Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News. Welcome to The Deal.
Speaker 2: I'm your host, Jason Kelly here with my partner Alex Rodriguez. Alex,
Speaker 2: we're going to get to our interview with Midge Purse.
Speaker 2: She's a rock star. I'm so excited for this conversation
Speaker 2: in just a few minutes. One of the reasons I
Speaker 2: wanted to talk to her is she's going to be
Speaker 2: on hand for the Power Players event that's happening maybe
Speaker 2: the day that you're listening to this everybody, it's going
Speaker 2: to be happening September fifth at Bloomberg Headquarters. We're super
Speaker 2: excited you're going to be there. I'm going to be there.
Speaker 2: This is your vibe, man like it is all of
Speaker 2: our people in New York. On the occasion of the
Speaker 2: US Open happening in New York. We're going to have
Speaker 2: a lot of conversations. That day, you and I are
Speaker 2: going to tape an episode of this show The Deal
Speaker 2: with a special guest, so stay tuned for that.
Speaker 1: But I'm so sited you're coming to New York for this.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm so excited, Jason. It's always good to go
Speaker 3: to New York and when you start seeing feeling the
Speaker 3: US Open.
Speaker 4: It meant two things.
Speaker 3: Better weather as a player, yeah, and October baseball is
Speaker 3: right around the corner. So as a Yankee, it's very exciting.
Speaker 3: US Open. Fashion Week is around the corner and right
Speaker 3: for me. But like Power Players is like a dream, right,
Speaker 3: because is what the deal is all about, is how
Speaker 3: we started the show, Jason, where it is the intersection
Speaker 3: between sports, media, entertainment, and culture. And I'm always intrigued
Speaker 3: to see different angles owners talking, players talking, and I
Speaker 3: always feel a little bit richer and smarter when I
Speaker 3: leave those conferences.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, and I'm psyched you're going to be there
Speaker 2: and obviously not just be there, but be participating. I
Speaker 2: know we're going to have a lot of side conversations where,
Speaker 2: let's be honest, we're going to be recruiting for this show,
Speaker 2: a lot of people that we wanted who are going
Speaker 2: to be in that room, who someday will end up
Speaker 2: on this show, some who already have been. I'm glad
Speaker 2: you mentioned the culture piece because it is this funny
Speaker 2: moment in New York and I think you'll agree with
Speaker 2: this too. This is the week that New York gets
Speaker 2: back to business, right, and it reminds everybody. It's like, Okay,
Speaker 2: this is the fourth major tennis tournament. It's the one
Speaker 2: everybody has circled on their calendar.
Speaker 1: Is the most New York event that there is.
Speaker 2: We are talking to Billy Jean King for an upcoming
Speaker 2: episode of this show about how incredible the US Open
Speaker 2: is in terms of like not just tennis, but the
Speaker 2: New York of it all. But also, as you said,
Speaker 2: fashion Week is happening, and everybody's like, come back from
Speaker 2: the Hamptons or from Nantucket or from Martha's vineyard, and
Speaker 2: they're sort of getting back to business. So it's a
Speaker 2: nice moment to bring everybody together. Speaking of business, can
Speaker 2: we talk a little bit about private equity recently approved
Speaker 2: to come into the NFL. Yes, we knew it was coming,
Speaker 2: but how important is this in your mind?
Speaker 3: First of all, it had to happen, and anybody who
Speaker 3: thought things opposite, they're just fighting logic and data. The
Speaker 3: facts of the matter are is that these franchise values,
Speaker 3: especially in the NFL, have balloon and rocket so quickly
Speaker 3: to these enormous enterprise values. Last I read, the Cowboys
Speaker 3: are almost any eleven billion dollar enterprise. Imagine having about
Speaker 3: ten percent of that team, you would have to write
Speaker 3: a check for a billion a billion one and there's
Speaker 3: just not enough you know, people out there with these
Speaker 3: type of balance sheets. So I think it's great they
Speaker 3: picked really really respected private equity groups and NFL got
Speaker 3: their cakes and eyed it too, as they deserve it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So, Alex, here the basics when it comes to
Speaker 2: private equity provisionally approving eight funds. But what's interesting is
Speaker 2: it's actually four groups, so there's a lot of math
Speaker 2: involved here. But I think notably these are names that
Speaker 2: we really know, Arctose, six Street Aries, those are all individuals.
Speaker 2: And then there's a consortium that's comprising Dynasty Equity that's
Speaker 2: Don Cornwell and Jonathan Nelson's firm Blackstone, and Carlisle obviously
Speaker 2: very well known to us CVC Capital Partners. They've done
Speaker 2: as much in sports anyone, and Loutis, which is actually
Speaker 2: a platform founded by Hall of Fame running back Curtis Martin.
