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Speaker 1: Hello, Welcome to the Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast. We

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Speaker 1: explore some of the big old money issues in the

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Speaker 1: world of sports. I'm Michael Brown, I'm Scarlett. It's an

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Speaker 1: in person day. Jon Patrickoff, co founder and CEO UH

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Speaker 1: co founded with Jonathan Serels Athletes Unlimited. First of all,

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Speaker 1: what a pleasure it is to meet you. You. I

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Speaker 1: can tell by the way that you and Damian a

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Speaker 1: rural plans. It's great to be here. He still money.

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Speaker 1: Oh okay, see yeah, see this is where you jump

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Speaker 1: in Scarlett's help. No, I'm gonna let you guys just

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Speaker 1: you know with this one. I appreciate it. You guys

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Speaker 1: have done this before. Well, first tell me about Athletes Unlimited.

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Speaker 1: So Athletes Unlimited as a network a professional women's sports league.

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Speaker 1: So we started in basically around the idea. I'm a

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Speaker 1: longtime media in sports, decorative and and really when I

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Speaker 1: looked out of the landscape, ine, I just thought one

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Speaker 1: of the biggest opportunities out in media and entertainment broadly

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Speaker 1: and specifically in sports was on the women's side. It

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Speaker 1: was amazing to me. Need to see the fan interest

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Speaker 1: um and the talent of the players, but really the

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Speaker 1: commercial side of the of the opportunity hadn't been filled

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Speaker 1: in and myself and Jonathan set out along with a

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Speaker 1: great team and over the last now close to three years,

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Speaker 1: we've built a network of leagues. We've run nine seasons,

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Speaker 1: big broadcast partnerships with companies like ESPN and CBS, great

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Speaker 1: partners like Nike and others. And um, we're we're i

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Speaker 1: think part of just a much larger trend, uh that

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Speaker 1: we're seeing in in long term trend in the investment

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Speaker 1: in women's pro sports, long overdue, long overdue. But there

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Speaker 1: are existing women's sports leagues to um, the w n

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Speaker 1: b A among the most notable. Within hockey, there's a

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Speaker 1: Canadian Women's Hockey League. There was the National Women's Hockey League,

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Speaker 1: which became the Premier Hockey Federation. So that got a

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Speaker 1: little bit confusing. What's broken with existing women's sports leagues

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Speaker 1: at the moment? Well, Well, first of all, um, we

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Speaker 1: are in a great moment for pro women's sports. Um.

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Speaker 1: As you say, um, we we certainly are really proud

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Speaker 1: to be in the company of leagues like the w

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Speaker 1: m b A and the National Women's Soccer League. They're

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Speaker 1: seeing a lot of new investment, new media deals, tremendous

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Speaker 1: interest and and it's really a very good moment around

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Speaker 1: the world. If you if you look yesterday at the

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Speaker 1: news new major deal in the women women's Indian Premier

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Speaker 1: Cricket League, large media deal over a hundred million dollars UM,

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Speaker 1: you know, done over over three years, which is great

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Speaker 1: to see. UM, You're seeing investment in European soccer, huge

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Speaker 1: news out of out of Australia, New Zealand around the

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Speaker 1: Women's World Cup, with massive ticket sales already for this summer.

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Speaker 1: So this is a great moment. The reality is though, UM,

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Speaker 1: like like anything in sports and entertainment, it takes a

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Speaker 1: lot of momentum takes a lot of effort over a

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Speaker 1: long period of time, and historically women sports has just

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Speaker 1: simply been under invested in UM. And I personally think

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Speaker 1: that there's been different factors that have have have gone

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Speaker 1: into that UM, but it's long overdue and and weren't

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Speaker 1: a really good moment right now with higher ratings, higher

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Speaker 1: interest and a lot of investment coming into into the space. Well, John,

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Speaker 1: you talk about all these new and you know, the

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Speaker 1: e p L, all the sales, all the new football teams,

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Speaker 1: all the people who are buying in who are cashing out.

