July 24, 2025 • 35 mins
In this episode of The Deal, Alex Rodriguez tells Jason Kelly about his plans for celebrating his 50th birthday. Then, they speak with Mayor Muriel Bowser about the biggest sports deal in Washington, D.C.’s history. Bowser tells the hosts what lies ahead for a D.C. Council vote on the deal to bring the Washington Commanders to RFK Stadium, how she got Ted Leonsis to keep the Washington Capitals, Wizards, and Mystics in the nations’ capital, and why sports and politics go together.
You can also watch this interview on the Bloomberg Podcasts YouTube page.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hi everyone, welcome back to the Deal.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
I'm Jason Kelly alongside Alex Rodriguez, who's about.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
To get a little bit older.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
He's on vacation, about to celebrate and join the fifty Club,
the five Handle. I welcome you prematurely to this club, Alex.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Hope you're enjoying your vacation. And wow, big birthday.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Not quite the fifty fifty club, just the fifty club,
just the fifty club. And I'm very depressed, are you? No?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Come on, look what you've done in your first half century.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
I am Jason because you know, guys like you and
I we've always been like the young guys in the
group with older friends, and now we're like getting to
that point where we're now the senior guys in the room.
Pretty depressing.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
You're right, you're right, but you got to lean into it.
You got to lean into your wisdom. But in the meantime,
we've got a great interview with Muriel Bowser. She's the
mayor of d C, the first mayor we've had on
the show, and man, she's a deal maker obviously.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
And a big one. That is I mean, this is
as big, if not one of the biggest for sure
projects at Josh Harris at spearheading with the football club there,
and I'm really excited to hear the process. How to go?
How difficult was it?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Yeah, So what's so interesting about her is, you know,
this is a mayor who in the span of less
than two years has brought the Commanders, Josh Harris's football
Club and the NFL Juggernaut back to the District of
Columbia on the old site of the RFK Stadium, and
at the same time kept ted Leonsis and his Washington Wizards,
(01:49):
Washington Wizards, the Washington Mystics, and the Washington Capitals. They're
in the nation's capital. I should also mention that is
where the at one point great Georgetown Hoyas play also
played basketball. They're in downtown d C. But she was
the one who really brought it all together. And I
mean you know this from you know, having lived and
worked in New York, Miami. You know now in Minnesota
(02:11):
and the Twin Cities, you got to have the public
officials on your side, and when you do, they can
be very powerful forces, especially in the world of sports.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Yeah, you got to give her a lot of credit
because it's not one of the most popular things as
a political person to do these days, right, to take
public money and use it for you know, these private businesses.
But I think you got to give her credit because
she recognize how important sports is, how it brings people together,
how it's good for people's morale, self esteem. And look,
(02:41):
when the Commanders win, there's no denying it. People go
to work on Monday with a you know, hop on
their step, and when they lose, the opposite is true.
So to keep both those big conglomerates in that community,
big congrats to.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Her, well, Alex you and I know never easy to
do deals with the likes of Time Leonsis and Josh Harris,
and these deals never really stop. With the drama on
the sidelines. In the time since we recorded this interview
with Mayor Muriel Bowser, a reminder also that she is
in the nation's capital and has the attention of none
(03:16):
other than the President of the United States, President Trump,
taking to social media calling for a name change of
Washington's football team and making that a condition of this
deal going through. Mayor Bowser, in a press conference said,
nothing like that is going to stop or delay this
stadium deal from getting done and that it all really
(03:38):
rests with the DC City.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Council coming up. Mayor Muriel Bowser here on the deal.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Welcome back to the deal. I'm Jason Kelly alongside Alex Rodriguez.
Thrilled to have with us the mayor of Washington, d C.
Mayor Muriel Bowser, Mayor. So good to see him.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Oh, it's my pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Well, it's so interesting to us because obviously we talk
a lot about deals, we talk a lot about sports.
It feels like you've probably done more sports deals than
any mayor that we know about.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
How did that come about? How did you become the
mayor of sports?
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Well, we have been investing in sports and DC for
a long time. We see the transformative effect that it
has not just on the kind of the civic spirit,
but on dollars and cents in the nation's capital. And
so I've had the great opportunity to be mayor of
my hometown for ten years, and we've had some great opportunities,
(04:46):
from building a practice facility for the MBA, to a
stadium for the MLS soccer, to saving our teams in
downtown and now bringing out team home, and I can't
leave out baseball. During my tenure, we've also you know,
(05:07):
we won a World Series and hosted an All Star Game,
so we've had a lot happening. We are always happy
to welcome the world to DC so that you can
see we're more than monuments in the White House and Capitol,
but real people live here and we know have a
good time.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
You know, you mentioned that it's your hometown, Mayor, So
what was your relationship with sports growing up? Were you
a sports fan? Was it a sports household that you
grew up in. What did you think about the teams
as a kid?
Speaker 4 (05:35):
I mean, I think that we were fans. And keep
in mind, and this may be interesting to you, Alex,
I grew up in a DC that did not have
a professional baseball team, and I grew up with a
dad who loved baseball because he grew up with baseball
in Washington, d C. So we were always fans of
all the sports. I'm one of five kids. We always
(05:58):
played sports for fun and sportsmanship and fitness and all
that good stuff. And we went to games occasionally, but
we watched games a lot.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
So Mayor take us back to like when you were
a teenager, Did you ever dream that you would be
in such a powerful position to make an impact on
so many Americans.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
Well, I knew, Alex that I loved DC and I
love politics. We have an elected position here that is
a volunteer position called Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner. And we're unique,
of course in the American system, where you know, we
pay taxes, but we don't have senators and we don't
(06:42):
have a voting representative in the Congress. So every elected
office in DC like takes on even more importance, even
the voluntary ones like ANC commissioner. And my dad was
one of the first A and C commissioners. So I
grew up just really loving the city and seeing how
activism can change lives. And so I think I went
(07:06):
all the way through college not really knowing exactly what
I would do, but I knew I wanted to work
in DC change neighborhoods, help people, and I found out
quickly the fastest way to do that was getting myself elected.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Yeah, it's so interesting to think about Washington Mayor. I
had the good fortune of living there twice. One when
I was born and I was born at Walter Reed
Hospital when my dad was serving in the military, and
then I went to Georgetown and I learned what an
anc you know, commissioner was. Because you know Georgetown, you're
kind of invested in the politics of sure world, but
(07:44):
also the politics of the city. One of the things
that's so fascinating, and it takes us right into the
sports of it all, is the nature of the governance,
which you talked about, but also the proximity to you know,
two other states, where as you've seen in your lifetime,
as we've all seen, teams can just go and play there.
