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Speaker 1: This is the business of sports. Should Major League Baseball

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Speaker 1: shorten up the season? How do we present football to

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Speaker 1: the audience of the future. I don't think that most

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Speaker 1: players understand the power that they have. Michael Barr. The

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Speaker 1: future of IndyCar racing is looking bright. Scott Sashnak very

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Speaker 1: basic math here, more bidders means more money. Evan Nobody Williams.

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Speaker 1: The team value has essentially quadrupled. And the leaders in

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Speaker 1: the sports industry time to bringing our guest, Hal's find Runner,

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Speaker 1: National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Ftman, Atlanta Braves president Derek Schiller,

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Speaker 1: Patriots President Jonathan Kraft. Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio. Hello,

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Speaker 1: I'm Michael bar Every week this time plus Mondays and Wednesdays,

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Speaker 1: we explore the big money issues in the world of sports.

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Speaker 1: Today we speak with Mike Neely, executive director of the

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Speaker 1: Fiesta Bowl, matching up l s U and UCF on

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Speaker 1: New Year's Day. It's a great matchup. A lot of

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Speaker 1: conversation out there about twenty five and old team that's

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Speaker 1: coming here to prove a point. We'll have more of

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Speaker 1: our interview with Fiesta Bowl Executive Director Mike ny Lead

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Speaker 1: coming up at first, Let's bring in my co host,

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Speaker 1: Evan Novie Williams to help break down some of the

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Speaker 1: top stories this week. Evan joins us on the phone

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Speaker 1: as he's away from the office on assignment. Evan, your

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Speaker 1: partner in crime, Scott. He's left me high and dry

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Speaker 1: this week too. I didn't shower. What happened here? I

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Speaker 1: am literally phoning it in the morning. I miss you, guys.

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Speaker 1: Let's start. Thank you very much. Let's start. And this

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Speaker 1: is something a very unique situation. Funderstorms in Texas prompted

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Speaker 1: the first ever cancelation of a college football bowl game

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Speaker 1: due to inclement weather, and after a delay of about

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Speaker 1: ninety minutes, the Sir Pro First Responders Bowl in Dallas

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Speaker 1: was officially ruled a no contest between Boise State and

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Speaker 1: Boston College. Now the problem here, there are a lot

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Speaker 1: of financial implications involved in this. Absolutely. You know, you

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Speaker 1: have a lot of people who traveled from from Idaho,

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Speaker 1: a lot of people who traveled from the northeast down

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Speaker 1: to down to Dallas to see Boise State in Boston College. Um,

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Speaker 1: and the tickets were nonrefundable. So if you bought your

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Speaker 1: tickets from the bowl itself, you're not getting your money back,

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Speaker 1: and that's especially brutal. I think of the time of year, right,

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Speaker 1: these people were probably traveling on Christmas or before, spending

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Speaker 1: Christmas away from home. Um both the school stepped up.

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Speaker 1: The A D at Boston College Martin DuMond, the A

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Speaker 1: D at Boise State Curt Apsey. Both of them said

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Speaker 1: that if you bought tickets through them for the Bowl game,

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Speaker 1: they would be refunding it plus some. But if you

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Speaker 1: bought through the bowl itself, Uh no, Dice. It's never

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Speaker 1: happened before, obviously, so this this would be a rare

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Speaker 1: occurrence as it is, but I'm surprised that these Bowl

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Speaker 1: games don't have some sort of insurance or some sort

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Speaker 1: of contingency plan. Now I'm going to play an old

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Speaker 1: man bar again. It reminded me of something that happened.

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Speaker 1: I remember watching this way back in ninety six. This

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Speaker 1: is back when you had the College All Star Game

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Speaker 1: and they played it in Chicago, and it was the

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Speaker 1: Pittsburgh Steelers against the All Star college students, playing in

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Speaker 1: a soldier field, and all of a sudden, a deluge

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Speaker 1: of rain comes down in the third quarter. The fans

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Speaker 1: came out on the field as it's raining, using it

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Speaker 1: like a slipping slide. Then they started tearing down the

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Speaker 1: goal post. I mean they couldn't play the game anyway.

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Speaker 1: It was under like a foot and a half of

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Speaker 1: water the field. But it made me think about what

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Speaker 1: just happened here with this Bowl game? That sounds like

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Speaker 1: total anarchy. One of my favorite parts about this. First

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Speaker 1: of all, you mentioned the first responderable was sponsored by

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Speaker 1: serf Pro, which is a fire and water, you know,

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Speaker 1: disaster relief which is ironic in its own way. Uh.

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Speaker 1: Surf Pro's ad slogan is like it never happened, which

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Speaker 1: is exactly what's happening with the Pole game. Right. All

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Speaker 1: the all the yardage and the touchdowns that were scored,

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Speaker 1: they get wiped. It's like it's like the ball game

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Speaker 1: never happened. I shouldn't laugh, but that's funny. Let's move

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Speaker 1: on to another topic. Verizon Disney ESPN A carriage fight.

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Speaker 1: What what? Yeah, this one kind of came up pretty quickly.