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Speaker 1: I think of pickle ball, right, which is a relatively

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Speaker 1: new kind of thing that's going on right now. The

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Speaker 1: way pickle ball structured is these investors are investing in teams,

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Speaker 1: but athletes are limited. Is different. If I'm not mistaken, right,

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Speaker 1: You've got players and then you know, you kind of

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Speaker 1: rank them according to win points, STAD points, m v

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Speaker 1: P points for our audience, if you could just explain

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Speaker 1: that a little bit and then how you have this

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Speaker 1: weekly draft with the top four players. Because for me,

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Speaker 1: the compelling um investment case I think for athletes and

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Speaker 1: limited is you're not really buying a team, you're buying

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Speaker 1: into the league. And so I wonder if you could

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Speaker 1: kind of just walk us through that and you know,

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Speaker 1: and kind of give us a little bit of color

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Speaker 1: as to how that works. Yeah, thanks a lot for that.

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Speaker 1: I mean, so, we had the benefit back in two

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Speaker 1: thousand nineteen and we were working on the original business

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Speaker 1: plan that my partner, Jonathan at He said to me

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Speaker 1: because because what we started actually with the premise, let's

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Speaker 1: invest in one of the existing leagues, Let's invest in

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Speaker 1: the way it's been done, and Honestly, the way those

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Speaker 1: leagues have been set up um are just really replicas

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Speaker 1: of what's been done on the men's side. And Jonathan

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Speaker 1: was the one who said to me, uh, let's actually

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Speaker 1: start with a blank sheet of paper. John, You've got

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Speaker 1: a lot of experience from from your days in pro soccer, um,

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Speaker 1: from meeting entertainment, your time at Disney. Think broadly about

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Speaker 1: what it would look like if you started a league

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Speaker 1: from scratch, and what we came up with a few

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Speaker 1: key principles. And one of the foundational principles was that

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Speaker 1: we earn an age where athletes have increasing residents and

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Speaker 1: increasing power, and they should be uh centered, really at

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Speaker 1: the core of what any new league is trying to do.

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Speaker 1: And so that was our fundamental premise. And so we

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Speaker 1: then thought about the fundamental economics of a business model.

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Speaker 1: Leagues today are set up where expansion is so key.

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Speaker 1: You need to grow from ten teams to twelve teams

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Speaker 1: and twenty teams. It's all about expanding into new markets,

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Speaker 1: more teams, and we thought the opposite. We thought, what

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Speaker 1: if we could create a short season in one location

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Speaker 1: we had a fixed number of players instead of their

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Speaker 1: being a certain number of teams and relying on expansion.

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Speaker 1: What if we could just focus on the best players

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Speaker 1: in that sport, and the way we make it interesting

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Speaker 1: and exciting is the individual players would change teams each week,

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Speaker 1: and you, as a fan, would follow your favorite player

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Speaker 1: through the season a lot like if you're watching F

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Speaker 1: one or you're watching golf and your favorite you know,

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Speaker 1: you're seeing the leaderboard move up and down with every

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Speaker 1: with every player. It is exactly exactly. It's an easier

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Speaker 1: way to understand it. Um. I think broadly speaking, this

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Speaker 1: is pro league. Um, you as a fan, there are

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Speaker 1: fixed teams that that that switch each week. But yes,

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Speaker 1: I mean there's a lot of elements that kind of

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Speaker 1: bring this in where fans of today are really focused

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Speaker 1: on individual players. And so that was a big premise. Uh.

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Speaker 1: The other pieces of this that that I just mentioned were,

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Speaker 1: you know, concentrating the league in one one city a

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Speaker 1: lot like think of the way the US Open or

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Speaker 1: the Olympics work where you've got one market. So we

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Speaker 1: we have our basketball season coming up. We now run

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Speaker 1: four leagues. Our first one to kick off in two

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Speaker 1: will be our second season of basketball. February will launch

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Speaker 1: in Dallas, UM and we'll bring four prety four of

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Speaker 1: the best basketball players in the world, about half of

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Speaker 1: them or or have w n B A experience, UM,

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Speaker 1: most of them active in the w n B A. Now, UM,

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Speaker 1: they'll all come to this market. They'll be there for

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Speaker 1: five weeks, and instead of historically having gone overseas or

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Speaker 1: playing in other markets or taking the off season off,

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Speaker 1: they'll be able to come play here playing the United States, UH,

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Speaker 1: and play with games broadcast on CBS and elsewhere. UM,

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Speaker 1: to really keep themselves exposed to the fans that love

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Speaker 1: them and want to follow them. That's a great format.

