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Speaker 3: Sports is business, and whenever you are procuring child you
Speaker 3: must start with the crime.
Speaker 4: Cherating owners of this league and wanting our league to
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Speaker 5: The valuations are getting so high, at the list of
Speaker 5: people who could purchase a team that was getting really short.
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Speaker 2: Hey, if I get a million dollars, We're going to
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Speaker 6: This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports show where we
Speaker 6: explored the big money issues in the world of sports.
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Speaker 6: Today. It is golf season, Babay. The air is warming up,
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Speaker 6: greener on this side. And we're going to talk with
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Speaker 6: on his company's partnership with Tiger Woods and the rold
Speaker 6: Tiger has in his company's development of golf balls and clubs.
Speaker 9: Plus, Bloomberg Originals Chief correspondent Jason Kelly stops by to
Speaker 9: talk about his new Bloomberg Originals TV program and podcasts
Speaker 9: with none other than a Rod The Baseball Legend. It's
Speaker 9: a program that showcases conversations with sports champions and business
Speaker 9: titans like Maria Sharapova and one Derek Jeter as they
Speaker 9: reveal some of their investment philosophies.
Speaker 6: That is straight ahead on the Bloomberg Business of Sports show.
Speaker 6: But first, preparing for retirement is not easy, no kidd,
Speaker 6: And for professional athletes, it's all about becoming a champion
Speaker 6: with hopes that the millions they made along the way
Speaker 6: is enough to help pay the bills. But nowadays athletes
Speaker 6: are looking to cash in and maintain their brand supremacy
Speaker 6: even after retirement. Lucky for them, there have never been
Speaker 6: more ways for athletes to earn billions. Joining us now
Speaker 6: to discuss how some of the most known athletes today
Speaker 6: are working toward that coveted billion dollars goal. You know,
Speaker 6: the man old friend of the show, Bloomberg News, Kim Bessen, Kim,
Speaker 6: welcome sports again. Up.
Speaker 2: How are we doing today?
Speaker 6: Oh man, I'm now I'm thinking about retirement all over
Speaker 6: again and realize, you know, it won't be until I'm
Speaker 6: one hundred. But you know what, you don't have to
Speaker 6: be and you wrote this, you don't have to be
Speaker 6: the goat to hit the billionaire status as an athlete.
Speaker 6: Can you expand more?
Speaker 8: Yeah?
Speaker 10: I think when you think about like the richest athletes
Speaker 10: in the world, you the names that come up are
Speaker 10: like Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Lebron James, like among the
Speaker 10: best to ever do it in their sports every single time.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 10: But now, for you don't have to be the best
Speaker 10: in your sport to make a whole ton of money.
Speaker 10: And that's because there's more routes, there's more opportunities, there's
Speaker 10: more ways to get into business and make a bunch
Speaker 10: of money for yourself.
Speaker 6: So you're saying, I got a chance, you still, let's
Speaker 6: do this.
Speaker 2: It's never too late, all right.
Speaker 9: So give us an example of someone who is not
Speaker 9: the goat in his or her sport and yet through
Speaker 9: savvy investments, through timely networking, and through well negotiated deals,
Speaker 9: has done a pretty good job for himself. Yeah, and
Speaker 9: it's him a lot of the times.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it is.
Speaker 10: It is him a lot of the times. I just
Speaker 10: want to give you an example of someone who is
Speaker 10: still young, and it's not even requiring him to step
Speaker 10: off the court and make a ton of money with
Speaker 10: businesses in the NBA. You can do this just by
Speaker 10: signing max contracts. Right, Jalen Brown is not the best
Speaker 10: player on his own team, and he's going to be
Speaker 10: making nearly three hundred million dollars over the next several years. Right,
Speaker 10: if you parse us out for the rookies, like the
Speaker 10: youngest players in the league who are entering right now, Yes,
Speaker 10: it looks like Victor Webbanyama is going to be absolutely incredible.
Speaker 10: Paolo Bankearo just made his first All Star team. Brandon
Speaker 10: Miller on the Hornets is starting to heat up over there.
Speaker 10: These are the kinds of kids who just have to
Speaker 10: keep signing max deals, And if they keep signing max deals,
Speaker 10: if they pan out over the course of their career,
Speaker 10: maybe you know, once in a while, making All NBA
Speaker 10: Third Team be an All Star a couple times, and
Speaker 10: they just keep signing Max deals, they will be billionaires
Speaker 10: in their thirties.
Speaker 8: Kim running through the numbers a little bit, because I've
Speaker 8: read that deck about Victor webin Yama, the seven foot
Speaker 8: four Spurs sensation, who is you know, if he keeps
Speaker 8: signing MAX contracts, will earn you know, I think a
Speaker 8: billion dollars or something by the time I'm well over that.
Speaker 8: But you know, if you compare that to Michael Jordan
Speaker 8: or you know, Tiger Woods or some of these people
Speaker 8: who have these huge marketing deals and who made money.
Speaker 8: I mean Michael Jordan's case. You know, he's an owner
Speaker 8: of the Charlotte Hornets. You know, is it possible for
Speaker 8: somebody like a webin Yama to overtake career earning from
Speaker 8: someone like Michael Jordan or must he do something himself
Speaker 8: off the court in order to get there.
Speaker 10: Michael, I think, is the specialist of special cases, right
Speaker 10: his the Jordan brand is just so huge and he
Speaker 10: signed what the you know, the first royalty deal in
Speaker 10: signature shoe history, Once upon a time?
