Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News.
Speaker 2: Hi everyone, welcome to the Deal.
Speaker 3: I'm Jason Kelly alongside my partner Alex Rodriguez. Coming up
Speaker 3: on the show this week, Tom Garfinkel. He runs basically
Speaker 3: everything in Miami that you don't run. Alex, we're talking
Speaker 3: about F one, We're talking about the Miami Dolphins, the
Speaker 3: Miami Opened.
Speaker 2: So much going on in his empire.
Speaker 3: But first we got to talk about some really big
Speaker 3: stories in the sports world this week starting. I have
Speaker 3: to start here because this is one of those as
Speaker 3: soon as this starts happening over the weekend, you're my
Speaker 3: first call, You're my first text.
Speaker 2: These bats man, What is going on with these bats?
Speaker 4: These torpedo bats? I mean, what a story. People thought
Speaker 4: that somehow the Yankees were cheating and that they were
Speaker 4: using these like big alpha bats whatever with big heads
Speaker 4: and it was helping, and you know, somehow the Yankees
Speaker 4: were getting some type of an advance that wasn't quite kosher.
Speaker 4: Well none of that is true. I mean basically, bats
Speaker 4: they have a maximum kind of weight and maximum limb
Speaker 4: They can't be longer than forty two inches, and how
Speaker 4: you distribute that weight in a thirty four to thirty
Speaker 4: five inch bat is totally up to you. So while
Speaker 4: the Yankees are getting a lot of flak, the league
Speaker 4: already came out and said bats are a okay.
Speaker 3: So Aaron Leenhart is the guy. He used to work
Speaker 3: for the Yankees. He now works, i believe for the
Speaker 3: Miami Marlins. He's an MIT brainiac who loves baseball. He
Speaker 3: came up with this concept. It's about redistributing the wood essentially, right,
Speaker 3: But like, how does that make a difference for you
Speaker 3: as a hitter.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a great question. And then the question is
Speaker 4: where do you take that weight from to add it
Speaker 4: to more closer to the label. Now the label. As
Speaker 4: for you know, fans at home that don't play baseball,
Speaker 4: I've never used a wood bat. If the ball hits
Speaker 4: near the label, which is kind of closer to your hands,
Speaker 4: it's a broken bat and the ball is going to
Speaker 4: go nowhere. And you've seen bats, you know, shatter all
Speaker 4: over the place. Actually it's very dangerous. Yeah, there's two
Speaker 4: ways to break a bat, either close to your hands
Speaker 4: or at the very end. But what you've done is
Speaker 4: you've redistributed the weight to the label, which means that
Speaker 4: jam shot is no longer longer a jam shot. It
Speaker 4: could be actually a home run, or it could be
Speaker 4: a double in the gap because you have so much
Speaker 4: more weight and meet there. So it's kind of a
Speaker 4: clever way to hack the system because you're taking the
Speaker 4: weight at the very end of the bat. It doesn't
Speaker 4: matter if you have weight there or not. If you
Speaker 4: hit it there, it's going to again a broken bat.
Speaker 4: So you're basically taking the very weight of the end
Speaker 4: and putting it closer to the label, which.
Speaker 3: Helps your power. Okay, dumb question. How come somebody hasn't
Speaker 3: done this before.
Speaker 4: Because there's not a lot of Mit guys like this
Speaker 4: gentleman Aaron walking around figuring this stuff out. Yeah, it's
Speaker 4: a brilliant thing. Now. There's versions of this that have
Speaker 4: been out there, not quite like this. I mean, when
Speaker 4: you saw it on social media and Michael Kay mentioned
Speaker 4: it like twitter it up, I have thirty people text
Speaker 4: me and call me and like, what's going on with this?
Speaker 4: Is crazy? The next controversy. But it was, you know,
Speaker 4: nothing like that. But it does look very odd when
Speaker 4: you look at pictures. It's a very strange looking bat,
Speaker 4: that's for sure.
Speaker 3: I mean it also is interesting. I mean, you know,
Speaker 3: this is a business show. We think about deals, we
Speaker 3: think about you know, transactions and people, you know, gravitating
Speaker 3: to a product or not. I mean, what better advertisement
Speaker 3: than three pitches, three home runs Opening Day Weekend by
Speaker 3: the New York Yankees. I mean, seriously, you can't make
Speaker 3: that up.
Speaker 4: You can't make it up. And then the irony is
Speaker 4: you have Aaron Judge who hits four home runs in
Speaker 4: the course of two games, three in one game, but
Speaker 4: he's not using the bat. So yeah, like, okay, which
Speaker 4: one is it? Right? Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2: That's a really good point.
Speaker 3: All right, So let's talk a little bit about Opening
Speaker 3: Day Weekend. I mean, I can't even begin to tell
Speaker 3: you how distraught I am, at least initially as a
Speaker 3: Braves fan. They as we're recording this on Tuesday, they
Speaker 3: haven't won. They've yet to win a game. This is
Speaker 3: a great team. They just got rouped on the West coast,
Speaker 3: first by the Padres, then by the Dodgers. Like, what
Speaker 3: are the storylines that are emerging when it comes to
Speaker 3: the smart deals that were made for players? What seems
Speaker 3: to be paying off what may be tvd.
Speaker 4: Well a few things. I think it's just from a
Speaker 4: baseball centric comment, not to say the obvious, but the
Speaker 4: Yankees are not going to go one sixty two and
Speaker 4: zero and the Braves are not going to go oh
Speaker 4: in one sixty two.
Speaker 2: Okay, thank you for assuring me.
Speaker 4: And while Aaron Dreds is on pace to hit three
Speaker 4: hundred and eighty home runs, he's probably not going to
Speaker 4: do that as even as great as he is. But
Speaker 4: I think, Jason, the one thing you have to focus
Speaker 4: on is the explosion and potential revenue for the Mets.
Speaker 4: This is really has been so far a home run deal,
Speaker 4: no pun intended for Steve Cohen, the owner of the
Speaker 4: New York Mets, because if you look at Jersey sales, memorabilia,
Speaker 4: ticket sales ratings are all going very very aggressively up
Speaker 4: into the right.
Speaker 2: That's the one Soto effect.
Speaker 4: That's the Juan Soto effect exactly, and a very much
Speaker 4: underrated move. Is also he also brought back Alonzo to
Speaker 4: protect him. Yeah, Peter Alonzo, Yeah, yeah, Pee Alonzo. You
Speaker 4: have Lindor, you have Soto, and you have Pee Alonzo,
Speaker 4: which is really nice. I think the Braves are going
Speaker 4: to be a juggernaut again. I think, you know, just patients,
Speaker 4: it's always very difficult. And I've done this a couple
Speaker 4: of times in my career. To have spring training for
Speaker 4: six weeks in Florida and then be stuck with the
Speaker 4: West Coast that that's a hell of a tough carry.