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Speaker 1: It's almost like a tournament format. It is, it is,

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Speaker 1: and you know we call it a league. Um. And

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Speaker 1: if you look at the four sports were in basketball

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Speaker 1: were great compliments of the w n B A. Like

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Speaker 1: I said, a lot of the players of historically going overseas,

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Speaker 1: so now they can stay here. And then we run

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Speaker 1: three other leagues. In lacrosse were the only pro league

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Speaker 1: for women in the world. UM. So we call it

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Speaker 1: a league. But you're exactly right. The style has a

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Speaker 1: forum and format to it that's similar to a tournament.

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Speaker 1: And then we run a softball league, and we run

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Speaker 1: our volleyball league as well. This is a secret get

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Speaker 1: bowling women's bold Hey, listen, we're open minded. I mean,

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Speaker 1: one of the things that's been exciting is that, you know,

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Speaker 1: every week or two I am getting new propositions from

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Speaker 1: people in different sports who see this format and see

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Speaker 1: how it could work. So you're the first one, Michael,

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Speaker 1: if we do. If we do bowling, I will come back.

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Speaker 1: You get all the credit. It's here, it's on the record.

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Speaker 1: But I will tell you that there's certainly other sports

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Speaker 1: where people say, listen, um, a traditional league that you know,

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Speaker 1: again relies on teams and twelve markets or fifteen markets.

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Speaker 1: Maybe it doesn't work. But your format is incredibly efficient

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Speaker 1: and effective. And also what's great about it is the

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Speaker 1: games we produce get broadcasts not only in the United State,

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Speaker 1: has been around the world, and we really through our

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Speaker 1: social and digital media, really allow the fans to connect

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Speaker 1: with the players. So we make a huge investment. When

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Speaker 1: you come, it's an amazing experience. Um, But we're excited

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Speaker 1: to expand and that's probably more twenty three. We're really

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Speaker 1: focused on the sports we're in, all right. I want

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Speaker 1: to bring in Bloomberg contributor Don Kissy as well to

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Speaker 1: the conversation. Hi, John, thank you so much for being here. Um,

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Speaker 1: this is really exciting what you're building ing, and I'm

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Speaker 1: particularly interested in the mechanics of athletes unlimited. Where are

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Speaker 1: you finding your athletes each sport? Um, we have the

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Speaker 1: top pro athletes in each of these sports. Now in

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Speaker 1: some cases a good portion are coming right out of

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Speaker 1: college graduating really at the top of their game. If

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Speaker 1: you look at some of our sports, the power and

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Speaker 1: residence of softball, volleyball, certainly basketball, and lacrosse as well,

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Speaker 1: but really those sports, it is dramatic how how high

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Speaker 1: the ratings are and how much popularity is so when

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Speaker 1: many of the players come right out of college and

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Speaker 1: others are pro athletes that have historically competed in other league. So, Um,

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Speaker 1: if you take volleyball, for example, there are many pro

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Speaker 1: leagues around the world. About three to four hundred American

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Speaker 1: men and women play volleyball professionally around the world. They've

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Speaker 1: never had an opportunity to play in the United States,

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Speaker 1: and now all of a sudden, we're able to come home. Um.

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Speaker 1: Like I said, in lacrosse, we are the pro league.

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Speaker 1: So others have have made it through. Many of them

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Speaker 1: are on national teams and really stay active and and

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Speaker 1: and quite frankly today some of them and many of

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Speaker 1: them do have other jobs outside of what they're doing

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Speaker 1: with us. But these are the best athletes in the world.

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Speaker 1: That's great. So colleges universities, is there like a recruitment format?

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Speaker 1: For example, I have a friend that's amazing at basketball.

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Speaker 1: If she wanted to join Athletes Unlimited, the bar is

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Speaker 1: is very high. To start with, we have had some

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Speaker 1: tryouts and some we do have a college draft in

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Speaker 1: a couple of our leagues. UM. But we have a

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Speaker 1: very unique format to go back to the way of

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Speaker 1: Athletes Unlimited to structure, so the athletes have really an

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Speaker 1: unprecedented level of involvement and control in the league. So

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Speaker 1: we have athletes on the Board of Directors of Athletes Unlimited.

