WEBVTT - Robert Kraft

0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:05.960
<v Speaker 1>Over the past quarter century, the most successful sports owner

0:00:05.960 --> 0:00:08.920
<v Speaker 1>in the world has been Robert Kraft. He's taken his team,

0:00:08.960 --> 0:00:12.160
<v Speaker 1>the New England Patriots, to six Super Bowl championships with

0:00:12.240 --> 0:00:14.800
<v Speaker 1>the help of Tom Brady, his star quarterback. I had

0:00:14.840 --> 0:00:16.720
<v Speaker 1>a chance to sit down with Robert Kraft at his

0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:20.560
<v Speaker 1>Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts to talk about how he's

0:00:20.560 --> 0:00:23.040
<v Speaker 1>been so successful as a sports team owner, but also

0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:26.360
<v Speaker 1>his new found and very deeply felt interest in fighting

0:00:26.400 --> 0:00:30.800
<v Speaker 1>anti Semitism. Bob, in your wildest dreams when you bought

0:00:30.840 --> 0:00:33.640
<v Speaker 1>this team in nineteen ninety four, did you ever imagine

0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:36.559
<v Speaker 1>you'd win six Super Bowls and be the most famous

0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:38.800
<v Speaker 1>owner in professional sports?

0:00:39.400 --> 0:00:44.480
<v Speaker 2>Well, I sat in the stands of the old Foxboro Stadium,

0:00:45.120 --> 0:00:48.559
<v Speaker 2>and then when they came here, I sat in the

0:00:48.640 --> 0:00:53.520
<v Speaker 2>stands here and dreamt about one day trying to buy

0:00:53.600 --> 0:00:55.840
<v Speaker 2>this team and own it and run it the way

0:00:55.920 --> 0:00:59.000
<v Speaker 2>I wanted. I said, if I could ever get this team,

0:00:59.440 --> 0:01:03.320
<v Speaker 2>I just dream of having home playoff games and going

0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:05.000
<v Speaker 2>to the Super Bowl and winning it.

0:01:05.280 --> 0:01:07.280
<v Speaker 1>Now, when you bought the team, I think you paid

0:01:07.360 --> 0:01:09.880
<v Speaker 1>roughly one hundred and seventy five million dollars, something like

0:01:09.959 --> 0:01:12.240
<v Speaker 1>the one hundred and seventy two, one hundred and seventy

0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:14.600
<v Speaker 1>two million dollars. Okay, one hundred and seventy two million dollars,

0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:16.480
<v Speaker 1>which was a lot of money in those days, the

0:01:16.560 --> 0:01:18.920
<v Speaker 1>highest price ever paid for a football team at the time.

0:01:18.760 --> 0:01:22.040
<v Speaker 2>For any sports franchise anywhere in the world.

0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:25.240
<v Speaker 1>Okay, so I'm sure your friends said, Bob, are you crazy?

0:01:25.520 --> 0:01:30.240
<v Speaker 2>My friends, my wife, it's the one time in our

0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:36.160
<v Speaker 2>marriage that she was ready to really wring my neck.

0:01:36.400 --> 0:01:39.840
<v Speaker 1>But now the Commanders, they were sold recently for a

0:01:39.840 --> 0:01:43.240
<v Speaker 1>purchase price of six billion dollars and they haven't won

0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:45.880
<v Speaker 1>six Super Bowls. So if you put your team up

0:01:45.880 --> 0:01:48.600
<v Speaker 1>for sale, presumably it's worth eight billion, ten billion or more.

0:01:48.800 --> 0:01:51.200
<v Speaker 1>Would you ever consider selling or you're never going to sell.

0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:56.240
<v Speaker 2>Never in my lifetime will we sell this team. And

0:01:56.440 --> 0:02:00.920
<v Speaker 2>I hope my children keep it going as well. It

0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:04.960
<v Speaker 2>also builds community. It's a way to build bridges. You

0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:09.840
<v Speaker 2>bring people of all background together. I think back to

0:02:09.919 --> 0:02:13.680
<v Speaker 2>when we were privileged to win our first Super Bowl

0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:18.000
<v Speaker 2>three four months after nine to eleven in Boston, a

0:02:18.000 --> 0:02:21.919
<v Speaker 2>city of six hundred thousand people. A million and a

0:02:22.000 --> 0:02:26.240
<v Speaker 2>half people came out on the streets very cold day,

0:02:26.880 --> 0:02:32.760
<v Speaker 2>you know, black, white, Asian, gay, every background, all putting

0:02:32.880 --> 0:02:36.959
<v Speaker 2>community and team first. And that's a privilege and an honor.