Speaker 4: And I think they'll be fine. And I think overall,
Speaker 4: we just got to keep watching, you know, the ratings,
Speaker 4: and overall, I think there's more balance. I think the
Speaker 4: Red Sox being good is a really good thing for baseball.
Speaker 4: They've been non existing in the last few years. I
Speaker 4: think watching the Yankees and how they react from Juan
Speaker 4: Soto leaving them, I think they did a wonderful job
Speaker 4: of deploying that capital they were going to use for
Speaker 4: Juan Soto and using it brilliantly. And so far, so
Speaker 4: good for the Yankees. And yeah, I'd like to see
Speaker 4: what happened in the New York battle, right like whose
Speaker 4: city is it? Is it the big app of the
Speaker 4: Mets or is it the you know, the big bad
Speaker 4: Yankees again?
Speaker 3: I know, yeah, I mean, listen, two great teams in
Speaker 3: New York is never a bad thing. With apologies to
Speaker 3: all of our listeners, you know, in cities across the world.
Speaker 3: But I mean, man, when baseball is really hitting in
Speaker 3: New York, there's nothing better, all right, So let's shift
Speaker 3: sports before we get onto Tom Garfinkel. And actually this
Speaker 3: is Garfinkel adjacent at least, which is the NFL. I
Speaker 3: mean talk about flexing, man, I mean, the NFL can
Speaker 3: flex like nobody else, reports early this week saying that
Speaker 3: the NFL looking across the media landscape, seeing what they
Speaker 3: can command, and likely to opt out of their media
Speaker 3: deals because they can get more money.
Speaker 2: What do you make of that?
Speaker 4: Well, the gifts keeps on giving for NFL owners. I
Speaker 4: got to tell you, it's an incredible business, one that
Speaker 4: other owners from other teams around the world are very
Speaker 4: envious of. And look, out of the top was a
Speaker 4: one hundred television you know broadcast. There were like, you know,
Speaker 4: ninety five of the hundred, right, and the other college
Speaker 4: football or something like that. So football is the king
Speaker 4: of kings. And look, they're in a leverage position. Networks
Speaker 4: can work without the NFL, the shoulder programming, the income
Speaker 4: it makes, the amount of leverage and power they have,
Speaker 4: and these networks are second to none, and they're going
Speaker 4: to capitalize it and can't give Roger Goodell, the commissioner,
Speaker 4: NFL commissioner enough credit for what he's done here the
Speaker 4: last ten or twelve years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's funny.
Speaker 3: I was talking to a former media executive this morning
Speaker 3: and she was saying to me, this is the nightmare
Speaker 3: scenario if you are on the media side of the business,
Speaker 3: because you don't want to give this right. You do
Speaker 3: not want to give this clause to anyone. But if
Speaker 3: you're dealing with the NFL, you have no choice because
Speaker 3: to your point that they're in charge of everything. And
Speaker 3: when you have what is it, you know, ninety four
Speaker 3: ninety five of the top one hundred shows or NFL games,
Speaker 3: When you have the most watched super Bowl ever in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty five, like you're in position to call your
Speaker 3: shot and do whatever you want.
Speaker 4: And it's hard to believe that you have over one
Speaker 4: hundred million people watching the super Bowl and some of
Speaker 4: these forty or fifty million for some of these playoff games.
Speaker 4: And they're still growing. And I think the reason they're
Speaker 4: growing is they're just getting better at their craft. They're
Speaker 4: getting better at television. They really think about being an
Speaker 4: entertainment business first, not a foot football's just the mote.
Speaker 4: But they're really the greatest media company in the world.
Speaker 4: I had one high ranking officer about a year ago
Speaker 4: tell me, if we do not get the NFL in
Speaker 4: our program, there is a chance we can file bankruptcy.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, that is how powerful the NFL is
Speaker 4: to us. And to make no mistake, Jason, when Roger
Speaker 4: Goodell sits across from you in a boardroom, whether you're
Speaker 4: one of the big media companies, whether you're a big sponsor,
Speaker 4: or whether you're a private equity group that wants to
Speaker 4: get approved by Roger and the thirty two owners to
Speaker 4: be able to invest in the NFL deals, the answer
Speaker 4: is yes, sir, Yes, sir, yes, sir. Please please pick us,
Speaker 4: Please pick.
Speaker 3: Us, and we'll take a show whatever you want because
Speaker 3: we know it's good for our business.
Speaker 2: Well spe give watching programming.
Speaker 3: Note for our listeners out there, you can now watch
Speaker 3: us and see these two handsome faces just talking back
Speaker 3: and forth with our guests. You can go to the
Speaker 3: Bloomberg Podcast YouTube channel and watch this episode and coming
Speaker 3: up Tom Garfinkel again. He is the king of Miami.
Speaker 3: I mean, I guess the other king of Miami. Two
Speaker 3: Kings of Miami on the upcoming episode. Tom Garfinkel, of
Speaker 3: course the vice chairman of the Miami Dolphins organization and
Speaker 3: has a lot to say about the business of football,
Speaker 3: the business of racing, the business of tennis, and really
Speaker 3: just the business of entertainment. So looking forward to that.
Speaker 3: Check it out, all right, Joining us now, Tom Garfinkel.
Speaker 3: He's the vice chairman the presidency of the Miami Dolphins
Speaker 3: in hard Rock Stadium. Also the managing partner of the
Speaker 3: Formula one Crypto dot Com Miami Grand Prix that's coming
Speaker 3: up in just a couple months. Alex and I will
Speaker 3: be there, Tom, So great to see you to the show.
Speaker 5: Great to be here, Thanks, guys, appreciate you having me.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 3: I was joking Alex that this guy is like the
Speaker 3: hardest working man in Hollywood. But you know, Miami is
Speaker 3: the new Hollywood. Everything's happening down there. You guys saw
Speaker 3: it before before anybody else. I mean, Tom, give us
Speaker 3: a sense of what's going on these days with you.
Speaker 3: I mean, all year is your busy season, but this
Speaker 3: is an especially busy season for you.
Speaker 5: It is. Yeah, this is a very busy season.
Speaker 1: Wrapped up the football season moved on to the College
Speaker 1: football semi championship game. Then we have our big Dolphins
Speaker 1: Cancer Challenge bike ride here. We raised over fifteen million
Speaker 1: dollars this year to fight cancer. Then we prepare for
Speaker 1: the Miami Open, and we have the Miami Open tennis
Speaker 1: tournament going on right now, and then preparing for the
Speaker 1: Formula One race in early May. Right after the race,
Speaker 1: we'll have a Shakira concert and a Post Malone concert,
Speaker 1: then Club World Cup.
Speaker 5: So a lot going on here.