Speaker 2: What I find so fascinating about this is there was
Speaker 2: clearly a ton of interest here and the NFL is
Speaker 2: definitely navigating how to bring different types of money into
Speaker 2: the table.
Speaker 3: Plus, yeah, Jason, your favorite team is the Falcons Atlanta
Speaker 3: minus the Dolphins. You and I can maybe write a
Speaker 3: check for two hundred and fifty thousand or five hundred,
Speaker 3: depending on the limit, probably higher, but for all purposes,
Speaker 3: you and I can own a little sliver of our
Speaker 3: favorite teams. Which that retail market is really really broad
Speaker 3: and wide, which means enterprise values for the NFL will
Speaker 3: continue to rise.
Speaker 4: There's another good reason for that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's funny.
Speaker 2: I know you've been This is a shameless plug and
Speaker 2: I'm going to use you like effortlessly here. You've been
Speaker 2: reading a book that I wrote ten years ago now,
Speaker 2: which I's sort of cheekily subtitled it's about private equity,
Speaker 2: is called the new Tycoons inside the three trillion dollar
Speaker 2: which is way lower than it is now. Private equity
Speaker 2: industry that owns everything, but they really do like own
Speaker 2: so much at this point. And to see them move
Speaker 2: into sports in a very meaningful way says a couple
Speaker 2: things to me. You know, One is they're hungry for deals.
Speaker 2: The second is there's real value still on the upside,
Speaker 2: which I think you certainly appreciate as a sports team owner,
Speaker 2: because if institutions looked at this and said, Yeah, I'm
Speaker 2: just not sure that there's real money to be made here.
Speaker 2: They wouldn't be scrambling the way that they are to
Speaker 2: get into these teams, and the franchise values are going
Speaker 2: to continue to go up.
Speaker 4: I absolutely love it.
Speaker 3: And look the NFL, as they say, the power of
Speaker 3: the shield, they have the luxury not only to go
Speaker 3: last right from all the major other sports institutions, but
Speaker 3: they get to set their exact terms that they want.
Speaker 3: These are the eight funds that are going to be approved.
Speaker 3: These are our terms. If you flinch, you're out. We'll
Speaker 3: go to seven over replace you really quickly. Oh and
Speaker 3: by the way, the reason and why I also love
Speaker 3: this besides institution and opening up the retail market for
Speaker 3: investors like you and I, but it's also not correlated
Speaker 3: to the market, so it's a great investment. What I
Speaker 3: mean by that is in two thousand and eight, when
Speaker 3: the world was falling apart, NFL teams were just doing
Speaker 3: just fine. Those TV money just kept coming in and
Speaker 3: in COVID nothing happened, not even a flinch. NFL teams
Speaker 3: continue to plow through. This is why investors like it
Speaker 3: and family offices more and more. One to get into
Speaker 3: sports because if Amazon's down or Netflix down, or SMP
Speaker 3: five hundred is down, Nasdac's down, your NFL team usually
Speaker 3: is going up and up and up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it is. You're right. It's the power
Speaker 1: of the shield.
Speaker 2: And what's interesting, you know, sort of dovetailing with the
Speaker 2: conversation that you're about to hear with Midge perse everyone,
Speaker 2: is that the NWSL, as you know Alex was the
Speaker 2: first US league to allow institutional owners as majority owners
Speaker 2: in a league, and so Alan Waxman and his colleagues
Speaker 2: at Sixth Street, they are the control owners of BAFC.
Speaker 2: They're partners with our friend Brandy Chastain and several other
Speaker 2: former players and other notables like Cheryl Sandberg, but they
Speaker 2: are the control owner. We're a long way from that,
Speaker 2: I think with the NFL. The NFL doesn't need institutional
Speaker 2: money to be control owners. But you sort of play
Speaker 2: it through the whole idea of institutional ownership in sports
Speaker 2: redefines this as an asset class. And it's a theme
Speaker 2: that we know we're going to hear a lot about
Speaker 2: at Power Players, and it's something that we talked to
Speaker 2: Midge person about. So without further Ado. Here's our interview
Speaker 2: with soccer star Midge purst So joining US now. Midge
Speaker 2: Perse She's a forward for the US women's national team.
Speaker 2: She's on Gotham FC, she's a producer, a rock star.
Speaker 2: I got a chance to meet her in La over
Speaker 2: the summer, Alex and basically walked out of that conversation
Speaker 2: was like, all right, we got to get her on
Speaker 2: the show.
Speaker 1: So here she is. Midge, really psyched you're here, Welcome.
Speaker 5: Thank you for having me. What a great introduction.
Speaker 2: All right, so tell us about you, Like I want
Speaker 2: to talk about this new show that you have, which
Speaker 2: you know there's so many superlatives around you, but like,
Speaker 2: give us the thirty seconds on Midge, Like, how do
Speaker 2: you describe yourself?
