Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2: Well, four months after the Dallas Mavericks fans held a
Speaker 2: mock funeral for the franchise outside it's arena following the
Speaker 2: trade of star forward Luka Doncic, they rushed back to
Speaker 2: the team's home court to celebrate what they hope will
Speaker 2: be its rebirth. It happened just about a month ago
Speaker 2: as about six thousand people watched from the stands of
Speaker 2: the American Airline Center as the team selected Duke University's
Speaker 2: Cooper Flag with the top pick in the NBA's draft. Well,
Speaker 2: we've got a lot to talk about, and we've got
Speaker 2: the perfect guest. Rick Welts is with us. He's the
Speaker 2: CEO of the Dallas Mavericks, and we also have with
Speaker 2: us Bloomberg News Texas bure chief Julie Fine, both of
Speaker 2: them in our Dallas bureau. Julie, Rick, great to have
Speaker 2: you here with Tim and myself. Rick got to start
Speaker 2: with Cooper Flag. You were with them when he first
Speaker 2: got to Dallas. The team at such a slim, slim
Speaker 2: chance of getting that first draft pick. How has he
Speaker 2: kind of melded into the organization.
Speaker 3: Would you call a slim chance from one point eight
Speaker 3: percent super slim, a chance.
Speaker 4: Super slim. He's been great.
Speaker 3: He arrived in town with his parents, his brother, grandparents.
Speaker 3: You know, he's a testament to great parenting. I experienced
Speaker 3: that at Golden State my last job with Steph Curry,
Speaker 3: and what great parenting can mean. He's the most decorated
Speaker 3: eighteen year old in the history of the game of
Speaker 3: basketball at this point, coming in with incredibly high expectations,
Speaker 3: but really everything you could see being around him for
Speaker 3: a few days, from mindset, from attitude, from work ethic,
Speaker 3: everything you can see gives you a lot of hope.
Speaker 3: He's going to be everything that basketball fans expect him
Speaker 3: to be and maybe a little more.
Speaker 5: You know, Rick, he comes here to Dallas after a
Speaker 5: pretty tumultuous time for the franchise at this point from
Speaker 5: a business sense, are you doing okay? Did you lose
Speaker 5: season ticket holders? How about sponsorships?
Speaker 4: So I got here January first.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm here because Dallas is such an amazing market.
Speaker 3: The history of fans support here is just incredible. We
Speaker 3: have an expression here mas fans for Life. And I
Speaker 3: walked into that trying to, you know, just being thrilled
Speaker 3: to represent the Mavericks in this market. But trading Luca,
Speaker 3: which happened on February first, pretty much broke the internet.
Speaker 3: And it was not something that our fans expected and
Speaker 3: not certainly not something that they embraced, And so we
Speaker 3: went through one hundred days of grieving, you know, with
Speaker 3: our fan base understanding what this kid meant to Dallas.
Speaker 3: But you know, now with Cooper here, I think the
Speaker 3: focus again on the future. Sponsors are are probably ringing
Speaker 3: our phone a little.
Speaker 4: Bit more than we've ever had before.
Speaker 3: Season ticket holders are back in greater numbers than they
Speaker 3: were last season.
Speaker 4: So so far, so good.
Speaker 5: You know, we talked a little bit earlier about time
Speaker 5: and forgiveness after something like that happens. I mean, now
Speaker 5: when you look back a few months later and moving forward,
Speaker 5: how do you feel feeling great?
Speaker 3: You know, we're going to start the season with three
Speaker 3: number one historic three number one picks Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving,
Speaker 3: and Cooper Flag all number one in the NBA draft.
Speaker 3: A third another future Hall of Famer in addition to
Speaker 3: Anthony and Kyrie is Clay Thompson. We're feeling great about
Speaker 3: the team that we're going to feel next year and
Speaker 3: we're feeling great about the momentum that Cooper has brought
Speaker 3: to the Mavericks.
Speaker 1: Rick Apart from winning, how else can you continue to
Speaker 1: rebuild or redevelop that trust between the organization and the
Speaker 1: fan base.
Speaker 4: You know, I think that's a great question.
Speaker 3: I think what I'm walking into is an organization that
Speaker 3: probably has set the standard in terms of community engagement.
Speaker 3: Not rehashing the past, but the Mavericks had a pretty
Speaker 3: existential crisis six seven years ago when there were a
Speaker 3: lot of media coverage of what was really a broken
Speaker 3: culture here at the Mavericks. Sint Marshall came in as
Speaker 3: chief executive officer at the time and spent the last
Speaker 3: six seven years rebuilding the relationship between fans, civic organizations,
Speaker 3: religious organizations, government organizations.
Speaker 4: In Dallas and the Mavericks.
Speaker 3: It became a point of pride again to be associated
Speaker 3: with the Mavericks, so that reservoir of goodwill still exists.
Speaker 3: We're going to combine that with that time tested formula
Speaker 3: of time and winning, and I think it gives us
Speaker 3: a reason to be super optimistic by the way out
Speaker 3: of time when we're talking about building a brand new
Speaker 3: arena and entertainment district in the city of Dallas that'll
Speaker 3: be home for the Mavericks for decades to come, and.
