Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2: This is Bloomberg Business of Sports.
Speaker 3: Business of Sports can be intimidating for hard for a
Speaker 3: start to break into.
Speaker 4: We really appreciate what our owners are actually there. You
Speaker 4: know with us through the journey.
Speaker 5: Teams ours especially have been very intentional to diversify at
Speaker 5: all levels of the company.
Speaker 6: Whybe We're in the golden years for the NFL and
Speaker 6: college football.
Speaker 3: Our demographic reach has continued to expande.
Speaker 7: This is going to be really unlocking the streaming platform
Speaker 7: for sports fans.
Speaker 2: Sports evaluations arising. We'll see when they peak.
Speaker 1: You don't have to be the best in your sports
Speaker 1: and make a whole ton of money.
Speaker 2: Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio. This is the
Speaker 2: Bloomberg Business of Sports show. We explore the big money
Speaker 2: issues in the world of sports. I'm Michael Barr, along
Speaker 2: with my colleagues Scarlett Fou and Damian Sassau on the lineup.
Speaker 2: Today we're talking the growth of women's golf with two
Speaker 2: time lp GA champion winner Stacy Lewis and with the
Speaker 2: KPMG Women's PGA Championship in play this weekend. We'll also
Speaker 2: speak with the chairman and CEO of KPMG, Paul Knop.
Speaker 6: This was the only women's leadership conference affiliated with a
Speaker 6: LPGA tournament that Catalyst has allowed. For now, there are
Speaker 6: twenty women's leadership conferences affiliated with LPGA tour events. So
Speaker 6: we feel really great about bringing about more change so
Speaker 6: that more women can be elevated to the c suite,
Speaker 6: and we're seeing it at many more LPGA tournaments.
Speaker 2: Today, we'll also speak baseball in the role of the
Speaker 2: starting pitcher in Today's Game with Hall of Fame pitcher
Speaker 2: and current Fox Sports analyst John Smoltz. But first, the
Speaker 2: sports world lost another legend this week.
Speaker 8: He say hey, sway at the plaid, say Hey.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the say hey kid. Baseball legend will Mays died
Speaker 2: this past week at the age of ninety three. A
Speaker 2: prolific player on and off the field, May's transcended what
Speaker 2: it meant to be a cultural icon at a complicated time.
Speaker 2: This week, in honor of juneteenth, Major League Baseball played
Speaker 2: a regular season game at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama,
Speaker 2: as a tribute to the Negro leagues. The game was
Speaker 2: played between the Saint Louis Cardinals and Willie May's former club,
Speaker 2: the San Francisco Giants. During the pregame on Fox Sports,
Speaker 2: another baseball legend, Reggie Jackson, spoke about what Mays meant
Speaker 2: to him and then emotionally recalled the racism and discrimination
Speaker 2: he experienced while playing in Alabama as a minor league player.
Speaker 2: Take a listen, Gush.
Speaker 8: I think Willie Mays meant to me the same thing
Speaker 8: that he meant to most people. He was a barishnikoff
Speaker 8: on the baseball field. I think that he had a
Speaker 8: lot of things to say about the game. But at
Speaker 8: the time when Willie playing, Hank Aaron was playing. They
Speaker 8: grew up in an era when you had a complain
Speaker 8: about the game or a complain about society, you suppressed it.
Speaker 8: Today's player doesn't do that. Coming back here is not easy.
Speaker 8: The racism that I played here. I walked into restaurants
Speaker 8: and they would point at me and said, you can't
Speaker 8: eat here. I would go to a hotel and they said,
Speaker 8: can't stay here. At the same time, had it not
Speaker 8: been for my white friends, had it not been for
Speaker 8: a white manager and Rudy Fingers and Duncan and Lee Myers,
Speaker 8: I would have never made it.
Speaker 2: That was baseball great Reggie Jackson during the Fox Sports
Speaker 2: tribute to the Negro League's pregame show. Audio courtesy again
Speaker 2: of Fox Sports Network, and it was a very powerful interview.
Speaker 2: We'll talk more baseball later in the show, but first
Speaker 2: we want to pivot to a conversation with another prominent
Speaker 2: name from the New York sports scene. For MDA All
Speaker 2: Star kerb Melo Anthony Knicks fans saw him mad MSG
Speaker 2: cheering on his old team during their playoff run, but
Speaker 2: Melo has been busy behind the scenes launching a new
Speaker 2: luxury wine called Ode to Soul. Anthony stopped by our
Speaker 2: studios here in New York recently along with this business
Speaker 2: partner Asani Swan to talk it through with our colleagues,
Speaker 2: remain Bostic and Scarlet through Let's listen in.
Speaker 1: I actually was just interested, like I just wanted to
Speaker 1: learn about the industry. I wanted to learn about what
Speaker 1: it takes to actually grow wine and what happens in
Speaker 1: the process. So I just started drinking the wine and
Speaker 1: then I realized, look, I need to stop spending so
Speaker 1: much money on consuming this wine and figure out what
Speaker 1: is the right business model in this industry. So it
Speaker 1: took me a little bit of time to kind of
Speaker 1: figure the industry out and see where I wanted to
Speaker 1: open the door.
Speaker 9: App well, you partnered with Asana and just looking at
Speaker 9: sort of the pedigree of this wine. I mean, this
Speaker 9: is like serious, like old world wine making you're doing.
Speaker 9: You just didn't slap his name on a label and
Speaker 9: just try to sell it here, just kind of explain
Speaker 9: exactly the region where these grapes are coming from and
Speaker 9: exactly the process that it went through.