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Speaker 1: But Verizon has started notifying it's FiOS customers. You know,

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Speaker 1: there's four point five million of them, primarily on the

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Speaker 1: East Coast and in big cities like New York Philly,

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Speaker 1: Delaware started telling them that, you know, they're their negotiations

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Speaker 1: with Disney over the carriage of Disney's entire network. So

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Speaker 1: that includes ESPN, Disney Channel, ABC, ABC Family, etcetera. Uh,

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Speaker 1: those that hit a snag and their carriage agreement expires

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Speaker 1: on the thirty feet. So if you're a Verizon customer

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Speaker 1: right now, you get your TV through FiOS, um, there's

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Speaker 1: an outside chance that that that come December thirty one,

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Speaker 1: you're gonna lose all of your Disney content. Um. And

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Speaker 1: this is applicable to sports, especially because think about the

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Speaker 1: time of year. Right the New Year's Day Bowls, the

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Speaker 1: Rose Bowl is an ABC game. Uh, you might not

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Speaker 1: be able to watch that. NFL playoffs some of those

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Speaker 1: are on ESPN. In a couple of weeks, you might

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Speaker 1: not be able to watch that. Disney is running ads

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Speaker 1: right now essentially telling people you may not get your

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Speaker 1: your your your sports, call Verizon and make sure this

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Speaker 1: deal happens. Verizon is reaching out to its subscribers saying,

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Speaker 1: rest assured, we're doing our best, We're confident we're going

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Speaker 1: to get a deal, et cetera. But these courage fees

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Speaker 1: do happen. It's not uncommon, and sports typically becomes the

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Speaker 1: thing that people really care about. If you're Disney, you're

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Speaker 1: trying to leverage Verizon customers to call and Verizon into

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Speaker 1: into pressuring them to get a deal done. Uh, sports

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Speaker 1: is the main way they're going to do that. Here's

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Speaker 1: something you might see soon. Remember the good old Tiger

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Speaker 1: Phil Mickelson showdown. Well, it looks like you're going to

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Speaker 1: see more of that. Yeah, it's amazing. Golf World did

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Speaker 1: it did a kind of a recap of the event

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Speaker 1: that we saw over Thanksgiving. We two interesting things in

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Speaker 1: this one. They put a number on the number of

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Speaker 1: people who paid for it, right, and we were expecting,

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Speaker 1: you know, two hundred three hundred thousand roughly that we're

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Speaker 1: gonna pay that twenty dollar fee. Apparently almost a million

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Speaker 1: people committed to paying that twenty dollars before you know,

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Speaker 1: it had to be refunded because of the technology problems

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Speaker 1: on the bleacher Report side. But that's a much higher

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Speaker 1: number than was expected. And the second thing in this

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Speaker 1: Gulf Wold story, apparently it was a three year deal

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Speaker 1: that was signed with with Tiger and Phil, which means

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Speaker 1: that come we're gonna see other versions of this this is.

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Speaker 1: This is a model We're going to see more of

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Speaker 1: We're going to see more of it with with Tiger

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Speaker 1: An Chill. I missed my buds in studio, Evan. He's

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Speaker 1: obviously on the phone. Thank you, man. I'm glad you

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Speaker 1: you join me. Man is like I promise I will

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Speaker 1: put on some right guard deodorant, man, and so I

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Speaker 1: won't offend you anyway. In the new year, we'll do

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Speaker 1: a big party in the studio, the three of us.

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Speaker 1: Thank you, Evan. Now let's get to this week's interview

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Speaker 1: with Mike Neeley, executive director of the Pista Bowl. This

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Speaker 1: year's game matches up l s U and you sef

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Speaker 1: on New Year's Day. Scott Nevin spoke to Neely earlier

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Speaker 1: this week while I was at home enjoying eggnog. Something

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Speaker 1: in the eggnog anyway, So gentlemen, let me add hit

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Speaker 1: off to you. I'm gonna sit back and just listen

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Speaker 1: to this conversation. Mike, thank you for taking a few minutes. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: my pleasure. Scott, do me a favor. Tell me how

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Speaker 1: does a nice boy from Minnesota, you know who, who

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Speaker 1: wound up in hockey? My son, by the way, as

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Speaker 1: a triple a hockey player, a first year squirt. How

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Speaker 1: do you worry wind up in in Arizona working in

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Speaker 1: football Arizona hockey, right, doesn't that what everybody thinks of? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: That that's the synergistic right there. When I think of

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Speaker 1: of Arizona, I first thing I think of his hockey. Well,

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Speaker 1: of course you know you've met noted there from Minnesota

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Speaker 1: in hockey background. Boy, But I grew up I was

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Speaker 1: a football and basketball player, So that's kind of I think.

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Speaker 1: I said this the other day to somebody, I'm the

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Speaker 1: one percenter side, you know, the one percent of Minnesota

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Speaker 1: that didn't play. What happened? How did that happen? I

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Speaker 1: think I grew up in a small town that had

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Speaker 1: more emphasis on basketball and they had very very little hockey.

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Speaker 1: And by the time I got into the I was

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Speaker 1: living in the Twin Cities later on, way too late

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Speaker 1: to start playing and being competitive and hockey in that world.

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Speaker 1: So I stuck with my football and basketball, and I

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Speaker 1: always enjoyed the game of hockey. But and then eventually

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Speaker 1: found myself in the management side in the Minnesota Wild

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Speaker 1: and then that kind of brought me down to the

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Speaker 1: Coyotes here in the desert. Then uh, a little bit

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Speaker 1: broadened leadership role and for years there and then fortunate

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Speaker 1: to transition over into college football. Great. You also came

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Speaker 1: from a business background prior to that, and there's a

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Speaker 1: culture clash between the two. Now there certainly is. There's

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Speaker 1: it's a different culture. And uh, you know that the

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Speaker 1: sports the world is certainly caught up or catching up

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Speaker 1: soon out of necessity. And before you know, certainly even

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Speaker 1: the professional world, Um, it was maybe hobbyish and you know,

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Speaker 1: owners could lose hundreds of thousands of dollars and now

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Speaker 1: you know the way it is in the millions and millions.

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Speaker 1: And I think you're seeing and have seen sports businesses

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Speaker 1: turned more to the business side of the out of necessity.