(08:08):
They don't have to go very far to still be
in the area, which certainly was the case, you know,
with the Commander. So let's talk about that deal. Josh
Harris has been a guest on the show. David Blitzer
has been a guest Magic Johnson, So we've talked a
lot about the Commanders because it was such a seminole
deal in the transition from Dan Snyder to Josh Harrison
in his group. But this moment where they are moving
(08:30):
back to you know what I think Josh and you
and others have called the spiritual home of this team
is a big deal. Tell us the genesis of that
from your perspective, because it was always on people's minds,
But what was the moment where you thought, Okay, this
could actually happen.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
I've always believed it was gonna happen, Jason. I was
sworn in as mayor in January of twenty fifteen, and
I believed from that day until now that it will happen.
We have the best site, and we had to work
hard until all of the conditions were right, the ownership conditions,
the political conditions, and our ability to advance a great
(09:13):
deal that DC residents believed was a great deal. And
so I do think Josh's ownership in his approach, has
been the right one. Dan Snyder had really soured on
the people of the district and vice versa, and having
a Josh come in to change the culture, invest in
(09:35):
the team, and restart his relationship with Washington d C
has been a great deal. I also have been very
encouraged by the type of business person he is and
the type of person that he is. So I trusted
when we sat across the table from each other and
we agreed to roughly what a timeline needed to be
(09:57):
for the team and for the city. I thought, if
we could deliver in that timeline, then we would come
to terms and that's where we are today.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Tell us about that first meeting with Josh. Did you
know him before? I mean, you know, like you he
grew up in the area. Was he on your radar
or was it just sort of an outreach that he said, Hey,
can I come see you and talk about this?
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Like, yeah, how does that happen?
Speaker 4 (10:18):
I didn't know Josh, but he had brought together a
couple of local folks who I do know very well,
in Mark I and the Rails family. Mitch Rails has
headquartered his very large company in DC for a long time,
and so I knew that relationship. And I think one
of the first meetings that they had in DC after
(10:40):
they secured the ownership was with us, and it was
with us in city Hall, and so I believe from
that point on that we would have a shot. Now
here was our problem. Our problem was we didn't control
the land at RFK for decades that has been controlled
by the National Park Service, which is part of the
(11:02):
Department of the Interior. We had a long term lease,
but that lease restricted us from a multi use development
and the lease was ending, and like now I'm going
to forget I think twenty thirty two. And so we
as a city, you know how these things work. If
it takes city investment where we have to bond out
(11:23):
or we have to build infrastructure, we need at least
thirty years on a lease to do that. And for
me to be able to feel really good about the development,
it had to be more than football. And it's one
hundred and eighty acres there, so you are familiar with
Walt to Read. Walt to Read is one hundred and
twenty acres and this one is on the banks of
(11:46):
the Anacostia River. When you look west, you see the
Capitol and the Washington Monument, so it's on the monumental
access this unprecedented location, and it also has the benefit
of having operated as a football stadium, and so we
know a lot of the issues that have played their
current stadium in terms of the fan experience and getting
(12:09):
there and getting in and out, we'll be able to
deal with.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
So, Mary, you mentioned that Josh and his group did
some things very well. What were some of those things
as far as whether it's attitude or the way he
came at it from maybe a gracious way one, and
then two. What's been the hardest and the easiest part
of getting some of these things through past some of
your partners in DC.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
Yeah. I think I kind of define integrity as doing
what you say you're going to do, and that has
been my experience with Josh. If he says he's gonna
meet with us, he meets with us. If he says
like this is our timeline, that has been the timeline.
It hasn't waivered, it hasn't gone back and forth. He
(12:55):
hasn't tried to play the jurisdictions against each other. I
think he's been pretty straight up and saying, like, we
believe this is where we're supposed to be. It's not
that we don't love Maryland, it's not like we don't
love Virginia. But I don't want to play you against
each other. We're going to take our shot with the district.
And the term that I use is when they were
(13:16):
ready to throw down with us, we were ready to
throw down with them. But we are all grown ups
and we know that we have to put together a
great deal, a business deal that he has to be
able to deliver to his ownership group, and a deal
on our side that I have to be able to
deliver to the DC Council and DC voters, and that's
(13:37):
where we are. So I think that's what he's done well.
He's kept his word and he's been an honest broker
among all parties. The tough parts, I think we anticipate.
We had to wrestle the land from the Congress, and
we jump through a lot of hoops to do that,
and that's harder for us, quite frankly, because we don't
have two senators and we're talking about getting something from
(14:00):
another state that does have two senators. So that's been hard.
But even then, we have great relationships with our counterparts
in Maryland and Virginia. I've worked very hard to make
this a win win for them and for us, and
I think we're getting there. The last parts are the
politics related to investing in sports stadium, which nobody is
(14:23):
surprised by. What we needed to do was put together
a great deal, and when we stack our deal up
against stadium deals across the country, we have contributed less
than any other jurisdiction other than the kind of the
outlier that was one hundred percent funded out in Los Angeles.
(14:44):
Even when we look at the deals within the district.
This one compares very favorably, and that's part. For example,
where the Washington Nationals play. People forget this, but back
in two thousand and eight or so, that stadium was
comple letely funded by taxpayers at six hundred million dollars
in today's dollars, that will be over a billion dollars.
(15:08):
This deal, the city will only contribute towards the horizontal
infrastructure under the stadium, another two hundred million for infrastructure
on the campus, and another one eighty five plus one
seventy five three hundred and fifty six I think in
parking garages, so just under a billion dollars. And we
(15:29):
also want to build a local sportsplex for our kids.
That gets us to one point one billion. So when
you talk about all of the stadium deals across the country,
we know ours is a good one.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
And so Mayor Bowser.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
I mean, as you said, you anticipated some of the
political wrangling and back and forth it's been happening, especially
the DC City Council. I know enough to be dangerous
from having lived around there that you know nothing's ever easy,
you know, getting done in the district. You know that
better than anyone has. The opposition though, or the questions
been more than you anticipated. And is it to the
(16:15):
point where you feel like things are in jeopardy or
you worried at this moment. I know there are a
lot of moving parts as we speak.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
Well, the biggest support I think that we needed to
win was in the public and we have managed to
do that. DC residents support us contributing to building a
new stadium with a mix of uses, housing and recreation
and parks at RFK Stadium. The fans support it, like
(16:47):
in Maryland and Virginia as well having the stadium located
at RFK, and I believe the vote at the Council
will be ten to two or eleven to two in
the final analysis. Where I'm a bit frustrated is the urgency.
