January 10, 2025 • 38 mins
Join hosts Michael Barr, Scarlet Fu, Damian Sassower for a look at some of the latest headlines and stories in the business of sports.
Altice dropped MSG Networks from its Optimum cable service, leaving Knicks and Rangers fans in the lurch. Bloomberg News telecom and entertainment reporter Kelcee Griffis details the dispute and how it's the latest example of a content provider and content distributor playing hardball with each other.
Bloomberg News wealth reporter Annie Massa joins on her reporting that the Saudi-backed LIV Golf will host a tournament at President-elect Donald Trump's National Doral golf club near Miami and how it continues a trend for Trump cozying up with LIV Golf.
And we hear from Michael Lombardi, general manager of the University of North Carolina's football program about what's next now that NFL legend Bill Belichick is head coach.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
This is the business of sports.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
The business of sports can be intimidating or hard for
a starting to break into.
Speaker 4 (00:13):
We really appreciate what our owners are actually there, you
know with us through the journey.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Teams ours especially have been very intentional to diversify at
all levels of the company.
Speaker 5 (00:22):
I think we're in bolden years for the NFL and
college football.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Our demographic reach has continued to explode.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
This is going to be really unlocking the streaming platform
for sports fans.
Speaker 6 (00:33):
Sports evaluations arising. We'll see when they peak. You don't
have to be the best in your sports and make
a whole ton of money.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 6 (00:46):
This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports where we explore
the big money issues in the world of sports. I'm
Michael Barr, along with Scarlett fu and Damian sas Hour.
Coming up today, NFL legend Bill Belichick is now the
big man on campus at UNC. We've got the new
general manager of the University of North Carolina's football program,
Michael Lombardi joins us to talk about what's next for
(01:09):
UNC With Belichick.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
The imagery that people have a Bill at the press
conference is not who Bill is behind the doors in
terms of how he you know, how he interacts with players,
how he communicates to players, how players tend to gravitate
to him. He's very direct, very honest, and I think
to me, that's what sells a program.
Speaker 6 (01:28):
We'll also talk about some golf with Live Golf's tournament
heading to Miami and one of President elect Donald Trump's
golf resorts. All that is on the way on the
Bloomberg business of sports. But first the New York Knicks.
They're having another great season led by All star Jalen
Brunson and new arrival Carl Anthony Towns.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Town's a three pointer, Carl Anthony Towns.
Speaker 6 (01:52):
That's forty. But many Knicks diehards can't watch their hometown team,
or the New York Rangers or Islanders. Altis USA, which
runs Optimum cable, one of the top cable providers in
New York State and the Tri State area, dropped MSG
Networks from its lineup on New Year's Day. It's part
(02:13):
of an escalating dispute between MSG and Altis, and the
latest example of content providers and distributors playing hardball with
each other. For more on what's going on between MSG
and alteas, we welcome Bloomberg Telecom and Entertainment reporter Kelsey Griffiths.
Speaker 5 (02:29):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 6 (02:31):
Well, it's kind of a sticky situation. The Knicks Rangers game.
You can't get them for Altese cable subscribers. Why.
Speaker 7 (02:42):
Yeah, so this is kind of an interesting you impasse
that these two companies have come up against. You have
Alties that is obviously one of the biggest cable providers
in the New York area having this agreement with MSG
(03:02):
Networks or Sphere Entertainment. I guess, as they're now called
falling through. These companies just came to an impasse and
they could not agree to the terms through which Altis
would carry the programming.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
And part of why they can't come to an agreement
is because it's expensive to pay for these sports rights
and MSG Networks wants to charge a lot of it
because they carry a lot of different teams. What is
the thinking behind altises trying to leverage its negotiating stance
with MSG Networks.
Speaker 7 (03:39):
Yeah, so all the sus saying basically that MSG is
charging them too much. They were saying that it would
cost up to ten dollars per subscriber more for them
to keep offering this content.
Speaker 5 (03:53):
To their subscribers.
Speaker 7 (03:55):
So they were saying, actually that their data reports the
fact that not a lot of their customers or at
least not the majority of their customers or even tuning
into sports. So they want to just drop the extra
cost across the board and then let the subscribers that
are sports fans and do want to tune in pay
(04:16):
for that content over the top.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
So is there any resolution inside? I mean, how are
we going to get the ranges in the next or
whoever it is back on the air? I mean, is
there some resolution being discussed?
Speaker 7 (04:27):
Yeah, So in terms of all Teeth and MSG, I
think they're pretty much at a standstill, and analysts know
last week said that resolution is unlikely soon if ever.
So in the meantime, there are some options that fans have.
(04:47):
You could subscribe to a different network that are a
different cable provider that does carry these channels, and I
believe the other two major providers in the New York
area do carry the channels, so you have that going
for you. Or you could subscribe to this over the
top service that's actually partly owned by MSG. And that's
(05:13):
something that actually Altis is pushing. They're saying, if you
don't you know, if you do want to continue subscribing
and you want to get this content, you should just
bite over the top.
Speaker 6 (05:27):
That's a gamble then for All Teas, because if the
subscriber can get it somewhere else, And I think what
All Teas has almost two million TV subscribers. Are they
taking a gamble that they're going to lose customers?
Speaker 7 (05:42):
Yeah, I think that's an open question, but it really
highlights this tension that the traditional PTV providers are feeling.
Speaker 5 (05:50):
A lot of sports.
Speaker 7 (05:51):
Streaming is going to UH or rather a lot of sports.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
Programming is going to streaming.
Speaker 7 (05:56):
It's going to these over the top options so that
people can sort of follow or fandoms and subscribe to
these more skinny bundles and get the content that they want.
I think what these more traditional cable companies are kind
of responding to is that people feel like cable is
too expensive to begin with, and so they want to
(06:17):
kind of jettison these additional costs that come from carrying sports.
Maybe not everyone subscribes to or is watching, so I
don't know, it's kind of a delicate dance there.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Yeah. Alteas, by the way, operates under the Optimum brand,
and I guess this all comes down to Altas trying
to slow the cord cutting, which has you know, really
picked up pace in the last decade. But still there's
still plenty of people who do subscribe to these cable
packages and pay quite a bit of money monthly. Kelsey,
I want to ask you about a analyst note recently
(06:49):
about MSG Networks and what happens to this business if
this resolution, if this dispute with Altis is not resolved,
because Rich Greenfield, where a light Shed Partners, has talked
about a possible bankruptcy over at MSG Networks, And of
course this is based on one analyst perspective. This is
not what is necessarily going to happen. What is he alleging.
Speaker 7 (07:12):
Yeah, so he's basically alleging that this the MSG is
you know, not going to be in good financial standing
if they are unable to resolve this impact with all piece.
So you know, I wasn't able to do a lot
of independent reporting on that point, but I do think
again that that just points back to the precarious situation
(07:35):
that regional sports networks for finding themselves in if they,
you know, continue losing subscribers through traditional channels.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
Well, Kelsey, let me jump right in there. I mean
Scarlett JP Morgan analyst David Kronowski also shares those views.
He thinks that you know that MSG is at risk,
at the bondra at risk. And here we're talking about
let's be clear, Kelsey, we're talking about ALTI ticker symbol
ATUS on the New York Stock Exchange, Madison Square a
Garden Sports Corp MSGS, and then there's Sphere Entertainment.
Speaker 7 (08:04):
Right.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
All of those are listed entities, and they all have
a lot of dead outstanding. So I mean there's a
lot of investors that are involved here. Talk to us
a little bit about what you're hearing. I mean our investors,
I mean upset by this, Which investor? I mean some
investors might actually be happy by this, right, So talk
to us a little bit about the capital structure of
these companies and how it all comes together.
Speaker 7 (08:22):
You know, I've been covering the telecom industry, including some
of these carriage disputes, for almost a decade, and this
is a sort of tale as old as time, you know,
And I think this these types of disputes are only
going to be picking up, and it's only going to
you know, continue raising a lot of question marks for
(08:44):
publicly traded companies like these.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Just one mention here we talked about the Knicks and
the Rangers, MSG and MSG Sportsnet also broadcast at New
York Islanders Devil and then New Jersey Devils, as well
as some New York Giants and Buffalo Bills games. Now
we know the Rangers and the Islanders are doing terribly,
so I don't know how many viewers are tuning in
or upset that they can't get those games. But the
Devils have been doing well. Not so much for the Giants, right, Damien, Well,
(09:09):
look and.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
Look, And just to just kind of re up on
that last question, you know, I'm not a credit analyst either, Kelsey,
so I hate to put you on the spot there,
but you know our friends at JP Morgan David is
and so he is saying here that the loss of
Optimum the carriage could actually be a net positive for
Sphere Entertainment, potentially pushing Mstry Networks toward a full default
scenario and clearing over seve hundred million and non recourse
debt from the company's balance sheets, so that would actually
(09:31):
boost its evaluation. So it's really just sophisticated capital structure
arbitrage stuff going on here for the real heavyweights in
Wall Street to kind of sort through and I guess
profit from.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Not much consolation though, if you can't get these games
and you want to and being told to go to
the Gotham Sports Center, right, is that or subscribe to
Foubo TV or is that the option?
