September 20, 2024 • 38 mins
Join host Michael Barr, Scarlet Fu and Damian Sassower for a look at some of the latest headlines and stories in the business of sports.
Nike ousted beleaguered CEO John Donahoe and will replace him with former executive Elliot Hill. Bloomberg's Kim Bhasin and Lily Meier speak with Michael and Damian to break down where things went wrong with Donahoe's tenure after a promising start. Then, we listen in on a conversation with Gensler studio director and designer Elizabeth Pritchett about the firm's work to help close the gender gap in sports by building advanced training centers designed for women athletes. She spoke with Bloomberg Originals chief correspondent Jason Kelly, Bloomberg Originals sports correspondent Vanessa Perdomo and Damian.
Plus, Scarlet and Damian gear up for the next NHL season with Florida Panthers CEO Matt Caldwell. They talk about the appetite for hockey in Florida, and the Panthers first-ever Stanley Cup win.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
This is Bloomberg Business of Sports. Business of Sports can
be intimidating for hard for a start to break into.
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We really appreciate what our owners are actually there, you know,
with us through the journey teams.
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Ours especially then very intentional to diversify at all levels
of the company.
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college football. Our demographic reach has continued to explode.
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for sports fans.
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to make a whole ton of money.
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Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio. This is the
Bloomberg Business of Sports where we explore the big money
issues the world of sports.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Michael Blar and Time Dmian SaaS Scarlett Food.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Would join us later in the program. Coming up, we
get ready for the NHL season for the president and
CEO of the reigning Stanley Cup winners, the Florida Panthers.
Speaker 6 (01:04):
We went through some tough years early on to get
it going in the right direction, but this last five
years we've consistently been in the playoffs, went to the
Cup finals two years ago, got a taste of it.
But now that we've won it, we were so proud
of the players and the staff and the market. The
market is just on fire with hockey. They're so excited.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Plus, we take a look at the firm behind the
brand new training facility and headquarters for the Phoenix Mercury,
only one of three built exclusively for a w NBA team.
All that and more is on the way on the
Bloomberg Business of Sports, But first we talked Nike. The
legendary sneaker and sports brand is struggling lately and a
(01:46):
lot of people are pointing fingers at soon to be
former CEO John Donahoe's vision. Nike announced this past week
it would be pulling former executive Elliott Hill out of
retirement to replace Donahoe as CEO. Bloomberg Kim Bessin and
Lily Meyer have been following the drama at Nike and
(02:06):
wrote a piece for Bloomberg Business Week about what went
wrong with Donahoe's tenure, and they're here now to take
us through it. Kim, I'm going to start with you.
Donaho He was tapped to lead Nike back in twenty twenty,
and it seemed like he had a good plan until
he did.
Speaker 6 (02:23):
So.
Speaker 5 (02:24):
Yeah, basically those in those first years like lifestyle sneakers.
Those are Air Force ones, pandas were the big one
that's the black and whites, the low top dunk that
you see absolutely everywhere now and those two and air
Jordan's like Jordan Ones, the OG nineteen eighty five looking Jordan's.
(02:45):
These are all very old shoes, right, and none of
them are real performance shoes anymore. You don't wear Jordan
Ones on the court, that's weird. You wear the most recent,
the most recent type of basketball shoe. So these are
life sneakers. They're meant to be worn on the sidewalk,
They're meant to be worn on the streets. Uh, And
they're not that like that the old core Nike performance
(03:08):
thing that we used to see. Now, there weren't sports
going on if you recall in twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Right, hey it was marble racing.
Speaker 5 (03:15):
Come on there, there was a World Chase tag. Yeah,
but like going forward from there, Eventually, when those lifestyle
sneakers started to slow down and the market was saturated
with with with them. Nike hadn't really innovated enough on
(03:36):
the back end. So back at the Lebron James R.
And D Center in Beaverton, Oregon, right there just weren't
enough new products ready to replace those lifestyles.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Well, Kim, I mean, let's talk about what John Donahoe did.
I mean John Donahoe, I mean formerly the eBay you know,
bank Bane management consultant. You know, you know, he's a
bang guy. They know what a cut costs. They know
how to drive revenues, you know, improve margins until they
don't one of the things that apparently John did. And
I read this in your article and it was just
I had no idea. But now you know, someone who
goes into the mall and goes to foot locker to
(04:08):
you know, bypair of sneakers realizes exactly what they did.
They basically pulled a lot of Nikes off the shelves,
not just a foot locker, but off of websites like Amazon,
and their distribution channels were quickly you know, taken up
by other manufacturers. Right, and so you know, now I
guess if I'm hearing you correctly, and why the stock
price is you know, crashing and cretering here. You know
(04:29):
it is because they kind of on the back end
with their distribution. They really kind of, you know, they
failed to deliver. Talk to us a little bit about
that and how they can rectify the ship there if
at all.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
Yeah, this goes back to the previous CEO, and then
I could hand it off to Lily from here, who
knows a whole lot about this. Back in Mark Parker's days,
we all know Mark Parker is the big set of genius,
the genius sneaker designer, revered by all who brought Nike
over the past of the prior fifteen years or so
(04:59):
to where it was before the pandemic pleted.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Philm Night sentences, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5 (05:04):
He tried to move to more direct to consumer. Why
because you have better margins that way you cut out
the middleman, the middleman as the retailer. But he didn't
quite have the expertise as like the sneaker guy to
build up Nike's e commerce channels, their appose, those direct
ways of buying from Nike dot Com and the sneakers
(05:27):
app and everything. That's why they brought in John Donaho.
He's from eBay, from Bain. He used to run the
Baine West Coast office, Like he's the e commerce guy
and he was the one who could come in and
do that for Nike.
Speaker 7 (05:40):
Yeah, So he tried to help Nike focus on their
online store. They wanted to prioritize their direct to consumer
sales selling sneakers and everything online, and so in mid
twenty twenty, he started to cut relationships with a lot
of their retailers, So with Bob Stores, with City Blue,
(06:01):
with ds W, the list goes on and on. He
pulled the sneakers off of the shelves, which is.
Speaker 5 (06:07):
A really big Yeah. I mean foot Locker is its
biggest partner, yep, and Nike is Footlocker in both directions,
they're their biggest partners. They didn't remove all shoes from
foot Locker, but they reduced them. So what was seventy
five percent of all foot Locker purchases used to be Nike.
That went down to sixty five percent that or to
seventy percent, that went down to sixty percent a year later.
(06:29):
Like that's that's a major pullback. And some of these
other retailers are huge. It's like Macy's, Urban Outfitters, DSW.
As Lily just said, like these are huge retailers.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
You could walk into the mall, you know back in
the day, you know when I had jet black hair,
and you could go and get a pair of Nikes anywhere.
And then it seems like John Donahoe decided, Hey, you
know what, let's cut out the middleman and let's try
to sell it ourselves. And that's when it seems like
(07:01):
it all went to hell in a.
Speaker 5 (07:02):
Handbask exactly what happens to that shelf space space that
Nike vacates, right Suddenly it's empty, and those retailers are
looking around thinking, okay, well we have all this space
that Nike doesn't want anymore. We're gonna replace them with
every other brand, all of its competitors exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 7 (07:21):
So then people could go into like a foot locker
and there's On and Hoka and Brooks and all these
other shoe companies that took up the space and caught
up with Nike because they had all these shelf space
and the major retailers.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
A lot of the stuff that has happened with Nike.
There was a line in there from the employees Nike employees,
we love your business acumen Donahoe, but we don't like
your Bayeness Bayinus.
Speaker 5 (07:53):
They do not like the Bayeness over there. A lot
of costcuting happened.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Let me take a step further, Pershing Square Blackman now
is a very large stake and a building stake in
the company. And we know how these sort of vulture investors,
you know, like to operate right like they like to
make change, you know, and you know, talk to us
a little bit about what comes next for Nike. Talk
to us about you know, where management is. You know
what kind of confidence the cherlds have in the company,
(08:17):
and you know whether or not they have the resources
to again to write the ship here.
Speaker 5 (08:22):
Yeah, I mean the question comes down to leadership at
this point and what the board decides to go forward with.