Speaker 3: So Alex, I'm going to actually ask you a question
Speaker 3: that I then wanted to turn to Tom, which is like,
Speaker 3: what the hell is going on in Miami?
Speaker 2: I think, how did this all happen?
Speaker 3: You grew up there, You're the longest standing Miami resident
Speaker 3: of any of us.
Speaker 2: Like what happened down there?
Speaker 4: You know, I'm not sure what the heck's happened down here?
Speaker 4: But I had dinner with Tom a few years ago,
Speaker 4: and a mutual friend hosted at a small private dinner.
Speaker 4: And when I was hearing Tom explain all the things
Speaker 4: that a he was working on, which was a lot,
Speaker 4: but he gave us a little preview of what was
Speaker 4: in the pipeline, and not only was it true? But
Speaker 4: he actually undershold it, and that's hard to do because
Speaker 4: what you know, Tom and Steve Ross have built down
Speaker 4: here is really nothing short of spectacular and he's made
Speaker 4: our city better. But he was also ahead of the curve.
Speaker 4: Remember he was doing this before this explosion that's happened
Speaker 4: here in the last two or three years. So it's
Speaker 4: been a perfect formula. And Tom, My question to you is,
Speaker 4: when you think about your schedule, you just kind of
Speaker 4: gave us a little blip. How do you divide if
Speaker 4: it was a pie percentage wise? Is it Shakiro? Is
Speaker 4: f one? Is a cancer? Dolphins? Where are you with that?
Speaker 5: Well, we have a lot going on.
Speaker 1: But you know, we had about twenty seventeen eighteen, we
Speaker 1: had about twenty six major events we do here at
Speaker 1: the stadium, about a million one point four people that
Speaker 1: would come through here. Now we're doing i know, forty
Speaker 1: eight major events two point three million people, so the
Speaker 1: calendar is pretty full, you know, all of them. I
Speaker 1: think I think tennis formula one.
Speaker 5: Obviously.
Speaker 1: The most important thing we do here is the Dolphins
Speaker 1: football season. We host the Miami Hurricanes for their home games,
Speaker 1: their college football games.
Speaker 5: We have the Orange Bowl.
Speaker 1: Here, we have the semi this year, we have the
Speaker 1: National Championship coming in twenty twenty six, the Club World
Speaker 1: Cup this year, the FIFA World Cup hosting seven matches
Speaker 1: next summer.
Speaker 5: So you had a fun never stops here.
Speaker 1: I like to say it's maybe the only place in
Speaker 1: the world where, you.
Speaker 5: Know, we try to create something.
Speaker 1: Steve and I have this vision for global entertainment destination
Speaker 1: and trying to create something where the most talented people
Speaker 1: in the world could all come to perform.
Speaker 5: And when you think about, you.
Speaker 1: Know, Roger Federer, Serena Williams, Messi and neymar Lewis Hamilton
Speaker 1: and Max Verstappen, your greatest players in the NFL, college
Speaker 1: football artists like Shakira or jay z and Beyonce et cetera,
Speaker 1: et cetera, have all performed here.
Speaker 5: Taylor Swift this past fall.
Speaker 1: It's a very unique thing that all of those people
Speaker 1: have been on our site in one place, and I
Speaker 1: think we may be the only place in the world
Speaker 1: where that's the case.
Speaker 2: Tom.
Speaker 3: I know Alex is going to want to talk in
Speaker 3: a few minutes a bit about your work in baseball,
Speaker 3: but before we go back there, we're always interested in
Speaker 3: sort of like that initial deal. You know when you
Speaker 3: and Steven Ross get together and you know, you sort
Speaker 3: of circle around each other, and you know, you're a
Speaker 3: big hire, he's a big name. Like, how does that
Speaker 3: deal happen? How does that come about that you guys
Speaker 3: formed this partnership.
Speaker 5: Well, Steve and I actually met first.
Speaker 1: I interviewed for the job in two thousand and nine
Speaker 1: and I was with the Arizona Diamondbacks at the time,
Speaker 1: and we were introduced, and it's kind of a longer story,
Speaker 1: but one thing led to another, and I actually we
Speaker 1: pulled out of the process and went to the San
Speaker 1: Diego Padres. At the Padres, I had three owners in
Speaker 1: four and a half years. There was an interesting situation there.
Speaker 1: I learned a lot, had a great experience, and then
Speaker 1: was fortunate enough to reconnect with Steve and come here
Speaker 1: at the end of twenty thirteen. And you know, Steve
Speaker 1: and I a very close relationship. None of this is
Speaker 1: possible without it. And in fact, the other day I
Speaker 1: had a just an overwhelming moment of gratitude. I was
Speaker 1: sitting with someone in the soccer business who works with
Speaker 1: players like Paul Ba and Messi and these different folks,
Speaker 1: and he just said, you know, you guys are the
Speaker 1: best of what you do in the world. And I
Speaker 1: had it just a moment of none of this is
Speaker 1: possible unless Steve, you know, gives us sort of the
Speaker 1: autonomy and the resources and supports us with the ideas
Speaker 1: that we have and also contributes to those ideas and
Speaker 1: has a vision with us.
Speaker 5: So that's kind of where it all started. We met,
Speaker 5: we kept a relationship.
Speaker 1: I came to work with them, and we just sat
Speaker 1: down and started collaborating and both share this desire to
Speaker 1: do things differently, to think big, and fortunately he's allowed.
Speaker 5: Us to do it.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So Tom, following up on Jason's question, I mean,
Speaker 4: we love great partnerships here and this seems like a
Speaker 4: match made in heaven. When you think about Steve Ross,
Speaker 4: is his background over fifty years in real estate, a
Speaker 4: true savant, as blue chip as they come. And then
Speaker 4: with your background, with your global experience on sports, media, entertainment,
Speaker 4: building these great platforms. How is that conversation? Is that
Speaker 4: a weekly conversation? Do you ask it for advice? Does
Speaker 4: he ask you for advice?
Speaker 5: Yeah? A little bit of both. At Ebbs and Flows.
Speaker 1: I mean, we'll have a week where we talk three
Speaker 1: times a day, and then maybe we don't talk for
Speaker 1: a week.
Speaker 5: Steve is a visionary.
Speaker 1: He's first of all, I think Steve's just a really
Speaker 1: good guy. Like he's the kind of person you enjoy
Speaker 1: going to dinner with, you enjoy spending time with.
Speaker 5: He makes you laugh, You want to spend time with him.
Speaker 5: He's a good person. He treats people well.
Speaker 1: So I think it all starts there, and then we
Speaker 1: just kind of enjoy each other's company, you know. And
Speaker 1: he allows me to argue with him and fight with
Speaker 1: him a little bit and debate because we're always just
Speaker 1: trying to get to the right conclusion of things for
Speaker 1: the business and to grow things. But yeah, it ebs
Speaker 1: and flows in terms of how much time we spend together.