Speaker 4 (09:52):
Kelsey? I mean, what are your options if you're you know,
if you're you know, if you just if you just
lost access to these games, you have to download the app?
Is that the only way?
Speaker 7 (10:00):
Yeah, so you can download the app, or you might
consider switching cable providers. I spoke with one person who,
as soon as we found out that this was, you know,
they were losing access to MSG, he puts to Exfinity,
and I believe Exfinity already you know, has a deal
with MSG to carry it. So yeah, I think that
(10:21):
there are some other local options if you do want
to see this on the air.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Michael Barr, I feel like this goes back to the
heart of the problem, which is if you're a sports
fan and you want to watch games live, it's impossible
to figure out how you can watch them. Well, yeah,
you have to google it constantly, and you know, then
you have to ask yourself, Wait a minute, is this
blacked out? Is this not blacked out?
Speaker 6 (10:40):
Forget even Google and Kelsey. I'm sorry, old man bar
is about to talk here, because it's like when I
wanted to watch something live, I got the rabbit Ears ready,
I got everything all said, I still had a beer
on the couch, but I mean I still had the
rabbit Ears. But streaming, forget cable, that's old school too,
just cable streaming has in general changed everything, and I
(11:04):
don't know if we can get.
Speaker 7 (11:05):
It back exactly. I think this, this, this latest impasse
again just really speaks to the fragmentation of the sports
landscape and how people companies and content companies are sort
of grappling with these changes and having to change their
business models and the way they do business with each
other in response.
Speaker 6 (11:25):
Can there be a way where maybe all sides get
together and they say kumbaya and it can be done
before the end of the season.
Speaker 5 (11:36):
I wish I had an answer to that.
Speaker 7 (11:38):
But if you guys hear something, if you hear that
there's a resolution.
Speaker 5 (11:42):
You let me know, because I'd be interested to know
that too.
Speaker 6 (11:45):
Well, I will, I will go, And because I want
to see the games. I mean, yes, I get it,
you know the different Yeah, they're Rangers are They're good,
But I still want to see the games. I mean,
you know, if you're a fan of the team, I mean,
take Scarlett. She's wearing a Ranger's jacket right now, so
you still win.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
I may thought of every day when I walk through
the office, given how bad the team is playing right now.
Speaker 6 (12:10):
Kelsey Griffiths, and you wrote this, by the way, with
Hannah Miller, also great at Bloomberg, and we want to
give credit to both of you. Okay, here's the question. Yeah,
here it is, who's going to win the Super Bowl
this year?
Speaker 5 (12:27):
Who's going to win the Super Bowl this year? For me?
Speaker 7 (12:29):
Yes, well, I was a Taylor Swift fan. I have
to say I would love to see the Kansas City
Chiefs go again because I would like to see a
certain blonde pop star in the stands again.
Speaker 5 (12:38):
I think that's pretty entertaining.
Speaker 6 (12:39):
Oh it's a Detroit fan. Look at the time. We're
all done. Kelsey, Thank you so much for joining us
at the Bloomberg Business of Sports. We appreciate it.
Speaker 5 (12:50):
Up.
Speaker 6 (12:50):
Next, we turn to golf and Trump owned golf venue
that's slated to host a live golf tournament for my
colleague Scarlett Foo and Damian Sasa. Michael Barr, You're listening
to the Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio around
the world.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
This is Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 6 (13:14):
This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports where we explore
the big money issues in the world of sports. Michael
Barr along with my colleagues Scarlett Fou and Damian Sassaur.
While President elect Donald Trump is heading back to DC,
some high profile golf is slated to head back to
one of his resorts in Florida. Live golf will head
to the Trump National Durral Golf Club near Miami for
(13:35):
the fourth time, but only the first time while Trump
is a sitting US president. For more on Trump's long
association with golf and live we welcome Bloomberg News Wealth
reporter Annie Massa. Annie, welcome to the Bloomberg Business of Sports.
Speaker 8 (13:51):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 6 (13:52):
Well, let's start with the article that you wrote President
elect Donald Trump's draw resort. That's the one in Florida
will host the Saudi Back Live Golf in April, and
this is the fourth time it has happened any but
I think the first time that it will happen when
he's president.
Speaker 8 (14:11):
That's right, So it's continuing. There's a very friendly relationship
between Trump and Live and the fact that Live will
host once again at Trump's Miami golf resort is kind
of a subject of controversy, and this has been long simmering,
but as you mentioned, it will be the first time
that this happens with Trump as the sitting president, and
(14:34):
you know, the crux of the controversy is that this
is a Saudi backed, you know, golf group, and you know,
having the sitting president poised to reap the financial benefits
of hosting the tournament there is kind of kind of
draws some skeptics for sure.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Can you talk a little bit about what the Trump
Organization's structure looks like, because a lot of business people
who become elected of officials and government tend to put
their assets in a trust and then don't have any
actual practical or hands on oversight over the business during
the time that they're in office. Is that what we're
seeing with President elect Trump.
Speaker 8 (15:13):
President elect Trump is very unusual in that, yes, his
assets have been put in a trust, but he refused
to divest completely of the Trump Organization. So now the
Trump Organization is run by his sons Eric and Don Junior,
and so he and and we can see from his
disclosures that he's absolutely getting income from all of these
(15:39):
all of these Trump Organization properties and operations all around
the world, and golf has golf courses. Yeah, golf has
become an ever greater and ever more important piece of that.
So he had more than five hundred million dollars worth
of income from his golf and resort properties in the
in the most recent financial disclosure that we saw. So
(16:00):
this is no small amount of money that Trump is
earning from golf and resorts. And so that all I
mean goes to show you how important it is to
him to his personal fortune. And hosting big events like
the live one that will happen in April the week
before the Masters are absolutely contribute to that.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
Annie, I may be here talking to you on the
Bloomberg Business of Sports, but my day job is running
emerging market fixed income from Bloomberg Intelligence. And you know,
you know, the friends of Trump trade is in full
effect right now, from Argentina to Israel to Hungary. And
you know, just on Tuesday, we heard that who's seen Sajwani,
the billionaire head of DEMAC Group, I believe is how
(16:42):
you pronounce it, announced that he's going to invest more
than twenty billion dollars to build new data centers in
the US. Now, this is the same chap, if I'm
not mistaken, who has previously partnered with Trump to build
what else, luxury golf courses in Dubai. So the friends
of Trump, I'm just curious, you know, like who benefit
fits here, you know, from live golf being held at
(17:03):
a Trump resort in the US. I mean, what's the
game plan here? What do you think the angle is
from Trump's perspective?
Speaker 8 (17:09):
You're so right. And one thing that was striking about
that that announcement about the data centers that would be
financed here in the US by this billionaire head of
DEMAC Group. This is yet another uh that that announcement
was made the same day that this live golf schedule
came out. So those were two prominent examples of how
(17:32):
Trump's business ties in the Middle East have only gotten
you know, more prominent since he left office, and you know,
you saw that in just one day with two major
announcements that affect Trump and his business business partnerships around
the Middle East.
Speaker 6 (17:51):
I want to focus more on why this is controversial.
Human rights advocates have criticized this because they're saying is
operating under the auspices of the Saudi regime, and US
intelligence has linked the twenty eighteen murder of Washington Post
journalist Jamal Kashogi, and that has just raised the ire
(18:15):
of a lot of people. Can you expand more on that?
Speaker 8 (18:18):
Of course, the stepping back the reason that it's controversial
that a Trump property would host live golf, or the
reason that it's controversial that Trump has this relationship to
Live is because the Saudi Sovereign Wealth Fund is financing Live,
and so you're linking back this, You're linking back the
(18:39):
money that Live has to throw around to throw these
kinds of events at Trump property to a regime that
has you know, a very bracing human rights record. And
you know, moreover, as as president, Trump is going to
be the man in charge of like relationships with all
(19:01):
sorts of h with the Middle East. So it's going
to be a big focus going forward, and already has
been that he does so much business with Middle East
business partners, and that the Trump Organization is.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Hosting an event like this. The election of Donald Trump
has a lot of people excited about the civil war
in golf kind of healing, because live golf versus PGA
is kind of a death match until they announced that
they were going to merge, or parts of them were
going to merge, and then that kind of has just
played itself out and it hasn't happened yet. Damien, I
know that you are a golf fan. You certainly play golf,
(19:40):
and you watch some golf. Do you watch PGA versus
live golf? Like, do you have loyalties to one entity
over another?
