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Speaker 1: Hello, I'm Scotts. Not even read what happens when the

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Speaker 1: mics are off, folks. I'm Michael Barr, and this is

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Speaker 1: the Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast, where we explore the

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

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Speaker 1: is just you and me this week, Yeah, we always

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Speaker 1: miss underscore. Ran out to the US Open, left US

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Speaker 1: high and dry. I wish I was at the U

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Speaker 1: s Open, though, So go with go with underscrawled do

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Speaker 1: this myself and I have this week's topics, Medina and

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Speaker 1: I discuss Medina. Let's try run this. Let's leave Bar

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Speaker 1: out of this. What do you think of Chicago gub

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Speaker 1: starting regional sports network? Um? Fabulous? Say fabulous? There you go.

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Speaker 1: Who needs Bar? We really don't even need him. You

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Speaker 1: don't even need him? Fine, that's you know, it's fat

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Speaker 1: because people of Chicago not have a choice. I'm not

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Speaker 1: even letting you have no, no no, no, I'm not even

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Speaker 1: letting you intro. The Cubs are pulling away from their

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Speaker 1: partnership with NBC Sports Chicago, and that means they're pulling

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Speaker 1: away from the White Sox, Bulls and black Hawks. You're

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Speaker 1: gonna start their own venture. Our old friend here in

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Speaker 1: New York. Mike McCarthy formerly MSG ran the St. Louis

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Speaker 1: Blues for Dave Checkens. He's gonna run this thing up.

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Speaker 1: They got a brand, the Chicago Cubs. You know, they

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Speaker 1: feel like we can do this ourselves. Oh, now you

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Speaker 1: want to respond to me and look at your general direction, Medina,

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Speaker 1: What do you think of the regional sports network landscape

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Speaker 1: as we see it? Like, yes network in New York

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Speaker 1: s and why the powerful brands can can make this happen? Right?

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Speaker 1: I like it? There you go go ahead. This is

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Speaker 1: close to Detroit. Why don't you want you tell me

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Speaker 1: what it takes on Chicago? Mr? Detroit? Uh, you know this.

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Speaker 1: I feel sorry, by the way for NBC Sports Chicago.

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Speaker 1: You feel sorry for why they still have good programming

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Speaker 1: against the black Hawks, the Bulls, But that's white sucks,

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Speaker 1: that's that's cash money. Yes they're losing. Yeah, they're gonna

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Speaker 1: try to start this up for theirselves now, now, got

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Speaker 1: I hope they do well for you know, for Chicago's

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Speaker 1: sake and the cubs sake. But you know, and they

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Speaker 1: probably could pull it off because you're talking obviously a major,

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Speaker 1: major market and they probably will get the audience they

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Speaker 1: are the Cubbies. Yeah, so, I mean the contemplate their

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Speaker 1: own rs N maybe produced and sell your own product. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: This is the way of the future. And Tom Ricketts

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Speaker 1: has certainly created a real estate empire around Wrigley Field

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Speaker 1: and the tent poles. We always talk about attached to

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Speaker 1: these sports teams, real estate and media. Now he's starting

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Speaker 1: to flex those cubby muscles on the media side of things.

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Speaker 1: It's gonna be very interesting to see what he can accomplish.

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Speaker 1: You know, whether it's really gonna get over black Hawks fans.

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Speaker 1: Black Hawks fans are fierce fans. You thought Cubs and

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Speaker 1: White Sox fans were dedicated fans. Black Hawks fans are fierce. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Well that's that's the beauty and why everybody's fighting over

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Speaker 1: these rs n s in the Fox sale to Disney

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Speaker 1: of the assets, regional sports is where the passion lies.

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Speaker 1: Like we say, baseball isn't national to regional sport. Go

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Speaker 1: look at the baseball ratings on the regional networks. They're

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Speaker 1: really high. And that's where you get your hardcore fan

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Speaker 1: devoted to that broadcaster, devoted to that network, devoted to

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Speaker 1: that team. It's that affinity that is driving the value

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Speaker 1: out of these rsns. We gotta talk. I'm gonna direct

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Speaker 1: this now to Medina just for a second, man, just

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Speaker 1: for a second. Whatever happens if you're you know, if

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Speaker 1: you're not here and is me doing the shows? And

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Speaker 1: then Medina and I want to see how this works.

