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Speaker 1: Global business news twenty four hours a day at Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: dot com, the Radio plus mobile app, and on your radio.

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Speaker 1: This is a Bloomberg Business Flash from Bloomberg World Headquarters.

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Speaker 1: I'm Charlie Pellet. Stocks are higher in This update is

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Speaker 1: brought to you by Sector Spider e t fs y

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Speaker 1: by a single stock. When you can invest in the

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Speaker 1: entire sector, visits sector sp d r S dot com

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Speaker 1: or call on six sector et F stocks are climbing.

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Speaker 1: His warm Buffet's bet on Apple sends the iphonemaker shares

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Speaker 1: rallying Apple up three forty six now to ninety three

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Speaker 1: dollars ninety nine cents. That is a game of three

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Speaker 1: point eight percent. Also, crude oil surging to a six

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Speaker 1: month high back about forty seven dollars a barrel. Crude

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Speaker 1: up a dollar forty two. West Texas Intermediate advancing by

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Speaker 1: three point one percent. Gold higher, Little changed up forty

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Speaker 1: cents now twelve seventy three twenty ounce, the Tenure down

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Speaker 1: fourteen thirty seconds, theal one point seven four percent. Dow

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Speaker 1: Industriels up one ninety nine again of one point one percent,

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Speaker 1: SMP five how did it Index? Up twenty two points

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Speaker 1: again also of one point one percent. I'm Charlie Pellatts,

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Speaker 1: and that's a Bloomberg business flash. You're listening to Taking

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Speaker 1: Stop with Kathleen and Pim Box on Bloomberg Radio. Our

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Speaker 1: next guest is a graduate of West Point. He served

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Speaker 1: as an Army airborne arranger in Germany, and he has

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Speaker 1: had a career in the automobile industry at Mercedes Benz.

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Speaker 1: In fact, he was part of a small team in

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Speaker 1: Germany that developed the plan for the brand's first SUV,

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Speaker 1: the m Class. Joining us now is Steve Cannon. He

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Speaker 1: is the chief executive of a m B group. Steve Cannon,

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Speaker 1: thank you very much for being here. That's great to

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Speaker 1: be here, all right. So I was a little coy

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Speaker 1: with the introduction because I think it's more appropriate for

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Speaker 1: you to tell people about your transition from working at

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Speaker 1: Mercedes Benz in Atlanta for now helping to run and

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Speaker 1: being the chief executive of a m B group. And

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Speaker 1: that means Atlanta Falcons. That also means MLS is Atlanta United,

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Speaker 1: as well as a new one point four billion dollar

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Speaker 1: Mercedes Benz Stadium. Tell us all about it, right, So

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Speaker 1: I just joined Arthur Blank. Arthur Blank, the founder of

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Speaker 1: Home depot. That's the A M B Group. Arthur M.

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Speaker 1: Blank and I run his for profit companies, which includes

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Speaker 1: the Falcons. That includes the new Mercedes ben Stadium, Atlanta United,

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Speaker 1: a Mountain Sky ranch in Montana, and UH and the

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Speaker 1: PGA Tour superstore. So it's quite an interesting portfolio. So

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Speaker 1: tell us a bit about the stadium. It's quite a design,

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Speaker 1: so absolutely iconic design, right in the heart of Atlanta.

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Speaker 1: That was a that was the decision that said, you know,

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Speaker 1: while other stadiums move out into the suburbs where you've

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Speaker 1: got war control over land, we wanted to put the stadium,

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Speaker 1: which is an absolute iconic design, right in the heart

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Speaker 1: of Atlanta so that it could be accessible to this

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Speaker 1: bustling city. So UH the stadium, which will open in

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Speaker 1: June of next year, is a multi purpose stadium for

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Speaker 1: Atlanta United expansion franchise for MLS soccer. It's Atlanta Falcons,

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Speaker 1: obviously NFL football, and UH with its with its roof design.

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Speaker 1: If you could open the roof in about eight minutes,

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Speaker 1: UH will be ideal for concerts and all kinds of

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Speaker 1: alternative venues. Steve Cannon explain this strategy behind your food

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Speaker 1: and beverage operation that you're rolling out at Mercedes ben

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Speaker 1: Stadium in Atlanta. So really everything with the stadium starts

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Speaker 1: with the fan. Our aspiration for that stadium is that

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Speaker 1: it's going to set the global benchmark for fan experience.