Speaker 4 (19:49):
Well, Scarlett, I must confess I do not watch any
live events. I just found them to be far too
hokey for me.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
But why why we are they hokey?
Speaker 4 (19:58):
The pace of play, the match play, I just you know,
I never really I just couldn't get into it. And
you know, like a traditional you know, four day, you know,
make the cut, you know, Saturday Sunday PGA format. I'm sorry,
I'm just a traditionalist. In that way. But I will
say this. I don't know if anyone caught this, but
just this week, this new format, this you know, I
(20:19):
guess it's more like a video game, you know, where
you hit into this huge you know, you're in a stadium.
And even though everybody yeah, yep, yep, and it was
supposedly a smashing success, despite the fact that you know,
it was pretty lopside in terms of the outcome. I
think it was in a nine to two victory for
for I don't know if it was the Bay Area
or the LA I mean, there's a bunch of these little,
(20:39):
you know, golf clubs that you know, I mean, even
Stevie Cohen owns the New York one right now, right,
so so I've heard that that format is actually quite interesting.
I must confess I didn't watch it, but Scarlett, I mean,
these new golf formats are real, and they threatened to change,
you know, the way in which we all enjoyed the sport.
Speaker 6 (20:57):
See Anny, this is why I love allto racing.
Speaker 5 (21:02):
There's no disrupting it.
Speaker 6 (21:03):
There is no disrupting that. But it's a thing that
you know, back to President like Trump, I mean, he
has hosted other events, sporting events as well, back when
he had the old taj Mahal back in Atlantic City
because he hosted some WWE events.
Speaker 8 (21:21):
Yeah, and one thing I should mention on PGA versus Live,
by the way, is that Trump's relationship to the PGA
has been a bit fraud in the past. Obviously, as
you were mentioning a bit of a more venerable golf tournament,
and so Trump basically there was a plan to have
(21:41):
a PGA tournament at a Trump property in twenty twenty
two that was pulled after the January sixth Riots. So
he's clashed with the PGA, and that may also play
into his love of the live tournament. So yeah, he
has this long standing history there.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
But you know, his profile would suggest he's a traditionalist
when it comes to playing golf. I mean, I don't
know anything about golf, but I'm guessing that men of
a certain age play the traditional PGA style of golf
rather than you know, the live golf that I guess
moves much faster, right, Damian, Yeah, No.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
That's exactly right. I mean, look now to your point,
just going to this new Golf League, this TGL and
all these different formats that are popping up left front
the center Scarlett. You know, at the end of the day,
it just speaks to the you know, just the rise
of golf in general, and how a sport that was
once not accessible by you know, every household you know,
forget about the US, but across the planet has become
increasingly more so. And I think I think that's the
(22:43):
real kind of takeaway here is that Trump was early on.
I mean, I think he if I'm not mistaken, I mean, Annie,
doesn't Trump organization derive something on the order of five
hundred million dollars in revenue a year from his residential
and resort properties. Does that numbers sound right?
Speaker 8 (22:57):
That's income that Trump has reported. That five hundred million
dollar figure is income that Trump has reported from his
golf and resort properties in his most recent in his
most recent financial disclosure, and that was.
Speaker 4 (23:11):
An annual number.
Speaker 5 (23:12):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
I mean that's just amazing, right, I mean, think about
that number, and that's just you know, Trump resorts. So
you know, there you go.
Speaker 6 (23:18):
It has been outside of drel I mean, Trump has
hosted live tournaments in New Jersey and DC. And you
can see I'm trying to get the right word. I
guess you want to say, this friendship, this relationship that
he has with Live and is going to continue to grow,
(23:39):
how much money can he make as long as he
sticks with Live?
Speaker 8 (23:43):
Well, that's right, And that's the crux of the questions
around and the criticism of Trump's conflicts of interest here
is that you know, it's not just Miami. He's hosting
in other or the Trump organization is hosting Live in
other locations as well. And I mean that's that's the question.
(24:05):
As you continue to derive income from these huge events
and all all the associated kind of money that can
bring in, is that appropriate when when the when the
benefits a crew to sitting president of the United States.
Speaker 6 (24:21):
We could start a putt put tournament. Oh boy, and man,
do you have much money we could make if we
did that?
Speaker 2 (24:29):
You know we'll have it back us. Michael Barr, Oh, I.
Speaker 6 (24:33):
Think we're out of time. Any thank you, thank you
so much for joining us here on the Bloomberg Business
and Sports. Thanks our thanks to Bloomberg News Wealth reporter
any massive for joining us in other news. In golf,
Tiger Woods recently rolled out a new futuristic style of golf.
He and his backers are hoping will bring new fans
(24:56):
to the game. It's a new golf league called tg
CO founded by Woods and Rory McElroy in partnership with
the BGA. It's a new, high tech version of the
game played in a team competition style indoors. The inaugural
event has already been in the history books the Bay
They got the win over the New York Golf Club.
(25:17):
And by the way, ESPN likes the viewership. According to Sportico,
they averaged nine hundred nineteen thousand viewers that took place
Tuesday night, and they found a younger audience than a
typical golf tournament, as the organizer's intended because it's in
a two hour format. Up next on the show, we
(25:39):
turned to college football and its newest big time head coach,
Bill Belichick, my colleague Scarlett Fu and Damian sasaur At
Michael Barr. You're listening to the Bloomberg Business of Sports
in Bloomberg Radio around the world.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
This is Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bluemlomberg Radio.
Speaker 6 (26:01):
Thanks for joining us on the Bloomberg Business of Sports.
We explore the big money issues in the world of sports.
I'm Michael Barr, along with my colleagues Scarlett Fu and
Damian Sasaur. One of the biggest stories in sports right
now is Bill Belichick. Everyone figured he was going back
to an NFL team if he coached again, but instead
he's heading to the University of North Carolina. Here to
(26:23):
talk about what that means for college football and the
future of UNC's program is Michael Lombardi. He is the
new general manager of UNC's football program, and he'll be
working directly with Belichick. Michael, Welcome to the Bloomberg Business
of Sports.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
Thank you, it's good to be here. Hope all as well.
Speaker 6 (26:40):
Happy New Year, Happy New year to you. I guess
you're starting out with a happy new year. You've got
one whale of a coach. Tell us about the impact
and what that means for the team.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Well, I mean it means for tremendously. The state of
North Carolina, the community of Chapel Hill need to get
the greatest coach of all time from pro football to
really embark on college up ball and embrace it with
all the energy that he possibly has. He's on the
road today. He's in Charlotte recruiting, talking to young men
trying to get him to build this North Carolina program
(27:10):
into the kind of program we believe it can be
and it's capable of being. It's had many great players,
but maybe not so many great teams. They've won one
ACC championship since nineteen eighty. So we're here to hopefully
try to fix.
Speaker 4 (27:24):
That hold on Michael. Is it true that Bill Belichick
is on X on Twitter?
Speaker 3 (27:28):
Now?
Speaker 4 (27:29):
I mean, does he have a Twitter hand? I mean,
I mean this is unbelievable. Did you ever, in your
lifetime of working with Bill since the eighties nineties, ever
once think that Bill Bilichick would have his own Twitter handle.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
Well, I don't know about the Twitter or the instaface
or any of that, but I do know what I
think people never really understood about Bill is he's a
great recruiter. You know, the people. The imagery that people
have a Bill at the press conference is not who
Bill is behind the doors in terms of how he
you know, how he had interacts with players, how he
communicates to players, how players tend to gravitate to them.
(28:04):
He's very direct, very honest, and I think to me,
that's what sells a program, and that's why he's connecting
with kids and we've got, you know, a lot of
kids that want to come to North Carolina and help
build our program. And because of him, and you know,
we're going to be a professional program. I mean, that's
what we're all about. We we are going to embrace this,
you know, the challenges that lies ahead of us, and
(28:25):
we're going to do the things that we have to
do to build it and get it back, and we're
talking about making it. You know, look, college football has
become a professional program. We know that, Right's it's no
longer collegiate, right it's you know, we have to teach
these these people, these young men, that the difference between
what an amateur does and what a professional does. Right,
Amateurs have goals, Professionals have systems, and that's our job
(28:47):
to do that.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
You know, Michael, I've seen the pictures of coach Bilichick
in Rollsville, North Carolina recruiting for star recruits. I know
that you already and added fifteen new transfers from the
portal you can retain and the few that were you know,
at risk of leaving. I mean, I guess you know,
we could talk about developing players all day long, and
what a great educator, Bill and yourself are. But just
how deep are you guys into the portal right now?
(29:10):
I mean, seriously, forty five hundred players are on the portal.
You guys got to be watching tape every minute of
every day.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
No, yeah, you're trying to, you know, you know, but
we've had experience doing this, right, So the portal is
a little bit like and I'm old to remember this,
we had a thing called Plan B in the NFL.
