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Speaker 1: This is the business of sports. Let's talk Super Bowl

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Speaker 1: and Fox Sports guarantee money isn't necessarily guaranteed. One Major

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Speaker 1: League soccer owner is leading out fifty billion dollar investment,

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Speaker 1: bloring of the lines between sports team owners and the

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Speaker 1: sports gambling space. How high can these valuations go? Evan,

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Speaker 1: nobody will you off the field? The NBA has never

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Speaker 1: been buzzier. And the leaders in the sports industry, Major

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Speaker 1: League Baseball Commission to Rob Manfred Idy O'Neill is President

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Speaker 1: of Director Consumer in that game, then the race card

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Speaker 1: driver Eliot Caster and Evs Jared Smith, president of Ticketmaster.

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio. Hello, I'm Evan,

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Speaker 1: Nobby Williams, and I'm Michael barn This is the Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: Business of Sports podcast where we explore the big money

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Speaker 1: issues in the world of sports. And I'm sorry I

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Speaker 1: started laughing because well, Taiwan has started their baseball season

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Speaker 1: and uh and other sports are trying to get it going.

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Speaker 1: So but the stands are empty of people, but they

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Speaker 1: have an idea. So there are a lot of cardboard

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Speaker 1: cutouts and mannequins in the stands. Because it fooled me, Okay,

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Speaker 1: I found real people. I just thought, you know, hey,

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Speaker 1: this needed a hot dog or two, and they were

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Speaker 1: good to go. But you know what, I guess for

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Speaker 1: the TV shot, that's not bad. It's funny. Yeah. The

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Speaker 1: you know, as we as we start to think about,

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Speaker 1: you know, what sports around the world are going to

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Speaker 1: look like in the next five or six months, if

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Speaker 1: they are indeed happening, you know, it seems likely that

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Speaker 1: there's gonna be sports, at least in some places that

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Speaker 1: don't have fans. There already are as you mentioned Taiwan

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Speaker 1: baseball as an example, and teams are starting to think about, hey,

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Speaker 1: what do we do? You know, maybe fun, you know,

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Speaker 1: keep people engaged. Another one this this German soccer club,

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Speaker 1: and I'm going to butcher the name, so I apologize

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Speaker 1: in advance. But Porussia Montchell glod Back something like that.

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Speaker 1: They if you want to take a shout out and

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Speaker 1: go for it. Um. They are allowing fans to buy

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Speaker 1: cardboard cutouts that will essentially look like them, essentially like

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Speaker 1: full body cardboard cutouts, so it can look like they're

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Speaker 1: you know, they're in the stand supporting their team whenever

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Speaker 1: those games get back up and running, which I think

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Speaker 1: is both funny and also a fantastic idea. You know,

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Speaker 1: teams right now need to figure out ways to keep

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Speaker 1: their fans engaged at a time when games aren't happening,

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Speaker 1: or when they can't go to games themselves. And little

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Speaker 1: things like this, which probably don't cost a particular ton

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Speaker 1: of money to get off the ground, probably doesn't take

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Speaker 1: too many people to figure it out. Things like this

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Speaker 1: actually can make a difference in the aggregate if you

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Speaker 1: can do more of them. It's interesting the time one deal. Uh,

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Speaker 1: when you see the cardboard cutouts, you see people in sunglasses,

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Speaker 1: and then you see people in masks, so it's I

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Speaker 1: mean this is yeah, I mean this is is. And

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Speaker 1: the idea with the with the German Club, it's that's

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Speaker 1: a very good idea. It's like if you could just

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Speaker 1: send in a picture yourself and they can you know,

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Speaker 1: reproduce it and have it set up to where there

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Speaker 1: you are in section eight or wherever. Man It's it's good.

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Speaker 1: It's a great idea, absolutely. And you know we've seen

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Speaker 1: in the past, you know a lot of teams when

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Speaker 1: they're building new you know, new stadiums or new arenas,

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Speaker 1: they'll do, you know, engrave little bricks with people's names

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Speaker 1: for people who you know supported them season ticket holders

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Speaker 1: during the time of transition. You know, little things like

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Speaker 1: that I think should be in hyper drive right now,

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Speaker 1: because again, you know, people are looking for some kind

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Speaker 1: of connection to the teams that they love, and the

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Speaker 1: way most people get that connection is by watching games,

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Speaker 1: and they can't do that right now, So you know,

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Speaker 1: little things on social media, things like cardboard cutouts and stands.