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Speaker 1: And then each sport we have a player Executive Committee

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Speaker 1: made up of five active players and they are actually

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Speaker 1: the ones responsible for recruitment, so they're the ones who

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Speaker 1: identify the players they want to join the league. UM. Again,

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Speaker 1: in some of the league's we have college drafts that

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Speaker 1: that are a great feeder system into a U and

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Speaker 1: then others you know, it's a pretty high bar. Um.

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Speaker 1: There are a tremendous number of really really accomplished athletes,

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Speaker 1: and um, it's not easy to get one of the

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Speaker 1: very coveted spots in an AU league. So there's a

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Speaker 1: decent level of competition. I mean, I would say it's

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Speaker 1: in decent. I would say it's world class. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I mean I do think that for anybody that watches

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Speaker 1: UM one of our leagues. I mean it's world class competition.

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Speaker 1: You UM see tremendous athleticism. UM. And honestly, you know,

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Speaker 1: people have noticed that for a long time at the

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Speaker 1: college level. I mean you get two million people watching

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Speaker 1: college softball World Series, you know, million people watching um

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Speaker 1: the n c A Finals in volleyball. UM. So we're

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Speaker 1: really now just creating an extending, you know, on on

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Speaker 1: that popularity and creating a platform for these women post college.

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Speaker 1: And that's really the opportunity. UM. Like I said, the

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Speaker 1: talent is there, the quality of play, fans are out there,

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Speaker 1: they've been there. What's really lacked is investment and media

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Speaker 1: time and exposure for these sports. And so that's happening

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Speaker 1: not just in athletes unlimited, but really now around around

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Speaker 1: the entire ecosystem. Well, John, that takes me back to

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Speaker 1: my first question. You know, I mean, the structure of

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Speaker 1: your league is so unique, you know how I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's obviously a venture investment. But let's talk about Blitzer,

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Speaker 1: Let's talk about thirty five B and Durant. How do

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Speaker 1: they view this investment? Is it a trophy investment? Are

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Speaker 1: they expecting to make a return on this investment? Talk

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Speaker 1: to us about your partners, about your other anchor investors,

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Speaker 1: and how they're viewing athletes unlimited. Yeah, I mean I

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Speaker 1: think that the days of seeing UH women's sports as

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Speaker 1: a charity are are really are really well behind us,

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Speaker 1: not that long ago. But but honestly, really it's been

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Speaker 1: such a dramatic shift since we started in And I

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Speaker 1: will tell you when I first went out and started

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Speaker 1: to have conversations about what I saw as this opportunity,

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Speaker 1: there's a lot of skepticism, a lot of challenges. It

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Speaker 1: is dramatically shifted, like so many things do in the

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Speaker 1: sports ecosystem. I mean, you mentioned pickle ball. It's everybody's

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Speaker 1: favorite topic, but just think about two years ago, no

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Speaker 1: one was talking about pickle There was no investment. So

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Speaker 1: that's the world we live in and women's sports has

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Speaker 1: seen exactly that same type of shift UM, so started

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Speaker 1: to interpret was there a specific catalyst for that? So

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Speaker 1: it's a great question. I think that, UM. The way

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Speaker 1: my experience has been, whether it's been in in the

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Speaker 1: Athletes Unlimited or broad broadly, is that it's a series

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Speaker 1: of things that take place over a long period of

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Speaker 1: time and then all of a sudden you see the

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Speaker 1: dramatic shift. So I think women's soccer has certainly been

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Speaker 1: a major piece of that. Seeing the World Cup ratings,

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Speaker 1: I think people started to take notice over the last

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Speaker 1: couple of cycles. Obviously the strength of women's women's soccer

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Speaker 1: is a big deal. UM. And then I think, honestly,

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Speaker 1: athletes unlimited UM and further investment in the W I mean,

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Speaker 1: I think the way that you know, the NBA has

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Speaker 1: continue to invest in the W and you see people

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Speaker 1: like Kathy Engelbart come into roles like that, I think

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Speaker 1: it all adds up. So it's really not one catalyst.

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Speaker 1: It's really a series of of a whole host of things.

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Speaker 1: I mean, look at the NWSL right now, the Women's

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Speaker 1: Soccer League, they're about to to sell to two new franchises.

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Speaker 1: You know, three years ago, teams were going for under

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Speaker 1: under two million dollars in some cases even less than that.

