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BI Weekend: Best of Bloomberg Power Players · Bloomberg Intelligence

0:02
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News. This is Bloomberg Intelligence
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Speaker 1: with Alex Steinhl and Paul'sweenye.
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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Intelligence with Alex Steinha and Paul's Wheenie on Bloomberg Radio.
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Speaker 2: On this edition of Bloomberg Intelligence, we're bring you some
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Speaker 2: of the best conversations from our Bloomberg Power Players event
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Speaker 2: in New York, brought together some of the world's most
0:50
Speaker 2: influential voices in the business of sports.
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Speaker 3: Today, we'll look at weather we're set for a major
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Speaker 3: change in all areas of college sports.
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Speaker 2: Plus we'll discuss what comes next as women's soccer hits
1:01
Speaker 2: the mainstream.
1:02
Speaker 3: But first we're going to dive into a conversation with
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Speaker 3: David Rubinstein, co founder and co chairman of the Carlisle Group.
1:07
Speaker 3: He's also principal owner of the Baltimore Orioles, and he
1:10
Speaker 3: was joined by Cal Ripken, Junior Baseball Hall of Famer
1:13
Speaker 3: and founder and partner of Bripkeen Baseball.
1:16
Speaker 2: They discussed their connection to the Orioles and the city
1:18
Speaker 2: of Baltimore.
1:19
Speaker 3: First, we asked David why he even bought the Baltimore Orioles.
1:22
Speaker 5: Well, in this case, I grew up in Baltimore, and
1:25
Speaker 5: I wanted to give back to Baltimore a bit, and
1:26
Speaker 5: I thought the team could maybe use rejuvenation in some way,
1:30
Speaker 5: and it's part of rebirth of Baltimore. Baltimore is trying
1:33
Speaker 5: to rebuild itself in many ways from some of the
1:36
Speaker 5: struggles it's had. I thought a new ownership group would
1:38
Speaker 5: probably be helpful, so I did it for that reason.
1:40
Speaker 5: And obviously I hope to make money as well for
1:42
Speaker 5: myself and my investors, but it's more of a philanthropic
1:45
Speaker 5: thing on my part than anything else.
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Speaker 2: And Alex he's got a few partners there, including mister
1:51
Speaker 2: Bloomberg who owns this radio program.
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Speaker 6: Ah, how about that? How about that?
1:56
Speaker 2: Secular forces exactly all comes back together. Cal talked to
1:59
Speaker 2: us about the Oriel boy man, I'm a Yankee stin
2:02
Speaker 2: So I'm looking at them every day.
2:04
Speaker 6: Man name look good. Tell us about this team.
2:06
Speaker 7: It's an exciting young team to watch, talent all over
2:10
Speaker 7: the place. We've had little problems with injuries and our
2:12
Speaker 7: pitching staff, but when you have a deeper minor league system,
2:16
Speaker 7: sometimes when somebody gets hurt, you can it's an opportunity
2:19
Speaker 7: for someone else. So they're playing really well, and it's
2:22
Speaker 7: interesting when many owners come in to buy a team,
2:25
Speaker 7: the thing they have to fix is what's happening on
2:27
Speaker 7: the field. In our particular case, that's the best part
2:30
Speaker 7: about the investment is that Michaelias has done a really
2:34
Speaker 7: good job of creating an environment of culture that knows
2:38
Speaker 7: how to win, knows how to play, and he's put
2:40
Speaker 7: talent in the system. So the good part is you
2:43
Speaker 7: just take your hands off of and say just keep
2:45
Speaker 7: going and hopefully the luck factor with David will in
2:49
Speaker 7: the very first year will take that all the way
2:51
Speaker 7: to the World Series.
2:51
Speaker 3: That's a really dumb question. Yes, why is investing in
2:55
Speaker 3: sports like a good business? And I say that because
2:57
Speaker 3: at some point we're going to reach the top, Right,
2:59
Speaker 3: there's so much money coming in. How do you know that?
3:02
Speaker 5: Well, over the last ten or fifteen years, it's been
3:05
Speaker 5: very difficult for somebody to buy a major league professional
3:08
Speaker 5: sport operation and lose money. People have made staggering sums. Now,
3:13
Speaker 5: of course that tends to tract more money, and as
3:15
Speaker 5: you suggest, at some point there's always a peak. But
3:18
Speaker 5: right now, the interest in sports is so dynamic that
3:23
Speaker 5: the live television despite your view in my view that
3:26
Speaker 5: live television should focus on interview shows, actually it focuses
3:30
Speaker 5: on live sports, and live sports is what's keeping television
3:33
Speaker 5: alive really. So if you take a look at the NFL,
3:36
Speaker 5: for example, I think of the fifty most watched television
3:39
Speaker 5: shows last year, forty five of them were NFL games.
3:44
Speaker 5: And now baseball sees a lot of people as a
3:47
Speaker 5: lot of people watching as well, so there's a view
3:49
Speaker 5: that the population increases and as other things seem to
3:52
Speaker 5: be less attractive, sports is still very, very attractive, and
3:55
Speaker 5: so the TV contracts are going up and as a result,
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Speaker 5: for example, the NBA just negotiated seventy seven billion dollars
4:02
Speaker 5: worth of contracts. It's expected in two years that the
4:05
Speaker 5: NFL will top that number. So that's what is driving
4:09
Speaker 5: and also it's a global phenomenon that people now are
4:11
Speaker 5: buying sports teams not only in their own country but
4:14
Speaker 5: everywhere in the world. And so it's really not just
4:17
Speaker 5: a US phenomenon.
4:18
Speaker 7: So can I have a simple All you have to
4:20
Speaker 7: do is to look at the health of sports is
4:23
Speaker 7: to look at the salaries of the players. Yeah, and
4:25
Speaker 7: I guess I'd become one of those players saying, Man,
4:27
Speaker 7: I wish i'd played in.
4:28
Speaker 2: This always goes up. I mean, I'm like everybody else.
4:33
Speaker 2: It's got a top out somewhere, yet it just keeps
4:36
Speaker 2: going higher. Cal how has the game on the field
4:39
Speaker 2: changed the kids today that you watch at Canbin Yards still,
4:43
Speaker 2: by the way, I would argue one of the best
4:45
Speaker 2: parks in Major League Baseball twenty five years on. But
4:48
Speaker 2: how's the game changed today versus when when you played well?
