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Speaker 3: We're taking a look though at the ECO data that
Speaker 3: just crossed right in ISM Manufacturing had come in a
Speaker 3: week earlier in the week US services sector expanding at
Speaker 3: a modest pace. For the second month in August, ISM
Speaker 3: service a little changed about fifty one point five. Now
Speaker 3: remember readings about fifty still indicate expansions. Who want to
Speaker 3: get right to the guy behind the data. Steve Miller
Speaker 3: is chair of the ISM Services PMI Hay, Steve, what
Speaker 3: do you make of the data today?
Speaker 4: Well, we're encouraged to see the second month in a
Speaker 4: row of growth, and it's the six month out of
Speaker 4: the year that we've seen growth, so definitely encouraged. One
Speaker 4: of the things that was one of the sub indexes
Speaker 4: is at a bit of a prize, was backlog dropping
Speaker 4: significantly down to about forty three percent. And what we
Speaker 4: attributed that to is a lot of the commentary has
Speaker 4: been around improving supply chain performance and utilizing capacity to
Speaker 4: catch up. So we attribute that to maybe catching up
Speaker 4: on late orders that were impacted during supply chain dissuptions
Speaker 4: earlier in the year.
Speaker 5: So give us a sense of what this means. Do
Speaker 5: you think for the Federal Reserve? How do you think
Speaker 5: the Federal Reserve will look at an ISM index that's
Speaker 5: still showing some positive growth there fifty one point five.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it's very consistent with going forward with
Speaker 4: the rate cuts. It's the lowest rate of increase that
Speaker 4: we've had historically. There were only three ratings or three
Speaker 4: readings last year that were lower than this month's reading,
Speaker 4: and then going back to twenty twenty two, only December's
Speaker 4: reading was lower than this. So we're seeing growth, which
Speaker 4: is positive, but all the indicators in the data are
Speaker 4: showing very slow growth and some of the indicators and
Speaker 4: far as costs and cost continuing to impact as well
Speaker 4: as interest rates continuing to impact investment.
Speaker 6: Seems like now's the right time, all right, Steve, We
Speaker 6: appreciate it.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for that incident analysie. Steve Miller,
Speaker 3: ISM Chair for Services.
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Speaker 5: Alex Deel, Paul Sweeney. We are live here at the
Speaker 5: Bloomberg conference here in New York. It is called the
Speaker 5: Power Players, talking about the convergence of sport business, you know, atternowledgement, technology,
Speaker 5: all that kind of stuff all coming together other and
Speaker 5: so they've got a great lineup of folks here today
Speaker 5: talking about that, and we're going to interview a handful
Speaker 5: of some really smart people coming up over the next
Speaker 5: couple hours that are gonna be participating in this conference.
Speaker 5: We'll talk about that coming up. But it talks about
Speaker 5: the big business of sports. And the most recent news
Speaker 5: is private equity is now going to be allowed to
Speaker 5: invest in part in the NFL. So you think about
Speaker 5: the here, this is a big deal. This is a
Speaker 5: big deal because the other the private ecutris got tremendous
Speaker 5: amounts of capital, and the NFL valuations have been just
Speaker 5: going so high that individuals anymore almost are priced out
Speaker 5: of the market that when families used to own these
Speaker 5: NFL franchise that's becoming less and less of an instance.
Speaker 5: You need big institutional capital and that's kind of one
Speaker 5: of the stories that they'll be talking about yes today and.
Speaker 6: An alternative energy.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'll turnm of investments go right to where
Speaker 3: I want to talk about is definitely the thing right
Speaker 3: is you have more money and it needs to find
Speaker 3: more opportunities. And luckily the Bloomberg Big Take Today sort
Speaker 3: of helps set all of this up for us. Random
Speaker 3: Williams and one of the authors on it, and the
Speaker 3: title is the Billionaire NFL Family Eyes Windfall from Wall
Speaker 3: Street and the Swifties, and this really focuses on Dan
Speaker 3: and Clark Hunt controlling a six and a half billion
Speaker 3: dollar empire with a portfolio of teams across the nation
Speaker 3: from the NFL, Major League Soccer, and the National Basketball Association.
Speaker 3: I read it, I read the sports and it was
Speaker 3: a great, great I learned a lot. Actually, Randall Williams
Speaker 3: joins us here at Bloomberg headquarters. Hey, Randall, walk me
Speaker 3: through what you learned about this family and how it
Speaker 3: runs itself and sort of all the different branches they
Speaker 3: have in sports.
Speaker 7: Yeah you said it or you mapped it out out
Speaker 7: there going my glasses, it happens, but yes, you mapped
Speaker 7: it out. They have a majority ownership of the Chiefs
Speaker 7: of FC Dallas and then an eleven percent stake in
Speaker 7: the Bulls. So they are one of the premier sports
Speaker 7: families across the country and I'd say across the world too.
Speaker 5: What are their ambitions here just sports in general going forward?
Speaker 5: As you mentioned, they have diversified ownership. Obviously, the biggest
Speaker 5: asset is the Chiefs, which they've owned forever. It seems
Speaker 5: like where do they want to grow going forward?
Speaker 7: Well, it's all in sports.
Speaker 5: I mean.
Speaker 7: One of the things that Clark and Dan Hunt have
Speaker 7: talked about is the opportunity to grow in soccer. I mean,
Speaker 7: the World Cup will be here in twenty twenty six,
Speaker 7: the Olympics in twenty twenty eight. That's a tremendous opportunity
Speaker 7: to grow soccer domestically. Anyone who knows and I should
Speaker 7: say football, but you know, I know this is.
Speaker 6: Going to get confusing, right because like soccer play with
Speaker 6: your feets, right, should be football.
Speaker 7: I'll say soccer to stay American. But anyone who knows
Speaker 7: soccer knows that it is the giant internationally, it isn't
Speaker 7: here the same way domestically. The World Cup provides an
Speaker 7: opportunity for that. At the same time, the NFL has
Speaker 7: an opportunity internationally because that's the giant domestically. So the
Speaker 7: NFL is trying to play more games internationally. They're trying
Speaker 7: to grow their business internationally. So those are the two
Speaker 7: opportunities that both of them see, and I think they're
Speaker 7: doing a pretty good job of managing it.
Speaker 3: I have an actual, like legitimate but silly question, Sure,
Speaker 3: how do they deal with the name problem, the soccer
Speaker 3: versus football versus actual football, like, especially if they try
Speaker 3: and grow abroad.
Speaker 7: For the NFL, well, I think that when you go abroad,
Speaker 7: you adjust, you ad justin. It's a question for the
Speaker 7: committioners and how they want to market it.
Speaker 6: Do we know what the answer is that going to be.
Speaker 7: I think football is going to stay football, and you
Speaker 7: know there'll be a budding rivalry between the two quiet one.
Speaker 7: But as long as everybody's making money, then you know
Speaker 7: it keeps everybody happy.
Speaker 5: Fair enough, all right, So talk to us about private equity.
Speaker 5: That was kind of for me being a Wall Street guy.
Speaker 5: The big news in sport over the past couple weeks,
Speaker 5: and Clark Hunt himself led the committee in the NFL
Speaker 5: to kind of address this issue. What is they're thinking
Speaker 5: about private equity? Why did they go down that road?
Speaker 7: Well, I heard you talking about this a little earlier.
Speaker 7: But the reality is, if you're selling a five to
Speaker 7: ten percent stake in a franchise that's worth six billion dollars,
Speaker 7: that's three hundred million dollars or six hundred million dollars
Speaker 7: in cash, and the evaluations are only going higher. How many
Speaker 7: people can write a three hundred to six million million
Speaker 7: dollar check, even if it's discounted.
Speaker 5: Let's say you take fifty million off.
Speaker 7: That's still a lot of money. Even the richest athletes
Speaker 7: in the world don't have two hundred million dollars in
Speaker 7: cash to just send to a team. And this is
Speaker 7: a long term investment. You're not getting that money back tomorrow.
Speaker 7: You have to be in this for the long run.
Speaker 7: And so with that, if you're selling to an individual
Speaker 7: that individ isn't going to come in and just want
Speaker 7: to sit on the sidelines and say, oh, yeah, I
Speaker 7: have a piece of a team. No they might want
Speaker 7: to ride on the team plane, they might want an
Speaker 7: ownership suite. These owners and a lot across sports period,
Speaker 7: have inherited these teams over time. They are very very
Speaker 7: very close in prized possessions. That means that they don't
Speaker 7: want to let an individual who they may not know.
Speaker 7: In private equity is a solution to that. They want
Speaker 7: returns on their investment, they're not going to look to
Speaker 7: be riding on a team plane, maybe own the exactly
Speaker 7: exactly so they'll be willing to be quiet investors as
Speaker 7: what I'd called them, and so it's a solution. But
Speaker 7: the most important detail that I think I'll be saying
Speaker 7: for years to come is that both Jerry Jones and
Speaker 7: Clark Hunt said that this was a positive day, not
Speaker 7: a happy one. It's not something that the owners want
Speaker 7: to do. Quite frankly, I think if they were making
Speaker 7: more money. That doesn't mean that they're not making money,
Speaker 7: but if they were making more money, they wouldn't be
Speaker 7: allowing this. But these are providing solutions to secession issues,
Speaker 7: to stadium deals, to giving liquidity to owners who might
Speaker 7: not have the cash that they want. So that's setting
Speaker 7: a landscape for private equity and.
Speaker 5: I noticed that, you know, the Hunts, they had a
Speaker 5: defeat recently in that they weren't able to get I
Speaker 5: guess the municipalities surrounding their stadium in Kansas City to
Speaker 5: help them renovate the stadium or maybe even a new stadium.