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Speaker 1: I think the numbers now will be around forty to

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Speaker 1: fifty million that you'll see in the franchise sales. I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's just dramatic and and I think it's still got

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Speaker 1: tremendous upside, you know, way beyond that. So we're just

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Speaker 1: at the beginning here, um, And it's a lot of

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Speaker 1: serious investors. And you mentioned some of the partners that

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Speaker 1: we've been excited to attract into Athletes Unlimited. I'll note

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Speaker 1: that you mentioned, you know, you mentioned David Blitzer, you

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Speaker 1: mentioned with Rich Climate and Kevin Durant. But we've also

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Speaker 1: brought some people who have never invested into into sports,

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Speaker 1: even into Athletes Unlimited, like the Schusterman family and Jane

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Speaker 1: Goddessman and a host of others. And I think that's

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Speaker 1: an exciting piece of this this puzzle as well, that

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Speaker 1: I think there are a number of investors who are

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Speaker 1: seeing an opportunity here, um, who are new to sports,

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Speaker 1: and and that just expands the pool of capital available.

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Speaker 1: And that's that's incredibly important. And before the interview, I said,

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Speaker 1: come on, don't ask John about betting because you always

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Speaker 1: ask about gambling and betting and everything with sports. So

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Speaker 1: I want to bet on this, and I'm just wondering it.

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Speaker 1: Is there something down the road where maybe some of

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Speaker 1: the games can go to the online betting sites. So, Michael,

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Speaker 1: one of the things we set out to do. The

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Speaker 1: answer is yes, let me just start there. So we

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Speaker 1: have betting lines up in all of our sports. Um

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Speaker 1: we have great partnership with sport Radar and now with

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Speaker 1: with Caesar, So Caesar has been a terrific partner, and

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Speaker 1: betting lines are available for every game. And Athletes Unlimited,

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Speaker 1: which is a big accomplishment, took a lot of work.

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Speaker 1: It's been a two year project to get to that place,

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Speaker 1: but it goes to something much larger, which is when

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Speaker 1: we started Athletes Unlimited. One of the theories that we

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Speaker 1: had and and and a big foundational principle because I've

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Speaker 1: been involved in a number of entrepreneur ventures, is startup

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Speaker 1: leaks have trouble because if you start out and you

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Speaker 1: try to do one thing well, you try to produce

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Speaker 1: a game, but you have a hard time putting in

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Speaker 1: place all the other pieces that the NBA offers. The

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Speaker 1: NFL offers sports betting is a perfect example. Fantasy sports

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Speaker 1: is another example, n f T S or another example, merchandise,

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Speaker 1: so many things, and so from the start what we

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Speaker 1: did is is opposed to focusing on launching in multiple markets,

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Speaker 1: focusing on the selling tickets in places, was to really

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Speaker 1: get those elements of the fan experience and fan engagement up.

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Speaker 1: I always say, if you're a fan of women's volleyball,

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Speaker 1: or women's basketball, or or the NFL, you want to

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Speaker 1: consume and be engaged three stive days a year, twenty

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Speaker 1: four hours a day. And sports betting is a great

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Speaker 1: way for many people to do it, not for everybody.

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Speaker 1: And we felt like that was table stakes in this

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Speaker 1: day and age. So we have sports line, you know,

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Speaker 1: betting lines. We just got approved in Puerto Rico. UM,

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Speaker 1: and that's the process. We're going through, every state going

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Speaker 1: through their own process where we have to, and I

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Speaker 1: think it's incredibly exciting. So Michael, you know, I think

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Speaker 1: you're able to and unrestricted from going on, but go

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Speaker 1: on to Caesar's and and take a look at our

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Speaker 1: lines for basketball. It's gritting ear to ear. He's already

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Speaker 1: in the Caesar's Cancer We're a gritting Okay, John, you

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Speaker 1: talk about online, but let's talk about global. One point

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Speaker 1: you made was that the athletes wouldn't have to travel

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Speaker 1: overseas to make a living. Do you see athletes unlimited?

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Speaker 1: I know you're still somewhat in your infancy, but as

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Speaker 1: an entrepreneur you're obviously thinking big more often than not.