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Speaker 7: I mean, the analytics have taken over and all the
4:53
Speaker 7: data and all the information. And I was an analytical
4:56
Speaker 7: player and I took the data from but there's no
4:58
Speaker 7: way that I was getting all the sort of data
5:00
Speaker 7: that you can get now. And the trick is, and
5:03
Speaker 7: this is the fun part about learning the game hasn't
5:06
Speaker 7: changed much because the diamonds the same, the bases are
5:09
Speaker 7: the same, the mounds the same, the game is played
5:11
Speaker 7: the same way. But with all this influx of new data,
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Speaker 7: teams feel that they have an advantage when they extract
5:18
Speaker 7: some of the data and then use that to help
5:20
Speaker 7: them play in the game. But the secret is how
5:22
Speaker 7: do you give the data to a player to make
5:24
Speaker 7: them a better player. And that's the part that I'm
5:27
Speaker 7: having fun with is learning what the data affects the
5:30
Speaker 7: philosophy of how you play the game, and that's changed
5:34
Speaker 7: and positioning on the field. You know, different old philosophies
5:38
Speaker 7: have kind of gone out the window because they've been
5:40
Speaker 7: proven not to be effective. So it's interesting to watch
5:43
Speaker 7: the game from that perspective. But it is all about
5:45
Speaker 7: the data. The numbers they track everything that moves on
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Speaker 7: that field.
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Speaker 6: It's amazing and that's AI.
5:50
Speaker 2: That's big data coming into sports and ouse I'm sure
5:52
Speaker 2: you know this, but I mean, just cal has he
5:55
Speaker 2: has a little record out there.
5:56
Speaker 6: He played a lot of games in a row.
5:58
Speaker 2: He never took a day off like That's that is
6:01
Speaker 2: something that just it'll never be broken down.
6:04
Speaker 7: I wish I was wearing probes or something that could
6:07
Speaker 7: figure out how I could do that because I'm asking
6:09
Speaker 7: all the time, how in the world you play all
6:10
Speaker 7: those games in a row, and I don't know.
6:12
Speaker 2: Well, I guess my question would be with the analytics,
6:15
Speaker 2: that's never going to happen again, not even a close.
6:17
Speaker 7: Well, I think they're predicting now, at least in a
6:20
Speaker 7: medical sort of way, when that you might be inclined
6:23
Speaker 7: to have an injury, you know, and so if they
6:25
Speaker 7: start to think that you might have an injury, then
6:27
Speaker 7: they put you on the list a little early, the
6:30
Speaker 7: injury list a little early, and they're they're looking at
6:32
Speaker 7: the long term as the short term.
6:34
Speaker 3: But I don't know if that's a good thing or
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Speaker 3: bad thing.
6:38
Speaker 7: There's the one thing that's hard to measure is what's
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Speaker 7: inside your heart, your guts, and how you go out
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Speaker 7: about playing the game, how you compete. That's not measurable
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Speaker 7: right now. And I think that's what drove me is
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Speaker 7: when you're an everyday player. The definition of an everyday
6:51
Speaker 7: player when I played was every day I had the
6:54
Speaker 7: body type in which to do what. I healed really
6:57
Speaker 7: well and I could play through pain. And when you
7:01
Speaker 7: find out that you can play through being less than
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Speaker 7: one hundred percent, because I would argue that even if
7:06
Speaker 7: you play one hundred and forty games, you're still playing
7:08
Speaker 7: at less than one hundred percent. Maybe the only time
7:10
Speaker 7: you're one hundred percent is the first day of spring training, right,
7:12
Speaker 7: and then you end up moving towards the year. So
7:16
Speaker 7: that's the hard part where that's not measurable.
7:19
Speaker 8: Yep.
7:19
Speaker 7: And I like to see players that push through and
7:22
Speaker 7: force themselves to play every game to see too.
7:24
Speaker 2: You see that you don't see that too much anymore, Hey, David,
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Speaker 2: And aside from the Orioles, you've got a day job here,
7:30
Speaker 2: co founder, co chairman of the Carlisle Group.
7:33
Speaker 6: Perfect time to ask you this question.
7:35
Speaker 2: I know you bought the Orioles as an individual's part
7:37
Speaker 2: of a partnership right now, private equity. The NFL has
7:40
Speaker 2: allowed private equity crime in as part ownership.
7:43
Speaker 6: What do you think about that.
7:45
Speaker 5: Well, Carlisle is one of the groups that's permitted, so yes,
7:49
Speaker 5: I think that it was inevitable because the prices of
7:52
Speaker 5: NFL teams are going on so much that it's very
7:53
Speaker 5: difficult to find somebody by himself or herself who can
7:57
Speaker 5: buy a team anymore longer. The last team that was sold,
8:00
Speaker 5: Washington Commanders, went for six billion dollars. It's a large
8:03
Speaker 5: amount of money. Very few people can buy that by themselves.
8:06
Speaker 5: You need to have consortium of people to do this,
8:08
Speaker 5: and private equity is a big pot of capital sitting there.
8:11
Speaker 5: But the deals are ones where you have to be
8:13
Speaker 5: ten percent, no involvement in the day to day management,
8:17
Speaker 5: and you have to hold for at least six years.
8:19
Speaker 5: So NFL's experimental will see how it goes.
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Speaker 3: So Kel, you have had minor league investments, but this
8:26
Speaker 3: is the first time that both of you have had
8:27
Speaker 3: major league investments. How did this come about? Like, how
8:30
Speaker 3: did the partnership come about?
8:31
Speaker 6: Has it going well?
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Speaker 5: The owner of the team for the last thirty years
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Speaker 5: was the Angelo's family. I had talked to them over
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Speaker 5: last summer about a possible sale and it came to be.
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Speaker 5: But I wanted to have people in the consortium that
8:47
Speaker 5: were more connected to Baltimore and baseball than maybe I was.
8:51
Speaker 5: I hadn't grown up in Baltimore, but I haven't lived
8:53
Speaker 5: there for a while. So I talked to a number
8:54
Speaker 5: of people in Baltimore and some of the people who
8:57
Speaker 5: are also connected with the Oriels, and obviously the first
8:59
Speaker 5: call I made as cal Ripken, they said he would
9:01
Speaker 5: like to invest and also help us in other ways
9:03
Speaker 5: what she's doing. So I think it's worked out quite
9:05
Speaker 5: well and win win for Baltimore and for for.