Speaker 2: Viock, we want to talk about the arena. I got
Speaker 2: to go back though, to Luca, and I'm just curious,
Speaker 2: like we've all done things where we're like, oh, if
Speaker 2: I could do that over And you talked about one
Speaker 2: hundred days of grieving. Do you have any regrets or
Speaker 2: did you learn anything, especially you know, based on your
Speaker 2: fan reaction. But first of all, any regrets in making
Speaker 2: the trade.
Speaker 3: You can't have fear or regrets in this business, right,
Speaker 3: It's all about how you move forward, and you know,
Speaker 3: so it doesn't really serve a purpose to have regrets.
Speaker 3: What I will say I learned about the depth of
Speaker 3: the connection between Mavericks fans and this team, and that
Speaker 3: to me was glass half full because I knew we
Speaker 3: could restore that over time. I didn't think it would
Speaker 3: happen quite as quickly perhaps as this happened.
Speaker 4: I would also say I'm.
Speaker 3: Incredibly proud of how the organization presented itself for Luca's
Speaker 3: first game back at American Airline Center when he was
Speaker 3: a Los Angeles Laker. I think if you watch that game.
Speaker 3: It was an opportunity for fans to say thank you.
Speaker 3: I think you saw the emotion on Luca's face. You
Speaker 3: saw the way that night unfolded and tributes to Luca.
Speaker 3: I think he'll always be such a big part of
Speaker 3: the history here.
Speaker 4: And you know, we wish him nothing but.
Speaker 3: Good luck, but we also hope we beat his team
Speaker 3: every time we play him, so.
Speaker 2: Do well, but not too well.
Speaker 4: We get it.
Speaker 5: You know, I want to touch back on the stadium.
Speaker 5: Your current lease is up in twenty thirty, so I
Speaker 5: know you're looking for new spaces. How committed are you
Speaker 5: to doing it in the city of Dallas.
Speaker 3: So we publicly said that we are going to exhaust
Speaker 3: every opportunity to place the new Mavericks Arena in the
Speaker 3: city limits of Dallas. That's one hundred percent of our
Speaker 3: focus right now, working with the city manager's office and
Speaker 3: the Mayor's office, identifying potential sites, evaluating those sites for
Speaker 3: how they work for transportation, how they work for accessibility
Speaker 3: to our season ticket. So we're in it all the
Speaker 3: way with Dallas.
Speaker 4: I expect we're going to be successful in finding that location.
Speaker 5: When do you think you will have an announcement by
Speaker 5: when we've located this. Are you putting a deadline in yourself.
Speaker 4: Well, I know, six years sounds like a long time
Speaker 4: in my view. We're on the clock.
Speaker 3: It takes this long to build a project of the
Speaker 3: magnitude that we're talking about building.
Speaker 4: This isn't just an arena.
Speaker 3: This is a thirty five to forty acre entertainment district.
Speaker 3: It'll have hotels, it'll have all kinds of restaurant options,
Speaker 3: it'll have other things that fans are going to do
Speaker 3: when they attend a Mavericks game, and it'll be the
Speaker 3: most amazing place ever to watch an NBA basketball game.
Speaker 4: So we're on the clock.
Speaker 3: We're hoping that by the end of this calendar year,
Speaker 3: at the latest first quarter next year, that we'll be
Speaker 3: able to have a flag in the ground, if you'll
Speaker 3: excuse the expression of where the new Mavericks arena rick.
Speaker 1: The building of stadiums throughout the country has been a
Speaker 1: pretty fraud process over the last couple of decades. In Buffalo,
Speaker 1: the state of New York kicked in funds for a
Speaker 1: new stadium. Kansas City is working on state funding, But
Speaker 1: in both instances, taxpayers had a lot to say about
Speaker 1: billionaires getting their money. Is this stadium going to be
Speaker 1: a private project.
Speaker 4: Well, certainly the majority of it be a private project.
Speaker 3: It depends on where we land, what the challenges are
Speaker 3: going to be from a transportation and infrastructure standpoint.
Speaker 4: I think one.
Speaker 3: Very fair ask everywhere in projects like this is that
Speaker 3: the city or whatever the governmental entity is assists in
Speaker 3: helping fans get there and helping create an infrastructure that
Speaker 3: works really well. But I don't expect the level of
Speaker 3: funding that you've seen in some of the other projects,
Speaker 3: and we're not asking for that. We actually haven't asked
Speaker 3: for anything at this point. It's going to be very
Speaker 3: site specific on the things that the city could do
Speaker 3: or is prepared to do. It'll have to be something
Speaker 3: that's very acceptable to the city government of Dallas.
Speaker 4: Whatever that might be, all right, acceptable acceptable?