Speaker 1: Steve is just changing the landscape of South Florida, and
Speaker 1: not just here with the stadium and all the private
Speaker 1: investment he's put into this, but also what he's doing
Speaker 1: in West Palm Beach right now is incredible. What he's
Speaker 1: doing there to create a vision that he has to
Speaker 1: create the best most livable place to live, work and play.
Speaker 5: In the country. He's all in on it. It's quite
Speaker 5: a thing to watch. It's amazing. He's doing incredible things.
Speaker 3: So let's talk about that for a second. I'm glad
Speaker 3: you went there, Tom, because I sort of joked about
Speaker 3: this at the top. But there has been I mean,
Speaker 3: this has been well documented by Bloomberg and everyone, this
Speaker 3: massive economic boom in South Florida that you just described,
Speaker 3: and Steven Ross has obviously been at the white hot
Speaker 3: center of it, as have you, as says Alex. For
Speaker 3: that matter, help us understand how sports and what you're
Speaker 3: doing fits into that, like how does each feed the other,
Speaker 3: you know, and what has that boom done to either
Speaker 3: enhance to make more challenging sort of your broader business,
Speaker 3: Like how does that all fit together?
Speaker 1: You know, when we think about this place again being
Speaker 1: a global entertainment destination, what we do is so much
Speaker 1: more than selling tickets.
Speaker 5: We really focus on impacting people's lives. You know.
Speaker 1: I think when the pandemic first happened, Steve called and
Speaker 1: he said, you know, so.
Speaker 5: Many people are going to be hungry there.
Speaker 1: We need to put, you know, a food program together,
Speaker 1: and we need to feed people. And we went and
Speaker 1: we got local restaurants who would have went out of
Speaker 1: business and kept them in business with over three million
Speaker 1: dollars from Steve personally and from the Lennard Foundation where
Speaker 1: we went and bought meals and did a thousand meals
Speaker 1: a day initially intended to be for three months and
Speaker 1: we ended up doing it for over a year for
Speaker 1: local residents in Miami Gardens.
Speaker 5: And that was really Steve's initiative.
Speaker 1: So there's so many things that we do here to
Speaker 1: try to help people's That are the fifteen million dollars
Speaker 1: to fight cancer. Just this year now almost one hundred
Speaker 1: million dollars we've raised for Sylvester Cancer Center at the
Speaker 1: Versus to Miami through the community of people that participate
Speaker 1: in that, and so that's a big part of what
Speaker 1: we do. I think what we do is put on
Speaker 1: events that in today's world, that is, you know, people
Speaker 1: are isolated, people are lonely, people are stuck on their phones,
Speaker 1: particularly post pandemic. We bring people together to experience life.
Speaker 1: I communicate that often to our team. We've got an
Speaker 1: amazing team of people here do great things and work
Speaker 1: really hard, and they need to know that what they
Speaker 1: do has purpose, it has value. And when we do
Speaker 1: something like bring the Formula one race to Miami. It
Speaker 1: doesn't just have the economic benefit locally here of having
Speaker 1: a Super Bowl every year. Basically, I have this vision
Speaker 1: where I'd like to see young kids that grew up
Speaker 1: here in Miami gardens that ten twenty years from now
Speaker 1: are working in Formula one as PR people, marketing, people, engineers,
Speaker 1: whatever the case may be, because they came out and
Speaker 1: were inspired by what we're doing here and by a
Speaker 1: sport that they may not have had, you know.
Speaker 5: Exposure to otherwise.
Speaker 1: And so we do things with STEM programs and with
Speaker 1: community ticket program and everything else to keep the community involved.
Speaker 1: But the culture migration here, what's happened in Miami, I
Speaker 1: say it's a curator of culture really for the rest
Speaker 1: of the country in some ways the rest of the world.
Speaker 1: You think about sports, but music, fashion, art, the hospitality industry.
Speaker 1: It's a center of culture really for the rest of
Speaker 1: the country now. And so we try to bring that
Speaker 1: all here to the campus and do that in different
Speaker 1: ways and show that off to the world in different ways.
Speaker 4: So Tom, obviously our viewers know a lot more about
Speaker 4: the NFL and the Miami Dolphins obviously one of the
Speaker 4: one thirty two blue chip franchise in sports, around the world.
Speaker 4: My question to you is, you've had multiple years where
Speaker 4: you've broken records in revenue, whether it's ticket sales or
Speaker 4: team revenue. But for listeners and viewers at home, you
Speaker 4: have this F one week. How would you compare, say,
Speaker 4: nine to ten weeks for the Dolphins total revenue in
Speaker 4: comparison to one week of revenue that you can create
Speaker 4: for the F one.
Speaker 1: To answer your question directly, Alex, every year, really for
Speaker 1: the past several years has been a new record in
Speaker 1: terms of ticket revenue thanks to our great fan base
Speaker 1: and the renovation of the stadium and all the things
Speaker 1: that we've done. So this year was the most we've
Speaker 1: ever done. I think we were a third in the NFL. Actually,
Speaker 1: it grows ticket revenue this year and the weekend of
Speaker 1: the race, the ticket revenue is more than the entire
Speaker 1: Dolphin season.
Speaker 5: Just to put it in perspective.
Speaker 4: Wow, my god.
Speaker 5: Wow, it's quite an incredible thing.
Speaker 1: And you know, Formula one has just continues continues to
Speaker 1: grow here in the United States.
Speaker 5: Now, I'm not suggesting it's a.
Speaker 1: Bigger business than the NFL by any means, or the
Speaker 1: NFL is the most relevant, most important, maybe cultural phenomenon
Speaker 1: in the country, even beyond sports. That's not what I'm
Speaker 1: suggesting by any means, but I do think that you know,
Speaker 1: Formula one racing here in Miami and International City, bringing
Speaker 1: it here to the United States. You know, people come
Speaker 1: out to the race for a great event, and then
Speaker 1: they fall in love with the racing and then they
Speaker 1: become fans of racing.
Speaker 3: Tell us at a little bit about that decision and
Speaker 3: that deal, Tom, because becoming a promoter for a Formula
Speaker 3: one race is not something anyone takes lightly. It's a
Speaker 3: huge commitment. It's a you know, ten year commitment. I
Speaker 3: believe in your case, you got to build some infrastructure.
Speaker 3: You have to have this partnership with Formula one and
Speaker 3: the FIA to sort of do all this. Talk to
Speaker 3: us a little bit about those conversations between you and
Speaker 3: Steven when you're like, okay.
Speaker 2: Like we're going to do this.