9:08
Speaker 3: That was like a no brainer for you.
9:10
Speaker 7: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely no brainer. I felt like I've been
9:14
Speaker 7: an Oriole through and through my whole life. I mean,
9:15
Speaker 7: I grew up in and around the Baltimore area. My
9:18
Speaker 7: dad was in with the Orioles in the first fourteen
9:21
Speaker 7: years of my life. He was a minor league manager.
9:23
Speaker 7: And then you have a dream to be a player,
9:25
Speaker 7: You get drafted by the team you want to get
9:27
Speaker 7: drafted by. You play your whole career with that team.
9:30
Speaker 7: So I know that I went off for a little while,
9:33
Speaker 7: and you know, you buy minor league teams, you learn
9:36
Speaker 7: about business in other ways. You put your head down,
9:38
Speaker 7: you don't pay much attention to what's happening at the Oriols.
9:42
Speaker 7: But when David called, it was an opportunity to get
9:44
Speaker 7: back in to look at it from the inside looking out.
9:48
Speaker 7: And I'm really surprised that I'm way into it now.
9:51
Speaker 7: I used to think the whole world revolved around baseball,
9:54
Speaker 7: and then you get out and you realize it doesn't.
9:56
Speaker 7: But then now it seems like the world revolves around
9:58
Speaker 7: baseball again.
9:59
Speaker 5: Of course, put it in context for those who don't
10:01
Speaker 5: know the record, Lou Garrick played in thirty consecutive games.
10:06
Speaker 5: People thought that was the unbreakable record. Cal Ripkin did
10:09
Speaker 5: twy six hundred and thirty two games over seventeen years,
10:13
Speaker 5: not missing one day. And all of us who worked
10:16
Speaker 5: day to day for living in non athletic things. Can
10:18
Speaker 5: you imagine going to work seventeen days in or seventeen
10:21
Speaker 5: years in rough without missing total?
10:23
Speaker 6: Exactly?
10:24
Speaker 2: Cal, What do you think the Oils need to work
10:27
Speaker 2: on over the next couple of years? Here again, I'm
10:29
Speaker 2: looking at the record. The record is great. What do
10:32
Speaker 2: you think they need to work on? Is it minor league?
10:34
Speaker 6: Is it no?
10:35
Speaker 7: No, we have a minor league that's stocked with talent
10:38
Speaker 7: and you can only I mean, if you developed three
10:41
Speaker 7: shortstops in the minor leagues, you can only play one
10:44
Speaker 7: of them.
10:44
Speaker 6: Yep.
10:44
Speaker 7: So many times the talent that you have in the
10:46
Speaker 7: minor leagues is used to trade to get to get
10:49
Speaker 7: the pieces that you need at the big league level.
10:51
Speaker 7: And the Ools are in good position for that. They
10:54
Speaker 7: have young players that are going to be superstars that
10:57
Speaker 7: are already superstars, and maybe the biggest challenge in the
10:59
Speaker 7: future is how do you keep them?
11:01
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
11:02
Speaker 2: I mean no salary cap here, so tough to keep
11:05
Speaker 2: the star players.
11:06
Speaker 5: Right, Yes, Unlike football or basketball, there's no salary cap
11:10
Speaker 5: in yet professional baseball, so you can get contracts at
11:13
Speaker 5: are as high as seven hundred million dollars, and so
11:15
Speaker 5: it's hard for smaller cities to compete in that domain.
11:19
Speaker 2: Somewhat all right, thanks to David Rubinstein and Cal Ripton Jr.
11:22
Speaker 3: Coming up, we're gonna break down how NASCAR is trying
11:24
Speaker 3: to build audiences and a conversation with its president Steve Phelps.
11:27
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11:36
Speaker 6: I go on the terminal.
11:37
Speaker 3: I'm Paul Sweeney and I'm Alex Steele, and this is Bloomberg.
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12:03
Speaker 3: We continue as some of the best conversations from our
12:06
Speaker 3: Bloomberg Power Players event in New York. It brought together
12:09
Speaker 3: some of the most influential people in the business of sports.
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Speaker 2: Next up a conversation with NASCAR president Steve Phelps. We
12:16
Speaker 2: discussed how NASCAR is trying to build audiences and expand
12:19
Speaker 2: outside the US.
12:20
Speaker 3: We first asked where we are now with NASCAR and
12:22
Speaker 3: the global sports scene.
12:24
Speaker 9: Well, I think I would say until two thousand and nine,
12:27
Speaker 9: the growth of the sport just continued. You know, the
12:30
Speaker 9: recession hit, and I think sponsorship started to go away
12:34
Speaker 9: because not necessary to the sport just because of where
12:38
Speaker 9: things were with the economy. And then we had a slow,
12:41
Speaker 9: steady decline, if we're going to be completely honest, until
12:43
Speaker 9: twenty eighteen. But since twenty nineteen, attendance is ratings are up.
12:48
Speaker 9: We did a almost a one point one billion dollar
12:52
Speaker 9: per year media deal last year for seven years, so
12:55
Speaker 9: almost eight billion dollars. And so I'm very bold us
13:00
Speaker 9: on where the sport is today, but importantly where it's going.
13:04
Speaker 3: Where do you think it's going to go? Like, has
13:05
Speaker 3: it broaden appeal? How do you get someone like me
13:07
Speaker 3: to watch it?
13:07
Speaker 8: Sure, I think you know it.
13:09
Speaker 9: Yeah, And that's a and there's the trick, right, So like.
13:13
Speaker 6: Me just I don't know. I don't do sports at all.
13:15
Speaker 3: I like the Olympics, I like the US Open.
13:17
Speaker 9: So I think, you know, we're trying to appeal to
13:19
Speaker 9: both obviously our existing audience and serve that audience and
13:23
Speaker 9: then bring a new audience in. We're doing that through
13:25
Speaker 9: a number of different things. So for example, we did
13:28
Speaker 9: a Netflix show earlier in the year, and that audience
13:32
Speaker 9: for us has been more female, it has been younger,
13:35
Speaker 9: and I think if you look overall in NASCAR in
13:37
Speaker 9: the last three years, our growth has come from women,
13:41
Speaker 9: people of color, and younger people. And so it's working,
13:46
Speaker 9: but we've got to continue.
13:47
Speaker 8: To do that.
