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Speaker 1: Steve Falluka, the senior advisor at Bank Capital and co

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Speaker 1: chairman of Atalanta and Italian football club, who kicks off

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Speaker 1: their season later on this weekend against a Swallow on Sunday.

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Speaker 1: Steve wonder for to catch up with you. We just

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Speaker 1: wanted to start with Saudi's influence on the game. You're

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Speaker 1: in the transfer window, the transfer market, you're trying to

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Speaker 1: acquire talent. Just how distorted is this transfer market now, Steve?

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Speaker 1: In Europe, it's.

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Speaker 2: Been pretty extraordinary, John, Actually, we just had a meeting

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Speaker 2: with some of the Saudi folks. One of our one

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Speaker 2: of our players has been purchased by the Saudis this

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Speaker 2: morning and it's, uh, it's been it's been extraordinary kind

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Speaker 2: of injection of capital and increase the price of players dramatically.

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Speaker 1: Steve is upset the salary structure at clubs like your own.

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Speaker 1: Have you noticed that? Have you had players come to

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Speaker 1: you demanding larger sums of money?

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Speaker 2: You know, it has an upisode because we've been dealing

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Speaker 2: with the top five leagues pay pretty well and the

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Speaker 2: praierly pribably pays the best, and so we've been dealing

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Speaker 2: with that.

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Speaker 3: So the Saudis are no different, but I think the

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Speaker 3: Saudis maybe will.

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Speaker 2: Disrupt the Premier League because it looks like players are

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Speaker 2: getting paid three times at least three times what they

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Speaker 2: may either in the Premier League or either in Italy

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Speaker 2: maybe four times. So we'll see how long that's sustainable,

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Speaker 2: but for now it's certainly objected to a lot of

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Speaker 2: capital into football, and football truly is becoming a global

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Speaker 2: sport and that's why they're focusing on Steve.

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Speaker 1: How does it shape your investment prospects at a football

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Speaker 1: club like Atalanta when you take a stake and let's

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Speaker 1: say a mid size the Italian team hoping for much

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Speaker 1: bigger things, does it make things less sustainable in football

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Speaker 1: when you're competing against the price and sensitive player like

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Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia.

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Speaker 2: Well, the good news is each team has eleven players,

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Speaker 2: so there's plenty of great players out there. You just

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Speaker 2: have to be smart and you really have to have

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Speaker 2: a great development capability, and that's what we.

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Speaker 3: Have here at Atalapa.

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Speaker 2: Several so we've developed hundreds of players for our our

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Speaker 2: own team and other teams. So it's going to really

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Speaker 2: put the embasis on development and also being disciplined and

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Speaker 2: making smart purchases and not paying.

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Speaker 3: Inflating prices for mediocre players.

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Speaker 2: So I think it's no different than the Premier League

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Speaker 2: Premier League. The issue in the Premier League is you

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Speaker 2: have a couple of clubs directly controlled by sovereigns and

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Speaker 2: obviously they have lots and lots of capital, so it

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Speaker 2: makes it difficult for the sixteen clubs to compete there.

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Speaker 4: There's a question also about what the new economic model

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Speaker 4: is if you're investing in some of these clubs. We've

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Speaker 4: seen at least a couple of clubs seem to go

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Speaker 4: into second or third tier and then look to broaden

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Speaker 4: the commercial appeal the content on a broader level, not

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Speaker 4: just the games, but also Netflix series and other ways

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Speaker 4: of popularizing it. Is that a way to kind of

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Speaker 4: key in and give an economic upside to potential players

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Speaker 4: in a way that just paying them off doesn't cut.

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Speaker 2: You have to look at all mechanisms to help the

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Speaker 2: players and on the in European football, you need to

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Speaker 2: have the most attractive team, the most attractive situation, and

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Speaker 2: attractive sponsorships. And so that's what we're trying to do

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Speaker 2: here at Atlanta and obviously win.

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Speaker 3: We're in the Europa League.

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Speaker 2: We're trying to get to the Chevies League, and so

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Speaker 2: it's a big boom for us to be in the

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Speaker 2: Europa League and play the best clubs. So each team

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Speaker 2: has to have that kind of strategy and have to

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Speaker 2: be creative with the money that's out there.

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Speaker 3: This is all without risk.

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Speaker 2: You've seen many teams relegated that there's just as opposed

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Speaker 2: to the US. You have a relegation model where if

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Speaker 2: you don't spend thoughtfully and you don't perform.

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Speaker 3: You know, you get down to the next level and

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Speaker 3: then you're in real trouble financially. So there's high upside

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Speaker 3: of the high downside in this game.

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Speaker 4: Although that said, leil no Messi. Watching him down in Florida,

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Speaker 4: he looks like he's had a joy ride. You know.

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Speaker 4: John's pointed this out that basically he's just going through

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Speaker 4: the field, kicking goals in and left and right and

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Speaker 4: dominating and every which way. People are still signing up,

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Speaker 4: people are still watching.