Speaker 5: What's the future there? Because I look a lot of
Speaker 5: people look at the Kansas City as maybe over the
Speaker 5: last five years, the most successful franchise or the RFL,
Speaker 5: and our people tell you the stadium's terrible. Yeah, relative
Speaker 5: relative to the new stadiums being built that are just
Speaker 5: it's an older stadium.
Speaker 7: I'd say that I think that there's a nostalgia feeling
Speaker 7: around older stadiums. However, there's a reason they're looking for
Speaker 7: this money to renovate because it needs renovation. So what's
Speaker 7: going to happen next. They've tried at the local level.
Speaker 7: I think they'll go to the state, but they've also
Speaker 7: opened a door to going across state lines to the
Speaker 7: state of Kansas. So all options are.
Speaker 5: On the table.
Speaker 7: Do they want to leave Arrowhead Stadium? No, absolutely not.
Speaker 7: Clark will tell you that. The team president, Mark will
Speaker 7: tell you that they don't want to leave Kansas City.
Speaker 7: But the reality is this is a business, and this
Speaker 7: is a money making business. If it's going to cost
Speaker 7: them more money to stay in Kansas City as opposed
Speaker 7: to going to Kansas where they might be able to
Speaker 7: build a stadium, they're going to do that.
Speaker 6: Okay, talk to you about today, power players.
Speaker 5: The fun day. Okay, party day.
Speaker 3: It's a party yer for you and I get to
Speaker 3: learn about sports. So together we are united. What a
Speaker 3: panels are you going to be moderating? What are you
Speaker 3: excited about?
Speaker 7: Among two college sports panels, we have Dajah Kelly, Brittany Whiteside,
Speaker 7: Tim Prinetti, all prominent people in college sports who are
Speaker 7: in the business of it. We also have open Door
Speaker 7: CEO Blake Lawrence. They'll be speaking at Blake Lawrence and
Speaker 7: Britney Whiteside will be speaking at a lunch panel. And
Speaker 7: then Dejah Kelly, Tim Prinetti and again Brittany will be
Speaker 7: speaking on another college sports panel.
Speaker 5: So those are my two today. We have many Yeah,
Speaker 5: formula of Rutgers, great name in the Big East. The
Speaker 5: big thing college sports is. I think it's a wild
Speaker 5: West here in terms of oh of the dollars going around,
Speaker 5: nil name, image and likeness. Right, you got twenty million
Speaker 5: dollars rosters out there, and it's only going to go hire.
Speaker 5: Somebody's got to step in and regulate this thing. Who's
Speaker 5: going to do it? They will find out today. We'll
Speaker 5: find out today.
Speaker 7: I mean, listen, if there was an easy solution to this,
Speaker 7: I think we'd have it by now. The NCAA is
Speaker 7: going back and forth to the Supreme Court. It feels
Speaker 7: like every other week on what it can regulate and
Speaker 7: what it can't regulate. What that means for the athletes,
Speaker 7: it's a great time. It's a great time. You can
Speaker 7: get money just about everywhere legally. I mean there's, yes,
Speaker 7: there's some infractions here and there. But if you want
Speaker 7: to go into sports as a college athlete right now,
Speaker 7: the reality is you can go to Wretgers get one
Speaker 7: hundred thousand dollars, you can go to Texas get five
Speaker 7: hundred thousand dollars, and then you can go to Florida
Speaker 7: and get one point five million and never touch the
Speaker 7: NFL YE nineteen.
Speaker 6: And having that, I mean like, no way would I
Speaker 6: know what to.
Speaker 5: Do going back to school. Yes, I'm going back to school.
Speaker 3: Definitely, sports them up me and soccer and we'll talk
Speaker 3: to Britney Whiteside actually just right after this break, so
Speaker 3: great stuff.
Speaker 6: Thank you so much, Randall, really appreciate it.
Speaker 3: Good luck today, enjoy yourself, looking forward to the rest
Speaker 3: of the panels from Bloomberg.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live
Speaker 1: weekdays at ten am Eastern car Playing and broud Otto
Speaker 1: with the Bloomberg Business app. Listen on demand wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcasts, or watch us live on YouTube.
Speaker 3: Alex Steel here alongside Paul Sweeney. We are live at
Speaker 3: the Bloomberg Power Players at Bloomberg Global Headquarters right here
Speaker 3: in New York. The some is bringing together industry leaders
Speaker 3: at the intersection of sports, business and technology.
Speaker 6: AKA.
Speaker 3: This is the day where Alex learns more things about sports. Yes,
Speaker 3: I think everyone will be very helpful to hear about.
Speaker 3: Joining us now is Brittany Whiteside. She is vice president
Speaker 3: of All Sports Partners and she has a long career
Speaker 3: in this area. Before this, she was at trustee of
Speaker 3: Whiteside served as an executive Associate Athletes Director at the
Speaker 3: University of Virginia and Charlesville. She was also a member
Speaker 3: of the department's executive Leadership team and has been deeply
Speaker 3: involved in college sports for quite a long time.
Speaker 6: Brittany, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 8: Thank you for having me.
Speaker 3: Okay, this is where you get dumb stuff down for me. So,
Speaker 3: college sports, I know is definitely changing. How is it
Speaker 3: changing and how quickly is it changing?
Speaker 8: You know, it is changing rapidly.
Speaker 9: Probably in the last three years we've seen some of
Speaker 9: the most change in college sports, but also in an
Speaker 9: industry at large, we have the implementation of nil I'm
Speaker 9: sure you've heard of that.
Speaker 8: That's a buzzword right now.
Speaker 9: Athletes can earn money off of their name, image and likeness.
Speaker 9: And so when you talk about college athletics and change
Speaker 9: and you think about that in the last year, in
Speaker 9: the last three years, that's the biggest change. And now
Speaker 9: we're at a point where we continue to see the
Speaker 9: change and you have the House settlement where schools may
Speaker 9: be able to now pay athletes directly, and so as
Speaker 9: you think about college athletics and the business model, it
Speaker 9: is completely shifted and leaders across the country are preparing
Speaker 9: for that all right.
Speaker 5: To me, it's all about the economics, and I think
Speaker 5: most people agree that given the money behind big time
Speaker 5: college sports, that in fact, the athletes should be compensated
Speaker 5: for that. The question is, is nil the way it
Speaker 5: doesn't seem like it. It seems like rudimentary at best.
Speaker 5: You've got there's no regulation, there's no way to ensure
Speaker 5: and even playing field. Where do we go from here?
Speaker 5: It seems like we opened up Pandora's box and we
Speaker 5: have no idea.
Speaker 8: Yeah, well, I agree with you.
Speaker 9: It is the right thing for athletes to be able
Speaker 9: to earn money off of their name, image and likeness.
Speaker 9: So but to be able to monetize that right nil
Speaker 9: was the first step in that the ability for athletes
Speaker 9: to go out and to earn income, whether that is
Speaker 9: through working with brands or in some spaces you probably
Speaker 9: heard of collectives in this space as well, you know,
Speaker 9: helping athletes generate money off their name, image and likeness.
Speaker 8: Where do we go from here?
Speaker 9: You know, we have the pending House settlement, which as
Speaker 9: we sit today, the judge will hear arguments against the
Speaker 9: fairness of that House settlement. Right, House settlement is really
Speaker 9: the next step in the framework for college athletes and
Speaker 9: athletic departments to be able to share in that revenue.
Speaker 9: Right it's a revenue sharing proposal and so in terms
Speaker 9: of next steps, right now it is depending house settlement
Speaker 9: and next steps for athletes to be able to be
Speaker 9: paid directly from institutions versus brands and collectives and all
Speaker 9: of the other areas, and then there will be some
Speaker 9: upcoming regulation to that as well.
Speaker 3: What about I mean that this is tied to a
Speaker 3: college or university is also just so odd, Like this
Speaker 3: is like a professional business that one can be a
Speaker 3: part of, but yet you're going to be nineteen years
Speaker 3: old also expecting to like go get your GPA and
Speaker 3: do well in school. How does all of this going
Speaker 3: to coexist?
Speaker 9: You know it has coexisted now for a while, and
Speaker 9: you know that was a major concern of mine early on.
Speaker 8: Is how are athletes?
Speaker 9: How are college students going to be able to navigate this?
Speaker 9: And what we've seen is they've been don't handle it well.
Speaker 9: Some of them engage in the NIL space and do
Speaker 9: so in a way and meaningful ways where they're getting
Speaker 9: internships and opportunities and skill sets that they did not
Speaker 9: have the.
Speaker 8: Opportunity to get before.
Speaker 9: So when you think about NIL, you think about managing
Speaker 9: your brand, you think about negotiating all of those skills
Speaker 9: are skills that you need for life, and so as
Speaker 9: part of being a student, part of that is preparing
Speaker 9: for life after you know, your time on campus for
Speaker 9: four or five years, and so NIL in many ways
Speaker 9: has been handled for student has a great opportunity for
Speaker 9: them to leverage their their brand and be able to
Speaker 9: generate money and help prepare them for a future.
Speaker 5: What's the I guess the other big issue in college
Speaker 5: athletics has been the realignment of conferences. And now we've
Speaker 5: got my poor you know, Rutgers field hockey team sleeping
Speaker 5: on the floor of Newark Airport because they're taking a
Speaker 5: flight out to Stanford Stanford in Palo Alto. What's going
Speaker 5: on there? Where? How is this going to evolve? Do
Speaker 5: you think?
Speaker 10: Wait?
