April 4, 2025 • 39 mins
Join hosts Michael Barr, Scarlet Fu, Damian Sassower and guest host Vanessa Perdomo for a look at some of the latest headlines and stories in the business of sports.
Bloomberg News global business of sports reporter Randall Williams reports on the biggest developments to come out of the annual NFL owners meetings, including the league's plans to launch men’s and women’s pro flag football leagues as early as next year.
Then, Bloomberg News business of sports reporter Vanessa Perdomo sits down with Learfield President and CEO Cole Gahagan to discuss his leadership plans and broader vision for one of the largest sports media and technology companies in college athletics.
Plus, Sports journalist and author Ann Liguori looks ahead to the 2025 Masters and discusses the state of golf as the saga between the PGA and the Saudi-backed LIV tour continues on an uncertain path.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News. This is the business
of sports.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
The business of sports can be intimidating or hard for
a starting to break into.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
We really appreciate when our owners are actually there, you know,
with us through the journey. Teams ours especially have been
very intentional to diversify at all levels.
Speaker 4 (00:23):
Of the company.
Speaker 5 (00:23):
I think we're in bolden years for the NFL and
college football.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Our demographic reach has continued to explode.
Speaker 6 (00:30):
This is going to be really unlocking the streaming platform
for sports fans.
Speaker 7 (00:34):
Sports evaluations are rising. We'll see when they peak.
Speaker 5 (00:37):
You don't have to be the best in your sport
to make a whole ton of money.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 8 (00:48):
This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports, where we explore
the big money issues in the world of sports. Michael
Barr along with mcconnlleagues, Damien Sasaur and Vanessa Perdomo. Scarlett
fou is on assignment coming up on the show with
the mass there is coming up next weekend. We'll talk
a little golf with Anne Ligori. She has covered dozens
of golf championships and tournaments, including twenty six Masters. Will
(01:10):
get her take on the state of the game heading
into this year's Masters.
Speaker 6 (01:13):
It's the first time Roy McElroy is actually coming into
this Master's first time in a long time with two wins,
and he went to Pebble Beach a couple months ago.
He wanted the players. Even though he was not his
best off the tee get the Houston Open. He was
tied for fifth, so he's playing really, really well.
Speaker 8 (01:32):
Plus, we'll check in on a company looking to lead
the way in the business of college sports in the
age of nil. We'll hear a conversation with Learfield President
and CEO Cole Ghagen. All that and more straight ahead
on the Bloomberg Business of Sports. But first we're a
step closer to another NFL season. Believe that Bloomberg US
(01:54):
sports business reporter Randa Williams went to Florida to be
our fly on the wall all for this year's NFL
annual meeting with league owners. He joins us now from
the road to tell us a little about what he
heard and saw. Randall, old friend, old buddy Opal, Welcome
back to the Bloomberg Business of Sports.
Speaker 7 (02:13):
As always, thank you for having me, mister barr oh Man.
Speaker 8 (02:17):
It's like, hey could be seeing some flag football and
we could see a league.
Speaker 7 (02:22):
Absolutely, NFL is considering starting a pro flag football league,
both men's and women's as soon as next year. That's
very fast.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
As soon as next year. How is that actually possible?
Speaker 7 (02:34):
I don't know, uh transferred. I mean I figured that
they would have started this near the Olympics or around
that time, but uh there. I mean, if you think
about the commitment from the dollars perspective of flag football,
in my mind, you don't necessarily need as much as
let's say a WNBA team, because you know WNBA teams,
you have to build a stadium, you have to have facilities,
(02:55):
all of these different things. And I think you definitely
need the same thing for women's and men's flag foot ball.
But I don't know that owners would be in the
business of building brand new stadiums or brand new facilities
for these pro black football teams. That doesn't mean that
they won't, but I don't know that it makes sense.
Speaker 9 (03:14):
Saranda'll talk to us a little bit.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
They're talking about both a men's and a women's flag
football league, right and so you know, I know there
was a lot of big names. You've got Mark Lassler's Avenue.
You've got CA doing some partnership with with an investor,
You've got you've got Serena Williams.
Speaker 9 (03:30):
Right, So talk to us a little bit about, you know,
what you.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Think the value of a flag football team may very
well be and what comp would you use?
Speaker 9 (03:38):
Would you use like paddle and some.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Of these recent prices that are going on or some
of these you know, club golf teams. I'm just curious
to hear, like what you think is an appropriate comp
for trying to value these franchises.
Speaker 7 (03:50):
Well, it's it's too early to be determined, in large
part because you just don't know the structure of the league.
Like these proposals from these groups all look different. And
I made an attempt to pin down a lot of
these things and I did find out a lot of details.
Is like the structure of some of these proposals that
the league is looking to partner with because the bottom
line is the NFL wants to operate this with someone.
(04:11):
They don't want to do it by themselves. They want
someone to come in and help. And so you have
all these groups who are like, yes, let's absolutely do business.
But the exact business model, whether it's six, eight, ten,
twelve teams is still to be determined. And from the
financial side of things, you know, what does it look
like for Serena Williams because you know her husband. Her
husband has a bit Serena wants to buy a team,
(04:34):
and so those two things are a little separate. You
have Tko, who's in there, who I think could do
an incredible job because of the fact that you know
they have the UFC, they have the WWE and if
you've ever been to one of those live experiences, I
can only imagine what that would be like with flag football.
And then you have everybody else. Of course ice Cube,
who's the owner of the Big Three. There's a lot
of different groups and there's four more out there, I think,
(04:55):
but it's to be determined. I think that black football
could potentially be a huge busin someday for the NFL
because if you think about it from a calendar perspective,
like football ends in February and then you have March
Madness and then you have the WNBA that starts, but
there is for football, you have like a six month
break that can be filled with these flag football leagues.
(05:16):
And I don't know that it goes the whole summer
or the whole spring. We'll have to see. But there's
a huge business opportunity, and I think the NFL is
trying to capitalize on it.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Well, Randall, I understand doing a women's league, right, I mean,
you've got smaller schools who have women's teams. I mean,
it's being adopted by a lot of high schools, certainly
in the New York area, you know, sort of Long Island,
New Jersey, et cetera.
Speaker 9 (05:32):
But here's what I don't understand.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Why would the NFL want to have a men's flag
football league. I mean, wouldn't that sort of creep in
on its existing product, wouldn't it you know, maybe potentially
if you have people who want to play, you know, injuries.
I'm just thinking out loud here, I mean, like, why
a men's league. I mean, women make sense. But yeah,
you know what I.
Speaker 7 (05:51):
Mean, I hear you, and I think what you're saying
is funny. Is like we you know, the men should
be the tougher guys that play the tackle football. The
reality is when you think of the Olympics, you know
the Olympics is going to be I think it's five
on five it's not traditional seven on seven like you
see at some of these high school tournaments, and you
do there is a possibility that NFL players will be playing.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
In the tire a ligament man, I mean, you know,
a hard cut the wrong way, you know, I mean,
these are guys, That's what I'm saying. Like, it's just
not making so much sense to me, at least on
the men's.
Speaker 7 (06:19):
Said that's true, but if you've ever watched the flag
football game, it's completely different. Like it's it's drastically different.
And so I think the NFL does want to have
an opportunity. Which one do I think will do better.
I think the women's will do ten times better because
you're going to have fans who have that exact perspective
that you just did and say, well, you're so good
at this, then you should be playing in the NFL,
(06:41):
the actual league, the tackle league. And for the women's
like that, I think there's a tremendous opportunity because you
have people like Diana Flores, who has been a trailblazer
for the men's. You'd be hard pressed going up to
someone on the street or even someone who loves the
game of football through and through and is able to
name a men's flag football player. It's just a little
(07:04):
little different.
Speaker 8 (07:05):
Well, Roger Goodell, he is saying that the Olympics, that's
a critical moment for us, and they are hoping the
NFL to have the Olympic debut of flag football at
the Los Angeles Games in twenty twenty eight. Is that
realistically possible it's going to be in those games? What
is still yet to be determined? And he mentioned that
(07:25):
the NFL and the nflpare hoping to work out a
deal to allow NFL players to play. But you know,
what does it look like for some of these regular
flag football players who have been training and competing for
Team USA that aren't NFL players, Like, what does the
selection process look look like for the average joes that
(07:47):
are going to be playing against the NFL players. Like, obviously,
from the NFL's perspective, this is like a dream team
scenario where you could have someone like Lamar Jackson, Justin Jefferson,
Jamar Chase, maybe Tyreek Hill, like really unguarded fantasy football
level lineups on the offense and defensive side of the ball.
But at the same time, do those guys understand the
(08:08):
same do they understand the flag football game the same
way that they understand, uh, the NFL game. I'm not
so sure.