Speaker 6: How long ago is that?
Speaker 2: Forty years ago?
Speaker 6: Oh? Man?
Speaker 10: So he's a special case here. But team ownership is
Speaker 10: certainly like a path to wealth now, and you're seeing
Speaker 10: these players put money into and become minority owners in
Speaker 10: the other leagues that they're not currently playing in their
Speaker 10: in their home town. So like Miles Garrett on the
Speaker 10: Cleveland Browns has a stake in the Cavaliers basketball, and.
Speaker 2: We got the Jannis on the Bucks.
Speaker 10: He owns a part of the Brewers, and then Marshawn
Speaker 10: Lynch is in the Seattle Kraken the hockey team. Like
Speaker 10: these opportunities are they exist for these players. And again,
Speaker 10: they don't have to be the very best in the
Speaker 10: game to do it.
Speaker 6: You don't have to be And you wrote about this
Speaker 6: and I saw it. I'm like, oh man, you don't
Speaker 6: have to be in college. You don't have to be
Speaker 6: in high school, you don't have to be in middle school.
Speaker 6: There was a nine year old who signed in Snoop
Speaker 6: Dogg's youth football league and signed for six figures. He's nine.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, I am depressed. Now just listen, kid, I'm
Speaker 6: happy for you. Yeah, I can say kid because I'm
Speaker 6: oldest dirt kid. I'm happy he's nine. He is, but
Speaker 6: this is it's amazing to me.
Speaker 2: Kim yeah.
Speaker 10: I mean, the the NCAA rule really opens up a
Speaker 10: lot of a lot of things for kids now right,
Speaker 10: You're not going to risk any kind of eligibility going forward.
Speaker 2: It's like it is fascinating.
Speaker 10: I think when we saw at the very it was
Speaker 10: the college kids actually signing these deal student athletes who
Speaker 10: have garnered some sort of social following and so on
Speaker 10: at the very very start of the rule change at
Speaker 10: the NCAA had, but it was kind of natural that
Speaker 10: they would go younger. You saw high school kids getting signed,
Speaker 10: and now it's we're getting further down there, nine years old.
Speaker 6: You know, it's okay at age time. Here I go again.
Speaker 6: I remember when you were nine years old, the only
Speaker 6: way you could really make some money was to go
Speaker 6: on the game show, the kids version of the Hollywood Squares.
Speaker 6: They didn't even pay you in regular money because they
Speaker 6: had the rule where you got savings bonds, which was
Speaker 6: half of what dang.
Speaker 1: Man, he's outraged. He is properly outraged.
Speaker 9: Let's go from a nine year old tackle football player
Speaker 9: in Snoop's youth football league to Steph Curry, the goat
Speaker 9: for the Golden State Warriors, and you know, three point
Speaker 9: shot man extraordinary. You wrote a story about him and
Speaker 9: how he has He's done well in terms of his
Speaker 9: sneaker sponsorship under Armoor. He put them on the map
Speaker 9: when it comes to sneakers, but not so much in
Speaker 9: terms of really winning over big sneaker fans, the sneaker
Speaker 9: heads out there. What's the difference here and why is
Speaker 9: it important to him?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 10: I mean Stephen told me I met up with him
Speaker 10: at All Star weekend in Indianapolis, as you do, Kim,
Speaker 10: and he said he's planning to retire in four or
Speaker 10: five years, So the clock is running low here. It
Speaker 10: seems like he wants to leave the game while still
Speaker 10: playing at a high level. I don't think we're gonna
Speaker 10: see Steph Curry standing in the corner at forty three
Speaker 10: just knocking down a couple threes a game. I think
Speaker 10: he wants to be a superstar until the day he
Speaker 10: steps away. So if he's gonna leave fairly soon, that
Speaker 10: would put him at about forty, which is when Michael
Speaker 10: Jordan retired Lebron. Seems like he's gonna go back if
Speaker 10: he keeps playing like this still nine.
Speaker 2: I think he's gonna give you going.
Speaker 10: But there's limited time left for for Stephan Curry to
Speaker 10: have that kind of influence on the court, being on
Speaker 10: TV eighty two times a year and then playing in
Speaker 10: the playoffs and all the hype around that and the
Speaker 10: All Star Game and everything. So whatever he's doing after
Speaker 10: his basketball career, it won't be quite the same. So
Speaker 10: what he wants to do is really develop off the
Speaker 10: court shoes, shoes that are in sneaker culture, shoes that that.
Speaker 2: That people are are, you know, lining up around the block.
Speaker 10: For like you see with with some other with some
Speaker 10: other brand, Jordan's with Jordan's absolutely, And yeah, he said explicitly,
Speaker 10: the Jordan brand is the pinnacle of what an athlete
Speaker 10: can do with their platform, and he wants to make
Speaker 10: his own version of that and wants that to be
Speaker 10: part of his legacy.
Speaker 2: He also said, like, what's my legacy going to be?
Speaker 1: And I'm like, Steph, Man, he's wondering about that.
Speaker 10: Yeah, you're the best shooter ever, Like there's no four championships.
Speaker 2: Two MVPs.
Speaker 1: Well, he really doesn't see that.