Speaker 7: Yeah, great question. So I think a lot of people
Speaker 7: from then the seventh the state were a little shocks
Speaker 7: that we decided to partner with Robert Moondabi Winery, But
Speaker 7: ultimately we wanted to produce a premium quality wine and
Speaker 7: so we thought what better way to do that than
Speaker 7: with one of the best and most traditional wine companies
Speaker 7: in the world. And so we had the opportunity to
Speaker 7: partner with them and then get our grapes from the
Speaker 7: Tokalon region. The Tokalon region has a great deal of
Speaker 7: dried soil, and the way that the sun hits those
Speaker 7: grapes is able to develop what we get to taste
Speaker 7: in the bottle, and so that is one of the
Speaker 7: reasons why the price point is what it is, but
Speaker 7: also the process that we go through in creating what's
Speaker 7: in bottle is so specific and it's so specific to
Speaker 7: who we are as winemakers as well. And having the
Speaker 7: opportunity to have the guidance of John Viev, who's the
Speaker 7: chief wind maker at Robert Mondavi Winery, was certainly an
Speaker 7: experience in and of itself to learn from one of
Speaker 7: the masters in the space.
Speaker 5: I think everyone's curious Carmela to understand your level of involvement.
Speaker 5: Did you choose the blend?
Speaker 4: Are you a lead taster here, lead tasted?
Speaker 5: Did you zoo in on that pricing of what two
Speaker 5: hundred and seventy five dollars a bottle?
Speaker 1: So the pricing was out of my jurisdiction. I'm more
Speaker 1: of the you know, bring my bring my palate, you know,
Speaker 1: bring my my smell, bring my my innovation, you know
Speaker 1: to the room, whereas I just utilize, you know, the tokalon.
Speaker 1: It is what it is that that portion of nappid
Speaker 1: that venyard is is spectacular. So the reason I could
Speaker 1: just come in and just flow and just because it's
Speaker 1: already there, right and having somebody like John Viev alongside,
Speaker 1: that's who's on the ground every single day understanding what
Speaker 1: that soilo is, what that region is. For me, I
Speaker 1: could just bring my innovation into the industry. So yes,
Speaker 1: I'm heavily involved from the beginning all the way to
Speaker 1: the end where we all we always We also had
Speaker 1: a you know, a disagreement about one percent of patite
Speaker 1: verdot that we put actually put into wine.
Speaker 3: So so who won?
Speaker 5: Did you win?
Speaker 1: We all want, we all want it's a great wine.
Speaker 3: Well done, well done.
Speaker 5: You mentioned, of course that you were drinking wine and
Speaker 5: you thought, you know what, I have to stop spending
Speaker 5: money on this. But I'm curious about your time in
Speaker 5: New York and how that contributed to your education as
Speaker 5: a wine connoisseur. What was it about being in New
Speaker 5: York and being and having access to all this great
Speaker 5: wine that really deepened your passion for fine wine?
Speaker 1: What I said, I think you hit it right on
Speaker 1: the word, which was access. Right now, in New York,
Speaker 1: I had access to people and collectors and people that
Speaker 1: was drinking these crazy wines and these wine clubs. So
Speaker 1: I had access to all of those people. So I
Speaker 1: always wanted to know, Okay, if I can get into
Speaker 1: this circle, if I can appiece to this circle. If
Speaker 1: I can bring wine to the dinner and I can
Speaker 1: make this you know, specific circle be like, h this
Speaker 1: guy know what he's talking about.
Speaker 4: He's for real.
Speaker 1: Then I felt like I've proven myself. So it was
Speaker 1: just taking my time here in New York. And I
Speaker 1: will say New York actually helped me kind of broaden
Speaker 1: my horizon to think globally as far as the wine
Speaker 1: industry and the wine business goes.
Speaker 4: So I can talk a little bit about the marketing
Speaker 4: of this wine.
Speaker 9: Just a minute ago, we referenced the price point, and
Speaker 9: it is a higher price point. This is a premium product. Yes,
Speaker 9: how did you arrive that this was wherever it's going
Speaker 9: to be.
Speaker 7: The wonderful thing about our relationship with Constellation Brands and
Speaker 7: Robert Montdabby Winery specifically is that we were both bringing
Speaker 7: something very unique to the table. You know, we have
Speaker 7: this innovation of tradition with Robert Montdabby Winery, and we
Speaker 7: have this creativity and mellow and I having ability to
Speaker 7: reach people in a different way. I definitely will say
Speaker 7: that we have some of them most exciting experiences when
Speaker 7: it comes to releasing our wine. For sure, we have
Speaker 7: a good time. That's part of the wine drinking experience
Speaker 7: is what is the experience that we are bringing to
Speaker 7: the table. So for us, we really have leaned into
Speaker 7: the idea that when you drink our wine, we want
Speaker 7: it to be an experience, not just to taste it
Speaker 7: for the sake of having a glass, but what happens.
Speaker 7: And so for us, even in the naming of our wine,
Speaker 7: that was very important Ode to Soul.
Speaker 4: Talk about the naming of that wine here.
Speaker 9: I mean this is a reference to a very famous
Speaker 9: Haitian general, basically someone responsible for the Haitian Revolution. I mean,
Speaker 9: you're not Haitian, No, you're Puerto Rica, and I'm not
Speaker 9: sure what you are. How did you arrive on that?
Speaker 9: Why did you choose him?