Speaker 6: Wait, why is that bad?
Speaker 5: Because now Stanford on the West Coast is now part
Speaker 5: of the ACC for so they got to go fly
Speaker 5: from Palo Alto to Durham, North Carolina. And I can
Speaker 5: understand that for the football team they're on a charter
Speaker 5: jet all kind of same thing for basketball. But I thought,
Speaker 5: for like the smaller sports, how is this impacting?
Speaker 9: Yeah, you know, that's an interesting dynamic when you think
Speaker 9: about some of the Olympic sports, right, yeah, and you
Speaker 9: talked about what are some of the things that we
Speaker 9: still need to figure out in college sports. I think
Speaker 9: that's part of it. Conference realignment as a whole, you know,
Speaker 9: mostly driven by football schools that are competing out the
Speaker 9: highest level, schools that want to compete at the highest level.
Speaker 9: With that comes other Olympic sports that it may not
Speaker 9: make as much sense economically for them to travel or
Speaker 9: for student athlete experience for them to travel. But when
Speaker 9: schools and institutions want to compete at the highest level,
Speaker 9: that is part of it. And so right now many
Speaker 9: schools are having those conversations on where do we want
Speaker 9: to be in this landscape? Do we want to compete
Speaker 9: at the highest level? And if we do, that may
Speaker 9: come with your field hockey team traveling across the country
Speaker 9: to compete against the best in the country.
Speaker 3: But then they still have to go like take a
Speaker 3: test and do grades. I mean, that's that's something else
Speaker 3: you have wi FI Now, fair enough, what do you
Speaker 3: think that athletes could be doing better though?
Speaker 8: Right now?
Speaker 7: Oh?
Speaker 9: You know, it's such a key time for athletes to
Speaker 9: hone in on who they are, their their identity, how
Speaker 9: they can manage themselves because we all knew that grand teams,
Speaker 9: I know, right, But also they are also engaging responsibly
Speaker 9: and thinking about like, what are some of the brands
Speaker 9: that I work with on or you know a coffee
Speaker 9: shop that I always go to, a local coffee shop,
Speaker 9: how can I utilize my NIL with that local coffee
Speaker 9: shop to create a partnership, right, And so you know
Speaker 9: that's how athletes are navigating it now.
Speaker 8: They're navigating at the local level.
Speaker 9: And then also they have schools that are putting resources
Speaker 9: together to help educate them on how to really navigate
Speaker 9: it in a way that is best for them.
Speaker 5: What do you advise schools to do as they think
Speaker 5: about how to really implement an NIL and take care
Speaker 5: of their student athletes? What are you recommending? Is that
Speaker 5: kind of an overaarching view.
Speaker 9: Yeah, absolutely, it always starts with education, and so early on,
Speaker 9: it's educating the athletes on what NIO is, what it isn't,
Speaker 9: how to build their brand, how social media plays into this,
Speaker 9: how this entire ecosystem works. The second part of that
Speaker 9: is as a department, to really hone in on your strategy,
Speaker 9: how are you going to invest in the resources for
Speaker 9: your athletes to be successful in this space like you
Speaker 9: would in strength and conditioning, like you would in nutrition.
Speaker 9: This is another part of the student and athlete experience
Speaker 9: that as an institution, it's your responsibility to invest in
Speaker 9: in resources so athletes can really optimize their nil while they're.
Speaker 8: On their campus.
Speaker 9: And for some of that athletes, this is their you know,
Speaker 9: this is their time to earn their prime time.
Speaker 8: This isn't their prime time. Some are competing at a.
Speaker 9: National level on TV, and so as an institution, it's like,
Speaker 9: how can we utilize our network, our resources, our institution
Speaker 9: ip to help athletes generate revenue and generate income for themselves.
Speaker 3: Well, because that's why we see a lot of like
Speaker 3: former pro athletes now investing because they they were able
Speaker 3: to take control of their money and they have so
Speaker 3: many stories Like when we talk to a Rod like
Speaker 3: a few months ago, they have so many stories of
Speaker 3: their peers that were you know, given all this money
Speaker 3: in a really short amount of time and your earning
Speaker 3: power so limited when you're so young, and then it's
Speaker 3: like gone, Like it's it's not a sustainable business model.
Speaker 3: Like Paul and I might have, what do you think
Speaker 3: that the media rights world, like as we change from
Speaker 3: traditional TV to streaming all that. How is that impacting
Speaker 3: college sports?
Speaker 9: I think it will continue to evolve, and that's happening
Speaker 9: in college sports at the conference level as the conferences
Speaker 9: really hold the media rights to to the to those
Speaker 9: to those sports in that entertainment space, right, and so
Speaker 9: I think it will continue to evolve. I think it's
Speaker 9: going to continue to be a big money area in
Speaker 9: college athletics is the media rights.
Speaker 8: And I think it's to be determined.
Speaker 9: On what the future structure of FBS football looks like,
Speaker 9: and some in college basketball and those other things that
Speaker 9: really may take form as some of these media contracts
Speaker 9: are coming up from renegotiation in the coming years.
Speaker 5: How about thee We all think about football and basketball
Speaker 5: driving it. How about the nil and the money? Is
Speaker 5: it there for women's sports? Is it there for the
Speaker 5: Olympic sports as you refer to them. Is it Is
Speaker 5: it trickling down to the non football bat basketball team?
Speaker 11: Yeah?
Speaker 9: Yes, with the institutions we work with, we are seeing
Speaker 9: it trickle down now, not at the same level as
Speaker 9: football and men's basketball, but we are seeing athletes in
Speaker 9: Olympic sports, primarily women's sports. We just had a school
Speaker 9: that announced that they had a women's sports sponsorship that
Speaker 9: included nil, right, And so you are seeing more brands.
Speaker 9: And I also believe that women's sport are doing a
Speaker 9: really good job of leveraging their their their personal brands
Speaker 9: and they're really figuring that out earlier, right, And it's
Speaker 9: a time for women's sports right now. So there's definitely
Speaker 9: more attention and support and that is trickling down to
Speaker 9: two women athletes on campuses as well.
Speaker 3: So how does that how does the partnership wind up starting?
Speaker 3: Like is it the athlete taking control and going, like
Speaker 3: you said, the local coffee shop, et cetera, being like, hey,
Speaker 3: here's what I got for you? Or is it you know,
Speaker 3: someone goes to watch a game and they're like that
Speaker 3: athlete's awesome.
Speaker 6: Are they like their personality?
Speaker 11: Like?
Speaker 6: How does that evolve? So it is both.
Speaker 9: So part of it is on the athlete, and athletes
Speaker 9: that do well are are are reaching out the brand means.
Speaker 9: Some of them have representations, some of them have agents
Speaker 9: that are negotiating partnerships with them. And then you have
Speaker 9: the school and you have donors and supporters that have
Speaker 9: created these these businesses, these enterprises called collectives that if
Speaker 9: they have a donor that wants to support that athlete
Speaker 9: or that sport, that donor would give to that collective
Speaker 9: and then they would you know, find opportunities for the
Speaker 9: athlete to get that money.
Speaker 5: And it seems like the collectives I'm seeing it, I'm
Speaker 5: hearing it and reading about it. There's definitely the haves
Speaker 5: and have nots.
Speaker 8: For sure.
Speaker 5: A certain school that I'm familiar with, their collective in
Speaker 5: their first year just dwarfed everybody else and it's it's
Speaker 5: a handful of phone calls. That doesn't feel right.
Speaker 6: Yeah, how does that change? How does that Well, it.
Speaker 5: Goes come directly from the university. Yeah, so you'll take
Speaker 5: out the collective as a mini.
Speaker 9: Yeah, you know, there there are certain things that may
Speaker 9: regulate that collective space a little bit more. But right now,
Speaker 9: you know, as you have the pending House settlement, schools
Speaker 9: will be able to share in that revenue directly with athletes.
Speaker 9: So you still will have collectives in the space, right
Speaker 9: that will have play some role. But long term, you know,
Speaker 9: it's really to be determined on what that looks like,
Speaker 9: as there may be more regulation coming in that space.
Speaker 5: You're absolutely right that change in college sports is just
Speaker 5: meaning so, I mean, it just seems like how how
Speaker 5: these universities are going to deal with it.
Speaker 6: You know, I should have put my daughter in something.
Speaker 6: She was three.
Speaker 8: Darn it.
Speaker 3: Hey, Brittany really appreciated. Thanks very much, Brittany Whiteside, Vice President.
Speaker 8: Thank you.
Speaker 3: Altia's sports partners are really great conversation.
Speaker 1: There, you're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us
Speaker 1: live weekdays at ten am Eastern on applecard Play and
Speaker 1: Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business App. You can also
Speaker 1: listen live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York
Speaker 1: station just Say Alexa playing Bloomberg eleven thirty.
Speaker 5: We are broadcasting live from the Bloomberg Power Players Conference
Speaker 5: at Bloomberg Global Headquarters in Midtown Manhattan, bringing together a
Speaker 5: lot of the smart folks in the business of sports,
Speaker 5: the technology of sports, and the competitiveness and the economics
Speaker 5: of sport. I'll tell you what, in the last three
Speaker 5: or four years, women's sports in terms of popularity, audience
Speaker 5: ratings just I'm not going to say exploded, but really
Speaker 5: had a noticeable surge. In my opinion, thank for example,
Speaker 5: Caitlin Clark with the basketball but I think it all
Speaker 5: started with women's soccer, the success of the US women's
Speaker 5: soccer programs team in the Olympics, in a World Cup
Speaker 5: and all that kind of stuff, and now the National
Speaker 5: Women's Soccer League. Jessica Berman joins us. She is the
Speaker 5: commissioner of the National Women's Soccer League. She joins us
Speaker 5: here at our Bloomberg conference. Jessica, talk to us about
Speaker 5: the state of the National Women's Soccer League here in US.
