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Speaker 1: This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports show, where we

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Speaker 1: explore the big money issues in the world of sports.

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Speaker 1: Michael Barn I'm Scarlett Phil, I'm Mike Quinn. Today we

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Speaker 1: are entering the metaverse. Major League Soccer is teaming up

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Speaker 1: with green Park Sports, mobile game and digital experience developer

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Speaker 1: to enhance the fan experience in green Parks new virtual world.

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Speaker 1: To break it all down, We're joined by Ken Martin,

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Speaker 1: green Park co founder and CEO, and Chris slawser M

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Speaker 1: l s Senior Vice president of Media. Guys, thank you

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Speaker 1: so much for joining us right here on the Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: Business of Sports. It's great to be here. Well, first,

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Speaker 1: I gotta enhance me. How does this experience enhance it

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Speaker 1: for the fan for soccer? You know, for for us,

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Speaker 1: I mean obviously super excited to have Chris here in MLS,

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Speaker 1: you know, launching uh in Green Park. You know, our

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Speaker 1: at a high level, our our vision really is how

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Speaker 1: to bring as many fans into an experience where they

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Speaker 1: can be amongst each other. Um, there's a new digital

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Speaker 1: world obviously that we live in, and um, you know

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Speaker 1: our goal is to really kind of close down that distance.

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Speaker 1: How can how can fans everywhere, be together, celebrate, compete

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Speaker 1: against each other, and you know, ultimately kind of get

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Speaker 1: credit for putting in the energy that they do as fans.

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Speaker 1: And so we're super excited to be building kind of

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Speaker 1: into an uncharted territory and to be partnered with MLS. Well, Chris,

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Speaker 1: let me ask you then, what was the thinking behind

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Speaker 1: teaming up with Green Park? Uh? And and indeed just

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Speaker 1: entering the metaverse for MLS, what what kind of plans

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Speaker 1: were you making before this opportunity came along? And how

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Speaker 1: does this move it forward for us at all? Starts

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Speaker 1: with our fans. With the youngest fans of American pro sports,

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Speaker 1: they are the most likely to engage in all things technical. Um,

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Speaker 1: you know, there are percent more likely to use Web

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Speaker 1: three or crypto than the average American. So they are

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Speaker 1: at the very leading edge and we want to meet

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Speaker 1: them where they want to be in this case, that's

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Speaker 1: in the metaverse. How old is the average fan of

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Speaker 1: the MLS in their mid thirties, which is significantly younger.

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Speaker 1: I mean, if you think about baseball, I think the

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Speaker 1: average baseball fan and like sixty four, um, And so

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Speaker 1: it's just a totally different fan base than than you

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Speaker 1: might imagine other leads having And so we looked around,

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Speaker 1: we looked at the various metaverse companies out there, and

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Speaker 1: we were super impressed by the Green Park founding team. UM,

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Speaker 1: Chad Nick and Ken are are incredible. They have great

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Speaker 1: track record, and they were really compelling vision of sports fandom.

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Speaker 1: And so he said, this is this is an awesome

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Speaker 1: spot for for us to partner and we're excited to

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Speaker 1: bring the MLS world to life on green Park later

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Speaker 1: this spring. So, Ken, this is Mike up in Boston.

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Speaker 1: Let me ask you, what kind of hard ware do

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Speaker 1: you need for this? Can you just do it on

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Speaker 1: your phone? You did you need a headset? Take me

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Speaker 1: through step by step? Yeah? Yeah, no, I mean, UM,

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Speaker 1: to to what Chris was mentioning, I mean, basically, you know,

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Speaker 1: we live very much in a mobile world, so mobile phone, UM,

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Speaker 1: you know we are. You know, we have been testing

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Speaker 1: on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store over

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Speaker 1: the last year and um, and you can download the

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Speaker 1: green Park app just by going to the app store. UM.