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Speaker 1: And it's not the old coach that's running the team,

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Speaker 1: or it's not the sales guy that's automatically running your

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Speaker 1: you're seeing finance and lawyers. Uh, you know bc ohs

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Speaker 1: of entities don't necess it needs to run more and

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Speaker 1: more efficiently. And that trickles into the college football in

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Speaker 1: the in the bowl business as well. And as the

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Speaker 1: playoff system started, that put a little more pressure on

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Speaker 1: us as bowlders to do things, uh, more efficiently and

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Speaker 1: better to though a necessity. I do see those who

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Speaker 1: apply for jobs in front office these days do come

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Speaker 1: along with things like, oh, I don't know m b

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Speaker 1: a's it's not it's not your pops sports leagues anymore. Absolutely,

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Speaker 1: I think you know, my NBA probably helped me open

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Speaker 1: the door or at least, uh you know, certainly taught

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Speaker 1: me a lot of things, but it probably opened up

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Speaker 1: a lot of opportunity for me as well. Absolutely, So

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Speaker 1: let's talk college football. You guys, New Year's Day Bowl

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Speaker 1: game right now? You're for for folks who don't know

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Speaker 1: out there, you're in the college football playoff rotation as well.

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Speaker 1: You've got l s U and u c F undefeated

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Speaker 1: UCF uh this year. How excited to you about that matchup?

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Speaker 1: It's a great matchup, but isn't it isn't that interesting?

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Speaker 1: And a lot of conversation out there about twenty five

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Speaker 1: and old team that's coming here to prove a point.

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Speaker 1: I think you can't help. But notice the other's probably

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Speaker 1: little chip on their shoulder. They as we all know,

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Speaker 1: they claim national championship last year. After you championship game

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Speaker 1: is allowed, can you call your game in National Championship game.

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Speaker 1: They will. Obviously I'm staying far away from now. They

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Speaker 1: can claim whatever they want to claim, but we're we're

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Speaker 1: in the college football playoff system and by the way,

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Speaker 1: which I think is a great system as is. And

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Speaker 1: you know, but I welcome their their competitiveness and come

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Speaker 1: in here. And I'm sure they're gonna want to prove

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Speaker 1: something against L s U. But you've got two great

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Speaker 1: teams and I think I think it's gonna be a

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Speaker 1: great game and a lot of people will be watching

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Speaker 1: this one see what happens. Yeah, this is a UCF

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Speaker 1: team that you know, I was expected to lose to

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Speaker 1: Auburn in the in the postseason last year, even though

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Speaker 1: they went undefeated and they blew the doors off of

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Speaker 1: a big SEC opponent. Um, obviously there are folks out

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Speaker 1: there looking looking to see that happen again. Yeah, exactly.

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Speaker 1: And then the fans come out. They they have still

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Speaker 1: a lot of good a lot of tickets from Florida.

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Speaker 1: They're coming this way. So I think we'll have a

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Speaker 1: full stadium and see what happens, that's for sure. You know.

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Speaker 1: I think I think um, as far as matchups, I

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Speaker 1: would put our matchup against any of the bowl matchups

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Speaker 1: as far as an interest, and I think an exciting

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Speaker 1: game opportunity that we have. I think there's even been

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Speaker 1: some publications out there that that notice is probably one

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Speaker 1: of the better matchups. So forget they've got a good

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Speaker 1: we've got a good one coming up. And for folks

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Speaker 1: out there who don't understand the process for the years

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Speaker 1: that you guys are not one of the semifinal games,

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Speaker 1: how does that matchup get said? How much choice do

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Speaker 1: you have in in which two teams you're you're hosting? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's an interesting question, and I think a lot of

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Speaker 1: people don't understand that. And the short answers that I

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Speaker 1: have little to know put on that, I it sounds

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Speaker 1: like my marriage. I make all the big decisions. I'm told,

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Speaker 1: you know, but there hasn't been one yet, you know, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know. The Yeah, the the committee obviously is a

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Speaker 1: ranking the team's throughout the latter part of the season,

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Speaker 1: and the final ranking sets up the playoffs and uniquely too,

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Speaker 1: and this is probably stop me if I'm getting in

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Speaker 1: too much detail, but of the six new year six Bulls,

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Speaker 1: three of them have their initial contracts that remain in

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Speaker 1: place when they don't do the semifinal game. So the

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Speaker 1: Rose Bowl this year, you know they're already they're automatically

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Speaker 1: going to be matching up a pack twelve in Big

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Speaker 1: ten team. We're part of that host bowl set, and

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Speaker 1: because the Cotton Bowl has got a semifinal, the Peach

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Speaker 1: Bowl and US the Fiesta Bowl have are are really

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Speaker 1: the at large pieces. And what throws that into the

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Speaker 1: mix is that there there's a group of five. Is

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Speaker 1: maybe some people know or don't know that group of

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Speaker 1: five champion highest rank gets to be in a New

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Speaker 1: Year's six game. That's just what the rule is, which

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Speaker 1: is UCF. Well, you CEF played in the Peach Bowl

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Speaker 1: last year, so it probably makes sense that they weren't

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Speaker 1: going to put him in the Peach Bowl again this year.

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Speaker 1: So it was almost an automatic that I was going

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Speaker 1: to have the UCF and my team. Then who's left over?