Speaker 1: How do you introduce yourself?
Speaker 6: I always lead with what I do, So I say
Speaker 6: I'm a footballer. I play soccer, and that's usually typically
Speaker 6: my intro. But if I had to keep going and
Speaker 6: you forced more worth.
Speaker 2: Out of me, yeah, keep going, I keep going.
Speaker 6: If I'm like describing myself, I would just say that
Speaker 6: I'm pretty driven and just goal oriented and also very
Speaker 6: very fun loving would just be the word that happens.
Speaker 5: I think, I like to think I'm.
Speaker 2: A good time when you say footballer, Like, take us back,
Speaker 2: did you start identifying as that when you were super young?
Speaker 2: Like I mean, did you always know that you're a
Speaker 2: gamer and you're gonna ball?
Speaker 5: It's so funny.
Speaker 6: I think when I was young, if you were one
Speaker 6: of the girls who played sports, that's who you were,
Speaker 6: and that's how you've known, and that's how you were
Speaker 6: identified even by teachers and other parents.
Speaker 5: And like all adults, not just your peers. So from
Speaker 5: a very young age, I was a soccer player.
Speaker 6: I think my email was like soccer sixteen major, like
Speaker 6: it was.
Speaker 5: Like everything that I was.
Speaker 6: And as I got older, I think I started to realize, Hey,
Speaker 6: you don't have to be everything central to soccer, and
Speaker 6: you can still put in the same amount of time
Speaker 6: and have the same amount of like drive and like
Speaker 6: live and breathe it without it being your entire identity.
Speaker 6: But I definitely grew up like wearing my soccer zip
Speaker 6: up to school every day.
Speaker 3: So Midge, I love the word when you say fun
Speaker 3: I'm going to kind of just lean into that because
Speaker 3: I'm fascinated by incredibly talented people like yourself that are,
Speaker 3: you know, type a as I can imagine, but also
Speaker 3: like to have fun. So when you say you like
Speaker 3: to have fun, does that mean you like to have
Speaker 3: it adventures, you're spontaneous, you like to mix it up
Speaker 3: with your girlfriends, and I go to the beach. Talk
Speaker 3: to me about because I wish I had more fun
Speaker 3: in my career.
Speaker 5: No, none of the above.
Speaker 6: Actually, when I say fun, I think that I'm really
Speaker 6: good at finding the joy and really like monotonous, rudimentary
Speaker 6: things like everyday life. I think that at training, kind
Speaker 6: of one thing my coaches know me for is just
Speaker 6: like bringing this fun energy that kind of just like
Speaker 6: livens up a training. And that's just kind of like
Speaker 6: how I am, for better or for worse. I have
Speaker 6: a very infectious temperament, and people tend like sometimes adopt,
Speaker 6: Like if I'm irritated or annoyed, like it spreads pretty quickly,
Speaker 6: and vice versa. When I'm like really excited and happy,
Speaker 6: like sometimes that spreads as well, and so I try
Speaker 6: to be the latter in the former.
Speaker 2: Walk us through sort of the early stage of your career.
Speaker 2: You go to Harvard, you make the choice to go
Speaker 2: to school, You're playing all along the way. Tell us
Speaker 2: about those sort of choices in terms of developing, not
Speaker 2: just as a player, but also it feels like early
Speaker 2: on you've got visions and ambitions in the world beyond sport.
Speaker 1: Is that fair?
Speaker 6: Yes, probably for reasons that you wouldn't assume, mostly because
Speaker 6: I had to because back when I was playing soccer,
Speaker 6: I wanted to be on the national team the moment
Speaker 6: I learned about the national team.
Speaker 5: But in terms of being.
Speaker 6: A professional soccer player, that system, that infrastructure didn't exist,
Speaker 6: and what did exist for it was really really poor.
Speaker 6: It was a bad It was a poorly set up
Speaker 6: league where you made no money. So I mean, I
Speaker 6: remember telling my dad that I was going to go
Speaker 6: pro and he was like, no, maybe that's the one advice.
Speaker 6: He's an advice that he gave me that that wasn't good.
Speaker 6: Like I wasn't going to go into the league. I
Speaker 6: went and I entered the draft without telling my dad actually,
Speaker 6: and then got drafted.
Speaker 5: So yeah, that's how that happened.
Speaker 2: I want to come back to that for a second
Speaker 2: because I want to get to this show that you
Speaker 2: created called The off Season. It's the first of it's
Speaker 2: kind because it's a women's soccer reality series centered on
Speaker 2: the lies of NWSL players during the key off season
Speaker 2: training period. And this was a big moment. It's a
Speaker 2: big moment for this show to come out. You came
Speaker 2: up with this, you found a partner, you went and
Speaker 2: you did it. Tell us the story of how the
Speaker 2: show came about.