Speaker 7 (08:14):
It's something that they're going to have to figure out
and USA Football is going to have to jump into
and be a problem solver.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
I don't really know if they need to, you know,
know the rules as much because of how dominant they'd
probably be against other countries. The one thing that's interesting,
and to Damien's point about why do a men's league,
but does it then create like that problem of the
UFL of the XFL. This is like an actual viable
property maybe that people would watch if the NFL is
(08:41):
the one putting it on instead of some other, you know,
outside property.
Speaker 7 (08:47):
I think that they would operate if they get the
right partner, that it won't compete against itself, because what
they're attempting to do from the grassroots level. Of course,
you know, the NFL and college football go on at
the same time. And ideally, if enough schools and the
NCAA gets behind this and they back this, that you know,
in four years they're hoping to have women's flag football
(09:09):
as a collegiate sport, and I think men's will come
along someday too. But from the women's angle, you have
all the momentum building up right now from the high
school level to the college level, and then of course
these these pro leagues are coming from the men's angle.
I'm not so sure. I'm a little cautious as to
if a consumer would watch men's flag football the same
(09:30):
way that they would watch women's flag football, because, like,
if you think about it from a position perspective, you
have I'll use the two receivers that I just named,
Justin Jefferson and Jamar Chase. And let's just say a
guy's name is, you know, Jerry Jackson or something, and
he's a receiver that plays flag football, Well, he's going
to be compared constantly to be like, oh yeah, but
(09:51):
you play the flag league, whereas with women's you're starting
with a clean slate.
Speaker 9 (09:54):
Let's let's shift gears here.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Earlier this week, you were in Palm Beach, Florida, and
it wasn't like you were at Mara alw Go talking
tariffs with Trump. You were at the NFL annual meeting,
and my goodness, wasn't come out of there. We had
the toush push, never got banned, we got some replay
assist right, the chain gangs are getting banned or maybe
they're you know.
Speaker 9 (10:12):
Getting cast off to the side. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
And then there's a change to the kickoff rule. I mean,
what stood out for you the most? What was the
vibe on the ground.
Speaker 7 (10:19):
I like, I'll tell you like there was not a
lot of finance stuff happening. There were some stadium proposals.
A lot of this meeting was rule changes. And the
reality is, I'll start with the touch push. The touch push.
Of course they're trying to work out the rules, but
they just did not have enough votes. Straight up. There
was like, when you have to get one of these
things passed, you have to have twenty four votes, and
that's a lot. That's a lot. And if you listen
(10:41):
to what some of these coaches are saying, there are
some coaches who aren't against it. I mean their philosophy
is that if you don't want the Eagles to run it,
don't let them get to fourth and two or fourth
and one or third and one. That's that's what the
opposition's viewpoint is. On the kickoff rule. You have the
kickoff or the touch back. Moving from the thirty did
the thirty five. I understand that they're trying to make
(11:04):
more kickoff returns. At the same time, you're gonna get
to a point where, like in fifteen to twenty yards,
people are gonna be in field goal range. And I
guess the NFL is one hundred percent not in they're
not opposed to scoring. But at some point, like it's
like geez, like the logo is right there, and Damian
you remember, and Michael you remember, and I'm sure Vanessa
you do too, a time where the touchback was on
(11:26):
the twenty, So now that it's thirty, it's on the
thirty five. Obviously, offenses are going to have a tremendous
advantage for that, and you're going to see a lot
more kickoffs being returned or trying to be returned, because
no one wants to start on the thirty five. The
replay assist, Yes, they shifted that again, but they're not
going to be doing They're not going to be throwing
(11:47):
flags from New York, which is a good thing. I
think that that would frustrate fans if a roughing the
passer wasn't called and all of a sudden you have
a flag being put down. It would just complicate the
game a bit, and I'm kind of glad that they
didn't do that one. I think I hit on everything,
didn't I I want to the chain Gang. Yeah, yeah,
the chain Gang. Yes, the NFL tested this during during
(12:09):
the preseason last year. They ultimately decided to delay it. Now,
especially after that Josh Allen play in the AFC Championship game,
They're they're going away with the chain Gang. You know,
it's a little prehistoric, but I do think that, you know,
the chain Gang is also going to be standing on
the sideline as a backup if the electronics system doesn't work.
We're gonna find out how it all operates in the fall.
Speaker 8 (12:30):
Randall Williams our very own man, thank you so much
for joining us on the Bloomberg Business of Sports. I
love talking football, flag football, chain gang.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
I'm telling you, I'm putting my I'm gonna try out
for one of these women's flag football teas before before
they have a college system built out, Like why not?
Speaker 7 (12:48):
I want you absolutely can. We'll put a whole Bloomberg
Chileer resquads exactly. Yes, thanks again.
Speaker 8 (12:55):
Up next, we turn to the world of college sports
and affirm looking to the future of college sports marketing
for my colleagues Damian Sasaur and Vanessa Perdomo. I'm Michael Barr.
You're listening to the Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg
Radio around the world.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
This is Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 8 (13:20):
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 Damian Sasaur and Vanessa Perdomo. Still
to come, we'll talk with longtime sports journalists and Ligori
to preview the Masters next week, but first we wanted
to check in on the world of college sports as
we wrap up March Madness. Lear Field is a leading
(13:43):
sports marketing firm with a special focus on college sports.
The landscape has changed a lot recently, with nil and more.
Our own Vanessa Perdomo recently sat down with lear Field
President and CEO Cole Gahagen. Let's take a listen to
that conversation.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Cool, give us a little rundown of what Learfield is.
You're you're a leader of commercial opportunities for college sports.
Tell me what that means and give us some background
on what it is you do for the college sports landscape.
Speaker 5 (14:12):
That descriptive phrase can mean a whole lot, so I'll
try and add to it a bit that helps to
contextualize all that we do. The first thing that I'll
tell you is that I often refer to lear Field
when people ask and aren't familiar with our industry. You
aren't familiar with the company. I often refer to Learfield
as the largest, most influential company in college athletics that.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
You've never heard of.
Speaker 5 (14:31):
It's mostly because we do a good bit in the
commercial space in college sports, but we're very largely behind
the scenes. We're not a consumer facing brand that most
people are aware of, and yet there's so much that
we do and drive in and around college sports. We
have five operating business units. We have the largest licensing
agency in all of college athletics that oversees sort of
(14:52):
the licensing ecosystem. So every single time a hoodie or
a hat or a product that has a school's brand
on it sells in the market, whether that's at a
retail or whether that's online, chances are that clc our
Collegiate Licensing Court licensing agency oversees the reconciliation of that product.
Everybody making what they should make and the reporting being clear,
(15:12):
So we sort of oversee the licensing ecosystem in a
big way. In college athletics, our business side arm oversees
the vast majority official athletics sites and mobile apps in
college sports. Pacule and our ticketing technology company powers the
vast majority of ticketing operations in college sports. And I
think the business that we're most known for is our
multimedia rights operation, which is the commercialization of athletics departments
(15:35):
are said differently, the majority of schools outsource the commercialization
of their athletics department to companies like lear Field, and
we happen to be the largest in the space, which
means we work with brand partners and sponsors on their
behalf to help grow the revenues at the athletics department
through sponsorships, brand association, media and content that that we
create on behalf of our partners and our schools. That's
(16:00):
sort of the biggest business unit of the five that
we have. And the last one is our Amplify business
that oversees outsourced ticket sales and donor and development for
a lot of our school partners. So, as you can tell,
we do a good bit in college athletics. We have
a number of services we provide universities, and as a
byproduct of that, we're sort of at the center of
(16:22):
most things that happened commercially in the business of college sports.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
Yeah, there's a lot there. There is a lot there
which is really interesting. You know, you came into this
business being CEO in twenty twenty and then everything changes
about a year later, right where college athletics starts allowing
NIL deals, And I'm curious how that changed your business.
Obviously I'm assuming it helped and got a lot bigger,
(16:45):
But how was that for you guys, and how did
it change everything?
Speaker 5 (16:49):
Well, if you go back even further than just July
first of twenty twenty one, which is when NIL went
into effect, to your point, we've in our company experienced
nothing but pretty radical change the last four or five years.
There's sort of three big seminal moments that represent those
periods of change. One, of course, was a seminal moment
for every single human on planet Earth, which was the pandemic.
(17:11):
And when you're a sports media and technology company that
operates in the rights world like we do, it was
a pretty disruptive time During COVID. We had games that
didn't play, we had games that played without fans, we
had shortened seasons. So to your point about coming in
at a pretty wild time of radical change, the first
big chapter of that was certainly COVID.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
The second chapter, as you pointed out.