0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:40.160
<v Speaker 2>So I look at this team as like a community

0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:43.200
<v Speaker 2>asset and I'm never going to sell it.

0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:45.480
<v Speaker 1>So let me ask you about the NFL general. The

0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:49.560
<v Speaker 1>NFL prices for or the value of the team's going up,

0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:52.480
<v Speaker 1>as I mentioned earlier, and that's because TV contracts have

0:02:52.639 --> 0:02:55.440
<v Speaker 1>gone up. How much higher do you think TV contracts

0:02:55.480 --> 0:02:58.520
<v Speaker 1>can really go? Is there any limit to how much

0:02:58.560 --> 0:03:01.799
<v Speaker 1>you can get paid by the casters?

0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:05.799
<v Speaker 2>Well, I've been privileged to be chair of the Media

0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:11.240
<v Speaker 2>Committee for the last couple of decades, and three years

0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:15.680
<v Speaker 2>ago we three seasons ago we were able to do

0:03:16.840 --> 0:03:21.480
<v Speaker 2>seven to ten year contracts that exceeded one hundred and

0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:26.160
<v Speaker 2>thirty billion dollars and that was tremendous because it gave

0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:30.280
<v Speaker 2>us great stability in the league where we could do

0:03:30.400 --> 0:03:36.360
<v Speaker 2>a ten year labor deal. We basically share fifty to

0:03:36.360 --> 0:03:41.360
<v Speaker 2>fifty with the players the revenue, so you know, they

0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:45.640
<v Speaker 2>have been able to grow and succeed with us. It's

0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:49.280
<v Speaker 2>you know, we know linear TV is really challenged now

0:03:49.920 --> 0:03:55.320
<v Speaker 2>and we've been doing things that we brought in two

0:03:55.360 --> 0:04:01.920
<v Speaker 2>tech partners now who Amazon and Google or YouTube, and

0:04:03.960 --> 0:04:07.720
<v Speaker 2>I think we are developing our own NFL plus where

0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:12.880
<v Speaker 2>we go direct to consumer, and I think we'll have

0:04:12.920 --> 0:04:16.400
<v Speaker 2>some serious decisions to make down the road when we

0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:20.080
<v Speaker 2>see what happens in the whole media environment.

0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:25.359
<v Speaker 1>Now, the NFL is the most popular, I guess spectator

0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:28.200
<v Speaker 1>sport in the United States. You could argue it gets

0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:31.280
<v Speaker 1>better TV ratings than virtually any other sport. But around

0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:33.840
<v Speaker 1>the world, the most popular sport seems to be for

0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:36.640
<v Speaker 1>this purpose, what it's called soccer in this country and

0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:41.880
<v Speaker 1>football outside. Can you make American football as popular outside

0:04:41.920 --> 0:04:46.480
<v Speaker 1>the United States as European football is around the world

0:04:46.560 --> 0:04:47.560
<v Speaker 1>or is that not realistic?

0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:52.760
<v Speaker 2>I don't think it's realistic, partly because to play the

0:04:52.839 --> 0:04:56.240
<v Speaker 2>sport of soccer, all you need is a ball. Really,

0:04:56.279 --> 0:05:00.200
<v Speaker 2>you don't need equipment, you don't need anything but at

0:05:00.600 --> 0:05:04.040
<v Speaker 2>and a ball. Two thirds of the world's population can

0:05:04.120 --> 0:05:10.840
<v Speaker 2>actually play the game. Unfortunately, except for Europe, we haven't

0:05:10.960 --> 0:05:14.920
<v Speaker 2>really had the game play. Like We're going to Germany

0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:19.919
<v Speaker 2>this year and the stadium we're playing has fifty five

0:05:20.040 --> 0:05:24.960
<v Speaker 2>or sixty thousand seats and demand for tickets was three

0:05:25.120 --> 0:05:29.200
<v Speaker 2>million within the first twenty four hours, So the demand

0:05:29.400 --> 0:05:32.960
<v Speaker 2>is there and the appreciation of the game, and I

0:05:33.000 --> 0:05:36.440
<v Speaker 2>think we're going to work to have the game appreciated

0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:42.440
<v Speaker 2>more globally. And I think with gaming coming on that

0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:46.279
<v Speaker 2>people throughout the world our sport has a forty second

0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:53.120
<v Speaker 2>delay between plays that prop betting and other kinds of gaming.