I don't know what Plan A was, but we had
to think called Plan B, you know, and so and
that was teams could freeze thirty seven players and then
the rest of the roster were free agents. It kind
(29:38):
of was a back end loaded system. And so teams
would put players out there that maybe nobody knew about
and hope they wouldn't touch them, and then team put
older guys that were out there that weren't as good
as they hoped they would be. I think that's a
little bit what the portal's about, right, And so some
guys that are in there that haven't had a chance to
demonstrate their skill set. They might have three years, and
there's some guys in there that have demonstrated their skill
(29:59):
set and it's not quite what they are good at
doing at the school they're currently at or given a chance,
and they want to go somewhere else. So it's a
little bit of a combination of free agency and plan
be put together.
Speaker 6 (30:10):
You kind of touched off on it, and I want
to expand more about it. Nil and I'm just going
to come out and be clean. I used to be
one of those guys where go on, kids, get what
you can while you can, and then the whole thing
got screwed up, and I'm like, I'm not sure now
what can happen Because the schools obviously can't pay the
(30:34):
students if they get an NIL deal. There's the middleman,
and the middleman is where everything goes to the pot.
Can you comment more on that.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
Well, I mean, look, I think one of the things
that we've learned in college football are players you're naming.
They've made this game football so bright and they deserve
to get paid. And I think, to me, how that
money gets to the players, whether it's through their agent
or through some middleman, I think that needs to get
really kind of handled because there's a lot of a
(31:07):
lot of shadiness that goes into this that maybe it
needs to get certified like the players have in the
national football legue where there's a union, where there's you know,
you have to be certified to be an agent to
get there. And look, we all know it's a negotiation
with players, so there's going to be some level of dishonesty.
We're playing poker here, right, you know, how many aces
do you have? How many do I have? And somebody's
(31:28):
got to call the bluff in a negotiation and see
what's going on. So I think, you know, it's just
part of this growing up process that's college football. Like
I said earlier, this is really about how to learn
to become a professional once you've been an amateur.
Speaker 4 (31:42):
Michael, you you came to UNC, your quote, to to
restore greatness to UNC football, and you know, I guess
you know what Michael Barr is trying to ask you
is do you work for DA Bubba Cunningham or do
you really work for the various NIL collectives and UNC
alum that you know deliver the funding you need to
put the most you know, talented players on the field.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
Right, I mean is winning? I work towards winning. I
think ultimately all our jobs are about winning. I think
this is a collective group here. I don't think you know.
To bring Bill in was a huge step for the university.
Chancellor Roberts, you know, was an instrumental along with Bubble
Cunningham and making that happen. And it's through their vision
that we work for We all work for it, and
(32:22):
that's part of being a leader. Leaders communicate the message
to everybody in the organization so that there is alignment.
See people talk about being on the same page, and
your question is really centered on are we on the
same page? Because everybody's on the same page until you
lose the first game, and then when you lose the
first game, everything falls apart. Nobody's on that page that
(32:44):
everybody turns the page. But when you have alignment, when
you have a philosophical belief with what that goes from
the top of the organization from Chancellor Roberts all the
way down to the young interns that we hire here,
then you can gain alignment. And that's what we're after.
Alignment means as you work for the philosophy, and I
think that's ultimately what we do well.
Speaker 4 (33:03):
Michael Barichael Lombardi's talking about alignment, and we know Nick
Saban is you know, looking for work allso, or maybe
he's not anymore. But he was once defensive coordinator in
the Cleveland Browns, working for Bill Belichick, you know, notoriously
close friends and colleagues. I wonder what Nick is thinking
out there watching coach Belichick returned to the college ranks
just as soon as he leaves. I mean, any comments there,
mister Lombardy.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
Well, I mean, look, I love Nick to death, but
I think Nick's a little bit too tied up with
his car dealer ships and all that to come back here.
I mean, Nick is a businessman and he's got his
time allocated for what he needs to do with his business,
and I wish him nothing but the best. It was
an incredible time to spend with him in North Carroll
at Cleveland, where you know, we only gave up two
(33:44):
hundred and four points on that defense in twenty nineteen
ninety four, which was an incredible record.
Speaker 6 (33:50):
Now, which kind of goes to the next question. Were
you shocked? I was shocked that Bill Belichick was not
picked up by another NFL team, and he was there
for the pickings for you guys. Were you surprised about that?
Speaker 3 (34:05):
Uh? No? I in one sense, I was the stupidity
of people. I mean, look, the Atlanta Falcons claimed they
had three candidates that were better than Bill Belichick when
they interviewed, and they put that out there. They claimed
that those aren't my words. That's what the Terry fontin
O their general manager, and Rich McKay their president, that's
what they put out. If you can find three better
coaches than Bill Belichick on planet Earth, you know, get
(34:25):
me out on the tourism tour. I'll start trying to
see if I could find it, because that doesn't exist.
But that was the rhetoric that was put out. But
that's really an indication of how people felt threatened by
his ability and his talent because they wanted to protect
their own turf. You know, when I first started the
National Football League in nineteen eighty four, George Young, the
general manager of the New York Football Giants, had a
great saying. He said, most people in the NFL just
(34:47):
protect their desk. And I think that's why Bill wasn't working.
Everybody was trying to protect their desk.
Speaker 4 (34:52):
You know, Michael, I have to ask you this. Maybe
you could tell me, really tell me the truth about it.
I had heard a rumor that you know, Bill had
submitted some four hundred page plan to the UNC board
when he was applying, and you know it sounds a
lout like, you know, Jerry Maguire's mission statement. I mean,
how does Bill Bilichick need to, you know, submit a
mission statement or a plan of what he's going to
do to anybody?
Speaker 6 (35:09):
Right?
Speaker 4 (35:09):
We're talking about Bill Belichick here. I mean, is there
any truth to that? Did he really put together.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
Spell that he dispelled that? But I think more than anything,
you know, Bill has a plan. Bill doesn't have a
foreigner page plan. Bill had a lifetime plan and he's
been doing this this whole life. So that's just not
a plan. That's a lifetime plan.
Speaker 6 (35:26):
Can you tell us just about Bill Belichick the man,
because you worked with them for years, you know him personally,
and you you touched off on it before. Yes, there's
that facade that you have when you're talking to reporters
and blah blah blah blah blah. But I think deep
down that Bill Belichick is a super.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
Dude, really tremendous, well, the greatest friends you can have,
you know, whatever. You know, he's honest, he's got great integrity,
He's somebody that you can count on. He's the definition
of what a true friend is, and the players seem
to fill that. You talk to any player who played there,
you know they understand it and it's important for him
to maximize your talent. Isn't that what a coach does.
(36:08):
All great leaders stand behind people when things are going well.
All great leaders stand in front of people when they
don't go well. I think that describes Bill perfectly.
Speaker 4 (36:16):
So, Michael, my last question for you is, you know
where are we now? You know, in building out the team.
I mean you have to get a coaching staff in place,
You get a quarterback, right, I mean I talk to
us a little bit about you know what comes next?
What your focus is here?
Speaker 3 (36:27):
Well, the portal's kind of closed. It's just some people.
We'll still get back on high school recruits that haven't signed,
so we're working on that. This isn't about adding players,
it's about developing players too. So our job, our mandate,
is to find a way to make the players that
we currently have, whether we brought them into the portal,
whether we brought them into high school, or whether they
were North Carolina tar Hills before. Our most important thing
(36:49):
is to make everybody better. It goes to the interns
in the personnel department, to the players that play on
the field.
Speaker 6 (36:55):
Okay, before I'll let you go, I've been asking people
lately your pick for the team that's going to win
the Super Bowl. I'm hoping you say the team that
I'm praying that you say, But which team do you
think will win the Super Bowl?
Speaker 3 (37:11):
It's so hard to bring it two wins the Super Bowl.
But I think Detroit's performance it's you know, I think
it was really impressive and I think, you know, one
thing we have to learn in life. I wrote this
for The Daily Coach, which I still write on a website,
about leadership, and you know, I think resistance is really
(37:32):
something persistence allows us to build strength. Oregon didn't lose
a game in college football, and when they got into
that game against Ohio State, they didn't maybe didn't have
enough resistance to endure. I think sometimes when you're challenged
and you get knocked down, it helps you reset reality.
I think the Lions losing last year helped them reset
their reality. And look, I think Baltimore's the same way.
(37:54):
I think Baltimore with Lamar Jackson and Derek Henry, now
they can do that, So I like both those teams.
Speaker 6 (38:00):
Yeah, I'm a diehard Detroit fan and I've been there
when they didn't win a dog on game and I
have a T shirt that says I was a Detroit
Lions fan before it was cool. Michael Lombardi, new general
manager of the University of North Carolina football program. Thank you,
sir for joining us on the Bloomberg Business of Sports.
