

105
00:05:34,400 --> 00:05:36,880
Speaker 1: that the NFL is a cartel. It says that the

106
00:05:37,040 --> 00:05:40,400
Speaker 1: what the three hundred and seventy million dollar relocation fee

107
00:05:40,400 --> 00:05:43,320
Speaker 1: that the Raiders paid, they called that a bribe to

108
00:05:43,640 --> 00:05:45,760
Speaker 1: allow the team to kind of skirt a lot of

109
00:05:45,800 --> 00:05:50,520
Speaker 1: the NFL's in place relocation policies. Um. I think legally,

110
00:05:50,680 --> 00:05:53,039
Speaker 1: I'm obviously no expert. I don't think this has a

111
00:05:53,080 --> 00:05:56,960
Speaker 1: tremendous amount of likelihood of succeeding. But you know, Raiders

112
00:05:56,960 --> 00:06:00,280
Speaker 1: have gotta cut a check. It's certainly possible. Yeah. And again,

113
00:06:00,400 --> 00:06:03,040
Speaker 1: the lawsuit is not arguing for a court to make

114
00:06:03,040 --> 00:06:07,240
Speaker 1: the Raiders stay. We're obviously well past that point. Um.

115
00:06:07,240 --> 00:06:09,600
Speaker 1: But it does certainly call on the question, you know,

116
00:06:09,800 --> 00:06:12,280
Speaker 1: if there was any you know, possibility that they were

117
00:06:12,279 --> 00:06:15,920
Speaker 1: going to play in Oakland next year. Once again bar

118
00:06:16,160 --> 00:06:22,679
Speaker 1: seven hundred million dollars in public subsidies from Las Vegas.

119
00:06:23,320 --> 00:06:32,919
Speaker 1: Well dollars, I think it's a record in public subsidy.

120
00:06:34,200 --> 00:06:39,599
Speaker 1: UH American Athletic Conference. They say teams, you gotta sign

121
00:06:39,720 --> 00:06:42,600
Speaker 1: on for a long term, which I don't see how

122
00:06:42,600 --> 00:06:46,040
Speaker 1: they can do that. Well, they can't make them sign on. However,

123
00:06:47,000 --> 00:06:51,400
Speaker 1: they're looking to keep conferences intact. This was all the rage.

124
00:06:51,440 --> 00:06:53,680
Speaker 1: What are's saying two years ago? Where the really was

125
00:06:53,720 --> 00:06:56,640
Speaker 1: you couldn't remember which universities were going to which conference.

126
00:06:56,640 --> 00:06:59,080
Speaker 1: Well it was just you know, musical chairs settled down

127
00:06:59,080 --> 00:07:01,039
Speaker 1: a little bit. But there are are those still big

128
00:07:01,080 --> 00:07:05,279
Speaker 1: twelve among them looking to add teams. So these smaller

129
00:07:05,320 --> 00:07:09,240
Speaker 1: conferences are looking to protect themselves for the future. If

130
00:07:09,240 --> 00:07:11,720
Speaker 1: you're gonna sign these big media deals, they all have

131
00:07:11,840 --> 00:07:15,280
Speaker 1: contingencies on if somebody leaves that the number goes down.

132
00:07:15,640 --> 00:07:19,760
Speaker 1: So you know, um, micro Resco, the commissioner, former TV guy,

133
00:07:19,960 --> 00:07:24,280
Speaker 1: understands how media works. He's looking to keep these teams

134
00:07:24,360 --> 00:07:27,800
Speaker 1: at least for the length of the media deals and

135
00:07:28,240 --> 00:07:32,880
Speaker 1: probably with the current teams, they're they're looking at what tripling, quadruple,

136
00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:35,360
Speaker 1: ng what what they're taking in the deal right now

137
00:07:35,400 --> 00:07:37,080
Speaker 1: is when it's a seven year, a hundred and thirty

138
00:07:37,080 --> 00:07:39,760
Speaker 1: million dollar deal, roughly there, Um, it's gonna be certainly

139
00:07:39,760 --> 00:07:41,560
Speaker 1: more than that if they can get these teams to stay.

