Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: To say that the brothers Clark and Dan Hunt are
Speaker 2: on a winning streak would be an understatement. The NFL
Speaker 2: team their family owns, the Kansas City Chiefs, are two
Speaker 2: time defending Super Bowl champions, and as they kick off
Speaker 2: their season this week, they have real hopes of being
Speaker 2: the first team to three peat a Super Bowl win.
Speaker 2: Clark Hunt, who's the older of the two brothers, served
Speaker 2: as chair of the NFL committee that recently finally made
Speaker 2: it possible for private equity investors to own up to
Speaker 2: ten percent of a franchise. Valuations are expected to approach
Speaker 2: the ten billion dollar mark in the coming years, but
Speaker 2: the Hunt family's portfolio includes much more than just pro football.
Speaker 2: Dan Hunt, who is nearly ten years Clark's junior, is
Speaker 2: president of Major League Soccer's FC Dallas, and he played
Speaker 2: a crucial role in ensuring that fifteen matches in the
Speaker 2: twenty two twenty six feet of World Cup, including the semifinal,
Speaker 2: would be played in stadiums in Dallas and Kansas City.
Speaker 2: But perhaps their biggest success in the last year was
Speaker 2: outside their control. Here's Randall Williams, who covers the business
Speaker 2: of Sports for Bloomberg.
Speaker 3: Clark and Dan laughed when they said, like, it was
Speaker 3: a year unlike any other, and not because we won
Speaker 3: the Super Bowl.
Speaker 2: It was because Chiefs tight end Travis Kelcey started dating
Speaker 2: Taylor Swift, and that attracted hundreds of thousands of new fans,
Speaker 2: so many, in fact, that a new category of memes
Speaker 2: took off many. Swifty suggested the world had only taken
Speaker 2: notice of Kelsey's talent on the grid iron because of Swift.
Speaker 4: Do you know how many people are going to start
Speaker 4: watching football now because of her?
Speaker 1: Like, nobody knew who Travis Kelsey was until he started
Speaker 1: dating Taylor Swift. Keep boy, Travis Kelcey became famous over night.
Speaker 4: Isn't it crazy how Jaylor Swift put that one football guy.
Speaker 2: Like on the map became a pop culture phenomenon and
Speaker 2: a huge win for the Hunt brother.
Speaker 3: They said that she helped grow their fan base by
Speaker 3: thirty percent, and that was a metric that the NFL
Speaker 3: used in terms of how they measure a fan base's growth.
Speaker 3: But at thirty percent, that is insane year over year growth.
Speaker 2: Randall recently sat down with Clark and Dan Hunt in Texas.
Speaker 3: It's the only wooden office. I've seen on like a
Speaker 3: thirtieth floor. I don't know if that was the official floor,
Speaker 3: but I mean just a lot of wood, a lot
Speaker 3: of antique stuff.
Speaker 2: The Hunt brothers rarely give interviews, but they spoke to
Speaker 2: Randall along with Bloomberg's Julie Fine and Jason Kelly today
Speaker 2: on the show The Billionaire Hunt Brothers in their own words,
Speaker 2: how the family took an oil fortune and used that
Speaker 2: to build a sports empire, and their goals for the
Speaker 2: future to make American football into a sport that's truly global,
Speaker 2: and to accelerate interest in the US in the other
Speaker 2: kind of football. From Bloomberg News, this is the big take.
Speaker 2: I'm David Gerret.
Speaker 3: Two completely different characters, but they work things out. I
Speaker 3: don't have a direct comparison. I don't know if it's
Speaker 3: Superman and Batman or a dynamic duo that's out there
Speaker 3: that describes him. I've had to think on it a
Speaker 3: little bit longer, but they are a dynamic duo.
Speaker 2: Bloomberg's Randall Williams says Clark and Dan Hunt's success didn't
Speaker 2: come out of nowhere. The brothers went into the family business,
Speaker 2: following in their dad Lamar's footsteps.
Speaker 3: Lamar got into sports, so he was a part of
Speaker 3: the AFL, and then when the AFL and NFL merged,
Speaker 3: of course he maintained his ownership of the Kansas City Chiefs.
Speaker 3: He eventually took a stake in the Chicago Bulls as well.
Speaker 3: He was early in on soccer, so he's a pioneer
Speaker 3: in the sports world. But I don't think that he
Speaker 3: touted his accomplishments the same way that other sports owners
Speaker 3: who are flamboyant have.
Speaker 2: But to hear Dan Hunt tell it, their mom played
Speaker 2: just as big a role in the Hunt family success.
Speaker 1: And our parents were unbelievable examples and of working together.