Speaker 5: It seems like it's just growing dramatically. And I know
Speaker 5: you've got some news about some ownership out on the
Speaker 5: West Coast which really caught my attention being a former
Speaker 5: analyst covering the Walt Disney company. But talk to us
Speaker 5: about the league right now. In women's soccer.
Speaker 11: In the last two and a half years, it is true.
Speaker 11: I think women's sports and the National Women's Soccer League
Speaker 11: in particular, has exploded. We've reached this inflection point where
Speaker 11: it is no longer a question whether investing in women's
Speaker 11: sports is a good business investment. And because of that,
Speaker 11: the money has followed. And we're looking at our ownership
Speaker 11: group across all of our teams, fourteen teams across the country,
Speaker 11: and we have the right capital and strategic investors around
Speaker 11: the table to really build for the future. About our
Speaker 11: recent announcement this morning, Bob Iger and will Obey are
Speaker 11: now the control owners.
Speaker 12: It is a boom, it is a mic drop.
Speaker 11: Are now the controlling owners of Angel City, which are
Speaker 11: the highest enterprise value women's sports team in the world,
Speaker 11: traded for two hundred and fifty million dollars. And you know,
Speaker 11: this is a league that launched twelve years ago.
Speaker 12: Angel City is only.
Speaker 11: Three years old, So jealousy if you put that side
Speaker 11: by side with the men's leagues that have been around
Speaker 11: for decades, some more than one hundred years, it's really
Speaker 11: incredible to see the amount of growth. We also announced
Speaker 11: this morning that Magic Johnson is an investor in the
Speaker 11: Washington Spirit with Michelle Kang. So the type of owners
Speaker 11: who are coming to the table to really invest in
Speaker 11: this is really driven by the future vision of you
Speaker 11: that we really can be the best league in the world,
Speaker 11: and because of the backdrop, as you mentioned of women's soccer,
Speaker 11: it's just an incredible moment to be part of witnessing
Speaker 11: this growth.
Speaker 6: Well, I was going to ask as to the why
Speaker 6: now part of it? Is it because you've.
Speaker 3: Had, you know, super good success with some amazing players
Speaker 3: in the game. I also, as a finance nerd am
Speaker 3: going to go back to like the FED had zero
Speaker 3: interest rates for a really long time. There's a lot
Speaker 3: of money that need to be put to work that
Speaker 3: needed a good return because you couldn't put it in
Speaker 3: the bond market like that kind of stuff. Like what
Speaker 3: are you hearing as to why people with money think
Speaker 3: this is a good investment now?
Speaker 11: I think if you look on a longitudinal basis, particularly
Speaker 11: at men's sports as a parallel over the course of decades,
Speaker 11: it outperforms every other asset class on a long term basis,
Speaker 11: and so you've often seen investors who are long range
Speaker 11: in their thinking around putting capital to work invest in
Speaker 11: sports and see incredible returns. If you look at that
Speaker 11: compared to the product of women's soccer, there really is
Speaker 11: no reason why we should not be as successful as
Speaker 11: men's sports, particularly in a sport that has the backdrop
Speaker 11: of when you think of success and soccer in the US,
Speaker 11: you actually think of women first, and that really creates
Speaker 11: a unique value proposition that has really woken up the
Speaker 11: investment community to say, if we look at men's sports
Speaker 11: and the way that they've grown in enterprise value on
Speaker 11: an exponential basis over decades, and we are at the
Speaker 11: inception of our growth. There's very few things in the
Speaker 11: world that you can get in at the ground level.
Speaker 11: I think we're definitely beyond the ground level, but we're
Speaker 11: certainly nowhere near the top of our hockey stick growth.
Speaker 5: Media rights, it's the big driver of global sports valuations globally.
Speaker 5: What's the media strategy for US women's the soccer League.
Speaker 11: Yeah, we signed a landmark media deal and announced it
Speaker 11: in November of twenty twenty three. We got a collective
Speaker 11: quarter of a billion dollars invested into our league from
Speaker 11: the combination of CBS, ESPN, Amazon and Script's Ion. And
Speaker 11: in addition to that incredible investment in our league, which
Speaker 11: allow us to put those resources to work to grow
Speaker 11: the league, we've also made the very important strategic decision
Speaker 11: to also invest in ourselves and ensure that our games
Speaker 11: are viewable and discoverable on platforms that are national in
Speaker 11: scope and scale. And so from last year to this year,
Speaker 11: we went from six games being available on national broadcast
Speaker 11: to over one hundred and twenty.
Speaker 8: God.
Speaker 11: So now when you are sitting on your couch, which
Speaker 11: some people still do, and channel surf, which some people
Speaker 11: still do, you.
Speaker 12: Will find our games.
Speaker 11: And if you were watching the US Open the other night,
Speaker 11: which I was, and there was a promo ad to
Speaker 11: tell everyone that you can watch this weekend on ESPN.
Speaker 11: If you were watching CBS Mornings this morning, you saw
Speaker 11: a promo ad that you can watch the NWSL on
Speaker 11: Saturday on CBS. And so we are in the places
Speaker 11: and spaces where people consume live content, and that will
Speaker 11: help us to catalyze the growth of our audience.
Speaker 3: So I don't have cable, So what about streaming? Like,
Speaker 3: how can I find it on my Apple TV?
Speaker 11: Yeah, so all of our CBS games are also on
Speaker 11: Paramount plus. All of our ABC and ESPN games are
Speaker 11: also on ESPN plus all of our games on scripts Ion.
Speaker 11: You can also walk through like a Pluto TV or
Speaker 11: other all their streaming apps that provide access to over
Speaker 11: the air platforms. And obviously Amazon Prime is basically ubiquitous
Speaker 11: with national distribution both streaming and you know anywhere else
Speaker 11: that you would want to watch.
Speaker 5: Jessica, how about talent here at the players? I mean,
Speaker 5: how you could do a whole league with the University
Speaker 5: of North Carolina. That's set such a great program for
Speaker 5: so long, and as a dupe person, I hate to
Speaker 5: admit that, but it's an international game, it's a global game.
Speaker 5: Can international players come here? Because I know that's a
Speaker 5: problem for the men's US Men's League. The US players,
Speaker 5: the great international players don't want to come to the
Speaker 5: US league relative to Europe. What's it like in the
Speaker 5: women's side, Yes, there's that. Well, unless you're at the
Speaker 5: end of your career, you're looking at them.
Speaker 11: Yeah, No, I think that is And I appreciate the
Speaker 11: question because maybe I should have led with that and
Speaker 11: the answer to why now, why invest in the NWSL.
Speaker 11: We are the best league in the world and we
Speaker 11: are at the top of the pyramid as it relates
Speaker 11: to attracting talent, and we have a lot of the
Speaker 11: best players playing here, not just the US one's national team,
Speaker 11: but we look at, for example, the Olympics this summer,
Speaker 11: where we as a league had fifty seven players competing
Speaker 11: for eleven of twelve teams in the Olympics. If you
Speaker 11: looked at the gold medal match, we had the majority
Speaker 11: of the players on the pitch both for Brazil and
Speaker 11: for the US team, we had twenty seven players competing
Speaker 11: between both of those teams, and.
Speaker 12: So we are a global league.
Speaker 11: We've actually recently changed our rules to allow nine players
Speaker 11: on the roster be international players, because we really want
Speaker 11: to be a league that is a destination for the
Speaker 11: top talent in the world, which now is not just
Speaker 11: in the US.
Speaker 12: There there's top talent everywhere.
Speaker 11: This is truly is a global game, and we're excited
Speaker 11: to be a destination for the best players.
Speaker 5: All right, Jessica, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 5: Really appreciate it. Jessica Berman. She's a commissioner of the
Speaker 5: National Women's Soccer League. You talk about the gro again
Speaker 5: in my opinion, kind of led by the Women's Soccer
Speaker 5: League and it's just been extraordinary, continues to grow, and
Speaker 5: you know, as a media person, we see the money,
Speaker 5: the rights start to go to a particular sport, that's
Speaker 5: where you know that the growth is and the opportunities,
Speaker 5: and that's certainly the case with the US Women's Soccer League.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence podcast. Catch us live
Speaker 1: weekdays at ten am Eastern on applecar Play and Android
Speaker 1: Auto with the Bloomberg Business App. You can also listen
Speaker 1: live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York station.
Speaker 1: Just say Alexa playing Bloomberg eleven thirty.
Speaker 3: All right, Happy Thursday, everybody. I'm Alex Steel alongside Paul Sweeney.
Speaker 3: This is Bloomberg Intelligence Radio and we are broadcasting too
Speaker 3: live from our headquarters right here in New York City
Speaker 3: at the Power Players Conference where we're talking about sports, money, media,
Speaker 3: business and the combination between all of those things. And
Speaker 3: we just spoke to the commissioner of the US Women's
Speaker 3: Soccer League. That was quite interesting in terms of the
Speaker 3: big money coming in in terms like you definitely missed
Speaker 3: the bottom, Like there's money already in there, but if
Speaker 3: you get in now, there's just so much more exponential
Speaker 3: growth that you could see.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and big news coming out of you know, the
Speaker 5: second biggest market in the country, Los Angeles. Bob Iger,
Speaker 5: the chairman CEO of Walt Disney Company, and his wife
Speaker 5: will Obey buying a controlling stake or I think a
Speaker 5: full stick, a complete steak of the Los Angeles franchise.