I think that the council is lacking because in my world,
(17:09):
things change fast, especially now. Context changes, people change, world
events happen that can affect deals going through. I told
a group of folks recently, and this is how I
live my life. Sometimes there are windows of opportunity that open.
You never know when they're going to close, So while
(17:30):
they're wide open, you better get through that window, or
else that opportunity could close on you, and that's I
believe where we are. I negotiated a great deal that
allowed us a period of exclusivity through July fifteenth. And
I am particularly sensitive to periods of exclusivity because I
(17:54):
won back our teams during a time when they thought
they were going to place else and I'm talking about
the Wizards and the Capitals now. But because I believe
that that deal was tenuous, I didn't think it was
right for the teams. I knew it wasn't right for
the city. I refused to stop talking to our owners
(18:14):
or just refused so they didn't have a period of exclusivity.
And so in that time, we want our teams back.
So I know how important it is when team ownership
is only talking to you, and I know how perilous
it can be when other offers are you know, are
thrown at them.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
So Mayor you mentioned another giant in the world of business,
and Ted Leons's yeah, obviously he owns the three teams,
the Mystics, the Capital and the Wizards. How would you
describe either both superpowers or how is their approach different
the way they went about building new arenas.
Speaker 4 (18:54):
I think Ted has been like an amazing part of
the DC business can unity, and I think he didn't
make a great decision. That's how I've kind of approached it,
and it was my job to convince him of that,
and more than that, to make him a part of
something bigger, which was how we described it as the
(19:18):
DC comeback. Post COVID, Downtown d C kind of suffered.
It was the remote work phenomenon where so many people
were working at home. We saw our streets a little
bit emptier, our restaurants suffered a bit, and Monumental Sports
was at the heart of downtown. It didn't suffer. In fact,
(19:39):
it got bigger in the post pandemic years, more shows,
more people, more nights occupied, and so we knew what
Monumental could continue to be for DC. We also listened
intently at what they wanted to achieve in a renovation
and what they could get if they moved and they
(20:00):
had a clean slate and they could build from scratch.
It was our challenge to give them all of those
the space, the fan experience while building in place, and
I think we were able to achieve that.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
And so Mayor Bastar, I would love to hear more
about that comeback because it was I mean that, you know,
watching it from from a distance, I mean, it was
quite a turn of events, you know, you had. I
mean there was literally a press conference with ted Leonsis
and you know, Governor Youngkin, et cetera. This was all
in motion. It felt for those of us who were
(20:38):
on the outside, like a done deal. Ted Leonsis obviously
was well known to you. I mean, do you just
call them up and basically say, as my seven year
old daughter says, bro, are you kidding me right now?
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Like what do you say? Oh?
Speaker 4 (20:51):
There were a long series of conversations. Probably the one
that will be remembered is maybe the day or two
before they had that press conference where they met with
me and other city leadership to kind of talk through
their decision. Even in that discussion, it was kind of
(21:11):
clear to me that it was a torture decision for him.
But the thing that will always ring true was that
he said to me then or soon thereafter, I haven't
signed anything, and I thought, ding ding ding, this is
not done. And then I thought to myself, then what
(21:35):
are you talking about? And so in another longer format,
like we can kind of talk through the psychology of that.
But I always believed that until it was over, it
wasn't over. But even more and this probably resonates with
both of you, is that DC residents were quite upset
(21:57):
about it. You are sad, really upset, sad, disappointed all
of the things. And so it was clear that I
have as mayor to put us in a place to
be ready if the team stayed, but also to be
ready if they went. And we put together a great
(22:18):
team of developers, architects, landscape artists, retail experts, just housing experts,
a great team of folks, and we called it the
Gallery Place Task Force. It was led by two female
developers in DC that had very successfully turned underutilized places
(22:41):
into amazing new neighborhoods. And they just did a great
job of showing us what our future could be at
Gallery Place in the heart of downtown if we didn't
have the stadium there. And you know, frankly, some people
were getting excited about that too. So I think we
had two great options. We always believe the best was
(23:02):
to keep our team. It's hard to replace, especially in
a short amount of time. Two hundred nights or one
hundred and seventy nights with twenty thousand people coming in
and out of your downtown and the excitement that that brings.
We're also didn't want the team to stay in the
same box, if you know what I mean. And so
(23:22):
the eight hundred million dollars of investment five hundred million
overs is ours is the Cities. We have now become
the owner of the arena and we're going to have
the team there for a long long time. But now
the new design better speaks to the surrounding area. So
on dark nights, it's not dark, it's not cold, but
(23:46):
it interacts with the restaurants and other surroundings. So I'm
really excited about it. We think that's a great arena
just where it is, and I have seen so many
shows and sporting events. Most recently an inaugural ceremony was
held inside and the arena became a big part of that.
(24:07):
So I can't even imagine that not being in the
heart of downtown DC.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
I mean, it was interesting too, because you know, again
Ted is well known to both Alex and myself and
if I recall right, and we don't have to go
like super deep into this, but there was also an
element of like some retail space became available. Is that
like you were able to sort of reshape sort of
those several blocks around it as well, so it was
an even more holistic redevelopment than just the arena.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Is that right? Oh?
Speaker 4 (24:38):
Absolutely, I mean that's a big part of it. It's
an apartment office retail building right next to it, and
in between the arena and that building as an alley
that is owned by the district that we made a
part of it. And so when you see the designs,
it's like you're coming into this like a new street,
(24:59):
but it's inside. It's pretty spectacular, and they're going to
use a lot of the retail space to improve their
fan experience and a different entrance, better flow. We are
just funded in our budget that we're also investing in
an entertainment district, so the streets will actually look different
(25:22):
and feel different and operate different. And then around that,
and one really great thing that came about during this
process is we just have been able to move fans
in and out of the facility faster using a package
of our personnel that we have perfected really at NAT's Park,
(25:43):
but now we also have been in place at the
Capitol One Arena. So it's been really great.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
I'm reminded Mayor of you know, Alex is just recently
back from the All Star Game in Atlanta, my hometown,
and has been raving about the battery down there and
sort of how they completely rethought, you know, all these
intersections that you just mentioned, you know, the residential, the retail,
the hospitality, obviously all anchored by sports. So it's amazing
(26:14):
how much more thought goes into that than candidly when
we were all kids and it was like, yeah, you
go to the stadium, you get a hot dog, you know,
you cheer for a rod, and then you go home,
you know, and that's it.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
And a lot of it has come up around Gallery
Place even more organically, but it's there, and if you
haven't been, I don't know if you were at the
All Star Game that we hosted here. I guess that
was twenty eighteen. Now it spend a minute, but even
all of the places, the bullpen and everything that has
come up around That's Park, even in the last couple
(26:46):
of years, it's just so interesting for fans and fans
of all ages. I think that's another thing that we
are and I know all of the professional teams are
trying to make sure they're increasing fame. They have a
lot of competition with kids, and how are we making
sure our kids understand baseball no football? Because we see
(27:10):
these sports growing.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
You know, I was there for the All Star Game
when you guys hosted. I was also there for the
year that you won the World Series. I went to
every World Series game and you guys did a fabulous
job of hosting the World Series. So I'm really intrigued
by this. I'm reading your bio, hearing you majors from
political science and government, and you have your masters in
public policy. But you are a very very savvy business woman.