Speaker 7: Well, you're speaking of Oath of Fidelity with Tucson. Oh yes, yes,
Speaker 7: So that was our twenty seventeen chateaun of depop which
Speaker 7: was exceptional and it was well received by the community.
Speaker 10: For sure.
Speaker 7: Ode to Soul was really a collaboration of all of us,
Speaker 7: both myself and Mellow as well as the Robert Mondavi team.
Speaker 7: We decided that we wanted this to be a wine
Speaker 7: that paid homage to history and the history that means
Speaker 7: something to you. For us specifically, it's around wine, it's
Speaker 7: around our native people, it's around our ancestors, and so
Speaker 7: we are paying homage to those that came before us
Speaker 7: to open the doors for people who were coming next
Speaker 7: for us. And I know, Mellow, you have a very
Speaker 7: specific point of view.
Speaker 2: It's right on right.
Speaker 1: It's that you know, I'm a music guy, right, I
Speaker 1: love music, So you hear old to soul and just
Speaker 1: it dances right, and so it's a lot of similarities
Speaker 1: from you know, the naming process is not something that
Speaker 1: we we actually just come up with a name, like
Speaker 1: we really put thought into it. We really want to
Speaker 1: create content around, we want to tell stories. And then
Speaker 1: I think one of the most important things is the
Speaker 1: fact that we're able to engage communities right to create
Speaker 1: these actual experiences where we don't have We don't go
Speaker 1: out there and try to sell wine in a traditional way,
Speaker 1: like we don't Bloomberg.
Speaker 4: It's like it's.
Speaker 1: We're doing a different because of the price point, but
Speaker 1: it's it's it's you know, what we do is we
Speaker 1: we allow our community to experience those experiences, right, and
Speaker 1: we create these taste things and we create these moments
Speaker 1: to where people come in and they want to be
Speaker 1: a part of the story and a part of the community,
Speaker 1: and then the wine comes after that.
Speaker 9: Yeah, you have any friendly competition with some of the
Speaker 9: other players, I mean, d Wade's got his own wine,
Speaker 9: a few others.
Speaker 4: You just call them up and be like, yo, yours
Speaker 4: ain't seven No, no, you know, we.
Speaker 1: Don't have those type of conversations. But it's it's more
Speaker 1: so like, how could we create the experience like you
Speaker 1: you have yours, you have yours, you have yours. How
Speaker 1: could we create an experience where everybody is a part
Speaker 1: of this community and engaging and you get to sell
Speaker 1: your wine. I sell my wine, We get to taste wine,
Speaker 1: and we get to have a good time.
Speaker 2: That's former multi time NBA All Star and former New
Speaker 2: York Knicks player Carmelo Anthony, along with his business partner
Speaker 2: Asanni Swan, speaking with our Bloomberg TV colleagues Remain Bustic
Speaker 2: and Scarlet Foo about his new venture in luxury wine.
Speaker 2: Here that full conversation on demand now on the Bloomberg
Speaker 2: Talks podcast. Check it out and subscribe on Apple, Spotify
Speaker 2: and anywhere else should get your podcasts. Up next on
Speaker 2: the show, he says pitch limits are not helping starting pitchers.
Speaker 2: We'll get more on that with MLB Hall of Famer
Speaker 2: John Smokes. You're listening to the Bloomberg Business of Sports
Speaker 2: from Bloomberg Radio around the world. This is Bloomberg Business
Speaker 2: of Sports from Bloomberg Radio. This is the Bloomberg Business
Speaker 2: of Sports show where we explore the big money issues
Speaker 2: in the world of sports. I'm Michael Barr and along
Speaker 2: with my colleagues Scarlett fou and Damian Sasaur. We're only
Speaker 2: a few weeks out from the Midsummer Classic in baseball.
Speaker 2: This year's MLB All Star Game is July sixteenth at
Speaker 2: Globe Live Field in Arlington, Texas. Now that we're inching
Speaker 2: closer to the halfway point, we wanted to check in
Speaker 2: on the state of the sport with an old friend
Speaker 2: of the show, John Smoltz. He is an eight time
Speaker 2: MLB All Star himself and is now an analyst for
Speaker 2: Fox Sports. We spoke with him earlier this week before
Speaker 2: Willie May's passing for his thoughts on the season so far.
Speaker 2: And I'm looking at some teams that are just like
Speaker 2: kicking behind, like the Baltimore Orioles and the New York Yankees.
Speaker 3: Your thoughts, Yeah, we have a a kind of a
Speaker 3: top heavy league right now, meaning there's five teams that
Speaker 3: separate themselves against the rest. That doesn't mean some of
Speaker 3: the other teams that are kind of floundering around five
Speaker 3: hundred can't make a move. But you've got the Dodgers
Speaker 3: and unfortunately they've had a couple injuries that don't work
Speaker 3: well for them. The Braves had the two worst injuries
Speaker 3: they could have. The Baltimore Oriols and the New York
Speaker 3: Yankees are head and shoulders above the rest. Philadelphia coming
Speaker 3: right in there as well. But I think what you're
Speaker 3: going to see in this year is baseball season is
Speaker 3: you've got a ton of teams kind of all grouped
Speaker 3: in the same category trying to fight for those remaining
Speaker 3: playoff spots, and the trade deadline is going to be
Speaker 3: huge to determine some of those team's success. And they're
Speaker 3: all got the Arizona Diamondbacks in their vision, meaning what
Speaker 3: Arizona did last year gives a lot of these teams
Speaker 3: hope that they could be this year's version of the
Speaker 3: Arizona Diamondbacks.