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Speaker 1: We're gonna be expanding into some other platforms um in

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Speaker 1: the future, but mobile is kind of our main primary

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Speaker 1: way you can interact with us. So Ken I want

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Speaker 1: to ask because my seventeen year old son has tuned

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Speaker 1: me into this and with all the games that we play,

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Speaker 1: he's he's taught me Fortnite. I'm not very good, but

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Speaker 1: he taught me about avatars and how you can unlock

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Speaker 1: achievements and you can purchase digital assets to make your

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Speaker 1: avatar really cool. You guys do a similar thing, right, yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: and but through the through the world of sports and fandom,

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Speaker 1: you know, the goal is to start you out in

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Speaker 1: Green Park as kind of an ordinary looking fan and

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Speaker 1: and make you wanna look like an extraordinary fan. Right,

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Speaker 1: So everything that you're unlocking for your favorite club or

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Speaker 1: team is is kind of almost like peacocking, right, you know,

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Speaker 1: kind of showing how much more of a fan you are.

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Speaker 1: And the cool part about it is that when you

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Speaker 1: look across other games, what what's really fun about it

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Speaker 1: is there are all these uh sort of there's investable depths,

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Speaker 1: like every day from going and feel like you're making progress,

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Speaker 1: getting credit, connecting with friends and so forth and um,

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Speaker 1: and really, in sports, it hasn't really been unlocked in

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Speaker 1: that kind of way, whereas a fan I could be

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Speaker 1: going in competing against other fans unlocking the new um

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Speaker 1: you know for me l A f C, Jersey uh

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Speaker 1: and and so uh. In that it really kind of

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Speaker 1: brings the fandom to to to this kind of new

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Speaker 1: social sports fan in their world as opposed to needing

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Speaker 1: to kind of pull them into conventional ones all the time.

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Speaker 1: So the new MLS season just got underway. I wonder, Chris,

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Speaker 1: how much will what's actually happening in the real world

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Speaker 1: I r L affect what's happening in the metaverse for

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Speaker 1: for MLS, will the two update each other um is

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Speaker 1: or do they exist in parallel? So let's way, we

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Speaker 1: we just got off our opening weekend. We had three

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Speaker 1: sixty fans around the country packed stadium's awesome atmosphere. It

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Speaker 1: was really fun to see the season take back off

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Speaker 1: and in many ways felt like we were in some

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Speaker 1: ways back in pre pandemic world. You know, one of

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Speaker 1: the things we actually learned as we went through the

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Speaker 1: last two years is that the pandemics spread the adoption

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Speaker 1: of all sorts of digital technologies. It moved us faster

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Speaker 1: towards all digital tickets, moved just faster towards global ordering

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Speaker 1: and stadiums or using your phone to understand how do

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Speaker 1: you get around one of our venues. Fans are are

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Speaker 1: very likely to use our app, you know, streaming or

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Speaker 1: download highlights of movies. And so we're now in this

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Speaker 1: next phase and it's really exciting. We think, you know,

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Speaker 1: companies like green Park and some of the other new

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Speaker 1: technology around blockchain can even accelerate that further and bring

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Speaker 1: the fans closer to the game and the sport that

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Speaker 1: they absolutely love. In this case, what what's interesting is

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Speaker 1: green Park has a number of different UM modes within

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Speaker 1: the game. You can just go in and play some

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Speaker 1: awesome casual games with within the their system. You know,

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Speaker 1: I think Dance Dance Revolution or Guitar Hero Light Games

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Speaker 1: is super casual fund games. Or you can actually play

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Speaker 1: things that are directly tied to action on the field

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Speaker 1: prediction games and other staffs based games UM and show

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Speaker 1: off how much how much you know about about the

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Speaker 1: league and so in the in their world, you have

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Speaker 1: multiple different opportunities, and I think we're going to continue

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Speaker 1: to see more and more digital opportunities where the physical

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Speaker 1: and the real world meet. You know, we're starting to

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Speaker 1: see n f t s for example, that unlock real

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Speaker 1: world experiences and that that's a fascinating opportunity for us

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Speaker 1: as we think about the league and you know, the

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Speaker 1: next couple of years of what's possible in around ms ken.