(38:21):
Thank you, thank you for joining us. For my colleague
Scarlett Foo and Damian Sasaur. I'm Michael Barr. Tune in
again next week for the latest on the stories moving
big old money in the world of sports. Don't forget
to catch our podcast on all your podcast platforms. Subscribe
now on Apple, Spotify, and anywhere else you get your podcasts.
You're listening to The Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberger
(38:45):
Radio around the world.
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
This is the business of sports.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
The business of sports can be intimidating or hard for
a starting to break into.
Speaker 4 (00:13):
We really appreciate what our owners are actually there, you
know with us through the journey.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Teams ours especially have been very intentional to diversify at
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Speaker 5 (00:22):
I think we're in bolden years for the NFL and
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Our demographic reach has continued to explode.
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This is going to be really unlocking the streaming platform
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Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 6 (00:46):
This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports where we explore
the big money issues in the world of sports. I'm
Michael Barr, along with Scarlett fu and Damian sas Hour.
Coming up today, NFL legend Bill Belichick is now the
big man on campus at UNC. We've got the new
general manager of the University of North Carolina's football program,
Michael Lombardi joins us to talk about what's next for
(01:09):
UNC With Belichick.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
The imagery that people have a Bill at the press
conference is not who Bill is behind the doors in
terms of how he you know, how he interacts with players,
how he communicates to players, how players tend to gravitate
to him. He's very direct, very honest, and I think
to me, that's what sells a program.
Speaker 6 (01:28):
We'll also talk about some golf with Live Golf's tournament
heading to Miami and one of President elect Donald Trump's
golf resorts. All that is on the way on the
Bloomberg business of sports. But first the New York Knicks.
They're having another great season led by All star Jalen
Brunson and new arrival Carl Anthony Towns.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Town's a three pointer, Carl Anthony Towns.
Speaker 6 (01:52):
That's forty. But many Knicks diehards can't watch their hometown team,
or the New York Rangers or Islanders. Altis USA, which
runs Optimum cable, one of the top cable providers in
New York State and the Tri State area, dropped MSG
Networks from its lineup on New Year's Day. It's part
(02:13):
of an escalating dispute between MSG and Altis, and the
latest example of content providers and distributors playing hardball with
each other. For more on what's going on between MSG
and alteas, we welcome Bloomberg Telecom and Entertainment reporter Kelsey Griffiths.
Speaker 5 (02:29):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 6 (02:31):
Well, it's kind of a sticky situation. The Knicks Rangers game.
You can't get them for Altese cable subscribers. Why.
Speaker 7 (02:42):
Yeah, so this is kind of an interesting you impasse
that these two companies have come up against. You have
Alties that is obviously one of the biggest cable providers
in the New York area having this agreement with MSG
(03:02):
Networks or Sphere Entertainment. I guess, as they're now called
falling through. These companies just came to an impasse and
they could not agree to the terms through which Altis
would carry the programming.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
And part of why they can't come to an agreement
is because it's expensive to pay for these sports rights
and MSG Networks wants to charge a lot of it
because they carry a lot of different teams. What is
the thinking behind altises trying to leverage its negotiating stance
with MSG Networks.
Speaker 7 (03:39):
Yeah, so all the sus saying basically that MSG is
charging them too much. They were saying that it would
cost up to ten dollars per subscriber more for them
to keep offering this content.
Speaker 5 (03:53):
To their subscribers.
Speaker 7 (03:55):
So they were saying, actually that their data reports the
fact that not a lot of their customers or at
least not the majority of their customers or even tuning
into sports. So they want to just drop the extra
cost across the board and then let the subscribers that
are sports fans and do want to tune in pay
(04:16):
for that content over the top.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
So is there any resolution inside? I mean, how are
we going to get the ranges in the next or
whoever it is back on the air? I mean, is
there some resolution being discussed?
Speaker 7 (04:27):
Yeah, So in terms of all Teeth and MSG, I
think they're pretty much at a standstill, and analysts know
last week said that resolution is unlikely soon if ever.
So in the meantime, there are some options that fans have.
(04:47):
You could subscribe to a different network that are a
different cable provider that does carry these channels, and I
believe the other two major providers in the New York
area do carry the channels, so you have that going
for you. Or you could subscribe to this over the
top service that's actually partly owned by MSG. And that's
(05:13):
something that actually Altis is pushing. They're saying, if you
don't you know, if you do want to continue subscribing
and you want to get this content, you should just
bite over the top.
Speaker 6 (05:27):
That's a gamble then for All Teas, because if the
subscriber can get it somewhere else, And I think what
All Teas has almost two million TV subscribers. Are they
taking a gamble that they're going to lose customers?
Speaker 7 (05:42):
Yeah, I think that's an open question, but it really
highlights this tension that the traditional PTV providers are feeling.
Speaker 5 (05:50):
A lot of sports.
Speaker 7 (05:51):
Streaming is going to UH or rather a lot of sports.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
Programming is going to streaming.
Speaker 7 (05:56):
It's going to these over the top options so that
people can sort of follow or fandoms and subscribe to
these more skinny bundles and get the content that they want.
I think what these more traditional cable companies are kind
of responding to is that people feel like cable is
too expensive to begin with, and so they want to
(06:17):
kind of jettison these additional costs that come from carrying sports.
Maybe not everyone subscribes to or is watching, so I
don't know, it's kind of a delicate dance there.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Yeah. Alteas, by the way, operates under the Optimum brand,
and I guess this all comes down to Altas trying
to slow the cord cutting, which has you know, really
picked up pace in the last decade. But still there's
still plenty of people who do subscribe to these cable
packages and pay quite a bit of money monthly. Kelsey,
I want to ask you about a analyst note recently
(06:49):
about MSG Networks and what happens to this business if
this resolution, if this dispute with Altis is not resolved,
because Rich Greenfield, where a light Shed Partners, has talked
about a possible bankruptcy over at MSG Networks, And of
course this is based on one analyst perspective. This is
not what is necessarily going to happen. What is he alleging.
Speaker 7 (07:12):
Yeah, so he's basically alleging that this the MSG is
you know, not going to be in good financial standing
if they are unable to resolve this impact with all piece.
So you know, I wasn't able to do a lot
of independent reporting on that point, but I do think
again that that just points back to the precarious situation
(07:35):
that regional sports networks for finding themselves in if they,
you know, continue losing subscribers through traditional channels.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
Well, Kelsey, let me jump right in there. I mean
Scarlett JP Morgan analyst David Kronowski also shares those views.
He thinks that you know that MSG is at risk,
at the bondra at risk. And here we're talking about
let's be clear, Kelsey, we're talking about ALTI ticker symbol
ATUS on the New York Stock Exchange, Madison Square a
Garden Sports Corp MSGS, and then there's Sphere Entertainment.
Speaker 7 (08:04):
Right.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
All of those are listed entities, and they all have
a lot of dead outstanding. So I mean there's a
lot of investors that are involved here. Talk to us
a little bit about what you're hearing. I mean our investors,
I mean upset by this, Which investor? I mean some
investors might actually be happy by this, right, So talk
to us a little bit about the capital structure of
these companies and how it all comes together.
Speaker 7 (08:22):
You know, I've been covering the telecom industry, including some
of these carriage disputes, for almost a decade, and this
is a sort of tale as old as time, you know,
And I think this these types of disputes are only
going to be picking up, and it's only going to
you know, continue raising a lot of question marks for
(08:44):
publicly traded companies like these.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Just one mention here we talked about the Knicks and
the Rangers, MSG and MSG Sportsnet also broadcast at New
York Islanders Devil and then New Jersey Devils, as well
as some New York Giants and Buffalo Bills games. Now
we know the Rangers and the Islanders are doing terribly,
so I don't know how many viewers are tuning in
or upset that they can't get those games. But the
Devils have been doing well. Not so much for the Giants, right, Damien, Well,
(09:09):
look and.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
Look, And just to just kind of re up on
that last question, you know, I'm not a credit analyst either, Kelsey,
so I hate to put you on the spot there,
but you know our friends at JP Morgan David is
and so he is saying here that the loss of
Optimum the carriage could actually be a net positive for
Sphere Entertainment, potentially pushing Mstry Networks toward a full default
scenario and clearing over seve hundred million and non recourse
debt from the company's balance sheets, so that would actually
(09:31):
boost its evaluation. So it's really just sophisticated capital structure
arbitrage stuff going on here for the real heavyweights in
Wall Street to kind of sort through and I guess
profit from.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Not much consolation though, if you can't get these games
and you want to and being told to go to
the Gotham Sports Center, right, is that or subscribe to
Foubo TV or is that the option?
Speaker 4 (09:52):
Kelsey? I mean, what are your options if you're you know,
if you're you know, if you just if you just
lost access to these games, you have to download the app?