Speaker 11: Last year well, John, I really like that you mentioned
Speaker 11: the injuries, you know, and we had a spade of
Speaker 11: them this year, including your Atlanta Braids losing Spencer Strider.
Speaker 11: We've Scheene Bieber's on the fence, I mean, most recently
Speaker 11: Mookie Betts and Anthony Rizzo. But talk to us a
Speaker 11: little bit about what your expectations are as we get
Speaker 11: into the second half. Can some of these players actually
Speaker 11: come back in time to make a difference.
Speaker 3: I think they can. The biggest problem in the game
Speaker 3: is injuries, and no one seems to want to address it.
Speaker 3: They just kind of look the other way and say
Speaker 3: it's part of the game. And unfortunately, for a lot
Speaker 3: of these pitchers, the ones you've mentioned are veterans, it
Speaker 3: gives them a better chance to come back. They know
Speaker 3: how to pitch, But young pitchers have no guarantee because
Speaker 3: they have not got in their stripes and learn how
Speaker 3: to pitch with the kind of arsenal that they have,
Speaker 3: So it's a little more of a crapshoot with them.
Speaker 3: It's a little more of a given. With a de
Speaker 3: Gram and a sures Aer and a coal and a
Speaker 3: Kershaw is going to come back somehow. In the second
Speaker 3: half of the Dodgers. So I think the biggest problem
Speaker 3: that a lot of these guys' face is they're going
Speaker 3: back to really, really good teams and they're going to
Speaker 3: want to contribute like they never left. It's going to
Speaker 3: take three to five starts for these guys to get
Speaker 3: well back into the groove and then hopefully there's no
Speaker 3: hiccups the rest of the way.
Speaker 5: In if we take a step back. I have just
Speaker 5: marveled at how much more I've enjoyed watching baseball these
Speaker 5: last two seasons. With the new rules that reduce the
Speaker 5: amount of time each game takes, there's now so much
Speaker 5: focus John on pitch count, and with the pitch clock,
Speaker 5: there is a lot more management around the starting pitcher's
Speaker 5: time on the mound. I'm curious to get your take
Speaker 5: on what this means for the starting pitcher's role as
Speaker 5: we head into the mid twenty twenties. Is the starting
Speaker 5: pitcher's role being diminished? I mean the San Francisco Giants
Speaker 5: last year often went to the bullpen after two or three.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's the definition of insanity doing the same thing
Speaker 3: over and over again expecting different results. This is the
Speaker 3: one area that won't change until there's a rule change,
Speaker 3: and it's common. They just can't enforce it right away
Speaker 3: because they just made two great, three great rule changes
Speaker 3: to do exactly what you just said. But the starting
Speaker 3: pitching has been trying to be eliminated by analytics for
Speaker 3: a long time, and then they realized about halfway through,
Speaker 3: oh shoot, this can't happen. We need starting pitching and
Speaker 3: there is none to be found. So that's what everybody's
Speaker 3: looking for. But that's what everything's breaking down. The reward
Speaker 3: system is why the players are chasing it, and I
Speaker 3: don't blame them, but the reward system is flawed. You're
Speaker 3: asking pitchers to throw as hard as they can, spin
Speaker 3: it as much as they can, and then, oh, by
Speaker 3: the way, limit what they do once they get near
Speaker 3: one hundred pitches. It's a broke system. It's a broke philosophy.
Speaker 3: You won't hear anybody talk about it. I've been talking
Speaker 3: about it for ten years. But until there's rule changes,
Speaker 3: nothing will change because philosophically they think this is the
Speaker 3: way to navigate a season. The end of the season,
Speaker 3: you'll have thirty to forty pitchers go through your roster
Speaker 3: per team. Think about that. That's impossible to sustain. So
Speaker 3: I hope that we get to the next phase of
Speaker 3: what the game is moving in a great place with
Speaker 3: great talent. These are some of the best pitching prospects
Speaker 3: and arms we have ever seen, but we don't get
Speaker 3: to see them long enough because of the injuries. That's
Speaker 3: what I have been burdened by. That's why I have
Speaker 3: been kind of screaming at the mountaintop. This doesn't work,
Speaker 3: it never will work, and we're asking people to just
Speaker 3: get brainwashed to think that this is the new normal.
Speaker 5: What kind of rule do you think would work and
Speaker 5: how do you think that will change way pitchers are compensated.
Speaker 3: Well, much like the rule changes that exist today, nobody
Speaker 3: was going to change the way they played baseball. Now
Speaker 3: they have to. You can't stay stuck in the last
Speaker 3: seven years and play the analytic kind of stratomatic baseball
Speaker 3: because the rule changes have enhanced you to change your philosophy.
Speaker 3: So when a rule change, similar to roster manipulation, you
Speaker 3: limit how many pitchers could be on a roster, You
Speaker 3: limit how many times they can come up and down.
Speaker 3: Those are ways to change philosophy of how you ask
Speaker 3: a starter to pitch more innings. I floated an idea
Speaker 3: a long time ago, and they thought I had fell
Speaker 3: off a tree and hit my head, because they said,
Speaker 3: that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. But there are
Speaker 3: no such things as dumb things anymore when you want
Speaker 3: to change the course of action, So I said, why
Speaker 3: don't you tie your starting pitcher to the DH And
Speaker 3: they're like, that's terrible. I said, no, it's a competitive advantage. Now.
