Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Carol Masser and I'm
Speaker 1: Jason Kelly. We're here every day bringing you the latest
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Speaker 1: only on Bloomberg Radio. Jason Kelly Here in Miami. We're
Speaker 1: here at SOHO Studios. It's the Bloomberg Power Players Summit,
Speaker 1: an exciting afternoon leading up to the big Game. We're
Speaker 1: talking all about the business of sports and coming up
Speaker 1: in just a few minutes, we're gonna hear from my
Speaker 1: co host, Carol Master. She's gonna be taking the stage
Speaker 1: with a number of players, current and former across some sports.
Speaker 1: We've got Jay Williams, used to play for the Chicago Bulls,
Speaker 1: now a broadcaster. We've got Ovie Ma Haley. He is
Speaker 1: a former All Pro fullback for the Atlanta Falcon. Let's
Speaker 1: Go Falcons. And Paul Rabel, friend of this show. He
Speaker 1: is currently playing in the league that he created, the
Speaker 1: Premier Lacrosse League. And Nag Good he is a linebacker
Speaker 1: for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Uh. They're talking about their business.
Speaker 1: They're talking about the business of their leagues and of
Speaker 1: their sports. And just to give you a sense of
Speaker 1: where we are, we're in this sort of corner of
Speaker 1: downtown Miami where a lot is happening. And obviously the
Speaker 1: city is really bustling right now with the super Bowl.
Speaker 1: But as you move around Miami, you do see this
Speaker 1: city that is in transition to some extent. It's wildly diverse. Uh,
Speaker 1: such an international city in many ways, You've got a
Speaker 1: lot of people sort of gravitating towards this new downtown area.
Speaker 1: We spent the last couple of days over on Miami
Speaker 1: Beach at the Miami Convention Center. That of course, is
Speaker 1: where all the media are gathered in anticipation, you know,
Speaker 1: and in speaking with Brian Billick and others who were there.
Speaker 1: Brian Billick, of course, the Super Bowl winning coach of
Speaker 1: the Baltimore Ravens. Joe thisman, uh, winning quarterbacks, people, winning
Speaker 1: quarterback you know, those are the sorts of folks that
Speaker 1: are making their way around. Jerome Bettis, we spoke with
Speaker 1: him as well about his business ventures as well as
Speaker 1: the future of the league. We talked a lot about
Speaker 1: diversity or lack thereof in hiring at the highest levels
Speaker 1: of head coaching, and he had some ideas that he
Speaker 1: said he's going to put to Roger Goodell. So those
Speaker 1: are the sorts of folks who were here in Miami.
Speaker 1: Uh And at our event, we're really focusing in on
Speaker 1: the key issues related to the business and the business
Speaker 1: of sports, not just football obviously, UH that is top
Speaker 1: of mind uh here this weekend. But when you think
Speaker 1: about the newly empowered athlete, you think about especially in
Speaker 1: the NBA, and we talked about this on an earlier panel.
Speaker 1: You think about Chris Paul, you think about Lebron James,
Speaker 1: you think about the late Kobe Bryant and the power
Speaker 1: that they had with their brands, their ability to go.
Speaker 1: And Carol was saying this a few minutes ago, directly
Speaker 1: to the consumer and directly to the fan. I'm going
Speaker 1: to take you right over to Carol Masser. Now she
Speaker 1: has a lineup of former and current players here we go.
Speaker 1: So welcome, Welcome. UM, I've been excited about this panel.
Speaker 1: All right, So we're talking about the athletes competitive edge
Speaker 1: and I'm going to kind of go through each of
Speaker 1: you and then we'll we'll kind of round tables and things. Um, Paul,
Speaker 1: I want to start with you. We've spent a lot
Speaker 1: of time with you at Bloomberg and starting a new
Speaker 1: sports league. I think in the words you said to us,
Speaker 1: it's a heavy lift, but it's incredible you had Ali
Speaker 1: Baba Joe said backing you, UM, it's pretty incredible. You
Speaker 1: co founded it with your brother Mike. Heavy lift. Why
Speaker 1: did you do it? Um, I'm glad you brought that up.
Speaker 1: Heavy lift. I wasn't as creative in my response as
Speaker 1: as I. Uh, maybe what I've hoped to have been,
Speaker 1: but heavy lift we could probably all identify with is
Speaker 1: what we do, starting at least on the field and
Speaker 1: on the core in the weight room. Uh. So that
Speaker 1: I think work ethic translates into what a lot of
Speaker 1: athletes do in the boardroom. And for me, different than
Speaker 1: my peers here, I have been playing for the Lions.
Speaker 1: Share of my athletic career sport that is outside of
Speaker 1: the core four sports that are consumed in the marketplace,
Speaker 1: and it was my passion just like their respective sports
Speaker 1: are theirs. And when you get an opportunity to be
Speaker 1: one of the best additive at whatever it is that
Speaker 1: you do, and you continue to move from high school
Speaker 1: to college and then in my case pro uh, it
Speaker 1: became very apparent that uh, the professional opportunity and lacrosse
Speaker 1: wasn't there yet. It could have been based on I
Speaker 1: think what we're gonna talk about the subject matter today,
Speaker 1: which is the advent of new technology, new media, UH,
Speaker 1: relative startup costs going down, opportunity and going up UH
Speaker 1: and an educational um uh kind of swinging amongst athletes,
Speaker 1: and and the opportunity to then uh leverage platform and
Speaker 1: do something that is intellectually stimulating that can impact the
Speaker 1: economy and impact your subset of of colleagues. And in
Speaker 1: my case, it was, Hey, not only do I want
Speaker 1: to do something that I think our support deserves in
Speaker 1: lacrosse and leverage all those modern tools to get there,
Speaker 1: but it can materially impact the professional career of my peers. UM.
Speaker 1: It was a heavy lift because starting a leak from
Speaker 1: scratch is almost unimaginable there are so many nuances from
Speaker 1: you know, legal to marketing, to fundraising, to to brand
Speaker 1: building too, player contracts to venue negotiations to sponsorship agreements
Speaker 1: that all have to be in place for it to start.
Speaker 1: And the last thing I'll say is different than you know,
Speaker 1: building the sas company or any other product or service
Speaker 1: from the ground up. You can delay your launch until
Speaker 1: you're perfectly set to go to market. In a sports league,
Speaker 1: we had to negotiate all those venues, build our player
Speaker 1: of contracts, have our media rights deal with NBC, and
Speaker 1: start on June one, So there was no delaying of that.
Speaker 1: So we were literally our feet weren't against the fire.
Speaker 1: We were in the fire building this thing. Right, you
Speaker 1: gotta commit and go today. I want to bring you
Speaker 1: in speaking of um heavy lift just in New York
Speaker 1: Times a few years ago. And if you guys get
Speaker 1: quiet down, because I want to I want to read this. Jason,
Speaker 1: your high school All American, National Player of the Year,
Speaker 1: national champion at duke, number two overall in the NBA
Speaker 1: draft selection. It all came to an end in June
Speaker 1: of two thousand three. You had a motorcycle accident. It
Speaker 1: put you an intense of care for five weeks, you
Speaker 1: watched on TV as your team, the Chicago Bulls. They
Speaker 1: drafted your replacement. You're on your back for months at
Speaker 1: a time. You don't even know if you were going
Speaker 1: to walk again. I mean, this was unbelievable. Your leg
Speaker 1: held together by a hundred staples, various metal, metal contraptions.
Speaker 1: Your comeback took years, and yet you did. You've reinvented yourself.
Speaker 1: You're having your second act. You're an ESPN analyst, you're
Speaker 1: a co founder and a company. UM tell us about
Speaker 1: what you learned as an athlete that helps you get
Speaker 1: through all this and get here us. Thank you. I
Speaker 1: hope that I can have a third, or fourth or
Speaker 1: fifth in the sixth act. I think by the current
Speaker 1: events that we've all experienced this past week, I think
Speaker 1: we all have a there's a level of appreciation that
Speaker 1: comes with the opportunity that we're provided. And I think
Speaker 1: for me personally, we talked about risk mitigation with a
Speaker 1: lot of things do when you're young and you're giving
Speaker 1: a lot of money, and the thing that makes athletes
Speaker 1: great is their competitive edge. For me, I came from
Speaker 1: an environment in which we were very team oriented, but
Speaker 1: the team I got drafted to was a bad team,
Speaker 1: So you had a lot of individuals and a bad team.
Speaker 1: And I had never been through that experience UM because
Speaker 1: I used to be in collective UM as a unit
Speaker 1: and that led me to writing Moorcycle that led me
Speaker 1: to be in hospital. But I think the way I
Speaker 1: was able to reinvent, and I think you see a
Speaker 1: lot of companies that are able to do this as well,
Speaker 1: is when you start owning your story. I think for
Speaker 1: a long time I tried to stiff farm my story
Speaker 1: and try to make it not a part of who
Speaker 1: I was. But as I have a scar that runs
Speaker 1: from my ankle all the way up to my high thigh, uh,
Speaker 1: for the first, you know, year of my life, I
Speaker 1: would always complain about a scar until I realized that
Speaker 1: I still have my damn leg and having my leg
Speaker 1: is something to be appreciative about. And then I started
Speaker 1: hearing other people's stories about whether you're starting a franchise
Speaker 1: or whether you're starting a league, or whether you have
Speaker 1: a data company, whatever it might be, the startup process
Speaker 1: of it, and I recognize that there are troubles that
Speaker 1: we all go through in that startup process of whatever industry.
Speaker 1: That you're currently in. So I realized that other people
Speaker 1: had accidents in other forms or fashions of their life,
Speaker 1: and I was like, well, I think a way I
Speaker 1: can connect myself to other people is talk openly about
Speaker 1: my accident, about what I learned through my experiences, about
Speaker 1: how I tried to reinvent myself. And that made the
Speaker 1: connectivity so much easier for me to relate and people
Speaker 1: to relate to me about my story. And I think
Speaker 1: by doing that, I started to build out my personal
Speaker 1: board about people that I think held themselves to higher
Speaker 1: standards in different verticals business, being a dad, now being
Speaker 1: a husband, and I started surrounding myself with people that
Speaker 1: I thought could help me get to the aspirational places
Speaker 1: that I want to be. I want to bring a nausey. Um.