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Speaker 1: You have two SEC teams in Michigan. They weren't going

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Speaker 1: to put the two SEC teams together, so it probably

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Speaker 1: makes sense that we got l s U by proximity

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Speaker 1: here and uh Michigan goes to to the Peach Bowl

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Speaker 1: against Florida. So that's that's pretty much what happened. I

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Speaker 1: know there's some conspiracies out there, and you know Florida

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Speaker 1: didn't want to play UCF or or you know, however

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Speaker 1: you want to look at it. I think it's my opinion,

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Speaker 1: it comes pretty simple down to that's how the cards

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Speaker 1: laid out, Like how much money are we talking about

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Speaker 1: in the Bowl system? In your Bowl game in particular,

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Speaker 1: And it's not just what you take in, but also

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Speaker 1: what you distribute. Uh, as far as when you say distribute,

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Speaker 1: we are a community organization here, so you know a

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Speaker 1: bit what's important to us as the local economy and

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Speaker 1: what we contribute, and it's it's billions of dollars over

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Speaker 1: the years of what we are able to bring into

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Speaker 1: the States, So that that's important to us. Giving back

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Speaker 1: to community as a nonprofit in in the three million

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Speaker 1: dollar range annually here that we're giving out to nonprofits

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Speaker 1: directly in cash. Um, that's important to us. The teams

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Speaker 1: were you know, tens of millions of dollars now and

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Speaker 1: I say that because I'm not writing that check anymore.

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Speaker 1: As well, with the new Bowl system, ESPN bought the

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Speaker 1: rights to the New Year's six, so they have a

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Speaker 1: of the media rights and all the payments and stuff

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Speaker 1: are all kind of encapsulated with all those payments that

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Speaker 1: happened there. So, um, the exact amount, I'm not even

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Speaker 1: privy to exactly what it is, but it is tens

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Speaker 1: of millions that each of those teams are walking away

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Speaker 1: with or the conferences. I should say, let's actually talk

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Speaker 1: about that ESPN deal real quick for a second, because

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Speaker 1: I think most people you know, there was that seven

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Speaker 1: point three billion dollar twelve year deal the ESPN signed

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Speaker 1: with the Playoff when it launched, a lot of people

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Speaker 1: think of that just as a media relations the media

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Speaker 1: rights deal, But the truth is, as you're saying, you know,

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Speaker 1: ESPN controls a lot more than that. You know, they're

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Speaker 1: doing a lot of the marketing, etcetera. Correct, Absolutely, I

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Speaker 1: mean that the local activation and marketing, that's that's still

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Speaker 1: on us in that relationship with within our situation with PlayStation,

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Speaker 1: which is a fabulous sponsor that we have, but that

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Speaker 1: was acquired by ESPN. They had the rights to, yes,

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Speaker 1: the media rights, but they had the rights for our

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Speaker 1: title sponsor. And so since the Playoff system started with

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Speaker 1: all six of the New Year's six Bowls, ESPN had

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Speaker 1: those rights and went out and sold those naming rights

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Speaker 1: and retain the money that they got for those. We

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Speaker 1: step in working with that partner sell them the local

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Speaker 1: package if you will, of activation and in game and

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Speaker 1: those types of things, and so there's a close relationship

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Speaker 1: with us. Of course ESPN and play States in our situation.

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Speaker 1: It is a great situation, but to your point, ESPN

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Speaker 1: owns that right and also several categories of advertising locally

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Speaker 1: as well. So you know, if they have a car category,

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Speaker 1: which they do have locked up, I can't go out

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Speaker 1: and sell uh an alternative car category to make money

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Speaker 1: for myself. So there's a lot less options for uh

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Speaker 1: ME as a New Year's six Bowl to be able

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Speaker 1: to make money. So it's important for us to be

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Speaker 1: selling tickets and those few categories that we can still

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Speaker 1: sell and retain ourselves. And by the way, a lot

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Speaker 1: of that money is still then on the upside, does

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Speaker 1: go back into the college football system. There's a percentage split,

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Speaker 1: and it's heavier on the college football playoffs. So even

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Speaker 1: the money I make, majority of that goes into the

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Speaker 1: uh the system. So it's it's a it's a different

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Speaker 1: program into the playoff system than it was previously. Can

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Speaker 1: I get frustrating. You know, you're trying to sell the

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Speaker 1: local sponsorships, you're kind of waiting on another entity ESPN

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Speaker 1: to sell some of the bigger national or or the

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Speaker 1: or the title sponsorship deals. How does that kind of

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Speaker 1: dynamic work. Yeah, it makes a little bit harder because

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Speaker 1: I think every every year they have until late in

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Speaker 1: the spring to tell us, Okay, here's the categories that

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Speaker 1: we're locking up, and so we're we're kind of on

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Speaker 1: on hold be able to do anything. And in the

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Speaker 1: sponsorship business, you know that that's a long term sale.

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Speaker 1: So it's kind of hard to once we hit summer

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Speaker 1: that now we know what we can sell. It makes

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Speaker 1: it harder for us to be able to take advantage

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Speaker 1: of that. But that's that's the business as it is.

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Speaker 1: And you know, I think for you know all that

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Speaker 1: the playoff has brought you the most part, it's good

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Speaker 1: for the game. I think it's been great for college football.

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Speaker 1: College football, you know, it is a growing entity in popularity,

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Speaker 1: and I think it's been great to have that extra

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Speaker 1: emphasis now has been great across the board for everybody. No,

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Speaker 1: but in general, I think great for football in college football.

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Speaker 1: So who is it not great for it is a

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Speaker 1: little tougher on the balls and and maybe ultimately, you know,

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Speaker 1: as there's a lot of conversations out there on on

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Speaker 1: unhappy teams that don't make uh the playoffs and and

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Speaker 1: all the things set up. But I think, you know,

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Speaker 1: the bold system, you know, having a lot of bowls

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Speaker 1: has been one of the issues to begin with. You know,

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Speaker 1: so you could argue that does it water down the

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Speaker 1: value of going to a bowl? That's a very special

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Speaker 1: event for these student athletes. It's not just another game.