Speaker 3: If you want your DH in the game longer, then
Speaker 3: your starter will go longer. If you want to pitch
Speaker 3: a guy two innings, then you got to pinch hit
Speaker 3: the rest of the game. Those are the kind of
Speaker 3: ideas you've got to think innovatively if you want to
Speaker 3: change the philosophy of how pitching is being managed, because
Speaker 3: right now, the same thing's going to happen in the
Speaker 3: rest of the time, because this is what they figured out.
Speaker 3: I have enough arms. They're not ready, but I have
Speaker 3: enough arms to fulfill a calendar year if some of
Speaker 3: my eyes get hurt or I'm kind of managing the innings.
Speaker 2: See now, and that brings me up to what you
Speaker 2: said to what happened Renaul Blanco, He already pitched a
Speaker 2: no hitter, and he was on his way on a
Speaker 2: second no hitter, and the Astros manager then pulled him
Speaker 2: after ninety four pitches. Now, and there are both sides
Speaker 2: to this argument here, It's like, all right, wait, first
Speaker 2: of all, he's throwing ninety four pitches, but he's on
Speaker 2: a no hitter. And I'm still unclear what side to
Speaker 2: fall on about this.
Speaker 3: John, Well, imagine how fixated your brain has been the
Speaker 3: last ten years about pitch count. There's no scientific evidence
Speaker 3: to pitch counts, none, But we think a guy's going
Speaker 3: to break once he gets to one hundred. I've watched
Speaker 3: games with people and they go, oh my gosh, he's
Speaker 3: got ninety eight pitches. I said, don't worry, he's not
Speaker 3: going to break. Like we think that they have come
Speaker 3: up with a number that universally transformed a pitcher into
Speaker 3: an ridge injury risk. Here's the problem with that. Not
Speaker 3: everybody's the same. You could have a clean game, clean mechanics,
Speaker 3: and not be in any stress. That number is not
Speaker 3: relevant to a guy who's getting out of a jam,
Speaker 3: pitching in a lot of trouble, and throwing with bad mechanics.
Speaker 3: I would argue that the pitch count single handedly has
Speaker 3: hurt the game in the way that we manage it
Speaker 3: and the way that they have these golden rules. See again,
Speaker 3: analytics came into the game not almost guarantee them that
Speaker 3: they would put players in the best place to be
Speaker 3: successful and keep them healthy. Well, only half of that's
Speaker 3: been true, and so you never talk about keeping them
Speaker 3: healthy because they know that doesn't work. So when they
Speaker 3: play it safe and they're rewarding a pitcher to not
Speaker 3: throw one hundred or that is the most ridiculous line
Speaker 3: of thinking because if it was working, I would never
Speaker 3: say a work. If all of a sudden the injuries
Speaker 3: got cut in half because we monitored the pitch count,
Speaker 3: then I'd say, wow, that's pretty cool. But it's not working,
Speaker 3: and it doesn't. So that's an artificial number that's been
Speaker 3: thrown out there that you can't get fired by and
Speaker 3: you can't get critiqued by if you adhere to it.
Speaker 3: So just watch the next pitcher that throws one hundred
Speaker 3: and fifteen or one hundred and twenty pitches. If we
Speaker 3: get there, yeah, they're gonna push him back, save us.
Speaker 3: Like They're going to do so many things because they
Speaker 3: feel like they have to based on like I said,
Speaker 3: what everybody believes is one hundred pitches and if you
Speaker 3: go north to that, you're running the risk of trouble.
Speaker 3: Yet yet come postseason, all rules are gone.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Right, at the worst time, the most risk time of
Speaker 3: the year, all those rules go out the window. And
Speaker 3: I kind of somehow chuckle, thinking, oh, really that this
Speaker 3: time of the year. Now we don't have any handcuffs
Speaker 3: put on anybody. So it's pretty interesting how it plays out.
Speaker 11: Well, John, I'd love to spend all day talking about
Speaker 11: Major League Baseball with you, but I'm gonna steal a
Speaker 11: phrase from my colleague Michael bar golf golf, golf, golf, golf, golf, golf.
Speaker 11: And you know, we have the I mean the American
Speaker 11: Century Championship coming up. I mean our audience knows how
Speaker 11: involved in that you are. I mean, my goodness, Steph
Speaker 11: Kerry with the Steph Curry, sorry, with the walk off
Speaker 11: eagle putt netpik fashion last year. What are your chances
Speaker 11: this year, mister Smolts, Are we going.
Speaker 3: To take it? Yeah? I'm trending in the right direction.
Speaker 2: I am.
Speaker 3: In the two tournaments this year, I finished sixth at
Speaker 3: finished second. I lost by one to Marty Fish in Dallas.
Speaker 3: I made a bow to myself that would never happen
Speaker 3: I had. I had a one shot lead going into
Speaker 3: that hole and look lost. So it's a learning experience
Speaker 3: and if I live or learned how to put those
Speaker 3: Tahoe greens, watch out. And that's what my mindset is.
Speaker 3: It's the greatest tournament we have. It's an absolute blast.
Speaker 3: I've raised so much money for great charities, and there's
Speaker 3: a collection of celebrities that is unique to any other
Speaker 3: time of the world, in any other setting. And it's
Speaker 3: the perfect setting for July. The weather's great, the place
Speaker 3: night here.
Speaker 11: I mean Southy, I mean John, whit do you stay?
Speaker 11: Do you stay on somebody's boat? I mean, what would
Speaker 11: tell you to stay? And when you're out there, we.