Speaker 3: Was it a hard decision? Did it feel risky? Like
Speaker 3: what was the sort of the tenor of that at
Speaker 3: the moment.
Speaker 1: Well, Steve is first of all, he's just he's amazing,
Speaker 1: because I'm not sure he really even understood what it
Speaker 1: was when it first the process first started it's like,
Speaker 1: let's bring a Formula one race.
Speaker 5: That's great. Maybe let's do it, you know. So and
Speaker 5: then we went to the race in Montreal.
Speaker 1: This was back in I think twenty eighteen, and we
Speaker 1: were driving a hawk away from the racetrack afterwards, and
Speaker 1: he looked at me in the car he said, I
Speaker 1: had no idea how big a deal.
Speaker 5: This is, Like, are you sure you can do this?
Speaker 4: Wow?
Speaker 5: And I looked at him and I said, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 5: we can do it. We can do it. He said okay,
Speaker 5: And he said okay. And that was it.
Speaker 3: And why did you think it was a good business?
Speaker 3: I had worked in most Yeah, you had worked in motorsport, yeah.
Speaker 5: Previously in my career, and I knew what Formula one was.
Speaker 5: I knew a lot about it.
Speaker 1: I had relationships and things throughout motorsports. And I actually
Speaker 1: when I first got here in twenty thirteen, I drove
Speaker 1: my car out one hundred and ninety ninth Street, out
Speaker 1: in front of the stadium, and I thought to myself, well,
Speaker 1: this is a racetrack, you know. And I had always
Speaker 1: had this idea to want to build a racetrack around
Speaker 1: a stadium. I don't think street races in the United
Speaker 1: States worked particularly well. I was on the board of
Speaker 1: the Houston Grand Prix when I worked with Texaco way
Speaker 1: back in nineteen ninety eight, and I learned a lot
Speaker 1: in that process about, you know, the business interruption and
Speaker 1: what happens you're interrupting residences, businesses, and not just for
Speaker 1: the three days, for three months leading up, a month afterwards,
Speaker 1: et cetera. And on this site, we have a contained environment.
Speaker 1: We're only interrupting ourselves, right. We have to put on
Speaker 1: all these other events.
Speaker 5: We're getting ready for a race and building a racetrack
Speaker 5: and everything.
Speaker 1: Else, and we can control that and contain that, but
Speaker 1: when you're doing it in city streets, it's very difficult
Speaker 1: to do. And so I knew putting it around a
Speaker 1: stadium made a lot of sense in a lot of
Speaker 1: different ways, and had a vision for that. I think
Speaker 1: Formula one we first met within seventeen eighteen ish.
Speaker 5: And they wanted to put it downtown Miami.
Speaker 1: They wanted the blimp shots of the yachts and these things,
Speaker 1: and the TV.
Speaker 5: Shots, and you know, there's a lot of challenges.
Speaker 1: I mean, you get twenty thousand people in and out
Speaker 1: of there for a heat game and there's traffic, and
Speaker 1: so I don't know how we're going to get one
Speaker 1: hundred thousand people in and out of here. You're disrupting
Speaker 1: all these businesses. You have to take things, put them
Speaker 1: back up. You've got the heat, you've got the port,
Speaker 1: you've got residences, you get all these things where you're
Speaker 1: really disrupting them. And I finally was able to kind
Speaker 1: of convince Chase carry of that through the diligence process,
Speaker 1: who was at Formula one at the time, and then
Speaker 1: brought him out here to the stadium, put cones out
Speaker 1: in the parking lot where the racetrack would go, took
Speaker 1: him out on the top of the stadium, walked them
Speaker 1: around and said, we're gonna have views.
Speaker 5: That no other racetrack has.
Speaker 1: And by then we had in twenty nineteen, we had
Speaker 1: done the tennis tournament for the first time, so we
Speaker 1: had kind of proven we could create this oasis that
Speaker 1: wasn't a parking lot anymore. And I think their biggest
Speaker 1: concern was, we don't want to have a race and
Speaker 1: a parking lot. And so once they understood that we
Speaker 1: were going to create something really unique and different, they.
Speaker 5: Got on board.
Speaker 1: And then we were negotiating, and then COVID hit and
Speaker 1: then that delayed it, so it really took four four
Speaker 1: and a half years to get the deal done. When
Speaker 1: Stefano came on board Stefano dominic Aale the CEO of
Speaker 1: Formula one in January of twenty twenty one, we got
Speaker 1: on a couple of zoom calls and hammered out a
Speaker 1: deal actually pretty quickly, and by April of twenty one
Speaker 1: we had it signed and the first race was in
Speaker 1: May of twenty two, so that was an eleven month
Speaker 1: thrash by the time we had it signed and started moving.
Speaker 1: But I really credit Chase and Stefano wouldn't have gotten
Speaker 1: done without them. And then obviously Steve, I mean his
Speaker 1: commitment and willingness to say, hey, I trust you, like
Speaker 1: let's go do this.
Speaker 4: So Tom, you have this incredible platform you and Steve
Speaker 4: have built. And when you think about just zoom out
Speaker 4: and look at the hold Coe, and you look at
Speaker 4: Team Cod Dolphins, and then you look at real estate code,
Speaker 4: how beneficial has it been to be able to control
Speaker 4: own or control the site as almost a blank canvas
Speaker 4: as you're talking about cones and this versus if you
Speaker 4: didn't have control of the real estate. How much smaller
Speaker 4: or how much bigger is your business Because you control
Speaker 4: the real estate.
Speaker 5: It's significantly bigger. That's a great question, Alex.
Speaker 1: You know, having worked at other stadium environments, fall park
Speaker 1: environments where it's owned by a municipality, you have a
Speaker 1: lot more constraints, you have a lot more restrictions, you
Speaker 1: have a lot more process to go through the get
Speaker 1: things done, and so owning the site, owning the stadium
Speaker 1: is a big difference maker. But because we own it
Speaker 1: means we can do a lot of you know, just
Speaker 1: permitting processes and things. But you know, it's really just
Speaker 1: going to Steve and saying, hey, can we do this,
Speaker 1: And that's a lot different than going through you know,
Speaker 1: a civic you know sort of organization or municipality for sure.
Speaker 2: So let's talk a little bit about football if we can.
Speaker 3: That is the crown jewel the Dolphins obviously one of
Speaker 3: the most storied franchises in the National Football League, which,
Speaker 3: as you rightly said, Tom, is like it's the big
Speaker 3: cahuna of global sports.
Speaker 2: You know, it is the.
Speaker 3: Envy of every league that's out there. Talk about what's
Speaker 3: happened in that business. Lately and specifically around ownership and
Speaker 3: the decision to sell a stake to be one of
Speaker 3: the first to participate in this you know, new institutional
Speaker 3: capital program.
Speaker 2: How does that come about?