Speaker 5: It came about from a very real need.
Speaker 6: We spent some time with the MLB players down in Florida,
Speaker 6: in like near Jupiter Palm Beach where they train at Kressey.
Speaker 5: So I mean from the experience.
Speaker 6: As well, it's this thing in the US where both
Speaker 6: on the men's and women's side, there isn't really a
Speaker 6: high level training environment with everything that you need, all
Speaker 6: the amenities the training, like everything that you need in
Speaker 6: one place.
Speaker 1: For soccer you're talking about.
Speaker 6: Honestly, it's kind of the same for most sports. I mean,
Speaker 6: you can always go to your facilities and you can
Speaker 6: stay there, and there are just options scattered around. I
Speaker 6: know NHL goes somewhere in Canada and then Cressy was fine,
Speaker 6: but I wouldn't say they had everything that one would
Speaker 6: need to really like take care of your body, Like
Speaker 6: it's just here and there. You have to set it
Speaker 6: up yourself and I would say that those circumstances are
Speaker 6: exacerbated when it comes to women's soccer. So in the
Speaker 6: off season, like that's one of the most important times
Speaker 6: for an athlete, Like your training is so important. There's
Speaker 6: so much opportunity to level up. You're trying to prepare
Speaker 6: for the next season. Whether or not you had a
Speaker 6: bad season or a good season, you always want to
Speaker 6: do better. And I just felt it was a really
Speaker 6: really integral part of the professional athlete experience. And finding
Speaker 6: someone an investor who can help make that possible and
Speaker 6: like find those facilities and set that up was part
Speaker 6: of what happened.
Speaker 5: And then so what happened was I called on.
Speaker 6: My friends and I was like, Hey, will you come
Speaker 6: down here and train because I have this idea.
Speaker 5: I think it'll be really cool.
Speaker 6: And when I was down there, I was watching my
Speaker 6: friends watching all these players who I think are absolutely phenomenal,
Speaker 6: but people don't know them because they don't plan the
Speaker 6: national team. And for whatever reason, the way the structure
Speaker 6: is set up in media and in eyes in the US,
Speaker 6: you only care about the US women's national team, but
Speaker 6: you have all these legit stars in the league who
Speaker 6: don't get the same type of attention or investment, and
Speaker 6: I was like, it's only because people don't know them,
Speaker 6: and it's a lack of investment in these storylines and
Speaker 6: these narratives.
Speaker 5: And that's where the idea came from.
Speaker 6: The off season is just like one arm of a
Speaker 6: larger strategy and reforming the way in which women are
Speaker 6: marketed in sport.
Speaker 1: The show. You made the show the offseason?
Speaker 6: No, I don't, actually, so that's exactly what I mean.
Speaker 6: Everyone's like the show, the show, the show, how amazing,
Speaker 6: And that's kind of just like one of the most prominent,
Speaker 6: like the biggest way that we're doing it now, But
Speaker 6: we're working on so many other kind.
Speaker 5: Of like sports media house ish.
Speaker 6: Endeavors in the sense where it's like you have women's
Speaker 6: basketball March Madness next year, we have the Men's World
Speaker 6: Cup coming to the US. If that's not a moment
Speaker 6: for women's soccer to grow for obvious reasons, like I
Speaker 6: don't know what is so in terms of just like
Speaker 6: creating a lot more media and marketing around it and
Speaker 6: kind of also advising, we kind of been functioning in
Speaker 6: many ways as also an ad agency in a sense
Speaker 6: where we've been doing creative for a lot of companies
Speaker 6: who are trying to do really really authentic partnerships with athletes.
Speaker 5: And it's really easy.
Speaker 6: For us because we know all these players so well
Speaker 6: and we know their story so well that instead of
Speaker 6: taking just a single, instead of being like, oh, I
Speaker 6: want you to hold this product up and say it's great,
Speaker 6: blah blah blah, we can tell you she actually used
Speaker 6: this product five years ago.
Speaker 5: This is how she used it.
Speaker 6: This is a really authentic way that will be really
Speaker 6: fun for people to see. It sits well with fans,
Speaker 6: it sits well with the audience, and it makes you,
Speaker 6: guys look good. We're going to write this creative for you.
Speaker 6: So it's a much larger strategy. But the off season
Speaker 6: has been like they for now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Jase, I want to just follow up on this
Speaker 3: because I'm really excited to see it, and I really am,
Speaker 3: and I know that it comes out sometime in the fall.
Speaker 4: My question to you is if this works.
Speaker 3: It seems here like you have a potential franchise that
Speaker 3: you can run through many sports. I know baseball is
Speaker 3: one that needs more eyeballs that is starving to talk
Speaker 3: about their great young players.