Speaker 3: Stay in a two bedroom condo down by all where
Speaker 3: the boats are. It's an absolute great set up for
Speaker 3: me and my wife and Greg Olsen, my former catcher.
Speaker 3: He's caddying for me and his wife. We have an
Speaker 3: absolute blast. The beauty of this year. I'll be out
Speaker 3: there all week because the All Star Game, luckily for me,
Speaker 3: is after Tahoe. Normally it's right during the middle of
Speaker 3: Tahoe and I come flying in by the seat of
Speaker 3: my pants on Thursday and try to remember how to
Speaker 3: play golf. So this is going to be a fun week.
Speaker 5: You have played in ten of these events, and you've
Speaker 5: made the cut in nine of them, and there have
Speaker 5: been a lot of questions about whether you could turn professional.
Speaker 5: Where do you stand on that right now, especially with
Speaker 5: the whole Live Versus PGA saga and drama that's taking place.
Speaker 3: My biggest thing is I love competition and I love competing.
Speaker 3: For the US Senior Open, I missed the Open by
Speaker 3: one shot. I almost qualified again. I've got brand new hips.
Speaker 3: I'm excited about getting physically in shape again. I'll be honest,
Speaker 3: the last five years have been miserable for me. I've
Speaker 3: been trying to fake it and get through it. But
Speaker 3: I finally bit the bullet. This will be the first
Speaker 3: golf tournament at Tahoe. I'll have two new hips that
Speaker 3: walking five and a half hours won't matter as far
Speaker 3: as the professional ranks. I still want to qualify for
Speaker 3: things I want to try. But I'm fifty seven, and
Speaker 3: as long as I can stay healthy, I love competition
Speaker 3: and I love competing. Nothing I will ever do will
Speaker 3: be full time because I have a full time job
Speaker 3: with Fox and they've been great allowing me to play
Speaker 3: in these selected events. So I have kind of the
Speaker 3: best of both worlds and I'm very blessed to be able.
Speaker 1: To do what I do.
Speaker 2: That's eight time MLB All Star pitcher and now Fox
Speaker 2: Sports analyst John Smoltz. If you missed any of that conversation,
Speaker 2: take a listen now on the Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast.
Speaker 2: Find it on Apple, Spotify and anywhere you get your
Speaker 2: podcasts up. Next, we turn to the world of women's
Speaker 2: golf and a firm that's been helping to elevate it.
Speaker 2: You're listening to the Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg
Speaker 2: Radio around the world.
Speaker 3: This is Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2: This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports show, but we
Speaker 2: explore the big money issues in the world of sports.
Speaker 2: I'm Michael Barr along with my colleague Scarlett Foo and
Speaker 2: Damien Sassaur. Golf golf, golf, golf, golf, Yes, we have
Speaker 2: it right here, and we have Stacy Lewis with the
Speaker 2: LPGA Tour and Paul Knopp, the CEO of KPMG. Thank
Speaker 2: you so much, first of all for joining us on
Speaker 2: the Bloomberg Business of Sports. We appreciate which to be here.
Speaker 10: Yes, thank you for having us.
Speaker 2: Well, let's start. First of all, I want to talk
Speaker 2: about the status of golf. I want to talk about
Speaker 2: where women's golf is today. Thank goodness, it is. It's
Speaker 2: gaining steam every year, and eventually the broadcasting rights are
Speaker 2: going to be going through the roof because it is
Speaker 2: an exciting product.
Speaker 10: It is it is, and we're in a great spot
Speaker 10: as a tour. You know, purses are as high as
Speaker 10: they've ever been, and you know, we're just we're continuing
Speaker 10: to push, push for higher persons, more exposure for all
Speaker 10: the players. But we're in a really great spot right now.
Speaker 5: I want to bring Paul into this conversation because Paul,
Speaker 5: you and Stacy have kind of been working together for
Speaker 5: a while now, and at a KPMG kind event more
Speaker 5: than ten years ago, it was Stacy who planted the
Speaker 5: seed for what became the KPMG Women's PGA Championship. Can
Speaker 5: you tell us a story of how that came together?
Speaker 6: Sure, we have been a sponsor of Stacy since twenty
Speaker 6: twelve and It was in twenty twelve that Stacey started
Speaker 6: not only being our brand ambassador, but she also started
Speaker 6: playing with clients at events and are then chair and
Speaker 6: CEO John V. Meyer was at one of those events
Speaker 6: where he heard Stacy talking about out the need to
Speaker 6: elevate women's golf to ensure that they're playing on better courses,
Speaker 6: iconic courses, courses where men played major championships, and a
Speaker 6: real need to ensure the purses increase over time. And
Speaker 6: John took note of that when she said that, and
Speaker 6: that really did plant the seed for the title sponsorship
Speaker 6: of a women's major event, which we started sponsoring in
Speaker 6: twenty fifteen with a KPMG Women's PGA Championship. We feel like,
Speaker 6: you know, over that course of that time, we've been
Speaker 6: a real catalyst for change. In twenty fifteen, it was
Speaker 6: only two point twenty five million. Wow, so it's increased
Speaker 6: three hundred and sixty percent. And the winners share that
Speaker 6: perse has increased from three hundred and thirty seven thousand
Speaker 6: to one point five six million, the same three hundred
Speaker 6: and sixty percent. And at the same time, you know,
Speaker 6: the women the last ten years that we've been sponsoring
Speaker 6: this tournament have played on these iconic courses where men
Speaker 6: have played majors, so really excited about that kind of
Speaker 6: change over the course of the last ten years.