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Speaker 1: You know, I think we're starting to see a little

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Speaker 1: more of it, but I still think that that most

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Speaker 1: teams really around the world, but especially here in the US,

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Speaker 1: you know, this should be the number one goal for

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Speaker 1: people who are you know, working in working on on

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Speaker 1: the franchise side right now. For NBA, NFL, MLB, and

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Speaker 1: NHL teams. It should be doing little things like this

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Speaker 1: that can keep fans reminded, you know, both emotionally and

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Speaker 1: in the front of their mind that oh, I like

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Speaker 1: this team, I root for this team. And when whenever

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Speaker 1: it is that these games picked back up, um, I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna be right there supporting them again. And that's the

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Speaker 1: fun side of it. Now, it moved to the next

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Speaker 1: topic of it, where President Trump is has a console

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Speaker 1: about opening up the country, which involves including sports. Now,

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Speaker 1: this brings up an important question. Are we ever going

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Speaker 1: to see the way we used to watch sports, you know,

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Speaker 1: crowded stadium ever? Again, I just wonder it's it's a

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Speaker 1: good question, and these are the people that are going

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Speaker 1: to be having those conversations you mentioned. You mentioned President

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Speaker 1: Trump's Opening the Country Council. You know, a lot of

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Speaker 1: business leader is in there, Jamie Diamond, Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg,

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Speaker 1: and also a lot of sports leaders, you know, the

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Speaker 1: commissioners of all the major US leagues. Somehow Mark Emmert,

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Speaker 1: the president of the n c a A, did not

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Speaker 1: get the call to this one either. I don't know

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Speaker 1: if there's something going on there or if it's just coincidence,

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Speaker 1: but he was not on the phone call that Trump

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Speaker 1: had two weeks ago either. Um and then a few

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Speaker 1: owners as well, Robert Kraft, who you know we know

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Speaker 1: has a has a close relationship with Donald Trump. I

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Speaker 1: believe Jerry Jones and Mark Cuban also mentioned as well.

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Speaker 1: I mean, my takeaway from from this is that it

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Speaker 1: seems very clear that both the president and the powers

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Speaker 1: that be within the US sports enterprise are aligned and

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Speaker 1: they're feeling that, you know, as part of whatever it

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Speaker 1: looks like as the country reopens and whenever it happens

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Speaker 1: in a way that is safe, everybody in that kind

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Speaker 1: of cadre wants sports to be a principal part of

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Speaker 1: that equation, right. So, you're seeing a lot of conversations

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Speaker 1: from local politicians. We're seeing even some scientists that are

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Speaker 1: presenting data that that maybe throw some cold water on

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Speaker 1: the idea that sports maybe shouldn't come back or certainly

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Speaker 1: shouldn't have fans in the near term. However, it seems

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Speaker 1: very clear that at the top, top levels, everybody has

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Speaker 1: aligned interests, and those aligned interests are to get sports

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Speaker 1: back up and running in some capacity, with or without

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Speaker 1: fans in stadiums or somewhere else. Figure out a way

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Speaker 1: to do it that they're up and running, because everybody

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Speaker 1: seems to feel like it is critically important for the

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Speaker 1: way that the country comes out of this lockdown. We

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Speaker 1: were talking about this earlier, Uh, Charlie Volmer, extraordinaire producer

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Speaker 1: and engineer, and I wish you had a mike. You

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Speaker 1: can come on in on this because you brought this up.

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Speaker 1: If even if you decide to play all the baseball

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Speaker 1: games in Arizona. Now it seems like a great idea,

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Speaker 1: or at least has some merit. But what happens if

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Speaker 1: you have a weak link involved. What happens if the

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Speaker 1: wife of the groundskeeper, you know, has the virus and

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Speaker 1: then it's spread on that way? This is what I

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Speaker 1: worry about until we have a vaccine, what's going to happen. No,

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Speaker 1: it's absolutely it's and it's a great point. And you

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Speaker 1: think about the outcry even on this show. We talked

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Speaker 1: about it the last couple of weeks, the outcry about

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Speaker 1: UFC's event that they wanted to hold in California over

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Speaker 1: the weekend next weekend. Um, you have seeken hold of

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Speaker 1: an event, a full event with about fifty people involved total.

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Speaker 1: You know, there's essentially fifty baseball players period in a

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Speaker 1: baseball game, let alone the other twenty eight teams that

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Speaker 1: you need to move to a certain location, let alone

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Speaker 1: the coaches, the managers, the umpires, the people who are

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Speaker 1: filming the thing. You know, if people were uncomfortable about

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Speaker 1: the idea of a UFC event happening, all of these

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Speaker 1: major sports leagues are a much much bigger enterprise and

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Speaker 1: for the exact point that you just made. Also, you know,

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Speaker 1: if one week link is all it takes, you know,

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Speaker 1: the likelihood is exponentially higher when you're talking about a

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Speaker 1: group of a thousand people versus a group of fifty people.