Speaker 5 (17:33):
Was in IL, going into effect on July one of
twenty twenty one. Now what's interesting about that is that
will be an evergreen chapter that will never change. The
third chapter was is one that perhaps is not as
well known, but in twenty twenty three, we went through
a pretty sizable restructuring of our balance sheet, one of
the largest out of court restructurings in history. Was a
(17:53):
hugely successful recapitalization for our company and has put us
on a path of success since then. We really have
had been as of these three big chapters of change
over the last few years. And one of the things
that's interesting as you sort of look back on that
journey is that we had our own sort of self
driven episode of change while all of that was playing out,
(18:17):
which was modernization of our business. My remit when I
came in and took over the company from our board
at the time was very simple. It was integrate the business, which,
as many conglomerates find themselves in these types of situations,
we had sort of an incongruent operation with business units
that weren't talking to each other and weren't working sort
(18:38):
of hand in glove to drive enterprise value, and at
the same time we had to modernize the business. Second
remit was to take a fifty year old operation, if
you will, particularly in that multimedia right space, and to
figure out how we evolve it to now power commercialization
in college for the next fifty years. And that was
really my remit at the time. So we had started
(19:00):
independent of those three sort of chapters that I mentioned,
we had already started this revolution of our business and
that became data centric, and it became media and digital
products centric, particularly for our multimedia rights business. And the
reason that I share that with you is because it
really serves as the foundation for what we can go
(19:22):
do now around INNIL. What I mean by that is,
when we started this journey of modernizing the business around
data and media.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
We knew two things.
Speaker 5 (19:35):
We knew anything that we would do to create value
for our school partners and for brands had to be
rooted in the principle of fan connectivity. We had to
know who our fans were, we had to have an
ability to reach them, and we had to have an
ability to engage them once we were able to reach them,
And that was what led to us building fan Base,
which is now the largest data platform in all of
(19:56):
college sports. We have one hundred and seven million known
fans collegiate fans, and we can now talk to those
fans on a twenty four hour day, seven day, seven
day a week basis. And then we built Learfield Studios,
our digital media and content organization, and to put into
context over the last several years, how quickly we've built that.
(20:17):
In fiscal twenty four, our fiscal year twenty four that
ended last June thirty, we had delivered one point to
billion impressions through Learfield Studios and our ability to connect
with those fans. And so the reason I say all
of that is to say we were fortunate to start
to build that foundation that has now served INIL in
(20:37):
a big way before July one, twenty twenty one happened
so that when the NIL era came about, we had
the infrastructure and the products in the market to now
go deliver value for student athletes for brands and for
universities because, as you know, or I'm guessing that you
probably know and have may be seen, the bulk of
(20:58):
what we're doing in commercialization of NIL these days is
social media influencing and content that we create in partnership
with student athletes and brands.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
So I felt it was.
Speaker 5 (21:10):
Really important to kind of lay that context because that
foundation is what is really going to propel this continued
exponential growth of NIL opportunities in the years ahead.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
I think that's so interesting. I mean, yeah, it's like
you got ahead of the curve before even really knowing
what this landscape was going to be. And I find
that to be so so interesting. One of the things
also there that you guys, you know that I'm thinking of,
you know, what you're doing in the in that space
is a lot of these big schools that you work with,
and you know, they have their own you know, NIL managers,
(21:44):
they have in l collectives and things like that. And
how do you work with schools individually, programs individually, you know,
players individually, with all those different facets going on.
Speaker 5 (21:56):
Well, the first thing to of course keep in mind
is while we do a whole heck of a lot
around the business of college sports. Neither Learfield or any
other company out there can do it all, and we
have not only accepted that, but we we operate with that.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Mentality of our job is to stay.
Speaker 5 (22:12):
Within the businesses that we run today and to optimize
those businesses and services for our school partners and to augment,
to your very point, to augment what they're doing.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
So what does that mean in practical terms, Well, as you.
Speaker 5 (22:26):
Pointed out, most schools at this point, they have their
own infrastructure and staffs that they've built since July one
of twenty one now to help support their innil efforts
with their student athletes and try and maximize opportunities for
those athletes. So our job is to augment that as
best we can. And as I said, in practical terms,
(22:48):
what that means is a couple of things. We are
in the business of creating deals and opportunities for athletes,
and we're in the business of helping in the licensing
space as well. Our platform, Compass, our proprietary technology is
what's used by one Team partners and EA Sports and
Fanatics when they onboard student athletes who want to opt
(23:09):
into licensing programs. They do so via our Compass platform.
It's a mobile first product that allows student athletes to
opt into these licensing programs. We now have over forty
thousand student athletes who have done just that so that
they can participate in licensed products sales, particularly.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
With the video game, the Football video game, with THEA.
Speaker 5 (23:29):
Sports and Fanatics jersey and jersey t sales. So our
job is to augment what happens in the licensing world
and very largely do that through Compass and partnerships that
we have in place with one Team, EA and Fanatics.
But our job is also with boots on the ground
to assist our schools and our brand partners and our
(23:49):
student athletes with deal making to create more commercial brand
partnership opportunities for the athletes. And we've done that in
a number of ways, but I would say the sort
of prevailing method for us has been taking the resources
and ESSA we have on the ground at over one
hundred and sixty schools across the country and adding dedicated
(24:12):
team members INNIL coordinators and managers and staff who help
us coordinate the NIL initiatives we're putting into place, whether
that's podcasting a student athlete might do on behalf of
a brand, or it's a spot that a student athlete
might do, or it's a social influencing campaign and content
that we're.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Going to create around it.
Speaker 5 (24:33):
We've now installed at our staffs around the country INNIL
dedicated resources who are there to facilitate those programs.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Sometimes they're there to help sell specifically for.
Speaker 5 (24:47):
INIL deals. Sometimes they're on site to help facilitate the
deals once they have been sold. And in some cases
we have both resources on site. So really, through both
tech and the resources that we are adding to the
staffs that we already have on campuses all over the country,
our job is to augment the infrastructure that the universities
(25:09):
are building as well to help them maximize these an
ile opportunities.
Speaker 8 (25:14):
That's Deerfield President and CEO Cole Kahagen speaking with Olmer
Vanessa Perdomo. Now, if you missed any of that conversation,
find it now on demand on the Bloomberg Business of
Sports podcast. Find that on Apple, Spotify and all your
favorite podcast platforms. Straight ahead, we turned to golf and
preview the Masters for my colleagues Namian Sasaur and Vanessa Perdomo.
(25:37):
I'm Michael Barr. You're listening to the Bloomberg Business of
Sports from Bloomberger Radio. Around the world.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
You're listening to Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 8 (26:04):
Thanks for joining us on the Bloomberg Business of Sports,
where we explore the big money issues in the world
of sports. I'm Michael Barr and along with my colleagues
Damian Sasaur and Vanessa Perdomo. We've got some breaking news
on Friday, with ESPN reporting that the PGA Tour has
rejected the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund's most recent offer
(26:24):
to invest one point five billion dollars into PGA Tour enterprises,
which came with the caveat that the rival Live Golf
League would remain intact. The PIF has funded Live Golf
since its inception in twenty twenty two. Now, before that news,
we got a chance to speak with sports journalists and Legory.
(26:46):
She covered dozens of pro golf championships and tournaments, including
twenty six different Masters. She is the author of the
book Life on the Green, Lessons and Wisdom from Legends
of Golf, and since the Masters is coming up in
a few days, we wanted to preview it and get
a little pulse check on the world of golf and
welcome back to the Bloomberg Business of sports.
Speaker 10 (27:08):
Hey, it's such a pleasure to be back. Thanks for
having me.
Speaker 8 (27:11):
Well, I guess there's some tournament that's coming up that
people love. Oh yeah, the Masters. Let me just start
by the most inane statement. I missed the eyes in
our tree. I know. Vanessa was like, what the hell
are you talking about? The eyes in our tree was
big on the course at the Masters, and then the
(27:32):
storms came along and took it out, and so I'm
just showing my age.
Speaker 10 (27:36):
So now I am no, no, no, it's you're right.
I missed it too.
Speaker 6 (27:41):
And then you know, they had huge hurricane in the fall,
and it'll be interesting to see just how many trees.
Speaker 10 (27:49):
They surely replanted a lot of them.
Speaker 6 (27:52):
But Ry McElroy, in some of his practice rounds there, said, yeah,
he can tell that there are still a lot of
trees missing. So I'll walk around and see just how
many more trees were out from the storm last fall.
Speaker 4 (28:05):
You mentioned Rory McRoy there, and obviously you know he's
trying to come in and win, you know, and create
the career Grand Slam. But one thing that I saw
recently that I was really struck by and I didn't
notice was you know, it's been since twenty fourteen, and
that gap that he hasn't won a Grand Slam is
the same gap that it was when Tiger Woods kind
(28:28):
of went away from golf because of everything that was
going on and then came back and won the Masters
in twenty nineteen. It's that same eleven year gap. So
what's that, you know, is there a lot of pressure
for him, you know going into this round? Is this
is just a great storyline that people are paying attention to.