Speaker 1: You're balancing both kind of your first and second act.
Speaker 1: You're still playing Paul, still playing Um. But what's it
Speaker 1: like to balance that with creating a company and trying
Speaker 1: to build that out as well? And talk to us
Speaker 1: little bit about vbo. Um. Yes, So vbo is a
Speaker 1: monetization technology. We monetize any digital software and through pictures
Speaker 1: and video and for me personally, balancing into has not
Speaker 1: been that difficult because of the behavior that we perform
Speaker 1: in the company and what I do on the football field, UM,
Speaker 1: similar to what we are able to provide for the
Speaker 1: fans for a better fan experience is the same thing
Speaker 1: that I see every day, UM, and that is reluctant
Speaker 1: to trust, teamwork, and leadership, and in those three entities
Speaker 1: with trust, just like in our business, you know, you
Speaker 1: have trust in your teammates, you have teamwork and a
Speaker 1: cohesion on the football field, and you have leadership and
Speaker 1: with us working with existing content optimizing the fan experience
Speaker 1: by allowing fans to directly connect to better stories, you know,
Speaker 1: we are able to do those things seamlessly. And I'm
Speaker 1: able to perform at a high level every Sunday that
Speaker 1: I get to approach the game, and it's allowed me
Speaker 1: to still play and build this company as well as
Speaker 1: actually you know, prepare every um and over. I want
Speaker 1: to bring you into because you played for the Ravens
Speaker 1: or All Pro with the Falcons, you met Ted Turner
Speaker 1: and his daughter and kind of your world changed and sustainability,
Speaker 1: through a couple of different steps became really important to you. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: UM truly honored to really check check check check, all right,
Speaker 1: got you? So I say I was truly honored when
Speaker 1: I got to the Falcons. I was, you know, I
Speaker 1: was blessed to be the highest paid fullback in NFL
Speaker 1: history at the time, and that was something that stuck
Speaker 1: with me and people kind of knew me for that.
Speaker 1: But I didn't want to just be the highest paid.
Speaker 1: I wanted to be the best, and I wanted to
Speaker 1: be the most influential with that platform. And one of
Speaker 1: the things that um occurred around a similar time I
Speaker 1: got chance to meet Ted Turner and his daughter, was
Speaker 1: that our kids were me and my wife's kids were
Speaker 1: born to really premature um. They couldn't leave the nick
Speaker 1: You couldn't leave the hospital until the air quality Atlanta
Speaker 1: got got better. And I wasn't big on air quality
Speaker 1: or pollution or environment statability just wasn't my thing. But
Speaker 1: when it affects your kids, when it has a chance
Speaker 1: to you know, take out the people that you love
Speaker 1: the most, it makes you, as a father, realized that
Speaker 1: you've got to do more than just play ball, you know,
Speaker 1: live life and keep it moving. So I started my
Speaker 1: foundation where we you know, educate and inspired the next
Speaker 1: generation of environmental leaders we do. Uh. We have a
Speaker 1: comic book called Gridiron Green where we used the stainable
Speaker 1: development goals that United Nations and Unit STEF have created.
Speaker 1: As a part of our curriculum. We also have a
Speaker 1: green Tailgate Initiative where we teach sports fans, if you're
Speaker 1: gonna tailgate, do so in the environmental responsible way. We
Speaker 1: also have a speaker series where we teach um communities
Speaker 1: of color about green jobs because the crazy thing is
Speaker 1: that communities of color are disapportunately affected by the environmental
Speaker 1: by climate crisis, but they're they don't have the opportunity
Speaker 1: to to take part in the green economy. So sports
Speaker 1: is that wonderful connector that has the ability to tell
Speaker 1: a story, to restate with people, and to really, you know,
Speaker 1: give people the opportunity to make green by going green.
Speaker 1: And it's something that we've been excited to do at
Speaker 1: my foundation and something we're gonna keep on doing. You know,
Speaker 1: what I'd love to do is throw it out to
Speaker 1: all of you is what is it about what you've
Speaker 1: learned either playing the game, um playing on the field.
Speaker 1: What is it the traits that you got in doing
Speaker 1: that that have really made a difference in going out
Speaker 1: on your own, starting a business or creating a new league.
Speaker 1: What is it that you see that kind of maybe
Speaker 1: makes you different from other business people? What is it
Speaker 1: that maybe gives you the advantage. I'm curious, OK, let's
Speaker 1: start with you. I mean, well, well, what it is
Speaker 1: is that you know, I'm a fullback. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you have what fullbacks is are, but fullbacks we
Speaker 1: blocked for our running backs and our and our quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: And I've lived my whole life for the majority of
Speaker 1: my football life as always you know in the background,
Speaker 1: that's fine. We're blue callar workers. Like if I challenge
Speaker 1: the audience to name like five fullbacks, I guarantee you
Speaker 1: you guys can't name five fullbacks. And so we're we're
Speaker 1: more of, you know, the glue that whole the team together.
Speaker 1: And being able to be comfortable in your position to
Speaker 1: know your role. That's something that has really allowed me
Speaker 1: in my business career. My my dad is a position.
Speaker 1: My parents not deering immigrants, and they really instilled in us,
Speaker 1: uh that work ethic. Uh. My dad was like either
Speaker 1: a doctor, lawyer, engineer. All immigrant families doctor lawyer, engineer.
Speaker 1: Football wasn't even his think he wasn't too excited about football.
Speaker 1: He's okay now, he's good now. But that that work
Speaker 1: that he taught me in understanding how to play your
Speaker 1: role has helped me my medical sales business and the
Speaker 1: work of my foundation. Any thoughts or Yeah, Well, it's
Speaker 1: it's a great question that we think about as athletes
Speaker 1: pretty regularly, and I would say that it's highly bespoke
Speaker 1: to any individual in any industry. I would I would
Speaker 1: venture to guess that pro athletes, by and large, the
Speaker 1: bulk of them have an incredib doable work ethic to
Speaker 1: what you had said, and in the ability to go
Speaker 1: to hell and back and that mindset that's cultivated at
Speaker 1: an early age and during physical pain and a lot
Speaker 1: of mental pain. UH, is unique to sport, but there
Speaker 1: are plenty of executives and young analysts in all industries
Speaker 1: that have incredible competitive spirit and work ethic too, So
Speaker 1: it's not exclusive to athletes. That's just one trade. What
Speaker 1: I found, though, is shared amongst a lot of other
Speaker 1: athletes that I've seen a crossover in the business world.
Speaker 1: Sometimes while playing and then in many cases when they're done,
Speaker 1: is the ability to critically think. So they're critical thinkers. Uh.
Speaker 1: The translation starts in practice. So the best athletes in
Speaker 1: the world they understand at an early age that team
Speaker 1: practice is only the starting block. And what they do
Speaker 1: is they go to the backyard, they play basketball. They
Speaker 1: imagine ten other people on the court. They're creative, and
Speaker 1: they're thinking critically about ways that they can build their
Speaker 1: skill so that they can outcompete their competitors. And that
Speaker 1: skill translate and translated for me in business is to
Speaker 1: be able to take everything that's in front of me,
Speaker 1: not accept anything at face value, ask questions, think critically
Speaker 1: around ways that we can innovate or improve that process,
Speaker 1: and then apply it immediately. And I think that's the
Speaker 1: last thing before I pass it over to Jay is
Speaker 1: is the the ability to move very fast, come up
Speaker 1: with an idea and implement it. Is part of what
Speaker 1: we do in sports on a weekly basis. We play
Speaker 1: a game every week, we assess whether we win or lose,
Speaker 1: we look at the updated scatter report, and we change.
Speaker 1: And in business, especially with very mature companies, that changing
Speaker 1: cycle is sometimes six to eighteen months. In sports, it's
Speaker 1: every week. And that's why a lot of athletes get
Speaker 1: into the startup space because they're used to that velocity. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would say, I think, um, being an athlete, you're
Speaker 1: very solutions oriented, and being an athlete doesn't always translate
Speaker 1: to business all the time. You know, I was only
Speaker 1: an athlete in the NBA for one year. I've been
Speaker 1: more in the corporate side than I have on the
Speaker 1: athlete side. I mean my first four or five years
Speaker 1: at ESPN, I made thirty five dollars, all right. So
Speaker 1: I think the ability to communicate from being a point
Speaker 1: guard or something that was critical because, just like Paul
Speaker 1: alluded to, you have to be able to communicate in
Speaker 1: real time two people understanding what their personality traits are
Speaker 1: to get them to buy into something bigger than themselves
Speaker 1: in order for the ultimate goal for the team, which
Speaker 1: is to win. You know, we do a show with
Speaker 1: Kevin durand Rich climb and called The Boar Room that
Speaker 1: we license back to ESPN, and it's been amazing to
Speaker 1: sit down with all these individual athletes to understand how
Speaker 1: they go about themselves as a business. I think today
Speaker 1: the landscape has changed drastically. First off, the money has changed.
Speaker 1: I would be curious to see what highest fullback is
Speaker 1: paid in today's game. As a pair supposed to what
Speaker 1: you got paid. But I think now even from a
Speaker 1: risk mitigation perspective, I mean, you're thinking about yourself as
Speaker 1: a business. It actually let me to become a partner
Speaker 1: in an insurance company with Epic Insurance, because now you're
Speaker 1: looking at all the different verticals of your business, from
Speaker 1: yourself as a brand to the cyberspace you know it's
Speaker 1: happening around this weekend. Even from the investment broad space,
Speaker 1: you have to look at all the different aspects of
Speaker 1: yourself because now you are an international brand that can
Speaker 1: parlay into equity sticks and companies that can parlay into
Speaker 1: brand endorsement deals or into creating your own brand itself.