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Speaker 1: They get to experience a lot of things, from everything

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Speaker 1: from traveling to an area maybe they don't normally go to,

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Speaker 1: to staying in our case at at fabulous resorts and

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Speaker 1: being taken care of. And they've been going and they're

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Speaker 1: very good about going out and doing community work. And

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Speaker 1: it's in the gifts that they get. I think that's

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Speaker 1: been communicating in our Our guys get to walk away

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Speaker 1: with the PlayStation, a nice backpack, and a watch, and

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Speaker 1: you know, I think, uh, we're probably one of the

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Speaker 1: higher valued gifts receiving uh uh quotes as well. But

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Speaker 1: you know, they get the experience a heck of a

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Speaker 1: heck of a nice deal and that goes across for

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Speaker 1: all the bowls, even even the secondary bowls if you will,

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Speaker 1: that are at at a different tier. But um, it's

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Speaker 1: changed a little bit. Well now, before you could argue

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Speaker 1: that I made it to a bowl, I'm as good

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Speaker 1: as these guys, and then rankings came out at the end. Now,

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Speaker 1: you know, and for some of the teams, if you

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Speaker 1: don't make that top four playoff team, that it might

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Speaker 1: be uh okay, well, consolation time and I'll wait till

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Speaker 1: next year. We're speaking with Mike Neely, executive director of

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Speaker 1: the Fiesta Bowl, and Mike, we've seen in the past

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Speaker 1: couple of years, I feel like there's been this trend

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Speaker 1: of more Bowl games putting together games at the beginning

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Speaker 1: of the season, you know, a kickoff special the folks

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Speaker 1: down at the Peach Bowl. I think we're one of

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Speaker 1: the first to do it, and those games have become

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Speaker 1: tremendously lucrative and successful. Is that something that you guys

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Speaker 1: are are looking at in terms of possibly offering in

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Speaker 1: the future. Yeah, we certainly looked at that, and those

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Speaker 1: are have been lucrative for mostly for the schools as well. Um,

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Speaker 1: we are probably shying away from that, right now you know,

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Speaker 1: we're we're not in a huge hockey or I'm sorry,

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Speaker 1: there's there's my history stuffing in here, huge football centric market.

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Speaker 1: But you're right, you're not on a huge hockey market either.

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Speaker 1: That's a whole another show, by the way, we'll pick

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Speaker 1: that up another time, you know. But you know, as

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Speaker 1: opposed to the peach ball, you know, you have you

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Speaker 1: have driving distance from a lot of major football programs

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Speaker 1: and fans, and there's a lot of great football fans here.

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Speaker 1: But in the fall, there's a lot of other things

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Speaker 1: going on. It's a little bit warmer in this area.

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Speaker 1: And and for what you think about the economics that

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Speaker 1: you basically have to pay both teams to come to

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Speaker 1: a neutral site as much as they're good to make

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Speaker 1: at home and then some, and so the economics make

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Speaker 1: a little bit tougher. Now you know from an economic

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Speaker 1: bringing people in traveling that that could be helpful little bit.

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Speaker 1: But um, September October is not the highest demand time

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Speaker 1: to come to the desert here is still pretty warm.

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Speaker 1: So I think, you know, as we analyze that, and

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Speaker 1: there's there's other ways to better use our our assets. Gotcha.

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Speaker 1: And you mentioned a little while ago the swag that

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Speaker 1: you guys offer. I love going through the list of

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Speaker 1: of what's available to uh two players of different polls.

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Speaker 1: And I go through this list, now, you know, I

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Speaker 1: see a lot of gifts that I'm not sure you're

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Speaker 1: gonna be uh all that interesting to to to seventeen, eighteen,

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Speaker 1: nineteen year olds. And then I get to yours h

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Speaker 1: PS four gift package, which I assume is a PlayStation

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Speaker 1: and some other things. Must be nice to be able

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Speaker 1: to offer through your title sponsors something that people have PlayStations?

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Speaker 1: Am I wrong? I mean they all play in Fortnite?

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Speaker 1: Who which one of these guys and back the dorm

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Speaker 1: doesn't have whatever? I bet a few of them don't,

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Speaker 1: But tell that it was exciting because we actually announced

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Speaker 1: it to you know what, We have people that go

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Speaker 1: out to their campuses, you know, after we teams are

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Speaker 1: all selected, and when that announcement gets made, you know,

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Speaker 1: they were pretty darn excited about having that, you know,

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Speaker 1: and who wouldn't be And if they have one a

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Speaker 1: new one and another one, you know they will take that.

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Speaker 1: So that these kids, I can call them kids, but

427
00:20:58,760 --> 00:21:00,680
Speaker 1: you know they like their four a night in their

428
00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:04,960
Speaker 1: games and it's been pretty popular, and we're pretty excited

429
00:21:04,960 --> 00:21:06,399
Speaker 1: to be able to do that, you know. And we

430
00:21:06,480 --> 00:21:08,240
Speaker 1: by the way, and somebody ask you, well, that's easy,

431
00:21:08,320 --> 00:21:10,280
Speaker 1: they PlayStation pby just give you those things. Well, no,

432
00:21:10,400 --> 00:21:14,080
Speaker 1: we actually bought them at at full price from these guys.

433
00:21:14,080 --> 00:21:17,840
Speaker 1: So wait a minute, wait, wait a minute. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

434
00:21:17,880 --> 00:21:20,159
Speaker 1: This I have to examine. You couldn't even get a

435
00:21:20,200 --> 00:21:25,119
Speaker 1: wholesale price on the PlayStations for the PlayStation Festable and

436
00:21:25,160 --> 00:21:27,840
Speaker 1: all these media mentions that you're giving. You're paying retail,

437
00:21:28,200 --> 00:21:31,399
Speaker 1: you know, retails for you, right, you gotta look at

438
00:21:31,400 --> 00:21:33,439
Speaker 1: their standpoint. I mean they're paying paying a lot of

439
00:21:33,440 --> 00:21:36,600
Speaker 1: money for their their sponsorship deal. No, we might have

440
00:21:36,600 --> 00:21:38,360
Speaker 1: got some discount a little bit on it, but really