13:48
Speaker 9: The key for me is what content opportunities we have
13:52
Speaker 9: that will capture you, Alex right, and what are the
13:55
Speaker 9: storylines we have that will capture you. And I think
13:58
Speaker 9: that's important because I think people think of it in
14:02
Speaker 9: a way that is not right, which is you're either
14:05
Speaker 9: going to serve your existing fans or you're going to
14:07
Speaker 9: go after new fans.
14:09
Speaker 8: I don't think that's true. It's an and it's not
14:11
Speaker 8: an or.
14:13
Speaker 9: These fans, the existing fans, they want great racing, they
14:15
Speaker 9: want great storylines, they want their drivers to win, they
14:18
Speaker 9: want to see exciting racing.
14:21
Speaker 8: These people want the same thing.
14:22
Speaker 9: It's how do you capture them right, And so I
14:26
Speaker 9: don't think that two things are all that different. It's
14:29
Speaker 9: just where we investing our money. So for example, we
14:31
Speaker 9: just built a sixty million dollar productions facility right outside
14:35
Speaker 9: of Charlotte next to our R and D facility, and
14:37
Speaker 9: it's really two components to it.
14:39
Speaker 8: It's live event production.
14:41
Speaker 9: So how are we going to put our own events
14:44
Speaker 9: on for our five media partners going forward in twenty five?
14:49
Speaker 9: And then how do we create creative content and really
14:53
Speaker 9: compelling content either be distributed through our own channels of
14:56
Speaker 9: distribution or someone else's. So we've got, you know, the
15:01
Speaker 9: three new media partners as part of it. So Fox
15:03
Speaker 9: and NBC came back, who are existing partners, but we
15:06
Speaker 9: add an Amazon, Warner Brothers, Discovery and the CW and
15:10
Speaker 9: the CW is for our second series, which is called
15:13
Speaker 9: the Xfinity Series. So five media partners, five opportunities for
15:17
Speaker 9: us to have, you know, kind of a megaphone of
15:20
Speaker 9: where things are going. It used to be alex you know,
15:22
Speaker 9: Ford cars, Chevy cars in the race. If you win
15:25
Speaker 9: on Sunday, you sell on Monday. That's how important it was.
15:28
Speaker 9: Talk to us about the economics of just the teams
15:31
Speaker 9: out there. How many teams are there? Do they make money?
15:34
Speaker 10: Sure?
15:34
Speaker 6: How does that work?
15:35
Speaker 9: So I would look at it in three kind of
15:38
Speaker 9: three buckets. Right, So we have three national series. The
15:41
Speaker 9: one that most people think about is our Cup series,
15:43
Speaker 9: which is our top series. So we're coming to a close,
15:48
Speaker 9: I think, you know, pretty quickly on something called charter extensions.
15:51
Speaker 9: So I would think of it as franchise light. OK,
15:54
Speaker 9: so it's not franchise, but it creates enterprise value for
15:57
Speaker 9: our race teams. And so we're in the in the
16:00
Speaker 9: final throws of getting those extended. Right now, race teams,
16:04
Speaker 9: if you probably are collectively losing money. So in the
16:10
Speaker 9: charter agreement that we have based on our media deals
16:12
Speaker 9: and some other things that we're doing, we're going to
16:15
Speaker 9: provide the race teams with more revenue. So two pieces
16:18
Speaker 9: of revenue guaranteed revenue and then what they race for.
16:22
Speaker 9: And so to me, starting in twenty twenty five, we
16:25
Speaker 9: should have cash flow positive race teams, which is what
16:29
Speaker 9: we want. And I've heard lots of fans say, well,
16:32
Speaker 9: I don't really care about that. My whole point is, yeah,
16:35
Speaker 9: that's exactly well, not only that, but it creates more
16:37
Speaker 9: compelling racing, right, and that's what we want, we to
16:40
Speaker 9: competitive racing. So we have of our twenty six races
16:43
Speaker 9: we've had this year, fifteen different winners, nine different organizations
16:49
Speaker 9: of the fifteen charter organizations that we have.
16:52
Speaker 8: So it's it and the racing is terrific.
16:56
Speaker 9: It's just it's the best style of racing I believe
16:59
Speaker 9: on the planet, and I think our race fans are
17:01
Speaker 9: telling us that. So again, ratings are up despite significant
17:05
Speaker 9: rain issues we've had.
17:06
Speaker 6: All year long raining.
17:07
Speaker 9: Okay, yeah, so Daytona five hundred we were down twenty
17:10
Speaker 9: seven percent because we raced on Monday, yep Coke six
17:13
Speaker 9: hundred rain event, down fifteen percent. We had a race
17:16
Speaker 9: in the streets of Chicago rain again, down fifty percent.
17:20
Speaker 9: So our three largest rated events of the year all
17:25
Speaker 9: down double digit and yet we're still positive right of ratings.
17:28
Speaker 8: So it's it's.
17:29
Speaker 2: Working just real quickly. Any new markets got about thirty
17:33
Speaker 2: seconds left our sure.
17:35
Speaker 8: Yeah, So yeah, so I think.
17:37
Speaker 9: So. We are going to race next year for the
17:38
Speaker 9: first time outside of our border in the Cup Series
17:41
Speaker 9: in Mexico City. So we have some other discussions that
17:43
Speaker 9: are going So we're again we're excited about the broadening of.
17:47
Speaker 2: Our sport our thanks to NASCAR President Steve Phelps.
17:50
Speaker 3: Moving now to college sports, we spoke with Brittany Whiteside,
17:53
Speaker 3: vice president of Collegiate Partnerships at Altis Partners.
17:56
Speaker 2: We discussed the state of college sports and first asked
17:59
Speaker 2: Brittany about how the landscape is changing.
18:01
Speaker 11: You know, it is changing rapidly. Probably in the last
18:05
Speaker 11: three years, we've seen some of the most change in
18:07
Speaker 11: college sports, but also in an industry at large. We
18:10
Speaker 11: have the implementation of nil. I'm sure you've heard of that.
18:13
Speaker 11: That's a buzzword right now. Athletes can earn money off
18:17
Speaker 11: of their name, image and likeness. And so when you
18:19
Speaker 11: talk about college athletics and change, and you think about
18:22
Speaker 11: that in the last year, in the last three years,
18:24
Speaker 11: that's the biggest change. And now we're at a point
18:27
Speaker 11: where we continue to see the change and you have
18:29
Speaker 11: the House settlement where schools may be able to now
18:33
Speaker 11: pay athletes directly and so as you think about college
18:36
Speaker 11: athletics and the business model, it is completely shifted and
18:39
Speaker 11: leaders across the country are preparing for that.