Speaker 1: I've got this incredible panel up here and it's really
Speaker 1: hard to hear, So could I just ask you to
Speaker 1: just simmer down a little bit? Thank you? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: would like to add that. Um. One of the things
Speaker 1: that's been unique in my career plan middle linebacker, UM,
Speaker 1: you just signal caller. We get to speak directly to
Speaker 1: the heads of everyone that involves the game and in business.
Speaker 1: Something that we do uniquely with VPO is that we
Speaker 1: get to speak to all of the size of business
Speaker 1: from the front office perspective to the football side, to
Speaker 1: the fans side, and provide the best band experience at
Speaker 1: the optimal time, at the peak moment of interest. And
Speaker 1: being a great leader and being a middle linebacker the defense,
Speaker 1: playing on defenses, and you know, and thinking about what
Speaker 1: goes on in the game. As a teammate and as
Speaker 1: a leader, you into this flow during the game, just
Speaker 1: like you're doing business. You into this flow of exstasis
Speaker 1: where you have to be a cohesive machine. And in
Speaker 1: football there's eleven parts, and you know on lcross and
Speaker 1: basketball there's five, and then you know you understand that
Speaker 1: being a fullback, there's each Each person has a specific
Speaker 1: job to do on each play to optimize the output
Speaker 1: of it. And when you do that job the right way,
Speaker 1: there's always something that you continue to tweak and you
Speaker 1: continue to change and you continue to do better as
Speaker 1: you progress through each entire play. And it's similar to
Speaker 1: the cycles in business as you go through business and
Speaker 1: as we extend ourselves and as you look at content
Speaker 1: for us, but typically we like to find out different
Speaker 1: peak moments of interest, and in my circumstances standpoint, I
Speaker 1: actually get to see those while we're still playing while you,
Speaker 1: you know, you get to identify the offense. You get
Speaker 1: to see what fans, you get to see what vendors,
Speaker 1: you get to see what owners in front office people
Speaker 1: like to identify with. And they enter that flow of
Speaker 1: vic stasis, and if you're able to pull them into
Speaker 1: that and capitalize on it, that's what makes your business better.
Speaker 1: One more thing to add to a great question, which
Speaker 1: is in pro sports, the reason why we're all here,
Speaker 1: the business of sports has enhanced. It's so dynamic, right,
Speaker 1: there's gaming, there's e sports, there's a corporate sponsorship model.
Speaker 1: What's evolved, media rights has taken over, dynamic ticketing pricing,
Speaker 1: and so it's gotten very attractive and why we have
Speaker 1: so many sophisticated business people entering sports. But think about
Speaker 1: players as this, whether it's a five year, ten year,
Speaker 1: or twenty year career, you're an understudy to that business.
Speaker 1: We have exposure every day to the ownership groups, to
Speaker 1: the gms, to the team presidents, and a lot of
Speaker 1: athletes are very aware and smart about that and they're listening.
Speaker 1: So whether they realize it at an early age or
Speaker 1: when they start becoming a veteran, they're like, oh, I
Speaker 1: I get it now, and so put it this way.
Speaker 1: At at the core sport level, these athletes have exposure
Speaker 1: to multibillion dollar businesses and how these businesses are functioning.
Speaker 1: So having oh no, no, go ahead, I will say
Speaker 1: one thing that I think we all kind of touched
Speaker 1: all that's extremely important, especially in the business world, is
Speaker 1: this that level of teamwork that's necessary because as we've
Speaker 1: all played our roles, we have to be able to
Speaker 1: know when to give, when to get, when to add
Speaker 1: a little boy, and play the role as a team.
Speaker 1: When Um I got out of the NFL, entered the
Speaker 1: business space, and even on the philanthropic side, it was
Speaker 1: something that came natural to me. Um and finding solution
Speaker 1: as well extremely important when it comes to the climate crisis.
Speaker 1: Big problem needs a big solution. And I've been you know,
Speaker 1: blessed to talk to the n double A CP and
Speaker 1: Brontal Justice Program, talking to Green Sports Lines, Peep America
Speaker 1: beautiful and we're all get our heads together with the
Speaker 1: MEPA and other great partners and trying to figure out
Speaker 1: what can be that key to spread the word. And
Speaker 1: it's great that sports keeps on coming back over and
Speaker 1: over again to get athletes who have the influence the
Speaker 1: platform to share something that can truly make a difference. Well,
Speaker 1: this is great because Jason and I talked about this
Speaker 1: a little bit earlier, and I think we've you know,
Speaker 1: you athletes in terms of controlling your brand right and
Speaker 1: think about the reach that you have, whether it's through
Speaker 1: social media and how you can quickly go right to
Speaker 1: your fan base. What's so many questions? What's your responsibility
Speaker 1: whether it's Hong Kong protests or some other injustices that
Speaker 1: are going on. Because you're seeing a lot of tensions
Speaker 1: between team owners, between leagues and between players. Tell me
Speaker 1: about that balance and how tricky it is. Oh, I
Speaker 1: think that also depends upon the latitude of your employer.
Speaker 1: You have to understand time example, do the leagues have
Speaker 1: a lot of latitude as your employer. But I mean
Speaker 1: for every action, there's a reaction. There repercussions for what
Speaker 1: you decide to stand for. Kyler Kaepernick, I understand that's
Speaker 1: a bigger issue that we can tap into. But I
Speaker 1: had the same issue all the time with the ESPN obviously,
Speaker 1: um look esp and his own it's a parent company
Speaker 1: is Disney obviously with Bob Iger and you have to
Speaker 1: understand for certain things. If you tread upon certain things
Speaker 1: that the company mandates that they don't want you to
Speaker 1: tap into, there will be repercussions for that. So I
Speaker 1: think there is a responsibility to a degree, but you
Speaker 1: have to understand what the sacrifices are. And I think
Speaker 1: that's a huge statement for a lot of younger athletes
Speaker 1: because I look, we just the platform is there. We
Speaker 1: can talk about anything that we want whenever we want
Speaker 1: to talk about that. That's a gift. But with that
Speaker 1: gift comes responsibility to understand there are repercussions if you
Speaker 1: decide to go against the grain of what your employer
Speaker 1: teams not important and I want you guys to wait
Speaker 1: because I do wonder now that you run businesses, do
Speaker 1: you understand that other side? Yeah, So on the on
Speaker 1: the business side of the house. What's been really interesting
Speaker 1: as we've seen this startup economy proliferate called like the
Speaker 1: shark the shark tank era. Uh, the cost to start
Speaker 1: a business has never been better, and founders are equity
Speaker 1: rich and cash poor. Their business goals are to acquire customers.
Speaker 1: The best way to acquire a customer is to go
Speaker 1: direct to that customer, not out of home. In your
Speaker 1: marketing flip side, you have athletes who for a long
Speaker 1: time have been cash rich and equity poor, so there's
Speaker 1: a natural match. Then, with the evolution of social media,
Speaker 1: athletes now can go for the first time direct a consumer.
Speaker 1: Athletes haven't become all of a sudden these celebrities that
Speaker 1: didn't have the same pop thirty forty fifty years ago.
Speaker 1: Think Joe Namath, Think Muhammad Ali, think Michael Jordan's. What
Speaker 1: we have now is social and we have that access
Speaker 1: to our audience whenever we want. It's not when linear
Speaker 1: media affords us that opportunity. So if you take the
Speaker 1: two trends and you marry them, that's why a lot
Speaker 1: of athletes now are working with founders of startups, and
Speaker 1: a lot of founders of startups are looking to touch
Speaker 1: athletes because of that direct a consumer, the work ethic,
Speaker 1: the critical thinking, the creativity. But it's a natural marriage,
Speaker 1: and I think that's why in particular, athletes are looking
Speaker 1: at early stage investments. Um, if we had sizable checks
Speaker 1: and you're looking with athletes that are now being LPs
Speaker 1: of larger private equity funds, and you can maybe de
Speaker 1: risk your portfolio and invest in a later stage business.
Speaker 1: But I think because of social media new tech athletes
Speaker 1: building scalable audiences that they can access authentically and that
Speaker 1: being the missing piece for a lot of leveraged startups.
Speaker 1: That's where we're seeing a lot of connection. I think
Speaker 1: they is absolutely amazing opportunity for athletes and for brands
Speaker 1: with social media, but it's also a very dangerous opportunity
Speaker 1: for athletes and their brands with social media. And we've
Speaker 1: seen so many great athletes crash and burn because they
Speaker 1: couldn't stop their Twitter fingers and because they couldn't post
Speaker 1: too much of their life, and because they felt like
Speaker 1: sharing and being transparent their true self was the best
Speaker 1: way to go. You know, would be just that, but
Speaker 1: it wasn't. It actually can ruin a ten fifteen year
Speaker 1: career like that. So it's very important to train these
Speaker 1: these kids at a young age, even high school, because
Speaker 1: we're going back and looking at what you tweeted in
Speaker 1: high school. We're going back to see what you said
Speaker 1: when when you were a young dumb kid. And if
Speaker 1: you have stay with are too strong, people will hold
Speaker 1: that against you and will mess your money. Well, that's
Speaker 1: just happening there right now. You have a lot of
Speaker 1: kids who I know in the basketball space who are thirteen, fourteen,
Speaker 1: fifteen years old that four injun fifty people that follow
Speaker 1: them on Instagram. So I think right now, the more
Speaker 1: that we have informative conversations like this, these kids are
Speaker 1: understanding from a lot earlier her an age because Paul's
Speaker 1: Paul's in product of something that's great. Right. It's the revolution.