Speaker 6 (28:44):
That's a really great stat and great that you brought
that up. Look, it's the first time Roy McElroy is
actually coming into this Master's first time in a long time,
what with two wins, and he went to Pebble Beach
a couple months ago.
Speaker 10 (29:00):
He wanted the players.
Speaker 6 (29:01):
Even though he was not his best off the tee
last week at the Houston Open, he was tied for fifth,
So he's playing really, really well. So you know, it
has been a long time since he's won a major title,
and every year the Masters, I mean, this is the
one major that he has not won, so he hopes
to win it to complete the career Grand Slam. So yeah,
(29:22):
there's always pressure on Rory to win a Master's title,
but it just so happens that, you know, this is
the best he's looked coming into the Masters in a
long long time. So yeah, there's even more pressure on
him than so never stops the pressure.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
And I'd love to ask you about Augusta, but really,
I mean, what's the point. I mean, now that Tiger's
Tomorrow's Golf League is out there and you can just
hit into screens, I mean, is there really any point
in actually going or watching the Masters on television?
Speaker 9 (29:51):
I mean, let's get how I'm kidding.
Speaker 3 (29:52):
But you know, let's talk about shot Scotty Shuffler, right,
I mean it's his to lose. He's the clear cut favorite.
Speaker 9 (29:57):
What do you think Scotty's chances are this weekend? What
are your thoughts?
Speaker 10 (30:01):
Well, you know, he looks really solid.
Speaker 6 (30:04):
I mean he came in last week at the Houston
Open and he was just not one hundred percent himself.
Speaker 10 (30:11):
You know, he had that weird accident.
Speaker 6 (30:12):
With his hand during the holidays where he needed stitches.
He cut himself with glass, and so he missed a
couple of tournaments early in the season. And then he
came in and had Pebble Beach tied for ninth, Phoenix
Open tied for twenty fifth, Jennis Is tied for three,
Arnold Palmer tied for eleventh, the players tied for twentieth.
Speaker 10 (30:33):
And he just wasn't the Scottie Scheffler that you know we.
Speaker 6 (30:36):
All have come to know and love right after last
year's incredible season. But I have to say last week
he looked a lot more like the Scottie Scheffler that
we're used to sing. He tied for second, and so yes,
he's still the favorite to win this week at augustin
Nshall and you know, we'll see if he can put
it all together. It would be great if he can
(30:57):
play like we all know that he's capable of playing.
Speaker 8 (31:00):
And you mentioned something to me and about Tiger Wood.
He's not going to be there, and I know he
pulled the old April Fool's Oki dok saying that he
was going to play, and now it was an April
Fools gag. But he's not there. He has a serious
achilles injury. How much of an impact will it be
just simply because Tiger Woods isn't there.
Speaker 10 (31:19):
Yeah, that April Fool's got a lot of people.
Speaker 6 (31:21):
I saw some people like notable personalities, like responding to
that April Fools joke that he would be playing by saying, oh, wow,
it's always great to see you to ad Augusta. But
now the fact that, look, there's so many stars in
the game now and there's so much coverage on social media,
and the Masters, by the way, is doing so much
(31:43):
social media coverage, you know, starting with this Augusta National
women Sam and previewing the Master's tournament that, yeah, everybody's
going to miss Tiger, but look, there's so many great storylines,
you know, with Scottie.
Speaker 10 (31:55):
And Rory and.
Speaker 6 (31:58):
All the newcomers. Interviewed Rafael Campos, who's gonna make his
Master's debut. He's from Puerto Rico and he's gonna have
all of Puerto Rico rooting for him. And talked to
Joe high Smith, who wanted the Cognizant and he's making
his debut.
Speaker 10 (32:14):
So, I mean, there's just so many great stories.
Speaker 6 (32:16):
Ludwig Oberg, so yeah, the fact that Tiger won't be playing,
I mean, everybody wants to see Tiger play, but I
mean he hasn't played. He just hasn't played. He's had
one thing after another. And you know, now he's dating
Donald Trump Junior's ex wife, so I think he's busy.
Speaker 4 (32:36):
Maybe that'll help. I don't know.
Speaker 9 (32:38):
Let's see.
Speaker 4 (32:39):
So I know who I'm putting my money on Bourriqua Pride.
Maybe let's go. So I'd love to talk a little
bit about sports gabling here because obviously sports gabling is huge.
It's helped a lot of sports, you know, engage younger fans,
engage other people. But with golf, it feels like it
might be a little bit harder. I mean, scottis Shuffler
is the favorite, but his odds are still plus three
fifty Royal Macrary's at in and these plus six fifty
(33:01):
on DraftKings.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Is it good for golf that it's so wide.
Speaker 4 (33:06):
Open or is it actually really like frustrating because you
can't Actually, it's really hard to pick a winner.
Speaker 10 (33:11):
I'm not a big you know sports better, but I.
Speaker 6 (33:15):
Did tell me I asked my brother to put some
money on some of these newbies, you know, because then
the odds are seemed.
Speaker 10 (33:22):
To be worthwhile.
Speaker 6 (33:23):
But you know, I honestly don't bet that much on golf,
and I honestly can't believe that it has kind of
gotten to the point where we all can bet on golf.
But I know from a different century, and I know
how adamant that you know, opposed to betting on golf.
They were for so many years. But it's just all
(33:46):
now about the money, and you know, these players are
making so much money, the fans are getting into it.
It's just become so popular and in so many ways
with social media now with gambling. So yeah, I mean
I would think it's it's hard to pick a winner,
for sure, but if you pick somebody with those crazy odds,
you could really have a great payday.
Speaker 10 (34:06):
So I tend to go with the.
Speaker 6 (34:07):
Players that nobody expects to win. Then you're making some
serious cash.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Well, I know one gambling super fan who's certainly got
some money riding on FanDuel, and that's Jim Nance.
Speaker 9 (34:16):
Jim Nance who wrote.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
The forward for Life on the Green Lessons and was
them from Legends of Golf. He's a huge Houston Cougar's alum,
huge booster there Houston's in the finals. I mean, he's
got to be rolling high. Talk to us a little
bit about mister Nance's latest words on retirements. I mean,
and he's claiming that he's going to retire in twenty
thirty six.
Speaker 9 (34:36):
I mean, is he really looking at He told me that.
Speaker 6 (34:39):
He told me that on my Talking Golf shown WFAN
on Sunday mornings. He told me that like two years ago,
somebody picked it up. He must have been talking, I
don't know, if being interviewed by somebody, and he said
it again.
Speaker 10 (34:50):
So look, I feel bad that he's not doing the
SaaS anymore, but you know I get it.
Speaker 6 (34:57):
I mean the travel schedule going from the Championship game
to Augusta National to do the Masters. I mean, he's
been at it for so many years. So yeah, thank goodness,
he'll still be around for many years to come. But
I have to say one of my best memories every
year at Augusta Nationals is standing next to Jim on
Thursday morning, very early when the honorary starters come out.
Speaker 10 (35:20):
There's like two lines.
Speaker 6 (35:22):
We all line up, and you know, Jack Nicholas and
Gary Player and now Tom Watson, they walk right by
us and Jim and I always have a great catch up.
Speaker 8 (35:32):
You know.
Speaker 6 (35:32):
He wrote the forward for my book Life on the Green,
Lessons and Wisdom from Legends of Golf, and I'm so
very grateful to Jim, I mean, such a legend himself
to devote a couple pages about my career and my
book as in the forwards. So Jim's the best, and
he'll always be the Master's voice to me no matter
how long he continues to do it, or and he
(35:55):
decides to stop. But yeah, it was interesting to see
that he put that out there publicly.
Speaker 8 (35:59):
I know, getting short on time, but I want to
talk about Brooks Kopka for a second now. He is
hinted that he wants to return to the PGA from Live.
Two questions. One, I thought in the Masters that rule
really didn't apply. But how can Kopka get back into
the PGA.
Speaker 10 (36:17):
That's the loaded question right now.
Speaker 6 (36:19):
He denies, saying that Freddy Couples is the one that
really put that quote out that Freddie Couple said, I've
been talking to Brooks Kopka and Brooks really wants to
get back on the PGA tour. Brooks is under contract
with Live, so Brooks can't really he's not in a
position where he can really talk about getting back on
the PGA Tour until his contract would Live is over
(36:41):
right now, there is no reunification. There's no deal between
PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund which owns Live.
It seems to be at a standstill. It's been what
a couple of years now that they've been negotiating, and
at the Players Championship, the PGA Tour Commission j Monahan said, Listen,
(37:02):
we will not negotiate in public. But the little information
that they can divulges is that they want to see
golf reunified, meaning PJ Tour players and Live players playing together.
