Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Carol Masser, Tim Stedevick. Life here at Bloomberg invest in
Speaker 2: downtown New York City. So happening just a while ago
Speaker 2: right here at Bloomberg invest a live taping of the
Speaker 2: hit podcast The Deal with Alex Rodriguez and BLOOMBERGS Jason Kelly.
Speaker 2: They were sitting down with Alex Waxman, the CEO of
Speaker 2: Sixth Street. Alex Rodriguez, as you know, of course, chairman
Speaker 2: and CEO of A Rod Corp. He's also co owner
Speaker 2: of the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves and the WNBA's Minnesota Links,
Speaker 2: and he's a former three time American League MVP. But
Speaker 2: we all know that. How are you.
Speaker 3: I'm doing great, good to be here. Good to see
Speaker 3: you guys, Well, good to see you.
Speaker 2: Tell us a little bit about Alex Saxman and the
Speaker 2: taping for The Deal.
Speaker 3: Incredible story.
Speaker 4: I mean, his background, and he spent ten years at
Speaker 4: gold Masax and he basically ran a thirty billion dollar
Speaker 4: fund in which they can invest in any asset class,
Speaker 4: which really gave him a competitive advantage. He's now brought
Speaker 4: that over when he co founded sixth Street two thousand
Speaker 4: and nine. They have over one hundred million dollars in
Speaker 4: AUM and he's really deep in sports. He's done investments
Speaker 4: with all major leagues. He's done the San Francisco Giants baseball,
Speaker 4: He's done the Celtics and San Antonio Spurs in basketball.
Speaker 4: And he just bought a minority steak with Jonathan and
Speaker 4: Robert Kraft with the New England Patriots. Fascinating and great,
Speaker 4: great conversation.
Speaker 1: So I'm curious about the opportunities that he sees right now.
Speaker 1: And you know, obviously he's taking advantage of the new
Speaker 1: rules about being able to buy into different leagues, which
Speaker 1: is a whole conversation that we could have. But what
Speaker 1: really excites him when he looks forward, I.
Speaker 4: Think a few things. I think markets, depending on what team,
Speaker 4: what leagues, what league, the leadership of the three leagues.
Speaker 4: Fortunately for us we have you know, Adam Silver, Roger
Speaker 4: goodowin football, and Rob Manford all very established, very top
Speaker 4: tier commissioners.
Speaker 3: So all that's good for him.
Speaker 4: And I think when you look at the NFL, the
Speaker 4: combination of appreciation in cash flow is something that's very
Speaker 4: very unique in sports.
Speaker 3: You don't have usually both of those.
Speaker 4: So aggressively, so I think he's really concerned and not concerned.
Speaker 3: I would say this baseball is an interesting situation.
Speaker 4: I think baseball is the best opportunity to invest today.
Speaker 4: I'm a concern by nature, So I would invest right
Speaker 4: into the teeth of this collective bargain agreement. Why Because
Speaker 4: I think you can buy at very, very attractive multiples
Speaker 4: and you're making I think two very safe bets. One
Speaker 4: that the CBA will get better, not worse right, And
Speaker 4: the second one is that Rob Manford would take a
Speaker 4: page from Roger Goodell and consolidate all the regional sports
Speaker 4: rights and make it more into national rights, and you
Speaker 4: get an expansion of multiples.
Speaker 1: So will there be a labor stoppage after this season?
Speaker 3: I hope not.
Speaker 4: I don't know, but I've talked to members of both
Speaker 4: sides of the aisle and they have said meaning owners
Speaker 4: and players, and they're both dug in pretty pretty strong,
Speaker 4: so is what you're saying.
Speaker 3: So I don't know.
Speaker 1: Would that change your view on investing in baseball.
Speaker 4: No, I would invest in even heavilier into it because
Speaker 4: as you have more noise, as we've seen in the
Speaker 4: public markets in the last couple of days. You have
Speaker 4: volatility where you have apprehension, I think you have opportunity.
Speaker 3: And the multiples.
Speaker 4: If you could buy a baseball team in four or
Speaker 4: five multiple versus other sports that are trading in mid teens,
Speaker 4: I think that's an opportunity.
Speaker 2: Would the players ever agree to a salary cap? You think?
Speaker 3: I don't think so. I don't think so.
Speaker 4: But I think I don't want to comment into that
Speaker 4: because I have friends on both sides. But here's what
Speaker 4: I would say. It should be a mentality about grow
Speaker 4: the pie as big as possible. How you guys divide it.