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Speaker 1: So Medina, Amazon dot Com is high Marie Downtahue, a

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Speaker 1: former ESPN executive, to oversee sports for Prime Video. That's

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Speaker 1: according to people familiar with the situation. What do you

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Speaker 1: think fantastic for who for Marie? Or four? Amazon Prime Video? Both? Both?

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Speaker 1: There you go? You know what? This shows your part

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Speaker 1: And this is what Medina meant to say along with

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Speaker 1: the fantastic. But Medina meant to say, is this shows

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Speaker 1: just how serious Amazon is taking sports. That and let

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Speaker 1: me tell you this, ready, here's a nugget not before her.

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna drop a really interesting nugget on you. You're ready.

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Speaker 1: The negotiations between Amazon and the NFL when they were,

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Speaker 1: you know, looking for the package and you know the

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Speaker 1: ones that Facebook and Twitter and everybody had negotiated with

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Speaker 1: the NFL guests who had an integral role. I'm being

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Speaker 1: told in those conversations whom Whoma Whoma Underscora, who do

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Speaker 1: you think at Amazon? Drove much of the discussion. Pick

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Speaker 1: up the phone and said, Hey, Roger Amazon dot dot dot,

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Speaker 1: who do you think that I'm talking about the one

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Speaker 1: and only Jeff Basins. Really, Jeff Bezos was integral and

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Speaker 1: those conversations. That tells you. Now you're bringing Marie down,

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Speaker 1: who longtime MESPN executive, that a lot of things over there,

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Speaker 1: knows a lot of people. You see just how serious

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Speaker 1: I like the strategy part of it. We try to

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Speaker 1: get who's doing what and why and how's it gonna fit.

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Speaker 1: You're getting a sense just how important sports is going

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Speaker 1: to be to the strategy of Amazon Video. Wow. I

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Speaker 1: had no clue that Jeff Bezos was involved in this.

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Speaker 1: Many don't, but I have two people told me this.

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Speaker 1: And this is not just uh, you know the guy

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Speaker 1: in the mail room, no offense to the guy in

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Speaker 1: the mail room, but these are two people who absolutely

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Speaker 1: at some point how to seat at the table or

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Speaker 1: discuss with the people sitting at the table what's going on.

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Speaker 1: And they both told me that Bezos played a significant

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Speaker 1: part in those talks. Now, what's cool is Amazon, because

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Speaker 1: they've been working hard to get the streaming rights to

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Speaker 1: Thursday Night Football, which, by the way, that's catching on

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Speaker 1: to me, yes, because I and I have to admit,

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Speaker 1: I was not a fan of Thursday night football. I

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Speaker 1: always thought that the league interrupted you're bowling and bingo nights,

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Speaker 1: well that well, especially mingo, but but I mean Thursday

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Speaker 1: night football. You don't have time for a team to

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Speaker 1: recover from you if you play it Sunday. That the

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Speaker 1: that's a football is a brutal game and you and

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Speaker 1: you do this weekly for for Thursday's one thing to have,

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Speaker 1: you know, Thanksgiving. I mean, yes, I'm used to the

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Speaker 1: Lions and the Cowboys playing on Thanksgiving Day. TV rules all.

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Speaker 1: I mean, we know this, TV rules all. Look at

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Speaker 1: college sports. There's a reason why these college kids are

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Speaker 1: playing on Tuesday nights, on Thursday nights, on Friday, whatever

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Speaker 1: it is that's supposed to be students. But the network

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Speaker 1: said we need content on these days, and the conferences

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Speaker 1: were more than happy to acquiesce for the check. Speaking

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Speaker 1: of college and this is unique, I had a little

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Speaker 1: going on in my own head. Is bargain to this

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Speaker 1: one out of the park? Congratulations muzzle to ou they

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Speaker 1: send you know what college kids if you don't want

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Speaker 1: to come to the football games, will pay you to

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Speaker 1: come see our your college and come see the football team.