Speaker 4: What?
Speaker 2: What's that process like?
Speaker 5: Well, I think that's been a longish process as well,
Speaker 5: you know.
Speaker 1: I think the NFL, Roger and then all the owners
Speaker 1: membership are very deliberate, very thoughtful about these types of things.
Speaker 1: They take their time wisely so, and I think structured
Speaker 1: over a period of time a very smart sort of
Speaker 1: you know, way to start that process. And so there's
Speaker 1: sometimes unintended consequences with these types of big decisions, and
Speaker 1: I can assure you that group of people has tried to,
Speaker 1: you know, think through all of them before doing something,
Speaker 1: and I think that's wise.
Speaker 5: The process itself, you know, was pretty easy.
Speaker 1: I don't want to speak for Steve, but having you know,
Speaker 1: been along the process with him, I mean again, he's
Speaker 1: he's very.
Speaker 5: Passionate about what he's doing in West Palm Beach. He's
Speaker 5: changing lives, he's changing a city.
Speaker 1: And the evaluation was high, certainly a lot higher than
Speaker 1: he paid for it. And so the opportunity to generate
Speaker 1: some liquidity when debt markets are expensive to generate some
Speaker 1: cash flow to both invest into West Palm Beach and
Speaker 1: to potentially invest in more sports assets.
Speaker 5: Moving forward as well and grow.
Speaker 1: The sports assets here in South Florida and other places,
Speaker 1: something that he was trying to do. And look again,
Speaker 1: what he's doing in West Palm Beach is he's trying
Speaker 1: to really create the most livable city in the country.
Speaker 1: And I don't think he's very concerned at the stage
Speaker 1: of his life about the.
Speaker 5: Profitability of it. He's genuinely just not.
Speaker 1: Unlike the tennis tournament here when he called me and
Speaker 1: said the tennis tournament might be leaving Miami, let's let's
Speaker 1: keep it here and do it at the stadium, he's
Speaker 1: trying to do the same in West Palm Beach. So
Speaker 1: I think pulling some money off the table was really
Speaker 1: about having that liquidity to reinvest back into these types
Speaker 1: of products.
Speaker 4: So, Tom, a lot of our listeners and viewers are
Speaker 4: enormous sports fans. Some of them would love to be
Speaker 4: LPs to an NFL team, whether you know some of
Speaker 4: the new volleyball leagues or you know, you name it.
Speaker 4: There's a lot of people saying that there is a
Speaker 4: bubble in sports in valuations. Where do you stand in
Speaker 4: that is it? And why or is not? And why
Speaker 4: why not?
Speaker 5: I don't believe there is. And the reason is that
Speaker 5: it's simple supply and demand, alex.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's constraints, supplies, scarcity, principal thing. These are
Speaker 1: very desirable assets, the NFL especially, and when you have
Speaker 1: more people that want to buy them than there are
Speaker 1: assets available, the price goes up. And you know, when
Speaker 1: you think about you know what's happening in the world
Speaker 1: today and the availability of the number of people that
Speaker 1: have the ability to purchase one of these teams, and
Speaker 1: then you know the scarcity of the teams available to purchase,
Speaker 1: that's going to suggest that the price is going to
Speaker 1: continue to go up. I think again, the NFL, in
Speaker 1: particular to speaking for that league or in terms of
Speaker 1: that league rather is again I believe, the biggest cultural
Speaker 1: phenomenon in the United States. What is it? You know,
Speaker 1: ninety four of the top one hundred television programs or
Speaker 1: NFL programs, I think three of the other four college
Speaker 1: football programs. So you know, you're talking about something that
Speaker 1: is iconic, systemic to what our culture is, what our
Speaker 1: society is how we live every day. It's a sport
Speaker 1: that for me, you know, I tell people high school
Speaker 1: football has more to do with who I am as
Speaker 1: a man than anything except maybe my mom and dad.
Speaker 1: It teaches you, maybe not unlike baseball and some other
Speaker 1: great sports, but teaches you character development, team work, hard work, discipline,
Speaker 1: physical mental toughness, overcoming adversity, competitiveness, things that are important
Speaker 1: in life. And I think it's a million high school
Speaker 1: football players are so a year. I think about seven
Speaker 1: percent of them play college football and maybe you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know the exact number, called three hundred of
Speaker 1: them get drafted roughly, you know, But all those other
Speaker 1: ones that play go on to do things in life
Speaker 1: and the lessons they learn playing football or baseball or
Speaker 1: you know, hockey or basketball, whatever the case may be.
Speaker 1: Men and women, it teaches you things that you take
Speaker 1: with you as you go into life and helps you
Speaker 1: become a high character, harder working, better person.
Speaker 3: And so Tom just just back briefly to sort of
Speaker 3: the transactional nature of the sport. You know, this notion
Speaker 3: of institutional capital coming in. You're very familiar with that
Speaker 3: at You've seen the sports world from so many different angles.
Speaker 3: Ares Capital Management, I believe is one of your partners. Now,
Speaker 3: what does that look like, because you guys are one
Speaker 3: of your one of only two teams so far who
Speaker 3: have done those sorts of transactions. What does it feel
Speaker 3: like sort of in the day to day Is it
Speaker 3: at all different?
Speaker 2: Like? What role has this played for you so far?
Speaker 5: Well, We're very lucky. Areas has been fantastic.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, the folks at Areas that we
Speaker 1: work with are a part of discussions that we have
Speaker 1: about growing the business and growing the enterprise, and so
Speaker 1: you know, they're very collaborative partners. You know, this isn't
Speaker 1: how you think about private equity. This isn't you know,
Speaker 1: they come in and buy something and then you cut
Speaker 1: the number of pencils you have in have cut all
Speaker 1: the costs, and then flip it in seven years for
Speaker 1: more money.
Speaker 5: It couldn't be further from from that stereotype.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, these are people that are interested
Speaker 1: in growth. I think they see that the NFL is
Speaker 1: you know, maybe the safest asset class you know in
Speaker 1: the world in terms of the likelihood that it's going
Speaker 1: to go down is probably smaller than any other investment
Speaker 1: you can.
Speaker 5: Make and so they understand that, they see the upside.
Speaker 5: And then they've seen.
Speaker 1: Sort of the management discipline we employ and the consistent
Speaker 1: growth we've had in both revenue and profitability, you know,
Speaker 1: every year for the last decade, regardless of other things
Speaker 1: that have happened in the world. So they saw that,
Speaker 1: they invested in that, and they've just been fantastic partners.
Speaker 5: Do they have tremendous access to capital.
Speaker 1: Obviously we have conversations with them as partners about potentially
Speaker 1: doing more things.