Speaker 1: It's the revolution, it's the way, it's the revolution of
Speaker 1: athletes and the way we think today now. But I
Speaker 1: think when you have kids who are twelve years old
Speaker 1: that are seeing the business of their brand and seeing
Speaker 1: their brand being monetized and exposed and having access, it
Speaker 1: just keeps you a different mindset at earlier age. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that the one thing after you see how
Speaker 1: social media has affected the game and how fast that
Speaker 1: it is sped up the messaging of the teams and
Speaker 1: what happens with the team, that co exists with the athlete.
Speaker 1: Athletes have to understand that the responsibility of social media
Speaker 1: is placed at the premium of the level that their
Speaker 1: plan and if they want to make it to the
Speaker 1: premium level, they have to understand that at a young age.
Speaker 1: They have to start at a premium level to telling stories.
Speaker 1: And that's one thing that as an athlete growing up
Speaker 1: in social media, you know when I can him out.
Speaker 1: I came out as Instagram started to trend. Everybody was
Speaker 1: still on Facebook. And as Instagram started to trend up,
Speaker 1: you see sponsors and you see the intermingle of what
Speaker 1: you know, what athletes want to say and versus what
Speaker 1: they want to do, and and they need to recognize
Speaker 1: that if you want to make it to this premium
Speaker 1: stage at a young age, that's exactly what the coaches,
Speaker 1: the owners, the front office that everybody's paying attention to.
Speaker 1: I get it. It's being responsible. But I do wonder
Speaker 1: about you guys. Know, you have this incredible platform for
Speaker 1: being social agents have change and I mean Muhammad Ali
Speaker 1: Alle did it, you know, Arthur Ashe. I mean, these
Speaker 1: are people who went out on a limb and and
Speaker 1: through social media you can do it. And I do
Speaker 1: wonder is that your responsibility to help push for those changes?
Speaker 1: It is? It is a responsibility, um because like I
Speaker 1: relate to personal experience, I was on the Eagles when
Speaker 1: we had the player Coalition dealing with specifically Colin Kaepernick
Speaker 1: and dealing with the things that happened with er agree
Speaker 1: it's a responsibility to properly explain and tell the true
Speaker 1: message that you know that will affect and provide the
Speaker 1: most positive life and what is actually really going on.
Speaker 1: There are so many things that change and involve around
Speaker 1: the game of sports and in social media. As soon
Speaker 1: as you implement your message, it can have a ripple
Speaker 1: effect that goes throughout the entire sports with the entertainment world,
Speaker 1: and that startups and different companies get involved in it,
Speaker 1: and people are starting to express express themselves, and they're
Speaker 1: starting to involve themselves in different types of technologies and
Speaker 1: able to tell these more fluid stories. They need to
Speaker 1: understand that the fans are able to access them, and
Speaker 1: they're able to interpret these things in a way fluid
Speaker 1: manner and able to interpret them and able to use
Speaker 1: them against them or for them. So I think one
Speaker 1: aspects that sometimes becomes missed is the opportunity of collaboration.
Speaker 1: So the way I would look at something if I
Speaker 1: wanted to make a statement, since there is one degree
Speaker 1: of separation with the likes of venture capitalists or bide
Speaker 1: by your guys like that reaching out to those individuals
Speaker 1: and saying, let's talk through the pros and cons of
Speaker 1: what I want my statement to be. What effect does
Speaker 1: this have on entity I currently worked for? And I
Speaker 1: want the same from my employees. Hey, if there's something
Speaker 1: that you want to make, okay, let's talk about what
Speaker 1: the repercussions of those actions could be. But I think
Speaker 1: collaboration is something that we need to start having more
Speaker 1: conversations about instead of just I think sometimes when social
Speaker 1: media becomes knee jerk, I have to have to do
Speaker 1: this right now in front of everybody, make my statement
Speaker 1: without been thinking about what your statement is going to be,
Speaker 1: um and understanding with the words that you say. Let
Speaker 1: me look, I had in real time. I had to
Speaker 1: process a guy that was a mentor to me passing away.
Speaker 1: It was raw. It was very emotional for me. I
Speaker 1: cursed on TV. Yes, I cursed on TV. Walking away
Speaker 1: from the experience being emotional, I wonder what it would
Speaker 1: have been like. And I understand that everybody else appreciated
Speaker 1: that raw emotion. But I also have a wife and
Speaker 1: I have a child. That is my livelihood and I
Speaker 1: have to think as soon as I walked up that
Speaker 1: set my job is in jeopardy because of what I
Speaker 1: did to a degree. Um, it comes along with the territory.
Speaker 1: That's part of the responsibility as well. Um, I've only
Speaker 1: got a couple more minutes, and I just wanted to
Speaker 1: wrap up, Um if you could. I know, I hate
Speaker 1: these kind of questions, but you guys are pretty amazing
Speaker 1: group up here. If you could sit down with one
Speaker 1: person right now, talk to them about your business, pick
Speaker 1: their brains, just briefly, who would it be and why
Speaker 1: I only got two minutes and fifteen seconds take ahead.
Speaker 1: I am um actually got a chance to spend some
Speaker 1: time with him. It's one of the backers of Paul's company.
Speaker 1: Joe and Clara said, I think yeah. I think yeah,
Speaker 1: seeing how they've managed Ali Baba, seeing how they originated that,
Speaker 1: how they've scaled that business to the degree, what the
Speaker 1: future of that vertical is for them. I find it
Speaker 1: so intriguing because you talk about social responsibility, right, yes, Um,
Speaker 1: perfect person to talk to and that becomes a chat munch, Paul,
Speaker 1: your next we gotta quick one one person. I could
Speaker 1: probably list off a dozen, you could pick one, so
Speaker 1: I would say, I would say alive. I would say
Speaker 1: Bob Iger. I haven't had a chance to meet Mr Iger,
Speaker 1: but I think the complexity of the Walt Disney business
Speaker 1: from events to media, Uh, it's probably mirrors the way
Speaker 1: we think about the pol We think about us as
Speaker 1: a media company, that lacrosse is the vehicle of which
Speaker 1: we're building in the livelihood of our players, but how
Speaker 1: do we distribute that product in Walt Disney Company has
Speaker 1: done a terrific job, great at integrating so many platforms
Speaker 1: twenty seconds one can go yeah quick. I would say
Speaker 1: someone similar to what I'm involved with, like a Steve
Speaker 1: Jobs and entertainment Jimmy Ivien or Zy because of how
Speaker 1: they scale what they've been ever to build and how
Speaker 1: to connect and entertainment and sports is what we do.
Speaker 1: We're entertainers, you know, we're athletes, and we're involved in
Speaker 1: this sports text. So the entertin of those two and
Speaker 1: like I don't know if you're familiar with the movie
Speaker 1: The Defiant Ones, seeing how they've built that conglomerate and
Speaker 1: able to satisfy with music, entertainment and sports and tech
Speaker 1: with Steve Jobs out of this is a great bunch
Speaker 1: of people. One easy U A former team owner Arthur blank.
Speaker 1: The fact that he's been able to do so much
Speaker 1: in the sports space and in the business space emerge
Speaker 1: out together. It's been amazing what you can accomplished. All right, gentlemen,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. Incredible panel, and I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Thank you. We have another speaker and we want to
Speaker 1: get to our next speaker. Really embodies the American dream.
Speaker 1: At the age of five years old, she was left
Speaker 1: in an orphanage in soul. Today she's one of the
Speaker 1: most powerful women in sports. Kimbugle, co owner of the
Speaker 1: Buffalo Bills Buffalo sabers here to talk about her story
Speaker 1: and really just what it's like to be an owner
Speaker 1: in an environment, a very dynamic environment that is changing constantly.
Speaker 1: So thank you so much. We want to talk about
Speaker 1: a lot of things. One of the questions I want
Speaker 1: to ask you and forgive me, but what's it like
Speaker 1: being a very successful woman in a sport that is
Speaker 1: so dominated by men. It's it's awesome. I'm sorry, isn't
Speaker 1: really all awesome. I'm not trying to make anyone jealous,
Speaker 1: but um, I have the best job in the world.
Speaker 1: You know what I this is, you know it. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of challenges of course, but I can tell
Speaker 1: you just I'm having so much fun. Ever any moment
Speaker 1: though where they're like, oh, Kim, what does your husband
Speaker 1: think about this? Um? No, you know what my my
Speaker 1: um my husband and I we're we've been married for
Speaker 1: about twenty seven years and he has been a great
Speaker 1: partner of mine. And I remember when you, um when
Speaker 1: we talked about the bid coming up to buy the bills.
Speaker 1: He's like him, like, like, you gotta get on board
Speaker 1: because I can't do this and you know, without without
Speaker 1: you and I and certainly that. Um So he's always
Speaker 1: been my biggest supporter and it's been very grateful. But
Speaker 1: then at the same time he's like, all right, you
Speaker 1: go do it. So he's like it's great to have
Speaker 1: the support. But then you realize you're the one doing
Speaker 1: all the work. Not always but sometimes times. But it's
Speaker 1: great being an owner, being a female in football. Um.
Speaker 1: Like I said, I just I'm so blessed and I
Speaker 1: love I love it every day. And so what's the
Speaker 1: big challenge for you? I'm going to use your mind,
Speaker 1: So what's the big challenge for you right now? In
Speaker 1: in obviously a lot of focus this weekend because it
Speaker 1: is the Super Bowl. It's a good time to sort
Speaker 1: of take stock of where you are as an owner.
Speaker 1: What's number one on your list? You know, really we
Speaker 1: would not be here without our players, and they get
Speaker 1: in our fans. And so every year, regardless of our
Speaker 1: our wins our losses, UM, every year is a new
Speaker 1: challenge because you I mean the forty niners were you know,
Speaker 1: they were almost one of the worst teams last year,
Speaker 1: and this year they're in the Big Game. And so
Speaker 1: every year is different and you can't always like count
Speaker 1: on what you did right or what you did wrong. UM.