0:05:53.240 --> 0:05:58.599
<v Speaker 2>Is we educate more internationally, That's where the marketplace really

0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:02.560
<v Speaker 2>is open for us. But I don't think, unfortunately, they'll

0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:04.279
<v Speaker 2>be playing the game all over the world.

0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:06.280
<v Speaker 1>One of the issues in the NFL has had to

0:06:06.320 --> 0:06:10.160
<v Speaker 1>deal with is the concussion issue when you were playing football.

0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:12.960
<v Speaker 1>I wasn't probably as big a deal when I played

0:06:12.960 --> 0:06:15.520
<v Speaker 1>football when I was ten or twelve. You know, I

0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:18.400
<v Speaker 1>wasn't getting hit in the head that much by people

0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:21.359
<v Speaker 1>were weighing two or three hundred pounds. Today you have

0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:23.159
<v Speaker 1>a lot of players a weigh three hundred pounds. They

0:06:23.240 --> 0:06:26.240
<v Speaker 1>hit you, you can really get hurt. You've settled the

0:06:26.480 --> 0:06:29.800
<v Speaker 1>litigation I think on concussions, And do you think the

0:06:29.839 --> 0:06:32.760
<v Speaker 1>concussion issue has largely been addressed and do you think

0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:35.480
<v Speaker 1>better helmets will help the problem in the future a bit.

0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:42.039
<v Speaker 2>I think the advancement that has come with the medical support.

0:06:42.360 --> 0:06:44.760
<v Speaker 2>In the end, I go back to where we were

0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:52.080
<v Speaker 2>this is our thirtieth season, pinched myself. But the medical

0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:56.000
<v Speaker 2>advancement and looking to keep the game as healthy as

0:06:56.120 --> 0:07:02.160
<v Speaker 2>possible with the helmets weave and have an independent doctor

0:07:02.240 --> 0:07:05.520
<v Speaker 2>who sits above, who can take any player out of

0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:10.160
<v Speaker 2>the game or have him be tested, because you know,

0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:14.160
<v Speaker 2>guys sometimes wouldn't want to go out because they don't

0:07:14.200 --> 0:07:19.640
<v Speaker 2>want to lose their job. I really believe the medical

0:07:19.720 --> 0:07:23.920
<v Speaker 2>and safety is better than it's ever been.

0:07:24.720 --> 0:07:26.840
<v Speaker 1>So let me ask you about one of the most

0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:30.960
<v Speaker 1>faithful decisions I guess your team ever made. Somebody decided

0:07:31.000 --> 0:07:33.040
<v Speaker 1>the draft a goy named Tom Brady who had played

0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:35.920
<v Speaker 1>football at University of Michigan. Initially I think it was

0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:39.000
<v Speaker 1>at Michigan. He wasn't the number one draft pick, and

0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:42.000
<v Speaker 1>you know, somebody must have seen something in him. Who

0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:44.280
<v Speaker 1>was the person who said, hey, let's take Tom Brady

0:07:44.480 --> 0:07:45.480
<v Speaker 1>a gamble on him.

0:07:46.240 --> 0:07:49.520
<v Speaker 2>Well, that gentleman was a man by the name of

0:07:49.680 --> 0:07:55.760
<v Speaker 2>Dick Raybind. In that draft there were seven quarterbacks taken,

0:07:56.160 --> 0:07:59.240
<v Speaker 2>I think by the third or fourth round, and this man,

0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:01.800
<v Speaker 2>Dick Raybind And I remember in the draft room him

0:08:01.840 --> 0:08:08.080
<v Speaker 2>saying to Belichick, you know, Tom Brady's still there. He's

0:08:08.440 --> 0:08:12.560
<v Speaker 2>tremendous value, but we had three quarterbacks. And then the

0:08:12.760 --> 0:08:16.960
<v Speaker 2>fourth round came, the fifth round came, the sixth round came,

0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:20.680
<v Speaker 2>and the last pick of the sixth round, which is

0:08:20.800 --> 0:08:26.239
<v Speaker 2>known as a compensatory pick, draft pick number one ninety nine.