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Speaker 1: Let me ask you this is, do you have any

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Speaker 1: means to track which team has the most fan engagement

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Speaker 1: in MLS? Yeah? Yeah, I mean that's definitely one of

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Speaker 1: the benefits of showing because you know, one of the

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Speaker 1: cool parts about this is that you know, they're definitely

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Speaker 1: the uh, the kind of UH main teams, you know,

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Speaker 1: the bigger market teams and so forth. But it's cool

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Speaker 1: about this is that you know, the smaller markets, underdog teams, UM,

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Speaker 1: which could have very passionate fan bases. UM gives them

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Speaker 1: an opportunity because even if you know your team doesn't

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Speaker 1: necessarily win in the real world, the fans could could

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Speaker 1: you know, crush the other fans in the game. So

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Speaker 1: it kind of gives a little bit more agency to

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Speaker 1: the fans too, as Chris mentioned, kind of get get

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Speaker 1: credit for sort of no thy team, no thy players. UM.

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Speaker 1: We've got a pretty fun way of measuring fandom that

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Speaker 1: we're going to be rolling out later this year where

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Speaker 1: um and it's actually the some of the n f

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Speaker 1: T s that we dropped that where our own late

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Speaker 1: last year are around virtues, around hearts, around mind drive power. Um,

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Speaker 1: we think that there's more than one way to be

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Speaker 1: a fan. And you know, if you're really great at prediction,

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Speaker 1: that's sort of the mind. You know that you you

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Speaker 1: know a lot. But if you just have heart and

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Speaker 1: you're showing up and you haven't missed a game and

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Speaker 1: you're on a streak, we want to reward that as well.

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Speaker 1: I'd like to ask this to Ken, and I brought

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Speaker 1: up Fortnite earlier because I'm a big fan of family

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Speaker 1: game night where everybody gets together and we have fun

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Speaker 1: and this and that. Now, playing Fortnite, they always leave

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Speaker 1: me the old man. If anybody familiar with the game,

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Speaker 1: I'm out in the storm. They don't come and get me.

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Speaker 1: They just like they leave me out there. Yeah, that's it.

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Speaker 1: I'm done. And my my youngest he's off in the

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Speaker 1: in the vehicle and you know he's doing the fighting whatever.

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Speaker 1: But the point I'm trying to bring is young and

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Speaker 1: old come together for something like this, and it seems

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Speaker 1: that this could be a great family time for everybody

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Speaker 1: to get together. Yeah, that that is definitely the intent. Um,

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Speaker 1: you know, we looked the spirit of a game show,

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Speaker 1: right or a board game. We use board game a lot,

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Speaker 1: you know, because it's very inclusive, it's social. I mean,

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Speaker 1: certain board games you wouldn't just go off and play

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Speaker 1: by yourself until you were good at it and then

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Speaker 1: play with people. It's it's it's a different experience that

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Speaker 1: the company is the content in a way. And so, um,

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Speaker 1: we do we see this as a multi generational opportunity,

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Speaker 1: um to kind of bring back some of the glue. Um.

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Speaker 1: You know that that you know, some of the different

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Speaker 1: kind of more solo experiences has kind of created a

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Speaker 1: little bit of siloing. But um, you know a lot

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Speaker 1: of a lot of these experiences are meant to be

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Speaker 1: be you know social in respect speak me of bringing

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Speaker 1: together young and old and multi generational. Um, Chris, I

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Speaker 1: gotta ask you the MLB work stoppage, what does that

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Speaker 1: mean for Major League soccer? You've got a lot of

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Speaker 1: sixty four year old average baseball fans um sitting around

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Speaker 1: likely to be disappointed that there may not be a

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Speaker 1: regular start to the MLB season. How are you engaging them?

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Speaker 1: How are you using this opportunity to get them excited

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Speaker 1: about the sport that their kids might be watching. We

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Speaker 1: think the best way to get somebody excited about MLS

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Speaker 1: to get into one of our stations. In The atmosphere

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Speaker 1: that you see around our league is just incredible, you know,

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Speaker 1: fans singing and chanting for for ninety minutes, the flags leaving,

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Speaker 1: the smoke being lit. It really is an experience unlike

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Speaker 1: any other. And it's it's a very affordable UM day out.