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Speaker 1: Is all you need?

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Speaker 4: One good player, one good drama, one good something to

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Speaker 4: hook in viewers beyond just an incredible competition.

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Speaker 2: Well, you know, Messi is one of the best two

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Speaker 2: or three players in the entire world.

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Speaker 3: So it's great that Mammy has landed him.

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Speaker 2: And I think he turned down two hundred million a

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Speaker 2: year something on the owner of that to play in Saudi,

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Speaker 2: so that's incredible. So I think Apple has done a

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Speaker 2: great job and the leagu's did a great job bring

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Speaker 2: him in to continue to grow soccer in the US.

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Speaker 2: I hope it continues to grow because it's a world

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Speaker 2: game and it's going to benefit everybody.

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Speaker 1: New York Red Bulls in the next couple of weeks,

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Speaker 1: you send the price of those tickets.

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Speaker 4: I mean, he's the message.

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Speaker 1: Have you send the price if you want to sit

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Speaker 1: let's say halfway lined great tickets typically at a stadium

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Speaker 1: like that to watch a team like that, maybe you'd

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Speaker 1: pay like somewhere up to one hundred bucks, maybe one

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Speaker 1: thousand dollars, one thousand dollars to go and watch Messi

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Speaker 1: Rockstar in New York. Just ridiculous. Steve, Can we define

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Speaker 1: success for this season and not just for Atlanta? I

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Speaker 1: think there's a lot of people watching that want your

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Speaker 1: view on the Celtics as well. What does success look

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Speaker 1: like for your teams this year?

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Speaker 2: Well, we're contending for Itchampionship in Boston. It's about championships

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Speaker 2: and we try to construct the team so we can win.

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Speaker 2: I'm very optimistic this season. We have a great group

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Speaker 2: of players coming in. Perzingis is going to add a

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Speaker 2: lot upfront. That was a fantastic job Brent Stevens with

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Speaker 2: glospecting the team did getting him to come to Boston.

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Speaker 3: He had several opportunities and we were able to pull.

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Speaker 2: Off a trade. So we're very excited about this season.

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Speaker 2: Our fans are excited and I can't wait for it

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Speaker 2: to start.

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Speaker 4: From a financial perspective going forward, do you expect the

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Speaker 4: same amount of interest in buying sports teams across the

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Speaker 4: world if we do have a new interest rate structure,

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Speaker 4: if we do have suddenly a higher cost of money, definitely.

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Speaker 3: Higher cost of money is going to impact that.

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Speaker 2: And team values are already very high, so it is

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Speaker 2: hard for you know, teams to grow ten times or

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Speaker 2: twenty times off off the high basis they're at, and

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Speaker 2: the highgistrates are affecting everything. Now that being said, for

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Speaker 2: at least two thirds of my lifetime, you know, evils

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Speaker 2: have been at five percent. We've only had this anomalist

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Speaker 2: period since the crisis in two thousand and eight where

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Speaker 2: they went down to one percent and a half percent.

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Speaker 2: So there's no more free money and that will definitely

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Speaker 2: impact what people can do. But other factors like the

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Speaker 2: Saudi Oil and the huge expansion of sports in terms

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Speaker 2: of streaming and be able to get any sports team

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Speaker 2: at any time that you want with today's technology, really

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Speaker 2: globalized sports, and so I see the values continuing to

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Speaker 2: increase because you're having people tune in from China to

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Speaker 2: see Messi in Miami, and you couldn't do that twenty

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Speaker 2: or thirty years.

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Speaker 3: But I lived at Holland in the.

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Speaker 2: Late seventies and the best I could get was the

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Speaker 2: International Heart Tribune three days later would give me the

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Speaker 2: sports results from the US to World Series, or I'd

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Speaker 2: have to pay twenty dollars a minute to call someone

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Speaker 2: in the US to find out who won a game.

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Speaker 2: So that's a huge advance in my lifetime where now

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Speaker 2: you can get out your phone and be on the

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Speaker 2: subway in China and watch the Celtics play the Lakers.

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Speaker 1: That's incredible, unrealist. Atlanta, Atalanta, Milan, December tenth. Let's make

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Speaker 1: that happen your club against against my club. We're going

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Speaker 1: to go watch that together December tenth at Atalanta ac Milan.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's gonna be a big one for us, and

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Speaker 2: there's a lot of subplots to it as well, with

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Speaker 2: the trading and things we've done with them and their

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Speaker 2: arrival this forty five minutes away from here.

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Speaker 3: So that's always a huge game. So let's definitely do that.

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Speaker 3: I'll book it.

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Speaker 1: Down, we'll make that happen. Steve. Congratulations for all your success,

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Speaker 1: good luck at the weekend. We appreciate your time this morning,

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Speaker 1: Steve Palucu. There of Baine, of course, and at Atlanta,

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Speaker 1: Boston Celtics, take your pick, Bremo