Speaker 1: But the just the fan base, UM, trying to re
Speaker 1: engage with them, all the new technology that comes through,
Speaker 1: you've got new players, UM. You know, the struggles that
Speaker 1: any business have when you don't know what it is.
Speaker 1: So I think that's really is just how do we
Speaker 1: keep engaging our fans, How do we keep building on
Speaker 1: what we have? How do you do that? Because we
Speaker 1: you know, we've had some conversations and planning for this.
Speaker 1: Jason and I talked about it with our own families
Speaker 1: that there is so much UM. I think George Pine
Speaker 1: used this expression like competing force mind space. So how
Speaker 1: do you you want, you know, you want the fans
Speaker 1: at the games, but you also want to keep them
Speaker 1: engaged when they're a way. So how do you compete
Speaker 1: with so much that's out there? Well, yeah, and we
Speaker 1: found that, you know, we used to think that you
Speaker 1: could kind of compete with another club. You're you're competing
Speaker 1: against another league, you know, basketball, hockey, whatever it is, UM.
Speaker 1: But we found that we're really competing for people's time
Speaker 1: and the convenience because they're able to do, you know,
Speaker 1: go on their phone and get a ride to wherever
Speaker 1: they want to go. They can have groceries delivered right
Speaker 1: to right to your door. And so people are now
Speaker 1: expecting out of their experience all the ease and convenience
Speaker 1: that they're getting from all these other industries that you know,
Speaker 1: before we didn't think we're our competitors, UM, but certainly
Speaker 1: now now they are because they want that same level
Speaker 1: of expectations UM for our fans. Do and Kim. How
Speaker 1: do you create a club and create sort of an
Speaker 1: ethos around the club that's reflective of the city. I mean,
Speaker 1: Buffalo is is in a mirror can city in so
Speaker 1: many ways, for good and bad, especially now in so
Speaker 1: what is it about the team that reflects the city. Well,
Speaker 1: you know what I really do, there's um, you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes I feel like we can't as a club in
Speaker 1: the league. Sometimes they have a lot of rules, right,
Speaker 1: and of course, you know, we gotta play within those rules.
Speaker 1: But I think that authenticity that you know, we we
Speaker 1: talk about a lot um, I think that you have
Speaker 1: to really embrace that. So um in Buffalo we have
Speaker 1: this is called Bill's Mafia. Was not started by the club.
Speaker 1: In fact, we kind of really shied away for because
Speaker 1: we're like, oh, that's kind of like a negative and
Speaker 1: tones we're not, you know, not that kind of family,
Speaker 1: um and so. But but that's what the fans like
Speaker 1: felt like they just embraced it as their own. And
Speaker 1: now we're like, no, let's partner with that. Let's embrace
Speaker 1: me that because that's who we are. So really understanding
Speaker 1: our core fan who we are and then allowing them
Speaker 1: organically naturally to help us really be who we are
Speaker 1: at a team. And and if you any of our players,
Speaker 1: you'll see there'll be like a shout out to Bills Mafia,
Speaker 1: Like they get it too, they feel it all right.
Speaker 1: For our Bloomberg Business Week listeners, tuning in around the country.
Speaker 1: We're here in Miami talking to Kim Pogola. She is
Speaker 1: the president CEO of Googola Sports and Entertainment, owner and
Speaker 1: president of the Buffalo Bills and the Buffalo Savers. We
Speaker 1: should point up. So one thing I want to ask
Speaker 1: you is you are thinking about and it's some of
Speaker 1: the conversations we've been having here up on stage, is
Speaker 1: that you want to think about your existing maybe older
Speaker 1: fan base, right who wanna interact with the game and
Speaker 1: the team a certain way. And then you got your
Speaker 1: younger consumer who you also want to engage because you
Speaker 1: want to have them around for decades to come. How
Speaker 1: do you balance that as a team owner? You know,
Speaker 1: you've got to think about resources and so on and
Speaker 1: so forth. I think that is is so hard. I
Speaker 1: mean that is one of you asked me earlier about
Speaker 1: one of the struggles, and I think that's truly a
Speaker 1: It's the best thing about sports, Like our fan base
Speaker 1: is anyone from like you know, a new baby that's
Speaker 1: got they're like my first game shirt, and then I've
Speaker 1: got you know, people that like a hundred years celebrating
Speaker 1: their hundredth birthday out of football game and so how
Speaker 1: do you cover that whole? I mean, it's the best thing,
Speaker 1: like do you have that fan base, um, that spans
Speaker 1: so many generations, um, but if it present us a
Speaker 1: lot of challenges. Well, speaking of challenges, we just had
Speaker 1: four you know, incredibly successful athletes who have moved on
Speaker 1: in some ways, you know, co founding businesses, co founding
Speaker 1: a league, some still playing. We talked a lot about
Speaker 1: the role of social media, players using social media, managing
Speaker 1: their own brands. How do you, as a team owner
Speaker 1: kind of get your hands around that. What's your view
Speaker 1: on that? No, I I am very big proponent of
Speaker 1: our players having a voice in a brand because I
Speaker 1: do think, like I said, they are representing your team,
Speaker 1: and the players aren't coming to see me, They're coming
Speaker 1: to see our players. And I think there's such power
Speaker 1: that they can that they have UM with the influence
Speaker 1: and and if we can help them. So we have
Speaker 1: a program. The league has done a much better her
Speaker 1: job in the recent years of allowing for that, and
Speaker 1: so we have a program where we actually will because
Speaker 1: you know, the players on game day, like they're supposed
Speaker 1: to be focusing on the game, but they've got fans day,
Speaker 1: got family, they want to have fun, and so we
Speaker 1: like provide extra videographers, extra camera crew, extra people that
Speaker 1: will take pictures and we'll send it to them and say, hey,
Speaker 1: we're not using this, why don't you can share it
Speaker 1: with your fans, or you can share it with your family.
Speaker 1: You can do whatever you want with them. Because it's
Speaker 1: social media's time consuming. Oh my goodness, I have a
Speaker 1: Twitter account and I got an Instagram and it's like,
Speaker 1: it's it's a lot. And now we're on TikTok, right,
Speaker 1: So like you gotta do the Facebook for your older generation. Now,
Speaker 1: then you gotta do TikTok, which are completely and everything
Speaker 1: in between. It's a lot. They really, Kim. I want
Speaker 1: to talk a little bit about hockey in a minute
Speaker 1: and some of the opportunities that you see not only
Speaker 1: in hockey, but as you think about the Northern audience.
Speaker 1: We talked a little bit about this backstage, but before
Speaker 1: we do that, I want to bring up a conversation
Speaker 1: that Carol and I had yesterday with Jerome bettis Uh
Speaker 1: the bus well known to this audience about diversity in
Speaker 1: hiring at the top levels. As an owner, obviously you
Speaker 1: are deeply involved in all of these discussions not just
Speaker 1: for your own team, but across the league. What does
Speaker 1: the league need to do to bring more diversity to
Speaker 1: the higher ranks? You know, I believe that all a
Speaker 1: lot of what we really need to do is really
Speaker 1: at the grass roots. So and and there's been some
Speaker 1: great strides, as we talked about with an extension of
Speaker 1: the Rooney Rule, but you know, now trying to get
Speaker 1: that with coordinators and trying to build that pipeline. But
Speaker 1: you know, it's got to start at such a young age, right,
Speaker 1: and but we're getting where there's there those young girls
Speaker 1: or guys or kids, they're able to see other people
Speaker 1: of diverse backgrounds, colors, religions in higher places. Um, but
Speaker 1: there's just not enough of them, right. But it's but
Speaker 1: at least we need to get that, um, that pipeline
Speaker 1: in start at a grassroots level. It's just the numbers
Speaker 1: just aren't there. So how do you get the numbers up?
Speaker 1: And I think about the tech community facing crisis because
Speaker 1: they don't have the workers either boys girls going through
Speaker 1: STEM education. So they have actively created programs and high
Speaker 1: schools and so on and so forth. How active do
Speaker 1: you think the league needs to be? Team owners to
Speaker 1: creating programs like that. So, I mean, I know, from
Speaker 1: a business standpoint, you know, the entry level in Buffalo,
Speaker 1: our biggest struggle is that nobody wants to leave, right,
Speaker 1: So we don't have a lot of turnovers. So we
Speaker 1: don't have the organization in the organization I mean too,
Speaker 1: you know, it's a small community, very family oriented, so
Speaker 1: people have grown up in the same job for many,
Speaker 1: many years. So we don't have a lot of turnovers. So, UM,
Speaker 1: that's been a little bit hard. So we try to
Speaker 1: bring in people from the the interns, the entry level
Speaker 1: to at least give them some some experience. UM. I
Speaker 1: have talked to Syracuse University. My son goes to Syracuse.
Speaker 1: They have a Grace Force management program. Um, they have
Speaker 1: a program for women. UM. I forgot the name of
Speaker 1: it now, but I forgot the name of it now,
Speaker 1: But anyways, um, And so I come and speak with
Speaker 1: them as well, and UM, they just you know, like
Speaker 1: there is such a want. I mean, they want to
Speaker 1: be participated, They want to be a part of it. UM.
Speaker 1: And I think it's just showing more of them that,
Speaker 1: you know, this is a career path you can choose
Speaker 1: at a young age and so let's talk about expansion,
Speaker 1: expanding the audience. You know, Buffalo and this is not
Speaker 1: a knock, not one of the fastest growing cities in
Speaker 1: America unfortunately, little Chili um and yet there's a big
Speaker 1: population around you. You know, you're the only sort of
Speaker 1: big football team for miles around and not just a
Speaker 1: US audience. But we were talking with our Canadian friend
Speaker 1: Derik Chatsker backstage, Toronto could be a place for expansion.