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Speaker 1: So it's a great place to take your family. It's

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Speaker 1: it's really fun. Well, how much is the average ticket

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Speaker 1: versus an MLB ticket? Our average tickets in the low

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Speaker 1: twenties around the league, So it is a really affordable

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Speaker 1: opportunity to take family out. And we really see that

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Speaker 1: that that's great. You know, we see whole soccer teams

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Speaker 1: coming out to together to to cheer on their favorite team,

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Speaker 1: and um, you know we see parents taking their kids

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Speaker 1: and that's that's awesome. Um, So we're really excited as

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Speaker 1: we kick off the year. Um, it is awesome to

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Speaker 1: to have fans back in our stadium. Sports just isn't

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Speaker 1: the same without the fans, and I think that's something

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Speaker 1: we all know very much learned over the pandemic. I

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Speaker 1: hope never to have to do another you know, virtual

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Speaker 1: Zoom fan watch event where all the fans aren't in

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Speaker 1: the stadium but are watching on Zoom. It's it's just

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Speaker 1: not not the same thing. So we're we're thrilled to

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Speaker 1: have everyone back in the stadiums and you know, we're

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Speaker 1: we're kicking the season off really really well. Um started

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Speaker 1: last week. So how did this union come about between

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Speaker 1: MLS and Green Park Sports? So Chad is actually um

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Speaker 1: a part owner of l A F c UM and

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Speaker 1: so we uh, we got the friendly intro from from

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Speaker 1: him very early as as Green Arc was was building,

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Speaker 1: and Ken and the team, UM, we're we're awesome to

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Speaker 1: work with and you know, we put together the partnership

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Speaker 1: and you know, we're we're excited to launch it just

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Speaker 1: as soon as all the build and then the design

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Speaker 1: is finished. UM, I think you guys are gonna be

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Speaker 1: really excited. The design that the Canon team have put together,

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Speaker 1: it is just incredible. The characters they built, the world.

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Speaker 1: It really looks like something out of the whole New

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Speaker 1: New Place and so um, we're really excited. We think

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Speaker 1: they're they're building their super premium awesome experience and at

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Speaker 1: least fun for the fans to get involved later the spring.

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Speaker 1: One nice thing about youth and soccer, it's a marriage

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Speaker 1: made in heaven because a lot of people in high school,

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Speaker 1: even in elementary school, middle school, they all play soccer.

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Speaker 1: They get the game. Are you encouraged by seeing that

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Speaker 1: kind of play carry over into soccer? Uh? And should

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Speaker 1: other sports do the same thing? You know, participation is

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Speaker 1: absolutely critical it it helps kids get an understanding of

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Speaker 1: the game. Soccer is such an easy game to pick up,

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Speaker 1: you know, you just need a ball and a little

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Speaker 1: bit of space. My my fifteen year month olds are

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Speaker 1: dribbling little balls around the house, so it's very easy

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Speaker 1: to pick up. But you know, interestingly, one of the

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Speaker 1: best creators the fans that we have is gaming. Um.

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Speaker 1: All of our research shows that, you know, people who

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Speaker 1: play a soccer video game in one form or another

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Speaker 1: are more likely to actually become fans of the of

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Speaker 1: the real thing. And for years and years, UM, all

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Speaker 1: of our research when we asked, you know, how did

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Speaker 1: you get exposed mols it to be a video games

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Speaker 1: and so we think that that's a really cool and

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Speaker 1: authentic way to create new fans. UM. And this is

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Speaker 1: just another example of that. Well, I tell you what, gentleman,

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Speaker 1: you guys have one great product. I gotta check this out.

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Speaker 1: I know all my boys are just going to beat

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Speaker 1: the living snot out of me. I know this is

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Speaker 1: gonna happen, but they laugh when they beat me any

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Speaker 1: William Monopoly, so this will be another thing that they

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Speaker 1: can enjoy. Ken Martin, the Green Park co founder and CEO,

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Speaker 1: and Chris Slasher MLS Senior Vice president of Media, thank

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Speaker 1: you so much for joining us here. Guys, thanks for

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Speaker 1: having us. This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm Michael Barr, along with Scarlett Fu and Mike Lynch.

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Speaker 1: Catch us here each and every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday,

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Speaker 1: exploring the world of money in sports. Catch me on

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Speaker 1: Twitter at Big Bar Sports, I'm on Twitter at Scarlett Fu,

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Speaker 1: and I'm on Twitter at Lynch e w CVB Scarlett's Bread.

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

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Speaker 1: around the world.