Speaker 2: Now, Paul, you got to help an old man here,
Speaker 2: because KPMG is introducing new technology to help elevate women's
Speaker 2: golf further. My technology is the roadary phone. So can
Speaker 2: you explain what your technology G is and how it's
Speaker 2: helping the game.
Speaker 6: Yes, and that's been an evolution too. So three years
Speaker 6: ago we put in place something called KPMG Performance Insights,
Speaker 6: and that was really meant to give the women on
Speaker 6: the LPGA Tour many of the same technology benefits, data
Speaker 6: and benefits that the men had on the PGA Tour.
Speaker 6: Now we have elevated that immensely starting this year in
Speaker 6: this tournament with enhancing KPMG Performance Insights. What we do
Speaker 6: for a living at KPMG we create solutions to companies'
Speaker 6: most complex technology problems and data analytic problems. And with
Speaker 6: respect to the enhancements this year, we have integrated, along
Speaker 6: with the partnership with the PGA of America and T
Speaker 6: Mobile technology to allow real time shot data for every shot,
Speaker 6: approximately twenty four thousand shots in the tournament. That will
Speaker 6: be measured during real time during the course of the tournament,
Speaker 6: so that it allows several things to happen. One and
Speaker 6: most importantly, it allows the women on the LPGA Tour
Speaker 6: to have real time data to diagnose their game, understand
Speaker 6: their game, improve their game. You can imagine somebody finishes
Speaker 6: their around, they have every shot capture, they have knowledge.
Speaker 2: About what they did.
Speaker 6: If they have a particular issue with their game during
Speaker 6: the course of the day, they can go work on
Speaker 6: that with that real time data. There's also another aspect
Speaker 6: to what we've done this here too, and that is
Speaker 6: integrated artificial intelligence into KPMG Performance Insights, and that will
Speaker 6: be used by the media by the booth to understand
Speaker 6: the odds around the players making the cut, around finishing
Speaker 6: the top five, top twenty, maybe even winning the ornament.
Speaker 6: So there's a couple of real important enhancements this year.
Speaker 6: There's also going to be something this year called KPMG
Speaker 6: champ Cast, which is available through the app, the PGA
Speaker 6: app that will allow fans to follow their favorite players
Speaker 6: and watch their shots they're tracing in their shots, understand
Speaker 6: how their players are performing during the course of the day.
Speaker 11: So talk to us a little bit about, you know,
Speaker 11: the role that KPMG plays with you know, ladies golf.
Speaker 11: I mean, we know that in addition to the fact
Speaker 11: that you were the first marctor to pay an LPGA
Speaker 11: player Stacy in this case while on maternity to leave,
Speaker 11: you're also very involved in women's the women's leadership some
Speaker 11: and I believe Geena Davis is going to be the
Speaker 11: keynote at that event at this year's major. Talk to
Speaker 11: us a little bit about KPMG, your role as a
Speaker 11: sponsor and your role with women's golf.
Speaker 6: Sure, so I talked about the original vision for this event,
Speaker 6: and the vision really has three pillars. One is absolutely
Speaker 6: first and foremost, the Women's PGA Championships. The second is
Speaker 6: we decided we wanted to able to elevate women both
Speaker 6: on and off the course, so we put in place
Speaker 6: KPMG Women's Leadership Summit, which happens the day before the
Speaker 6: tournament begins, and that is women that are one or
Speaker 6: two steps from the c suite, nominated by the CEOs
Speaker 6: of their organizations, come to listen to leaders from business, politics, media, entertainment.
Speaker 6: It's leadership development and during the course of the day
Speaker 6: they hear from many different speakers, and we talk about
Speaker 6: being a catalyst for change at KPMG. When we started
Speaker 6: this in twenty fifteen, this was the only women's leadership
Speaker 6: conference affiliated with a LPGA tournament that Catalyst has allowed.
Speaker 6: For now there are twenty women's leadership conferences affiliated with
Speaker 6: LPGA tour events. So we feel really great about bringing
Speaker 6: about more change so that more women can be elevated
Speaker 6: to the c suite, and we're seeing it at many
Speaker 6: more LPGA tournaments today. The third dimension, just real quickly,
Speaker 6: is the net proceeds of the KPMG Women's PGA Championship
Speaker 6: and the Summit go to sponsoring the Future Leaders Program
Speaker 6: young mostly people of women of color in high school,
Speaker 6: getting college scholarships mentorships. So we feel really great about
Speaker 6: those three dimensions of this experience.
Speaker 11: Well, Paul, I'll tell you you know, there's one person
Speaker 11: who won't be speaking, and that's our own Bloomberg TV anchor,
Speaker 11: Scarlett Foo and she should be because she's just wonderful.
Speaker 11: Now I'm just kidding, but let me ask you this,
Speaker 11: I mean, let me sift it over to you.
Speaker 2: Stacy.
Speaker 11: I want to ask you about the soul I'm cup,
Speaker 11: I mean, your captain of the team for the second
Speaker 11: year in a row. I think it's switched to an
Speaker 11: even year now. Talk to us a little bit about
Speaker 11: I think it's in September. I think it's in Virginia.
Speaker 11: Talk to us a little bit about your prep and
Speaker 11: the lead up to that event. What does it take
Speaker 11: to be a captain of that team, and what's going
Speaker 11: to go into your criteria for deciding who's going to
Speaker 11: be on it.
Speaker 10: It's another full time job. It's like having about fifteen kids.