0:08:26.840 --> 0:08:29.040
<v Speaker 2>We wound up taking Tom Brady.

0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:31.880
<v Speaker 1>So how did it feel when he decided to leave

0:08:31.960 --> 0:08:35.600
<v Speaker 1>the team? You obviously could have kept him, I guess,

0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:38.120
<v Speaker 1>but he decided to leave or and he decided to

0:08:38.120 --> 0:08:40.600
<v Speaker 1>go to the Tampa Bay team and they won the

0:08:40.600 --> 0:08:44.080
<v Speaker 1>Super Bowl his first year. So did you say I

0:08:44.080 --> 0:08:46.480
<v Speaker 1>should have kept him, or you say, look, I made

0:08:46.480 --> 0:08:49.000
<v Speaker 1>a long term decision, and I'm okay with it.

0:08:49.679 --> 0:08:52.800
<v Speaker 2>I always would talk to him, and he would take

0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:56.960
<v Speaker 2>less money to play for the Patriots, and you know,

0:08:57.000 --> 0:09:00.720
<v Speaker 2>we have a salary cap, so I always assured him

0:09:00.800 --> 0:09:04.480
<v Speaker 2>that whatever money I didn't pay him wasn't going into

0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:07.839
<v Speaker 2>my pocket. It was going to other players who would

0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:13.160
<v Speaker 2>be around him. And if we won those kind of trophies,

0:09:13.640 --> 0:09:16.920
<v Speaker 2>he would be the biggest beneficiary for the rest of

0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:22.280
<v Speaker 2>his life, which in fact has happened. And you know,

0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:27.360
<v Speaker 2>if the Patriots can't win a Super Bowl, I'm always rooting.

0:09:27.760 --> 0:09:30.199
<v Speaker 2>If we're out of it, I'm rooting for Tom Brady,

0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:35.160
<v Speaker 2>and after being with us for twenty years, we could

0:09:35.200 --> 0:09:39.720
<v Speaker 2>have franchised him or done other things. I said to

0:09:39.800 --> 0:09:44.920
<v Speaker 2>him when he did his last contract two years before that,

0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:49.520
<v Speaker 2>at year twenty, he would decide whether he stayed with

0:09:49.640 --> 0:09:52.600
<v Speaker 2>us or not. I think he had earned that right,

0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:56.880
<v Speaker 2>and for his own personal reasons, he felt it was

0:09:57.040 --> 0:09:57.920
<v Speaker 2>best to move on.

0:09:58.280 --> 0:10:01.680
<v Speaker 1>You also have the most success full coach practically in

0:10:01.800 --> 0:10:05.720
<v Speaker 1>football history, Bill Belichick, who you brought back to this team.

0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:08.480
<v Speaker 1>I guess about twenty some years ago. He had been

0:10:08.520 --> 0:10:11.000
<v Speaker 1>coaching at the New York Giants for a while, been here,

0:10:11.040 --> 0:10:12.600
<v Speaker 1>and then you brought him back as the head coach.

0:10:12.720 --> 0:10:15.160
<v Speaker 2>You'd been with us twenty four years. He has the

0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:16.479
<v Speaker 2>longest serving.

0:10:16.640 --> 0:10:19.960
<v Speaker 1>Coach in NFL history. Nobody's I think, probably, Well, somebody

0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:21.760
<v Speaker 1>may have coached twenty four years of one team. Maybe

0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:23.600
<v Speaker 1>George hallis because he was the owner of the team.

0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:27.280
<v Speaker 1>But now six Super Bowls. He's now been with you

0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:30.440
<v Speaker 1>twenty four years. Is he going to stay for another

0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:32.520
<v Speaker 1>X number of years? Or he can stay forever?

0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:35.960
<v Speaker 2>I'll let you ask him, he asked. Okay, all right,

0:10:36.280 --> 0:10:38.600
<v Speaker 2>decide what's right for you.

0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:41.160
<v Speaker 1>Let's talk about your background. Where were you born? I

0:10:41.160 --> 0:10:43.480
<v Speaker 1>guess from your accent you were probably born or raised

0:10:43.480 --> 0:10:44.360
<v Speaker 1>in Massachusetts.