Speaker 4: That's a separate conversation. Yeah, but you know, going back
Speaker 4: to Marvin Miller when he started the union for Major
Speaker 4: League Baseball, which has always been very, very strong and
Speaker 4: highly regarded and the owners, there's been a lot of
Speaker 4: conflict over the last five decades. So how do you
Speaker 4: bring it together to say, let's work together to grow
Speaker 4: the pie as big as possible.
Speaker 1: Why does it seem like baseball has the most issues
Speaker 1: with labor.
Speaker 4: I think it has a lot of Oh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: I mean the history is very strong. Marvin Miller was
Speaker 4: the head of the union, he started it. Then that
Speaker 4: went to Don Fear for many years is a great,
Speaker 4: great leader, and then Michael Wiener Tony Clark and now
Speaker 4: they have a different situation right now. But it's been
Speaker 4: that way tim since I was involved. I remember every
Speaker 4: time CBA came it was it was a battle and
Speaker 4: somehow or know you figured it out. But I will
Speaker 4: say that this is the most important year for baseball
Speaker 4: and labor talks in the history of the sport because
Speaker 4: of how many attractions we have out there between Netflix, YouTube, Bloomberg,
Speaker 4: you name it. There's just more assets that everyone's fighting
Speaker 4: for the consumer.
Speaker 1: So do you think about do you think about the
Speaker 1: collective bargaining differently now that you're an owner of a
Speaker 1: of a sports team.
Speaker 3: That's a great question.
Speaker 4: I think think overall, like ninety percent of my thoughts
Speaker 4: is still the same as you want the sport to
Speaker 4: be healthy, you wanted to grow, you wanted to collect
Speaker 4: more fan base, and you want millions of people watching
Speaker 4: every day because it is a great sport.
Speaker 3: And the World Series this year showed us that when.
Speaker 4: You have the right product, you have the right market,
Speaker 4: you have the right superstars in Vladimir Garrero Junior and
Speaker 4: Shohei o Tani, that you had fifty three million people
Speaker 4: watching when you include the US, Canada, and Japan, which
Speaker 4: to baseball still works.
Speaker 3: Yeah. And when there's a lot of noise, there's a
Speaker 3: lot of opportunity.
Speaker 2: So when you know you talked about, you're right, sports
Speaker 2: is vying for all of our attention with so many
Speaker 2: other things. So when you think about investing, how do
Speaker 2: you think about like, how does that play into where
Speaker 2: you want to commit some money?
Speaker 4: Well, you want to mote right, think about this. Take
Speaker 4: the NBA. If you're a real estate investor and there's
Speaker 4: only thirty beach front properties in the entire world, yeah, boy,
Speaker 4: you would look do anything to own one of those.
Speaker 3: So scarcity is a big deal.
Speaker 4: When you look at the TV deal that just was
Speaker 4: signed eleven years, when the first year of eleven years
Speaker 4: for seventy seven billion, that's something that is easy to underwrite,
Speaker 4: easy to understand. So you like to invest into that,
Speaker 4: you know. And then when you think about the global
Speaker 4: growth in the NBA, you know, twenty years ago there's
Speaker 4: probably less than three percent of the league was global athletes,
Speaker 4: meaning born outside of the US.
Speaker 3: Today that numbers ballooned to thirty five percent. Right when
Speaker 3: you look at Europe.
Speaker 4: Second most popular sport in Europe the NBA basketball and
Speaker 4: is a forty five billion annual business and we only
Speaker 4: own one percent of that. At the same time, you
Speaker 4: have four hundred million people playing basketball in China.
Speaker 3: Yeah, three hundred million playing in India.
Speaker 4: So the global scope, you can say from the American
Speaker 4: sports NBA could be number one.
Speaker 2: That's pretty impressive.
Speaker 1: We always love it. When we get to uh, let's
Speaker 1: talk to you a little bit, they're.
Speaker 2: Gonna yell up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we've got to go.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go thirty seconds. What's on your night table?
Speaker 2: What are you reading? Oh?
Speaker 3: You know what I do is I love podcasts, So
Speaker 3: you do?
Speaker 2: What do you listening?
Speaker 3: I love The Founders is one of my favorite.
Speaker 4: And uh, what's the one that I'm the one that's
Speaker 4: like three and a half hours I'm acquired. Acquired is fantastic.
Speaker 4: I love those guys. Three four hours, I love it.
Speaker 2: And how many hours are you watching Bloomberg?
Speaker 4: I watched it a lot, Okay, and you guys do
Speaker 4: a great work.
Speaker 2: But thank you you as well. Alex Rodriguez, chairman and
Speaker 2: CEO of A Rod Corp. And so much more, And
Speaker 2: of course check out the deal with Alex and of
Speaker 2: course Jason Kelly can find it on Bloomberg Originals