(27:35):
As Jason already knows, I'm learning here. Where do you
get that like DNA and you? And two, how would
you describe your negotiating style because your negotiating is some
of the biggest deals in this country.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
Wow, thank you for that, by the way. And because
it is sometimes when you do politics and I've done this,
and maybe you have this experience because you've been in sports,
but getting people to see you differently and see your
whole set of skills is hard. I had a reporter
say to me during this process for one of the
(28:09):
business publications in DC, not Bloomberg of course, he said,
have we just missed that you are a master negotiator
all these years? And I said, perhaps you have. But
like if you have to stand in front of a
neighborhood and try to convince them that they need sidewalks
(28:30):
when they don't want them, you become a really good negotiator.
Or if you have to go in a neighborhood and say, hey,
we want to complete this network of bicycle lanes and
it may mean that you're going to lose three parking spaces,
you become a good negotiator. At the same time, I
negotiate with big unions teachers unions, and for example, or
(28:52):
tough to deal with. But I've gotten three labor contracts
through in the last ten years with teachers and many
other So I think the experience of being a big
city mayor puts you in very micro negotiations on blocks
and very big negotiations in boardrooms. I think I have
(29:14):
learned how to do both. And I even think in
the case where all of our sports teams, some of
these negotiations take patients, some of them take big, bold
ideas that you got to just push and push hard
until you get them done. But in any case, I
(29:35):
think you start off a negotiation with your core values,
and when you can work with a partner across the
table and hit your core values and allow them to
get their core values, you get a win win.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Given where you sit. I do wonder and we talk
about this, Alex and I all the time. We talk
with other guests about it. You know, sports does it
hits different, you know, than than almost any other industry.
Especially in times where we can't agree on much of anything,
people do tend to rally around sports. You are obviously
no stranger to politics, and all of it's right there
(30:12):
in your literal backyard. Is there or should there be
a way to keep sports sort of out of the
political discourse?
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Should it be?
Speaker 3 (30:23):
How does it fit into a world where we're arguing
about so many things all the time.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
I think that would be amazing if we could do that.
I don't know how realistic it is, but I think
it would be good for us. There's politics everywhere in
and around our arenas. Our arenas have becomeback drops for
political fundraisers, like as you said, we just hosted. When
(30:51):
the inauguration moved indoors, it was inside the Catwan Arena
and different. I think political figure engaged with sports differently.
So I think it just depends. If you have a
big sports fan in the White House, then you probably
will see different engagement. I think all of the members
(31:12):
of Congress that I have been involved with love to
be around successful sports teams. And we wouldn't be sitting here,
for example, if I didn't strike up a great relationship
with a Republican from Kentucky who said I'm going to
help you get that land. And interesting he absolutely did,
(31:35):
and that his name is James Comer from Kentucky. He
happens to be the oversight chairs long until we become
a state. Jason, we have an oversight committee that ask
us any number of questions. In one particular meeting, I said, listen,
I'll answer all your questions about public safety or whatever
(31:55):
it is, but this is my question for you. Will
you help us get people back to work in their offices?
And will you help us get RFK? And he said
yes I will.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
So interesting.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
Yes, interesting, that that's a really that's a good insight
into into how things work, again differently for you than
than maybe any other big city mayor. All right, so
(32:29):
we're gonna do a quick lightning round to wrap this
up and let you get back to you know, running
our nation's capital. It's five questions, you know, first thing
that jumps to your mind. All start, and then Alex
will pick up. All right, you ready, yes, okay? What's
the best piece of advice you've received on deal making
or business?
Speaker 4 (32:46):
I think the best piece of advice on deal making
is to stay at the table.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
All right? Who is your dream deal making partner?
Speaker 4 (32:59):
I think is Josh Harris?
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Good answer?
Speaker 3 (33:03):
What team do you want to see win a championship
more than any Ooh?
Speaker 4 (33:07):
You know I can't answer that, but we would no, no, no,
I will answer it because we would love to have
the super Bowl. Like we haven't hosted a super Bowl
with our stadium. It will have a roof in Roger Goodell,
he didn't promise, but he got right up on the line.
We would love to host a super Bowl in our
new stadium in.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
RFK and have the Commanders win that probably right, Yes.
Speaker 4 (33:34):
I know they don't have to play here, but it
would be great if like they were in the super
Bowl in DC.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
What's your hype song before a big meeting or negotiation?
Speaker 4 (33:45):
Oh my god, I have a new one, Alex is
so funny that you nobody knows this.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Oh freaky news.
Speaker 4 (33:54):
My new hype song is by Whitney Houston and it's
called My Name Is Not Susan.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Oh whoa. That's great? All right.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
Finally, what's your advice for someone listening who wants a
career like yours?
Speaker 4 (34:08):
My advice is, don't listen to people when they tell
you is not your turn. Get through the window.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
I love it. I love it. Mayor Muriel Bauser.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
We had really been looking forward to this and you
over delivered, which is it seems like it's your style.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
So thank you so much. We really enjoyed it.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
Great to see you. Thank you guys.
Speaker 3 (34:38):
The Deal is hosted by Alex Rodriguez and me Jason Kelly.
This episode was made by Anamazarakis, Stacey Wong, and Lizzie Phillip.
Amy Keen is our editor and Will Connelly is our
video editor. Our theme music is made by Blake Maples.
Our executive producers are Kelly Leferrier, Ashley Hoenig, and Brenda Nenham.