0:10:44.760 --> 0:10:48.120
<v Speaker 2>Probably I still pot my kit here, okay, but I

0:10:49.160 --> 0:10:54.319
<v Speaker 2>grew up in Brookline, mass went to public schools.

0:10:54.400 --> 0:10:56.760
<v Speaker 1>Were you an athlete?

0:10:57.160 --> 0:11:00.240
<v Speaker 2>Well, I like to think I was an athlete. Wait.

0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:04.040
<v Speaker 2>My favorite sport was football, but we observed the Sabbath,

0:11:04.760 --> 0:11:10.000
<v Speaker 2>and unfortunately in high school I couldn't play football because

0:11:10.000 --> 0:11:14.959
<v Speaker 2>of that. But I was able to get a full

0:11:15.040 --> 0:11:19.839
<v Speaker 2>academic scholarship to Columbia College, and I went there and

0:11:20.080 --> 0:11:24.559
<v Speaker 2>played football there and just loved the game and realized

0:11:24.600 --> 0:11:30.400
<v Speaker 2>how football in life is the greatest training ground for

0:11:30.559 --> 0:11:33.360
<v Speaker 2>people in business or life or anything.

0:11:33.559 --> 0:11:35.520
<v Speaker 1>What did you do after you graduated from Columbia?

0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:39.880
<v Speaker 2>I was privileged to go to Harvard Business School.

0:11:40.240 --> 0:11:42.679
<v Speaker 1>So after you graduated from Harvard Business School, what did

0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:43.000
<v Speaker 1>you do?

0:11:44.000 --> 0:11:48.480
<v Speaker 2>My father in law had a couple box plants and

0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:52.400
<v Speaker 2>he wanted me to join them, and I didn't want

0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:55.000
<v Speaker 2>to be I wanted to go into business for myself.

0:11:55.600 --> 0:12:00.959
<v Speaker 2>My father advised me, since my wife at the time

0:12:01.360 --> 0:12:05.520
<v Speaker 2>was the equivalent of an only child, that I should

0:12:05.559 --> 0:12:10.560
<v Speaker 2>do that and out of respect, which I did. I

0:12:10.640 --> 0:12:13.480
<v Speaker 2>did it two years and I was going to leave,

0:12:14.400 --> 0:12:18.240
<v Speaker 2>and I was asked what I could do to stay,

0:12:19.200 --> 0:12:22.560
<v Speaker 2>and I said, you know, I'd want to buy into

0:12:22.600 --> 0:12:25.720
<v Speaker 2>the company. I didn't want to be working for other people,

0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:29.760
<v Speaker 2>even if they were relatives, and so I was able

0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:31.319
<v Speaker 2>to do a leverage buyout.

0:12:31.760 --> 0:12:33.319
<v Speaker 1>So you were in the private equity world.

0:12:33.720 --> 0:12:37.520
<v Speaker 2>I started on my own. Yeah, interest rates were favorable,

0:12:37.880 --> 0:12:45.040
<v Speaker 2>and I bought half the company. And then there was

0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:49.000
<v Speaker 2>an opportunity to take over a paper mill up in Canada,

0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:54.200
<v Speaker 2>and I decided I wanted to do it. I offered

0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:58.920
<v Speaker 2>my father in law half the company. He passed on it,

0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:05.720
<v Speaker 2>and so I did it, and fifty one years later,

0:13:08.080 --> 0:13:12.680
<v Speaker 2>we've developed that into an international company. We're in over

0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:16.840
<v Speaker 2>one hundred and twenty countries in the world and we're

0:13:16.920 --> 0:13:20.680
<v Speaker 2>number six and paper and Packaging and preumber six.

0:13:21.720 --> 0:13:23.560
<v Speaker 1>But it's a private owned company. You're not going to

0:13:23.559 --> 0:13:24.439
<v Speaker 1>take a public.

0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:26.360
<v Speaker 2>Or sell it or anything not in my lifetime.

0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:29.600
<v Speaker 1>Okay, So you're not selling the Patriots, you're not selling

0:13:29.640 --> 0:13:32.800
<v Speaker 1>the packaging company. I guess you don't like to sell.

0:13:32.640 --> 0:13:34.480
<v Speaker 2>Things, right, I really don't.

0:13:35.040 --> 0:13:36.600
<v Speaker 1>Well, that's why you wouldn't be good in the private

0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:38.640
<v Speaker 1>equity business, because we like to sell things.