Speaker 2: I think, I mean, he shouldn't be worried. He shouldn't
Speaker 2: be worried about this.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 8: Can I ask you a quick question I mean, I'm
Speaker 8: looking at under Armour shares here at nine dollars down,
Speaker 8: you know, roughly a third of what they were in
Speaker 8: late twenty twenty one. You know, just how a creative
Speaker 8: could steph Curry b to the share price to under
Speaker 8: Armour and for that matter, in the environment we're coming
Speaker 8: out of. I mean, look at what just happened with Adidas,
Speaker 8: with Nike. I mean, you know, what are the chances
Speaker 8: for success and how's that going to kind of translate
Speaker 8: through into the share price.
Speaker 10: Under Armour is going through a major transformation right now.
Speaker 10: So they brought in a new CEO last year, Stephanie
Speaker 10: Lennartz from Marriott International, and she has has started on
Speaker 10: this three year turnaround plan for under Armour and the
Speaker 10: whole athletic wear industry over the past year has had trouble,
Speaker 10: right so when the pandemic hit, it was like stores closed,
Speaker 10: just does in twenty twenty twenty one. We don't have
Speaker 10: enough inventory because it was hard to run our supply chains.
Speaker 10: At the time twenty twenty two and twenty three, they
Speaker 10: had too much inventory because they ordered too much stuff.
Speaker 10: And now we're finally getting to the end of that.
Speaker 10: So we're seeing a reset with brands, with brands like
Speaker 10: under Armour. So this brand under Armour, she is prioritizing
Speaker 10: a couple things here, so more women's wear, more footwear,
Speaker 10: and then more what they call they're calling sports style,
Speaker 10: which just means, you know, casual clothes that one would
Speaker 10: wear not in the gym. So those are the three things.
Speaker 10: And Curry brand is what gave them permission to enter
Speaker 10: footwear to begin with back in twenty thirteen, right, that
Speaker 10: really solidified their place to give the permission to play
Speaker 10: in basketball, which is which is the most important thing.
Speaker 10: Basketball and running are just so crucial. Curry is their star.
Speaker 10: He's for sure, they're top star, and they're going to
Speaker 10: try to build this around him.
Speaker 6: You mentioned about Nike, by the way, I wonder if
Speaker 6: Nike screwed up because they had Curry in a round
Speaker 6: right when when it started, and then something happened, and then,
Speaker 6: like you said, Kim twenty thirteen, then he signs with.
Speaker 10: Underham There's a there's a fascinating story that ESPN got
Speaker 10: into a few years ago, that the saga of Stephen
Speaker 10: Curry leaving Nike for under Armour.
Speaker 1: This is the sequel, by the way.
Speaker 8: Name Yeah, they pick Durant's name on the presentation, right,
Speaker 8: they put Duran's name on the.
Speaker 9: This this needs to be made into a movie, kind
Speaker 9: of like how Matt Damon or I should say Ben
Speaker 9: Affleck made air.
Speaker 2: And they kept calling him like Stephen like no, yeah,
Speaker 2: I remember that.
Speaker 1: That's not good.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Old friend of the show, Kim Bessen, thank you, my man.
Speaker 6: We really do appreciate it.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 6: You always drop some knowledge on this.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 6: I love hearing you. Appreciate you all. Up next on
Speaker 6: the show, we speak with our friend Jason Kelly on
Speaker 6: his newest Bloomberg Originals program that he co hosts with
Speaker 6: former baseball player and New York Yankees icon Rodriguez. You're
Speaker 6: listening to the Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio
Speaker 6: around the world.
Speaker 7: This is Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio. This
Speaker 7: is the Bloomberg Business of Sports show. But we explored
Speaker 7: the big money issues the world of sports. I'm Michael
Speaker 7: Varre alongside Carlott Fu and Damian Sasauur. When sports, business
Speaker 7: and culture collide, there's often a deal to be made.
Speaker 7: Alex Rodriguez and Bloomberg correspondent Jason Kelly get the inside
Speaker 7: track from corporate titans, sports champions, and game changing entrepreneurs
Speaker 7: on investing, strategy, reinvention and the ones that got away.
Speaker 7: The Deal with Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly is a
Speaker 7: Bloomberg Podcasts and Bloomberg original series that's passionate, relaxed, insightful,
Speaker 7: and inspirational. If you think you know these icons, prepare
Speaker 7: to be Here is a tease of the show airing
Speaker 7: now featuring tennis icon Maria Showerpova.
Speaker 5: There's going to be viewers that have watched this that
Speaker 5: are founders that have a business that their dream would
Speaker 5: be for Maria to invest in their business. Can you
Speaker 5: tell us a little bit about how you think about
Speaker 5: businesses which sectors kind of broadly check sizes. How do
Speaker 5: you think about being a value added investor.
Speaker 4: One of my first investments, actually the first investment was
Speaker 4: into a sunscreen brand called Supergoup. I was a user
Speaker 4: myself founded a Sephora market. I think that was their
Speaker 4: only distribution at the time. This was twelve years ago.
Speaker 4: I knocked on the door of the founder and I said,
Speaker 4: I love your product. It's the only one I can
Speaker 4: wear while I play doesn't run in my eyes. It
Speaker 4: doesn't burn my eyes or sting them. Can I please
Speaker 4: help you out. I don't know what stage you're at,
Speaker 4: I don't know how young or old you are, but
Speaker 4: I love what you're doing and from what I've read,
Speaker 4: I love your mission. That was it, and two years
Speaker 4: ago they sold seventy five percent of their steak for
Speaker 4: close to a billion dollars. It was the first time
Speaker 4: where I didn't take that paycheck at the beginning, and
Speaker 4: I said, let me invest, let me give you my time,
Speaker 4: my platform, my voice, and help share this message about
Speaker 4: preventing skin cancer. And that was a successful example, and
Speaker 4: there's been several others not so. But the point is
Speaker 4: is that it came from loving the product. It came
Speaker 4: from the mission that the founder had that I resonated with,
Speaker 4: and the fact that I could help it. Like I
Speaker 4: was realistic that I had the right platform and that
Speaker 4: I had the right usership in order to help them grow.