Speaker 4: So, Jason, I got to tell you the first time
Speaker 4: I heard about Tom was through a mutual friend that
Speaker 4: Tom and I have a gentleman by the name of
Speaker 4: Jeff Morad. So it's Scott Boris, and then it was
Speaker 4: Jeff Mooread in the World sports as an agent, and
Speaker 4: then he crossed over to the dark side and became
Speaker 4: an owner with the Padres in Arizona, and about.
Speaker 5: Two d went he went to the good side, the.
Speaker 4: Bright side, the bright side. You know what's interesting is
Speaker 4: that on twenty twelve or so or thirteen, maybe you know,
Speaker 4: Jeff says to me, the most talented guy out there
Speaker 4: is Tom. And he's a young guy. He's up and coming,
Speaker 4: but trust me, this guy's going to take over the world.
Speaker 4: And I was like, okay, whatever, whatever. You know, Tom's
Speaker 4: still a young guy and he's you know, kind of
Speaker 4: you know, still cutting his teeth a little bit. But boy,
Speaker 4: I mean, Jeff is a great scout. And you know
Speaker 4: you worked with Jeff for a minute, Tom, what were
Speaker 4: some of the lessons you learned? And I guess the
Speaker 4: part you enjoyed the most about working with Jeff Morad Well.
Speaker 1: Jeff, you know, Jeff's a great guy, and he was
Speaker 1: one of the first ones to see what was happening
Speaker 1: in Formula one and made a big investment in McLaren Racing, right,
Speaker 1: you know, back maybe four or five years.
Speaker 5: Ago, which was a very wise decision at the time.
Speaker 2: Defending champion McLaren right, and.
Speaker 5: They just won one of the first two races of
Speaker 5: the years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, and current leader and constructors.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's right. I learned a lot from Jeff.
Speaker 1: But I learned you know, negotiation is sort of Jeff's
Speaker 1: strong suit, and so participating in several negotiations with him,
Speaker 1: how he's able to position deal. You know, I would
Speaker 1: come with sort of a strategic analysis of a situation,
Speaker 1: Here's what I think it's going to be, Here's where
Speaker 1: I think it's going, Here's what I think we should do.
Speaker 1: And he said, well, what do you think is you
Speaker 1: know what's the right number?
Speaker 5: And then I tell the number and tell them why,
Speaker 5: and he.
Speaker 1: Then and then he would go and negotiate the deal,
Speaker 1: and I'd write along with him sometimes.
Speaker 5: But I learned a lot in terms of, you know,
Speaker 5: listening first.
Speaker 1: You know, if you listen during a negotiation, you're going
Speaker 1: to find out a lot people tend to want to talk,
Speaker 1: and I think if you listen first, that's that's hugely important.
Speaker 5: And just not you know, being careful with your word choice.
Speaker 1: And careful with your body language and got everything you're doing.
Speaker 1: And the negotiation is telling the other side something I personally,
Speaker 1: I'm sort of a I believe in when when deals
Speaker 1: work out the best and if you do those things
Speaker 1: over a period of time, you're able to do more deals,
Speaker 1: develop a better reputation. Trying to win a deal is
Speaker 1: probably a bad idea from my perspective. I think you
Speaker 1: really want to create situations, be as well informed as
Speaker 1: you can, and for me, being willing to walk away
Speaker 1: the formula one deal took four to half years basically,
Speaker 1: and I was negotiating with probably.
Speaker 5: Three different parties throughout that.
Speaker 1: You know, at one point it was one person and
Speaker 1: another point it was another person. In the end it
Speaker 1: was Stefano and and there was different models that were
Speaker 1: being used, you know, for us to be a promoter.
Speaker 5: There were different financial models.
Speaker 1: There's different ideas about downtown or here, there was different
Speaker 1: ideas about.
Speaker 5: What it could generate or not generate.
Speaker 1: And so I think being consistent throughout that process, and
Speaker 1: I did walk away a couple of times. You know,
Speaker 1: it's kind of what that deal doesn't work for us,
Speaker 1: We're not going to do that. There have been deals
Speaker 1: that I've gotten excited about, worked hard on for a year,
Speaker 1: done the diligence, gone through the process, and in the
Speaker 1: end the deal wasn't the right deal. And so you know,
Speaker 1: I'd tell Steve or you know whatever, like this isn't
Speaker 1: the right deal, we just need to walk away and
Speaker 1: the deal goes to someone else. And you have to
Speaker 1: kind of know what makes sense for you, not just
Speaker 1: in terms of a price, but in terms of the
Speaker 1: amount of control and who you're partnering with and what
Speaker 1: you're willing to accept or not accept and think long
Speaker 1: term about it. From my perspective, if it's going to
Speaker 1: work out and you're going to be able to operate it,
Speaker 1: you know, to become a success.
Speaker 2: And so Tom, you know, we mentioned baseball.
Speaker 3: And your experience there, and you guys talked about it
Speaker 3: a little bit. You know, I do wonder as someone
Speaker 3: who has this pretty broad portfolio in sports, it's like,
Speaker 3: do you guys think about, you know, investing in different sports?
Speaker 3: You know, does baseball make sense? Or there are challenger
Speaker 3: leagues out there? I mean, you you have been you know, fortunate,
Speaker 3: and this is not an accident that you're in some
Speaker 3: very high growth, very valuable sports already. Like what do
Speaker 3: you look at out there that that piques your interest?
Speaker 4: Sometimes?
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're looking. We're looking at all kinds of different opportunities.
Speaker 1: I think it's less about specifically. I mean the sport matters, obviously,
Speaker 1: but I think you know, the market matters, The geography,
Speaker 1: the context of the situation, the brand, what you're walking into,
Speaker 1: the control, the degree of control anyway, all of those
Speaker 1: things matter a lot. So I don't know that we're
Speaker 1: you know, desperate to get into a specific you know,
Speaker 1: and other sports specifically, as as much as we are saying,
Speaker 1: you know, trying to be a little bit opportunistic about
Speaker 1: is it synergistic with and strategic with other things we're
Speaker 1: trying to do. So, for example, you know, we're going
Speaker 1: to play a game in Madrid this year through the
Speaker 1: Global Markets program with the NFL the Dolphins.
Speaker 4: Are you talking about the Dolphins?
Speaker 1: We have Mexico, Brazil, Spain, Columbia, Argentina as our global
Speaker 1: markets in this Global markets program. Well, you know, we
Speaker 1: have a Brazilian tennis player out here today Fonseca.
Speaker 5: We've had Alcoraz out here from Spain.
Speaker 1: We've got you know, Carlos Signs driving in Formula One.
Speaker 1: We've got you know, La Liga matches, We've got World Cup,
Speaker 1: FIFA World Cup. We've got like I mentioned, Shakira, Carol
Speaker 1: g Bunny play of concerts here.
Speaker 5: And so we've really expanded our data.