So in our story we report that John Donajo's contract
is up in January, when he is eligible to retire.
Now we don't know whether what decisions have been made
at this point, but whoever leads Nike going forward has
(08:44):
to rebuild those relationships with those retailers. Nike is already
starting to do that. The foot Locker CEO, there's a
new one from a couple years ago. Her name is
Mary Dylan, and she's been talking about how Nike and
foot Locker have been rebuilding that relationship that they're getting
more everytailer is getting more input and visibility into Nike's
(09:08):
future plans and the new shoes they're going to release
and things like that. So like that, there are steps
being made to revert a little bit of some of
the things that they've done.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
You know, it's because listen, the man can run a business.
I can't even run a dagg on foster. But I mean,
I have to say that there was that point when
he was ready to cut more staff, and the speech
he gave into either Lily or Kim that this was
(09:46):
going to happen. It wasn't exactly a cuddly, come on
kumbay hug.
Speaker 7 (09:52):
Yeah, I mean, Phil Knight had been known for making
these really amazing speeches. One employee even told us they
were sometimes brought to tears by the speeches. A former employee.
But yeah, I think people didn't quite like John's approach
and felt like, you know, he wasn't being that supportive
(10:13):
of them. And you know, there's this one kind of
now famous Zoom call where Donahoe got on and that
the chat blew up with employees, you know, calling for
him to step down criticizing him, which was like a
first in Nike history.
Speaker 5 (10:30):
And like, during these layoffs, there was this video that
went viral among staff, Like so as they're packing up
their desks, people are sharing this thing around with each
other and it's it's the CEO from his old Silicon
Valley days talking about leadership on this little little panel
right with a VC firm, and firings came up, like
that topic, how do you deal with firings? And the
(10:53):
CEO's there and he's sipping from a little cand of Lacroix,
and he casually says, it just explains his philosophy. And
I'm gonna I'm going to read what he said from
that say, Okay, I have fired so many people in
my career. And when I say fired, remember I grew
up at Bain. For every ten people we hired, we
managed half out within two years. We managed seventy five
percent out within five. So I learned that there. And
(11:16):
you can't be afraid of that conversation.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Well, Damien, that was about as cuddly as a yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
I mean, I mean, look, you know, I just think
about you know, someone like Mary Dylan, who's the chairman
and CEO foot walker, and I wonder you know what
it's going to take, you know, to convince her to
be on size with you know the fact that, oh
we've found religion here. We need you guys again. You know,
it's post pandemic. You know people there's foot trafficate malls again.
You guys are in every mall. You know, we'd love
to put some Nikes on the shelves there. I mean,
(11:42):
you know, my question is also, I guess does Mary
Dylan see I guess a benefit here?
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
You got to remember, like in the first couple of
years here, everything it worked, like this strategy, Oh yeah
it was.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
It worked.
Speaker 5 (11:52):
It grew twenty five percent, Like Nike went the goal
was fifty billion. They set that goal years ago for
twenty twenty, and they were nowhere close by the time
they hired John Donahoe. So that's one reason he wanted
him to supercharge growth, right, and that's what he did.
Like these lifestyle sneakers are going crazy, and Nike did
get to fifty billion, but like at what cost?
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Right?
Speaker 5 (12:14):
And there's some happy medium here between Nike and its
retail partners where like everyone can can get a piece
of this.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Our thanks to Bloomberg's Kim Bessin and Lily Meyer for
joining us. Find their latest piece on Nike online at
Bloomberg dot com or on the Bloomberg terminal. It is
a great read up. Next, we turned to the WNBA
and the architectural and design firm behind a brand new
facility for the Phoenix Mercury. For my colleagues Damian Sasawer
(12:46):
and Scarlett Fu, I'm Michael Barr. You're listening to the
Bloomberg Business of Sports Bloomberg Radio around the world. Your
list name to Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio.
This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports, where we explore
(13:07):
the big money issues the world of sports. Michael Barr.
The Phoenix Mercury are one of only three WNBA teams
that have a facility built exclusively for them. A majority
of WNBA teams and women's sports teams in general still
share arenas and facilities with men's teams. Gensler is a
(13:27):
global architecture, design and planning firm and the company behind
the new groundbreaking facility for the Mercury. My colleagues Damian Sassauer,
Bloomberg Original's Chief correspondent Jason Kelly and Bloomberg Original sports
correspondent Vanessa Perdomo got a chance to speak with Gensler
Studio director and senior associate Elizabeth Pritchett about the new
(13:50):
facility and how her firm is looking to close the
gender gap in sports by creating training centers designed for
women athletes. Let's listen in on that conversation.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
So, Elizabeth, you have touched everything from the Chase Center
arena for the Golden State Warriors, the Cleveland Browns, well,
now it's called Huntington bank Field. You've done large scale
renos for Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. But I'd love
to hear what you're doing in Phoenix. I mean, there's
a certain nineteen sixties Cores brewing distribution center that is
(14:22):
now home to the Phoenix Mercury. I'm curious to hear
what that project look like. Can you tell us a
little bit more about it?
Speaker 4 (14:29):
Yes, absolutely, it's really a game changer. Super excited to
jump into that, just real quick before doing so. For
listeners who are not familiar with Gensler, we're a global
architecture and design firm. You've all walked through. Probably you know,
hundreds of our projects. We've designed everything from sports buildings,
(14:51):
which we'll talk about a moment, to airports, hotels, et cetera.
Jumping into the Phoenix Mercury, you know, it's rare in
our in the profession that I'm in to be part
of a team of amazing designers and architects and quite
frankly owners, visionary owners who are really carrying the torch
(15:14):
for a new project type. This has been a long
time coming. What's happening both It started in Seattle with
the creation of the first ever women's WNBA practice facility,
then moved to the Aces Las Vegas Aces under the
(15:37):
leadership and visionary of Mike Davis, and then here in
Phoenix the project project that we're going to jump into.
Gensler designed and opened an incredible groundbreaking project in Phoenix
for the Phoenix Mercury. It opened in June. So I'm
happy to walk you through some of the how we
(15:58):
kind of got there. Does that helped?
Speaker 8 (16:00):
Yeah, you know, I think for us, you know, yeah,
we'd love to hear how it got there. You know,
when you're thinking about how this all came together, Like
you said, it started with the Aces in the Storm
and Mark Davis over at the Aces is you know,
just this visionary owner for women's sports and really cool
to see those both be very standalone. But this is
(16:22):
a little bit different, right, This is a franchise that
also has an NBA team, and now they'll have their
own WNBA facility. So I'd love to hear how those
worked differently and how this one came together.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
Well, a couple of things. I think the biggest thing
here for the Las Vegas Aces was really again having
at having at the foundation, really a desire to make
change quickly. Mattisb bought the Mercury in twenty twenty three
(16:54):
and made it a priority from the outset to create
this state of the art facility. He didn't want to
just sort of hit the bar. He wanted to exceed
the bar. And that really, you know, it really starts with,
of course, the talented athletes, but to think about think
about it this way, to go to a to go
to your job every day where you don't have an office,
(17:16):
how are you going to do your best? How are
you going to perform at your best?
Speaker 5 (17:19):
And it's just.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
Incredible to me that these athletes were going to work
every day and not having a place to do their jobs,
and so just at the most basic, you know, Matt,
Matt and Mike and some of the others said, we're
going to we're flipping the switch. We're going to do this,
we're going to do this, we're going to do this differently,
and we're going to make massive change. And so it
(17:40):
really started from that point of view. So there's just
a level of excellence that's desired from this team and
an expectation to perform at the highest level for both
the athletes. We were able to create a facility for
them to practice their craft, to be at the leading
edge of sport performance, and we were asked to sort
(18:00):
of step up to the table and really and really
did that. We're really proud of the facility that we built.
The players are thrilled to be able to you know,
come to work there every day, to call it their own,
and to have it be a place that really sets
the bar for women's not just well with the WNBA
and basketball, but the trend is going to be moving
(18:22):
this into other sports so that there's just continued equity
across the board.
Speaker 9 (18:28):
Yeah, Elizabeth, you went exactly where I was hoping to go.