Speaker 4: So I think all that was it was a good
Speaker 4: foundation in my investment story. And not to say that
Speaker 4: there's something that I may not be familiar with or
Speaker 4: that I'm taking a chance on. I still should take
Speaker 4: the call. I still should spend time with the founders,
Speaker 4: But ultimately I want to have a good feel of
Speaker 4: what this is, right. I want to spend time. I
Speaker 4: want to have dinner with these people, right. So I
Speaker 4: want to believe in people that know how to lose
Speaker 4: and how that will come up and find ways to win.
Speaker 6: So joining us now to give us some more inside
Speaker 6: his co host of the show and friend of ours,
Speaker 6: Jason Kelly. Jason, your new show is called The Deal.
Speaker 6: Tell us about it.
Speaker 11: It's all happening. Yeah, it's been in the worst for
Speaker 11: a while. This is a show that Alex and I
Speaker 11: conceived a little more than a year ago, and you know,
Speaker 11: the concept.
Speaker 2: Was sort of straightforward.
Speaker 11: At One of the stories that I've told that I
Speaker 11: think you guys will appreciate is we had gotten to
Speaker 11: know each other over the course of me working on
Speaker 11: a documentary about him for a series we did called
Speaker 11: Athlete Empire and Bloomberg Originals, And we were having lunch
Speaker 11: and talking about wanting to do something together, and we
Speaker 11: started talking about this idea of the podcast, and we
Speaker 11: kind of wandered around in conversationally and we were talking
Speaker 11: about NBA ownership, which obviously he's a part of.
Speaker 2: Now we were talking about.
Speaker 11: Valuations, talking about various things, and at one point, as
Speaker 11: we started talking about the podcast again, he said, what
Speaker 11: would it be? And I basically said, well, this this
Speaker 11: is the show. Like this is the show, like Seinfeld,
Speaker 11: this is the show. And the concept is there is
Speaker 11: this collision as you guys are living every week of
Speaker 11: call it business, sports, culture, technology, politics, all of it,
Speaker 11: and there are some fascinating people doing deals at the
Speaker 11: core of it. And so that's what we set out
Speaker 11: to do. And we went and found some I think
Speaker 11: super interesting people to talk to, and.
Speaker 9: You talked to Maria Sharapova among others. How many of
Speaker 9: the folks that you talked to are people that alex
Speaker 9: Ardriguez has done deals with because he's out there.
Speaker 11: He is out there, and it's a great point. I mean,
Speaker 11: he's out there quite a bit. And it's funny you
Speaker 11: talk about Maria. One of the funniest moments of the episode,
Speaker 11: she actually gives him a little bit of a hard
Speaker 11: time about like not calling her for deals and because
Speaker 11: they have looked at stuff together. I mean, as you
Speaker 11: guys well know, because a lot of these folks have
Speaker 11: been on this show. The circle as it were, of
Speaker 11: really top tier athletes who are super serious about making investments.
Speaker 11: Is actually a relatively small club, and they they certainly bounce,
Speaker 11: bounce off of each other and run into each other.
Speaker 11: So there are a few people that that Alex has
Speaker 11: doesn't work with. I mean, he worked very closely with
Speaker 11: Derek jeeter Is, who's a guest on college show up Coming.
Speaker 11: They were they were colleagues, and you know, we joked
Speaker 11: in in that episode.
Speaker 2: I mean I sort of half joked that.
Speaker 11: You know, one of the most important deals you could
Speaker 11: argue that happened in New York Yankees history was the
Speaker 11: deal for Alex to move to third base so that
Speaker 11: he could play next to Jeter. Uh and they won
Speaker 11: a World Series and obviously a complicated relationship, and we
Speaker 11: dig into that a lot in the show.
Speaker 8: I can't wait, well, Jason, I mean, you went right there,
Speaker 8: so I'm gonna have to. I'm gonna have to, you know,
Speaker 8: trump that. I mean, think about the contract that Derek
Speaker 8: Jeter signed with the New York Yankees and the business
Speaker 8: side of that and what Alex rodriguez Is negotiations did
Speaker 8: to pad.
Speaker 6: That for him.
Speaker 8: I wonder if you guys got into that. But story
Speaker 8: for another day. Talk to us a little bit about,
Speaker 8: you know, some of the other guests you hope to
Speaker 8: have on the show going forward. I mean, you know,
Speaker 8: Alex runs in these crazy circles that expand beyond sports,
Speaker 8: into media, into finance. You know, where do you find
Speaker 8: Alex to be most comfortable?
Speaker 11: You know, it's a really interesting question, Damian. You know,
Speaker 11: I found him to be comfortable really across the board.
Speaker 11: You know, this is a guy who really started thinking
Speaker 11: about business off the field, almost from the moment he
Speaker 11: became a professional athlete, which he did coming out of
Speaker 11: high school, as you guys know, you know, drafted but
Speaker 11: number one by the Mariners. And you know, he bought
Speaker 11: his first multi family real estate property in Miami essentially
Speaker 11: with his first check, and it's sort of built from there.