Speaker 1: Capabilities and our data initiative to collect data on all
Speaker 1: the individuals that buy tickets from us and come here
Speaker 1: and where they live and what they do and what
Speaker 1: they like. And so I think there's more a more
Speaker 1: strategic relevance to what we're trying to build than just
Speaker 1: here's an opportunity, let's buy into this this team or
Speaker 1: that team in this board.
Speaker 5: That's what I think.
Speaker 1: It's how does it tie into what we're trying to
Speaker 1: do with the rest of the enterprise and how we're
Speaker 1: developing and growing people, and how we're developing and growing
Speaker 1: certain capabilities, whether that's you know, stadium designed for revenue
Speaker 1: and fan experience versus you know, to win design awards,
Speaker 1: whether that's operationally what we do with taking up and
Speaker 1: down tennis and Formula one, and what we do on
Speaker 1: this campus which is pretty complex, whether it's sponsorship sales,
Speaker 1: are ticketing sales capability, and analytics capability. So it's how
Speaker 1: do we how do we take advantage of all of
Speaker 1: those things, and what are the opportunities to invest in
Speaker 1: a strategic that can take advantage.
Speaker 3: Of those things. It is interesting to think about, and Tom,
Speaker 3: you and I got to visit a few weeks ago
Speaker 3: in Miami, and I was intrigued by this idea, This
Speaker 3: notion of you know, this very diverse demographic that you
Speaker 3: guys probably have a not just a window into, but
Speaker 3: like really hard data about that is probably the envy
Speaker 3: of a lot of other organizations in terms of being
Speaker 3: able to cater to them, you know, not just in
Speaker 3: an individual sport or an individual artist, but you know,
Speaker 3: across to your point music entertainment and sort of takes
Speaker 3: us back to where we started in terms of the
Speaker 3: cultural relevance of Miami, especially as a gateway to Latin
Speaker 3: and South America. And you think about the messy effect
Speaker 3: you know there in South Florida. You think about the
Speaker 3: World Cup, the Club World Cup, all of those things
Speaker 3: do it does seem to create this momentum around a
Speaker 3: real business case that is probably very distinct from any
Speaker 3: other sort of sports empire out there.
Speaker 2: Is that fair?
Speaker 5: I think it's very fair.
Speaker 1: You know, it's the fastest growing segment of the population
Speaker 1: in the United States. You know, the world is shrinking,
Speaker 1: So from a global perspective, I think there are people
Speaker 1: that live in Latin America that may have a place
Speaker 1: in Miami or a place in Madrid or both. And
Speaker 1: so Madrid in Miami are very kindred, you know, cities
Speaker 1: in a lot of ways.
Speaker 5: I was just there a couple of weeks ago, and
Speaker 5: you know, there's.
Speaker 1: A lot of things happening in Madrid is a vibrant,
Speaker 1: booming city as well.
Speaker 5: It's beautiful, it's clean, it's a fantastic place.
Speaker 1: And so when you think about the synergies between cities
Speaker 1: like that, and then you think about Sampaulo or Mexico City,
Speaker 1: and you start tying these things together through sports, entertainment, hospitality,
Speaker 1: you know, and how we bring people together, I think
Speaker 1: it starts to become an interesting business.
Speaker 3: All right, So we're going to wrap up with our
Speaker 3: lightning round. This is our favorite part. We get to
Speaker 3: ask you five questions. We go back and forth really fast,
Speaker 3: and so just you know, drop the first thing that
Speaker 3: comes to your mind. I'll start, Alex, then you can
Speaker 3: pick up. All right, Tom Garfinkel, what's the best piece
Speaker 3: of advice you've ever received on deal making or business?
Speaker 1: On business, I'd say it's, you know, always be learning,
Speaker 1: always be learning and growing and never thinking.
Speaker 4: Who's your dream deal maker? Not named Steve Bross, it
Speaker 4: would have.
Speaker 5: Been Steve.
Speaker 2: Alex, I love it.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 1: You know, there's a person named Kevin Copton who have
Speaker 1: tremendous respect for Kevin was an original partner Cline Perkins
Speaker 1: and has become a friend and mentor. He's the kind
Speaker 1: of person that if I had him sitting next to
Speaker 1: me and to her deals. I know we're going to
Speaker 1: make good deals.
Speaker 4: That's a good one.
Speaker 2: What's the most nervous you've ever been?
Speaker 1: Probably fifth grade when this kid challenged me to fight
Speaker 1: after school, and the whole day I had to wait
Speaker 1: and know that I had to go after school and
Speaker 1: the whole schools.
Speaker 5: Gouldn't be there, and I had to get in a fight.
Speaker 2: What happened?
Speaker 1: He punched me in the face, and then my lips
Speaker 1: started bleeding, and then I wasn't nervous anymore, and I
Speaker 1: did Okay.
Speaker 2: You took care of business. I like it.
Speaker 4: Speaking of fighting, what's your hype song before you go
Speaker 4: into a big meeting or negotiation?
Speaker 5: That would be Tupac when we write.
Speaker 4: Oh, good one.
Speaker 3: What's your advice for someone listening who wants a career
Speaker 3: like yours?
Speaker 1: Be willing to make sacrifices, work really hard, you know,
Speaker 1: always be learning and create value. You know, you get started.
Speaker 1: First of all, there's no perfect job. But when you do,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to make sacrifices. You're gonna have to
Speaker 1: work hard.
Speaker 3: That's really really good advice, all right, Tom Garfinkel, great
Speaker 3: to chop it up with you, Vice Chairman, President CEO
Speaker 3: of Miami Dolphins, hard Rock Stadium, managing partner of Formula One,
Speaker 3: Crypto dot Com, Miami Grand Prix. He's got his fingers
Speaker 3: a lot of pies. Alex Rodriguez, your neighbor. You guys
Speaker 3: are making it all happen down in South Florida.
Speaker 5: Great to be with you, guys. Thank you very much
Speaker 5: for having me.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Tom.
Speaker 3: The Deal is hosted by Alex Rodriguez and me Jason Kelly.
Speaker 3: This episode was made by Anamazarakus, Stacy Wong, and Lizzie Phillip.
Speaker 3: Amy Keen is our editor and Will Connelly is our
Speaker 3: video editor. Our theme music is made by Blake Maples.
Speaker 3: Our executive producers are Kelly Leferrier, Ashley Hoenig, and Brendan
Speaker 3: neonham Sage Bauman is the head of Bloomberg Podcast. Additional
Speaker 3: support from Rachel Carnivale and Elena Los Angeles. Thanks so
Speaker 3: much for listening to the Deal. If you have a minute, subscribe,
Speaker 3: rate and review our show. It'll help other listeners find us.
Speaker 3: I'm Jason Kelly.
Speaker 2: See you next week.