Next And we've all done a lot of work around this,
and Vanessa especially and I have looked at you know,
what's next in sports? We literally had a series around that,
and one of the things we featured was and Vanessa
went there the Kansas City facility that is the first
(18:49):
of its kind for women's soccer. And so you sort
of weave that into everything that you're saying. I would
love to understand I know our listeners would love to
understand the business case underneath this in terms of like,
does is this a response to more demand from fans?
Is it and sponsors and other sort of economic stakeholders,
(19:12):
here is this in anticipation? Like help us understand the
economics around these sorts of decisions as you're working with
these partners.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
Yeah, so it's a really it's a really great, great question,
and I think it's nuanced. I think there's maybe a
couple of answers there. I think it's a little bit
of you know, the perfect storm, if you will, and
in a good way of different sort of synergies kind
of coming together. I think that you know, back to
(19:40):
matters Bee and the ownership, knowing that two things when
you're giving, when you're giving your employees and the athletes
the space they need to both be their physical best
their mental best. Just giving them a facility where they
can perform at the leading edge. They're going to be happier,
(20:04):
They're going to do their job better, They're going to
perform better. That of course coincides with you know, Caitlin
Clark and all of the I'm just talking specifically about
basketball here. You know, all of the hype and all
of the just the excitement around college basketball that's been
around for years for men, but to see that bleed
over into the women's side at the same time, really
(20:27):
I think helped propel and move this story forward a
little bit faster. I think this has been years in
the making. I mean, there has been amazing athletes performing
at the highest level in basketball and quite frankly in
all other sports, and they just are not getting the
front pages right. And so to now see you know,
(20:47):
investment to support the to support the talent of these
women athletes, to have them move forward like this is huge.
The business side of it. I think it's interesting because
they're the viewership is up, you know, the viewership is
up all around for college sports. There's a you know,
there's been a new business deal and you're going to
(21:10):
have to do your homework here. And because I don't
know the exact math, but right after this facility opened,
there was a viewership a deal where at the WMA
where they were you know, exceeded expectations in terms of
what that deal was, and part of that money then
(21:30):
funnels back into the athletes. So it's this kind of
circular thing, if you will.
Speaker 8 (21:36):
I would like to get back to this really quick
about the training facility specifically. And you know, like we said,
you've worked on tons of other projects, you know, the
Chase Center and the LACFC, all these things, those are
men's specific projects. So for when you're working in a
female sports teams specific facility, how do you make that
different and tailor it to female athletes and what they want,
(21:58):
what they need, you know, because I'm assuming you know,
you guys talk to the players and things like that,
and we know that a lot of sports science isn't
dedicated to women. So how do you make this training
facility for them so they can perform at the best level.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
You hit the nail on the head, you know, the
basic quality of men's and women's practice facilities. You know,
should should should be equal. You know, athletes of both
genders are both aspiring to the edge of human performance.
We have seen, however, that there are, through a lot
of questions and conversations and inquiry and digging with the
(22:31):
various women teams, that there are differences in terms of
needs and desires and wants, and so a lot of
the program as we call it in the in this field,
the sort of organization and how we think about putting
our buildings together, what the needs are, came from the conversations,
the fact finding, the question asking that we did of
(22:51):
the teams and the organizations, and every team's different. I
would say in general, there's a real folk for women
female athletes really on preparation, and that goes, you know,
back to mental preparation. Having rooms for mental health, you know,
(23:13):
quiet rooms or meditation rooms. Of course, there are nursing
and mother's rooms. That's a commonplace in a lot of
our buildings that we do these days, we've designed family lounges,
places for you know, family, for grandparents to hang out
and to be there with you know, perhaps some young children.
While practice is happening, we're seeing you know, places we're
(23:36):
seeing the desire. We're places to promote personal brands. So
so folks are you know, different athletes are sponsored. They
can you know, take a podcast conversation, you know. Then
of course top of the line nutrition, you know, nutrition,
the They oftentimes want the space the building to be
open twenty four to seven so that you know, these
(23:58):
athletes can come in and get the meal plan tailored
to their needs, their nutrition plan tailored to their needs
at any time of day. So really all of this
is to support top performance, and not top performance is
going to look different to different folks. There are you know,
underwater treadmills, there's cold and hot plunge pools, there's all
of those bells and whistles which are not even bells
(24:20):
and whistles there you know, there there needed components of
thriving and performing at the top. So those are all
you know, these are things that men off. Some of
these there are crossover with mail facilities, but I think
a lot of it was about how we organize the
building as well in terms of you know, is the
mother's room next to the grooming area, what are the
(24:41):
you know, down to having you know the right type
of hot tools for hair, What type of hot tools
do they prefer. Let's make everything built in think about it,
like you know, we designed these spaces like you would
your own beautiful bathroom space at home or where there's
a place for everything so when you get there, you
can feel your best and look your best and then
be your best on the court.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
That's Elizabeth Pritchett. She's studio director and senior associate for Gensler,
the firm behind the state of the art training facility
and headquarters for the Phoenix Mercury, speaking with my colleagues
Damian Sassaur, Bloomberg Originals Chief Correspondent Jason Kelly, and Bloomberg
Original Sports Correspondent Vanessa Pernomo. Up next, we look ahead
(25:24):
to the start of the NHL's season with the Florida Panthers,
President CEO of the team Alternate Governor Matt Caldwell. I'm
Michael Barr. You're listening to the Bloomberg Business of Sports
from Bloomberg Radio. Around the world, you're listening to Bloomberg
(25:52):
Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio. Thanks for joining us
on the Bloomberg Business of Sports, where we explore the
big money issue the world sports Michael Barr. The reignings,
Staning League Cup winning Florida Panthers are ready to start
another season.
Speaker 9 (26:08):
Florida try to end it up against the law, which
would be fit three seconds.
Speaker 6 (26:13):
To go.
Speaker 4 (26:15):
The Florida Panthers.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
How Florida Scarlet Cup.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
The club's pre season opener is this weekend and the
regular season kicks off in early October. To talk about
the team's recent success and the preview the upcoming NHL season,
my colleagues Damian Sasaur and Scarlett fu spoke with Florida
Panthers President, CEO and alternate governor Matt Caldwell. Let's take
(26:42):
a listen in on that conversation.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
You guys won your first ever Sailing Cup championship. Of
course you'd been in the playoffs pretty consistently. Talk about
how the organization is feeling heading into this next season.
Speaker 6 (26:57):
Oh, listen with feeling great. I think anyone coming off
of Stanley Cup win is still on cloud nine. We
certainly are. It's you know, it's been a long time
coming for the franchise. We won our thirtieth year in existence.
Our ownership brought the team about ten years ago, and
you know, if your all hockey fans out there. It
(27:19):
was a massive turnaround situation with the team, and it
was we went through some tough years early on to
get it going in the right direction. But this last
five years we've consistently been in the playoffs. We went
to the Cup finals two years ago, got a taste
of it. But now that we've won it, we were
so proud of the players and the staff and the market.
(27:40):
The market is just on fire with hockey. They're so
excited about the team, and it's just it's wonderful that,
you know, we've created a hockey town in South Florida.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
Matt you joined the Florida Panthers back in twenty fourteen.
I mean, what a decade it's been for you. You
are a former West Point cadet, you served time in
the US Army. You and Vinnie Viola, the owner of
the Florida Panthers. Talk to us about how the two
of you together have built this championship team. Talk to
us about the success of GM bil Zito bringing in
head coach Paul Maurice. Talk to us about the team,
(28:12):
the structure and what comes next.
Speaker 6 (28:14):
Yeah, you know, so when Vinnie, you know, as you
mentioned Vinnie's a West Point graduate myself as well as
graduate of the academy two thousand and two, and when
he bought the team, you know, we knew that there
was a lot of things that we had to do
on the ice, you know, finding the right roster and
finding the right you know, GM and coach. But but
you know, putting that aside, you know, starting with the
(28:37):
culture that we wanted to establish. You know, given our
military experience everything, you all know, teamwork and hard work
and you know, always putting the fans first, you know,
finding people that are aligned with that kind of mindset.