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Speaker 1: Uh So, yes, I think it is. Obviously. The major

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Speaker 1: concern is that even if they do get this thing

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Speaker 1: up and running in a way that that that scientists

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Speaker 1: feel is is safe and politicians and everyone involved feel

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Speaker 1: is safe, they are still theoretically one Rudy Gobert away

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Speaker 1: from having to set the whole thing down for for

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Speaker 1: for a week or two. And I think that that

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Speaker 1: is probably the thing that really concerned. If you're Adam Silver,

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Speaker 1: if you're Gary Bettman, if you're someone who is actually

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Speaker 1: you know, making decisions at some point in the next

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Speaker 1: few weeks or months about you know, what this looks

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Speaker 1: like when we actually do resume. I think that's the

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Speaker 1: great fear. The great fear is that you do all

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Speaker 1: this work, you get people ready, you know, you get

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Speaker 1: up and running for a little bit, suddenly one one

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Speaker 1: little thing sneaks through the cracks, and then all of

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Speaker 1: a sudden, you know you're back to kind of square

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Speaker 1: one again. And I think that's the big fear for

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Speaker 1: fans and for executives as well. Tilman for Teva, the

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Speaker 1: owner of the Houston Rockets, a billionaire of course with

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Speaker 1: many other ventures. Uh. He just recently said that for

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Speaker 1: now he still has his entire of your staff and

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Speaker 1: uh with the Rockets, and that's a good thing. Uh.

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Speaker 1: But eventually, if you're not making any money, uh, somehow,

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Speaker 1: it's going to be hard to sustain that. But for

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Speaker 1: right now, because of the business model that he used, uh,

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Speaker 1: he is able to keep all of his staff. So

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Speaker 1: salute to Mr Tilman Fatida. I'm glad you bring him up, Michael,

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Speaker 1: because if I mean, if I think about off the

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Speaker 1: top of my head about the owners in the big

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Speaker 1: four U S sports leagues, he's one of the ones

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Speaker 1: who I would think financially might be in the biggest,

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Speaker 1: you know, the biggest quagmire right now. You know, the

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Speaker 1: rest of his businesses is you know, it's casino properties,

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Speaker 1: it's restaurants, you know, it's all the things that are

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Speaker 1: right now essentially making zero dollars because of you know,

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Speaker 1: the lack the social distancing and the lack of kind

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Speaker 1: of physical interaction happening in public right now. So, you know,

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Speaker 1: kudos to him for figuring out a way to you know,

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Speaker 1: keep those people intact. But I think he is a

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Speaker 1: kind of a perfect example of kind of the ticking

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Speaker 1: time bomb in some ways that I think, you know, owners,

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Speaker 1: certainly it's of smaller leagues, but I think at some

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Speaker 1: point soon owners at you know, big clubs like the

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Speaker 1: Houston Rockets are eventually going to start feeling Finally, Uh,

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Speaker 1: we have to talk about Kyle Larson, NASCAR driver. And

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Speaker 1: I thought about this for quite a while on how

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Speaker 1: I was going to approach this. Then let me explain

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Speaker 1: to people what has happened Sunday. Uh, there was a

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Speaker 1: and and an internet race that Kyle Larson was taking

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Speaker 1: part of. Many of the other NASCAR drivers have done

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Speaker 1: this as well. And during the chat he used the

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Speaker 1: N word and it was on a hot microphone and

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Speaker 1: this went over, Uh about a million people heard it. Uh. Well,

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Speaker 1: right after that, obviously there was gonna be a reaction

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Speaker 1: to it. Uh. He lost his two major sponsors. He

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Speaker 1: lost McDonald's, you lost credit one, NASCAR suspended him, and

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Speaker 1: then Chip Gnassy Racing fired him. And when I'm what

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Speaker 1: I'm trying to get at is why would you use

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Speaker 1: that word in the first place, And more importantly, especially

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Speaker 1: for a sport that has had a history of racial problems.

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Speaker 1: I mean back forty fifty years ago, you you you

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Speaker 1: would see uh, Darlington, you'd see the Confederate flag. Uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, you see Johnny Rebb coming up, and you'd

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Speaker 1: see all this and and listen, I was a fan

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Speaker 1: years ago. And and for lack of a better turn,

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Speaker 1: term is like, all right, I know what I'm getting into.

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Speaker 1: I understand it. But I still accept the sport because

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Speaker 1: I'm a native Detroitter. This is where we built the cars.

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Speaker 1: But now you're talking about a young man seven years

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Speaker 1: old who took part in the diversity program in NASCAR.