Speaker 1: I always argue that my dad would not or our
Speaker 1: dad would not have had the success he had without
Speaker 1: our mother's support. We saw how they worked together, and
Speaker 1: we worked together in the same way.
Speaker 2: With Stakes and the Chiefs, the Bulls and earlier US
Speaker 2: professional soccer leagues. Lamar and Norma emphasized the importance of
Speaker 2: having a diverse portfolio, and their sons took that to heart.
Speaker 2: Now they're looking to the future. Recently, Clark helmden NFL
Speaker 2: committee studying the role of private equity in the NFL,
Speaker 2: which is something my co host Sarah Holder talked about
Speaker 2: with Randall back in February. The NFL had been hesitant
Speaker 2: to allow institutional investment, but the league just changed the
Speaker 2: rules and this season will be the first time it'll
Speaker 2: allow private equity investors to own up to ten percent
Speaker 2: of a franchise.
Speaker 3: They'd been studying it for five years, and naturally after
Speaker 3: two different transactions happened with the Denver Broncos where that
Speaker 3: team sold for four point sixty five billion dollars and
Speaker 3: then less than two years later, Josh Harris buys the
Speaker 3: Commander for six bis million dollars, and Josh Harris he
Speaker 3: said it was a difficult thing for him to raise
Speaker 3: that much money. An NFL owner has to have at
Speaker 3: least thirty percent of the team, and so for future
Speaker 3: NFL franchises, if the valuations are jumping from four point
Speaker 3: sixty five billion to six billion every single transaction's and
Speaker 3: that may not happen every single time, but if they're
Speaker 3: going up five hundred million, seven hundred million for every
Speaker 3: single one that happens in the future, it raised a
Speaker 3: concern of if these things are too big to sell,
Speaker 3: and so private equity can help with this, but they
Speaker 3: don't want them to run the entire team. So these
Speaker 3: are silent shareholders, is what I would call them.
Speaker 2: I asked Randall if the Chiefs are hoping to attract
Speaker 2: new outside money. The franchise is currently owned by Clark,
Speaker 2: Dan and their two half siblings.
Speaker 3: I'm asking them this a number of times because the
Speaker 3: Chiefs have a stadium renovation that they got denied for
Speaker 3: earlier this year. The Hunt family would have put three
Speaker 3: hundred million. They asked this city of Kansas City essentially
Speaker 3: for five hundred million, and Kansas City denied them. If
Speaker 3: you sell, If the Kansas City's Chiefs sold a piece
Speaker 3: of themselves to a private equity firm, they'd be able
Speaker 3: to pay for their renovation. Clark has told me multiple times.
Speaker 3: I probably asked them three times this year, in March,
Speaker 3: in May, and now in August. Would you be open
Speaker 3: to selling a private equity He said no, So that's
Speaker 3: not on the table for them right now. He didn't
Speaker 3: rule it out down the line, but it's not of
Speaker 3: immediate interest to the Hunt family right now.
Speaker 2: Selling a piece of their iconic NFL team may not
Speaker 2: be of interest to the Clarks at the moment, but
Speaker 2: they do have several high profile goals. The first is
Speaker 2: to make American football more popular in Europe and South America,
Speaker 2: and the second is to crack the code on making
Speaker 2: soccer a bigger deal and a bigger profit center in
Speaker 2: the US. That's after the break. The NFL has the
Speaker 2: highest revenue of any single sports league in the world,
Speaker 2: not just in the US, and as the value of
Speaker 2: teams continues to balloon, the league is facing a kind
Speaker 2: of existential question. How much more can the NFL grow domestically.
Speaker 2: Bloomberg's Randall Williams says that at some point the league
Speaker 2: will have to find new fans elsewhere if they want
Speaker 2: to rake in Euros and Rayal's.
Speaker 3: The next place they have to conquer is international waters
Speaker 3: international countries, because it's the biggest domestic sport in comparison
Speaker 3: to soccer and basketball globally. The NFL isn't in the
Speaker 3: same ballpark just yet. That's why Brazil's happening this year,
Speaker 3: Spain next year, who knows where they go next.
Speaker 2: This week, the Green Bay Packers will take on the
Speaker 2: Philadelphia Eagles, not at lambeau Field or the Link, but
Speaker 2: in South Paolo. While games like this one played overseas
Speaker 2: have been well attended. They're one offs. The NFL has
Speaker 2: previously tried and failed to capture the European market with
Speaker 2: a spinoff league called NFL Europe. It lasted for about
Speaker 2: sixteen years until it closed down in two thousand and seven.
Speaker 2: Here's Clark Hunt.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we're going back to the nineties. Our father was
Speaker 4: very much interested in the growth of the NFL internationally,
Speaker 4: and he always insisted on the Chiefs playing preseason games.