Speaker 11: And he is he's a total sponge and really a student.
Speaker 11: And he talks about you know, being a young athlete
Speaker 11: and being on the road and you know, going in
Speaker 11: to see Jerry Reinsdorf and going in in obviously to
Speaker 11: see you know, George Steinbrenner. Once he came to the Yankees,
Speaker 11: like literally like you know, padding into the office in
Speaker 11: his cleats and just sitting and listening to these guys,
Speaker 11: and so his his rolodex is unbelievable. There's a there's
Speaker 11: a very funny moment also in the Maria Sharpova episode
Speaker 11: where she notes these shoes that he's wearing, and he like,
Speaker 11: can't help him. He can't help it flex a little
Speaker 11: bit because they were a gift from Bob Kraft. They
Speaker 11: are like signature custom posts super Bowl Nikes that he
Speaker 11: was wearing, and of course Maria teased him about that.
Speaker 9: So what what were you most surprised by in your
Speaker 9: frequent conversations with a Rod?
Speaker 1: And I'm sorry, do you don't call him Arod?
Speaker 3: Do you?
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be able to stop myself.
Speaker 2: No, I call him Alex.
Speaker 11: I mean, but there is this interesting thing even on
Speaker 11: that point, Scar which is almost think of him in
Speaker 11: these two halves, or you know, two parts of his career,
Speaker 11: you know, the player and Alex the investor. In many
Speaker 11: Alex the businessman, Alex the CEO. You know, I mean,
Speaker 11: in terms of surprises, I think there are a couple.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 11: One is sort of this this unbelievable curiosity and really
Speaker 11: real desire to understand what drives other people, and his
Speaker 11: willingness to kind of compare notes and to that point.
Speaker 11: So the second surprise is a real vulnerability in like
Speaker 11: showing things that he doesn't know or sharing experiences that
Speaker 11: he's had. You know, we do in the context of
Speaker 11: the Derek Jeter episode, you know, talk about their relationship
Speaker 11: and I won't spoil it, but you know, they both
Speaker 11: say some really interesting things, and Alex says, I thought
Speaker 11: some really interesting things about how he saw it all
Speaker 11: develop You know, these are guys. These are two guys
Speaker 11: who met when they were teenagers real it got real,
Speaker 11: I mean, and they were on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Speaker 11: They tell a great story about being teenagers in LA
Speaker 11: and like sitting in a cab and talking about like
Speaker 11: what they would what they would do to basically play
Speaker 11: baseball the rest of their lives.
Speaker 2: It's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: You didn't have no more Collin.
Speaker 2: We did not. No no Ma, no no ma.
Speaker 8: Jason. I have to ask this, you know, I mean,
Speaker 8: everyone myself included. I'm fifty years old.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 8: We remember, you know, all the drama surrounding a Rod
Speaker 8: and all the the media hype surrounding his persona, his
Speaker 8: brand at that point in time, and what a lot
Speaker 8: of us don't know are all the work that this
Speaker 8: man has done with the Boys and Girls Club of America,
Speaker 8: the University of Miami, where my son's a freshman, I
Speaker 8: mean all of the I mean I remember him speaking
Speaker 8: at my son's sleep away camp some ten years ago,
Speaker 8: you know, an inspirational kind of event during visiting day.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 8: You know, Alex has given back his entire career and
Speaker 8: I'm I'm just curious, you know how that kind of
Speaker 8: comes through in the podcast. I mean, you know, he
Speaker 8: has two daughters, He's a family man. I mean, talk
Speaker 8: to us a little bit about, you know, the soft
Speaker 8: side of Alex.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's interesting, you know.
Speaker 11: I mean, this is a guy who will be the
Speaker 11: first to say and he says it a lot in
Speaker 11: the podcast. Has done a lot of work on himself.
Speaker 11: You know, he went through with record suspension in Major
Speaker 11: League Baseball. He talks about that, you know, he talks
Speaker 11: about the lessons learned.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 11: I think you know, one of the interesting things too
Speaker 11: about him, which is both a personal and a business observation,
Speaker 11: is he is incredibly rare as well in this transition
Speaker 11: from player to team owner. You know, he's the owner
Speaker 11: he's a co owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves in Minnesota
Speaker 11: Links and the w n B A, and I think
Speaker 11: that perspective really opens him up as a human candidly
Speaker 11: because he's dealing with these young players in a way
Speaker 11: that almost no one else, no other owner. Can you know,
Speaker 11: if you're and this is no disrespect in the him,
Speaker 11: but if you're Jerry Jones, or you're Josh Harris, or
Speaker 11: you're Steve Ballmer, it's like you didn't play, Like you
Speaker 11: don't know what that feels like to be in an
Speaker 11: arena or to be in a stadium and to know
Speaker 11: that pressure. And so to have someone who can, you know,
Speaker 11: ultimately be your boss and say like, I know what
Speaker 11: it's like, like I know what it's like when you
Speaker 11: have a bad game. I know what it's like when
Speaker 11: people blew you. I know what it's like when people
Speaker 11: cheer for you. I know what it's like to be
Speaker 11: written about, and all these different things. I think it
Speaker 11: just adds it in almost like emotional and human complexity
Speaker 11: and possibility and opportunity for Alex. That is is an
Speaker 11: interesting one to me, at least a.
Speaker 9: Multi dimensional Alex Rodriguez bringing out the different sides of
Speaker 9: the famous athletes that he works with, that he's associated
Speaker 9: with and that he sees as colleagues in many ways.