Speaker 5: So yeah, that is a huge vote of confidence.
Speaker 6: All right, Well, we just talked to the commissioner so
Speaker 6: let's talk to someone who actually.
Speaker 12: Kicks the ball.
Speaker 5: Right, Oh okay, because I think.
Speaker 6: That that's probably a great idea.
Speaker 3: Joining us now is Midge Purse is forward New Jersey,
Speaker 3: New York Gotham FC. She alsos United States women's national
Speaker 3: soccer team. Wow, okay, this is really awesome. Thank you
Speaker 3: so much for joining us.
Speaker 6: Oh no, thank you for having me.
Speaker 3: So can I ask a really dumb soccer question. This
Speaker 3: seems to me to be the hardest sport to play
Speaker 3: because everyone is running all the time. Like it's not
Speaker 3: like when you're in football and you kind of stay
Speaker 3: in a range or like tennis, it's a small area, Like.
Speaker 6: How do you do it? While our coaches make us
Speaker 6: run a lot, right all the time?
Speaker 8: Yes, all the time.
Speaker 13: But I actually what I think is makes it the
Speaker 13: hardest sport is that any other athlete who tries to
Speaker 13: play soccer looks extremely unathletic. Where you can kind of
Speaker 13: fake it if you're playing football or basketball or even
Speaker 13: running track, but you look really anathletic playing soccer unless
Speaker 13: you know it.
Speaker 6: I think that's a good point.
Speaker 5: Mitch, talk to us. We were talking to your commissioner
Speaker 5: about the state of the sport in the league and everything.
Speaker 5: I don't want to talk to you about what it's
Speaker 5: like on the field. Talk to us about the competition,
Speaker 5: the level of competition, where the players come from. What's
Speaker 5: the level of competition on the field. Now you played
Speaker 5: your college soccer at Harvard. What's it like for that
Speaker 5: jump to the pros?
Speaker 13: Oh, the jump is getting bigger and bigger. I think
Speaker 13: the gap between the collegiate game and the professional game
Speaker 13: has only grown over the past couple of years. I
Speaker 13: think when I was coming from college and going to
Speaker 13: pro that jump wasn't as big for me.
Speaker 8: I had a good time my rookie year.
Speaker 13: But now you see people not struggling more, but really
Speaker 13: having to take a little bit more time to get
Speaker 13: to that level and meshin with the rest of the players.
Speaker 3: Do you feel like if I say women's soccer is
Speaker 3: finally having its moment, is it actually finally having its
Speaker 3: moment that's durable in here to day.
Speaker 13: I don't know if I can subscribe to that.
Speaker 6: And I'll tell you why.
Speaker 13: It's because every four years we have the Olympics and
Speaker 13: we have the World Cup, and everyone gets really really
Speaker 13: excited about women's soccer and then it usually dissipates at
Speaker 13: some point. I do think women's sports in general are
Speaker 13: having an incredible moment. I mean you can see it
Speaker 13: with the WNBA, you can see it with like rugby
Speaker 13: and track. I'm with you, I believe in it, but
Speaker 13: I want to wait to see it before I subscribe.
Speaker 5: You've been on the national teams, the US national teams
Speaker 5: for years, so you've seen the global competition and how
Speaker 5: but the US team is, in my opinion, I don't
Speaker 5: know that. I'm not that into it the best team
Speaker 5: for a long time globally in terms of looking at
Speaker 5: the World Cups and so on. Talk to us about
Speaker 5: the growth of soccer internationally outside the US. What are
Speaker 5: you seeing in terms of competitiveness, because I know there
Speaker 5: are a lot of international players in the US league.
Speaker 13: Oh absolutely, And I mean I think you can see
Speaker 13: it even with the last World Cup we had. We
Speaker 13: won this Olympic gold, which is absolutely fantastic, and I
Speaker 13: think anyone who watched the games could see that they
Speaker 13: were difficult games. It wasn't six zero, wasn't five zero,
Speaker 13: wasn't three zero. A couple of Germany games where we
Speaker 13: were in our favor, But in general, it's the competition
Speaker 13: is leveling out, and you know, the global stage is
Speaker 13: getting a lot more Even so, I think even seeing
Speaker 13: a lot of those players come over to our league
Speaker 13: and increase the competitiveness that we have here at home,
Speaker 13: it's really amazing to see the progression of women's sports globally.
Speaker 3: What do you think of the way what do you
Speaker 3: think of the how to monetize that? Like as a player?
Speaker 3: Like we talked to the commissioner, We talked to a
Speaker 3: partner that sort of helps collegiate athletes monetize themselves and
Speaker 3: understand how to do that and works with them, work
Speaker 3: with colleges.
Speaker 6: Do you think this is all being done the right way?
Speaker 13: No, this is great.
Speaker 6: This is why I want to talk to someone who
Speaker 6: actually does this. In short, No, I don't.
Speaker 13: I think that we're still behind in terms of the
Speaker 13: industry approach on how we support players, help players, and
Speaker 13: promote players. I think one of the biggest issues I've
Speaker 13: had with women's sports in general is that the landscape
Speaker 13: for how we market women's sports has always been extremely
Speaker 13: derivative with the landscape of how we market men's sports.
Speaker 13: And shocking, yeah, they say shrink it and pink it
Speaker 13: is something that Michelle King likes to say, and I'll
Speaker 13: take that from her. But it's not even just derivative
Speaker 13: of the men's game, but we're derivative of the European
Speaker 13: format as well. And you know, the American population, this demographic,
Speaker 13: it's a different audience that you need to cater to,
Speaker 13: and I think we need to be just a little
Speaker 13: bit more specific industry wide.
Speaker 8: With how we do that.
Speaker 5: How do you expect the growth of the league to
Speaker 5: be over the next several years, to expect it to
Speaker 5: get more competitive, maybe more teams. What do the players
Speaker 5: feel like?
Speaker 13: Oh, I don't think anything's going to stop this league,
Speaker 13: to be completely honest, I think we will be huge
Speaker 13: competitors with the MLS.
Speaker 6: Do see a lot more teams coming in.
Speaker 13: I think more international players will want to come play here,
Speaker 13: and I think it's going to be even harder to
Speaker 13: play here domestically.
Speaker 3: Right, What about like, do you think we're gonna have
Speaker 3: like competitions not like the Olympics or whatever World Cup
Speaker 3: where like you can play more internationally and make it
Speaker 3: not just like a US soccer sport.
Speaker 13: Absolutely, I think, I mean we already have a CONCACAF
Speaker 13: tournament happening right now. My team plays tonight. Good luck
Speaker 13: at the MFC. You guys are going to be fantassic,
Speaker 13: and we have the Club World Cup that's happening. So
Speaker 13: it's definitely we are integrating with other leagues and making
Speaker 13: that global community for women's soccer.
Speaker 5: All right, Mitch, that's great. Really appreciate getting a few
Speaker 5: midges minutes of your time. Mitch Purse forward for the
Speaker 5: nj NY Gotham Football Club and also the United States
Speaker 5: women's national soccer team. She played at collegiate soccer at Harvard.
Speaker 5: Talk about the growth of this, the women's professional league
Speaker 5: here in the US certainly, as Midge was suggesting, kind
Speaker 5: of hitting an inflection point, and that's consistent with what
Speaker 5: we've seen from women's sports just over the last three
Speaker 5: or four years. And again I kind of just go
Speaker 5: back to the WNBA, which they're playing their season right
Speaker 5: now in Kaitlyn Clark and Angel Reese. That just kind
Speaker 5: of really taken over the zeitgeist and so women's sports
Speaker 5: big time here and that's certainly a focus at this
Speaker 5: conference here.
Speaker 1: Yes, sir ee, you're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence podcast.
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Speaker 1: flagship New York station, Just Say Alexa playing Bloomberg eleven thirty.
Speaker 5: Alex Steele, Paul Sweeney, We're live here at the Bloomberg
Speaker 5: Power Players Conference at the Bloomberg A Global Headquarters, seven
Speaker 5: to thirty one Lexington Avenue, fifty eighth Street. Man, You've
Speaker 5: got a lot of smart people running around here, a
Speaker 5: lot of interesting conversation about the world of global sport.
Speaker 5: This one you don't want to miss. David Rubenstein joins
Speaker 5: us here. He is a co founder and co chairman
Speaker 5: of the Carlisle Group and owner of the Baltimore Orioles
Speaker 5: as well as Cal Ripkin Junior, talking about those O's
Speaker 5: Baseball Hall of Famer, founder and partner of Ripkin Baseball. Gentlemen,
Speaker 5: thanks so much for joining us here. We got a
Speaker 5: lot of sports people running around. We're talking about women's basketball,
Speaker 5: women's soccer. Let's talk a little bit of Major League baseball.
Speaker 5: You guys are up a game in the win, Colm
Speaker 5: on my Yankees. It's going to be a great last
Speaker 5: few weeks. Of the Year. David, I want to start
Speaker 5: with you here. You own the Orioles. Here, What are
Speaker 5: you doing? Why are you buying a sports franchise?
Speaker 10: Well, in this case, I grew up in Baltimore and
Speaker 10: I wanted to give back to Baltimore a bit, and
Speaker 10: I thought the team could maybe use rejuvenation in some way.
Speaker 10: And it's part of rebirth of Baltimore. Baltimore is trying
Speaker 10: to rebuild itself in many ways from some of the
Speaker 10: struggles it's had. I thought a new ownership group would
Speaker 10: probably be helpful, so I did it for that reason.