You know that that's what we stated from day one
that you know, we were going to bring respect back
into the organization. There's an earlier that the team was
(29:01):
really struggling before the Viola ownership, So there was a
lot of work to do in the community with our
fan base, and you know, we promised them that we
would build a winner. We didn't know, you know, when
we would win the Stanley Cup, but we promised that
we would just always have conviction and be relentless in
that pursuit. And then you know, after you know, you know, learning,
you know, learning sports ownership was the first time Vinnie
(29:23):
was at least a majority owner.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (29:26):
You know in hockey, you know, it took us some
time to find the right hockey expert. And you know
when when COVID hit, we led a GM search process
and found Bill Zito, who's been you know, the best
hire we've ever made. Uh and you know these last
five years, and his watch had been just phenomenal. And
(29:46):
he also led us to coach Maurice and that combination
has just been absolutely transformational to the hockey side.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Man, I just need to follow up here. I'm such
a big Vinnie Viola fan. For those who don't know,
he's the founder and chairman of Virtue Financial. I mean
he uh, you know, he's just an amazing chap. And
he's a tough, tough chap. You know, he was born
here in Bklyn. He's an Italian, you know, American. You know,
he's he's tough, you know, and you know, talk about tough.
I mean the man, you know, cut his teeth trading
(30:14):
oil on the NIMEX, where he eventually rose to be
you know, I think chairman at one point. I mean,
how did that experience? I mean, you you've worked closely
with him being an oil trader on the floor of
the Imax. How does he take that skill set and
translate into the Florida Panthers.
Speaker 6 (30:29):
Well, listen, he's he's a serial entrepreneur at heart. As
you said, he you know, he started his at least
his civilian career, you know, on the on the trading floor,
very rough and humble environment, which was wasn't wasn't very
different from his military experience. But he you know, he
learned a lot about business. He went on to launch
(30:50):
a number of companies and you know that's part of
the reason why he wound up naming me CEO, is
you know, for a market like South Florida, which is
not New York, doesn't have you know, generations and generations
and fans. You know, when he bought the team, it
was only twenty years old, which in sports is feels
(31:10):
like it's you know, maybe just a level above an
expansion team. So you know, there was a lot to
clean up. And you know, he said from the beginning, like,
you know, we're committed to excellence. We're never going to
take you know, failure or no for an answer, and
you know he just demanded it every single day, every
(31:30):
single season, you know, he wanted to He wanted to
be the New York Rangers, you know today, not not
in ten years. And he just kept that that mindset
from day one. And and you know, he sets the
tone and you know, we you know, you know, sometimes
you can hire you know, typical, you know, industry types,
people that have been experienced in bigger markets. But after
(31:52):
a few years owning the team, he figured, listen, I
have someone that you know, that he trusted in myself.
I was working in his family office. I also have
a finance background. I worked at Goldman Sachs and and
he said, you know, you'll you'll at least be able
to establish the culture and run the financials like the
way I like to see things, because you know, ultimately,
(32:12):
you know, we're you know, we have to be you know,
at least break even and profitable. We have to be
smart and make good fiscal decisions. And you know, you'll
find the right people on the hockey side, right we
don't want myself and any drafting players or trading players.
You know, of course, we want to provide some input,
but ultimately we want to hire the right people to
guide us on the hockey side. And that's that's what
(32:33):
led us to build Zo and Paul Maurice and they've
they've just fit perfectly into our culture. And you have
to you have to find folks that want to communicate
that are all about, you know, being themselves and putting
their ego aside and putting the team first. And that's
not always the case, especially in sports. You know, it's
there's a lot of a lot of big egos. But
(32:54):
the Bill and Paul, you know, exemplified that. And obviously
our hockey expertise is second to none.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
So Matt I got to ask you you talk about
this culture of excellence that you and the owner have
put together through the Panthers organization. Florida has become this
really big hotbed of hockey in the last twenty thirty years.
The Tampa Bay Lightning, which are based in central Florida
in Tampa, won the Cup in twenty four, twenty twenty
(33:21):
and twenty twenty one. You guys just won the Cup
in twenty twenty four. Talk a little bit about how
you split up the Florida market. How do you build
a hockey culture from nothing? Yes, we know there are
a lot of transplants from the Northeast in the state
of Florida. But you are creating a hockey culture from
scratch in many ways. How do you do that with
(33:44):
the Lightning and how do you guys kind of divvy
up the state.
Speaker 6 (33:48):
Yeah, well, first and foremost, I mean there are you know,
the Lightning are our art rival like on the ice,
but we have such deep respect for them and what
they've accomplished. Jeff Finnick is an incredible owner. And a
quick little stat for you. You know, the Stanley Cup
has been in Florida the last five years. You know,
you mentioned, you know, two of the Cup wins that
(34:09):
the Lightning had. They also went to a third Cup
they wind up losing, but they were in the Cup
three straight years, and then you know, two seasons ago
we went to the Cup, lost to Vegas, and then
we won this last year. So I would have never
imagined that, you know, being a hockey fan all my life,
that the Stanley Cup would would travel through Florida, you know,
five straight years. So they've always been you know, they've
(34:29):
always been a great example for us, and we talk
to them all the time and share best practices as
far as splitting up the market. You know, the league
rules we're only able to market around you know, a
seventy five mile radius around our arena to kind of
give us like that exclusive, exclusive territory. So just naturally,
(34:52):
you know, they're more you know, Tampa Orlando focused. We're
more you know, Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale and Miami focused. However,
that being said, both those areas are highly traveled, big
tourist destinations. So when we play the Rangers, for example,
and the New York New Yorkers come to those games,
(35:12):
you know, they of course they wear their Ranger jerseys,
but but we still you know, get to meet them,
you know, try to encourage them to come to Panther games,
especially if they're you know, snowbirds or maybe they have
a house here or they live here. We say, you
know what, we understand you're gonna wear you know, a
Rangers jersey when the when New York is here, But
there's forty other games that you can come to and
and and support us. And you know what, that's worked
(35:34):
because when someone you know, hockey is a die hard
fan base and you know the you know, it's it's
it's smaller than like the NFL or the NBA, but
the ones that love hockey. You know, they love any
kind of brand of hockey as long as it's competitive.
So you get them for but you give them exactly yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Well, Matt, you know, this is the business of sports,
so I have to ask you a little bit about
the business of running the Florida Panthers. We know you
guys have absolutely crushed it in terms of attendance of
twenty five percent over the last two years, ticket revenue
of fifty percent, corporate partnerships revenue. I mean, you changed
the name of the stadium. But I need to ask
you about some of these big projects you guys have
been involved with, the revitalization of the War Memorial Auditorium,
(36:19):
the pract new practice facility you guys built. Talk to
us a little bit about those, about those things and
the challenges in getting them up and running.
Speaker 6 (36:27):
Yeah, I mean, the practice facility was so important for
a number of reasons because the Panthers traditionally, you know,
before the Biola family came in, you know, players looked
at the team as you know, a place that you
can go and enjoy your lifestyle. You can go play golf,
you can go to the beach at beautiful hospitality, but
(36:49):
you know, you're probably not going to win on the ice,
but at least you have a good life, you know,
off the ice. And we had to change that whole.
We called it like a country club, you know, mentality.
And Bill Zito when he came in, he coined this
phrase that we want to be a destination franchise, which is, yes,
you're going to come here and live comfortably, but you're
also going to win and be a part of a
(37:10):
first class organization. You're gonna have the history of the
big teams and the commitment to excellence, but you're also
going to be able to have a great lifestyle, like
I said, off the ice. And we've really, you know,
we've really you know pursued that and have pushed that
agenda and building a brand new, state of the art
practice facility. We just opened it during last season. All
(37:33):
the opposing teams practiced there, you know, opposing gms you know,
come through and check it out. But it's a message, right,
It's a message to the league that like, we're serious
and you know, we're committed to be in first class.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
That's Matt Caldwell. He's President, CEO and alternate governor for
the NHL's Florida Panthers. He spoke with my coll league
Scarlett Fou and Damian sas hour. Now, have you missed
any part of that conversation or any others from the
show today, check out on the Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast.
Find that on Apples, Spotify and all your favorite podcast platforms.