Speaker 6: And Jason, where can people watch the program?
Speaker 11: It's available as a podcast and as a video, so
Speaker 11: on Bloomberg Television, on YouTube, on Bloomberg dot com, and
Speaker 11: then on the podcast side where you get your podcast.
Speaker 1: And after that it'll be a weekly series.
Speaker 11: Weekly series, twelve episodes, so stay tuned, and you know,
Speaker 11: coming up, as you guys mentioned, we'll have Michael Strahand,
Speaker 11: we have Derek Jeter, we have Constance Schwartz Marini, who
Speaker 11: is actually Michael Strahan's business partner and also chief advisor
Speaker 11: to Coach Prime and has worked with Snoop Dogg and
Speaker 11: Aaron Andrews.
Speaker 2: She tells a great Taylor Swift story.
Speaker 8: Who talks as if he knows these guys personally.
Speaker 11: Larry Fitzgerald, we'd spent some time with him. He was
Speaker 11: an incredible Hannah Storm. So a lot of really fun conversations.
Speaker 11: I'm excited for you guys to hear them up.
Speaker 6: Next on the show, we speak with ridge Stone Golf
Speaker 6: President and CEO Dan Murphy. I'm Michael Barr along with
Speaker 6: Scarlett fu and Damian Saasaur. You're listening to Bloomberg Business
Speaker 6: of Sports from Bloomberg Radio around the world.
Speaker 7: This is Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio. Welcome
Speaker 7: back to the Bloomberg Business of Sports. I'm Michael Barr,
Speaker 7: joined as always with Scarlett Fooh and Damian Sasaur. You've
Speaker 7: probably heard the name Tiger Woods, but did you know
Speaker 7: Tiger Woods has had a long relationship with ridge Stone
Speaker 7: Golf for many years, over twenty to be exact, helping
Speaker 7: the company with prototyping and testing the company's golf balls,
Speaker 7: clubs and accessories. So joining us to talk about that
Speaker 7: partnership and the growth of the Sport International League is
Speaker 7: the President and CEO of Bridgestone Golf, Dan Murphy. Dan,
Speaker 7: Welcome to the Bloomberg Business of Sports.
Speaker 3: Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be with you.
Speaker 6: So now I'm getting excited even though I am I
Speaker 6: tried golf once and I'm not very good. I'm not
Speaker 6: very good at anything, but golf is exciting and people
Speaker 6: will play playing. Right now, the weather is starting to break.
Speaker 6: The groundhog said, you know what, go out there and
Speaker 6: hit the off course. Where do you see the industry
Speaker 6: heading for twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3: It's a very interesting industry. I've been in it for
Speaker 3: twenty five years and I've seen the ups and downs,
Speaker 3: and ever since the pandemic, we had a shut down
Speaker 3: of our industry, and then in May of twenty twenty,
Speaker 3: we saw a boom in golf. It was the safe play.
Speaker 3: People could get out and get some recreation, some fresh
Speaker 3: air and out of the house, and golf has been
Speaker 3: booming ever since.
Speaker 9: That's one of the things that has really stuck around
Speaker 9: after the pandemic, this idea that golf has seen this
Speaker 9: renaissance and it's picked up interest, especially among the younger set.
Speaker 9: So I'm curious from where you sit, who you see
Speaker 9: as the next ambassador for the sport. Tiger Woods certainly impactful,
Speaker 9: but not in the same way that he was before,
Speaker 9: even as he continues to increase his marketing possibilities with
Speaker 9: his new deal, his new apparel line with Taylor Made,
Speaker 9: Who's the future of golf?
Speaker 3: From where you sit, well, it's hard to say. I mean,
Speaker 3: we still think it's Tiger. Tiger is our guy. He
Speaker 3: plays a bridgetone golf ball, He's played a bridgetone golf
Speaker 3: ball for many many years. You know, he really moves
Speaker 3: the needle for us, and he's still the guy. In
Speaker 3: twenty twenty four, he's really got a much more extensive
Speaker 3: playing schedule. He's talking about playing once a month. So
Speaker 3: I think next up could be the Players, and then
Speaker 3: Masters after that, and PGA Championship after that, and then
Speaker 3: we'll see where he goes. But we think Tiger's still
Speaker 3: the guy. He's the one that moves the ratings meter
Speaker 3: and he's the one that definitely helps us sell golf balls.
Speaker 3: Though I don't know that there's ever going to be
Speaker 3: another exact Tiger Woods. I think there's a group of
Speaker 3: guys out there that are pretty good, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas,
Speaker 3: Victor Hobland, And I think that's the exciting thing about
Speaker 3: our sport is you just never know where that next
Speaker 3: superstar is going to come from or how that the
Speaker 3: next one will blossom. So hard to say specifically, and
Speaker 3: I don't know that since Jack Nicholas that we've had
Speaker 3: anybody of the stature of Tiger Woods, and I don't
Speaker 3: know that we'll see that again in our generation. But
Speaker 3: there'll be some good young players that will move the
Speaker 3: needle and draw some ratings.
Speaker 8: Dan, that is the right answer. There will never be
Speaker 8: another Tiger. I mean, what a great answer. But I mean,
Speaker 8: in full disclosure, I wonder if you could tell our
Speaker 8: audience a little bit about why I should be using
Speaker 8: Tiger's Tour BX Bridgestone golf balls as opposed to the
Speaker 8: pro v one X. I mean, talk to me about that.