Speaker 10: And obviously I hope to make money as well for
Speaker 10: myself and my investors, but it's more of a philanthropic
Speaker 10: thing on my part than anything else.
Speaker 5: And Alex, he's got a few partners there, including mister Bloomberg,
Speaker 5: who owns this radio program. Ah, how about that?
Speaker 6: How about that?
Speaker 5: Secular forces exactly all comes back together. Cal talked to
Speaker 5: us about the Orioles. Boy, man, I'm so I'm looking
Speaker 5: at them every day. Man, they look good. Tell us
Speaker 5: about this team.
Speaker 14: It's an exciting young team to watch, talent all over
Speaker 14: the place. We've had little problems with injuries and our
Speaker 14: pitching staff. But when you have a deeper minor league system,
Speaker 14: sometimes when somebody gets hurt, you can it's an opportunity
Speaker 14: for someone else. So they're playing really well. And it's
Speaker 14: interesting when many owners come in to buy a team,
Speaker 14: the thing they have to fix is what's happening on
Speaker 14: the field. In our particular case, that's the best part
Speaker 14: about the investment is that Michaelias has done a really
Speaker 14: good job of creating an environment of culture that knows
Speaker 14: how to win, knows how to play, and he's put
Speaker 14: talent in the system. So the good part is you
Speaker 14: just take your hands off of and say just keep
Speaker 14: going and hopefully the luck factor with David will in
Speaker 14: the very first year will take that all the way
Speaker 14: to the World Series.
Speaker 6: That's a really dumb question.
Speaker 3: Yes, why is investing in sports like a good business?
Speaker 3: And I say that because at some point we're going
Speaker 3: to reach the top, right, Like, there's so much money
Speaker 3: coming in.
Speaker 10: How do you know, Well, over the last ten or
Speaker 10: fifteen years, it's been very difficult for somebody to buy
Speaker 10: a major league professional sport operation and lose money. People
Speaker 10: have made staggering sums. Now, of course that tends to
Speaker 10: tract more money, and as you suggest, at some point
Speaker 10: there's always a peak. But right now the interest in
Speaker 10: sports is so dynamic that the live television despite your
Speaker 10: view in my view that live television should focus on
Speaker 10: interview shows, actually it focuses on live sports, and live
Speaker 10: sports is what's keeping television alive really. So if you
Speaker 10: take a look at the NFL, for example, I think
Speaker 10: of the the fifty most watched television shows last year,
Speaker 10: forty five of them were NFL games. And now baseball
Speaker 10: sees a lot of people as a lot of people
Speaker 10: watching as well, so there's a view that the population
Speaker 10: increases and as other things seem to be less attractive,
Speaker 10: sports is still very, very attractive, and so the TV
Speaker 10: contracts are going up and as a result, for example,
Speaker 10: the NBA just negotiated seventy seven billion dollars worth of contracts.
Speaker 10: It's expected in two years that the NFL will top
Speaker 10: that number. So that's what it is driving. And also
Speaker 10: it's a global phenomenon that people now are buying sports
Speaker 10: teams not only in their own country, but everywhere in
Speaker 10: the world, and so it's really not just the US phenomenon.
Speaker 14: So can I have a simple all you have to
Speaker 14: do is to look at the health of sports, is
Speaker 14: to look at the salaries of the players. Yeah, and
Speaker 14: I guess I'd become one of those players saying, man,
Speaker 14: I wish i'd played in.
Speaker 5: This era always goes up. I mean, I'm like everybody else.
Speaker 5: It's got a top out somewhere, yet it just keeps
Speaker 5: going higher. Cal how is the game on the field changed?
Speaker 5: The kids today that you watch at Canbin Yards still,
Speaker 5: by the way, I would argue one of the best
Speaker 5: parks in Major League Baseball twenty five years on. But
Speaker 5: how's the game changed today versus women? You played well?
Speaker 14: I mean the analytics have taken over and all the
Speaker 14: data and all the information. And I was an analytical
Speaker 14: player and I took the data from but there was
Speaker 14: no way that I was getting all the sort of
Speaker 14: data that you can get now. And the trick is,
Speaker 14: and this is the fun part about learning the game
Speaker 14: hasn't changed much because the diamonds the same, the bases
Speaker 14: are the same, the mounds the same, The game is
Speaker 14: played the same way. But with all this influx of
Speaker 14: new data, teams feel that they have an advantage when
Speaker 14: they extract some of the data and then use that
Speaker 14: to help them play in the game. But the secret
Speaker 14: is how do you give the data to a player
Speaker 14: to make him a better player. And that's the part
Speaker 14: that I'm having fun with is learning what the data affects.
Speaker 14: The philosophy of how you play the game, and that's
Speaker 14: changed and positioning on the field. You know, different old
Speaker 14: philosophies have kind of gone out the window because they've
Speaker 14: been proven not to be effective. So it's interesting to
Speaker 14: watch the game from that perspective. But it is all
Speaker 14: about the data. The numbers they track everything that moves
Speaker 14: on that field.
Speaker 5: It's amazing and that's AI. That's big data coming into
Speaker 5: sports and ouse. I'm sure you know this, but I mean,
Speaker 5: just cal has he has a little record out there.
Speaker 5: He played a lot of games in a row. He
Speaker 5: never took a day off. That is something that just
Speaker 5: it'll never be broken down.
Speaker 14: I wish I was wearing probes or something that could
Speaker 14: figure out how I could do that, because I'm asking
Speaker 14: all the time, how in the world you play all
Speaker 14: those games in a row, and I don't know.
Speaker 5: Well, I guess my question would be with the analytics,
Speaker 5: that's never going to happen again, not even close.
Speaker 14: Well, I think they're predicting now, at least in a
Speaker 14: medical sort of way, when that you might be inclined
Speaker 14: to have an injury, you know, And so if they
Speaker 14: start to think that you might have an injury, then
Speaker 14: they put you on the list a little early, the
Speaker 14: injury list a little early, and they're they're looking at
Speaker 14: the long term as the short term.
Speaker 6: But I don't know if that's a good thing or
Speaker 6: a bad thing.
Speaker 14: There's the one thing that's hard to measure is what's
Speaker 14: inside your heart, I mean, your guts and how you
Speaker 14: go out about playing the game, how you compete. That's
Speaker 14: not measurable right now. And I think that's what drove
Speaker 14: me is when you're an everyday player. The definition of
Speaker 14: an everyday player when I played was every day. I
Speaker 14: had the body type in which to do it. I
Speaker 14: healed really well, and I could play through pain. And
Speaker 14: when you find out that you can play through being
Speaker 14: less than one hundred percent, because I would argue that
Speaker 14: even if you play one hundred and forty games, you're
Speaker 14: still playing at less than one hundred percent. Maybe the
Speaker 14: only time you're one hundred percent is the first day
Speaker 14: of spring training, right and then you end up moving
Speaker 14: towards the year. So that's the hard part where that's
Speaker 14: not measurable.
Speaker 5: Yep.
Speaker 14: And I like to see players that push through and
Speaker 14: force themselves to play every game to.
Speaker 5: See too that you don't see that too much anymore, Hey, David,
Speaker 5: And aside from the Orioles, you've got a day job
Speaker 5: here co founder, co chairman of the Carlisle Group. Perfect
Speaker 5: time to ask you this question. I know you bought
Speaker 5: the Orioles as an individual's part of a partnership. Right
Speaker 5: now private equity. The NFL has allowed private equity crime
Speaker 5: in as part ownership. What do you think about that?
Speaker 10: Well, Carlisle is one of the groups that's permitted, so
Speaker 10: for it. Yes, I think that it was inevitable because
Speaker 10: the prices of NFL teams are going up so much
Speaker 10: that it's very difficult to find somebody by himself or
Speaker 10: herself who can buy a team anymore longer. The last
Speaker 10: team that was sold they can, Washington Commander went for
Speaker 10: six billion dollars. It's a large an amount of money.
Speaker 10: Very few people can buy that by themselves. You need
Speaker 10: to have consortium of people to do this, and private
Speaker 10: equity is a big pot of capital. Sitting there. But
Speaker 10: the deals are ones where you have to be ten
Speaker 10: percent no involvement in the day to day management, and
Speaker 10: you have to hold for at least six years. So
Speaker 10: NFL's experimenting. We'll see how it goes.
Speaker 3: So Kel, you have had minor league investments, but this
Speaker 3: is the first time that both of you have had
Speaker 3: major league investments.
Speaker 6: How did this come about? Like how did the partnership
Speaker 6: come about?
Speaker 5: Haws it going well.
Speaker 10: The owner of the team for the last thirty years
Speaker 10: was the Angelo's family. I had talked to them over
Speaker 10: last summer about a possible sale and it came to be.
Speaker 10: But I wanted to have people in the consortium that
Speaker 10: were more connected to Baltimore and baseball than maybe I was,
Speaker 10: because I have grown up in Baltimore, but I haven't
Speaker 10: lived there for a while. So I talked to a
Speaker 10: number of people in Baltimore and some of the people
Speaker 10: who are also connected with the Oils, and obviously the
Speaker 10: first call was a cal Ripken. They said he would
Speaker 10: like to invest and also help us in other ways
Speaker 10: what she's doing. So I think it's worked out quite
Speaker 10: well and win win for Baltimore and for for that.
Speaker 6: Was like a no brainer for you.
Speaker 14: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely no brainer. I felt like I've been
Speaker 14: an Oriole through and through my whole life. I mean,
Speaker 14: I grew up in and around the Baltimore area. My
Speaker 14: dad was in, uh with the Orioles in the first
Speaker 14: fourteen years of my life. He was a minor league manager.