Speaker 4: This might be a perfect tool for them.
Speaker 6: Any thoughts there, Absolutely, we're already in the talks with
Speaker 6: some leagues on formatting it. Right now, I think it works.
Speaker 6: Everyone who has seen it, the crew who worked this,
Speaker 6: they're huge soccer fans. Now, they like text me they go,
Speaker 6: I can't believe she got traded. Or they see a
Speaker 6: tackle and they're like, we know exactly why that tackle
Speaker 6: happens because we saw what happened in the house between
Speaker 6: these two players.
Speaker 1: You see oh, no way, yeah, you see it.
Speaker 6: Like It's kind of crazy to me that this model
Speaker 6: hasn't been explored in sports because you go into unscripted
Speaker 6: television and who's the most popular demographic as talent on
Speaker 6: that women Like people will watch Real Housewives, which are
Speaker 6: women who don't truly do anything, but you're.
Speaker 5: Like obsessed and you like love not to say all
Speaker 5: of them.
Speaker 6: I am an avid Real Housewives like fan, but they're
Speaker 6: not doing something that I kind of like sports, where
Speaker 6: you really have like these stakes, these lows and these highs,
Speaker 6: and like the trauma but then the triumph and you
Speaker 6: put that in and you then see the interperson relationships
Speaker 6: and the personalities, and then you can take all of
Speaker 6: that and put that context onto the game when the
Speaker 6: season actually happened.
Speaker 5: Like, the model just really really makes sense for sports.
Speaker 3: It's a model, ironically that's already proven right outside of sports.
Speaker 3: Whether you want to call the Kardashians you mentioned housewives,
Speaker 3: there's plenty of real estate shows. F one obviously has
Speaker 3: exploded because the Netflix piece. I mean, I think selfishly,
Speaker 3: because my first love was baseball and is baseball. I
Speaker 3: think this has Baseball's name in all over it. You see,
Speaker 3: Netflix has the starting five with the five NBA guys,
Speaker 3: the Braun, Anthony Edwards and a few others. I'm wondering,
Speaker 3: like baseball should be next. So I think this is
Speaker 3: going to be the latest example of why this works.
Speaker 4: And this all in your hands. What do you think
Speaker 4: about that?
Speaker 5: I completely agree. I love your support.
Speaker 6: Listen, if you want to help executive produce the baseball version,
Speaker 6: you let me know it.
Speaker 1: Right, Deal's happening on the Deal. This is my favorite thing.
Speaker 1: Deal's happening on the Deal.
Speaker 4: I love it. I love it. I love it.
Speaker 2: So, Mitch, I do want to dig into this show
Speaker 2: concept though, because you'll oftentimes when something hasn't happened before,
Speaker 2: people have their reasons or people have their misconceptions or whatever.
Speaker 2: So tell us about because you link up with a
Speaker 2: Lexus Ohanian at some point for this show, right, Like,
Speaker 2: how does that happen? How does this become pun intended
Speaker 2: a reality?
Speaker 6: Gosh, it was honestly one of the most difficult things
Speaker 6: I've ever done and really had I yes, it was.
Speaker 6: And you think you have a good idea. I'm sure
Speaker 6: this has happened to both of you. You think you
Speaker 6: have a really good idea, and like, how could anyone
Speaker 6: not see this?
Speaker 5: And I'll tell you.
Speaker 6: Alexis and I had so many meetings with networks because
Speaker 6: we were going to sell the show before we produced it.
Speaker 6: And I would have these meetings and I would explain
Speaker 6: to them the premise of the show.
Speaker 5: I'd say, this is what it's about.
Speaker 6: And the feedback I would get back was so disheartening,
Speaker 6: and not in the sense that they didn't believe in
Speaker 6: the show. They really loved the idea of it, but
Speaker 6: they loved their version of the idea. One executive said
Speaker 6: to me, we love the idea of this show, but
Speaker 6: there needs to be a reason for the women to
Speaker 6: be in the house together.
Speaker 5: And I said, what do you mean.
Speaker 6: They're training for the season, like they're professional athletes, and
Speaker 6: they go yeah, yeah, yeah, no, but they need like
Speaker 6: an actual reason and they're like, well, what about friendship.
Speaker 6: What if at the end they realized that it's more
Speaker 6: important to be friends than it is like sport.
Speaker 5: And I was like, you.
Speaker 6: Don't get it, like you don't see it, and it's
Speaker 6: just there is this pre conceived notion of how women
Speaker 6: need to be marketed all the time, that we do
Speaker 6: need some friendship emotional storyline and we can't just be
Speaker 6: high level athletes.
Speaker 5: There has to be.