(38:08):
And that does it for this edition of The Bloomberg
Business of Sports for my colleague Scarlett Food, Damien Sassauer,
and Bloomberg Originals sports correspondent The NASA Berdomo. I'm Michael Barr.
Tune in again next week for the latest on the
stories moving big money in the world of sports. You're
listening to The Bloomberg Business of Sports Bloomberger Radio around
(38:29):
the world.
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
This is Bloomberg Business of Sports. Business of Sports can
be intimidating for hard for a start to break into.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
We really appreciate what our owners are actually there, you know,
with us through the journey teams.
Speaker 4 (00:18):
Ours especially then very intentional to diversify at all levels
of the company.
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Maybe we're in the golden gears for the NFL and
college football. Our demographic reach has continued to explode.
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This is going to be really unlocking the streaming platform
for sports fans.
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Speaker 5 (00:36):
You don't have to be the best in your sports
to make a whole ton of money.
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Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio. This is the
Bloomberg Business of Sports where we explore the big money
issues the world of sports.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Michael Blar and Time Dmian SaaS Scarlett Food.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Would join us later in the program. Coming up, we
get ready for the NHL season for the president and
CEO of the reigning Stanley Cup winners, the Florida Panthers.
Speaker 6 (01:04):
We went through some tough years early on to get
it going in the right direction, but this last five
years we've consistently been in the playoffs, went to the
Cup finals two years ago, got a taste of it.
But now that we've won it, we were so proud
of the players and the staff and the market. The
market is just on fire with hockey. They're so excited.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Plus, we take a look at the firm behind the
brand new training facility and headquarters for the Phoenix Mercury,
only one of three built exclusively for a w NBA team.
All that and more is on the way on the
Bloomberg Business of Sports, But first we talked Nike. The
legendary sneaker and sports brand is struggling lately and a
(01:46):
lot of people are pointing fingers at soon to be
former CEO John Donahoe's vision. Nike announced this past week
it would be pulling former executive Elliott Hill out of
retirement to replace Donahoe as CEO. Bloomberg Kim Bessin and
Lily Meyer have been following the drama at Nike and
(02:06):
wrote a piece for Bloomberg Business Week about what went
wrong with Donahoe's tenure, and they're here now to take
us through it. Kim, I'm going to start with you.
Donaho He was tapped to lead Nike back in twenty twenty,
and it seemed like he had a good plan until
he did.
Speaker 6 (02:23):
So.
Speaker 5 (02:24):
Yeah, basically those in those first years like lifestyle sneakers.
Those are Air Force ones, pandas were the big one
that's the black and whites, the low top dunk that
you see absolutely everywhere now and those two and air
Jordan's like Jordan Ones, the OG nineteen eighty five looking Jordan's.
(02:45):
These are all very old shoes, right, and none of
them are real performance shoes anymore. You don't wear Jordan
Ones on the court, that's weird. You wear the most recent,
the most recent type of basketball shoe. So these are
life sneakers. They're meant to be worn on the sidewalk,
They're meant to be worn on the streets. Uh, And
they're not that like that the old core Nike performance
(03:08):
thing that we used to see. Now, there weren't sports
going on if you recall in twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Right, hey it was marble racing.
Speaker 5 (03:15):
Come on there, there was a World Chase tag. Yeah,
but like going forward from there, Eventually, when those lifestyle
sneakers started to slow down and the market was saturated
with with with them. Nike hadn't really innovated enough on
(03:36):
the back end. So back at the Lebron James R.
And D Center in Beaverton, Oregon, right there just weren't
enough new products ready to replace those lifestyles.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Well, Kim, I mean, let's talk about what John Donahoe did.
I mean John Donahoe, I mean formerly the eBay you know,
bank Bane management consultant. You know, you know, he's a
bang guy. They know what a cut costs. They know
how to drive revenues, you know, improve margins until they
don't one of the things that apparently John did. And
I read this in your article and it was just
I had no idea. But now you know, someone who
goes into the mall and goes to foot locker to
(04:08):
you know, bypair of sneakers realizes exactly what they did.
They basically pulled a lot of Nikes off the shelves,
not just a foot locker, but off of websites like Amazon,
and their distribution channels were quickly you know, taken up
by other manufacturers. Right, and so you know, now I
guess if I'm hearing you correctly, and why the stock
price is you know, crashing and cretering here. You know
(04:29):
it is because they kind of on the back end
with their distribution. They really kind of, you know, they
failed to deliver. Talk to us a little bit about
that and how they can rectify the ship there if
at all.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
Yeah, this goes back to the previous CEO, and then
I could hand it off to Lily from here, who
knows a whole lot about this. Back in Mark Parker's days,
we all know Mark Parker is the big set of genius,
the genius sneaker designer, revered by all who brought Nike
over the past of the prior fifteen years or so
(04:59):
to where it was before the pandemic pleted.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Philm Night sentences, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5 (05:04):
He tried to move to more direct to consumer. Why
because you have better margins that way you cut out
the middleman, the middleman as the retailer. But he didn't
quite have the expertise as like the sneaker guy to
build up Nike's e commerce channels, their appose, those direct
ways of buying from Nike dot Com and the sneakers
(05:27):
app and everything. That's why they brought in John Donaho.
He's from eBay, from Bain. He used to run the
Baine West Coast office, Like he's the e commerce guy
and he was the one who could come in and
do that for Nike.
Speaker 7 (05:40):
Yeah, So he tried to help Nike focus on their
online store. They wanted to prioritize their direct to consumer
sales selling sneakers and everything online, and so in mid
twenty twenty, he started to cut relationships with a lot
of their retailers, So with Bob Stores, with City Blue,
(06:01):
with ds W, the list goes on and on. He
pulled the sneakers off of the shelves, which is.
Speaker 5 (06:07):
A really big Yeah. I mean foot Locker is its
biggest partner, yep, and Nike is Footlocker in both directions,
they're their biggest partners. They didn't remove all shoes from
foot Locker, but they reduced them. So what was seventy
five percent of all foot Locker purchases used to be Nike.
That went down to sixty five percent that or to
seventy percent, that went down to sixty percent a year later.
(06:29):
Like that's that's a major pullback. And some of these
other retailers are huge. It's like Macy's, Urban Outfitters, DSW.
As Lily just said, like these are huge retailers.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
You could walk into the mall, you know back in
the day, you know when I had jet black hair,
and you could go and get a pair of Nikes anywhere.
And then it seems like John Donahoe decided, Hey, you
know what, let's cut out the middleman and let's try
to sell it ourselves. And that's when it seems like
(07:01):
it all went to hell in a.
Speaker 5 (07:02):
Handbask exactly what happens to that shelf space space that
Nike vacates, right Suddenly it's empty, and those retailers are
looking around thinking, okay, well we have all this space
that Nike doesn't want anymore. We're gonna replace them with
every other brand, all of its competitors exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 7 (07:21):
So then people could go into like a foot locker
and there's On and Hoka and Brooks and all these
other shoe companies that took up the space and caught
up with Nike because they had all these shelf space
and the major retailers.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
A lot of the stuff that has happened with Nike.
There was a line in there from the employees Nike employees,
we love your business acumen Donahoe, but we don't like
your Bayeness Bayinus.
Speaker 5 (07:53):
They do not like the Bayeness over there. A lot
of costcuting happened.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Let me take a step further, Pershing Square Blackman now
is a very large stake and a building stake in
the company. And we know how these sort of vulture investors,
you know, like to operate right like they like to
make change, you know, and you know, talk to us
a little bit about what comes next for Nike. Talk
to us about you know, where management is. You know
what kind of confidence the cherlds have in the company,
(08:17):
and you know whether or not they have the resources
to again to write the ship here.
Speaker 5 (08:22):
Yeah, I mean the question comes down to leadership at
this point and what the board decides to go forward with.
So in our story we report that John Donajo's contract
is up in January, when he is eligible to retire.