18:41
Speaker 8: All right.
18:41
Speaker 2: To me, it's all about the economics, and I think
18:43
Speaker 2: most people agree that given the money behind big time
18:47
Speaker 2: college sports, that in fact the athletes should be compensated
18:50
Speaker 2: for that. The question is, is nil the way it
18:54
Speaker 2: doesn't seem like it seems like rudimentary at best. You've
18:58
Speaker 2: got there's no regulation and there's no way to ensure and.
19:02
Speaker 6: Even play playing field. Where do we go from here?
19:04
Speaker 6: It seems like we open up Pandora's box and we
19:06
Speaker 6: have no idea. Yeah, well, I agree with you.
19:09
Speaker 11: It is the right thing for athletes to be able
19:11
Speaker 11: to earn money off of their name, image and likeness.
19:13
Speaker 11: So but to be able to monetize that right. Nil
19:16
Speaker 11: was the first step in that, the ability for athletes
19:19
Speaker 11: to go out and to earn income, whether that is
19:21
Speaker 11: through working with brands or in some spaces. You've probably
19:24
Speaker 11: heard of collectives in this space as well, you know,
19:27
Speaker 11: helping athletes generate money off their name, image and likeness.
19:30
Speaker 6: Where do we go from here?
19:32
Speaker 11: You know, we have the pending House settlement, which as
19:34
Speaker 11: we sit today the judge will hear arguments against the
19:39
Speaker 11: fairness of that House settlement. Right, House settlement is really
19:42
Speaker 11: the next step in the framework for college athletes and
19:45
Speaker 11: athletic departments to be able to share in that revenue.
19:49
Speaker 11: Right it's a revenue sharing proposal, and so in terms
19:52
Speaker 11: of next steps, right now it is the pending House
19:54
Speaker 11: settlement and next steps for athletes to be able to
19:57
Speaker 11: be paid directly from institutions, SUS brands, and collectives in
20:01
Speaker 11: all of the other areas. And then there will be
20:04
Speaker 11: some upcoming regulation.
20:06
Speaker 6: To that as well.
20:07
Speaker 3: What about I mean that this is tied to a
20:10
Speaker 3: college or university is also just so odd, Like this
20:13
Speaker 3: is like a professional business that one can be a
20:15
Speaker 3: part of. But yet you're going to be nineteen years
20:17
Speaker 3: old also expecting to like go get your GPA and
20:19
Speaker 3: do well in school. How does all of this going
20:22
Speaker 3: to coexist?
20:23
Speaker 11: You know, it has coexisted now for a while. And
20:25
Speaker 11: you know that was a major concern of mine early on,
20:28
Speaker 11: is how are athletes, How are college students going to
20:30
Speaker 11: be able to navigate this? And what we've seen is
20:32
Speaker 11: they've been able to handle it well. Some of them
20:35
Speaker 11: engage in the NIL space and do so in a
20:37
Speaker 11: way and meaningful ways where they're getting internships and opportunities
20:41
Speaker 11: and skill sets that they did not have the opportunity
20:43
Speaker 11: to get before. So when you think about nil, you
20:45
Speaker 11: think about managing your brand, you think about negotiating all
20:48
Speaker 11: of those skills are skills that you need for life.
20:50
Speaker 11: And so as part of being a student, part of
20:53
Speaker 11: that is preparing for life after you know, your time
20:56
Speaker 11: on campus for four or five years. And so inil
20:59
Speaker 11: and many ways has been handled for students has a
21:02
Speaker 11: great opportunity for them to leverage their their brand and
21:05
Speaker 11: be able to generate money and help prepare them for
21:08
Speaker 11: a future.
21:09
Speaker 2: What's the I guess the other big issue in college
21:11
Speaker 2: athletics has been the realignment of conferences. And now we've
21:14
Speaker 2: got my poor you know, Rutgers field hockey team sleeping
21:17
Speaker 2: on the floor of Newark Airport because they're taking a
21:19
Speaker 2: flight out to Stanford, Stanford in Palo Alto.
21:23
Speaker 6: What's going on there?
21:24
Speaker 8: What?
21:24
Speaker 6: Where? How is this going to evolve? Do you think?
21:26
Speaker 3: Wait? Wait, why is that bad?
21:27
Speaker 2: Because now Stanford on the West coast is now part
21:30
Speaker 2: of the ACC for so they got to go fly
21:35
Speaker 2: from Palo Alto to Durham, North Carolina get it.
21:38
Speaker 6: And I can.
21:38
Speaker 2: Understand that for the football team they're on a charter
21:40
Speaker 2: jed all kinds of same thing for basketball. But I thought,
21:42
Speaker 2: for like the smaller sports, how is this impacting?
21:45
Speaker 11: Yeah, you know, that's an interesting dynamic when you think
21:48
Speaker 11: about some of the Olympic sports, right, Yeah, And you
21:50
Speaker 11: talked about what are some of the things that we
21:52
Speaker 11: still need to figure out in college sports. I think
21:54
Speaker 11: that's part of it. Conference realignment as a whole, you know,
21:56
Speaker 11: mostly driven by football schools that are eating out the
22:00
Speaker 11: highest level with schools that want to compete at the
22:02
Speaker 11: highest level. With that comes other Olympic sports that it
22:05
Speaker 11: may not make as much sense economically for them to
22:08
Speaker 11: travel or for student athlete experience for them to travel.
22:11
Speaker 11: But when schools and institutions want to compete at the
22:14
Speaker 11: highest level, that is part of it. And so right
22:16
Speaker 11: now many schools are having those conversations on where do
22:19
Speaker 11: we want to be in this landscape? Do we want
22:20
Speaker 11: to compete at the highest level? And if we do,
22:23
Speaker 11: that may come with your field hockey team traveling across
22:25
Speaker 11: the country to compete against the best in the country.
22:28
Speaker 3: But then they still have to go like take a
22:29
Speaker 3: test and do grades. I mean, that's that's something else.
22:32
Speaker 11: You have wi FI Now.
22:34
Speaker 8: OK, fair enough.
22:35
Speaker 3: What do you think that athletes could be doing better though?
22:37
Speaker 6: Right now?