Speaker 14: And then you have a dream you'd be a player,
Speaker 14: You get drafted by the team you want to get
Speaker 14: drafted by, you play your whole career with that team.
Speaker 14: So I know that I went off for a little while,
Speaker 14: and uh, you know, you buy minor league teams, you
Speaker 14: learn about business in other ways. You put your head down.
Speaker 14: You don't pay much attention to what's happening at the Oriols.
Speaker 14: But when David called, it was an opportunity to get
Speaker 14: back in to look at it from the inside looking out,
Speaker 14: and I'm I'm really surprised that I'm way into it now.
Speaker 14: I used to think the whole world revolved around baseball,
Speaker 14: and then you get out and you realize it doesn't.
Speaker 14: But then now it seems like the world revolves around
Speaker 14: baseball again.
Speaker 10: Of course, not to put it in context for those
Speaker 10: who don't know the record, lou Garrick played in thirty
Speaker 10: consecutive games. People thought that was the unbreakable record. Cal
Speaker 10: Ripkin did six hundred and thirty two games over seventeen years,
Speaker 10: not missing one day. And all of us who worked
Speaker 10: day to day for living in non athletic things. Can
Speaker 10: you imagine going to work seventeen days in or seventeen
Speaker 10: years in a row without missing totally?
Speaker 5: Exactly, Cal, What do you think the Oils need to
Speaker 5: work on over the next couple of years? Here again,
Speaker 5: I'm looking at the record. Your record is great. What
Speaker 5: do you think they need to work on? Is it
Speaker 5: minor league? Is it No?
Speaker 14: No, We have a minor league that's stocked with talent
Speaker 14: and you can only I mean, if you developed three
Speaker 14: shortstops in the minor leagues, you can only play one
Speaker 14: of them.
Speaker 5: Yep.
Speaker 14: So many times the talent that you have in the
Speaker 14: minor leagues is used to trade to get to get
Speaker 14: the pieces that you need at the big league level.
Speaker 14: And the Ools are in good position for that. They
Speaker 14: have young players that are going to be superstars, that
Speaker 14: are already superstars, and maybe the biggest challenge in the
Speaker 14: future is how do you keep them?
Speaker 5: Yeah? Yeah, exactly, I mean, no salary cap here, so
Speaker 5: tough to keep the star players.
Speaker 15: Right.
Speaker 10: Yes, Unlike football or basketball, there's no salary cap in
Speaker 10: professional baseball, so you can get contracts at ores high
Speaker 10: ast seven hundred million dollars, and so it's hard for
Speaker 10: smaller cities to compete in that domain.
Speaker 2: Somewhat.
Speaker 5: All right, we have to see how that plays. Really.
Speaker 5: Appreciate you too, gentlemen. Stopping by David Rubinstein. He's a
Speaker 5: co founder and co chairman of the Carlisle Group. He's
Speaker 5: now the owner of the Baltimore Oils and cal Ripken
Speaker 5: Junior d cal Riton Junior Baseball Hall of Famer, founder
Speaker 5: and partner of Ripken Baseball. Appreciate you too, general. Taking
Speaker 5: a couple of minutes, you're trying to stop by here
Speaker 5: at our Bloomberg Sports Power Conference.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live
Speaker 1: weekdays at ten am Eastern on applecar Play and Android
Speaker 1: Auto with the Bloomberg Business App. You can also listen
Speaker 1: live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York station,
Speaker 1: Just Say Alexa playing Bloomberg eleven thirty.
Speaker 5: Alex Deel, Paul Sweeney. We were broadcasting live from the
Speaker 5: Bloomberg Power Players Conference here at the Bloomberg Global headquarters
Speaker 5: in Midtown Manhattan. Let's switch gears to the NASCAR, the
Speaker 5: business of NASCAR. I have a lot of experience with NASCAR.
Speaker 5: We took some of those track owners public back in
Speaker 5: the early nineties, and I got to really understand the business,
Speaker 5: the sport and the heritage of NASCAR Racing is just
Speaker 5: extraordinary education. There, Steve Phelps joins us. He's a president
Speaker 5: of NASCAR. Steve, thanks so much for joining us here.
Speaker 5: You know, I got to know NASCAR in the early
Speaker 5: nineties when I think it was really on an ascendency
Speaker 5: in terms of television ratings and then attendance, and it
Speaker 5: was just crazy and it rad that it rode that
Speaker 5: way for a while. Then it kind of crested. Where
Speaker 5: are we now with NASCAR in the global sports scene here?
Speaker 10: Sure?
Speaker 15: Well, I think you're exactly right, Paul, So had this.
Speaker 16: I would say until two thousand and nine, the growth
Speaker 16: of the sport just continued. You know, the recession hit,
Speaker 16: and I think sponsorship started to go away because not
Speaker 16: necessarily the sport, just because of where things were with
Speaker 16: the economy. And then we had a slow, steady decline.
Speaker 16: If We're going to be completely honest until twenty eighteen.
Speaker 16: But since twenty nineteen, attendance is up, ratings are up.
Speaker 16: We did a almost a one point one billion dollar
Speaker 16: per year media deal last year for seven years, so
Speaker 16: almost eight billion dollars.
Speaker 15: And so I'm very.
Speaker 16: Bullish on where the sport is today, but importantly where
Speaker 16: it's going.
Speaker 3: Where do you think it's going to go? Like, has
Speaker 3: it broad an appeal? How do you get someone like
Speaker 3: me to watch it?
Speaker 14: Sure?
Speaker 15: I think you know it? Yeah, that's a and there's
Speaker 15: the trick, right, so's.
Speaker 6: Like me just I don't know. I don't do sports
Speaker 6: at all. I like the Olympics, I like the US Open.
Speaker 16: So I think you know, we're trying to appeal to
Speaker 16: both obviously our existing audience and serve that audience and
Speaker 16: then bring a new audience in. We're doing that through
Speaker 16: a number of different things. So for example, we did
Speaker 16: a Netflix show earlier in the year, and that audience
Speaker 16: for US has been more female, it has been young,
Speaker 16: and I think if you look overall in NASCAR in
Speaker 16: the last three years, our growth has come from women,
Speaker 16: people of color, and younger people.
Speaker 15: And so it's working. But we've got to continue to
Speaker 15: do that.
Speaker 16: The key for me is what content opportunities we have
Speaker 16: that will capture you Alex right, and what are the
Speaker 16: storylines we have that will capture you? And I think
Speaker 16: that's important because and it's I think people think of
Speaker 16: it in a way that is not right, which is
Speaker 16: you're either going to serve yours existing fans or you're
Speaker 16: going to go after new fans. I don't think that's true.
Speaker 16: It's an and it's not an or. These fans, the
Speaker 16: existing fans, they want great racing, they want great storylines,
Speaker 16: they want their drivers to win, they want to see
Speaker 16: exciting racing.
Speaker 15: These people want the same thing. It's how do you
Speaker 15: how do you capture them?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 16: And so I don't think that two things are all
Speaker 16: that different. It's just where we investing our money. So
Speaker 16: for example, we just built a sixty million dollar our
Speaker 16: productions facility ran outside of Charlotte next to our R
Speaker 16: and D facility, and it's really two components to it.
Speaker 15: It's live event production.
Speaker 16: So how are we going to put our own events
Speaker 16: on for our five media partners going forward in twenty five?
Speaker 16: And then how do we create a you know, creative
Speaker 16: content and really compelling content either be distributed through our
Speaker 16: own channels of distribution or someone else's. So and we've
Speaker 16: got you know, the three new media partners as part
Speaker 16: of it. So Fox and NBC came back, who are
Speaker 16: existing partners, but we had an Amazon, Warner Brothers, Discovery
Speaker 16: and the CW and the CW is for our second series,
Speaker 16: which is called the Xfinity Series. So five media partners,
Speaker 16: five opportunities for us to have, you know, kind of
Speaker 16: a megaphone of where things are going.
Speaker 5: It used to be alex you know, Ford Cars, Chevy
Speaker 5: Cars in the race. If you went on Sunday, you
Speaker 5: sell on Monday. That's how important it was. Talk to
Speaker 5: us about the economics of just the teams out there.
Speaker 5: How many teams are there? Do they make money?
Speaker 8: Sure?
Speaker 5: How does that work?
Speaker 16: So I would look at it in three kind of
Speaker 16: three buckets, right, So we have three national series. The
Speaker 16: one that most people think about is our Cup series,
Speaker 16: which is our top series. So we're coming to a close,
Speaker 16: I think, you know, pretty quickly on something called charter extensions.
Speaker 16: So I would think of it as franchise light, so
Speaker 16: it's not franchise, but it creates enterprise value for our
Speaker 16: race teams, and so we're in the final throws of
Speaker 16: getting those extended. Right now, race teams, if you probably
Speaker 16: are collectively losing money. So in the charter agreement that
Speaker 16: we have, based on our media deals and some other
Speaker 16: things that we're doing, we're going to provide the race
Speaker 16: teams with more revenue, so two pieces of revenue, guaranteed
Speaker 16: revenue and then what they race for.
Speaker 15: And so to me, starting in.
Speaker 16: Twenty twenty five, we should have cash flow positive race teams,
Speaker 16: which is what we want. And I've heard lots of
Speaker 16: fans say, well, I don't really care about that. My
Speaker 16: whole point is bankru Yeah, that's exactly Well, not only that,
Speaker 16: but it creates more compelling racing, right, and that's what
Speaker 16: we want.