Speaker 1: Is that on your mind? Well, I have to be
Speaker 1: careful because like Toronto is like a like a really
Speaker 1: bad word in Buffalo, right from a hockey perspective, yes, well,
Speaker 1: from a hockey perspective. And then when I'm my husband,
Speaker 1: I were, um, you know, in the midst of purchasing,
Speaker 1: we were competing with Donald Trump, and we were competing
Speaker 1: with John bon Jovi and and a Toronto contingent. So
Speaker 1: we um it was it was crazy to think it
Speaker 1: was the hardest competitor. Was a Trump or bon Jovi?
Speaker 1: I think, well, no, as it was, like I say,
Speaker 1: it was, it was Toronto by far. It was Toronto.
Speaker 1: So there was always the fear that the team would move. Um,
Speaker 1: so we kind of shied away from that knowing how
Speaker 1: the fan base fell. But um, but they are you
Speaker 1: know what they love. They love football as well, and
Speaker 1: obviously they have the CFL, UM, so they're familiar with football.
Speaker 1: They love the NFL. We're so close to them. Um.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so we need to get that's gonna be
Speaker 1: a priority of ours, um football. As you know, you
Speaker 1: know we've gone to London games. We got to two
Speaker 1: stadiums in London. UM, we played in um Mexico City,
Speaker 1: so you know, we want to try to make the
Speaker 1: game a lot more global and the league is doing
Speaker 1: a big push for that, and so we're gonna, like
Speaker 1: I said, put for their efforts. In Toronto. It's our neighborhood.
Speaker 1: It's our back yard. And I like, I like to
Speaker 1: say I'm part Canadian because my when I was adopted,
Speaker 1: like you said, my my family came from Canada, so
Speaker 1: there are Canadians by heart. And of course in hockey,
Speaker 1: we always play the Canadian national anthem at every game,
Speaker 1: so I feel like I'm part Canadian. So it is
Speaker 1: definitely a priority for me because it's it's a huge
Speaker 1: market up there. Curious about when you look out at
Speaker 1: the next I don't know what what kind of Um,
Speaker 1: I feel like, Lane, do you feel like you feel
Speaker 1: comfortable about making commitments when it comes to building out
Speaker 1: the team more or doing things in terms of fan engagement?
Speaker 1: Do you have five years of visibility? I mean, there's
Speaker 1: so many technologies that people are talking about, whether it's
Speaker 1: a R, whether it's VR five G and how that's
Speaker 1: going to impact the fan experience. You know, what kind
Speaker 1: of visibility do you feel like when you can make
Speaker 1: commitments to do things for the future. Well, so, like
Speaker 1: I said, we do have a stadium, LI said it
Speaker 1: is going to be expiring soon. So all those things
Speaker 1: that you just talked about is certainly foremost in our mind.
Speaker 1: But I just really believe you know, my husband and
Speaker 1: I we've only owned the team for five years, right,
Speaker 1: and this is the first year though, So what I'm
Speaker 1: really focusing on now is really making our business in
Speaker 1: kind of our own um, in our own mold. So
Speaker 1: we had they have one owner before us, Mr Wilson,
Speaker 1: who had passed away, and so you can imagine that
Speaker 1: there was you know, he bought the team for twenty
Speaker 1: five dollars, right and um, and so he are our
Speaker 1: goals different, our needs, right, are vastly different from it
Speaker 1: from his. And so I think for me, the priority
Speaker 1: really is is really to understand the business, to create
Speaker 1: it and shape it into kind of how our needs
Speaker 1: for our family, how do we sustain a long term
Speaker 1: And then I think once we get that really where
Speaker 1: we need to be, then all this stuff is easier
Speaker 1: to put in right because it is so ever changing
Speaker 1: and um, but if we don't don't have that poor base,
Speaker 1: that foundation of business, UM, I think that's you know,
Speaker 1: it's all that stuff, it's gonna be just so much
Speaker 1: harder to navigate. So that's where I'm really focusing my
Speaker 1: time right now on the leadership, on setting up our
Speaker 1: business and practices. Um, just trying to set us up
Speaker 1: for I've got three kids, so trying to set them
Speaker 1: up for their future. Well. And and I believe one
Speaker 1: of your daughters is a professional tennis player, right, And
Speaker 1: so you are seeing lots of different sports both as
Speaker 1: a parent, as and as an owner as you think
Speaker 1: about the popularity of sports going forward, the NFL obviously
Speaker 1: remains number one? Can it stay that way? I mean
Speaker 1: with all of this competition? Yeah? No, I I like
Speaker 1: I said, I I love the game and I think
Speaker 1: the National Football League has done a wonderful job of
Speaker 1: growing the sport. Um, but it is our players and
Speaker 1: it is our fan base. So I think when if
Speaker 1: we keep investing in those two areas, either as a
Speaker 1: club or as a league, that we're gonna we're gonna
Speaker 1: get the return from there. Um. This past year we
Speaker 1: opened up a new sports performance center. You know, back there,
Speaker 1: you'd be like, hey, these guys, you go go do
Speaker 1: fifty reps, you know, fifty squads. You know, you're just
Speaker 1: like lifting weights. Well, now we've got like cryotherapy chambers,
Speaker 1: and we've got sleep pods and floating tanks and all
Speaker 1: these like very things that really are to help our
Speaker 1: players really not you know, step away from the game,
Speaker 1: help them and make their career last longer, help them
Speaker 1: recover quick, will prevent injuries. And that's a huge component.
Speaker 1: And like I said, every club and every team owner
Speaker 1: is making those types of investments in the players. Um
Speaker 1: on top of all you know the normal of course
Speaker 1: the day, and then like I said, and then the
Speaker 1: technology part for our fan base. If we keep investing
Speaker 1: in those two areas, that's that's where we're gonna be
Speaker 1: able to consist in the growth well, and I want
Speaker 1: to pick up on something you said a minute ago
Speaker 1: about you know, you and your husband buying the team.
Speaker 1: You know from Mr Wilson. That was obviously a seminal
Speaker 1: moment for that franchise, but it's also representative of a
Speaker 1: change in ownership that we're starting to see across the league,
Speaker 1: especially as you talk with your fellow quote unquote new owners.
Speaker 1: What's different about them? You know, what's different about this
Speaker 1: sort of new cohort that's coming in. You know, I
Speaker 1: I would say, um, first of all, there's a lot
Speaker 1: more diversity. I certainly think that if you go not
Speaker 1: just speaking for myself, but there has been a lot
Speaker 1: of new female owners that even just in the five
Speaker 1: years I've been in the league, are now sitting in
Speaker 1: the room, per se. A lot of second generational families now,
Speaker 1: you know, daughters and sons are going through UM and
Speaker 1: becoming new owners. And I think a lot of them
Speaker 1: are they grew up in the business, right so you
Speaker 1: know a lot of them. You know, sat Jerry Jones,
Speaker 1: you know he started his you know, he started a
Speaker 1: brought the Dallas Cowboys, um, but now his kids are
Speaker 1: growing up in it. So I think it's a much
Speaker 1: more engaged ownership. UM. Like I said, I'm I'm new,
Speaker 1: but I'd like to think I'm young and hard and
Speaker 1: you know, my kids will grow up too. But I
Speaker 1: think that's a difference in the ownership now even when
Speaker 1: there's a lot of changes, but there's also like even
Speaker 1: a lot of changes within Um. It's that next generation
Speaker 1: that has really grown up and it's not the original
Speaker 1: owner anymore. UM, And it's a lot of fun. I
Speaker 1: think we're it's just developed a new kind of UM.
Speaker 1: I think bomb you know, like you know, we appreciate
Speaker 1: these stories from before, but like we all kind of
Speaker 1: start making our own relationships and stories. Yeah, there were
Speaker 1: some benefits, right, we know of diversity of thoughts. So
Speaker 1: if you're bringing in some more women or people from
Speaker 1: different backgrounds, right in terms of what it brings to
Speaker 1: the league? Yes, And so what was the question though,
Speaker 1: just say, you know, we we see all the research
Speaker 1: that's been done about having kind of a diverse board
Speaker 1: and sort and so forth, so you think about the
Speaker 1: benefits that that could do for the league. So it does,
Speaker 1: and you know what, I I love A lot of
Speaker 1: the club's owners are actually very family based and That's
Speaker 1: what I do love about the league. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of family that are m are part of it because
Speaker 1: my husband, I like, we are very very very different,
Speaker 1: but together we like, we work like. We like great.
Speaker 1: What he's good in, I'm not as good in what
Speaker 1: I'm good in he doesn't want to do, so it
Speaker 1: makes it work. So I think that's really an advantage.
Speaker 1: So we have to ask you. We've been asking a
Speaker 1: lot of the folks up here on the stage Sunday's game,
Speaker 1: the chiefs of the forty niners, have you thought about this? Gosh?
Speaker 1: And this is like on the record, so I I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't on the fend either either family. So I'm
Speaker 1: just happy the Patriots are not in it because they
Speaker 1: are in our division and I we had to play them,
Speaker 1: you might had to play them for you know, almost
Speaker 1: nineteen years in our division. So um, So I'm happy
Speaker 1: to see another fan base to get the opportunity if
Speaker 1: it's not us. Alright, one last question, Well, I was
Speaker 1: just gonna say, I mean you also have the notion
Speaker 1: of you know, really young quarterback from the a f
Speaker 1: C and Patrick Mahomes who has really re energized It
Speaker 1: feels like that part of the it is. You know,
Speaker 1: so our our quarterback Josh allen Is only has two
Speaker 1: season and Patrick Mahomes even you know, um you saw
Speaker 1: Lamar Jackson. So all these young quarterbacks are really are
Speaker 1: the next wave level you know of of excitement and
Speaker 1: fans and for our fans. And that's really exciting to
Speaker 1: see to be a part of that, um because like
Speaker 1: I said, that's that's the futures our players and our fans. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you definitely see this era. Alright. One last question. If
Speaker 1: you had to pick one priority for yourself as a
Speaker 1: team owner over the next few years, what would it be.