Speaker 10: You know, you're kind of worried about their games. You're
Speaker 10: watching their games, how they're playing, but you're always also
Speaker 10: kind of trying to know what's going on off the
Speaker 10: golf course, you know, because it affects play quite a bit,
Speaker 10: So kind of just knowing what's going on in their
Speaker 10: lives and how they're playing. But then behind the scenes
Speaker 10: where we're planning, you know, what clothes they're wearing, what
Speaker 10: the bags look like, what the schedule is going to
Speaker 10: be for the week, what the menus are going to
Speaker 10: look like. So as captain, you get to you literally
Speaker 10: decide everything. So so I've really really enjoyed it, and
Speaker 10: you know, we're we're kind of getting to the crunch
Speaker 10: stage now where we're really starting to track who's going
Speaker 10: to make the team, and KPMG's helped me out with
Speaker 10: that with access to you know, the performance insights and
Speaker 10: using data to help predict who's going to make the
Speaker 10: team and also potential pairings and things like that.
Speaker 5: Stacey, I want to follow up and kind of take
Speaker 5: a big step back for a moment and just talk
Speaker 5: a little bit about the state of golf right now.
Speaker 5: There is an uneasy truce right now between the PGA
Speaker 5: and Live Golf, and I know the LPGA is separate
Speaker 5: from what's happening between PGA and Live, but what has
Speaker 5: it done for the sport? For you, as someone who's
Speaker 5: kind of observing all of this, is it good for
Speaker 5: the sport?
Speaker 10: You know, it's it's honestly, from our perspective, it's been
Speaker 10: hard to watch because I think it's put a negative
Speaker 10: connotation on golf. And from the women's side, you know,
Speaker 10: we've had no part of it, so so it's been
Speaker 10: hard to watch. And it's and from our side too,
Speaker 10: it's hard to watch these persons just continue to go
Speaker 10: up on the men's side and while we're doing great
Speaker 10: over here. I mean, the amount of money they're making
Speaker 10: now is just is insane. So it's definitely been hard
Speaker 10: from our perspective, but I do think they seem to
Speaker 10: be getting closer to where we can get back to,
Speaker 10: you know, to just playing golf and not being at
Speaker 10: odds with each other and you know, making it about
Speaker 10: the sport and about the athletes and the great players
Speaker 10: that they are instead of, you know, instead of all
Speaker 10: this money that they're making.
Speaker 5: If the Saudis come in and would want to invest
Speaker 5: in the LPGA or partner up with the LPGA as
Speaker 5: a player, what what? What's your thoughts on that?
Speaker 10: You know, personally, I'd be a little bit torn on it,
Speaker 10: you know, I do. I do think there there is
Speaker 10: a way, though, to make it work. I think there
Speaker 10: would have to be some stipulations. You know, we'd have
Speaker 10: to really find a way to advance women, because that's
Speaker 10: what our tours about were about advancing women and giving
Speaker 10: women opportunities not only to play golf, but you know,
Speaker 10: to better their careers and their lives. And so there'd
Speaker 10: have to be a lot of stipulations I believe around that.
Speaker 10: And obviously that hasn't happened yet, so because we're not there,
Speaker 10: but I do think, you know, at some point it's
Speaker 10: probably is probably going to happen.
Speaker 2: I want to ask you, Stacy, probably the Caitlin Clark
Speaker 2: impact on women's sports, good question, has just been phenomenal,
Speaker 2: and I would like to ask, how do you think
Speaker 2: the impact has been for women's golfing?
Speaker 8: Well?
Speaker 10: As a mom of a daughter, I think it's it's
Speaker 10: one of the most amazing things I've seen to see
Speaker 10: to be able to turn the TV on for my
Speaker 10: daughter and she can see women playing sports, playing basketball,
Speaker 10: playing softball, playing golf. You know, that's something that I
Speaker 10: didn't have when I was a kid, and so just
Speaker 10: that we're starting to have that, having women's sports more
Speaker 10: easily accessible on the ability to watch them, I just
Speaker 10: I think it's tremendous and I think it shows what
Speaker 10: when you get a TV partner like that to kind
Speaker 10: of step up and say, hey, we may lose money
Speaker 10: for a year or two, but we're going to step
Speaker 10: up and we're going to figure this out, and we're
Speaker 10: going to figure out a way to grow your sport,
Speaker 10: and we're going to make money on the back end
Speaker 10: of this. But we may lose money in the beginning,
Speaker 10: and I think it's just been tremendous to watch that happen,
Speaker 10: and I think it's a model for other sports and
Speaker 10: how we can continue to push forward. You know, we
Speaker 10: need to do a better job of talking each other
Speaker 10: up and talking about how good the other players were
Speaker 10: competed against our because that's what helps grow our sport.
Speaker 2: Our Thanks to both Stacy Lewis and Paul could Not
Speaker 2: for joining us. Paul is chair and CEO at KPMG,
Speaker 2: which is celebrating its tenth anniversary of the KPMG It's
Speaker 2: PGA Championship, and Stacy Lewis is the two time major champion,
Speaker 2: winning LDPGA Pro. This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports Show.
Speaker 2: We are here each and every week at the same
Speaker 2: time for my colleagues Scarlett Fu and Damian Sassewer. I'm
Speaker 2: Michael Barr. Tune in again next week for the latest
Speaker 2: on the stories moving big old money in the world
Speaker 2: of sports. You're listening to the Bloomberg Business of Sports
Speaker 2: Bloomberg Radio round the world. Stay with us. Today's top
Speaker 2: stories and global business headlines are coming up right now.