441
00:21:38,400 --> 00:21:41,520
Speaker 1: you know that it was not a gift to us

442
00:21:41,560 --> 00:21:43,520
Speaker 1: to pass through. But we were happy to do that

443
00:21:43,560 --> 00:21:46,200
Speaker 1: because it's such a fabulous gift and and made sense

444
00:21:46,240 --> 00:21:48,760
Speaker 1: that they are the name on our bowl. So no

445
00:21:48,920 --> 00:21:50,920
Speaker 1: that people say, well that's then they must have given

446
00:21:50,960 --> 00:21:53,119
Speaker 1: them through or at least you got them for free. No, no, no,

447
00:21:53,280 --> 00:21:56,359
Speaker 1: that was us. But uh and and that counts towards

448
00:21:56,359 --> 00:21:57,840
Speaker 1: you know, there's limits on what we can give the

449
00:21:58,560 --> 00:22:00,200
Speaker 1: kids too. You know, I'd love to have been able

450
00:22:00,240 --> 00:22:01,840
Speaker 1: to give that to them it was for free or something,

451
00:22:01,880 --> 00:22:04,240
Speaker 1: and give them some other more gifts, but they count

452
00:22:04,280 --> 00:22:07,520
Speaker 1: the value of that box and so that limits what

453
00:22:07,600 --> 00:22:09,520
Speaker 1: we can give. But they're very happy about that. And

454
00:22:09,560 --> 00:22:11,680
Speaker 1: then our cheese at Bowl, which I guess we haven't

455
00:22:11,680 --> 00:22:13,120
Speaker 1: talked about a whole lot, but that's the other game

456
00:22:13,160 --> 00:22:16,080
Speaker 1: that we do. Um, you know, there's a lot of cheese,

457
00:22:17,880 --> 00:22:23,040
Speaker 1: the little packs of cheese. Its just thrown around. Yeah,

458
00:22:23,040 --> 00:22:25,080
Speaker 1: there'll definitely be some cheeses in there. But they don't

459
00:22:25,119 --> 00:22:28,240
Speaker 1: know the cornhole game and you know the other traditional

460
00:22:28,280 --> 00:22:30,280
Speaker 1: gifts that we give them. So we try to, I mean,

461
00:22:30,440 --> 00:22:33,320
Speaker 1: our motto is have fun. We are Fiesta. You know.

462
00:22:33,320 --> 00:22:35,160
Speaker 1: We try to do some things a little bit differently

463
00:22:35,200 --> 00:22:38,280
Speaker 1: and fun and hopefully we accomplish that every year. Hey Mike,

464
00:22:38,600 --> 00:22:41,680
Speaker 1: you have worked in pro sports, as we've already ascertained.

465
00:22:41,680 --> 00:22:45,240
Speaker 1: Now you're in college. Is it wrong to say that

466
00:22:45,720 --> 00:22:50,520
Speaker 1: college sports in totality has become a professional sports like operation.

467
00:22:52,240 --> 00:22:55,320
Speaker 1: It's becoming more like that. I think I probably alluded

468
00:22:55,320 --> 00:22:57,520
Speaker 1: to it a little bit. I'm from the business standpoint

469
00:22:57,560 --> 00:23:00,920
Speaker 1: for for us as a bowl to be successful. Um,

470
00:23:00,960 --> 00:23:02,840
Speaker 1: we needed to do things that were more in line

471
00:23:02,880 --> 00:23:05,760
Speaker 1: with what the professional teams were doing, and that's in

472
00:23:05,800 --> 00:23:08,400
Speaker 1: the sales and the marketing and needing the operations side.

473
00:23:08,400 --> 00:23:11,040
Speaker 1: There's just a lot more pressure to do things well.

474
00:23:11,119 --> 00:23:14,080
Speaker 1: The days of you know, there was only so many

475
00:23:14,119 --> 00:23:15,880
Speaker 1: bowls and it was a big deal to get there

476
00:23:15,920 --> 00:23:18,439
Speaker 1: and you just basically opened the doors and the fans

477
00:23:18,560 --> 00:23:21,000
Speaker 1: flocked in and bought the tickets and you you probably

478
00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:23,040
Speaker 1: couldn't help but be successful. And maybe that's why there

479
00:23:23,040 --> 00:23:25,320
Speaker 1: were so many bowls. You know, people were coming to

480
00:23:26,600 --> 00:23:28,639
Speaker 1: to your areas and spending money and it was a

481
00:23:28,680 --> 00:23:30,560
Speaker 1: positive thing and some more and more got into it,

482
00:23:30,640 --> 00:23:33,760
Speaker 1: which watered it down. But yeah, it's absolutely gotten to

483
00:23:33,800 --> 00:23:35,959
Speaker 1: be more like, uh, you know, a business and and

484
00:23:35,960 --> 00:23:39,880
Speaker 1: and there's some fortunate and unfortunate pieces of that as well. Um,

485
00:23:40,119 --> 00:23:42,199
Speaker 1: you know, and you know, if you're paying attention to

486
00:23:42,240 --> 00:23:44,600
Speaker 1: the news as well, and some of the discussions on

487
00:23:45,520 --> 00:23:48,520
Speaker 1: you know, should players be being paid and the value

488
00:23:48,600 --> 00:23:52,040
Speaker 1: of scholarships versus their their value of what they're you know,

489
00:23:52,560 --> 00:23:54,640
Speaker 1: that's a lot of discussion these days and it's uh,

490
00:23:54,760 --> 00:23:57,480
Speaker 1: it's fair to ask, no if if the students the

491
00:23:57,520 --> 00:24:01,600
Speaker 1: athletes are generating ex billions of dollars in the Walt

492
00:24:01,600 --> 00:24:04,280
Speaker 1: Disneys of the world, are are just salivating the fork

493
00:24:04,359 --> 00:24:07,680
Speaker 1: over all that money, it is worth asking should the

494
00:24:07,760 --> 00:24:11,040
Speaker 1: labor force be compensated beyond just the cost of scholarship.