Speaker 1: One priority? Probably to enjoy the game more. I know
Speaker 1: you you would think that the game would be like
Speaker 1: the most excited. It's so stressful for me. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I need to learn how to enjoy the game,
Speaker 1: win or lose. I need to learn how to enjoy it.
Speaker 1: A little tailgating, a little beer help. I have done
Speaker 1: that on occasion, but I gotta do it more often because,
Speaker 1: like I said, I'm so fortunate, so lucky, best job
Speaker 1: in the world. I gotta enjoy it, right, Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: all right, Well, thank you, Kim, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Really appreciate it. Thanks everybody, and for those of you
Speaker 1: listening on Bloomberg Radio Bloomberg Business Week, I'm speaking with
Speaker 1: John Skipper of the Zone, formerly of ESPN. And it's
Speaker 1: funny too, and and this is right in your wheelhouse,
Speaker 1: Carol and I spent the last couple of days broadcasting
Speaker 1: from Radio Row, and we were talking with Brian Billick
Speaker 1: about the idea that two years ago, you know, you
Speaker 1: were starting to hear a pretty consistent death knell for
Speaker 1: professional football. Let me tell you, look around Miambi Beach
Speaker 1: Convention Center. You would not feel that today. What happened
Speaker 1: with football and your estimation from a consumer, from a fan,
Speaker 1: from a business perspective, Look, I've never thought there was
Speaker 1: a death kneel for the NFL. The NFL's popularity, uh
Speaker 1: has done nothing but rise. There have been times and
Speaker 1: years in which the prime time broadcast ratings have declined
Speaker 1: a little bit or gone up a little bit, but
Speaker 1: they do a spectacular job of figuring out how to
Speaker 1: create new packages. I don't think the total audience, if
Speaker 1: you Aggre, ever gone down. I don't think anything has
Speaker 1: happened with football, and it's remarkably resilient in the face of, uh,
Speaker 1: some level of controversies, concerns about help safety of the players.
Speaker 1: The league has responded, I think fans love the game.
Speaker 1: There's something uniquely American about it which is spectacular, and
Speaker 1: I don't see any scenario under which the NFL doesn't
Speaker 1: continue to be the most popular league in the United States. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's amazing. I mean, the resilience. You're exactly right, all right,
Speaker 1: So let's talk a little bit about the business at
Speaker 1: handon and for those listening to us on Bloomberg Radio
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week, I'm sitting here with John Skipper here
Speaker 1: in Miami from the from the Zone, From to Zone.
Speaker 1: You are the chairman of Zone and also the former
Speaker 1: president of ESPN of course streaming. We got to talk
Speaker 1: about it and talk about it in the context of
Speaker 1: the history of media. Is this one of, if not
Speaker 1: the biggest inflection point that you've seen in your career
Speaker 1: in terms of media and sports. Well, in my career,
Speaker 1: I mean, the was an extraordinary inflection point when you
Speaker 1: went from a paucity of sports on broadcast, right, they
Speaker 1: did the broadcast networks did less than a thousand hours
Speaker 1: a year of television. Uh. In my last year as
Speaker 1: president of ESPN, we did ninety thousand hours. Um. So
Speaker 1: that was a an inflection point of availability of content
Speaker 1: to fans. And that was cable really that created that, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1: And it was of course also a transition from an
Speaker 1: over their broadcast signal to a more stable connection, whether
Speaker 1: it be satellite or co acle cable. But this inflection point,
Speaker 1: which is moving from pay television two over the top streaming,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be just as profound. I mean, look, it's
Speaker 1: already happened in music, and look how profound that is.
Speaker 1: Instead of going to your tywer records and bringing home
Speaker 1: a sack full of vinyl, you pay a very small
Speaker 1: amount of money and have all the music. Or I
Speaker 1: just made the number up of all the music in
Speaker 1: the world available to you on your smartphone. That's a
Speaker 1: spectacular consumer experience. Change the business model you now have.
Speaker 1: We're right in the middle of the movement of general
Speaker 1: entertainment two over the top streaming, and all you read
Speaker 1: about every day is the introduction of Busney Plus, here
Speaker 1: comes the new Peacock. What what is the next series
Speaker 1: of content? And Apple TV? What's HBO Max is gonna
Speaker 1: look like? What is Amazon gonna do. What is Facebook
Speaker 1: gonna do. Uh, it's a remarkable change over time. It's
Speaker 1: a better value to the consumer. It unbundles the bundle,
Speaker 1: which doesn't mean you will have a reaggregation of over
Speaker 1: the top content. You will, and it also provides advantages
Speaker 1: in more volume. You're gonna go now from one thousand
Speaker 1: hours and ninety thousand hours to two million hours and
Speaker 1: pretty much everything is going to be available. You're gonna
Speaker 1: be able to pick and choose more. And then you
Speaker 1: have the advantage of interactivity two way communication, which will
Speaker 1: allow people to have personalized experiences vetting, fantasy, gamification, chat
Speaker 1: rooms and and uh conversations happening during the broadcast. So
Speaker 1: it's a profound change and a better consumer experience. The
Speaker 1: question is what happens to the business model? Okay, so
Speaker 1: let's talk. I mean, let's get into it. Because everything
Speaker 1: you said sounds awesome, sounds amazing, especially from a consumer perspective.
Speaker 1: And yet you know the joke that people will sit
Speaker 1: down to try and watch a movie on a Friday
Speaker 1: night and they'll spend an hour just on Netflix, and
Speaker 1: by the time they decide what they're gonna watch, it's
Speaker 1: time to go to bed. You know what I mean
Speaker 1: that that's sort of paralysis. I'm more efficient than that. Well,
Speaker 1: you're a more efficient guy in general, but you know,
Speaker 1: and that's just with a couple of platforms. Some of
Speaker 1: the things you've talked about haven't even fully rolled out yet.
Speaker 1: How is a consumer to make sense of what they're
Speaker 1: gonna put their dollars to? Um. I don't actually know
Speaker 1: that this is literally what happens, but I think it's
Speaker 1: instructive to think about a family sitting around the dinner
Speaker 1: table and deciding what they're going to buy, and the
Speaker 1: winners are gonna be those people who are the first choice,
Speaker 1: or the second choice, or the third choice, because not
Speaker 1: many people are going to subscribe to more than five
Speaker 1: or six services, which by the way, may still include
Speaker 1: a light aggregated PayTV bundle, but they're gonna add Netflix.
Speaker 1: I mean, Netflix is fairly ubiquitous now within a certain
Speaker 1: socioeconomic group of people in the United States. Even if
Speaker 1: you go to a place, um, if you're gonna Brazil.
Speaker 1: You know, the plurality of homes at a certain socio
Speaker 1: economic level and above all have Netflix. They have it
Speaker 1: in Canada. They you know, they're gonna have it in
Speaker 1: India and everywhere else. So the fight now is between HBO,
Speaker 1: Max and Peacock and Disney and Apple and Amazon Prime
Speaker 1: for where are they in the lineup of which services
Speaker 1: people are gonna choose. We are sports only, so we
Speaker 1: have to work our way into that consideration set. We
Speaker 1: have a very simple way to do that. That does
Speaker 1: not mean that it is trivial to execute, but we
Speaker 1: know from my experience in Germany, Japan, Italy that if
Speaker 1: you have first tier sports content, you're going to make
Speaker 1: the cut. In Italy we have syriality, which means if
Speaker 1: you're a Javenas fan, three out of every ten Juvenus
Speaker 1: games are owned his own. It's the only way to
Speaker 1: watch them. We have a very large number of subscribers
Speaker 1: in Italy. Uh same thing in Japan where we have
Speaker 1: the j League football soccer and we have the Japanese baseball,
Speaker 1: so we have a large business in Japan. We have
Speaker 1: had we have bundas some Bundesliga games. In Germany. We've
Speaker 1: got to high business. It's easy to do, it is
Speaker 1: not inexpensive. The technology is complex. The reason music happened
Speaker 1: is audio is easier to stream than video. The recent
Speaker 1: entertainment happens before sports is because archived entertainment that sits
Speaker 1: at the head end of in the cloud is easier
Speaker 1: to the hardest thing to do is we're gonna have
Speaker 1: a live game, and we're going to produce that and
Speaker 1: deliver it to you at the same time as everybody else.
Speaker 1: Last year we did one hundred more than one games
Speaker 1: events in which we had an audience of over a
Speaker 1: million people watching the same thing at one time. I
Speaker 1: do not think anybody else in the world has had
Speaker 1: that experience. Uh, And that is the complexity of that
Speaker 1: is why this will happen over a certain period of time.
Speaker 1: It's funny. I was just talking to somebody who said,
Speaker 1: when's the super Bowl gonna be on? Over the top?
Speaker 1: The super Bowl might be very quickly over the top
Speaker 1: as a choice exclusively over the topic. That's you couldn't
Speaker 1: do it right now. You just couldn't. It wouldn't be stable,
Speaker 1: it wouldn't be a good experience. But if five million
Speaker 1: people wanted to do it because they weren't in front
Speaker 1: of that, you know, they weren't at home, or they
Speaker 1: didn't have a PayTV subscription. Although super Bowl, I know,
Speaker 1: is on broadcast um though most people getting broadcast through PayTV. Uh,
Speaker 1: that could certainly be a compliment which would urge the
Speaker 1: NFL to think about in their next round of deals. Well,
Speaker 1: let's talk about that very point, because for a long time,
Speaker 1: media rights when it comes to sports have been to
Speaker 1: keep me honest here exclusive, right, I mean, and you
Speaker 1: don't have so much of these sort of complimentary situations.
Speaker 1: Is that changing? Is it changing fast? Well? It's interesting.
Speaker 1: It depends on where you're talking about. UM. At ESPN,
Speaker 1: our point of view was it is not acceptable to
Speaker 1: bifur kate the linear stream and the over the top.