22:38
Speaker 4: Oh?
22:38
Speaker 11: You know, it's such a key time for athletes to
22:41
Speaker 11: hone in on who they are, their their identity, how
22:44
Speaker 11: they can manage themselves because we all know.
22:45
Speaker 6: That grand team I know, right.
22:48
Speaker 11: But also they are also engaging responsibly and thinking about
22:51
Speaker 11: like what are some of the brands that I work
22:53
Speaker 11: with on or you know a coffee shop that I
22:55
Speaker 11: always go to a local coffee shop, how can I
22:58
Speaker 11: utilize my NIL with that local coffee shop to create
23:02
Speaker 11: a partnership? Right, And so you know that's how athletes
23:05
Speaker 11: are navigating it now. They're navigating at the local level.
23:07
Speaker 11: And then also they have schools that are putting resources
23:10
Speaker 11: together to help educate them on how to really navigate
23:13
Speaker 11: it in a way that is best for them.
23:15
Speaker 2: What do you advise schools to do as they think
23:18
Speaker 2: about how to really implement an NIL and take care
23:21
Speaker 2: of their student athletes?
23:22
Speaker 6: What are you recommending? Is that kind of an overarching view?
23:24
Speaker 2: Yeah?
23:24
Speaker 11: Absolutely, it always starts with education, and so early on
23:27
Speaker 11: it's educating the athletes on what NIO is, what it isn't,
23:32
Speaker 11: how to build their brand, how social media plays into this,
23:35
Speaker 11: how this entire ecosystem works. The second part of that
23:38
Speaker 11: is as a department, to really hone in on your strategy.
23:41
Speaker 11: How are you going to invest in the resources for
23:44
Speaker 11: your athletes to be successful in this space like you
23:46
Speaker 11: would in strength and conditioning, like you would in nutrition.
23:49
Speaker 6: This is another part of the.
23:50
Speaker 11: Student and athlete experience that as an institution, it's your
23:53
Speaker 11: responsibility to invest in in resources so athletes can really
23:57
Speaker 11: optimize their nil while they're on their campus. And for
24:00
Speaker 11: some of the athletes, this is their you know, this
24:02
Speaker 11: is their time to their prime time. This isn't their
24:04
Speaker 11: prime time. Some are competing at a national level on TV,
24:08
Speaker 11: and so as an institution, it's like, how can we
24:10
Speaker 11: utilize our network, our resources, our institution IP to help
24:14
Speaker 11: athletes generate revenue, generate income for themselves our Thanks to
24:18
Speaker 11: Brittany Whiteside, vice President of Collegiate Partnerships at ALTS Partners.
24:22
Speaker 3: Coming up on the program and look at what comes
24:24
Speaker 3: next as women's soccer hits the mainstream.
24:26
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24:35
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24:47
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24:54
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Speaker 1: Just Say Alexa playing Bloomberg eleven three.
25:02
Speaker 3: We continue as some of the best conversations from our
25:04
Speaker 3: Bloomberg Power Players event in New York. It brought together
25:06
Speaker 3: some of the world's most influential voices in the business
25:09
Speaker 3: of sports.
25:09
Speaker 2: Next up a conversation with Jessica Berman, commissioner of the
25:12
Speaker 2: National Women's Soccer League. She joined to give us some
25:15
Speaker 2: insight on women's soccer as it hits the mainstream.
25:17
Speaker 3: We first asked Jessica to talk to us about the
25:19
Speaker 3: state of the National Soccer League.
25:21
Speaker 4: In the last two and a half years. It is
25:24
Speaker 4: true I think women's sports and the National Women's Soccer
25:27
Speaker 4: League in particular, has exploded. We've reached this inflection point
25:30
Speaker 4: where it is no longer a question whether investing in
25:33
Speaker 4: women's sports is a good business investment. And because of that,
25:37
Speaker 4: the money has followed. And we're looking at our ownership
25:40
Speaker 4: group across all of our teams fourteen teams across the country,
25:45
Speaker 4: and we have the right capital and strategic investors around
25:50
Speaker 4: the table to really build for the future. Talk about
25:53
Speaker 4: our recent announcement this morning. Bob Eiger and Will Obey
25:57
Speaker 4: are now the control owners. It is a Boom is
26:00
Speaker 4: a mic Drop are now the controlling owners of Angel City,
26:03
Speaker 4: which are the highest enterprise value women's sports team in
26:08
Speaker 4: the world. Oh wow, traded for two hundred and fifty
26:11
Speaker 4: million dollars. And you know this is a league that
26:15
Speaker 4: launched twelve years ago. Angel City is.
26:18
Speaker 6: Only three years old, so jealousy.
26:21
Speaker 4: If you put that side by side with the men's
26:23
Speaker 4: leagues that have been around for decades, some more than
26:26
Speaker 4: one hundred years, it's really incredible to see the amount
26:28
Speaker 4: of growth. We also announced that Magic Johnson is an
26:31
Speaker 4: investor in the Washington Spirit with Michelle Kang. So the
26:34
Speaker 4: type of owners who are coming to the table to
26:37
Speaker 4: really invest in this is really driven by the future
26:41
Speaker 4: vision of you that we really can be the best
26:44
Speaker 4: league in the world. And because of the backdrop, as
26:46
Speaker 4: you mentioned of women's soccer, it's it's just an incredible
26:49
Speaker 4: moment to be part of witnessing this growth.
26:52
Speaker 3: Well, I was going to ask as to the why now.
26:55
Speaker 3: Part of it? Is it because you've had, you know,
26:57
Speaker 3: super good success with some amazing players in the game.
27:01
Speaker 3: I also, as a finance nerd, I'm going to go
27:03
Speaker 3: back to like the FED had zero interest rates for
27:05
Speaker 3: a really long time. There's a lot of money that
27:07
Speaker 3: need to be put to work that needed a good
27:08
Speaker 3: return because you couldn't put it in the bond market,
27:10
Speaker 3: like that kind of stuff. Like what are you hearing
27:11
Speaker 3: as to why people with money think this is a
27:14
Speaker 3: good investment now?