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Speaker 1: One of the biggest pain points for fans is concessions,

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Speaker 1: UH and concession pricing sort of lousy equality at exorbitant prices,

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Speaker 1: and theonically feel like it's been taken advantage of. And

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Speaker 1: we want to take that business model and we wanted

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Speaker 1: to set it on its head, and this is what

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Speaker 1: we're launching today. It's essentially fan friendly pricing where the

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Speaker 1: price that you're gonna pay inside of the stadium is

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Speaker 1: not going to differ all that much from what you'd

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Speaker 1: pay at local counterparts around Atlanta. So two dollars for

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Speaker 1: a hot dog, three dollars first lights of pizza, two

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Speaker 1: dollars for a refillable twenty ounce coke or at the

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Speaker 1: Samni bottled water. Essentially, it's an opportunity to delight customers.

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Speaker 1: Once we've gotten them inside the building. You can even

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Speaker 1: purchase a Brot brought worst right, nice sausage and a

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Speaker 1: premium beer for under ten bucks. So yes, that does

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Speaker 1: seem competitive, and I'm it's kind of it's so brilliant

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Speaker 1: a way to me, like, why did anybody think of

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Speaker 1: this sooner? But so, how does it affect the franchise,

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Speaker 1: the revenues, the bottom line, because do you view this

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Speaker 1: as a dip in revenues that you're willing to sustain

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Speaker 1: because they'll make your fans happier, or do you think

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Speaker 1: there's a chance that happier fans plus lower prices will

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Speaker 1: equal a boost in sales so large that this will

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Speaker 1: actually be a profit maker. We're we're betting on the

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Speaker 1: fan here, We're betting on a on a bustling statement

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Speaker 1: that people stadium that people love to come to. And uh,

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Speaker 1: we think that the stadium pricing or the concession pricing,

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Speaker 1: that's just one piece of what will be a phenomenal experience.

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Speaker 1: But but ultimately we think it's gonna it's gonna absolutely

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Speaker 1: create a new demand model that instead of people waiting

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Speaker 1: outside of the stadium because they want to avoid being

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Speaker 1: gouged when they get in, they're gonna come into the

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Speaker 1: building earlier. And we expect it's hard to predict what

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Speaker 1: the bump in in demand is going to be but

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Speaker 1: we expect significant demand in in volume, which UM, given

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Speaker 1: the pricing, we think this could be a better revenue model.

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Speaker 1: Can you give us a hint of what it was

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Speaker 1: like being in meetings as the chief executive of Mercedes

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Speaker 1: Benz us A talking with Mr Blank about the possibility

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Speaker 1: of naming the stadium Mr Sadies ben Stadium. And when

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Speaker 1: you decided that you were going to jump to that position, Well,

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Speaker 1: it was interesting. I met I met Arthur and uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, he he's a Mercedes san He quotes the

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Speaker 1: Mercedes tagline consistently the best or nothing, and he said,

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Speaker 1: that's our aspirations for this stadium. So he felt a

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Speaker 1: kinship with the Mercedes Benz brand, you know. And as

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Speaker 1: we discussed you, as we we talked UM, Mercedes relocating

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Speaker 1: to Atlanta, looking to make a statement as they came in,

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Speaker 1: it was it was as if it was a perfect opportunity, uh,

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Speaker 1: intersection at the right place in the right time, as

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Speaker 1: Mercedes relocated their headquarters. UM, you know over time that

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Speaker 1: you know, that was a board decision that was made.

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Speaker 1: I came to UM appreciate respect, you know, Arthur and

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Speaker 1: his core values and and when he invited me to

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Speaker 1: consider taking over as CEO for his his companies. It

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Speaker 1: was what it was that once in a life time

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Speaker 1: opportunity that was too good to pass quickly. Specific questions,

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Speaker 1: how much roughly does a team might the Falcons making

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Speaker 1: concessions under the old pricing? How much do they project

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Speaker 1: to make under the new UH pricing? So so I

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Speaker 1: don't have those numbers, you know, my fingertips. We um

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Speaker 1: One thing I will tell you we did not sell

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Speaker 1: our concessions. So the typical revenue model is you sell

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Speaker 1: the concessions through concessionaire and they then have to make

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Speaker 1: it up over the length of the contract. We decided

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Speaker 1: not to do that. Our concessionaire is a service provider

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Speaker 1: that's eventually going to help us deliver a great product.

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Speaker 1: All right, Steve Cannon, that sounds like a great model.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so very much and for joining us. I'm

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Speaker 1: Kathleen Hayes along Pim Fox and this is taking Stock

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Speaker 1: on Bluebrig Radio. Coming up on taking Stock to Philadelphia

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Speaker 1: seventies six ars. They've become the first team in the

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Speaker 1: four major US sports to sell an ad on a jersey.

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Speaker 1: We're gonna find out more. That's next