0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:42.920
<v Speaker 2>I get emotional attached to and to the people working there.

0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:47.720
<v Speaker 2>We try to create a family environment in everything we're

0:13:47.760 --> 0:13:52.160
<v Speaker 2>involved in. I've learned that people want to be part

0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:55.200
<v Speaker 2>of something that's bigger than themselves.

0:13:55.360 --> 0:13:56.640
<v Speaker 1>So let's talk about the team.

0:13:56.880 --> 0:14:00.240
<v Speaker 2>I see today that someone writes a check and they

0:14:00.320 --> 0:14:05.320
<v Speaker 2>bought the team. Unfortunately for me, it was a much

0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:11.120
<v Speaker 2>more complicated process. There were three steps. There were two

0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:14.240
<v Speaker 2>hundred acres of parking that was owned by one group,

0:14:14.840 --> 0:14:18.959
<v Speaker 2>and I got that land under option in eighty five.

0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:22.920
<v Speaker 2>That went to ninety five, and coincidentally, I bought the

0:14:23.000 --> 0:14:26.400
<v Speaker 2>team in ninety four, so I was able to exercise

0:14:26.480 --> 0:14:31.080
<v Speaker 2>the option, but that option on the land was for parking.

0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:37.280
<v Speaker 2>In eighty eight eighty nine, the stadium went into bankruptcy

0:14:37.320 --> 0:14:41.040
<v Speaker 2>because of the Michael Jackson tour. I at that time,

0:14:41.200 --> 0:14:45.520
<v Speaker 2>Victor Kayam owned the team. He bid seventeen million dollars

0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:49.400
<v Speaker 2>for the stadium. I bid twenty five. The judge awarded

0:14:49.440 --> 0:14:53.600
<v Speaker 2>it to us. When I bought the stadium in eighty eight,

0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:57.240
<v Speaker 2>it had a lease that went till one with an

0:14:57.280 --> 0:15:02.640
<v Speaker 2>operating covenant which means the team never move without our permission,

0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:12.360
<v Speaker 2>and finally in ninety four, which was the latter. Getting

0:15:12.440 --> 0:15:16.480
<v Speaker 2>close to near the end of the lease, they wanted

0:15:16.480 --> 0:15:20.200
<v Speaker 2>to move the team to Saint Louis. I wouldn't let

0:15:21.040 --> 0:15:24.040
<v Speaker 2>James Orthwine, who owned the team. He was part of

0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:28.440
<v Speaker 2>the bud family, Budweiser family, and they had a publicly

0:15:28.640 --> 0:15:32.000
<v Speaker 2>finance stadium in Saint Louis. They wanted to move it,

0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:33.480
<v Speaker 2>and I wouldn't let him.

0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:36.520
<v Speaker 1>Do That worked out, okay for you. Your late wife

0:15:37.280 --> 0:15:39.000
<v Speaker 1>wasn't was a little nervous. I guess.

0:15:39.240 --> 0:15:44.040
<v Speaker 2>Before I went out to buy the team from Orthwine

0:15:44.120 --> 0:15:46.480
<v Speaker 2>in Saint Louis, she said, what are you going to pay?

0:15:46.640 --> 0:15:50.680
<v Speaker 2>And I said, well, the right numbers one fifteen, I

0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:54.800
<v Speaker 2>might go to one, twenty one, twenty two. And when

0:15:54.880 --> 0:15:58.640
<v Speaker 2>I came back and told her that I went to

0:15:58.800 --> 0:16:05.600
<v Speaker 2>one seventy, she went nuts. And Orthwine's lawyer from Saint

0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:10.840
<v Speaker 2>Louis called me and said, we will offer you seventy

0:16:10.880 --> 0:16:15.120
<v Speaker 2>five million dollars to let the lease expire and let

0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:19.160
<v Speaker 2>us move. And he called me at home, and my

0:16:19.280 --> 0:16:23.120
<v Speaker 2>wife heard that. She said, wait a minute. You paid

0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:27.120
<v Speaker 2>twenty five million dollars for this. He's paying your seventy

0:16:27.160 --> 0:16:31.120
<v Speaker 2>five million dollars. You'll still own the stadium, You'll get

0:16:31.160 --> 0:16:35.600
<v Speaker 2>another team, And I said, no. I remember when I

0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:39.120
<v Speaker 2>was a kid, my team, my baseball team was the

0:16:39.160 --> 0:16:44.440
<v Speaker 2>Boston Braves. They played at bu Field. They moved and

0:16:44.480 --> 0:16:48.040
<v Speaker 2>they never came back, and I was heartsick. And that's

0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:51.880
<v Speaker 2>that's why it wasn't about the money. It was about

0:16:52.280 --> 0:16:52.920
<v Speaker 2>the passion.