140
00:07:41,560 --> 00:07:44,680
Speaker 1: And that's a big If you mentioned the relocation we

141
00:07:44,720 --> 00:07:47,320
Speaker 1: went through four years ago, that was because that was

142
00:07:47,360 --> 00:07:49,480
Speaker 1: the last time all these deals were up right, so

143
00:07:49,520 --> 00:07:52,720
Speaker 1: all these conferences were suddenly jockeying for membership that was

144
00:07:52,800 --> 00:07:57,400
Speaker 1: lucrative to companies like Fox and ESPN went to. The

145
00:07:57,400 --> 00:08:00,480
Speaker 1: Big Ten was the New York TV market the same reason,

146
00:08:02,600 --> 00:08:05,440
Speaker 1: and and the a C the American For those who

147
00:08:05,520 --> 00:08:09,000
Speaker 1: aren't familiar, this is the essentially a new conference that

148
00:08:09,080 --> 00:08:11,720
Speaker 1: was created with the football schools from the Big East.

149
00:08:12,200 --> 00:08:16,840
Speaker 1: You know, they get confused, Yeah, and you're right to

150
00:08:16,880 --> 00:08:19,440
Speaker 1: be confused, because the membership has changed a lot. Even

151
00:08:19,520 --> 00:08:22,440
Speaker 1: in the first couple of years. Microresco has been very

152
00:08:22,480 --> 00:08:25,480
Speaker 1: adamant that you know, there's the Power five conferences, right,

153
00:08:25,520 --> 00:08:27,840
Speaker 1: and he wants to be the sixth. He wants to

154
00:08:27,840 --> 00:08:29,800
Speaker 1: be the Power six conference. I would say, when you

155
00:08:29,840 --> 00:08:31,680
Speaker 1: were naming, you said, obviously you c F is the

156
00:08:31,720 --> 00:08:34,920
Speaker 1: first team. Yeah. I don't watch a whole lot of

157
00:08:34,920 --> 00:08:37,280
Speaker 1: college football. I did you know you CEF was good

158
00:08:37,360 --> 00:08:41,600
Speaker 1: Central Florida in this case, yes, only because lost in

159
00:08:41,640 --> 00:08:46,080
Speaker 1: two years in two years to the national champions from

160
00:08:46,160 --> 00:08:47,960
Speaker 1: last year because they were the only one feated team

161
00:08:48,000 --> 00:08:52,679
Speaker 1: for them. If the Big Twelve were to expand, I

162
00:08:52,679 --> 00:08:54,560
Speaker 1: would think that you CEF might be high on the

163
00:08:54,600 --> 00:08:57,760
Speaker 1: list of schools they might call, Um and other schools

164
00:08:57,760 --> 00:09:00,240
Speaker 1: in the Indian in the athletic that that they certainly

165
00:09:00,280 --> 00:09:03,120
Speaker 1: would want to keep around. Houston, which is a very

166
00:09:03,120 --> 00:09:07,160
Speaker 1: good football school, Memphis, which is a pretty good football school. UM, Cincinnati,

167
00:09:07,280 --> 00:09:09,560
Speaker 1: you know, which was another school that was rumored or

168
00:09:09,679 --> 00:09:15,040
Speaker 1: very interested in being the basketball coach there. Memphis. Yes,

169
00:09:17,920 --> 00:09:21,400
Speaker 1: and they're they're following me on Twitter at they're also

170
00:09:21,440 --> 00:09:25,480
Speaker 1: experimenting with with paying some schools more than others out

171
00:09:25,520 --> 00:09:28,160
Speaker 1: of the TV money as an enticement to stay, something

172
00:09:28,160 --> 00:09:30,960
Speaker 1: that the Mountain West does with Poise State already. How

173
00:09:31,240 --> 00:09:35,760
Speaker 1: English Premier. Yeah, I think you're going to see a

174
00:09:35,760 --> 00:09:39,320
Speaker 1: lot more stories like this as we get into one

175
00:09:39,400 --> 00:09:42,720
Speaker 1: of conferences trying to figure out creative ways of ensuring

176
00:09:42,760 --> 00:09:45,839
Speaker 1: their long term viability and also breaking up their media

177
00:09:45,840 --> 00:09:48,679
Speaker 1: packages in new ways. This is the Bloomberg Business of

178
00:09:48,760 --> 00:09:52,360
Speaker 1: Sports podcast on Michael bar along with Scott and Evan.

179
00:09:53,120 --> 00:09:56,200
Speaker 1: We're here each and every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday exploring

180
00:09:56,240 --> 00:09:58,080
Speaker 1: the world of money and sports. Join us again at

181
00:09:58,080 --> 00:10:00,319
Speaker 1: the end of the week when we speak with NFL agent.

182
00:10:00,400 --> 00:10:03,520
Speaker 1: Released on Patty Flicks. You're listening to Bloomberg Business of

183
00:10:03,600 --> 00:10:06,920
Speaker 1: Sports on Bloomberg Radio around the world and online where

184
00:10:07,000 --> 00:10:08,280
Speaker 1: you can get on our pockets