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Speaker 1: Do you see athletes unlimited doing exhibits in the UK,

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Speaker 1: or in Germany or even in Latin America because sport

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Speaker 1: is universal. Right to use a tired cliche, but basketball

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Speaker 1: is huge globally. Do you see a you taking this

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Speaker 1: to another country, maybe for weeks, just to build a

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Speaker 1: fan base, just to raise visibility for brands and partnerships.

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Speaker 1: Where do you see it going? So? Absolutely? Um, I mean,

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Speaker 1: first and foremost, with each of the games we're producing,

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Speaker 1: not only can fans watch them on television the United States,

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Speaker 1: but they can watch them around the world. So basically

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Speaker 1: every game we have produced is available over a hundred countries,

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Speaker 1: whether that's through a streaming service or a TV provider. UM, huge,

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Speaker 1: huge piece of this is and it goes back to

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Speaker 1: something we talked about earlier. Because we are one unified

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Speaker 1: entity at the athletes unlimited level and we run all

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Speaker 1: four leagues under one corporate entity. We're able to do

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Speaker 1: things so much more efficiently. If you saw the recent

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Speaker 1: MLS deal with with Apple, it was one of the

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Speaker 1: big factors that went into that deal. Apple said, we

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Speaker 1: love this MLS content. Not only do we love the content,

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Speaker 1: we love the idea we can do one deal globally

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Speaker 1: across the board. Athletes Unlimited is set up to do that.

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Speaker 1: That's what we've been doing because we have a control

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Speaker 1: and we don't have to worry about ten twenty other

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Speaker 1: owners and getting everyone together. We have a lot of

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Speaker 1: efficiency there. So there is an absolute global audience. UM.

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Speaker 1: I would say right now the biggest audience we see

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Speaker 1: globally is volleyball. UM. That is a sport that is

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Speaker 1: an absolute juggernaut. UM. There's tremendous investment. CBC Capital Partners

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Speaker 1: invested in a in an entity a few years ago

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Speaker 1: to invest in global volleyball. We see that opportunity. We've

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Speaker 1: had players from around the world, from Thailand, from Brazil, UM,

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Speaker 1: and when they're out on the court, the numbers absolutely skyrocket. UM.

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Speaker 1: And then as to your question about expansion, again, each

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Speaker 1: of our least takes place in one city, but we

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Speaker 1: are moving into an expansion model. In softball UM, we

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Speaker 1: conducted a two week season to complement our five week

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Speaker 1: softball season in San Diego UM, and this year we're

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Speaker 1: actually going to nine college campuses with our volleyball players

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Speaker 1: to do a series of exhibitions. And I absolutely could

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Speaker 1: see us doing that internationally. Our model is perfectly set up.

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Speaker 1: You mean you said it before, the tournament model. Envision

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Speaker 1: down the road where it makes sense. We have a

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Speaker 1: five week season UM in Dallas, but maybe there is

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Speaker 1: a two week or one week event that takes place

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Speaker 1: in Mexico City or London or ever it might be.

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Speaker 1: And that exactly how our systems set up, and we

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Speaker 1: can make it incredibly compelling, you know, two week UM competition,

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Speaker 1: because that's the way our competitive format works. It's it's

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Speaker 1: exactly a huge area. One of the many opportunities we

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Speaker 1: see ahead of us. Last question I have is, you

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Speaker 1: know you've got four sports. You know, you've got volleyball

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Speaker 1: across UM, basketball and softball. You've got two hundred four players.

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Speaker 1: How do players get paid? I mean, like what could

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Speaker 1: they expect? You know, I mean it's not like they

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Speaker 1: have a team and an owner that they can yell

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Speaker 1: at when things don't go their way. I mean, how

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Speaker 1: do they get paid? How do you pelt? Sorry? Sorry? Yes, So,

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Speaker 1: so there are a few elements of the compensation. So

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Speaker 1: every player receives based compensation for participating in the league

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Speaker 1: UM and then their bonuses based on performance. So every

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Speaker 1: time you win a game or a quarter, there's actually bonuses.