27:15
Speaker 4: I think if you look on a longitudinal basis, particularly
27:19
Speaker 4: at men's sports as a parallel over the course of decades,
27:24
Speaker 4: it outperforms every other asset class on a long term basis,
27:28
Speaker 4: and so you've often seen investors who are long range
27:33
Speaker 4: in their thinking around putting capital to work invest in
27:36
Speaker 4: sports and see incredible returns. If you look at that
27:40
Speaker 4: compared to the product of women's soccer, there really is
27:42
Speaker 4: no reason why we should not be as successful as
27:46
Speaker 4: men's sports, particularly in a sport that has the backdrop
27:49
Speaker 4: of when you think of success and soccer in the US,
27:54
Speaker 4: you actually think of women first, and that really creates
27:58
Speaker 4: a unique value proposition. Has really woken up the investment
28:02
Speaker 4: community to say, if we look at men's sports and
28:04
Speaker 4: the way that they've grown in enterprise value on an
28:07
Speaker 4: exponential basis over decades, and we are at the inception
28:11
Speaker 4: of our growth, there's very few things in the world
28:14
Speaker 4: that you can get in at the ground level. I
28:16
Speaker 4: think we're definitely beyond the ground level, but we're certainly
28:19
Speaker 4: nowhere near the top of our hockey stick growth.
28:21
Speaker 2: Media rights, it's the big driver of global sports valuations globally.
28:27
Speaker 2: What's the media strategy for US women's the soccer League.
28:30
Speaker 4: Yeah, we signed a landmark media deal and announced it
28:34
Speaker 4: in November of twenty twenty three. We got a collective
28:38
Speaker 4: quarter of a billion dollars invested into our league from
28:42
Speaker 4: the combination of CBS, ESPN, Amazon and Script's Ion. And
28:49
Speaker 4: in addition to that incredible investment in our league, which
28:52
Speaker 4: allow us to put those resources to work to grow
28:55
Speaker 4: the league. We've also made the very important strategic decision
28:59
Speaker 4: to also invest in ourselves and ensure that our games
29:02
Speaker 4: are viewable and discoverable on platforms that are national in
29:06
Speaker 4: scope and scale. And so from last year to this year,
29:10
Speaker 4: we went from six games being available on national broadcast
29:14
Speaker 4: to over one hundred and twenty wo oh my god.
29:16
Speaker 4: So now when you are sitting on your couch, which
29:19
Speaker 4: some people still do, and channel surf, which some people
29:22
Speaker 4: still do, you will find our games. And if you
29:25
Speaker 4: were watching the US Open, which I was, and there
29:28
Speaker 4: was a promo ad to tell everyone that you can
29:30
Speaker 4: watch on ESPN. We are in the places and spaces
29:33
Speaker 4: where people consume live content and that will help us
29:36
Speaker 4: to catalyze the growth of our audience.
29:38
Speaker 2: All right, thanks so, Jessica Berman, Commissioner of National Women's
29:41
Speaker 2: Soccer League. We continue with women's soccer. We got more
29:44
Speaker 2: insight on the game and conversation with Midge Purse Afford
29:48
Speaker 2: for that New Jersey, New York at Gotham Football Club
29:50
Speaker 2: and the United States women's national soccer team.
29:53
Speaker 3: And we first asked Midge if women's soccer is finally
29:56
Speaker 3: having its moment.
29:57
Speaker 12: I don't know if I can subscribe to that. And
29:59
Speaker 12: I'll tell you why tell me it's because every four
30:02
Speaker 12: years we have the Olympics and we have the World Cup,
30:04
Speaker 12: and everyone gets really really excited about women's soccer, and
30:07
Speaker 12: then it usually dissipates at some point. I do think
30:11
Speaker 12: women's sports in general are having an incredible moment.
30:15
Speaker 8: I mean you can see it with the WNBA.
30:16
Speaker 12: You even see it with like rugby and track. I'm
30:20
Speaker 12: with you, I believe in it, but I want to
30:22
Speaker 12: wait to see it before I subscribe.
30:24
Speaker 2: You've been on the national teams, the US national teams
30:26
Speaker 2: for years, so you've seen the global competition. But the
30:30
Speaker 2: US team is, in my opinion, I don't know that.
30:32
Speaker 2: I'm not that into it the best team for a
30:35
Speaker 2: long time globally in terms of looking at the World
30:37
Speaker 2: Cups and so on. Talk to us about the growth
30:39
Speaker 2: of soccer internationally outside the US. What are you seeing
30:41
Speaker 2: in terms of competitiveness, because I know there are a
30:43
Speaker 2: lot of international players in the US league.
30:46
Speaker 12: Oh absolutely, And I mean I think you can see
30:48
Speaker 12: it even with the last World Cup we had. We
30:51
Speaker 12: won this Olympic gold, which is absolutely fantastic, and I
30:54
Speaker 12: think anyone who watched the games could see that they
30:57
Speaker 12: were difficult games. It wasn't six zero, wasn't five zero,
30:59
Speaker 12: wasn't three zero? A couple of Germany games where we're
31:03
Speaker 12: in our favor, But in general, it's the competition is
31:07
Speaker 12: leveling out, and you know, the global stage is getting
31:11
Speaker 12: a lot more Even so, I think even seeing a
31:13
Speaker 12: lot of those players come over to our league and
31:15
Speaker 12: increase the competitiveness that we have here at home, it's
31:17
Speaker 12: really amazing to see the progression of women's sports globally.
31:22
Speaker 3: What do you think of the how to monetize that,
31:23
Speaker 3: like as a player? Like we talked to the commissioner,
31:26
Speaker 3: We talked to a partner that sort of helps collegiate
31:29
Speaker 3: athletes monetize themselves and understand how to do that and
31:33
Speaker 3: works with them work with colleges. Do you think this
31:35
Speaker 3: is all being done.
31:35
Speaker 6: The right way?
31:36
Speaker 2: No?
31:38
Speaker 6: This is great.
31:39
Speaker 3: This is why I want to talk to someone who
31:40
Speaker 3: actually does the stuff.
31:42
Speaker 6: In short, No, I don't.
31:43
Speaker 12: I think that we're still behind in terms of the
31:46
Speaker 12: industry approach on how we support players, help players, and
31:51
Speaker 12: promote players. I think one of the biggest issues I've
31:53
Speaker 12: had with women's sports in general is that the landscape
31:56
Speaker 12: for how we market women's sports has always been extremely
31:59
Speaker 12: derivative with the land skip of how we market men's.
32:01
Speaker 3: Sports and shocking.