Now we don't know whether what decisions have been made
at this point, but whoever leads Nike going forward has
(08:44):
to rebuild those relationships with those retailers. Nike is already
starting to do that. The foot Locker CEO, there's a
new one from a couple years ago. Her name is
Mary Dylan, and she's been talking about how Nike and
foot Locker have been rebuilding that relationship that they're getting
more everytailer is getting more input and visibility into Nike's
(09:08):
future plans and the new shoes they're going to release
and things like that. So like that, there are steps
being made to revert a little bit of some of
the things that they've done.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
You know, it's because listen, the man can run a business.
I can't even run a dagg on foster. But I mean,
I have to say that there was that point when
he was ready to cut more staff, and the speech
he gave into either Lily or Kim that this was
(09:46):
going to happen. It wasn't exactly a cuddly, come on
kumbay hug.
Speaker 7 (09:52):
Yeah, I mean, Phil Knight had been known for making
these really amazing speeches. One employee even told us they
were sometimes brought to tears by the speeches. A former employee.
But yeah, I think people didn't quite like John's approach
and felt like, you know, he wasn't being that supportive
(10:13):
of them. And you know, there's this one kind of
now famous Zoom call where Donahoe got on and that
the chat blew up with employees, you know, calling for
him to step down criticizing him, which was like a
first in Nike history.
Speaker 5 (10:30):
And like, during these layoffs, there was this video that
went viral among staff, Like so as they're packing up
their desks, people are sharing this thing around with each
other and it's it's the CEO from his old Silicon
Valley days talking about leadership on this little little panel
right with a VC firm, and firings came up, like
that topic, how do you deal with firings? And the
(10:53):
CEO's there and he's sipping from a little cand of Lacroix,
and he casually says, it just explains his philosophy. And
I'm gonna I'm going to read what he said from
that say, Okay, I have fired so many people in
my career. And when I say fired, remember I grew
up at Bain. For every ten people we hired, we
managed half out within two years. We managed seventy five
percent out within five. So I learned that there. And
(11:16):
you can't be afraid of that conversation.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Well, Damien, that was about as cuddly as a yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
I mean, I mean, look, you know, I just think
about you know, someone like Mary Dylan, who's the chairman
and CEO foot walker, and I wonder you know what
it's going to take, you know, to convince her to
be on size with you know the fact that, oh
we've found religion here. We need you guys again. You know,
it's post pandemic. You know people there's foot trafficate malls again.
You guys are in every mall. You know, we'd love
to put some Nikes on the shelves there. I mean,
(11:42):
you know, my question is also, I guess does Mary
Dylan see I guess a benefit here?
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
You got to remember, like in the first couple of
years here, everything it worked, like this strategy, Oh yeah
it was.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
It worked.
Speaker 5 (11:52):
It grew twenty five percent, Like Nike went the goal
was fifty billion. They set that goal years ago for
twenty twenty, and they were nowhere close by the time
they hired John Donahoe. So that's one reason he wanted
him to supercharge growth, right, and that's what he did.
Like these lifestyle sneakers are going crazy, and Nike did
get to fifty billion, but like at what cost?
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Right?
Speaker 5 (12:14):
And there's some happy medium here between Nike and its
retail partners where like everyone can can get a piece
of this.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Our thanks to Bloomberg's Kim Bessin and Lily Meyer for
joining us. Find their latest piece on Nike online at
Bloomberg dot com or on the Bloomberg terminal. It is
a great read up. Next, we turned to the WNBA
and the architectural and design firm behind a brand new
facility for the Phoenix Mercury. For my colleagues Damian Sasawer
(12:46):
and Scarlett Fu, I'm Michael Barr. You're listening to the
Bloomberg Business of Sports Bloomberg Radio around the world. Your
list name to Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio.
This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports, where we explore
(13:07):
the big money issues the world of sports. Michael Barr.
The Phoenix Mercury are one of only three WNBA teams
that have a facility built exclusively for them. A majority
of WNBA teams and women's sports teams in general still
share arenas and facilities with men's teams. Gensler is a
(13:27):
global architecture, design and planning firm and the company behind
the new groundbreaking facility for the Mercury. My colleagues Damian Sassauer,
Bloomberg Original's Chief correspondent Jason Kelly and Bloomberg Original sports
correspondent Vanessa Perdomo got a chance to speak with Gensler
Studio director and senior associate Elizabeth Pritchett about the new
(13:50):
facility and how her firm is looking to close the
gender gap in sports by creating training centers designed for
women athletes. Let's listen in on that conversation.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
So, Elizabeth, you have touched everything from the Chase Center
arena for the Golden State Warriors, the Cleveland Browns, well,
now it's called Huntington bank Field. You've done large scale
renos for Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. But I'd love
to hear what you're doing in Phoenix. I mean, there's
a certain nineteen sixties Cores brewing distribution center that is
(14:22):
now home to the Phoenix Mercury. I'm curious to hear
what that project look like. Can you tell us a
little bit more about it?
Speaker 4 (14:29):
Yes, absolutely, it's really a game changer. Super excited to
jump into that, just real quick before doing so. For
listeners who are not familiar with Gensler, we're a global
architecture and design firm. You've all walked through. Probably you know,
hundreds of our projects. We've designed everything from sports buildings,
(14:51):
which we'll talk about a moment, to airports, hotels, et cetera.
Jumping into the Phoenix Mercury, you know, it's rare in
our in the profession that I'm in to be part
of a team of amazing designers and architects and quite
frankly owners, visionary owners who are really carrying the torch
(15:14):
for a new project type. This has been a long
time coming. What's happening both It started in Seattle with
the creation of the first ever women's WNBA practice facility,
then moved to the Aces Las Vegas Aces under the
(15:37):
leadership and visionary of Mike Davis, and then here in
Phoenix the project project that we're going to jump into.
Gensler designed and opened an incredible groundbreaking project in Phoenix
for the Phoenix Mercury. It opened in June. So I'm
happy to walk you through some of the how we
(15:58):
kind of got there. Does that helped?
Speaker 8 (16:00):
Yeah, you know, I think for us, you know, yeah,
we'd love to hear how it got there. You know,
when you're thinking about how this all came together, Like
you said, it started with the Aces in the Storm
and Mark Davis over at the Aces is you know,
just this visionary owner for women's sports and really cool
to see those both be very standalone. But this is
(16:22):
a little bit different, right, This is a franchise that
also has an NBA team, and now they'll have their
own WNBA facility. So I'd love to hear how those
worked differently and how this one came together.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
Well, a couple of things. I think the biggest thing
here for the Las Vegas Aces was really again having
at having at the foundation, really a desire to make
change quickly. Mattisb bought the Mercury in twenty twenty three
(16:54):
and made it a priority from the outset to create
this state of the art facility. He didn't want to
just sort of hit the bar. He wanted to exceed
the bar. And that really, you know, it really starts with,
of course, the talented athletes, but to think about think
about it this way, to go to a to go
to your job every day where you don't have an office,
(17:16):
how are you going to do your best? How are
you going to perform at your best?
Speaker 5 (17:19):
And it's just.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
Incredible to me that these athletes were going to work
every day and not having a place to do their jobs,
and so just at the most basic, you know, Matt,
Matt and Mike and some of the others said, we're
going to we're flipping the switch. We're going to do this,
we're going to do this, we're going to do this differently,
and we're going to make massive change. And so it
(17:40):
really started from that point of view. So there's just
a level of excellence that's desired from this team and
an expectation to perform at the highest level for both
the athletes. We were able to create a facility for
them to practice their craft, to be at the leading
edge of sport performance, and we were asked to sort
(18:00):
of step up to the table and really and really
did that. We're really proud of the facility that we built.
The players are thrilled to be able to you know,
come to work there every day, to call it their own,
and to have it be a place that really sets
the bar for women's not just well with the WNBA
and basketball, but the trend is going to be moving
(18:22):
this into other sports so that there's just continued equity
across the board.
Speaker 9 (18:28):
Yeah, Elizabeth, you went exactly where I was hoping to go.
Next And we've all done a lot of work around this,
and Vanessa especially and I have looked at you know,
what's next in sports? We literally had a series around that,
and one of the things we featured was and Vanessa
went there the Kansas City facility that is the first
(18:49):
of its kind for women's soccer. And so you sort
of weave that into everything that you're saying. I would
love to understand I know our listeners would love to
understand the business case underneath this in terms of like,
does is this a response to more demand from fans?
