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Speaker 1: Hello, I'm Scott Suck and I'm Michael Barr, and this

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Speaker 1: is the Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast where well two

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Speaker 1: thirds of the Wei yeah Nobe Williams is either still

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Speaker 1: in Canada or on his way back from some lake

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Speaker 1: canoeing trip and Canada mountain man is what you said. Hey,

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Speaker 1: he has his annual canoeing trip with his buddies, so

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Speaker 1: they go, they fish, they who knows what you know? Well,

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Speaker 1: good for the mountain manna, miss you come on back.

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Speaker 1: We're gonna explore the big money issues in the world

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Speaker 1: of sports, and let's start with the joker came through

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Speaker 1: he won, No that Djokovic one at wimbled in against

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Speaker 1: an epic match against Roger Federer what they call instant classic. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: the kind of a new format where you get the

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Speaker 1: tie break finally in the fifth set, so you don't

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Speaker 1: get anymore like John Isner thirty six, thirty four whatever

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Speaker 1: that was a few years ago. Did you watch it?

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Speaker 1: I got I saw some of it because I was

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Speaker 1: talking about I couldn't see all of it either, but

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Speaker 1: I was following it on social media and everyone's says,

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Speaker 1: I do laugh that people feel the need to tell me, Wow,

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Speaker 1: like Roger and jokes they're good, Like wow, we should

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Speaker 1: really appreciate this because you know, they're really good. And

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Speaker 1: I don't know how much longer this is gonna go on,

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Speaker 1: Like I could have said it last year year before

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Speaker 1: I get it. I know, I know it's Djokovic and Federer.

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Speaker 1: I got it. It's yes, I know they're titans. But

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Speaker 1: somebody else will come along eventually do the same thing.

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Speaker 1: They'll be sign But it is kind of amazing that

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Speaker 1: fed and the Dollar we're still going at it in semifinals,

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Speaker 1: and how much better these three are than everybody else.

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Speaker 1: But if you go by the numbers, this is a

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Speaker 1: part I like, so you know, Joker, you know what

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Speaker 1: he's got in career earnings already A hundred and thirty

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Speaker 1: three million dollars is on just career on court earnings,

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Speaker 1: A hundred and thirty three million dollars. Numero uno exactly

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Speaker 1: Fed number two. He he have more green for him, uh,

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Speaker 1: Fed hundred and twenty four million, RAFA hundred and ten million.

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Speaker 1: Let's start Serena in there, made the finals, didn't win

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Speaker 1: ninety million dollars in career on court earnings for Serena

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Speaker 1: and let's go on top of that, let's look at

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Speaker 1: because every you know, sports bettings, all the all the rage,

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Speaker 1: the most bet tennis match and draft kings history. More

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Speaker 1: than half of the wagers taken in we're live in

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Speaker 1: game play bets, which is why I mean a while back,

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Speaker 1: I did a story about the International Tennis Federation, the

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Speaker 1: i t F, signing a deal with sport Radars like

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Speaker 1: ninety million bucks, Like well, these are like people you've

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Speaker 1: never heard of in places You're like what? And the

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Speaker 1: value bar is that there are so many tournaments globally.

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Speaker 1: What they need is live action on their platform at

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Speaker 1: all times. So if there's a tournament in Kouala Lumpoor

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Speaker 1: involving seventeen year olds, great because people they want the

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Speaker 1: live action, they will go to your platform and bet

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Speaker 1: on it. That. It is amazing how sports betting now

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Speaker 1: here in the US online is changing the landscape of

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Speaker 1: how we view sports. I mean, I think long gone

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Speaker 1: are the days I shouldn't say long gone where you

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Speaker 1: had your favorite team and your root for your favorite

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Speaker 1: team and blah blah blah, and then fantasy sports. You know,

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Speaker 1: we need in this change, we need nostalgia music When

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Speaker 1: Bar starts to wax. What are you thinking? I don't

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Speaker 1: I don't know, but maybe something that hearkens back to

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Speaker 1: that time. Maybe maybe a love boat theme, maybe a

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Speaker 1: Gilligan's Island, something from your fantasy fantasy island that work

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Speaker 1: that when bar starts going on one of these nineteen

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Speaker 1: things we got, we gotta, but I didn't want. I

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Speaker 1: didn't want to go the old Philco. Fine, let's move along. Well, uh,

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Speaker 1: we gotta talk about the Oklahoma City Thunder. Hey, how

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Speaker 1: much cash you got? You know what. It's a fixer

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Speaker 1: rupper right now because they have had the trade with

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Speaker 1: the two. Yeah, Paul George is gone, Russell Westbrooken is gone.