Is that the only way?
Speaker 7 (10:00):
Yeah, so you can download the app, or you might
consider switching cable providers. I spoke with one person who,
as soon as we found out that this was, you know,
they were losing access to MSG, he puts to Exfinity,
and I believe Exfinity already you know, has a deal
with MSG to carry it. So yeah, I think that
(10:21):
there are some other local options if you do want
to see this on the air.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Michael Barr, I feel like this goes back to the
heart of the problem, which is if you're a sports
fan and you want to watch games live, it's impossible
to figure out how you can watch them. Well, yeah,
you have to google it constantly, and you know, then
you have to ask yourself, Wait a minute, is this
blacked out? Is this not blacked out?
Speaker 6 (10:40):
Forget even Google and Kelsey. I'm sorry, old man bar
is about to talk here, because it's like when I
wanted to watch something live, I got the rabbit Ears ready,
I got everything all said, I still had a beer
on the couch, but I mean I still had the
rabbit Ears. But streaming, forget cable, that's old school too,
just cable streaming has in general changed everything, and I
(11:04):
don't know if we can get.
Speaker 7 (11:05):
It back exactly. I think this, this, this latest impasse
again just really speaks to the fragmentation of the sports
landscape and how people companies and content companies are sort
of grappling with these changes and having to change their
business models and the way they do business with each
other in response.
Speaker 6 (11:25):
Can there be a way where maybe all sides get
together and they say kumbaya and it can be done
before the end of the season.
Speaker 5 (11:36):
I wish I had an answer to that.
Speaker 7 (11:38):
But if you guys hear something, if you hear that
there's a resolution.
Speaker 5 (11:42):
You let me know, because I'd be interested to know
that too.
Speaker 6 (11:45):
Well, I will, I will go, And because I want
to see the games. I mean, yes, I get it,
you know the different Yeah, they're Rangers are They're good,
But I still want to see the games. I mean,
you know, if you're a fan of the team, I mean,
take Scarlett. She's wearing a Ranger's jacket right now, so
you still win.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
I may thought of every day when I walk through
the office, given how bad the team is playing right now.
Speaker 6 (12:10):
Kelsey Griffiths, and you wrote this, by the way, with
Hannah Miller, also great at Bloomberg, and we want to
give credit to both of you. Okay, here's the question. Yeah,
here it is, who's going to win the Super Bowl
this year?
Speaker 5 (12:27):
Who's going to win the Super Bowl this year? For me?
Speaker 7 (12:29):
Yes, well, I was a Taylor Swift fan. I have
to say I would love to see the Kansas City
Chiefs go again because I would like to see a
certain blonde pop star in the stands again.
Speaker 5 (12:38):
I think that's pretty entertaining.
Speaker 6 (12:39):
Oh it's a Detroit fan. Look at the time. We're
all done. Kelsey, Thank you so much for joining us
at the Bloomberg Business of Sports. We appreciate it.
Speaker 5 (12:50):
Up.
Speaker 6 (12:50):
Next, we turn to golf and Trump owned golf venue
that's slated to host a live golf tournament for my
colleague Scarlett Foo and Damian Sasa. Michael Barr, You're listening
to the Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio around
the world.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
This is Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 6 (13:14):
This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports where we explore
the big money issues in the world of sports. Michael
Barr along with my colleagues Scarlett Fou and Damian Sassaur.
While President elect Donald Trump is heading back to DC,
some high profile golf is slated to head back to
one of his resorts in Florida. Live golf will head
to the Trump National Durral Golf Club near Miami for
(13:35):
the fourth time, but only the first time while Trump
is a sitting US president. For more on Trump's long
association with golf and live we welcome Bloomberg News Wealth
reporter Annie Massa. Annie, welcome to the Bloomberg Business of Sports.
Speaker 8 (13:51):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 6 (13:52):
Well, let's start with the article that you wrote President
elect Donald Trump's draw resort. That's the one in Florida
will host the Saudi Back Live Golf in April, and
this is the fourth time it has happened any but
I think the first time that it will happen when
he's president.
Speaker 8 (14:11):
That's right, So it's continuing. There's a very friendly relationship
between Trump and Live and the fact that Live will
host once again at Trump's Miami golf resort is kind
of a subject of controversy, and this has been long simmering,
but as you mentioned, it will be the first time
that this happens with Trump as the sitting president, and
(14:34):
you know, the crux of the controversy is that this
is a Saudi backed, you know, golf group, and you know,
having the sitting president poised to reap the financial benefits
of hosting the tournament there is kind of kind of
draws some skeptics for sure.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Can you talk a little bit about what the Trump
Organization's structure looks like, because a lot of business people
who become elected of officials and government tend to put
their assets in a trust and then don't have any
actual practical or hands on oversight over the business during
the time that they're in office. Is that what we're
seeing with President elect Trump.
Speaker 8 (15:13):
President elect Trump is very unusual in that, yes, his
assets have been put in a trust, but he refused
to divest completely of the Trump Organization. So now the
Trump Organization is run by his sons Eric and Don Junior,
and so he and and we can see from his
disclosures that he's absolutely getting income from all of these
(15:39):
all of these Trump Organization properties and operations all around
the world, and golf has golf courses. Yeah, golf has
become an ever greater and ever more important piece of that.
So he had more than five hundred million dollars worth
of income from his golf and resort properties in the
in the most recent financial disclosure that we saw. So
(16:00):
this is no small amount of money that Trump is
earning from golf and resorts. And so that all I
mean goes to show you how important it is to
him to his personal fortune. And hosting big events like
the live one that will happen in April the week
before the Masters are absolutely contribute to that.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
Annie, I may be here talking to you on the
Bloomberg Business of Sports, but my day job is running
emerging market fixed income from Bloomberg Intelligence. And you know,
you know, the friends of Trump trade is in full
effect right now, from Argentina to Israel to Hungary. And
you know, just on Tuesday, we heard that who's seen Sajwani,
the billionaire head of DEMAC Group, I believe is how
(16:42):
you pronounce it, announced that he's going to invest more
than twenty billion dollars to build new data centers in
the US. Now, this is the same chap, if I'm
not mistaken, who has previously partnered with Trump to build
what else, luxury golf courses in Dubai. So the friends
of Trump, I'm just curious, you know, like who benefit
fits here, you know, from live golf being held at
(17:03):
a Trump resort in the US. I mean, what's the
game plan here? What do you think the angle is
from Trump's perspective?
Speaker 8 (17:09):
You're so right. And one thing that was striking about
that that announcement about the data centers that would be
financed here in the US by this billionaire head of
DEMAC Group. This is yet another uh that that announcement
was made the same day that this live golf schedule
came out. So those were two prominent examples of how
(17:32):
Trump's business ties in the Middle East have only gotten
you know, more prominent since he left office, and you know,
you saw that in just one day with two major
announcements that affect Trump and his business business partnerships around
the Middle East.
Speaker 6 (17:51):
I want to focus more on why this is controversial.
Human rights advocates have criticized this because they're saying is
operating under the auspices of the Saudi regime, and US
intelligence has linked the twenty eighteen murder of Washington Post
journalist Jamal Kashogi, and that has just raised the ire
(18:15):
of a lot of people. Can you expand more on that?
Speaker 8 (18:18):
Of course, the stepping back the reason that it's controversial
that a Trump property would host live golf, or the
reason that it's controversial that Trump has this relationship to
Live is because the Saudi Sovereign Wealth Fund is financing Live,
and so you're linking back this, You're linking back the
(18:39):
money that Live has to throw around to throw these
kinds of events at Trump property to a regime that
has you know, a very bracing human rights record. And
you know, moreover, as as president, Trump is going to
be the man in charge of like relationships with all
(19:01):
sorts of h with the Middle East. So it's going
to be a big focus going forward, and already has
been that he does so much business with Middle East
business partners, and that the Trump Organization is.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Hosting an event like this. The election of Donald Trump
has a lot of people excited about the civil war
in golf kind of healing, because live golf versus PGA
is kind of a death match until they announced that
they were going to merge, or parts of them were
going to merge, and then that kind of has just
played itself out and it hasn't happened yet. Damien, I
know that you are a golf fan. You certainly play golf,
(19:40):
and you watch some golf. Do you watch PGA versus
live golf? Like, do you have loyalties to one entity
over another?
Speaker 4 (19:49):
Well, Scarlett, I must confess I do not watch any
live events. I just found them to be far too
hokey for me.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
But why why we are they hokey?
Speaker 4 (19:58):
The pace of play, the match play, I just you know,
I never really I just couldn't get into it. And
you know, like a traditional you know, four day, you know,
make the cut, you know, Saturday Sunday PGA format. I'm sorry,
I'm just a traditionalist. In that way. But I will
say this. I don't know if anyone caught this, but
just this week, this new format, this you know, I
(20:19):
guess it's more like a video game, you know, where
you hit into this huge you know, you're in a stadium.