But that's all he basically said. And it just seems
to me like these talks are going nowhere. So the
top players from Live can play at the Masters. It
(37:25):
will be interesting to see if there'll be allowed to
rejoin the PJ Tour. Maybe they're waiting for Brooks Koepka's
contract with Live to expire. But the PJ Tour and
the Public Investment Fund have not come to any agreement,
so it's still up in the air as.
Speaker 10 (37:42):
To what's going to happen.
Speaker 8 (37:43):
And Legury you mentioned Jim Nance had written befored for
your book Life on the Green, Lessons and Wisdom from
Legends of Golf and by the way what a fabulous book.
To me, is one of the best golf books out
there in the sport ever, and you really kick believe
with them. That's really cool.
Speaker 6 (38:02):
I really appreciate that. You know, it's a very uplifting book.
It really transcends golf. I have these twelve legends, six men,
six women, everybody from Tom Watson and Jack Nicholas and
Gary Player to Anica Sorenstem and Bernard Longer and Nancy
Lopez and Padre Carrington. They all talk about what they
(38:22):
bring from, you know, the golf course, from their iconic
golf careers to life, and so you can be a
diehard golfer and really enjoy the stories in the book,
or you don't even have to have an interest in
golf and still be inspired by the wisdom that they share.
So I'm very proud of it. All twelve legends actually
thanked me for including them, which kind of shows you
(38:43):
what amazing people they are. I'm so thrilled that we're
spreading some positive inspirational messages out there.
Speaker 10 (38:51):
So pretty proud of it.
Speaker 8 (38:52):
A shout out to you because you're also the founder
and president of the and Lagery Foundation. You raise money
for cancer research and care through charity, go off events
and more, and that needs to be mentioned. Also, you
are first rate and thank you so much for joining
us on the Bloomberg Business of Sports.
Speaker 10 (39:09):
Ah it's a pleasure and enjoy the Masters.
Speaker 8 (39:12):
And thank you for joining us. For my colleagues, Damien Sasaury,
Vanessa Pernomo, I'm Michael Barr. Tune in again next week
for the latest home of the stories moving big old
money in the world of sports. You're listening to The
Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberger Radio around the world.
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News. This is the business
of sports.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
The business of sports can be intimidating or hard for
a starting to break into.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
We really appreciate when our owners are actually there, you know,
with us through the journey. Teams ours especially have been
very intentional to diversify at all levels.
Speaker 4 (00:23):
Of the company.
Speaker 5 (00:23):
I think we're in bolden years for the NFL and
college football.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Our demographic reach has continued to explode.
Speaker 6 (00:30):
This is going to be really unlocking the streaming platform
for sports fans.
Speaker 7 (00:34):
Sports evaluations are rising. We'll see when they peak.
Speaker 5 (00:37):
You don't have to be the best in your sport
to make a whole ton of money.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 8 (00:48):
This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports, where we explore
the big money issues in the world of sports. Michael
Barr along with mcconnlleagues, Damien Sasaur and Vanessa Perdomo. Scarlett
fou is on assignment coming up on the show with
the mass there is coming up next weekend. We'll talk
a little golf with Anne Ligori. She has covered dozens
of golf championships and tournaments, including twenty six Masters. Will
(01:10):
get her take on the state of the game heading
into this year's Masters.
Speaker 6 (01:13):
It's the first time Roy McElroy is actually coming into
this Master's first time in a long time with two wins,
and he went to Pebble Beach a couple months ago.
He wanted the players. Even though he was not his
best off the tee get the Houston Open. He was
tied for fifth, so he's playing really, really well.
Speaker 8 (01:32):
Plus, we'll check in on a company looking to lead
the way in the business of college sports in the
age of nil. We'll hear a conversation with Learfield President
and CEO Cole Ghagen. All that and more straight ahead
on the Bloomberg Business of Sports. But first we're a
step closer to another NFL season. Believe that Bloomberg US
(01:54):
sports business reporter Randa Williams went to Florida to be
our fly on the wall all for this year's NFL
annual meeting with league owners. He joins us now from
the road to tell us a little about what he
heard and saw. Randall, old friend, old buddy Opal, Welcome
back to the Bloomberg Business of Sports.
Speaker 7 (02:13):
As always, thank you for having me, mister barr oh Man.
Speaker 8 (02:17):
It's like, hey could be seeing some flag football and
we could see a league.
Speaker 7 (02:22):
Absolutely, NFL is considering starting a pro flag football league,
both men's and women's as soon as next year. That's
very fast.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
As soon as next year. How is that actually possible?
Speaker 7 (02:34):
I don't know, uh transferred. I mean I figured that
they would have started this near the Olympics or around
that time, but uh there. I mean, if you think
about the commitment from the dollars perspective of flag football,
in my mind, you don't necessarily need as much as
let's say a WNBA team, because you know WNBA teams,
you have to build a stadium, you have to have facilities,
(02:55):
all of these different things. And I think you definitely
need the same thing for women's and men's flag foot ball.
But I don't know that owners would be in the
business of building brand new stadiums or brand new facilities
for these pro black football teams. That doesn't mean that
they won't, but I don't know that it makes sense.
Speaker 9 (03:14):
Saranda'll talk to us a little bit.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
They're talking about both a men's and a women's flag
football league, right and so you know, I know there
was a lot of big names. You've got Mark Lassler's Avenue.
You've got CA doing some partnership with with an investor,
You've got you've got Serena Williams.
Speaker 9 (03:30):
Right, So talk to us a little bit about, you know,
what you.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Think the value of a flag football team may very
well be and what comp would you use?
Speaker 9 (03:38):
Would you use like paddle and some.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Of these recent prices that are going on or some
of these you know, club golf teams. I'm just curious
to hear, like what you think is an appropriate comp
for trying to value these franchises.
Speaker 7 (03:50):
Well, it's it's too early to be determined, in large
part because you just don't know the structure of the league.
Like these proposals from these groups all look different. And
I made an attempt to pin down a lot of
these things and I did find out a lot of details.
Is like the structure of some of these proposals that
the league is looking to partner with because the bottom
line is the NFL wants to operate this with someone.
(04:11):
They don't want to do it by themselves. They want
someone to come in and help. And so you have
all these groups who are like, yes, let's absolutely do business.
But the exact business model, whether it's six, eight, ten,
twelve teams is still to be determined. And from the
financial side of things, you know, what does it look
like for Serena Williams because you know her husband. Her
husband has a bit Serena wants to buy a team,
(04:34):
and so those two things are a little separate. You
have Tko, who's in there, who I think could do
an incredible job because of the fact that you know
they have the UFC, they have the WWE and if
you've ever been to one of those live experiences, I
can only imagine what that would be like with flag football.
And then you have everybody else. Of course ice Cube,
who's the owner of the Big Three. There's a lot
of different groups and there's four more out there, I think,
(04:55):
but it's to be determined. I think that black football
could potentially be a huge busin someday for the NFL
because if you think about it from a calendar perspective,
like football ends in February and then you have March
Madness and then you have the WNBA that starts, but
there is for football, you have like a six month
break that can be filled with these flag football leagues.
(05:16):
And I don't know that it goes the whole summer
or the whole spring. We'll have to see. But there's
a huge business opportunity, and I think the NFL is
trying to capitalize on it.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Well, Randall, I understand doing a women's league, right, I mean,
you've got smaller schools who have women's teams. I mean,
it's being adopted by a lot of high schools, certainly
in the New York area, you know, sort of Long Island,
New Jersey, et cetera.
Speaker 9 (05:32):
But here's what I don't understand.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Why would the NFL want to have a men's flag
football league. I mean, wouldn't that sort of creep in
on its existing product, wouldn't it you know, maybe potentially
if you have people who want to play, you know, injuries.
I'm just thinking out loud here, I mean, like, why
a men's league. I mean, women make sense. But yeah,
you know what I.
Speaker 7 (05:51):
Mean, I hear you, and I think what you're saying
is funny. Is like we you know, the men should
be the tougher guys that play the tackle football. The
reality is when you think of the Olympics, you know
the Olympics is going to be I think it's five
on five it's not traditional seven on seven like you
see at some of these high school tournaments, and you
do there is a possibility that NFL players will be playing.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
In the tire a ligament man, I mean, you know,
a hard cut the wrong way, you know, I mean,
these are guys, That's what I'm saying. Like, it's just
not making so much sense to me, at least on
the men's.
Speaker 7 (06:19):
Said that's true, but if you've ever watched the flag
football game, it's completely different. Like it's it's drastically different.
And so I think the NFL does want to have
an opportunity. Which one do I think will do better.