Is it and sponsors and other sort of economic stakeholders,
(19:12):
here is this in anticipation? Like help us understand the
economics around these sorts of decisions as you're working with
these partners.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
Yeah, so it's a really it's a really great, great question,
and I think it's nuanced. I think there's maybe a
couple of answers there. I think it's a little bit
of you know, the perfect storm, if you will, and
in a good way of different sort of synergies kind
of coming together. I think that you know, back to
(19:40):
matters Bee and the ownership, knowing that two things when
you're giving, when you're giving your employees and the athletes
the space they need to both be their physical best
their mental best. Just giving them a facility where they
can perform at the leading edge. They're going to be happier,
(20:04):
They're going to do their job better, They're going to
perform better. That of course coincides with you know, Caitlin
Clark and all of the I'm just talking specifically about
basketball here. You know, all of the hype and all
of the just the excitement around college basketball that's been
around for years for men, but to see that bleed
over into the women's side at the same time, really
(20:27):
I think helped propel and move this story forward a
little bit faster. I think this has been years in
the making. I mean, there has been amazing athletes performing
at the highest level in basketball and quite frankly in
all other sports, and they just are not getting the
front pages right. And so to now see you know,
(20:47):
investment to support the to support the talent of these
women athletes, to have them move forward like this is huge.
The business side of it. I think it's interesting because
they're the viewership is up, you know, the viewership is
up all around for college sports. There's a you know,
there's been a new business deal and you're going to
(21:10):
have to do your homework here. And because I don't
know the exact math, but right after this facility opened,
there was a viewership a deal where at the WMA
where they were you know, exceeded expectations in terms of
what that deal was, and part of that money then
(21:30):
funnels back into the athletes. So it's this kind of
circular thing, if you will.
Speaker 8 (21:36):
I would like to get back to this really quick
about the training facility specifically. And you know, like we said,
you've worked on tons of other projects, you know, the
Chase Center and the LACFC, all these things, those are
men's specific projects. So for when you're working in a
female sports teams specific facility, how do you make that
different and tailor it to female athletes and what they want,
(21:58):
what they need, you know, because I'm assuming you know,
you guys talk to the players and things like that,
and we know that a lot of sports science isn't
dedicated to women. So how do you make this training
facility for them so they can perform at the best level.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
You hit the nail on the head, you know, the
basic quality of men's and women's practice facilities. You know,
should should should be equal. You know, athletes of both
genders are both aspiring to the edge of human performance.
We have seen, however, that there are, through a lot
of questions and conversations and inquiry and digging with the
(22:31):
various women teams, that there are differences in terms of
needs and desires and wants, and so a lot of
the program as we call it in the in this field,
the sort of organization and how we think about putting
our buildings together, what the needs are, came from the conversations,
the fact finding, the question asking that we did of
(22:51):
the teams and the organizations, and every team's different. I
would say in general, there's a real folk for women
female athletes really on preparation, and that goes, you know,
back to mental preparation. Having rooms for mental health, you know,
(23:13):
quiet rooms or meditation rooms. Of course, there are nursing
and mother's rooms. That's a commonplace in a lot of
our buildings that we do these days, we've designed family lounges,
places for you know, family, for grandparents to hang out
and to be there with you know, perhaps some young children.
While practice is happening, we're seeing you know, places we're
(23:36):
seeing the desire. We're places to promote personal brands. So
so folks are you know, different athletes are sponsored. They
can you know, take a podcast conversation, you know. Then
of course top of the line nutrition, you know, nutrition,
the They oftentimes want the space the building to be
open twenty four to seven so that you know, these
(23:58):
athletes can come in and get the meal plan tailored
to their needs, their nutrition plan tailored to their needs
at any time of day. So really all of this
is to support top performance, and not top performance is
going to look different to different folks. There are you know,
underwater treadmills, there's cold and hot plunge pools, there's all
of those bells and whistles which are not even bells
(24:20):
and whistles there you know, there there needed components of
thriving and performing at the top. So those are all
you know, these are things that men off. Some of
these there are crossover with mail facilities, but I think
a lot of it was about how we organize the
building as well in terms of you know, is the
mother's room next to the grooming area, what are the
(24:41):
you know, down to having you know the right type
of hot tools for hair, What type of hot tools
do they prefer. Let's make everything built in think about it,
like you know, we designed these spaces like you would
your own beautiful bathroom space at home or where there's
a place for everything so when you get there, you
can feel your best and look your best and then
be your best on the court.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
That's Elizabeth Pritchett. She's studio director and senior associate for Gensler,
the firm behind the state of the art training facility
and headquarters for the Phoenix Mercury, speaking with my colleagues
Damian Sassaur, Bloomberg Originals Chief Correspondent Jason Kelly, and Bloomberg
Original Sports Correspondent Vanessa Pernomo. Up next, we look ahead
(25:24):
to the start of the NHL's season with the Florida Panthers,
President CEO of the team Alternate Governor Matt Caldwell. I'm
Michael Barr. You're listening to the Bloomberg Business of Sports
from Bloomberg Radio. Around the world, you're listening to Bloomberg
(25:52):
Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio. Thanks for joining us
on the Bloomberg Business of Sports, where we explore the
big money issue the world sports Michael Barr. The reignings,
Staning League Cup winning Florida Panthers are ready to start
another season.
Speaker 9 (26:08):
Florida try to end it up against the law, which
would be fit three seconds.
Speaker 6 (26:13):
To go.
Speaker 4 (26:15):
The Florida Panthers.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
How Florida Scarlet Cup.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
The club's pre season opener is this weekend and the
regular season kicks off in early October. To talk about
the team's recent success and the preview the upcoming NHL season,
my colleagues Damian Sasaur and Scarlett fu spoke with Florida
Panthers President, CEO and alternate governor Matt Caldwell. Let's take
(26:42):
a listen in on that conversation.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
You guys won your first ever Sailing Cup championship. Of
course you'd been in the playoffs pretty consistently. Talk about
how the organization is feeling heading into this next season.
Speaker 6 (26:57):
Oh, listen with feeling great. I think anyone coming off
of Stanley Cup win is still on cloud nine. We
certainly are. It's you know, it's been a long time
coming for the franchise. We won our thirtieth year in existence.
Our ownership brought the team about ten years ago, and
you know, if your all hockey fans out there. It
(27:19):
was a massive turnaround situation with the team, and it
was we went through some tough years early on to
get it going in the right direction. But this last
five years we've consistently been in the playoffs. We went
to the Cup finals two years ago, got a taste
of it. But now that we've won it, we were
so proud of the players and the staff and the market.
(27:40):
The market is just on fire with hockey. They're so
excited about the team, and it's just it's wonderful that,
you know, we've created a hockey town in South Florida.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
Matt you joined the Florida Panthers back in twenty fourteen.
I mean, what a decade it's been for you. You
are a former West Point cadet, you served time in
the US Army. You and Vinnie Viola, the owner of
the Florida Panthers. Talk to us about how the two
of you together have built this championship team. Talk to
us about the success of GM bil Zito bringing in
head coach Paul Maurice. Talk to us about the team,
(28:12):
the structure and what comes next.
Speaker 6 (28:14):
Yeah, you know, so when Vinnie, you know, as you
mentioned Vinnie's a West Point graduate myself as well as
graduate of the academy two thousand and two, and when
he bought the team, you know, we knew that there
was a lot of things that we had to do
on the ice, you know, finding the right roster and
finding the right you know, GM and coach. But but
you know, putting that aside, you know, starting with the
(28:37):
culture that we wanted to establish. You know, given our
military experience everything, you all know, teamwork and hard work
and you know, always putting the fans first, you know,
finding people that are aligned with that kind of mindset.