32:03
Speaker 12: Yeah, they say shrink it and pink it is something
32:06
Speaker 12: that Michelle King likes to say, and I'll take that
32:08
Speaker 12: from her. But it's not even just derivative of the
32:10
Speaker 12: men's game, but we're derivative of the European format as well.
32:14
Speaker 12: And you know, the American population, this demographic, it's a
32:18
Speaker 12: different audience that you need to cater to, and I
32:20
Speaker 12: think we need to be just a little bit more
32:22
Speaker 12: specific industry wide with how we do that.
32:24
Speaker 2: How do you expect the growth of the of the
32:26
Speaker 2: league to be over the next several years? To expect
32:28
Speaker 2: it to get more competitive, maybe more teams. What do
32:31
Speaker 2: the players feel like?
32:32
Speaker 12: Oh, I don't think anything's going to stop this league,
32:34
Speaker 12: to be completely honest, I think we will be huge
32:38
Speaker 12: competitors with the MLS. I do see a lot more
32:41
Speaker 12: teams coming in. I think more international players will want
32:44
Speaker 12: to come play here, and I think it's going to
32:45
Speaker 12: be even harder to play here domestically.
32:47
Speaker 3: Right, What about like, do you think we're going to
32:50
Speaker 3: have like competitions not like the Olympics or whatever World
32:53
Speaker 3: Cup where like you can play more internationally and make
32:56
Speaker 3: it not just like a US soccer sport.
32:58
Speaker 12: Absolutely, we have the club World Cup that's happening, so
33:01
Speaker 12: it's definitely we are integrating with other leagues and making
33:05
Speaker 12: that global community for women's soccer.
33:07
Speaker 3: Our thanks to Midge Purse forward for the New Jersey,
33:10
Speaker 3: New York Gotham Football Club in the United States women's
33:12
Speaker 3: national soccer team. We moved now to a conversation with
33:15
Speaker 3: Grant Hill, managing director for USA Basketball and co owner
33:18
Speaker 3: of the Atlanta Hawks.
33:19
Speaker 2: He took up behind the scenes look at the big
33:21
Speaker 2: talent and big personalities who brought home the gold for
33:23
Speaker 2: the women's and men's US basketball team.
33:25
Speaker 3: We first asked Graham to talk to us about the
33:27
Speaker 3: current state of Team USA.
33:29
Speaker 10: It's an exciting time and obviously I succeeded Jerry Colangelo,
33:34
Speaker 10: who along with coach k had an incredible run together
33:38
Speaker 10: starting in two thousand and six, and I came in
33:41
Speaker 10: during this sort of Olympic quad. We had our World
33:45
Speaker 10: Cup last summer. We didn't fare as well in the
33:47
Speaker 10: World Cup. The women won the gold medal in their
33:50
Speaker 10: World Cup, but the Olympics were absolutely incredible and both
33:55
Speaker 10: teams were pushed. They were tested. There was just excellent
34:00
Speaker 10: and on the court all over the world. We saw
34:03
Speaker 10: Serbia and our semi final games, they were so worthy
34:05
Speaker 10: and deserving of winning. Came up short.
34:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, I saw that one.
34:10
Speaker 10: But it was it was just phenomenal. I mean the
34:12
Speaker 10: fact that we had, we got tested, we got pushed,
34:15
Speaker 10: We had to show some fight and some toughness collectively
34:19
Speaker 10: to win that game, but also win the gold medal
34:21
Speaker 10: against France. The women's team got pushed and a very
34:25
Speaker 10: close tough matchup they had in the gold medal game
34:28
Speaker 10: with France as well. So I think it was just
34:31
Speaker 10: a win win, not just for USA basketball and our
34:33
Speaker 10: continued excellence, there was a win win for basketball universally,
34:38
Speaker 10: like I think all across the globe. If you're a
34:40
Speaker 10: fan of the game, uh, the Olympic basketball scene was spectacular.
34:45
Speaker 3: And even if you don't know the game or watch
34:46
Speaker 3: the game normally, like I was totally into it.
34:48
Speaker 6: It was amazing. It was really great.
34:51
Speaker 3: Talking about investing and where do you see opportunities. I
34:53
Speaker 3: know that you and your wife are also investors in
34:55
Speaker 3: Orlando Pro women's soccer team, and we were talking about
34:58
Speaker 3: that as to where the opportunity set is is sort
35:00
Speaker 3: of where women's soccer is.
35:01
Speaker 11: Going to go.
35:02
Speaker 9: You know.
35:03
Speaker 10: Look, so I have two daughters who are who are jocks,
35:05
Speaker 10: who are athletes, and and so yes, and you know,
35:10
Speaker 10: I think sort of through them really getting exposed to
35:15
Speaker 10: women's sports and really wanting them to see women professional athletes. So,
35:19
Speaker 10: whether it was the w NBA or the NWSL. We
35:23
Speaker 10: live in Orlando, we were fans and consumers at first,
35:27
Speaker 10: and we got so caught into it and just loving
35:30
Speaker 10: it and having a passion for these teams. We also
35:33
Speaker 10: saw the potential and the upside for growth and uh,
35:37
Speaker 10: and so the opportunity to invest in the NWSL, the
35:40
Speaker 10: Orlando Pride. We're in first place right now. Yeah, we
35:43
Speaker 10: haven't not lost the game, had a few ties and
35:45
Speaker 10: all wins. But I just feel the momentum is really growing.
35:50
Speaker 10: And now you have superior leadership. Jessica Burman is a
35:54
Speaker 10: fantastic commissioner, has great vision it is can execute that vision,
36:00
Speaker 10: has surrounded herself with a solid team. But also we
36:04
Speaker 10: have professional ownership. Now we have owners now who own
36:08
Speaker 10: other sports, who've been in this, who understand it, see
36:11
Speaker 10: the long term trajectory of the business. And so I
36:15
Speaker 10: wouldn't say we're at an inflection point right now, but
36:18
Speaker 10: I think we have long term positioned ourselves nicely for
36:24
Speaker 10: great success. And I think of all the sports leagues,
36:26
Speaker 10: I really believe this. I think the NWSL has the
36:28
Speaker 10: greatest upside and so really excited. I was excited to
36:32
Speaker 10: see Jessica at Midge person one of the stars in
36:34
Speaker 10: the league. And yeah, we're thrilled to be involved, all right.
36:39
Speaker 3: Thanks to Grant Hill, Managing director for USA Basketball and
36:42
Speaker 3: co owner of the Atlanta Hawks.
36:44
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