I think the women's will do ten times better because
you're going to have fans who have that exact perspective
that you just did and say, well, you're so good
at this, then you should be playing in the NFL,
(06:41):
the actual league, the tackle league. And for the women's
like that, I think there's a tremendous opportunity because you
have people like Diana Flores, who has been a trailblazer
for the men's. You'd be hard pressed going up to
someone on the street or even someone who loves the
game of football through and through and is able to
name a men's flag football player. It's just a little
(07:04):
little different.
Speaker 8 (07:05):
Well, Roger Goodell, he is saying that the Olympics, that's
a critical moment for us, and they are hoping the
NFL to have the Olympic debut of flag football at
the Los Angeles Games in twenty twenty eight. Is that
realistically possible it's going to be in those games? What
is still yet to be determined? And he mentioned that
(07:25):
the NFL and the nflpare hoping to work out a
deal to allow NFL players to play. But you know,
what does it look like for some of these regular
flag football players who have been training and competing for
Team USA that aren't NFL players, Like, what does the
selection process look look like for the average joes that
(07:47):
are going to be playing against the NFL players. Like, obviously,
from the NFL's perspective, this is like a dream team
scenario where you could have someone like Lamar Jackson, Justin Jefferson,
Jamar Chase, maybe Tyreek Hill, like really unguarded fantasy football
level lineups on the offense and defensive side of the ball.
But at the same time, do those guys understand the
(08:08):
same do they understand the flag football game the same
way that they understand, uh, the NFL game. I'm not
so sure.
Speaker 7 (08:14):
It's something that they're going to have to figure out
and USA Football is going to have to jump into
and be a problem solver.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
I don't really know if they need to, you know,
know the rules as much because of how dominant they'd
probably be against other countries. The one thing that's interesting,
and to Damien's point about why do a men's league,
but does it then create like that problem of the
UFL of the XFL. This is like an actual viable
property maybe that people would watch if the NFL is
(08:41):
the one putting it on instead of some other, you know,
outside property.
Speaker 7 (08:47):
I think that they would operate if they get the
right partner, that it won't compete against itself, because what
they're attempting to do from the grassroots level. Of course,
you know, the NFL and college football go on at
the same time. And ideally, if enough schools and the
NCAA gets behind this and they back this, that you know,
in four years they're hoping to have women's flag football
(09:09):
as a collegiate sport, and I think men's will come
along someday too. But from the women's angle, you have
all the momentum building up right now from the high
school level to the college level, and then of course
these these pro leagues are coming from the men's angle.
I'm not so sure. I'm a little cautious as to
if a consumer would watch men's flag football the same
(09:30):
way that they would watch women's flag football, because, like,
if you think about it from a position perspective, you
have I'll use the two receivers that I just named,
Justin Jefferson and Jamar Chase. And let's just say a
guy's name is, you know, Jerry Jackson or something, and
he's a receiver that plays flag football, Well, he's going
to be compared constantly to be like, oh yeah, but
(09:51):
you play the flag league, whereas with women's you're starting
with a clean slate.
Speaker 9 (09:54):
Let's let's shift gears here.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Earlier this week, you were in Palm Beach, Florida, and
it wasn't like you were at Mara alw Go talking
tariffs with Trump. You were at the NFL annual meeting,
and my goodness, wasn't come out of there. We had
the toush push, never got banned, we got some replay
assist right, the chain gangs are getting banned or maybe
they're you know.
Speaker 9 (10:12):
Getting cast off to the side. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
And then there's a change to the kickoff rule. I mean,
what stood out for you the most? What was the
vibe on the ground.
Speaker 7 (10:19):
I like, I'll tell you like there was not a
lot of finance stuff happening. There were some stadium proposals.
A lot of this meeting was rule changes. And the
reality is, I'll start with the touch push. The touch push.
Of course they're trying to work out the rules, but
they just did not have enough votes. Straight up. There
was like, when you have to get one of these
things passed, you have to have twenty four votes, and
that's a lot. That's a lot. And if you listen
(10:41):
to what some of these coaches are saying, there are
some coaches who aren't against it. I mean their philosophy
is that if you don't want the Eagles to run it,
don't let them get to fourth and two or fourth
and one or third and one. That's that's what the
opposition's viewpoint is. On the kickoff rule. You have the
kickoff or the touch back. Moving from the thirty did
the thirty five. I understand that they're trying to make
(11:04):
more kickoff returns. At the same time, you're gonna get
to a point where, like in fifteen to twenty yards,
people are gonna be in field goal range. And I
guess the NFL is one hundred percent not in they're
not opposed to scoring. But at some point, like it's
like geez, like the logo is right there, and Damian
you remember, and Michael you remember, and I'm sure Vanessa
you do too, a time where the touchback was on
(11:26):
the twenty, So now that it's thirty, it's on the
thirty five. Obviously, offenses are going to have a tremendous
advantage for that, and you're going to see a lot
more kickoffs being returned or trying to be returned, because
no one wants to start on the thirty five. The
replay assist, Yes, they shifted that again, but they're not
going to be doing They're not going to be throwing
(11:47):
flags from New York, which is a good thing. I
think that that would frustrate fans if a roughing the
passer wasn't called and all of a sudden you have
a flag being put down. It would just complicate the
game a bit, and I'm kind of glad that they
didn't do that one. I think I hit on everything,
didn't I I want to the chain Gang. Yeah, yeah,
the chain Gang. Yes, the NFL tested this during during
(12:09):
the preseason last year. They ultimately decided to delay it. Now,
especially after that Josh Allen play in the AFC Championship game,
They're they're going away with the chain Gang. You know,
it's a little prehistoric, but I do think that, you know,
the chain Gang is also going to be standing on
the sideline as a backup if the electronics system doesn't work.
We're gonna find out how it all operates in the fall.
Speaker 8 (12:30):
Randall Williams our very own man, thank you so much
for joining us on the Bloomberg Business of Sports. I
love talking football, flag football, chain gang.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
I'm telling you, I'm putting my I'm gonna try out
for one of these women's flag football teas before before
they have a college system built out, Like why not?
Speaker 7 (12:48):
I want you absolutely can. We'll put a whole Bloomberg
Chileer resquads exactly. Yes, thanks again.
Speaker 8 (12:55):
Up next, we turn to the world of college sports
and affirm looking to the future of college sports marketing
for my colleagues Damian Sasaur and Vanessa Perdomo. I'm Michael Barr.
You're listening to the Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg
Radio around the world.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
This is Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 8 (13:20):
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 Damian Sasaur and Vanessa Perdomo. Still
to come, we'll talk with longtime sports journalists and Ligori
to preview the Masters next week, but first we wanted
to check in on the world of college sports as
we wrap up March Madness. Lear Field is a leading
(13:43):
sports marketing firm with a special focus on college sports.
The landscape has changed a lot recently, with nil and more.
Our own Vanessa Perdomo recently sat down with lear Field
President and CEO Cole Gahagen. Let's take a listen to
that conversation.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Cool, give us a little rundown of what Learfield is.
You're you're a leader of commercial opportunities for college sports.
Tell me what that means and give us some background
on what it is you do for the college sports landscape.
Speaker 5 (14:12):
That descriptive phrase can mean a whole lot, so I'll
try and add to it a bit that helps to
contextualize all that we do. The first thing that I'll
tell you is that I often refer to lear Field
when people ask and aren't familiar with our industry. You
aren't familiar with the company. I often refer to Learfield
as the largest, most influential company in college athletics that.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
You've never heard of.
Speaker 5 (14:31):
It's mostly because we do a good bit in the
commercial space in college sports, but we're very largely behind
the scenes. We're not a consumer facing brand that most
people are aware of, and yet there's so much that
we do and drive in and around college sports. We
have five operating business units. We have the largest licensing
agency in all of college athletics that oversees sort of
(14:52):
the licensing ecosystem. So every single time a hoodie or
a hat or a product that has a school's brand
on it sells in the market, whether that's at a
retail or whether that's online, chances are that clc our
Collegiate Licensing Court licensing agency oversees the reconciliation of that product.
Everybody making what they should make and the reporting being clear,
(15:12):
So we sort of oversee the licensing ecosystem in a
big way. In college athletics, our business side arm oversees
the vast majority official athletics sites and mobile apps in
college sports. Pacule and our ticketing technology company powers the
vast majority of ticketing operations in college sports. And I
think the business that we're most known for is our
multimedia rights operation, which is the commercialization of athletics departments
(15:35):
are said differently, the majority of schools outsource the commercialization
of their athletics department to companies like lear Field, and
we happen to be the largest in the space, which
means we work with brand partners and sponsors on their
behalf to help grow the revenues at the athletics department
through sponsorships, brand association, media and content that that we
create on behalf of our partners and our schools. That's
(16:00):
sort of the biggest business unit of the five that
we have. And the last one is our Amplify business
that oversees outsourced ticket sales and donor and development for
a lot of our school partners. So, as you can tell,
we do a good bit in college athletics. We have
a number of services we provide universities, and as a
byproduct of that, we're sort of at the center of
(16:22):
most things that happened commercially in the business of college sports.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
Yeah, there's a lot there. There is a lot there
which is really interesting. You know, you came into this
business being CEO in twenty twenty and then everything changes
about a year later, right where college athletics starts allowing
NIL deals, And I'm curious how that changed your business.