495
00:24:11,040 --> 00:24:13,320
Speaker 1: And I don't mean to minimize just the cost of scholarship,

496
00:24:13,480 --> 00:24:17,200
Speaker 1: but that's the argument that's made. Wait, and that's absolutely

497
00:24:17,240 --> 00:24:20,119
Speaker 1: and I probably won't get into, you know, my opinion

498
00:24:20,119 --> 00:24:22,400
Speaker 1: of which way it should go, either or but come on,

499
00:24:23,280 --> 00:24:25,040
Speaker 1: well there's a lot of it. Yeah, you're right, there's

500
00:24:25,040 --> 00:24:27,920
Speaker 1: a lot of value being created. And you know, and

501
00:24:28,040 --> 00:24:31,679
Speaker 1: and when when there's money in the system and a

502
00:24:31,800 --> 00:24:36,520
Speaker 1: select few are benefiting from that, then that's when you know, what,

503
00:24:36,520 --> 00:24:39,920
Speaker 1: what do they say, Hoggs get slaughtered? Right? That was

504
00:24:39,960 --> 00:24:43,040
Speaker 1: Mark Cuban's line about so, yeah, the Hoggs gets slaughtered. Yeah,

505
00:24:43,400 --> 00:24:45,879
Speaker 1: But but I think it's it's an important to to

506
00:24:46,480 --> 00:24:49,520
Speaker 1: not to minimize the value of that education and of

507
00:24:49,600 --> 00:24:52,080
Speaker 1: the experience. And um, you know, I don't I don't know.

508
00:24:52,320 --> 00:24:54,080
Speaker 1: I'm not smart enough to have the answer for that.

509
00:24:54,200 --> 00:24:56,679
Speaker 1: And you know, we could debate it for for e

510
00:24:56,840 --> 00:25:01,159
Speaker 1: RMS and I think, um jump shure changes are coming.

511
00:25:01,920 --> 00:25:04,240
Speaker 1: I think they they do produce, they be in the

512
00:25:04,440 --> 00:25:07,400
Speaker 1: student athletes produce a lot of value for these schools

513
00:25:07,440 --> 00:25:10,040
Speaker 1: and and hopefully these schools are not only educating but

514
00:25:10,119 --> 00:25:13,320
Speaker 1: also you know, training and giving these kids a platform

515
00:25:13,440 --> 00:25:15,560
Speaker 1: to be making money in the future. I mean, let's

516
00:25:15,560 --> 00:25:18,040
Speaker 1: not forget that this is this is training ground and

517
00:25:18,160 --> 00:25:20,960
Speaker 1: probably the training ground and many of these sports to

518
00:25:21,240 --> 00:25:24,520
Speaker 1: UH have the only avenue to be to getting your

519
00:25:24,560 --> 00:25:26,800
Speaker 1: money made. We're also talking about a few of a

520
00:25:26,800 --> 00:25:29,159
Speaker 1: few of the you know, each each of the teams,

521
00:25:29,480 --> 00:25:32,320
Speaker 1: there's only a high there's a very small percentage of

522
00:25:33,160 --> 00:25:35,640
Speaker 1: student athletes that really are at that echelon where they're

523
00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:38,840
Speaker 1: they're driving that value. Mike, We've heard a lot of

524
00:25:38,840 --> 00:25:42,440
Speaker 1: talk recently about the possibility of an eight team playoff.

525
00:25:42,520 --> 00:25:45,760
Speaker 1: It seems increasingly the people, the powers that be within

526
00:25:45,840 --> 00:25:48,720
Speaker 1: college football and on the media side, UH seem to

527
00:25:48,760 --> 00:25:52,120
Speaker 1: be coming out publicly and embracing the idea. What does

528
00:25:52,160 --> 00:25:54,240
Speaker 1: that look like from your seat? Is that is that

529
00:25:54,359 --> 00:25:56,800
Speaker 1: is that a positive for the Fiesta Bowl? Does that

530
00:25:56,960 --> 00:26:00,000
Speaker 1: you know, threatened to to dilute your your power right now?

531
00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:03,400
Speaker 1: Where do you sit on that? Well? That there's there's

532
00:26:03,480 --> 00:26:06,800
Speaker 1: depends the answer on that one. But I think, as

533
00:26:06,800 --> 00:26:09,159
Speaker 1: you mentioned that, I think the media is driving that

534
00:26:09,320 --> 00:26:11,480
Speaker 1: as much as anything, you know, and why not. I

535
00:26:11,480 --> 00:26:16,520
Speaker 1: mean conversation, it's it's controversy and you know that's what

536
00:26:16,800 --> 00:26:21,840
Speaker 1: drives conversation and selves and gets people listening. But um,

537
00:26:21,880 --> 00:26:24,320
Speaker 1: you know, there's a couple of things. But the answer

538
00:26:24,359 --> 00:26:28,040
Speaker 1: your question on the bull side, it's probably certainly bad

539
00:26:28,240 --> 00:26:31,960
Speaker 1: and worse yet for the bulls. You know, if you

540
00:26:32,040 --> 00:26:34,159
Speaker 1: try to imagine the scenario of you know, what are

541
00:26:34,160 --> 00:26:35,720
Speaker 1: they going to do if they expand that and what

542
00:26:35,760 --> 00:26:37,960
Speaker 1: does that mean for you know, what's going to happen

543
00:26:37,960 --> 00:26:41,399
Speaker 1: to given a quota finalist that loses, Are they done?