Sage Bauman is the head of Bloomberg Podcast. Additional support
(35:00):
from Rachel Carnivale and Elena Los Angeles. Thanks so much
for listening to the deal. If you have a minute, subscribe,
rate and review our show. It'll help other listeners find us.
I'm Jason Kelly. See you next week.
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hi everyone, welcome back to the Deal.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
I'm Jason Kelly alongside Alex Rodriguez, who's about.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
To get a little bit older.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
He's on vacation, about to celebrate and join the fifty Club,
the five Handle. I welcome you prematurely to this club, Alex.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Hope you're enjoying your vacation. And wow, big birthday.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Not quite the fifty fifty club, just the fifty club,
just the fifty club. And I'm very depressed, are you? No?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Come on, look what you've done in your first half century.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
I am Jason because you know, guys like you and
I we've always been like the young guys in the
group with older friends, and now we're like getting to
that point where we're now the senior guys in the room.
Pretty depressing.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
You're right, you're right, but you got to lean into it.
You got to lean into your wisdom. But in the meantime,
we've got a great interview with Muriel Bowser. She's the
mayor of d C, the first mayor we've had on
the show, and man, she's a deal maker obviously.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
And a big one. That is I mean, this is
as big, if not one of the biggest for sure
projects at Josh Harris at spearheading with the football club there,
and I'm really excited to hear the process. How to go?
How difficult was it?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Yeah, So what's so interesting about her is, you know,
this is a mayor who in the span of less
than two years has brought the Commanders, Josh Harris's football
Club and the NFL Juggernaut back to the District of
Columbia on the old site of the RFK Stadium, and
at the same time kept ted Leonsis and his Washington Wizards,
(01:49):
Washington Wizards, the Washington Mystics, and the Washington Capitals. They're
in the nation's capital. I should also mention that is
where the at one point great Georgetown Hoyas play also
played basketball. They're in downtown d C. But she was
the one who really brought it all together. And I
mean you know this from you know, having lived and
worked in New York, Miami. You know now in Minnesota
(02:11):
and the Twin Cities, you got to have the public
officials on your side, and when you do, they can
be very powerful forces, especially in the world of sports.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Yeah, you got to give her a lot of credit
because it's not one of the most popular things as
a political person to do these days, right, to take
public money and use it for you know, these private businesses.
But I think you got to give her credit because
she recognize how important sports is, how it brings people together,
how it's good for people's morale, self esteem. And look,
(02:41):
when the Commanders win, there's no denying it. People go
to work on Monday with a you know, hop on
their step, and when they lose, the opposite is true.
So to keep both those big conglomerates in that community,
big congrats to.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Her, well, Alex you and I know never easy to
do deals with the likes of Time Leonsis and Josh Harris,
and these deals never really stop. With the drama on
the sidelines. In the time since we recorded this interview
with Mayor Muriel Bowser, a reminder also that she is
in the nation's capital and has the attention of none
(03:16):
other than the President of the United States, President Trump,
taking to social media calling for a name change of
Washington's football team and making that a condition of this
deal going through. Mayor Bowser, in a press conference said,
nothing like that is going to stop or delay this
stadium deal from getting done and that it all really
(03:38):
rests with the DC City.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Council coming up. Mayor Muriel Bowser here on the deal.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Welcome back to the deal. I'm Jason Kelly alongside Alex Rodriguez.
Thrilled to have with us the mayor of Washington, d C.
Mayor Muriel Bowser, Mayor. So good to see him.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Oh, it's my pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Well, it's so interesting to us because obviously we talk
a lot about deals, we talk a lot about sports.
It feels like you've probably done more sports deals than
any mayor that we know about.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
How did that come about? How did you become the
mayor of sports?
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Well, we have been investing in sports and DC for
a long time. We see the transformative effect that it
has not just on the kind of the civic spirit,
but on dollars and cents in the nation's capital. And
so I've had the great opportunity to be mayor of
my hometown for ten years, and we've had some great opportunities,
(04:46):
from building a practice facility for the MBA, to a
stadium for the MLS soccer, to saving our teams in
downtown and now bringing out team home, and I can't
leave out baseball. During my tenure, we've also you know,
(05:07):
we won a World Series and hosted an All Star Game,
so we've had a lot happening. We are always happy
to welcome the world to DC so that you can
see we're more than monuments in the White House and Capitol,
but real people live here and we know have a
good time.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
You know, you mentioned that it's your hometown, Mayor, So
what was your relationship with sports growing up? Were you
a sports fan? Was it a sports household that you
grew up in. What did you think about the teams
as a kid?
Speaker 4 (05:35):
I mean, I think that we were fans. And keep
in mind, and this may be interesting to you, Alex,
I grew up in a DC that did not have
a professional baseball team, and I grew up with a
dad who loved baseball because he grew up with baseball
in Washington, d C. So we were always fans of
all the sports. I'm one of five kids. We always
(05:58):
played sports for fun and sportsmanship and fitness and all
that good stuff. And we went to games occasionally, but
we watched games a lot.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
So Mayor take us back to like when you were
a teenager, Did you ever dream that you would be
in such a powerful position to make an impact on
so many Americans.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
Well, I knew, Alex that I loved DC and I
love politics. We have an elected position here that is
a volunteer position called Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner. And we're unique,
of course in the American system, where you know, we
pay taxes, but we don't have senators and we don't
(06:42):
have a voting representative in the Congress. So every elected
office in DC like takes on even more importance, even
the voluntary ones like ANC commissioner. And my dad was
one of the first A and C commissioners. So I
grew up just really loving the city and seeing how
activism can change lives. And so I think I went
(07:06):
all the way through college not really knowing exactly what
I would do, but I knew I wanted to work
in DC change neighborhoods, help people, and I found out
quickly the fastest way to do that was getting myself elected.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Yeah, it's so interesting to think about Washington Mayor. I
had the good fortune of living there twice. One when
I was born and I was born at Walter Reed
Hospital when my dad was serving in the military, and
then I went to Georgetown and I learned what an
anc you know, commissioner was. Because you know Georgetown, you're
kind of invested in the politics of sure world, but
(07:44):
also the politics of the city. One of the things
that's so fascinating, and it takes us right into the
sports of it all, is the nature of the governance,
which you talked about, but also the proximity to you know,
two other states, where as you've seen in your lifetime,
as we've all seen, teams can just go and play there.