Obviously I'm assuming it helped and got a lot bigger,
(16:45):
But how was that for you guys, and how did
it change everything?
Speaker 5 (16:49):
Well, if you go back even further than just July
first of twenty twenty one, which is when NIL went
into effect, to your point, we've in our company experienced
nothing but pretty radical change the last four or five years.
There's sort of three big seminal moments that represent those
periods of change. One, of course, was a seminal moment
for every single human on planet Earth, which was the pandemic.
(17:11):
And when you're a sports media and technology company that
operates in the rights world like we do, it was
a pretty disruptive time During COVID. We had games that
didn't play, we had games that played without fans, we
had shortened seasons. So to your point about coming in
at a pretty wild time of radical change, the first
big chapter of that was certainly COVID.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
The second chapter, as you pointed out.
Speaker 5 (17:33):
Was in IL, going into effect on July one of
twenty twenty one. Now what's interesting about that is that
will be an evergreen chapter that will never change. The
third chapter was is one that perhaps is not as
well known, but in twenty twenty three, we went through
a pretty sizable restructuring of our balance sheet, one of
the largest out of court restructurings in history. Was a
(17:53):
hugely successful recapitalization for our company and has put us
on a path of success since then. We really have
had been as of these three big chapters of change
over the last few years. And one of the things
that's interesting as you sort of look back on that
journey is that we had our own sort of self
driven episode of change while all of that was playing out,
(18:17):
which was modernization of our business. My remit when I
came in and took over the company from our board
at the time was very simple. It was integrate the business, which,
as many conglomerates find themselves in these types of situations,
we had sort of an incongruent operation with business units
that weren't talking to each other and weren't working sort
(18:38):
of hand in glove to drive enterprise value, and at
the same time we had to modernize the business. Second
remit was to take a fifty year old operation, if
you will, particularly in that multimedia right space, and to
figure out how we evolve it to now power commercialization
in college for the next fifty years. And that was
really my remit at the time. So we had started
(19:00):
independent of those three sort of chapters that I mentioned,
we had already started this revolution of our business and
that became data centric, and it became media and digital
products centric, particularly for our multimedia rights business. And the
reason that I share that with you is because it
really serves as the foundation for what we can go
(19:22):
do now around INNIL. What I mean by that is,
when we started this journey of modernizing the business around
data and media.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
We knew two things.
Speaker 5 (19:35):
We knew anything that we would do to create value
for our school partners and for brands had to be
rooted in the principle of fan connectivity. We had to
know who our fans were, we had to have an
ability to reach them, and we had to have an
ability to engage them once we were able to reach them,
And that was what led to us building fan Base,
which is now the largest data platform in all of
(19:56):
college sports. We have one hundred and seven million known
fans collegiate fans, and we can now talk to those
fans on a twenty four hour day, seven day, seven
day a week basis. And then we built Learfield Studios,
our digital media and content organization, and to put into
context over the last several years, how quickly we've built that.
(20:17):
In fiscal twenty four, our fiscal year twenty four that
ended last June thirty, we had delivered one point to
billion impressions through Learfield Studios and our ability to connect
with those fans. And so the reason I say all
of that is to say we were fortunate to start
to build that foundation that has now served INIL in
(20:37):
a big way before July one, twenty twenty one happened
so that when the NIL era came about, we had
the infrastructure and the products in the market to now
go deliver value for student athletes for brands and for
universities because, as you know, or I'm guessing that you
probably know and have may be seen, the bulk of
(20:58):
what we're doing in commercialization of NIL these days is
social media influencing and content that we create in partnership
with student athletes and brands.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
So I felt it was.
Speaker 5 (21:10):
Really important to kind of lay that context because that
foundation is what is really going to propel this continued
exponential growth of NIL opportunities in the years ahead.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
I think that's so interesting. I mean, yeah, it's like
you got ahead of the curve before even really knowing
what this landscape was going to be. And I find
that to be so so interesting. One of the things
also there that you guys, you know that I'm thinking of,
you know, what you're doing in the in that space
is a lot of these big schools that you work with,
and you know, they have their own you know, NIL managers,
(21:44):
they have in l collectives and things like that. And
how do you work with schools individually, programs individually, you know,
players individually, with all those different facets going on.
Speaker 5 (21:56):
Well, the first thing to of course keep in mind
is while we do a whole heck of a lot
around the business of college sports. Neither Learfield or any
other company out there can do it all, and we
have not only accepted that, but we we operate with that.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Mentality of our job is to stay.
Speaker 5 (22:12):
Within the businesses that we run today and to optimize
those businesses and services for our school partners and to augment,
to your very point, to augment what they're doing.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
So what does that mean in practical terms, Well, as you.
Speaker 5 (22:26):
Pointed out, most schools at this point, they have their
own infrastructure and staffs that they've built since July one
of twenty one now to help support their innil efforts
with their student athletes and try and maximize opportunities for
those athletes. So our job is to augment that as
best we can. And as I said, in practical terms,
(22:48):
what that means is a couple of things. We are
in the business of creating deals and opportunities for athletes,
and we're in the business of helping in the licensing
space as well. Our platform, Compass, our proprietary technology is
what's used by one Team partners and EA Sports and
Fanatics when they onboard student athletes who want to opt
(23:09):
into licensing programs. They do so via our Compass platform.
It's a mobile first product that allows student athletes to
opt into these licensing programs. We now have over forty
thousand student athletes who have done just that so that
they can participate in licensed products sales, particularly.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
With the video game, the Football video game, with THEA.
Speaker 5 (23:29):
Sports and Fanatics jersey and jersey t sales. So our
job is to augment what happens in the licensing world
and very largely do that through Compass and partnerships that
we have in place with one Team, EA and Fanatics.
But our job is also with boots on the ground
to assist our schools and our brand partners and our
(23:49):
student athletes with deal making to create more commercial brand
partnership opportunities for the athletes. And we've done that in
a number of ways, but I would say the sort
of prevailing method for us has been taking the resources
and ESSA we have on the ground at over one
hundred and sixty schools across the country and adding dedicated
(24:12):
team members INNIL coordinators and managers and staff who help
us coordinate the NIL initiatives we're putting into place, whether
that's podcasting a student athlete might do on behalf of
a brand, or it's a spot that a student athlete
might do, or it's a social influencing campaign and content
that we're.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Going to create around it.
Speaker 5 (24:33):
We've now installed at our staffs around the country INNIL
dedicated resources who are there to facilitate those programs.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Sometimes they're there to help sell specifically for.
Speaker 5 (24:47):
INIL deals. Sometimes they're on site to help facilitate the
deals once they have been sold. And in some cases
we have both resources on site. So really, through both
tech and the resources that we are adding to the
staffs that we already have on campuses all over the country,
our job is to augment the infrastructure that the universities
(25:09):
are building as well to help them maximize these an
ile opportunities.
Speaker 8 (25:14):
That's Deerfield President and CEO Cole Kahagen speaking with Olmer
Vanessa Perdomo. Now, if you missed any of that conversation,
find it now on demand on the Bloomberg Business of
Sports podcast. Find that on Apple, Spotify and all your
favorite podcast platforms. Straight ahead, we turned to golf and
preview the Masters for my colleagues Namian Sasaur and Vanessa Perdomo.
(25:37):
I'm Michael Barr. You're listening to the Bloomberg Business of
Sports from Bloomberger Radio. Around the world.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
You're listening to Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 8 (26:04):
Thanks for joining us on the Bloomberg Business of Sports,
where we explore the big money issues in the world
of sports. I'm Michael Barr and along with my colleagues
Damian Sasaur and Vanessa Perdomo. We've got some breaking news
on Friday, with ESPN reporting that the PGA Tour has
rejected the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund's most recent offer
(26:24):
to invest one point five billion dollars into PGA Tour enterprises,
which came with the caveat that the rival Live Golf
League would remain intact. The PIF has funded Live Golf
since its inception in twenty twenty two. Now, before that news,
we got a chance to speak with sports journalists and Legory.
(26:46):
She covered dozens of pro golf championships and tournaments, including
twenty six different Masters. She is the author of the
book Life on the Green, Lessons and Wisdom from Legends
of Golf, and since the Masters is coming up in
a few days, we wanted to preview it and get
a little pulse check on the world of golf and
welcome back to the Bloomberg Business of sports.