Speaker 15: We have competitive racing. So we have of our twenty six.
Speaker 16: Races, we've had this year, fifteen different winners, nine different
Speaker 16: organizations of the fifteen charter organizations that we have.
Speaker 15: So it's it, and the racing is terrific.
Speaker 16: It's just it's the best style of racing I believe
Speaker 16: on the planet, and I think our race fans are
Speaker 16: telling us that. So again, ratings are up despite significant
Speaker 16: rain issues we've had all year, long raining. So Daytona
Speaker 16: five hundred were down twenty seven percent because we raced
Speaker 16: on Monday. YEP, Coke six hundred rain event down fifteen percent.
Speaker 16: We had a race in the streets of Chicago rain again,
Speaker 16: down fifteen percent. So there are three largest rated events
Speaker 16: of the year, all down double digit and yet we're
Speaker 16: still positive right of rating.
Speaker 15: So it's it's.
Speaker 5: Working just real quick. Any new markets go about thirty
Speaker 5: seconds left?
Speaker 16: Sure, yeah, so yeah, so I think so we're going
Speaker 16: to race next year for the first time outside of
Speaker 16: our borders in the Cup Series in Mexico City. Okay,
Speaker 16: So we have some other discussions that are going so
Speaker 16: we're again we're excited about the broadening of our sport.
Speaker 5: YEP. Absolutely. I like Charlotte Motor Speedway, like Richmond, and
Speaker 5: I like Bristol, the smallest track, but it's just people
Speaker 5: down there are nuts for racing. It's kind of like Bristol, Tennessee, Bristol, Virginia,
Speaker 5: Span Toosday. It's really cool anyway. Steve Phillipstone joined US
Speaker 5: President of NASCAR here at the Bloomberg Sports Conference here
Speaker 5: in New York City talking to us about the business
Speaker 5: of NASCAR Racing car.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live
Speaker 1: weekdays at ten am Eastern on Apple Car Play and
Speaker 1: Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app. You can also
Speaker 1: listen live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York station,
Speaker 1: Just Say Alexa playing Bloomberg eleven thirty.
Speaker 5: All right, Alex Seal, Paul Sweeney, your life here in
Speaker 5: the sixth floor of the Bloomberg Headquarters. We're here for
Speaker 5: the Bloomberg power players here at are headquarters. Let's talk
Speaker 5: a little hoops here Team USA Basketball. I'm gonna introduce
Speaker 5: my second favorite duke player of all time, Grant Hill.
Speaker 5: Just phenomenal. Of course, Bobby Hurley, his point guard back
Speaker 5: in the day, is my number one choice from Jersey City. Grant,
Speaker 5: thanks so much for joining us here Team USA. I mean,
Speaker 5: you guys are hitting it. I mean, talk to us
Speaker 5: about the status of Team USA. I mean, you know,
Speaker 5: obviously Coach k stepped it back, A new regime kind
Speaker 5: of came in. You're there just about Team USA. Both
Speaker 5: men and women are just wow.
Speaker 17: Well, well, first of all, Bobby Hurley was my favorite
Speaker 17: dup player of all time because he passed the ball
Speaker 17: to me right, Bobby was great. No, It's an exciting time.
Speaker 17: And obviously I succeeded Jerry Colangelo, who along with coach
Speaker 17: K had an incredible run together starting in two thousand
Speaker 17: and six, and I came in during this sort of
Speaker 17: Olympic quad. We had our World Cup last summer. We
Speaker 17: didn't fare as well in the World Cup. The women
Speaker 17: won the gold medal in their World Cup, but the
Speaker 17: Olympics were absolutely incredible and both teams were pushed, they
Speaker 17: were tested. Uh, there was just excellence on the court
Speaker 17: all over the world. We saw Serbia and our semi
Speaker 17: final games, they were so worthy and deserving of winning.
Speaker 17: Came up short. Yeah, but it was It was just phenomenal.
Speaker 17: I mean the fact that we had, we got tested,
Speaker 17: we got pushed, We had to show some fight and
Speaker 17: some toughness collectively, uh, to win that game, but also
Speaker 17: win the gold medal against France. The women's team got
Speaker 17: pushed and a very close tough matchup they had in
Speaker 17: the gold medal game with France as well. So I
Speaker 17: think it was just a win win, not just for
Speaker 17: USA basketball and our continued excellence, there was a win
Speaker 17: win for basketball universally. Like I think all across the globe.
Speaker 17: If you're a fan of the game. Uh, the Olympic
Speaker 17: basketball scene was spectacular.
Speaker 3: And even if you don't know the game or watch
Speaker 3: the game normally, like I was totally into it.
Speaker 6: It was amazing.
Speaker 3: It was really great talking about investing and where do
Speaker 3: you see opportunities. I know that you and your wife
Speaker 3: are also investors in the Orlando Pro women's soccer team,
Speaker 3: and we were talking about that over the last couple
Speaker 3: hours as well as to where the opportunity set is
Speaker 3: sort of where women's soccer is going to go.
Speaker 17: You know, Look, so I have two daughters who are
Speaker 17: who are jocks, who are athletes, and and so yes,
Speaker 17: and you know, I think sort of through them really
Speaker 17: getting exposed to women's sports and really wanting them to
Speaker 17: see women professional athletes. So, whether it was the WNBA
Speaker 17: or the NWSL. We live in Orlando, we were fans
Speaker 17: and consumers at first, and we got so caught into
Speaker 17: it and just loving it and having a passion for
Speaker 17: these teams. We also saw the potential and the upside
Speaker 17: for growth and u and so the opportunity to invest
Speaker 17: in the NWSL, the Orlando Pride in first place right now,
Speaker 17: we have not lost the game, had a few ties
Speaker 17: and all wins. But I just feel the momentum is
Speaker 17: really growing. And now you have superior leadership. Jessica Berman
Speaker 17: is a fantastic commissioner, has great vision, can execute that vision,
Speaker 17: has surrounded herself with a solid team. But also we
Speaker 17: have professional ownership. Now, we have owners now who own
Speaker 17: other sports, who've been in this, who understand it, see
Speaker 17: the long term trajectory of the business, and so I
Speaker 17: wouldn't say we're at an inflection point right now, but
Speaker 17: I think we have long term positioned ourselves nicely for
Speaker 17: great success. And I think of all the sports leagues,
Speaker 17: I really believe this. I think the NWSL has the
Speaker 17: greatest subside. So really excited. I was excited to see
Speaker 17: Jessica and Midge person one of the stars in the league,
Speaker 17: and yeah, we're thrilled to be involved.
Speaker 5: Where do you see basketball is a global sport. We
Speaker 5: saw it on on at Paris. I mean, the limits
Speaker 5: all over, great competitiveness. How does the NBA, you know,
Speaker 5: how do you think then they taps into that? I
Speaker 5: mean there's so many international players playing in the NBA now,
Speaker 5: but what do you think they should be doing there well.
Speaker 17: The game has become a global sport. You figured out
Speaker 17: the ninety two Dream Team and sort of what they did,
Speaker 17: they inspired a world a whole, multiple generations of basketball players.
Speaker 17: Now that the NBA is thirty percent international, Wow, And
Speaker 17: you know, I can go all over the world and
Speaker 17: people recognize me and they identify me with the NBA brand.
Speaker 17: The NBA is a global marketing and public relations firm.
Speaker 17: The players, you know, they may come in, they may leave,
Speaker 17: they may you know, replenishes itself, but the ability to
Speaker 17: market and promote is what they've mastered and done a
Speaker 17: great job of that in the last thirty two years
Speaker 17: since the Dream Team. I think though, where we can
Speaker 17: you know, can continue to improve. Obviously domestically with our development,
Speaker 17: I think national basketball community has kind of caught us
Speaker 17: or maybe even surpassed us in some ways with how
Speaker 17: they develop young talent. I also see expansion not just
Speaker 17: here and possibly Las Vegas or Seattle, but I you know,
Speaker 17: talk about going over to Europe, talk about partnering with
Speaker 17: the EuroLeague. I'm an investor in NBA Africa and the
Speaker 17: opportunity there and the potential as a lot of the
Speaker 17: nations in that kind on that continent are still developing,
Speaker 17: but they consume the game. And uh and so the
Speaker 17: league is is is doing a number of efforts, a
Speaker 17: number a number of initiatives and just sees the continued
Speaker 17: sort of growth opportunities that their global media markets.
Speaker 5: Yep, you know.
Speaker 17: And the game is is isn't a good place and
Speaker 17: I think has even greater potential as we move forward.
Speaker 5: Ten seconds. How good is this Cooper flag kid?
Speaker 17: He's really good. He I brought him in on the
Speaker 17: select team to prepare with the prepares for the Olympic team,
Speaker 17: and he played very well, had a really good day.
Speaker 17: You know, he might have been one of the top
Speaker 17: five players. I might embellish a bit, but he might
Speaker 17: have been one of the top five players on the
Speaker 17: court that one day. And so big expectations for my
Speaker 17: Blue Devils this year.
Speaker 5: With zachfi exactly right, all right, Grant, thanks so much
Speaker 5: for joining us. Grant Hill, he's a managing director of
Speaker 5: USA Basketball. He's a co owner of the Atlanta Hawk's
Speaker 5: life from the Bloomberg Power Players. He's here at our
Speaker 5: Bloomberg Global headquarters along with the letter other sports folks.
Speaker 5: So it's business, it's technology, it's sport, it's entertainment, it's
Speaker 5: only intersecting.
Speaker 6: I'm so impressed with your ability to have this muscle.
Speaker 2: Here.
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