And even though everybody yeah, yep, yep, and it was
supposedly a smashing success, despite the fact that you know,
it was pretty lopside in terms of the outcome. I
think it was in a nine to two victory for
for I don't know if it was the Bay Area
or the LA I mean, there's a bunch of these little,
(20:39):
you know, golf clubs that you know, I mean, even
Stevie Cohen owns the New York one right now, right,
so so I've heard that that format is actually quite interesting.
I must confess I didn't watch it, but Scarlett, I mean,
these new golf formats are real, and they threatened to change,
you know, the way in which we all enjoyed the sport.
Speaker 6 (20:57):
See Anny, this is why I love allto racing.
Speaker 5 (21:02):
There's no disrupting it.
Speaker 6 (21:03):
There is no disrupting that. But it's a thing that
you know, back to President like Trump, I mean, he
has hosted other events, sporting events as well, back when
he had the old taj Mahal back in Atlantic City
because he hosted some WWE events.
Speaker 8 (21:21):
Yeah, and one thing I should mention on PGA versus Live,
by the way, is that Trump's relationship to the PGA
has been a bit fraud in the past. Obviously, as
you were mentioning a bit of a more venerable golf tournament,
and so Trump basically there was a plan to have
(21:41):
a PGA tournament at a Trump property in twenty twenty
two that was pulled after the January sixth Riots. So
he's clashed with the PGA, and that may also play
into his love of the live tournament. So yeah, he
has this long standing history there.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
But you know, his profile would suggest he's a traditionalist
when it comes to playing golf. I mean, I don't
know anything about golf, but I'm guessing that men of
a certain age play the traditional PGA style of golf
rather than you know, the live golf that I guess
moves much faster, right, Damian, Yeah, No.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
That's exactly right. I mean, look now to your point,
just going to this new Golf League, this TGL and
all these different formats that are popping up left front
the center Scarlett. You know, at the end of the day,
it just speaks to the you know, just the rise
of golf in general, and how a sport that was
once not accessible by you know, every household you know,
forget about the US, but across the planet has become
increasingly more so. And I think I think that's the
(22:43):
real kind of takeaway here is that Trump was early on.
I mean, I think he if I'm not mistaken, I mean, Annie,
doesn't Trump organization derive something on the order of five
hundred million dollars in revenue a year from his residential
and resort properties. Does that numbers sound right?
Speaker 8 (22:57):
That's income that Trump has reported. That five hundred million
dollar figure is income that Trump has reported from his
golf and resort properties in his most recent in his
most recent financial disclosure, and that was.
Speaker 4 (23:11):
An annual number.
Speaker 5 (23:12):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
I mean that's just amazing, right, I mean, think about
that number, and that's just you know, Trump resorts. So
you know, there you go.
Speaker 6 (23:18):
It has been outside of drel I mean, Trump has
hosted live tournaments in New Jersey and DC. And you
can see I'm trying to get the right word. I
guess you want to say, this friendship, this relationship that
he has with Live and is going to continue to grow,
(23:39):
how much money can he make as long as he
sticks with Live?
Speaker 8 (23:43):
Well, that's right, And that's the crux of the questions
around and the criticism of Trump's conflicts of interest here
is that you know, it's not just Miami. He's hosting
in other or the Trump organization is hosting Live in
other locations as well. And I mean that's that's the question.
(24:05):
As you continue to derive income from these huge events
and all all the associated kind of money that can
bring in, is that appropriate when when the when the
benefits a crew to sitting president of the United States.
Speaker 6 (24:21):
We could start a putt put tournament. Oh boy, and man,
do you have much money we could make if we
did that?
Speaker 2 (24:29):
You know we'll have it back us. Michael Barr, Oh, I.
Speaker 6 (24:33):
Think we're out of time. Any thank you, thank you
so much for joining us here on the Bloomberg Business
and Sports. Thanks our thanks to Bloomberg News Wealth reporter
any massive for joining us in other news. In golf,
Tiger Woods recently rolled out a new futuristic style of golf.
He and his backers are hoping will bring new fans
(24:56):
to the game. It's a new golf league called tg
CO founded by Woods and Rory McElroy in partnership with
the BGA. It's a new, high tech version of the
game played in a team competition style indoors. The inaugural
event has already been in the history books the Bay
They got the win over the New York Golf Club.
(25:17):
And by the way, ESPN likes the viewership. According to Sportico,
they averaged nine hundred nineteen thousand viewers that took place
Tuesday night, and they found a younger audience than a
typical golf tournament, as the organizer's intended because it's in
a two hour format. Up next on the show, we
(25:39):
turned to college football and its newest big time head coach,
Bill Belichick, my colleague Scarlett Fu and Damian sasaur At
Michael Barr. You're listening to the Bloomberg Business of Sports
in Bloomberg Radio around the world.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
This is Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bluemlomberg Radio.
Speaker 6 (26:01):
Thanks for joining us on the Bloomberg Business of Sports.
We explore the big money issues in the world of sports.
I'm Michael Barr, along with my colleagues Scarlett Fu and
Damian Sasaur. One of the biggest stories in sports right
now is Bill Belichick. Everyone figured he was going back
to an NFL team if he coached again, but instead
he's heading to the University of North Carolina. Here to
(26:23):
talk about what that means for college football and the
future of UNC's program is Michael Lombardi. He is the
new general manager of UNC's football program, and he'll be
working directly with Belichick. Michael, Welcome to the Bloomberg Business
of Sports.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
Thank you, it's good to be here. Hope all as well.
Speaker 6 (26:40):
Happy New Year, Happy New year to you. I guess
you're starting out with a happy new year. You've got
one whale of a coach. Tell us about the impact
and what that means for the team.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Well, I mean it means for tremendously. The state of
North Carolina, the community of Chapel Hill need to get
the greatest coach of all time from pro football to
really embark on college up ball and embrace it with
all the energy that he possibly has. He's on the
road today. He's in Charlotte recruiting, talking to young men
trying to get him to build this North Carolina program
(27:10):
into the kind of program we believe it can be
and it's capable of being. It's had many great players,
but maybe not so many great teams. They've won one
ACC championship since nineteen eighty. So we're here to hopefully
try to fix.
Speaker 4 (27:24):
That hold on Michael. Is it true that Bill Belichick
is on X on Twitter?
Speaker 3 (27:28):
Now?
Speaker 4 (27:29):
I mean, does he have a Twitter hand? I mean,
I mean this is unbelievable. Did you ever, in your
lifetime of working with Bill since the eighties nineties, ever
once think that Bill Bilichick would have his own Twitter handle.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
Well, I don't know about the Twitter or the instaface
or any of that, but I do know what I
think people never really understood about Bill is he's a
great recruiter. You know, the people. The imagery that people
have a Bill at the press conference is not who
Bill is behind the doors in terms of how he
you know, how he had interacts with players, how he
communicates to players, how players tend to gravitate to them.
(28:04):
He's very direct, very honest, and I think to me,
that's what sells a program, and that's why he's connecting
with kids and we've got, you know, a lot of
kids that want to come to North Carolina and help
build our program. And because of him, and you know,
we're going to be a professional program. I mean, that's
what we're all about. We we are going to embrace this,
you know, the challenges that lies ahead of us, and
(28:25):
we're going to do the things that we have to
do to build it and get it back, and we're
talking about making it. You know, look, college football has
become a professional program. We know that, Right's it's no
longer collegiate, right it's you know, we have to teach
these these people, these young men, that the difference between
what an amateur does and what a professional does. Right,
Amateurs have goals, Professionals have systems, and that's our job
(28:47):
to do that.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
You know, Michael, I've seen the pictures of coach Bilichick
in Rollsville, North Carolina recruiting for star recruits. I know
that you already and added fifteen new transfers from the
portal you can retain and the few that were you know,
at risk of leaving. I mean, I guess you know,
we could talk about developing players all day long, and
what a great educator, Bill and yourself are. But just
how deep are you guys into the portal right now?
(29:10):
I mean, seriously, forty five hundred players are on the portal.
You guys got to be watching tape every minute of
every day.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
No, yeah, you're trying to, you know, you know, but
we've had experience doing this, right, So the portal is
a little bit like and I'm old to remember this,
we had a thing called Plan B in the NFL.
I don't know what Plan A was, but we had
to think called Plan B, you know, and so and
that was teams could freeze thirty seven players and then
the rest of the roster were free agents. It kind
(29:38):
of was a back end loaded system. And so teams
would put players out there that maybe nobody knew about
and hope they wouldn't touch them, and then team put
older guys that were out there that weren't as good
as they hoped they would be. I think that's a
little bit what the portal's about, right, And so some
guys that are in there that haven't had a chance to
demonstrate their skill set. They might have three years, and
there's some guys in there that have demonstrated their skill
(29:59):
set and it's not quite what they are good at
doing at the school they're currently at or given a chance,
and they want to go somewhere else. So it's a
little bit of a combination of free agency and plan
be put together.