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Speaker 1: This is what's taking place at Northern Illinois University. They're

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Speaker 1: paying the school students the chance, the chance, chance, a chance,

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Speaker 1: a chance, a hundred dollars. So if you once you

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Speaker 1: swipe your student, I d they know that you're in

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Speaker 1: the stadium and of the all the students that go.

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Speaker 1: One of the one of the ways they're trying to

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Speaker 1: draw you in is the promise of a lottery that

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Speaker 1: maybe you win a hundred bucks. Okay, and I'd like you.

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Speaker 1: Let's see if a thousand or fewer students appear, ten

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Speaker 1: students win a hundred bucks and it goes right in

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Speaker 1: your burst or account. If there's one thousand to two thousand,

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Speaker 1: twenty winners, for every additional one thousand students, ten more

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Speaker 1: will be added. So so what are the odds? Quickly?

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Speaker 1: Let me see? Well, if you talk, okay, don Meda,

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Speaker 1: did you love that? Did you see the smoke coming

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Speaker 1: out of his ears? Trying to calculate that was trying

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Speaker 1: to figure I couldn't figure it out. And then Bill

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Speaker 1: and I came over here and just looked it all up.

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Speaker 1: Now I better be sure I was right again. But

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Speaker 1: it reduces to yes, I think that's right. That's that's

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Speaker 1: a great idea. I kind of like that, you know,

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Speaker 1: And but I see this one thing I don't understand.

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Speaker 1: But let's take the attendance before you don't Northern Illinois

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Speaker 1: average eleven to nine one last season, about equal from

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Speaker 1: but down from. So that's what I'm getting at. I

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Speaker 1: don't understand why college students aren't going to see their

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Speaker 1: football team. Boy, I I what's the weather like in

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Speaker 1: Northern Illinois during half of the season. I don't know.

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Speaker 1: If I don't know anything about the weather, thing is irrelevant.

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Speaker 1: You're saying, just go have a good time as a student.

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Speaker 1: Support your team. Yeah, go and support your team. How

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Speaker 1: how about that? Well, but you're obviously getting the student rate, Yes, yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's you know, they're not going to pay what you

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Speaker 1: and I would pay. I don't know if they're good

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Speaker 1: or I gotta tell. I just know from my alma mater,

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Speaker 1: I watched as the fortunes of Syracuse football went down.

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Speaker 1: It seemed as if seemed as if the need to

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Speaker 1: go see them play also diminished. I'll put it nicely.

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Speaker 1: There was a correlation between wins and losses and attendance

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Speaker 1: in my viewing from afar of the orange. Now see, now,

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Speaker 1: I went and I took classes. Let me clarify this,

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Speaker 1: at the University of Michigan. But it was the Dearborn campus.

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Speaker 1: The people in Detroit know what I'm talking about. It

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Speaker 1: wasn't the ann Arper campus. But I'm wondering still if

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Speaker 1: I could have gone to the big house and got

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Speaker 1: the student rate, I, boy, you're better. I would Boy.

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Speaker 1: You could have been like the leader of a movement.

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Speaker 1: You could have been like the Dearborn leader. Absolutely, you

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Speaker 1: could have been the guy right up front. I should

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Speaker 1: have done that. It was like, come on, gang, let's

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Speaker 1: go in. And then you look behind you and there's nobody.

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Speaker 1: Come on, Yeah, you had a shot. Hey, thank you

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Speaker 1: so much for joining us. This is the Bloomberg Business

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Speaker 1: of Sports podcast. I'm Michael Barr along with Scott We

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Speaker 1: are here every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday exploring the world

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Speaker 1: of money in sports. Join us again at the end

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Speaker 1: of the week when we speak with the biggest and

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Speaker 1: brightest in the sports business industry. By the way, we

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Speaker 1: love you beIN you're listening to Bloomberg Business of Sports

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Speaker 1: from Bloomberg Radio around the world and online as an

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Speaker 1: Apple podcast on iTunes.