Speaker 4: We played in Japan, a couple of times, we played
Speaker 4: in Bertlin, and then when the league changed their approach
Speaker 4: to playing regular season games, we were one of the
Speaker 4: first teams that raised our hands because we recognized the
Speaker 4: value of growing the Chiefs brand on an international basis.
Speaker 2: As Randall mentioned, soccer is still king in Europe, in
Speaker 2: South America, and pretty much everywhere outside the US, but
Speaker 2: Dan Hunt believes that the twenty twenty six feet of
Speaker 2: World Cup will be a unique moment to bring in
Speaker 2: new fans in the United States. Forty eight teams are
Speaker 2: going to compete in matches across Mexico, the US, and Canada.
Speaker 3: The World Cup in twenty twenty six. These next two
Speaker 3: international or worldwide sporting events. In the World Cup and
Speaker 3: in the LA twenty eight Olympics are huge moments for soccer.
Speaker 3: I mean, you're going to have every star in the
Speaker 3: world on the male side. It's going to be here
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty six, and that's an opportunity for US
Speaker 3: fans or United States citizens to really see the rabid
Speaker 3: fandom of soccer. I think that there is rabbit fandoms
Speaker 3: in pockets across the nation, but it is nothing like
Speaker 3: the worldwide, global fandom of soccer.
Speaker 2: Dan Hunt is all in on the one two punch
Speaker 2: of the World Cup and the twenty twenty eight LA Olympics.
Speaker 2: He thinks those two events will be the breakthrough soccer
Speaker 2: needs to become a real rival to American football, basketball,
Speaker 2: and baseball in the US.
Speaker 1: We're going to have one hundred and four matches, forty
Speaker 1: eight teams, the largest and grandest scale of all and
Speaker 1: now playing so many matches in these NFL stadiums. They
Speaker 1: generate revenue like no other stadium in the entire world.
Speaker 2: I asked Randall, why the Clark brothers think this decade,
Speaker 2: this moment is different. I mean, there have been countless
Speaker 2: failed attempts to get soccer to catch on in the States.
Speaker 3: The reason the twenty twenty six World Cup is such
Speaker 3: a huge moment is because you don't know when the
Speaker 3: World Cup is going to be back in the States.
Speaker 3: This is the biggest sporting event in the world. And
Speaker 3: when you're talking about global stars Leonnel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo,
Speaker 3: Killian and Bape like, all of these stars are going
Speaker 3: to be here, and with that, you're going to be
Speaker 3: to see Team USA as the underdogs. And we all
Speaker 3: know how much America loves an underdog story. And when
Speaker 3: the World Cup has played in other countries, it's fun
Speaker 3: to tune in, but it's not the same for the
Speaker 3: US audience if you have to get up at three
Speaker 3: or four am. But if all the games are happening
Speaker 3: across the coast and it's all everyone's talking about all
Speaker 3: the time, this is your moment.
Speaker 2: There was one other thing Randall wanted to ask the
Speaker 2: Hunt brothers about as they look to the future, how
Speaker 2: they're thinking about what will happen with the next generation.
Speaker 3: I don't know the Hunt's succession plan. Clark Hunt has
Speaker 3: three children, Dan Hunt has two. I think that those
Speaker 3: five are the next generation. But Clark also is the
Speaker 3: second youngest NFL owner. I believe behind the forty nine ers,
Speaker 3: their children will be prepped over time and be prepared
Speaker 3: the same way that he was, because that's the thing
Speaker 3: that both he and Dan have said over and over
Speaker 3: and over again, is that their mom and dad were
Speaker 3: great teachers, great mentors, and they provided a lot of
Speaker 3: knowledge so that when it was time to pass this
Speaker 3: down from one generation to the next, that they could
Speaker 3: a exist cohesively and be run the business the way
Speaker 3: that it should be run.
Speaker 2: The brothers live down the street from each other and
Speaker 2: are raising their families to be close.
Speaker 3: The fact that they're as tight as they are, and
Speaker 3: if you're growing up next to one another, God willing
Speaker 3: it all works.
Speaker 2: Up, which may be just what the Hunt brothers are
Speaker 2: banking on. This is the big take from Bloomberg News.
Speaker 2: I'm David Gerrat. This episode was produced by Alex Sekura.
Speaker 2: It was edited by Brendan Walsh and Naomi Shaven. She
Speaker 2: and Kim Gittleson are our senior producers. Episode was mixed
Speaker 2: by Blake Maples. It was fact checked by Adriana Tapia.
Speaker 2: Our senior editor is Elizabeth Ponso Nicole Beemster Bor is
Speaker 2: our executive producer, and Sage Bauman is head of Podcasts.
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