Speaker 6 (30:10):
You kind of touched off on it, and I want
to expand more about it. Nil and I'm just going
to come out and be clean. I used to be
one of those guys where go on, kids, get what
you can while you can, and then the whole thing
got screwed up, and I'm like, I'm not sure now
what can happen Because the schools obviously can't pay the
(30:34):
students if they get an NIL deal. There's the middleman,
and the middleman is where everything goes to the pot.
Can you comment more on that.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
Well, I mean, look, I think one of the things
that we've learned in college football are players you're naming.
They've made this game football so bright and they deserve
to get paid. And I think, to me, how that
money gets to the players, whether it's through their agent
or through some middleman, I think that needs to get
really kind of handled because there's a lot of a
(31:07):
lot of shadiness that goes into this that maybe it
needs to get certified like the players have in the
national football legue where there's a union, where there's you know,
you have to be certified to be an agent to
get there. And look, we all know it's a negotiation
with players, so there's going to be some level of dishonesty.
We're playing poker here, right, you know, how many aces
do you have? How many do I have? And somebody's
(31:28):
got to call the bluff in a negotiation and see
what's going on. So I think, you know, it's just
part of this growing up process that's college football. Like
I said earlier, this is really about how to learn
to become a professional once you've been an amateur.
Speaker 4 (31:42):
Michael, you you came to UNC, your quote, to to
restore greatness to UNC football, and you know, I guess
you know what Michael Barr is trying to ask you
is do you work for DA Bubba Cunningham or do
you really work for the various NIL collectives and UNC
alum that you know deliver the funding you need to
put the most you know, talented players on the field.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
Right, I mean is winning? I work towards winning. I
think ultimately all our jobs are about winning. I think
this is a collective group here. I don't think you know.
To bring Bill in was a huge step for the university.
Chancellor Roberts, you know, was an instrumental along with Bubble
Cunningham and making that happen. And it's through their vision
that we work for We all work for it, and
(32:22):
that's part of being a leader. Leaders communicate the message
to everybody in the organization so that there is alignment.
See people talk about being on the same page, and
your question is really centered on are we on the
same page? Because everybody's on the same page until you
lose the first game, and then when you lose the
first game, everything falls apart. Nobody's on that page that
(32:44):
everybody turns the page. But when you have alignment, when
you have a philosophical belief with what that goes from
the top of the organization from Chancellor Roberts all the
way down to the young interns that we hire here,
then you can gain alignment. And that's what we're after.
Alignment means as you work for the philosophy, and I
think that's ultimately what we do well.
Speaker 4 (33:03):
Michael Barichael Lombardi's talking about alignment, and we know Nick
Saban is you know, looking for work allso, or maybe
he's not anymore. But he was once defensive coordinator in
the Cleveland Browns, working for Bill Belichick, you know, notoriously
close friends and colleagues. I wonder what Nick is thinking
out there watching coach Belichick returned to the college ranks
just as soon as he leaves. I mean, any comments there,
mister Lombardy.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
Well, I mean, look, I love Nick to death, but
I think Nick's a little bit too tied up with
his car dealer ships and all that to come back here.
I mean, Nick is a businessman and he's got his
time allocated for what he needs to do with his business,
and I wish him nothing but the best. It was
an incredible time to spend with him in North Carroll
at Cleveland, where you know, we only gave up two
(33:44):
hundred and four points on that defense in twenty nineteen
ninety four, which was an incredible record.
Speaker 6 (33:50):
Now, which kind of goes to the next question. Were
you shocked? I was shocked that Bill Belichick was not
picked up by another NFL team, and he was there
for the pickings for you guys. Were you surprised about that?
Speaker 3 (34:05):
Uh? No? I in one sense, I was the stupidity
of people. I mean, look, the Atlanta Falcons claimed they
had three candidates that were better than Bill Belichick when
they interviewed, and they put that out there. They claimed
that those aren't my words. That's what the Terry fontin
O their general manager, and Rich McKay their president, that's
what they put out. If you can find three better
coaches than Bill Belichick on planet Earth, you know, get
(34:25):
me out on the tourism tour. I'll start trying to
see if I could find it, because that doesn't exist.
But that was the rhetoric that was put out. But
that's really an indication of how people felt threatened by
his ability and his talent because they wanted to protect
their own turf. You know, when I first started the
National Football League in nineteen eighty four, George Young, the
general manager of the New York Football Giants, had a
great saying. He said, most people in the NFL just
(34:47):
protect their desk. And I think that's why Bill wasn't working.
Everybody was trying to protect their desk.
Speaker 4 (34:52):
You know, Michael, I have to ask you this. Maybe
you could tell me, really tell me the truth about it.
I had heard a rumor that you know, Bill had
submitted some four hundred page plan to the UNC board
when he was applying, and you know it sounds a
lout like, you know, Jerry Maguire's mission statement. I mean,
how does Bill Bilichick need to, you know, submit a
mission statement or a plan of what he's going to
do to anybody?
Speaker 6 (35:09):
Right?
Speaker 4 (35:09):
We're talking about Bill Belichick here. I mean, is there
any truth to that? Did he really put together.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
Spell that he dispelled that? But I think more than anything,
you know, Bill has a plan. Bill doesn't have a
foreigner page plan. Bill had a lifetime plan and he's
been doing this this whole life. So that's just not
a plan. That's a lifetime plan.
Speaker 6 (35:26):
Can you tell us just about Bill Belichick the man,
because you worked with them for years, you know him personally,
and you you touched off on it before. Yes, there's
that facade that you have when you're talking to reporters
and blah blah blah blah blah. But I think deep
down that Bill Belichick is a super.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
Dude, really tremendous, well, the greatest friends you can have,
you know, whatever. You know, he's honest, he's got great integrity,
He's somebody that you can count on. He's the definition
of what a true friend is, and the players seem
to fill that. You talk to any player who played there,
you know they understand it and it's important for him
to maximize your talent. Isn't that what a coach does.
(36:08):
All great leaders stand behind people when things are going well.
All great leaders stand in front of people when they
don't go well. I think that describes Bill perfectly.
Speaker 4 (36:16):
So, Michael, my last question for you is, you know
where are we now? You know, in building out the team.
I mean you have to get a coaching staff in place,
You get a quarterback, right, I mean I talk to
us a little bit about you know what comes next?
What your focus is here?
Speaker 3 (36:27):
Well, the portal's kind of closed. It's just some people.
We'll still get back on high school recruits that haven't signed,
so we're working on that. This isn't about adding players,
it's about developing players too. So our job, our mandate,
is to find a way to make the players that
we currently have, whether we brought them into the portal,
whether we brought them into high school, or whether they
were North Carolina tar Hills before. Our most important thing
(36:49):
is to make everybody better. It goes to the interns
in the personnel department, to the players that play on
the field.
Speaker 6 (36:55):
Okay, before I'll let you go, I've been asking people
lately your pick for the team that's going to win
the Super Bowl. I'm hoping you say the team that
I'm praying that you say, But which team do you
think will win the Super Bowl?
Speaker 3 (37:11):
It's so hard to bring it two wins the Super Bowl.
But I think Detroit's performance it's you know, I think
it was really impressive and I think, you know, one
thing we have to learn in life. I wrote this
for The Daily Coach, which I still write on a website,
about leadership, and you know, I think resistance is really
(37:32):
something persistence allows us to build strength. Oregon didn't lose
a game in college football, and when they got into
that game against Ohio State, they didn't maybe didn't have
enough resistance to endure. I think sometimes when you're challenged
and you get knocked down, it helps you reset reality.
I think the Lions losing last year helped them reset
their reality. And look, I think Baltimore's the same way.
(37:54):
I think Baltimore with Lamar Jackson and Derek Henry, now
they can do that, So I like both those teams.
Speaker 6 (38:00):
Yeah, I'm a diehard Detroit fan and I've been there
when they didn't win a dog on game and I
have a T shirt that says I was a Detroit
Lions fan before it was cool. Michael Lombardi, new general
manager of the University of North Carolina football program. Thank you,
sir for joining us on the Bloomberg Business of Sports.
(38:21):
Thank you, thank you for joining us. For my colleague
Scarlett Foo and Damian Sasaur. I'm Michael Barr. Tune in
again next week for the latest on the stories moving
big old money in the world of sports. Don't forget
to catch our podcast on all your podcast platforms. Subscribe
now on Apple, Spotify, and anywhere else you get your podcasts.
You're listening to The Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberger
(38:45):
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