(08:08):
They don't have to go very far to still be
in the area, which certainly was the case, you know,
with the Commander. So let's talk about that deal. Josh
Harris has been a guest on the show. David Blitzer
has been a guest Magic Johnson, So we've talked a
lot about the Commanders because it was such a seminole
deal in the transition from Dan Snyder to Josh Harrison
in his group. But this moment where they are moving
(08:30):
back to you know what I think Josh and you
and others have called the spiritual home of this team
is a big deal. Tell us the genesis of that
from your perspective, because it was always on people's minds,
But what was the moment where you thought, Okay, this
could actually happen.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
I've always believed it was gonna happen, Jason. I was
sworn in as mayor in January of twenty fifteen, and
I believed from that day until now that it will happen.
We have the best site, and we had to work
hard until all of the conditions were right, the ownership conditions,
the political conditions, and our ability to advance a great
(09:13):
deal that DC residents believed was a great deal. And
so I do think Josh's ownership in his approach, has
been the right one. Dan Snyder had really soured on
the people of the district and vice versa, and having
a Josh come in to change the culture, invest in
(09:35):
the team, and restart his relationship with Washington d C
has been a great deal. I also have been very
encouraged by the type of business person he is and
the type of person that he is. So I trusted
when we sat across the table from each other and
we agreed to roughly what a timeline needed to be
(09:57):
for the team and for the city. I thought, if
we could deliver in that timeline, then we would come
to terms and that's where we are today.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Tell us about that first meeting with Josh. Did you
know him before? I mean, you know, like you he
grew up in the area. Was he on your radar
or was it just sort of an outreach that he said, Hey,
can I come see you and talk about this?
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Like, yeah, how does that happen?
Speaker 4 (10:18):
I didn't know Josh, but he had brought together a
couple of local folks who I do know very well,
in Mark I and the Rails family. Mitch Rails has
headquartered his very large company in DC for a long time,
and so I knew that relationship. And I think one
of the first meetings that they had in DC after
(10:40):
they secured the ownership was with us, and it was
with us in city Hall, and so I believe from
that point on that we would have a shot. Now
here was our problem. Our problem was we didn't control
the land at RFK for decades that has been controlled
by the National Park Service, which is part of the
(11:02):
Department of the Interior. We had a long term lease,
but that lease restricted us from a multi use development
and the lease was ending, and like now I'm going
to forget I think twenty thirty two. And so we
as a city, you know how these things work. If
it takes city investment where we have to bond out
(11:23):
or we have to build infrastructure, we need at least
thirty years on a lease to do that. And for
me to be able to feel really good about the development,
it had to be more than football. And it's one
hundred and eighty acres there, so you are familiar with
Walt to Read. Walt to Read is one hundred and
twenty acres and this one is on the banks of
(11:46):
the Anacostia River. When you look west, you see the
Capitol and the Washington Monument, so it's on the monumental
access this unprecedented location, and it also has the benefit
of having operated as a football stadium, and so we
know a lot of the issues that have played their
current stadium in terms of the fan experience and getting
(12:09):
there and getting in and out, we'll be able to
deal with.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
So, Mary, you mentioned that Josh and his group did
some things very well. What were some of those things
as far as whether it's attitude or the way he
came at it from maybe a gracious way one, and
then two. What's been the hardest and the easiest part
of getting some of these things through past some of
your partners in DC.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
Yeah. I think I kind of define integrity as doing
what you say you're going to do, and that has
been my experience with Josh. If he says he's gonna
meet with us, he meets with us. If he says
like this is our timeline, that has been the timeline.
It hasn't waivered, it hasn't gone back and forth. He
(12:55):
hasn't tried to play the jurisdictions against each other. I
think he's been pretty straight up and saying, like, we
believe this is where we're supposed to be. It's not
that we don't love Maryland, it's not like we don't
love Virginia. But I don't want to play you against
each other. We're going to take our shot with the district.
And the term that I use is when they were
(13:16):
ready to throw down with us, we were ready to
throw down with them. But we are all grown ups
and we know that we have to put together a
great deal, a business deal that he has to be
able to deliver to his ownership group, and a deal
on our side that I have to be able to
deliver to the DC Council and DC voters, and that's
(13:37):
where we are. So I think that's what he's done well.
He's kept his word and he's been an honest broker
among all parties. The tough parts, I think we anticipate.
We had to wrestle the land from the Congress, and
we jump through a lot of hoops to do that,
and that's harder for us, quite frankly, because we don't
have two senators and we're talking about getting something from
(14:00):
another state that does have two senators. So that's been hard.
But even then, we have great relationships with our counterparts
in Maryland and Virginia. I've worked very hard to make
this a win win for them and for us, and
I think we're getting there. The last parts are the
politics related to investing in sports stadium, which nobody is
(14:23):
surprised by. What we needed to do was put together
a great deal, and when we stack our deal up
against stadium deals across the country, we have contributed less
than any other jurisdiction other than the kind of the
outlier that was one hundred percent funded out in Los Angeles.
(14:44):
Even when we look at the deals within the district.
This one compares very favorably, and that's part. For example,
where the Washington Nationals play. People forget this, but back
in two thousand and eight or so, that stadium was
comple letely funded by taxpayers at six hundred million dollars
in today's dollars, that will be over a billion dollars.
(15:08):
This deal, the city will only contribute towards the horizontal
infrastructure under the stadium, another two hundred million for infrastructure
on the campus, and another one eighty five plus one
seventy five three hundred and fifty six I think in
parking garages, so just under a billion dollars. And we
(15:29):
also want to build a local sportsplex for our kids.
That gets us to one point one billion. So when
you talk about all of the stadium deals across the country,
we know ours is a good one.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
And so Mayor Bowser.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
I mean, as you said, you anticipated some of the
political wrangling and back and forth it's been happening, especially
the DC City Council. I know enough to be dangerous
from having lived around there that you know nothing's ever easy,
you know, getting done in the district. You know that
better than anyone has. The opposition though, or the questions
been more than you anticipated. And is it to the
(16:15):
point where you feel like things are in jeopardy or
you worried at this moment. I know there are a
lot of moving parts as we speak.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
Well, the biggest support I think that we needed to
win was in the public and we have managed to
do that. DC residents support us contributing to building a
new stadium with a mix of uses, housing and recreation
and parks at RFK Stadium. The fans support it, like
(16:47):
in Maryland and Virginia as well having the stadium located
at RFK, and I believe the vote at the Council
will be ten to two or eleven to two in
the final analysis. Where I'm a bit frustrated is the urgency.