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Speaker 1: And then where you end up on that leaderboard that

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Speaker 1: I mentioned determines the biggest component of your bonus. We

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Speaker 1: also cover housing costs, travel costs. Importantly, we cover childcare

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Speaker 1: costs for for the players that are moms, so that

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Speaker 1: they are able to bring their their kids into market,

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Speaker 1: and we we help them cord nate childcare and cover

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Speaker 1: costs around that. And then the players share in long

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Speaker 1: term profits as well. It's a twenty year profit sharing plan,

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Speaker 1: so if you're a player that plays in two, you'll

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Speaker 1: share in any profits uh for now, in twenty years

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Speaker 1: into the future. UM. So players are really aligned and

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Speaker 1: incented and and an average camp is now starting to

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Speaker 1: look you know, like, on average twenty dollars over the

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Speaker 1: course of five weeks. Some players can make up to

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Speaker 1: fifty UM and honestly, you know, we're a young organization. UM,

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Speaker 1: that's where you know w n b A or NWSL

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Speaker 1: compensation was just a few years ago. So we're we're

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Speaker 1: feeling like we're on the right trajectory. And like I said,

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Speaker 1: with expansion into softball, UM, we have the five week season,

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Speaker 1: adding the two weeks season increased comp on average around

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Speaker 1: thirty So so we're still so early in this, but

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Speaker 1: that's our model. Base camp bonuses, profit sharing, uh, and

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Speaker 1: then really helping helping the athletes outside of that. Got

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Speaker 1: an old friend of the show ice Cube, and an

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Speaker 1: idea pop in my head again before the show, what

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Speaker 1: if you had a women's three on three big league

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Speaker 1: that would get over big time? I see if I

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Speaker 1: can't open, it's like old man bars, like, you know

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Speaker 1: he's got his Yeah, I'm ready. Man, It's like, what

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Speaker 1: do you think? Well, I don't know. You have to

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Speaker 1: tell me bowling or three on three basketball? These divisions

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Speaker 1: I have to make And okay, start with bowling and

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Speaker 1: then we can do three on three women's basketball. Well listen.

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00:20:30,040 --> 00:20:31,600
Speaker 1: It goes to the fact that there's a lot of

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00:20:31,640 --> 00:20:34,800
Speaker 1: opportunity out there. But but our threshold um is pretty

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00:20:34,880 --> 00:20:36,560
Speaker 1: high because you know, you can go into a lot

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00:20:36,560 --> 00:20:39,159
Speaker 1: of different sports. We were very thoughtful. We started with

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00:20:39,240 --> 00:20:42,520
Speaker 1: softball because the numbers are just again as I said,

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00:20:42,560 --> 00:20:44,760
Speaker 1: spectacular at the n c A level, there was really

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00:20:44,760 --> 00:20:47,000
Speaker 1: a white space there. Volleyball was second again for the

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00:20:47,040 --> 00:20:50,000
Speaker 1: reasons I said, nine million people play that sport worldwide.

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00:20:50,359 --> 00:20:53,359
Speaker 1: So uh, and you've got huge thriving leagues around the world.

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00:20:53,480 --> 00:20:56,800
Speaker 1: So you know that's the that's the threshold, and I

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00:20:56,800 --> 00:21:01,440
Speaker 1: know we're I think the question is, you know, where

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00:21:01,520 --> 00:21:04,600
Speaker 1: is a sport like three on three basketball in that environment? UM?

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00:21:04,680 --> 00:21:06,320
Speaker 1: And I think there are a lot of other sports

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00:21:06,320 --> 00:21:08,639
Speaker 1: that that UM will come ahead of it UM in

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00:21:08,640 --> 00:21:11,560
Speaker 1: my opinion. But UM, listen, there's a lot of opportunity

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00:21:11,560 --> 00:21:12,920
Speaker 1: in a lot of different places. We just try to

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00:21:12,920 --> 00:21:15,679
Speaker 1: stay disciplined and right now in twenty three, our focus

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00:21:15,720 --> 00:21:18,040
Speaker 1: is to go deeper into the four sports when we

447
00:21:18,119 --> 00:21:20,639
Speaker 1: just have so much opportunity with the four sports that

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00:21:20,640 --> 00:21:23,800
Speaker 1: we're currently operating in and so UM, my job is

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00:21:23,840 --> 00:21:26,640
Speaker 1: CEO is you know, keep an eye open eye and

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00:21:26,960 --> 00:21:30,359
Speaker 1: explore everything, but try to stay disciplined and focused and execute.