0:16:53.120 --> 0:16:55.720
<v Speaker 1>One of the other things you're passionate about is the

0:16:55.800 --> 0:17:00.320
<v Speaker 1>need to fight anti Semitism. You've created a foundation against

0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:04.199
<v Speaker 1>anti Semitism, to fight against anti Semitism. Why are you

0:17:04.240 --> 0:17:07.159
<v Speaker 1>so passionate about that cause? And is anti Semitism on

0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:07.719
<v Speaker 1>the rise?

0:17:08.119 --> 0:17:11.880
<v Speaker 2>I think anti Semitism is on the rise, and it's

0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:17.040
<v Speaker 2>very disturbing to me because it's symbolic of really it

0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:23.000
<v Speaker 2>starts with anti Semitism, then that hatred goes against every

0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:27.560
<v Speaker 2>other minority community, whether it's the Black community, the lgp

0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:36.760
<v Speaker 2>QT plus, or the Asian community. And you know, the

0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:41.200
<v Speaker 2>Jewish people in this country represent a little over two

0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:46.280
<v Speaker 2>percent of the population, but receive over fifty percent of

0:17:46.320 --> 0:17:50.840
<v Speaker 2>the religious hate crimes. And there are many things going

0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:54.400
<v Speaker 2>on in America today that remind me of what went

0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:57.520
<v Speaker 2>on in Nazi Germany in the thirties. You know, it

0:17:57.640 --> 0:18:01.840
<v Speaker 2>had book burning in Nazi Germany where they couldn't read

0:18:02.320 --> 0:18:06.200
<v Speaker 2>Albert Einstein or Helen Keller or other kinds of books.

0:18:07.080 --> 0:18:10.639
<v Speaker 2>This is America, the greatest country in the world, and

0:18:11.600 --> 0:18:13.879
<v Speaker 2>those kinds of things shouldn't be going on.

0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:16.480
<v Speaker 1>Let me ask you have a pin on you That pin,

0:18:16.600 --> 0:18:19.679
<v Speaker 1>I guess is a pin for your foundation. What does

0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:20.320
<v Speaker 1>it represent?

0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:24.760
<v Speaker 2>It's a blue square that we wanted to find something

0:18:25.440 --> 0:18:30.959
<v Speaker 2>that symbolized pushing back against hatred, and that is a

0:18:31.000 --> 0:18:35.080
<v Speaker 2>symbol of unity and solidarity against all kinds of hate.

0:18:35.720 --> 0:18:40.840
<v Speaker 2>And I'm technologically incompetent, but even I could get this

0:18:40.960 --> 0:18:46.800
<v Speaker 2>blue This little emoji is on everybody's cell phone an iPad,

0:18:47.359 --> 0:18:52.480
<v Speaker 2>and you can put it on every message. Every email

0:18:52.560 --> 0:18:55.200
<v Speaker 2>I sent has this little blue square.

0:18:55.240 --> 0:18:58.000
<v Speaker 1>So you made a very large contribution to this foundation

0:18:58.160 --> 0:19:01.880
<v Speaker 1>to help enhance its reputation and people knowing about it.

0:19:02.160 --> 0:19:04.280
<v Speaker 1>And I assume other people are contributing as well.

0:19:04.920 --> 0:19:13.480
<v Speaker 2>We've had amazing support our family and now has committed

0:19:15.960 --> 0:19:19.600
<v Speaker 2>over seventy five million dollars to a Bank of America

0:19:19.880 --> 0:19:28.000
<v Speaker 2>has committed ten million dollars. There are many families who

0:19:28.000 --> 0:19:32.200
<v Speaker 2>have made seven figure gifts. I shouldn't say their names

0:19:32.359 --> 0:19:37.840
<v Speaker 2>unless they give us permission. But we've touched a nerve.