You know that that's what we stated from day one
that you know, we were going to bring respect back
into the organization. There's an earlier that the team was
(29:01):
really struggling before the Viola ownership, So there was a
lot of work to do in the community with our
fan base, and you know, we promised them that we
would build a winner. We didn't know, you know, when
we would win the Stanley Cup, but we promised that
we would just always have conviction and be relentless in
that pursuit. And then you know, after you know, you know, learning,
you know, learning sports ownership was the first time Vinnie
(29:23):
was at least a majority owner.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (29:26):
You know in hockey, you know, it took us some
time to find the right hockey expert. And you know
when when COVID hit, we led a GM search process
and found Bill Zito, who's been you know, the best
hire we've ever made. Uh and you know these last
five years, and his watch had been just phenomenal. And
(29:46):
he also led us to coach Maurice and that combination
has just been absolutely transformational to the hockey side.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Man, I just need to follow up here. I'm such
a big Vinnie Viola fan. For those who don't know,
he's the founder and chairman of Virtue Financial. I mean
he uh, you know, he's just an amazing chap. And
he's a tough, tough chap. You know, he was born
here in Bklyn. He's an Italian, you know, American. You know,
he's he's tough, you know, and you know, talk about tough.
I mean the man, you know, cut his teeth trading
(30:14):
oil on the NIMEX, where he eventually rose to be
you know, I think chairman at one point. I mean,
how did that experience? I mean, you you've worked closely
with him being an oil trader on the floor of
the Imax. How does he take that skill set and
translate into the Florida Panthers.
Speaker 6 (30:29):
Well, listen, he's he's a serial entrepreneur at heart. As
you said, he you know, he started his at least
his civilian career, you know, on the on the trading floor,
very rough and humble environment, which was wasn't wasn't very
different from his military experience. But he you know, he
learned a lot about business. He went on to launch
(30:50):
a number of companies and you know that's part of
the reason why he wound up naming me CEO, is
you know, for a market like South Florida, which is
not New York, doesn't have you know, generations and generations
and fans. You know, when he bought the team, it
was only twenty years old, which in sports is feels
(31:10):
like it's you know, maybe just a level above an
expansion team. So you know, there was a lot to
clean up. And you know, he said from the beginning, like,
you know, we're committed to excellence. We're never going to
take you know, failure or no for an answer, and
you know he just demanded it every single day, every
(31:30):
single season, you know, he wanted to He wanted to
be the New York Rangers, you know today, not not
in ten years. And he just kept that that mindset
from day one. And and you know, he sets the
tone and you know, we you know, you know, sometimes
you can hire you know, typical, you know, industry types,
people that have been experienced in bigger markets. But after
(31:52):
a few years owning the team, he figured, listen, I
have someone that you know, that he trusted in myself.
I was working in his family office. I also have
a finance background. I worked at Goldman Sachs and and
he said, you know, you'll you'll at least be able
to establish the culture and run the financials like the
way I like to see things, because you know, ultimately,
(32:12):
you know, we're you know, we have to be you know,
at least break even and profitable. We have to be
smart and make good fiscal decisions. And you know, you'll
find the right people on the hockey side, right we
don't want myself and any drafting players or trading players.
You know, of course, we want to provide some input,
but ultimately we want to hire the right people to
guide us on the hockey side. And that's that's what
(32:33):
led us to build Zo and Paul Maurice and they've
they've just fit perfectly into our culture. And you have
to you have to find folks that want to communicate
that are all about, you know, being themselves and putting
their ego aside and putting the team first. And that's
not always the case, especially in sports. You know, it's
there's a lot of a lot of big egos. But
(32:54):
the Bill and Paul, you know, exemplified that. And obviously
our hockey expertise is second to none.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
So Matt I got to ask you you talk about
this culture of excellence that you and the owner have
put together through the Panthers organization. Florida has become this
really big hotbed of hockey in the last twenty thirty years.
The Tampa Bay Lightning, which are based in central Florida
in Tampa, won the Cup in twenty four, twenty twenty
(33:21):
and twenty twenty one. You guys just won the Cup
in twenty twenty four. Talk a little bit about how
you split up the Florida market. How do you build
a hockey culture from nothing? Yes, we know there are
a lot of transplants from the Northeast in the state
of Florida. But you are creating a hockey culture from
scratch in many ways. How do you do that with
(33:44):
the Lightning and how do you guys kind of divvy
up the state.
Speaker 6 (33:48):
Yeah, well, first and foremost, I mean there are you know,
the Lightning are our art rival like on the ice,
but we have such deep respect for them and what
they've accomplished. Jeff Finnick is an incredible owner. And a
quick little stat for you. You know, the Stanley Cup
has been in Florida the last five years. You know,
you mentioned, you know, two of the Cup wins that
(34:09):
the Lightning had. They also went to a third Cup
they wind up losing, but they were in the Cup
three straight years, and then you know, two seasons ago
we went to the Cup, lost to Vegas, and then
we won this last year. So I would have never
imagined that, you know, being a hockey fan all my life,
that the Stanley Cup would would travel through Florida, you know,
five straight years. So they've always been you know, they've
(34:29):
always been a great example for us, and we talk
to them all the time and share best practices as
far as splitting up the market. You know, the league
rules we're only able to market around you know, a
seventy five mile radius around our arena to kind of
give us like that exclusive, exclusive territory. So just naturally,
(34:52):
you know, they're more you know, Tampa Orlando focused. We're
more you know, Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale and Miami focused. However,
that being said, both those areas are highly traveled, big
tourist destinations. So when we play the Rangers, for example,
and the New York New Yorkers come to those games,
(35:12):
you know, they of course they wear their Ranger jerseys,
but but we still you know, get to meet them,
you know, try to encourage them to come to Panther games,
especially if they're you know, snowbirds or maybe they have
a house here or they live here. We say, you
know what, we understand you're gonna wear you know, a
Rangers jersey when the when New York is here, But
there's forty other games that you can come to and
and and support us. And you know what, that's worked
(35:34):
because when someone you know, hockey is a die hard
fan base and you know the you know, it's it's
it's smaller than like the NFL or the NBA, but
the ones that love hockey. You know, they love any
kind of brand of hockey as long as it's competitive.
So you get them for but you give them exactly yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Well, Matt, you know, this is the business of sports,
so I have to ask you a little bit about
the business of running the Florida Panthers. We know you
guys have absolutely crushed it in terms of attendance of
twenty five percent over the last two years, ticket revenue
of fifty percent, corporate partnerships revenue. I mean, you changed
the name of the stadium. But I need to ask
you about some of these big projects you guys have
been involved with, the revitalization of the War Memorial Auditorium,
(36:19):
the pract new practice facility you guys built. Talk to
us a little bit about those, about those things and
the challenges in getting them up and running.
Speaker 6 (36:27):
Yeah, I mean, the practice facility was so important for
a number of reasons because the Panthers traditionally, you know,
before the Biola family came in, you know, players looked
at the team as you know, a place that you
can go and enjoy your lifestyle. You can go play golf,
you can go to the beach at beautiful hospitality, but
(36:49):
you know, you're probably not going to win on the ice,
but at least you have a good life, you know,
off the ice. And we had to change that whole.
We called it like a country club, you know, mentality.
And Bill Zito when he came in, he coined this
phrase that we want to be a destination franchise, which is, yes,
you're going to come here and live comfortably, but you're
also going to win and be a part of a
(37:10):
first class organization. You're gonna have the history of the
big teams and the commitment to excellence, but you're also
going to be able to have a great lifestyle, like
I said, off the ice. And we've really, you know,
we've really you know pursued that and have pushed that
agenda and building a brand new, state of the art
practice facility. We just opened it during last season. All
(37:33):
the opposing teams practiced there, you know, opposing gms you know,
come through and check it out. But it's a message, right,
It's a message to the league that like, we're serious
and you know, we're committed to be in first class.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
That's Matt Caldwell. He's President, CEO and alternate governor for
the NHL's Florida Panthers. He spoke with my coll league
Scarlett Fou and Damian sas hour. Now, have you missed
any part of that conversation or any others from the
show today, check out on the Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast.
Find that on Apples, Spotify and all your favorite podcast platforms.
(38:08):
And that does it for this edition of The Bloomberg
Business of Sports for my colleague Scarlett Food, Damien Sassauer,
and Bloomberg Originals sports correspondent The NASA Berdomo. I'm Michael Barr.
Tune in again next week for the latest on the
stories moving big money in the world of sports. You're
listening to The Bloomberg Business of Sports Bloomberger Radio around
(38:29):
the world.
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