Speaker 8: And our audience doesn't know the technology, the sophistication of
Speaker 8: what goes into the production of the perfect golf ball.
Speaker 6: See Dan, you can tell who is the great golfer
Speaker 6: here among them.
Speaker 3: You know, it's interesting. We certainly we love Tiger playing
Speaker 3: our ball, and he plays a model called the Tour BX,
Speaker 3: and it's it's designed for his game. One of the
Speaker 3: things that makes us different. They talk about one model
Speaker 3: being the right model for everybody, that one size fits all.
Speaker 3: We've gone in a very different strategy, a very different
Speaker 3: offering to consumers where we talk about fitting and fitting
Speaker 3: the right golf ball to the right right golfer. You know,
Speaker 3: we don't all wear size extra large shirts or size
Speaker 3: twelve shoes, and we don't all play extra stiff shafts
Speaker 3: like the pros do on tour so why are we
Speaker 3: all playing the same golf ball? So bridge Stone popularized
Speaker 3: and really made it a brand position to talk about fitting,
Speaker 3: and so we take the characteristics of each individual golfer,
Speaker 3: incorporate that into the choice, and then recommend one of
Speaker 3: several different golf balls, not just the one size fits all.
Speaker 6: I want to mention something about Tiger Woods. Fifty years
Speaker 6: from now, is Tiger Woods going to be like the
Speaker 6: Chuck Taylor of sneakers?
Speaker 3: Absolutely, the Michael Jordan maybe I think he will be.
Speaker 3: I think his accomplishments are so far above and beyond
Speaker 3: what everybody else has been able to do. And you know,
Speaker 3: the only person that I think is measurable to him
Speaker 3: is Jack Nichols himself. But yeah, I think we'll be
Speaker 3: talking about Tiger Woods for a long long time and
Speaker 3: using him as a standard of measure of what the
Speaker 3: superstar looks like.
Speaker 9: Tiger Woods is one storyline when it comes to the
Speaker 9: world of golf. The other storyline, of course, is this
Speaker 9: possible live golf PGA merger, which I don't think we
Speaker 9: have any clarity on right now, even as.
Speaker 1: A PGA tour reached a deal with a group.
Speaker 9: Of billionaire sports team owners to get up to three
Speaker 9: billion dollars in into a new for profit entity, PGA
Speaker 9: Tour Enterprises. I mean, it's kind of just a big
Speaker 9: bundle of headlines that, at least for us, doesn't really
Speaker 9: clarify what's next. Clearly, there's a lot of movement, there's
Speaker 9: a lot of drama here. Is this drama between Live
Speaker 9: Golf and PGA good for your business? Bad for your business?
Speaker 3: Oh? I think a unified tour would be better for
Speaker 3: our business. I think it's a little distracting to have
Speaker 3: a separation of the best players in the world, some
Speaker 3: playing on one tour and some on another. So yeah,
Speaker 3: I think it would be better for our business if
Speaker 3: they got back together in some form or fashion. We've
Speaker 3: been watching it very very closely, and we've had players
Speaker 3: go in each direction. So yeah, we don't know what's
Speaker 3: going to happen next, but we're anxious for it to
Speaker 3: be resolved. For a unified golf tour featuring the best
Speaker 3: players in the world, we think would be better for everybody.
Speaker 8: Dan is March sixth circled on your calendar? I mean,
Speaker 8: because we all know that March sixth is when Full
Speaker 8: Swing Season two releases, right, and they caught a lot
Speaker 8: of last year's drama. And I'm just curious, you know,
Speaker 8: your thoughts on Netflix on Full Swing on Full Swing two.
Speaker 8: I mean, is this also good for the game of golf?
Speaker 3: Oh? Absolutely, I think it. There's a couple of things
Speaker 3: really working in golf's favor, and certainly the Netflix Full
Speaker 3: Swing is really a good one. You know, as it
Speaker 3: happened with Formula One, it really broadened the audience base
Speaker 3: and got a lot more diversity and a lot more
Speaker 3: eyeballs on the sports. So I think that's gonna gonna
Speaker 3: help a lot as well. I think also this whole
Speaker 3: activity of off course golf is really helping off course golf,
Speaker 3: meaning top golf or simulator golf that that has become
Speaker 3: very very popular the last five or ten years, and
Speaker 3: I think that's acted as a feeder system to to
Speaker 3: really keep golf going in a big way and nourish
Speaker 3: our our participation numbers in a very positive way.
Speaker 6: I want to talk more about that, about the simulated
Speaker 6: golf in all the facilities that have something like that,
Speaker 6: because the technology in golf today is totally different than
Speaker 6: what it was even twenty thirty years ago. All I
Speaker 6: knew about golf back then was well, it's a little
Speaker 6: white ball and it's round, and that's it. Now you
Speaker 6: have everything to break down your swing. And I'm not
Speaker 6: talking about just a video. I'm talking about all of
Speaker 6: the AI involved with trying to get your game better.
Speaker 6: Where do you see the future of AI taking golf.
Speaker 3: We're using it in ball fitting. I talked a little
Speaker 3: bit about ball fitting, and we have an AI application
Speaker 3: that we think is pretty cool where a golfer can
Speaker 3: come in and interact with our AI program and input
Speaker 3: what's important to them relative to the formans of golf ball,
Speaker 3: some of their characteristics of how they swing, and hey,
Speaker 3: I will give them back a recommendation. So what we're
Speaker 3: doing is we're using AI to help educate consumers about
Speaker 3: ball fitting and getting the right ball for their game. So,
Speaker 3: you know, I think I think it can be a help.