I think that the council is lacking because in my world,
(17:09):
things change fast, especially now. Context changes, people change, world
events happen that can affect deals going through. I told
a group of folks recently, and this is how I
live my life. Sometimes there are windows of opportunity that open.
You never know when they're going to close, So while
(17:30):
they're wide open, you better get through that window, or
else that opportunity could close on you, and that's I
believe where we are. I negotiated a great deal that
allowed us a period of exclusivity through July fifteenth. And
I am particularly sensitive to periods of exclusivity because I
(17:54):
won back our teams during a time when they thought
they were going to place else and I'm talking about
the Wizards and the Capitals now. But because I believe
that that deal was tenuous, I didn't think it was
right for the teams. I knew it wasn't right for
the city. I refused to stop talking to our owners
(18:14):
or just refused so they didn't have a period of exclusivity.
And so in that time, we want our teams back.
So I know how important it is when team ownership
is only talking to you, and I know how perilous
it can be when other offers are you know, are
thrown at them.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
So Mayor you mentioned another giant in the world of business,
and Ted Leons's yeah, obviously he owns the three teams,
the Mystics, the Capital and the Wizards. How would you
describe either both superpowers or how is their approach different
the way they went about building new arenas.
Speaker 4 (18:54):
I think Ted has been like an amazing part of
the DC business can unity, and I think he didn't
make a great decision. That's how I've kind of approached it,
and it was my job to convince him of that,
and more than that, to make him a part of
something bigger, which was how we described it as the
(19:18):
DC comeback. Post COVID, Downtown d C kind of suffered.
It was the remote work phenomenon where so many people
were working at home. We saw our streets a little
bit emptier, our restaurants suffered a bit, and Monumental Sports
was at the heart of downtown. It didn't suffer. In fact,
(19:39):
it got bigger in the post pandemic years, more shows,
more people, more nights occupied, and so we knew what
Monumental could continue to be for DC. We also listened
intently at what they wanted to achieve in a renovation
and what they could get if they moved and they
(20:00):
had a clean slate and they could build from scratch.
It was our challenge to give them all of those
the space, the fan experience while building in place, and
I think we were able to achieve that.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
And so Mayor Bastar, I would love to hear more
about that comeback because it was I mean that, you know,
watching it from from a distance, I mean, it was
quite a turn of events, you know, you had. I
mean there was literally a press conference with ted Leonsis
and you know, Governor Youngkin, et cetera. This was all
in motion. It felt for those of us who were
(20:38):
on the outside, like a done deal. Ted Leonsis obviously
was well known to you. I mean, do you just
call them up and basically say, as my seven year
old daughter says, bro, are you kidding me right now?
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Like what do you say? Oh?
Speaker 4 (20:51):
There were a long series of conversations. Probably the one
that will be remembered is maybe the day or two
before they had that press conference where they met with
me and other city leadership to kind of talk through
their decision. Even in that discussion, it was kind of
(21:11):
clear to me that it was a torture decision for him.
But the thing that will always ring true was that
he said to me then or soon thereafter, I haven't
signed anything, and I thought, ding ding ding, this is
not done. And then I thought to myself, then what
(21:35):
are you talking about? And so in another longer format,
like we can kind of talk through the psychology of that.
But I always believed that until it was over, it
wasn't over. But even more and this probably resonates with
both of you, is that DC residents were quite upset
(21:57):
about it. You are sad, really upset, sad, disappointed all
of the things. And so it was clear that I
have as mayor to put us in a place to
be ready if the team stayed, but also to be
ready if they went. And we put together a great
(22:18):
team of developers, architects, landscape artists, retail experts, just housing experts,
a great team of folks, and we called it the
Gallery Place Task Force. It was led by two female
developers in DC that had very successfully turned underutilized places
(22:41):
into amazing new neighborhoods. And they just did a great
job of showing us what our future could be at
Gallery Place in the heart of downtown if we didn't
have the stadium there. And you know, frankly, some people
were getting excited about that too. So I think we
had two great options. We always believe the best was
(23:02):
to keep our team. It's hard to replace, especially in
a short amount of time. Two hundred nights or one
hundred and seventy nights with twenty thousand people coming in
and out of your downtown and the excitement that that brings.
We're also didn't want the team to stay in the
same box, if you know what I mean. And so
(23:22):
the eight hundred million dollars of investment five hundred million
overs is ours is the Cities. We have now become
the owner of the arena and we're going to have
the team there for a long long time. But now
the new design better speaks to the surrounding area. So
on dark nights, it's not dark, it's not cold, but
(23:46):
it interacts with the restaurants and other surroundings. So I'm
really excited about it. We think that's a great arena
just where it is, and I have seen so many
shows and sporting events. Most recently an inaugural ceremony was
held inside and the arena became a big part of that.
(24:07):
So I can't even imagine that not being in the
heart of downtown DC.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
I mean, it was interesting too, because you know, again
Ted is well known to both Alex and myself and
if I recall right, and we don't have to go
like super deep into this, but there was also an
element of like some retail space became available. Is that
like you were able to sort of reshape sort of
those several blocks around it as well, so it was
an even more holistic redevelopment than just the arena.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Is that right? Oh?
Speaker 4 (24:38):
Absolutely, I mean that's a big part of it. It's
an apartment office retail building right next to it, and
in between the arena and that building as an alley
that is owned by the district that we made a
part of it. And so when you see the designs,
it's like you're coming into this like a new street,
(24:59):
but it's inside. It's pretty spectacular, and they're going to
use a lot of the retail space to improve their
fan experience and a different entrance, better flow. We are
just funded in our budget that we're also investing in
an entertainment district, so the streets will actually look different
(25:22):
and feel different and operate different. And then around that,
and one really great thing that came about during this
process is we just have been able to move fans
in and out of the facility faster using a package
of our personnel that we have perfected really at NAT's Park,
(25:43):
but now we also have been in place at the
Capitol One Arena. So it's been really great.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
I'm reminded Mayor of you know, Alex is just recently
back from the All Star Game in Atlanta, my hometown,
and has been raving about the battery down there and
sort of how they completely rethought, you know, all these
intersections that you just mentioned, you know, the residential, the retail,
the hospitality, obviously all anchored by sports. So it's amazing
(26:14):
how much more thought goes into that than candidly when
we were all kids and it was like, yeah, you
go to the stadium, you get a hot dog, you know,
you cheer for a rod, and then you go home,
you know, and that's it.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
And a lot of it has come up around Gallery
Place even more organically, but it's there, and if you
haven't been, I don't know if you were at the
All Star Game that we hosted here. I guess that
was twenty eighteen. Now it spend a minute, but even
all of the places, the bullpen and everything that has
come up around That's Park, even in the last couple
(26:46):
of years, it's just so interesting for fans and fans
of all ages. I think that's another thing that we
are and I know all of the professional teams are
trying to make sure they're increasing fame. They have a
lot of competition with kids, and how are we making
sure our kids understand baseball no football? Because we see
(27:10):
these sports growing.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
You know, I was there for the All Star Game
when you guys hosted. I was also there for the
year that you won the World Series. I went to
every World Series game and you guys did a fabulous
job of hosting the World Series. So I'm really intrigued
by this. I'm reading your bio, hearing you majors from
political science and government, and you have your masters in
public policy. But you are a very very savvy business woman.