Speaker 6: An ulterior motive. It's not enough just to lean on
Speaker 6: the sports narrative. And that was a really really difficult
Speaker 6: pill for me to swallow. That basically in twenty twenty four,
Speaker 6: there was still this misunderstanding, this gap in US athletes
Speaker 6: and how we see ourselves and then how big media
Speaker 6: still sees us. And that's ultimately why we decided to
Speaker 6: self produce. We had a lot of people offer and
Speaker 6: I said, I can already see now that they will
Speaker 6: change what the show is meant to be and make
Speaker 6: it something else.
Speaker 3: You mentioned Alexis Ohanian, who is also married to Serena Williams.
Speaker 3: How do you then navigate through that repackage, repurpose. But
Speaker 3: you both are very specially you resolute about this idea
Speaker 3: because it's so I've seen so many young entrepreneurs just
Speaker 3: bend and bend to the big institutions. It seems like
Speaker 3: you held your own. But walk Jason and I through
Speaker 3: some of those conversations of how you guys had to
Speaker 3: stay with your conviction.
Speaker 6: I think I have to give I do have to
Speaker 6: give him some credit there, I'll give him credit, not
Speaker 6: some credit.
Speaker 1: Alexis is not.
Speaker 2: Something he's like, seriously, bro, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5: He's fine. He's gets enough credit.
Speaker 6: There was a time or like a moment where I
Speaker 6: was like, man, like, I have to be honest with
Speaker 6: you if I can't produce it the way that I
Speaker 6: see these women, because truth, these are my friends as well.
Speaker 6: I'm not going to put them in a situation to
Speaker 6: be misrepresented. I'm not going to put them in something
Speaker 6: that turns out to just be manifest actual drama and
Speaker 6: they look crazy for the sake of looking crazy and
Speaker 6: sake television. I was like, I'm not going to do it,
Speaker 6: and he was the one who was like no, no, no, no,
Speaker 6: Like I have experience in seeing things that industry doesn't see,
Speaker 6: and this is one of those things. So I give
Speaker 6: him credit for that in terms of like ensuring that
Speaker 6: the follow through happened in the way that I saw it.
Speaker 2: Mitch put this in the context of this sport of
Speaker 2: women's football right now, because you know, Alex and I
Speaker 2: have looked at this from all different angles. You and
Speaker 2: I had a very lengthy conversation in Los Angeles about
Speaker 2: sort of the ebbs and flows of professional soccer in
Speaker 2: this country. We've recently seen, you know, the highest ever
Speaker 2: valuation paid for a women's sporting franchise, two hundred and
Speaker 2: fifty million dollars for Angel City by will O Bay
Speaker 2: and Bob Iger. Help us understand this moment in the
Speaker 2: context of what you're seeing as a player, and also
Speaker 2: as a player who has been far more active than
Speaker 2: most in helping shake this league.
Speaker 6: The moment for me is, and I think even in
Speaker 6: the greater landscape of just a boom and interest in
Speaker 6: women's sports in general, is that for the longest time,
Speaker 6: the way in which women have been marketed in sport
Speaker 6: has been completely derivative of the way men have been marketed,
Speaker 6: and we have leaned into performance and statistics and been
Speaker 6: like look at this, look at that, like it's just
Speaker 6: this and that type of comparison.
Speaker 5: And I use this example all the time.
Speaker 6: I talk about how my dad he can watch baseball game,
Speaker 6: he can watch a Rod and he can listen to
Speaker 6: that game not even see it.
Speaker 5: He'll listen to.
Speaker 6: It and it will be like a Rod got on
Speaker 6: base and he's like, yes, He's like this is amazing.
Speaker 5: But women, women need more of a storyline like who
Speaker 5: is a Rod? Like why do I care about him?
Speaker 5: Like like what is going on in his life?
Speaker 1: Like what is he Like how you have because there's
Speaker 1: a lot.
Speaker 6: Exactly but that and that's how you get that audience though,
Speaker 6: That's how you get women in sport. That's like, I mean,
Speaker 6: you see the same thing with Tayler Swift and the
Speaker 6: Travis Kelcey. It's like the theater kid and the sport
Speaker 6: Like there's a narrative to stirline apart from her being
Speaker 6: like this huge pop star, and women I feel like
Speaker 6: in sport have been missing that storytelling and that narrative
Speaker 6: behind the fact the fact that these are incredible athletes,
Speaker 6: that they are highly talented and highly capable.
Speaker 5: I just feel like the marketing hasn't been right.
Speaker 6: And so this, this whole concept is a way to
Speaker 6: kind of revolutionize or reform the way in which women
Speaker 6: have been marketed in sport.
Speaker 2: Talk to us more about what the NWSL needs to
Speaker 2: do next. There's a new collective Marketing and Agreement which
Speaker 2: is pretty radical in its you know, elimination.
Speaker 1: Of the draft.