Speaker 2: Excuse me? So do you think that they might change
Speaker 2: the there the whole state, if you will, when it
Speaker 2: comes to gambling. And I only bring that up because
Speaker 2: Bloomberg News did talk with Patrick Dumont and when he
Speaker 2: first bought the club, he wants to see gambling in
Speaker 2: the state. They're spending money on lobbyists. We know gambling
Speaker 2: is illegal in Texas. But you talked about this new stadium,
Speaker 2: this new arena being an incredible entertainment space. Would gambling
Speaker 2: Would you like to see gambling be a.
Speaker 3: Part of it?
Speaker 4: The two are absolutely not connected in any way.
Speaker 3: This project going forward is one hundred percent focused on
Speaker 3: creating a sports entertainment district that does not include a
Speaker 3: casino or gambling component.
Speaker 4: So we're we're full.
Speaker 3: Speed ahead with that. That's the SAMs Corporation. This is
Speaker 3: the Dallas Mavericks, and we have a project that we
Speaker 3: envision that does not include any sort of gambling component.
Speaker 5: You know, oftentimes when you talk about the NBA, then
Speaker 5: you go to the WNBA, and I frequently hear people saying, Oh,
Speaker 5: the WNBA is having a moment. The WNBA has been
Speaker 5: around for a while, but now there's a lot of
Speaker 5: new eyes on it. And of course Paige Beckers here
Speaker 5: in Dallas along with Cooper Flag. But with your experience
Speaker 5: working in the WNBA, what's your reaction to what we
Speaker 5: are seeing now in terms of the growth.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm smiling because I can't you know how
Speaker 3: I feel about the WNBA. I was at the NBA
Speaker 3: League Office and was critical part of launching the WNBA.
Speaker 3: I love everything that's happening right now. I will say,
Speaker 3: you know, taking a step back, this is a twenty
Speaker 3: eight year overnight success. Okay, this isn't something that just happened.
Speaker 3: And I'm so happy for the players, the executives, the
Speaker 3: coaches that over the last twenty eight years have built
Speaker 3: a foundation that has allowed Caitlin Clark and a Page
Speaker 3: Beckers to come in now and ignite the kind of
Speaker 3: interest and enthusiasm there is around the WNBA.
Speaker 5: You know, we're seeing now with all leagues media rights
Speaker 5: in the way of the future. I mean the MAVs.
Speaker 5: You have a local you show the game's locally, but
Speaker 5: you also have MAVs TV. What do you envision the
Speaker 5: future of media being for basketball?
Speaker 3: Well, if Julie, you're hitting on the biggest local issue
Speaker 3: that we have right now in the economics of the NBA.
Speaker 3: That said, we're also next year launching a brand new
Speaker 3: national television agreement that more than triples the rights fees
Speaker 3: that that teams will receive based on the new partnerships
Speaker 3: we have at the NBA. But at the national level,
Speaker 3: but locally, the model's broken. The regional sports network model
Speaker 3: is broken, and whether you're in baseball, hockey, or basketball,
Speaker 3: every team right now is trying to find a way
Speaker 3: to replicate kind of economics and take those valuable local broadcasts.
Speaker 4: We haven't done it yet. We know at the Mavericks we.
Speaker 3: Have a director consumer offering MAVs TV, which has more
Speaker 3: subscribers than any other comparable system in the NBA. We
Speaker 3: also have two over the air broad casters, but it
Speaker 3: doesn't begin to replicate the economics. It does for reach,
Speaker 3: which is great. We got to figure it out, and
Speaker 3: we haven't figured it out yet.
Speaker 1: Hey, Rick, before we let you go, we touched on media.
Speaker 1: Just now, we've touched on the new stadium, and we've
Speaker 1: touched on, of course the players. What else is the
Speaker 1: organization and what are you doing at the organization to
Speaker 1: raise your valuation and to grow the business.
Speaker 3: Very briefly, well, I think a lot of that is
Speaker 3: frankly top down.
Speaker 4: I think the NBA is the best.
Speaker 3: Managed league in sports with Adam Silver and Mark Tatum.
Speaker 3: I think our players Association is the most progressive with
Speaker 3: Andrea Goadala David Kelly running that, And a lot of
Speaker 3: evaluation is really driven by what the NBA is as
Speaker 3: a league, and I think I've never been more excited.
Speaker 3: This is my forty seventh year of involvement in the NBA.
Speaker 3: What's happening internationally with the NBA right now is just
Speaker 3: different than the opportunity that any of the other traditional
Speaker 3: American sports have.
Speaker 4: And I'm so excited.
Speaker 3: That our league is focused on growing, the growing the
Speaker 3: sport of basketball and the business of the NBA internationally.
Speaker 3: Those things that tripling of national television revenue, those are
Speaker 3: the things that that are big, big components of driving
Speaker 3: valuations that you know are eye popping these days.
Speaker 2: Well, good luck with the season, Rick, Thank you so
Speaker 2: much for finding so much time for us on this Monday.
Speaker 2: Rick Wildt, CEO of the Dallas Mavericks, joining our Bloomberg
Speaker 2: News Texas buer chief Julie Fine. They are both in Dallas,
Speaker 2: and Tim and I back here at Bloomberg headquarters in
Speaker 2: New York City. Rick, be well, thank you, thank you,