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Speaker 1: So now they're trying to rebuild. But you know what,

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Speaker 1: if you have some cash. Aubrey mcleo died in a

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Speaker 1: car crash a few years go. Um, there's been some

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Speaker 1: back and forth as to it's been a difficult to state.

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Speaker 1: Let's just say that Outree Capital had a claim on

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Speaker 1: any cash from sale the Thunder, but that was satisfied

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Speaker 1: with the sale of some other things in sort of

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Speaker 1: the oil and gas world. So with that being freed up,

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Speaker 1: the estate has now put McClendon's stake in the team

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Speaker 1: up for sale. Now Clay Bennett is the majority holder,

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Speaker 1: but the estate again, team is worth about one point

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Speaker 1: five billion. You can do some quick math, uh so

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Speaker 1: ten perillus, But there's always what's called bar A an

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Speaker 1: LP limited partner discount because what you're getting here, yes,

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Speaker 1: you have voting rights, but if it's only you don't

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Speaker 1: have any control. So there's no board seat and there's

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Speaker 1: no saying how you govern the franchise. You're not exempt

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Speaker 1: from cash calls should that happen. So why would I

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Speaker 1: pay full value for this? What do I really get

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Speaker 1: other than the right to say own the Oklahoma city,

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Speaker 1: get your foot in the door. Well, you could try

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Speaker 1: to negotiate that. If I buy, I have right at

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Speaker 1: first refusal, or I do have a path to control

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Speaker 1: within ten years, whatever it may be. Joe Ti did

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Speaker 1: that with the Brooklyn Nets. But you have to show

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Speaker 1: a willingness to sell in relinquish control, and right now

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Speaker 1: Clay Bennett has shown no such willingness or desire to

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Speaker 1: do so. So let's see who steps up and says

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Speaker 1: I'm interested in stake and an NBA team. If you believe,

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Speaker 1: if you want to do this peers of money play.

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Speaker 1: If you really believe that the NBA is about to

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Speaker 1: hit some sort of great growth spurit because of the

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Speaker 1: international possibilities and sports betting. If you think that's true

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Speaker 1: of the NBA and lots of people do maybe a

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Speaker 1: jump in. How about simply just as an investment just

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Speaker 1: after what you said, all of a sudden, figure that

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Speaker 1: the valuation of the Oklaombus any Thunder now balloons to

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Speaker 1: almost double when we talk about going global and all

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Speaker 1: of the other. Yeah, I'm not sure if i'd say double.

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Speaker 1: But because if you believe that there's going to be

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Speaker 1: a renaissance period and that the NBA's broadcast rights even

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Speaker 1: five ten years from now are going to go again,

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Speaker 1: then as a pure investment play, this is available. What's

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Speaker 1: amazing is that you're talking about relatively a small market. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but the thing that the Thunder is on several fronts,

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Speaker 1: they don't look like a small That's what I'm saying.

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Speaker 1: You have to think twice. It's like, wait a minute,

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Speaker 1: they've got how many sellouts in a road? Do they

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Speaker 1: have three d and fifty five consecutive sellouts? However, now

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Speaker 1: Westbrook has gone bull George is gone. I would guess

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Speaker 1: that that's going to end this year. I would guess

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Speaker 1: maybe not. Who knows. Maybe they're just so crazy and

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Speaker 1: ravenus for their basketball. But seeing Westbrook play is pretty

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Speaker 1: darn good. Yeah, I mean not that Chris Paul isn't

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Speaker 1: who knows the film move him. But it's not the same.

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Speaker 1: They're not contenders. And their local television rating the average

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Speaker 1: six six nine, second best in the NBA this year

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Speaker 1: behind the Golden State Work. Yeah, so again not they

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Speaker 1: are a small market team, but oftentimes out punching the

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Speaker 1: weight class on the business metrics some of them. Wea

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Speaker 1: have to finally, Scott talk about thank you, a story

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Speaker 1: about a big sponsor of the US women's national soccer team.