(27:35):
As Jason already knows, I'm learning here. Where do you
get that like DNA and you? And two, how would
you describe your negotiating style because your negotiating is some
of the biggest deals in this country.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
Wow, thank you for that, by the way. And because
it is sometimes when you do politics and I've done this,
and maybe you have this experience because you've been in sports,
but getting people to see you differently and see your
whole set of skills is hard. I had a reporter
say to me during this process for one of the
(28:09):
business publications in DC, not Bloomberg of course, he said,
have we just missed that you are a master negotiator
all these years? And I said, perhaps you have. But
like if you have to stand in front of a
neighborhood and try to convince them that they need sidewalks
(28:30):
when they don't want them, you become a really good negotiator.
Or if you have to go in a neighborhood and say, hey,
we want to complete this network of bicycle lanes and
it may mean that you're going to lose three parking spaces,
you become a good negotiator. At the same time, I
negotiate with big unions teachers unions, and for example, or
(28:52):
tough to deal with. But I've gotten three labor contracts
through in the last ten years with teachers and many
other So I think the experience of being a big
city mayor puts you in very micro negotiations on blocks
and very big negotiations in boardrooms. I think I have
(29:14):
learned how to do both. And I even think in
the case where all of our sports teams, some of
these negotiations take patients, some of them take big, bold
ideas that you got to just push and push hard
until you get them done. But in any case, I
(29:35):
think you start off a negotiation with your core values,
and when you can work with a partner across the
table and hit your core values and allow them to
get their core values, you get a win win.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Given where you sit. I do wonder and we talk
about this, Alex and I all the time. We talk
with other guests about it. You know, sports does it
hits different, you know, than than almost any other industry.
Especially in times where we can't agree on much of anything,
people do tend to rally around sports. You are obviously
no stranger to politics, and all of it's right there
(30:12):
in your literal backyard. Is there or should there be
a way to keep sports sort of out of the
political discourse?
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Should it be?
Speaker 3 (30:23):
How does it fit into a world where we're arguing
about so many things all the time.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
I think that would be amazing if we could do that.
I don't know how realistic it is, but I think
it would be good for us. There's politics everywhere in
and around our arenas. Our arenas have becomeback drops for
political fundraisers, like as you said, we just hosted. When
(30:51):
the inauguration moved indoors, it was inside the Catwan Arena
and different. I think political figure engaged with sports differently.
So I think it just depends. If you have a
big sports fan in the White House, then you probably
will see different engagement. I think all of the members
(31:12):
of Congress that I have been involved with love to
be around successful sports teams. And we wouldn't be sitting here,
for example, if I didn't strike up a great relationship
with a Republican from Kentucky who said I'm going to
help you get that land. And interesting he absolutely did,
(31:35):
and that his name is James Comer from Kentucky. He
happens to be the oversight chairs long until we become
a state. Jason, we have an oversight committee that ask
us any number of questions. In one particular meeting, I said, listen,
I'll answer all your questions about public safety or whatever
(31:55):
it is, but this is my question for you. Will
you help us get people back to work in their offices?
And will you help us get RFK? And he said
yes I will.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
So interesting.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
Yes, interesting, that that's a really that's a good insight
into into how things work, again differently for you than
than maybe any other big city mayor. All right, so
(32:29):
we're gonna do a quick lightning round to wrap this
up and let you get back to you know, running
our nation's capital. It's five questions, you know, first thing
that jumps to your mind. All start, and then Alex
will pick up. All right, you ready, yes, okay? What's
the best piece of advice you've received on deal making
or business?
Speaker 4 (32:46):
I think the best piece of advice on deal making
is to stay at the table.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
All right? Who is your dream deal making partner?
Speaker 4 (32:59):
I think is Josh Harris?
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Good answer?
Speaker 3 (33:03):
What team do you want to see win a championship
more than any Ooh?
Speaker 4 (33:07):
You know I can't answer that, but we would no, no, no,
I will answer it because we would love to have
the super Bowl. Like we haven't hosted a super Bowl
with our stadium. It will have a roof in Roger Goodell,
he didn't promise, but he got right up on the line.
We would love to host a super Bowl in our
new stadium in.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
RFK and have the Commanders win that probably right, Yes.
Speaker 4 (33:34):
I know they don't have to play here, but it
would be great if like they were in the super
Bowl in DC.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
What's your hype song before a big meeting or negotiation?
Speaker 4 (33:45):
Oh my god, I have a new one, Alex is
so funny that you nobody knows this.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Oh freaky news.
Speaker 4 (33:54):
My new hype song is by Whitney Houston and it's
called My Name Is Not Susan.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Oh whoa. That's great? All right.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
Finally, what's your advice for someone listening who wants a
career like yours?
Speaker 4 (34:08):
My advice is, don't listen to people when they tell
you is not your turn. Get through the window.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
I love it. I love it. Mayor Muriel Bauser.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
We had really been looking forward to this and you
over delivered, which is it seems like it's your style.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
So thank you so much. We really enjoyed it.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
Great to see you. Thank you guys.
Speaker 3 (34:38):
The Deal is hosted by Alex Rodriguez and me Jason Kelly.
This episode was made by Anamazarakis, Stacey Wong, and Lizzie Phillip.
Amy Keen is our editor and Will Connelly is our
video editor. Our theme music is made by Blake Maples.
Our executive producers are Kelly Leferrier, Ashley Hoenig, and Brenda Nenham.
Sage Bauman is the head of Bloomberg Podcast. Additional support
(35:00):
from Rachel Carnivale and Elena Los Angeles. Thanks so much
for listening to the deal. If you have a minute, subscribe,
rate and review our show. It'll help other listeners find us.
I'm Jason Kelly. See you next week.
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