0:19:38.800 --> 0:19:43.640
<v Speaker 2>There's something going on in this country where people want

0:19:43.680 --> 0:19:46.680
<v Speaker 2>to push back and are looking for a vehicle. And

0:19:47.640 --> 0:19:52.280
<v Speaker 2>I think this little blue square, it's hope it goes

0:19:52.440 --> 0:19:57.080
<v Speaker 2>viral and push us back against all hatred and bigotry

0:19:57.119 --> 0:20:01.520
<v Speaker 2>and let us preserve the American dream that I think

0:20:01.600 --> 0:20:04.720
<v Speaker 2>both you and I have experienced.

0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:07.800
<v Speaker 1>So let's talk about Israel for a moment. You were

0:20:07.840 --> 0:20:11.000
<v Speaker 1>awarded what is called the Jewish Nobel Prize. It's called

0:20:11.000 --> 0:20:15.480
<v Speaker 1>the Genesis Prize for contributions if you've made to Israel

0:20:15.600 --> 0:20:20.920
<v Speaker 1>and the Jewish people over many, many years. So did

0:20:20.920 --> 0:20:23.959
<v Speaker 1>you ever visit Israel as a young person? Was that

0:20:24.119 --> 0:20:27.119
<v Speaker 1>very important to you or were you just not that

0:20:27.200 --> 0:20:28.199
<v Speaker 1>connected to Israel?

0:20:28.800 --> 0:20:33.320
<v Speaker 2>When I got married, someone gave us a honeymoon gift

0:20:33.840 --> 0:20:38.200
<v Speaker 2>of a trip to the Holy Land. I went there

0:20:38.720 --> 0:20:44.640
<v Speaker 2>in nineteen sixty three when the country was fifteen years old.

0:20:45.320 --> 0:20:51.119
<v Speaker 2>And so I've watched the advancement, you know, it's what

0:20:51.720 --> 0:20:58.280
<v Speaker 2>that was sixty years ago. Wow, And the country is amazing.

0:20:58.600 --> 0:21:04.000
<v Speaker 2>And I think what Israel has done technology wise and

0:21:04.040 --> 0:21:07.880
<v Speaker 2>the contributions it's made have been tremendous.

0:21:08.320 --> 0:21:11.359
<v Speaker 1>So the secret to your success is prayer then obviously

0:21:11.400 --> 0:21:14.919
<v Speaker 1>you say you've been praying a lot.

0:21:12.760 --> 0:21:19.280
<v Speaker 2>Or prayer is very spirituality, prayer and giving thanks to

0:21:19.359 --> 0:21:25.320
<v Speaker 2>the Almighty God, and understanding how privileged we are and

0:21:26.359 --> 0:21:29.080
<v Speaker 2>if we have our health and can pay our bills.

0:21:29.560 --> 0:21:33.200
<v Speaker 1>Now, how many grandchildren do you have? I have eight grandchildren,

0:21:33.400 --> 0:21:34.679
<v Speaker 1>and do they come to the games.

0:21:34.720 --> 0:21:39.320
<v Speaker 2>And you know, that's the one thing and why I

0:21:39.359 --> 0:21:43.960
<v Speaker 2>would never sell this or do anything. As your family

0:21:44.160 --> 0:21:49.480
<v Speaker 2>gets dispersed and everyone goes different places, it's the one thing,

0:21:50.240 --> 0:21:54.119
<v Speaker 2>you know. I used to take my sons to the games.

0:21:54.760 --> 0:21:56.920
<v Speaker 2>I used to get them out of religious school on

0:21:57.040 --> 0:22:01.760
<v Speaker 2>Sundays without their mother's knowledge. And we come in and

0:22:01.840 --> 0:22:06.520
<v Speaker 2>we tailgate here and spend the day here and get

0:22:06.560 --> 0:22:09.600
<v Speaker 2>to know all our neighbors who sat in the seats

0:22:09.640 --> 0:22:12.600
<v Speaker 2>around us, and it's lasting memories.

0:22:13.720 --> 0:22:16.240
<v Speaker 1>Thanks for listening to hear more of my interviews. You

0:22:16.280 --> 0:22:20.399
<v Speaker 1>can subscribe and download my podcast on Spotify, Apple, or

0:22:20.400 --> 0:22:21.240
<v Speaker 1>wherever you listen.