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Speaker 1: They're going to pony up some cash to help close

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Speaker 1: the gender pay gap and designating Procter and Gamble is

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Speaker 1: designating the money five thousand dollars, So that's about twenty

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Speaker 1: three thousand bucks per players twenty three players on the team.

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Speaker 1: Do the math right to the players to help close

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Speaker 1: the pay gap with the men, and we all know

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Speaker 1: there's been this gender and pay equity dispute with the

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Speaker 1: women's team against US Soccer. US Soccer contends that the

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Speaker 1: men's team generates more revenue. Uh. They also contend that

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Speaker 1: if you look at a percentage of the revenue generated,

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Speaker 1: the women get a larger percentage, and the women seem

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Speaker 1: to be saying, we don't care, we deserve more looking

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Speaker 1: at what Look we're more successful, look at what we're

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Speaker 1: doing for soccer. And I'm telling you that would be

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Speaker 1: my argument. I don't know if it hold up in court,

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Speaker 1: but my argument in the court of public opinion right now,

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Speaker 1: let him come with every number they want, Let us

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Speaker 1: soccer come with every statistic and number they want, and

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Speaker 1: I would respond with, we don't care, because we do

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Speaker 1: more for soccer than the men's team has ever done.

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Speaker 1: We can't help it that the men's team benefits from

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Speaker 1: the likes of Brazil, Argentina and the money they get

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Speaker 1: from FIFA and these other countries being so ravenous for

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Speaker 1: the in the appetite for soccer. We can't help that.

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Speaker 1: But what we do is promote the game. Here, we've

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Speaker 1: got seventy thousand little girls were in our jerseys. We're

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Speaker 1: selling stuff like hotcakes. So you know what if that

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Speaker 1: means you have to take it from the men to

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Speaker 1: give it to us. Fine, we're okay with that. By

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Speaker 1: the way. Procter and Gamble they make secret Secret ded

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Speaker 1: and they are a sponsor of the team, by the way,

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Speaker 1: So there's adding more. But I'm not so sure that

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Speaker 1: there's that old the old slogan put the music would

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Speaker 1: go right now, This is where the music would go

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Speaker 1: right here, if you really think about it, there we

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Speaker 1: are the old slogan. Strong enough for a man, made

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Speaker 1: for a woman, Yes, and then this is I loved.

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Speaker 1: But now with the women's team just kicking. But I

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Speaker 1: don't even know if you can't even use that slogan.

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Speaker 1: And no you can't, No, you can't. And that's not

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Speaker 1: that old. I remember that slogan, yes exactly. But I'm

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Speaker 1: telling you your bar, it's I might have I might

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Speaker 1: have to sink. We're expecting you. I'd like the Ted

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Speaker 1: liney to get to the fingers. Everybody knows what we're doing,

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Speaker 1: appointing at each other. Gopher went to Congress, baby, that's right,

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Speaker 1: that's right. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. Jollie McCloy, yeah,

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Speaker 1: she's had to get out of the Lido deck. I

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Speaker 1: completely forgot what I was gonna hold. What I was

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Speaker 1: gonna say about this is somebody smart. I'm telling you,

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Speaker 1: Bar there is a huge opportunity right now. There's a

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Speaker 1: huge opportunity to roll up these women sports assets and

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Speaker 1: present them in some sort of unified front. Collect these

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Speaker 1: women assets. There is a good play to be made here,

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Speaker 1: a money making play to be made right now in

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Speaker 1: women's sports. I hope someone takes advantage of it, and

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Speaker 1: they will eventually one day. I hope in the near

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Speaker 1: future that the women's pay gap will be gone, gonna happen.

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Speaker 1: This is the Bloomberg Business Who Sports Podcast. I'm Michael

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Speaker 1: Barr along Risk Gods not tending to Puerto Va. We

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

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

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Speaker 1: the end of the week when we speak with Jeff Hamilton,

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Speaker 1: my son's coach, program director of the Connecticut Junior Rangers,

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Speaker 1: the brick champion Connecticut Junior Rangers. We're gonna talk and

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Speaker 1: I love it. We're gonna talk some youth sports. See

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Speaker 1: what big business that is nowadays. In my best seventies throwback,

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Speaker 1: you're listening Bloomberg Business of Sports on Bloomberg Radio around

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Speaker 1: the world in online, Where are you getting your podcasts

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Speaker 1: like Swedish Reworld. Let it Flow, It floats back to