544
00:26:41,600 --> 00:26:43,600
Speaker 1: Are they going to go to a bowl? And from

545
00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:47,080
Speaker 1: a bull standpoint, I can't imagine wanting to host a

546
00:26:47,080 --> 00:26:50,440
Speaker 1: a quota final loser that that's just going to yet

547
00:26:50,440 --> 00:26:55,160
Speaker 1: another game. Good luck sell on those tickets, exactly exactly.

548
00:26:55,359 --> 00:26:59,440
Speaker 1: Championships have been very uh lucrative for the conferences and

549
00:26:59,640 --> 00:27:01,399
Speaker 1: pop it or with with them. I'm not sure if

550
00:27:01,440 --> 00:27:03,080
Speaker 1: they would give those up. And I think you're talking

551
00:27:03,119 --> 00:27:05,320
Speaker 1: about you know, some of these games that would have

552
00:27:05,359 --> 00:27:08,040
Speaker 1: to be played would have to be on campuses for

553
00:27:08,080 --> 00:27:11,760
Speaker 1: them to be successful. Um, I think that would further

554
00:27:11,840 --> 00:27:15,440
Speaker 1: water down the bowls as far as their their value

555
00:27:15,560 --> 00:27:19,919
Speaker 1: and perceived value. Again, I think that experience for the

556
00:27:20,000 --> 00:27:23,480
Speaker 1: players is phenomenal, and I it would be sad day

557
00:27:23,520 --> 00:27:27,520
Speaker 1: when you know that the bowl experience for these players

558
00:27:27,560 --> 00:27:30,239
Speaker 1: ever went away. Um, that would be unfortunately. I think

559
00:27:30,280 --> 00:27:33,160
Speaker 1: that's where we'd be moving towards. And then I mean,

560
00:27:33,160 --> 00:27:34,920
Speaker 1: you can't help it, but you know, expand it to

561
00:27:34,960 --> 00:27:36,639
Speaker 1: six or two eight, Well, then you're gonna have the

562
00:27:36,680 --> 00:27:39,080
Speaker 1: same conversation and you're gonna go down a slope of

563
00:27:39,480 --> 00:27:42,159
Speaker 1: pretty soon, and as has been discussed, pretty soon you

564
00:27:42,200 --> 00:27:44,919
Speaker 1: have larger and larger and it's just going to devalue

565
00:27:45,880 --> 00:27:48,800
Speaker 1: the regular season. I just tell number five stop complaining

566
00:27:48,840 --> 00:27:50,520
Speaker 1: you should have been better than number five, Come on

567
00:27:50,680 --> 00:27:52,600
Speaker 1: good enough that that's part of that's part of the answer,

568
00:27:52,680 --> 00:27:55,400
Speaker 1: is that you know, look within, you know, get yourself better,

569
00:27:55,440 --> 00:27:57,760
Speaker 1: or get yourself a line somewhere where that you are

570
00:27:57,840 --> 00:28:02,280
Speaker 1: without quite I don't think the SEC is complaining about expanding. Yeah, well,

571
00:28:02,560 --> 00:28:04,399
Speaker 1: why don't we just have the whole league in the playoff. Mike,

572
00:28:04,480 --> 00:28:06,680
Speaker 1: Let's close it on this. What's your favorite silly name

573
00:28:06,760 --> 00:28:08,280
Speaker 1: bowl where you're like I don't know where it's played

574
00:28:08,359 --> 00:28:10,800
Speaker 1: or whatever. Me Pool and wheat Eater. I think, well

575
00:28:10,840 --> 00:28:13,480
Speaker 1: that the unique one is the uh thought, it's the

576
00:28:13,520 --> 00:28:15,680
Speaker 1: Bahamas one. I'm blinking the name. I have no idea,

577
00:28:16,280 --> 00:28:18,000
Speaker 1: but that's the one I want to go to. No fans.

578
00:28:20,200 --> 00:28:24,159
Speaker 1: It's maker makers wanted you know that. How that's a

579
00:28:24,200 --> 00:28:27,400
Speaker 1: pretty unique business proposition from someone up there. I think

580
00:28:27,400 --> 00:28:30,120
Speaker 1: I have the Illinois that I wanted to get some

581
00:28:30,119 --> 00:28:32,719
Speaker 1: some exposure for their their business park. I think that's

582
00:28:32,720 --> 00:28:34,359
Speaker 1: a pretty unique one. But I tell you what I like.

583
00:28:34,640 --> 00:28:38,760
Speaker 1: I like PlayStation and cheese it even if you have

584
00:28:38,840 --> 00:28:43,680
Speaker 1: to pay full price. Damnit right, we pay full price

585
00:28:43,680 --> 00:28:47,960
Speaker 1: for those cheese it big all right. That's Mike Neely's

586
00:28:47,960 --> 00:28:52,560
Speaker 1: a Fiesta Bowl CEO your game. Undefeated, defending national champion

587
00:28:52,640 --> 00:28:55,160
Speaker 1: u CF. We can say that against l s U

588
00:28:55,280 --> 00:28:57,520
Speaker 1: on New Year's Day. Mike, thanks so much taking the time,

589
00:28:57,680 --> 00:29:00,480
Speaker 1: my pleasure. Guys already have a great one, does it

590
00:29:00,640 --> 00:29:04,040
Speaker 1: for This edition of Bloomberg Business exports here each and

591
00:29:04,080 --> 00:29:06,400
Speaker 1: every week at the same time, plus online as an

592
00:29:06,400 --> 00:29:10,280
Speaker 1: Apple podcast. You can catch that Monday's, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

593
00:29:10,440 --> 00:29:14,200
Speaker 1: Him Michael Barr alongside Scott Sashnik and Evan W. Williams

594
00:29:14,280 --> 00:29:16,800
Speaker 1: on Bloomberg Radio around the world,