Speaker 2: You know, this is a league that feels like it's
Speaker 2: willing to take some chances to ensure sustainability. That's what
Speaker 2: it feels like from the outside, at least. What does
Speaker 2: it feel like on the inside. Does it feel like, Okay,
Speaker 2: we're on the right track. Does it feel still a
Speaker 2: little wobbly, Like you are a leading player in this league,
Speaker 2: you're a leading voice in this league. Talk to us
Speaker 2: about what you're seeing.
Speaker 6: I don't think anything about the league feels wobbly. I
Speaker 6: think it feels very solid. I think it's going to
Speaker 6: progress and only grow from here. I have to give
Speaker 6: so much credit to the NBRACELPA and our president Tory
Speaker 6: Huster and Megan Burke who did an absolutely groundbreaking historical
Speaker 6: job on that CBA, because in my opinion, that is.
Speaker 5: The proof that this league is going to be stable.
Speaker 5: Like the changes that they've.
Speaker 6: Made in that CBA are absolutely like it takes us
Speaker 6: out of this Also, I talk about being derivative and
Speaker 6: media and marketing, but we've been derivative in infrastructure as well.
Speaker 6: And the sport is very different than other sports. It's
Speaker 6: very different from Europe, it's very different from the MLS
Speaker 6: and we can't just coffee and paste everything in order
Speaker 6: for it to succeed.
Speaker 5: So yeah, I think that it's only going to grow.
Speaker 1: And what about for you you're injured it at the moment.
Speaker 2: Something Alex can relate to is two professional athletes. That's
Speaker 2: the thing that I am not, never have been, and
Speaker 2: probably I'm going to go on a limp probably never
Speaker 2: will be. I think that dream is past. But like
Speaker 2: what if you've been up to like, how do you
Speaker 2: deal with that? What do you do to sort of
Speaker 2: make sure you're in it in the way you want
Speaker 2: to be?
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 5: I mean I take it day by day.
Speaker 6: I've definitely had some really really tough moments for sure.
Speaker 6: I mean, it's an Olympic year. I was not at
Speaker 6: the Olympics. That was that was difficult. But at the
Speaker 6: same time, like I am extremely blessed, like not even
Speaker 6: just with my sports life and my professional pursuits, but
Speaker 6: with my family and the people who surround me. So
Speaker 6: I think that makes it a lot easier. And I'm
Speaker 6: really good at playing the long game. I'm a good
Speaker 6: chess player, So I think that the fact that I
Speaker 6: have this whole year to prepare for next year, that's
Speaker 6: really what I'm thinking about.
Speaker 5: That I have like.
Speaker 6: Months to just sharpen and refine a bunch of skills
Speaker 6: that I've wanted to work on and dedicate even more
Speaker 6: time to getting back.
Speaker 5: So yeah, but Alex, you tell.
Speaker 3: Me no, no, no, I totally agree with what you
Speaker 3: just said and kind of the thesis of the way
Speaker 3: you're thinking about it. I think physically you're not present,
Speaker 3: but emotionally you're there following your teammates. Emotionally you're there
Speaker 3: with the US team. But what it does it re
Speaker 3: energizes your gratitude. And when you're in the sidelines or
Speaker 3: i say, the mezzanine looking down, you're able to see
Speaker 3: things that you can't not see when you're playing because
Speaker 3: you're in it so many days in a row. When
Speaker 3: you're above watching, I think when you come back, you're like,
Speaker 3: oh my god, I'm better, I'm stronger, I'm healthier, and
Speaker 3: I'm way smarter. I want to tap into time allocation
Speaker 3: because one of the things that was heartbreaking when you're
Speaker 3: injured and I had, you know, four or five surgeries
Speaker 3: in my career, I really thought about that time. Okay,
Speaker 3: if I'm not playing, what can I do with my mind?
Speaker 3: What book can I read? How can I network?
Speaker 2: I do want to ask you sort of fundamental question
Speaker 2: about your business, which is where does this drive come from?
Speaker 2: Like I understand the athletic drive, you're a goal oriented person,
Speaker 2: but at what moment did you realize Because I've watched
Speaker 2: this journey with Alex and heard a lot about it,
Speaker 2: and we talked to a lot of people in the
Speaker 2: show about this, not every athlete has the ambition to
Speaker 2: do what you're doing, to you know, take leadership roles,
Speaker 2: to take entrepreneurial risk, to invest literally and figuratively in
Speaker 2: not just yourself, but in these broader notions that you're
Speaker 2: talking about with you know, telling women's sports stories, et cetera.
Speaker 2: If you had to distill it down, where does that
Speaker 2: come from? When did you realize that was sort of
Speaker 2: a key part of your own mission.
Speaker 5: I wish I had a better answer than this. I
Speaker 5: like doing cool stuff.