Speaker 3: I think we're all trying to figure out AI, not
Speaker 3: only in the golf space, but but across our our
Speaker 3: overall company.
Speaker 6: See that's why I'm afraid of AI. I'm sure it's
Speaker 6: going to come back.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 6: Giving my input is like you suck bar because you
Speaker 6: can't swing.
Speaker 8: Diddley Squad and you know, going back to things, I mean,
Speaker 8: talk to us about you know, international expansion. Talk to
Speaker 8: about what Live means, you know, I mean, you see
Speaker 8: you see tournaments now in places like Singapore and Asia.
Speaker 8: You know, talk to us a little bit about the
Speaker 8: international expansion, what that means for you what that means
Speaker 8: for Bridgestone.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for Bridgetone, we're you know, we're excited about international.
Speaker 3: We're Tokyo based. We're riding a wave of golf participation
Speaker 3: increases all across the across the globe, particularly in Asia.
Speaker 3: Korea has been a great, great market for US. Japan
Speaker 3: we're number one in Japan in terms of market share,
Speaker 3: and then Europe has been very good for US as well. So,
Speaker 3: you know, we see golf growing in popularity, live or
Speaker 3: not live. I don't know if we credit Live with
Speaker 3: bringing golf to new locations. I don't know that yet,
Speaker 3: But I know that golf is surging in popularity. And
Speaker 3: you know, the US market is by far the biggest
Speaker 3: Market's about fifty percent of the global market, and it
Speaker 3: really sets the stage and sets the tone for the
Speaker 3: rest of the world. And so as the US has
Speaker 3: taken off, the rest of the markets are taken off
Speaker 3: as well, so we're excited about that.
Speaker 9: And when it comes to that growth, I want to
Speaker 9: go back to something you said, which was the off
Speaker 9: course golf, the idea of just going to the driving
Speaker 9: range or simulated golf. Can you give us a breakdown
Speaker 9: of what the growth looks like in off course golf
Speaker 9: versus traditional golf on course golf, and how much of
Speaker 9: your market is in off course golf.
Speaker 3: Well, we're totally on course, so think about the mark
Speaker 3: in terms of off course participation and on course participation.
Speaker 3: And I just happen to have some new numbers from MGF,
Speaker 3: that's one of the industry groups, and they talk about
Speaker 3: there being thirty three million US golfers that play off course.
Speaker 3: That means top golf or simulator golf, so thirty three million.
Speaker 3: They talk about twenty seven million people playing en course golf,
Speaker 3: and there's some overlap between those two groups, but the
Speaker 3: actual number of people playing off course golf is greater
Speaker 3: now and growing more rapidly. And before the pandemic, let's see,
Speaker 3: I've got a cool staff here. The off course business
Speaker 3: is up forty one percent versus twenty nineteen before the pandemic,
Speaker 3: So a lot of big change in behavior. And you know,
Speaker 3: us traditional we make golf balls. Bridgetone Golf makes golf balls,
Speaker 3: and so we're mostly interested in people getting out onto
Speaker 3: a green grass golf course and playing and hitting those
Speaker 3: balls in the woods so we can replace them, right.
Speaker 3: So it's interesting because at first, when the off course
Speaker 3: business started to really take off, some of us traditionalists
Speaker 3: were worried about it. We said, oh my gosh, there's
Speaker 3: only so many golf dollars going around. From a consumer perspective,
Speaker 3: are these guys going to take golf time and money
Speaker 3: away from us? And the answer has clearly been no.
Speaker 3: It's become a feeder system, almost an entry point for
Speaker 3: golfers to you know, if you go to Top Golf
Speaker 3: one of the restaurants or so, you can have a
Speaker 3: beer and hit some golf balls in a very friendly
Speaker 3: environment with your family or your friends, and that makes
Speaker 3: you more likely to come out and experience green grass golf,
Speaker 3: which is where we benefit well.
Speaker 6: Dan, the way I drive, I've sliced too many tires,
Speaker 6: but that's another story in a new show altogether. Dan Murphy,
Speaker 6: President and CEO of Bridgestone Golf, Thank you so much, sir,
Speaker 6: for joining us on the Bloomberg Business of Sports. We
Speaker 6: really do appreciate it well.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having me. Is a great
Speaker 3: honor to be on Bloomberg.
Speaker 6: This has been the Bloomberg Business of Sports show. Our
Speaker 6: special things to Bloomberg News, Kim bessin, Bloomberg Originals, Jason Kelly,
Speaker 6: and Bridgestone Golf President and CEO Dan Murphy for joining
Speaker 6: us on the program this week, and thank you for
Speaker 6: tuning in. Remember to check our the Deal with Jason
Speaker 6: Kelly and Alex Rodriguez. It's out now streaming on Bloomberg Originals,
Speaker 6: and you can also listen to the podcast by going
Speaker 6: to Bloomberg dot com or on any of your favorite
Speaker 6: streaming platforms. Forris Scarlett fou and Damien Sassaur, I'm Michael Barr.
Speaker 6: Thanks again for joining us. Tune in again next week
Speaker 6: for the latest on the stories moving big old money
Speaker 6: in the world of sports. You're listening the Bloomberg Business
Speaker 6: of Sports Bloomberg Radio around the world.