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00:21:30,359 --> 00:21:34,000
Speaker 1: And that's what that's where we are. John patrickov Oh

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00:21:34,080 --> 00:21:38,080
Speaker 1: my goodness, he's in studio everybody. That's why the lines

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00:21:38,200 --> 00:21:43,480
Speaker 1: sounds so clear. No phone interview line. He co founder

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Speaker 1: CEO of Athletes Unlimited. John. Let me take just a

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00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:50,720
Speaker 1: moment to say thank you so much for first for

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00:21:50,800 --> 00:21:53,919
Speaker 1: joining us on the Bloomberg Business and Sports, but even

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00:21:54,000 --> 00:22:01,439
Speaker 1: more importantly for promoting women's sports. Because I have I have,

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00:22:01,720 --> 00:22:04,879
Speaker 1: my nostrils are flared and I've gotten angry many times

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00:22:04,880 --> 00:22:08,640
Speaker 1: on this show because you said it earlier. I'm sick

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00:22:08,680 --> 00:22:12,800
Speaker 1: and tired of you know, society treating women's sports like

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00:22:12,880 --> 00:22:16,080
Speaker 1: it's a charity and it is far from it, and

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00:22:16,119 --> 00:22:19,440
Speaker 1: being innovative about it, right, not just turning a men's

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00:22:19,520 --> 00:22:22,600
Speaker 1: league into a women's league, thinking it through and reinventing it.

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00:22:23,160 --> 00:22:25,240
Speaker 1: I mean, not investing in a full season. I mean, like,

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00:22:25,280 --> 00:22:26,800
Speaker 1: you know, I think that's the smart move. You know,

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00:22:26,880 --> 00:22:28,959
Speaker 1: Let's go slow, let's go small. Let's you know, like

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00:22:28,960 --> 00:22:31,080
Speaker 1: you said, five weeks, that's the commitment for each you know,

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00:22:31,119 --> 00:22:33,240
Speaker 1: and let's see how it. Let's see how it resonates

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00:22:33,280 --> 00:22:35,920
Speaker 1: with with our audience. And I think to the audience's attentions,

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00:22:35,960 --> 00:22:39,239
Speaker 1: take what the market gives you. Encourage all of you

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00:22:39,280 --> 00:22:42,960
Speaker 1: to uh stay tuned February launch our basketball season, our

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00:22:42,960 --> 00:22:46,000
Speaker 1: second basketball season in Dallas. Come to Dallas. You know,

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00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:47,720
Speaker 1: like you said, it's a perfect trip for for for

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00:22:47,760 --> 00:22:49,960
Speaker 1: a weekend, uh to come out and watch them games.

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00:22:49,960 --> 00:22:52,159
Speaker 1: And if not, you can watch every one of the

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00:22:52,160 --> 00:22:55,560
Speaker 1: games either on on TV with CBS or on digital.

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00:22:55,640 --> 00:22:58,480
Speaker 1: So it's gonna be terrific. Um, and thank you for

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00:22:58,520 --> 00:23:01,520
Speaker 1: having us. And I always just a you know, broadly speaking,

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00:23:01,720 --> 00:23:03,240
Speaker 1: a U, and I'm really proud of what we're doing

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00:23:03,280 --> 00:23:06,280
Speaker 1: Athletes Unlimited. But I'm telling you there's so much activity

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00:23:06,320 --> 00:23:09,199
Speaker 1: on the private equity side, um, on the overall investment

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00:23:09,240 --> 00:23:11,199
Speaker 1: side into women's sports. It's great to be part of

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00:23:11,240 --> 00:23:13,480
Speaker 1: this this and you know, this whole area of the

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00:23:13,520 --> 00:23:16,679
Speaker 1: sports world, and uh, you know that's good for everybody.

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00:23:16,720 --> 00:23:19,040
Speaker 1: This has been the Bloomberg Businesses Sports podcast and we

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00:23:19,080 --> 00:23:21,880
Speaker 1: explore some of the big old money issues the world

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00:23:21,880 --> 00:23:25,119
Speaker 1: of sports. Sound Michael Bark, I'm Scarlett Poe, I'm Done Kissy,

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00:23:25,200 --> 00:23:28,320
Speaker 1: and I'm Damien's Hey. You can catch the podcast by

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00:23:28,359 --> 00:23:32,360
Speaker 1: the way every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, and by the way,

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00:23:32,440 --> 00:23:35,600
Speaker 1: you can download it wherever you get your podcast