Speaker 6: It's baffling to me when I actually will have like
Speaker 6: teammates or friends and I'm like, you don't want to
Speaker 6: do that, that's so cool, or you have this idea.
Speaker 6: Because I'm not the only one who has like good ideas.
Speaker 6: I hear great ideas in my locker room all the
Speaker 6: time that people just have no interest in pursuing. I
Speaker 6: just it's fun to do cool things. And that's all
Speaker 6: I can say.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, listen, but whatever it gets you, I
Speaker 2: mean it, but it is. I mean, I'm going to
Speaker 2: press you on this a little bit only because like
Speaker 2: it takes an extra effort, it takes extra strategy, It
Speaker 2: takes a certain willingness to put yourself out there that
Speaker 2: is beyond what a normal athlete does. You know the
Speaker 2: follow through. Alex talks about this all the time. You
Speaker 2: know that learning from other athletes, like in Magic Johnson
Speaker 2: for him, you know, to like make that app, to
Speaker 2: take that meeting, to go to you know, a big
Speaker 2: investment house, to go to a media company, to make
Speaker 2: the pitch. There has to be something there and maybe
Speaker 2: it is just simple like you're chasing what's out there.
Speaker 2: But I feel like maybe there's something a little more substantive.
Speaker 5: If we're talking.
Speaker 6: About execution, I think the biggest thing would be I
Speaker 6: got this, And I think from the national team and
Speaker 6: my experience there and just being an athlete and we
Speaker 6: just I mean all my life, I've had coaches ask
Speaker 6: me to do things and I'm like, well, how am
Speaker 6: I supposed to do that? Like you want me to
Speaker 6: go be here and there and do this person's job
Speaker 6: and do mine. It's just like it's kind of the
Speaker 6: sports life, and one thing we say, no matter what
Speaker 6: is you just find a way. And that is kind
Speaker 6: of like the operating principle of the national team when
Speaker 6: you know you're tides or zero or you're down and
Speaker 6: you have ten minutes left, but it's like, how are
Speaker 6: we going to wit? You just find a way. And
Speaker 6: I think in terms of execution and that that's definitely
Speaker 6: how I think about things that I do off the field.
Speaker 6: It's like, there is no other option than finding the
Speaker 6: right option.
Speaker 2: I like him, all right, So we're gonna do a
Speaker 2: quick lightning round. These are you know, quick answers. There
Speaker 2: are five of them, so you'd like, buckle up, it's
Speaker 2: gonna be good.
Speaker 4: All right.
Speaker 2: I'll start, and then Alex and Al bounce back and forth.
Speaker 2: What's the best deal you've ever made.
Speaker 5: The off season?
Speaker 3: What's the best piece of advice you've ever received about
Speaker 3: deal making or business?
Speaker 5: The most important thing is control.
Speaker 1: What's the most nervous you've ever been?
Speaker 5: First cap for the national team?
Speaker 3: Okay, what's your hype song before you go into a
Speaker 3: big negotiation or a big meeting?
Speaker 5: Dreams and Nightmares by Meek mil Ah.
Speaker 1: That's a good one, all right.
Speaker 2: So what's your advice for someone listening who wants to
Speaker 2: be a next gen mitche first in this stay age?
Speaker 6: I always tell people to run your own race because
Speaker 6: I think it's so easy to get caught up looking
Speaker 6: at what other people are doing and comparing yourself to them,
Speaker 6: and that does not serve being original, It doesn't serve
Speaker 6: the effectiveness of all your energy.
Speaker 5: So definitely run your own race.
Speaker 2: I like, I love it, I love it. Thank you,
Speaker 2: Midge Perce, You're the best. Thank you so much for
Speaker 2: doing this. This was really fun.
Speaker 5: You guys are phenomenal. Thank you so much for having
Speaker 5: me all right.
Speaker 1: Thanks Fitch, thank you.
Speaker 2: The Deal is hosted by Alex Rodriguez and me Jason Kelly.
Speaker 2: This episode was made by Stacy Wong, Annamasarakus, Lizzie Phillip,
Speaker 2: and Victor Eveez. Our theme music was made by Blake Maples.
Speaker 2: Our executive producers are Kelly Laferrier, Ashley Honig, and Brendan Newnham.
Speaker 2: Sage Bauman is the head of Bloomberg Podcasts, additional support
Speaker 2: from Rachel Scaramzzino and Elena Los Angeles. Thanks for listening
Speaker 2: to the Deal. If you have a minute, please subscribe, rate,
Speaker 2: and review our show. It'll help other listeners find us.
Speaker 2: And remember, if you're a Bloomberg subscriber, you can listen
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Speaker 2: All you need to do is find the Bloomberg channel
Speaker 2: and connect your Bloomberg account.
Speaker 1: I'm Jason Kelly. See you next week.