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Speaker 1: He uh is my racial Japanese American And then this happens. This,

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Speaker 1: I can't even explain the enormity of this. If you

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Speaker 1: want to call it a mistake, we're gonna call this

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Speaker 1: a mistake. But this, this is just not a word

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Speaker 1: that's just on the tip of your tongue. Michael, you

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Speaker 1: mentioned kind of the backlash that happened fairly fairly quickly,

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Speaker 1: you know, sponsors dropping, you know, overnight, and within two days,

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Speaker 1: Kyle was both suspended as a NASCAR driver and also

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Speaker 1: without a team because he was fired. I'm curious in

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Speaker 1: your opinion, you know, as someone who obviously that word

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Speaker 1: as a personal meaning, and also you know you're a

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Speaker 1: NASCAR fan, what do you think is the appropriate punishment here?

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Speaker 1: Is is he persona non grat forever in Nascar? Do

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Speaker 1: you think is if he pops up on another team

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Speaker 1: next year? Is that? Is that okay? Kind of what

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Speaker 1: do you think about, you know, Kyle Larson's future as

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Speaker 1: a as a driver? I look at it now, Well,

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Speaker 1: let me start the history. I'm gonna answer that question.

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Speaker 1: Let me start about the historical part about NASCAR. Wind

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Speaker 1: Dell Scott was the first full time African American driver

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Speaker 1: in NASCAR. In nineteen sixty four, he won a race

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Speaker 1: in Jacksonville, Florida, first time ever that a black man

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Speaker 1: won a race in NASCAR. Uh, the track did not

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Speaker 1: want to give him the victory because they were worried

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Speaker 1: about the beauty queen who was in the victory on

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Speaker 1: the victory stand, who was white, and they didn't want

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Speaker 1: to see window Scott kiss a white woman, you know,

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Speaker 1: at the end of the race. So they called another

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Speaker 1: driver as the winner, and it wasn't until everything was

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Speaker 1: all done, and then the crowds were all gone and

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Speaker 1: this and that whatever, and then they said, oh, well, yeah,

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Speaker 1: you won the race. He never got a chance to

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Speaker 1: celebrate it. And I bring this up because he was

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Speaker 1: a NASCAR driver and Kyle Larson should have known as

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Speaker 1: a young man the history of this and and why

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Speaker 1: this is just a horrible set back for NASCAR. So

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Speaker 1: when I see Kyle, I mean, he's gonna have to

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Speaker 1: do obviously, if he wants to get back into this,

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Speaker 1: He's gonna have to do an apology tour. He's you know,

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Speaker 1: he's gonna have to to do a lot to earn

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Speaker 1: my trust back. And I'm speaking personally for me, M yeah.

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Speaker 1: And it's too bad because this this young man was

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Speaker 1: probably going to take over the Jimmy Johnson ride at

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Speaker 1: the end of this season, you know. And and now

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna look if I see him in a car,

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Speaker 1: I'm like, have you learned from this? No? Yeah? Those

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Speaker 1: are those are all great points and and and another

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Speaker 1: thing that I was kind of thinking about as as I,

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Speaker 1: you know, wrote about this this week. And I'll choose

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Speaker 1: my words carefully here because I don't want to make

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Speaker 1: it make anyone think that I am in any ways

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Speaker 1: making excuses for Kyle. I do wonder if this this

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Speaker 1: new world in which athletes specifically are being you know,

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Speaker 1: are broadcasting live competing from the comfort of their own couches,

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Speaker 1: competing from their own homes with a hot mic on

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Speaker 1: kind as they do it, um, if there is increased

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Speaker 1: sensitivity that athletes and brands are gonna need to address

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Speaker 1: as a result of that. You know that there's a

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Speaker 1: reason why, you know, the NFL doesn't mike every player

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Speaker 1: on the on the field of play during games, as

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Speaker 1: much as fans may want it and media networks might

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Speaker 1: want it, you know, players would never in the league

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Speaker 1: would never allow for that. You know, I think there's

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Speaker 1: increased sensitivity. And and and Bubba Watson, Bubba Wallace, who

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Speaker 1: we talked about two weeks ago, a NASCAR driver who

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Speaker 1: you know, lost a sponsor because he rage quit during

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Speaker 1: a game. You know, I don't want to loop him

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Speaker 1: and Larson directly together, but there are real world consequences

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Speaker 1: for what I think for a lot of people, athletes

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Speaker 1: can feel like less consequential scenarios because they're sitting, because

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Speaker 1: they're sitting at their homes and not necessarily in front

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Speaker 1: of a big camera at a press conference or in

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Speaker 1: front of a big media scrum with reporters and microphones

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Speaker 1: in their face. We'll see how this turns out for

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Speaker 1: Kyle Larson, and uh, definitely I'll have my eyes and

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Speaker 1: ears wide open on this. This has been a Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: Business of Sports podcast I Michael Barr along with Evan O.

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Speaker 1: W Williams. You can catch us Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays

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Speaker 1: as we talk to the biggest names in sports business.

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Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business of Sports on Bloomberg Radio

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