Speaker 1: Of course, the NFL did that on Thursday night when
Speaker 1: they sold a linear stream to Fox and they sold
Speaker 1: an over the top stream to Amazon. So I think
Speaker 1: you will see some uh positioning and struggle and and
Speaker 1: I think some leagues will try to bifur kate the two. Now,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you something ironic that while I just said
Speaker 1: that our point of view at at the Zone is
Speaker 1: that we won't exclusive content, we may in certain cases
Speaker 1: be willing to be non exclusive. I take the Super
Speaker 1: Bowl night exclusively. Uh, But when we bought the Seria
Speaker 1: rights in Italy or the Japanese baseball rights. We bought
Speaker 1: them exclusively. They are not for It's okay if you
Speaker 1: want to get your pay TV subscription. We want to
Speaker 1: move of people over. We want a transformation. We don't
Speaker 1: want to be a complementary service. Right And for those
Speaker 1: of you listening on Bloomberg Radio Bloomberg Business Week, I'm
Speaker 1: speaking with John Skipper of the Zone, formerly of ESPN.
Speaker 1: So as you think about sort of sport by sport,
Speaker 1: you guys have a really nice footprint in boxing obviously
Speaker 1: here in the United States. You talked about some of
Speaker 1: your soccer slash football rights overseas. What's the next big
Speaker 1: growth area for you that takes to Zone to the
Speaker 1: next level. Look, it is you want to what you
Speaker 1: need to do to build a subscription service. And we're
Speaker 1: in nine countries of four continents. Were in Brazil or
Speaker 1: in Spain, were in Italy, were the United States? Were
Speaker 1: in Canada, Where in Austria, Switzerland and Germany. You've got
Speaker 1: to start with something that matters. Right here, we started
Speaker 1: with sal Lalvarez Canela. He matters. So you can move
Speaker 1: people over. You gotta start um in can that we
Speaker 1: have a Sunday ticket. You gotta start with something that matters.
Speaker 1: You gotta build around it so that people, well you
Speaker 1: can retain their subscription, you can make sure that they're
Speaker 1: all the year and that they watch more. If we
Speaker 1: can get people to watch five events in a month,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter five basketball games, five baseball games, it's
Speaker 1: almost certain that they'll stay with us the next month.
Speaker 1: So you gotta build out. So that's the threshold is five,
Speaker 1: well four, the threshold just not for eight percent. So
Speaker 1: and then you gotta build some library content, right, ultimately
Speaker 1: got to build some library content. You start with primary sports,
Speaker 1: then you add secondary tertiary sports rights, and then you
Speaker 1: add our caval content beyond it to build the service.
Speaker 1: And so, you know, one of the themes that we've
Speaker 1: been talking about throughout the day is this idea of
Speaker 1: the empowered player. You know, athletes really owning their own content,
Speaker 1: their own brands. How does that play into this new
Speaker 1: streaming world. Well, look, the beauty of streaming is you
Speaker 1: have infinite capacity. So the extent that athletes want to
Speaker 1: do programming around the games they play, they want to
Speaker 1: do behind the scenes, we have the infinite capacity to
Speaker 1: show that we do a fair amount of that and
Speaker 1: you know we do docum documentary. Uh. The football season
Speaker 1: in Europe you know, runs basically ten months, so in
Speaker 1: those two months between, we run documentary product about those
Speaker 1: leagues to keep people for those two months. UM. So
Speaker 1: I think the empowered player has a much easier platform
Speaker 1: over the top. Do you have a take that you
Speaker 1: can share about who the most forward thinking leagues are
Speaker 1: around the world, who's most progressive when it comes to
Speaker 1: this new media world. Look, I would start saying that
Speaker 1: I don't think there's any league that is not believed
Speaker 1: that they need to play in this, that they're gonna
Speaker 1: need to understand it. They're gonna need to be at
Speaker 1: the forefront of it. Um you know you you uh.
Speaker 1: I always sip my hat to the NBA. They understand
Speaker 1: that being first, being technologically forward is a good idea.
Speaker 1: But look, the NFL on Thursday night right now is
Speaker 1: doing something almost nobody else is doing. When you're around
Speaker 1: the world. Um, the the major football associations and leagues
Speaker 1: are there on this. Uh. I cannot confirm the exact details,
Speaker 1: but the Champions League, controlled by yr WAFA in Germany
Speaker 1: is going to be next year available solely on over
Speaker 1: the top services, and so you gotta look at that.
Speaker 1: That's the second most important, right. It's the equivalent of
Speaker 1: moving UM the NBA or all of college football to
Speaker 1: UH to and over the TOUN service, which would be
Speaker 1: astonishing and transformation in the United States, I don't think
Speaker 1: by the way, that's getting ready to happen, but in
Speaker 1: a in other markets around the world, and our business
Speaker 1: is outside of the United States. We are the leading
Speaker 1: global over the top pure play sports streaming service in
Speaker 1: the world. And in most of the world there are
Speaker 1: not you you can count them right, one, two, three, four,
Speaker 1: four broadcast networks one to three, big pay TV providers
Speaker 1: one to three, four big technological companies, and most of
Speaker 1: the world there's an over the air there's one or
Speaker 1: two players in pay TV, So your ability to move
Speaker 1: faster is more pronounced there than it is. And you
Speaker 1: know States, which is why we're concentrating to a large
Speaker 1: extent on the rest of the world r W rest
Speaker 1: of World UH. And for more on that Champions League conversation,
Speaker 1: you can read Bloomberg and you've got some details around that.
Speaker 1: UM I I would suggest that Bloomberg has it right.
Speaker 1: I can't confirm anything, but they have it right, all right,
Speaker 1: there you go many things. Um, So when it comes
Speaker 1: to your job, now we've only got a few minutes left.
Speaker 1: What have you learned so far? You've seen so much
Speaker 1: over the course of your career. This is certainly a
Speaker 1: new adventure. What has jumped out to you when you like,
Speaker 1: go to a cocktail party or a dinner party, Like,
Speaker 1: what are you saying to people? That's that sort of
Speaker 1: AHA moment for you working into zone. Look, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's not many of you have experienced it, right, but
Speaker 1: it is astonishingly stimulating and fun to do something different.
Speaker 1: I'm aware of the irony, but it's also quite fun
Speaker 1: of having worked at the by far the most important
Speaker 1: participate in the pay TV universe, to sort of look
Speaker 1: flip the mirror and look at exactly the opposite, which
Speaker 1: is to be the uh disruptor the challenger is really fun.
Speaker 1: Uh Again, I liked both positions. I'm not suggesting one
Speaker 1: is better than the other, but that has been an
Speaker 1: AHA moment that d until you try, Uh, you kind
Speaker 1: of don't know. The other AHA moment for me is
Speaker 1: just that we um, we've had the is the global
Speaker 1: part of it, right? It is really fun to do
Speaker 1: business in the world. Uh. I'm a very proud American,
Speaker 1: but it is really fun to travel and see the
Speaker 1: rest of the world. Uh and and sort of get
Speaker 1: the stimulation that business has done differently. Regulatory is different,
Speaker 1: the broadband internet universe is different in different places. So
Speaker 1: to be in Spain and sort of understand what that slide.
Speaker 1: Uh And Uh, you know, I get to go to
Speaker 1: a lot of people places, people go on vacation. Uh.
Speaker 1: For what I'm working, somebody's paying for the room. And
Speaker 1: so when you look back toward the United States, what
Speaker 1: have you learned about what either you can do differently
Speaker 1: at the zone in the United States that hasn't been
Speaker 1: done before, or that from a more structural perspective needs
Speaker 1: to be done for the US. Just sort to keep up. Look,
Speaker 1: we what we're learning is how to deal with different
Speaker 1: kinds of broadbent infrastructure, different curtesies. We're also learning a lot.
Speaker 1: You heard me say if you watch five five games,
Speaker 1: you're unlikely to turn that. That will be true here.
Speaker 1: We're learning how to do archival material that complements the game.
Speaker 1: We're learning how to do interactive things. So all these
Speaker 1: things will serve us well and it's if you're learning
Speaker 1: in in Spain, you don't necessarily learn it under the
Speaker 1: hawkeye of the media in the United States. There is
Speaker 1: no more intense media repertorial scrutiny and uh than there
Speaker 1: is here. And so it's it's good to be able
Speaker 1: to try some of these things other places, a little
Speaker 1: bit out of the out of a shining light. Uh.
Speaker 1: Is there a sport that's growing, maybe faster than people anticipate.
Speaker 1: We all know about American football, we all know about football,
Speaker 1: global football. Is there something that's coming up that you've
Speaker 1: seen that maybe people aren't quite appreciating. Look, the most
Speaker 1: important thing is that it has to be local. Right.
Speaker 1: This is exactly what Netflix learned. You've got to go
Speaker 1: in and do local language content. It's got to be
Speaker 1: relevant to a local audience. It is remarkable having been
Speaker 1: mostly looking at this to an American lens for a
Speaker 1: long time. Football is the universal sport, by which I
Speaker 1: mean soccer, I mean around the rest of the world.
Speaker 1: It is half of what people care about. Some places,
Speaker 1: it's three quarters of what people care about. You going
Speaker 1: to Italy, Syria is the NFL, the NBA, MLB and
Speaker 1: NHL put together. I mean, who knows. Since Spain it's
Speaker 1: La Liga the second list of popular sport in Spain
Speaker 1: Moto GP, right, so it's interesting. In Germany handball is
Speaker 1: really really popular, but it's the Bundesliga just sits on
Speaker 1: top of everything. Soccer is the king, John Skipper, what
Speaker 1: a treat. Thank you so much for spending pleasure. Thank you,
Speaker 1: Thank you, guys. Thanks for listening to Bloomberg Business Week.
Speaker 1: You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, or
Speaker 1: Bloomberg dot com. You can also listen to our radio
Speaker 1: show every weekday at two pm Eastern only on Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Radio