Speaker 10 (27:08):
Hey, it's such a pleasure to be back. Thanks for
having me.
Speaker 8 (27:11):
Well, I guess there's some tournament that's coming up that
people love. Oh yeah, the Masters. Let me just start
by the most inane statement. I missed the eyes in
our tree. I know. Vanessa was like, what the hell
are you talking about? The eyes in our tree was
big on the course at the Masters, and then the
(27:32):
storms came along and took it out, and so I'm
just showing my age.
Speaker 10 (27:36):
So now I am no, no, no, it's you're right.
I missed it too.
Speaker 6 (27:41):
And then you know, they had huge hurricane in the fall,
and it'll be interesting to see just how many trees.
Speaker 10 (27:49):
They surely replanted a lot of them.
Speaker 6 (27:52):
But Ry McElroy, in some of his practice rounds there, said, yeah,
he can tell that there are still a lot of
trees missing. So I'll walk around and see just how
many more trees were out from the storm last fall.
Speaker 4 (28:05):
You mentioned Rory McRoy there, and obviously you know he's
trying to come in and win, you know, and create
the career Grand Slam. But one thing that I saw
recently that I was really struck by and I didn't
notice was you know, it's been since twenty fourteen, and
that gap that he hasn't won a Grand Slam is
the same gap that it was when Tiger Woods kind
(28:28):
of went away from golf because of everything that was
going on and then came back and won the Masters
in twenty nineteen. It's that same eleven year gap. So
what's that, you know, is there a lot of pressure
for him, you know going into this round? Is this
is just a great storyline that people are paying attention to.
Speaker 6 (28:44):
That's a really great stat and great that you brought
that up. Look, it's the first time Roy McElroy is
actually coming into this Master's first time in a long time,
what with two wins, and he went to Pebble Beach
a couple months ago.
Speaker 10 (29:00):
He wanted the players.
Speaker 6 (29:01):
Even though he was not his best off the tee
last week at the Houston Open, he was tied for fifth,
So he's playing really, really well. So you know, it
has been a long time since he's won a major title,
and every year the Masters, I mean, this is the
one major that he has not won, so he hopes
to win it to complete the career Grand Slam. So yeah,
(29:22):
there's always pressure on Rory to win a Master's title,
but it just so happens that, you know, this is
the best he's looked coming into the Masters in a
long long time. So yeah, there's even more pressure on
him than so never stops the pressure.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
And I'd love to ask you about Augusta, but really,
I mean, what's the point. I mean, now that Tiger's
Tomorrow's Golf League is out there and you can just
hit into screens, I mean, is there really any point
in actually going or watching the Masters on television?
Speaker 9 (29:51):
I mean, let's get how I'm kidding.
Speaker 3 (29:52):
But you know, let's talk about shot Scotty Shuffler, right,
I mean it's his to lose. He's the clear cut favorite.
Speaker 9 (29:57):
What do you think Scotty's chances are this weekend? What
are your thoughts?
Speaker 10 (30:01):
Well, you know, he looks really solid.
Speaker 6 (30:04):
I mean he came in last week at the Houston
Open and he was just not one hundred percent himself.
Speaker 10 (30:11):
You know, he had that weird accident.
Speaker 6 (30:12):
With his hand during the holidays where he needed stitches.
He cut himself with glass, and so he missed a
couple of tournaments early in the season. And then he
came in and had Pebble Beach tied for ninth, Phoenix
Open tied for twenty fifth, Jennis Is tied for three,
Arnold Palmer tied for eleventh, the players tied for twentieth.
Speaker 10 (30:33):
And he just wasn't the Scottie Scheffler that you know we.
Speaker 6 (30:36):
All have come to know and love right after last
year's incredible season. But I have to say last week
he looked a lot more like the Scottie Scheffler that
we're used to sing. He tied for second, and so yes,
he's still the favorite to win this week at augustin
Nshall and you know, we'll see if he can put
it all together. It would be great if he can
(30:57):
play like we all know that he's capable of playing.
Speaker 8 (31:00):
And you mentioned something to me and about Tiger Wood.
He's not going to be there, and I know he
pulled the old April Fool's Oki dok saying that he
was going to play, and now it was an April
Fools gag. But he's not there. He has a serious
achilles injury. How much of an impact will it be
just simply because Tiger Woods isn't there.
Speaker 10 (31:19):
Yeah, that April Fool's got a lot of people.
Speaker 6 (31:21):
I saw some people like notable personalities, like responding to
that April Fools joke that he would be playing by saying, oh, wow,
it's always great to see you to ad Augusta. But
now the fact that, look, there's so many stars in
the game now and there's so much coverage on social media,
and the Masters, by the way, is doing so much
(31:43):
social media coverage, you know, starting with this Augusta National
women Sam and previewing the Master's tournament that, yeah, everybody's
going to miss Tiger, but look, there's so many great storylines,
you know, with Scottie.
Speaker 10 (31:55):
And Rory and.
Speaker 6 (31:58):
All the newcomers. Interviewed Rafael Campos, who's gonna make his
Master's debut. He's from Puerto Rico and he's gonna have
all of Puerto Rico rooting for him. And talked to
Joe high Smith, who wanted the Cognizant and he's making
his debut.
Speaker 10 (32:14):
So, I mean, there's just so many great stories.
Speaker 6 (32:16):
Ludwig Oberg, so yeah, the fact that Tiger won't be playing,
I mean, everybody wants to see Tiger play, but I
mean he hasn't played. He just hasn't played. He's had
one thing after another. And you know, now he's dating
Donald Trump Junior's ex wife, so I think he's busy.
Speaker 4 (32:36):
Maybe that'll help. I don't know.
Speaker 9 (32:38):
Let's see.
Speaker 4 (32:39):
So I know who I'm putting my money on Bourriqua Pride.
Maybe let's go. So I'd love to talk a little
bit about sports gabling here because obviously sports gabling is huge.
It's helped a lot of sports, you know, engage younger fans,
engage other people. But with golf, it feels like it
might be a little bit harder. I mean, scottis Shuffler
is the favorite, but his odds are still plus three
fifty Royal Macrary's at in and these plus six fifty
(33:01):
on DraftKings.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Is it good for golf that it's so wide.
Speaker 4 (33:06):
Open or is it actually really like frustrating because you
can't Actually, it's really hard to pick a winner.
Speaker 10 (33:11):
I'm not a big you know sports better, but I.
Speaker 6 (33:15):
Did tell me I asked my brother to put some
money on some of these newbies, you know, because then
the odds are seemed.
Speaker 10 (33:22):
To be worthwhile.
Speaker 6 (33:23):
But you know, I honestly don't bet that much on golf,
and I honestly can't believe that it has kind of
gotten to the point where we all can bet on golf.
But I know from a different century, and I know
how adamant that you know, opposed to betting on golf.
They were for so many years. But it's just all
(33:46):
now about the money, and you know, these players are
making so much money, the fans are getting into it.
It's just become so popular and in so many ways
with social media now with gambling. So yeah, I mean
I would think it's it's hard to pick a winner,
for sure, but if you pick somebody with those crazy odds,
you could really have a great payday.
Speaker 10 (34:06):
So I tend to go with the.
Speaker 6 (34:07):
Players that nobody expects to win. Then you're making some
serious cash.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Well, I know one gambling super fan who's certainly got
some money riding on FanDuel, and that's Jim Nance.
Speaker 9 (34:16):
Jim Nance who wrote.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
The forward for Life on the Green Lessons and was
them from Legends of Golf. He's a huge Houston Cougar's alum,
huge booster there Houston's in the finals. I mean, he's
got to be rolling high. Talk to us a little
bit about mister Nance's latest words on retirements. I mean,
and he's claiming that he's going to retire in twenty
thirty six.
Speaker 9 (34:36):
I mean, is he really looking at He told me that.
Speaker 6 (34:39):
He told me that on my Talking Golf shown WFAN
on Sunday mornings. He told me that like two years ago,
somebody picked it up. He must have been talking, I
don't know, if being interviewed by somebody, and he said
it again.
Speaker 10 (34:50):
So look, I feel bad that he's not doing the
SaaS anymore, but you know I get it.
Speaker 6 (34:57):
I mean the travel schedule going from the Championship game
to Augusta National to do the Masters. I mean, he's
been at it for so many years. So yeah, thank goodness,
he'll still be around for many years to come. But
I have to say one of my best memories every
year at Augusta Nationals is standing next to Jim on
Thursday morning, very early when the honorary starters come out.
Speaker 10 (35:20):
There's like two lines.
Speaker 6 (35:22):
We all line up, and you know, Jack Nicholas and
Gary Player and now Tom Watson, they walk right by
us and Jim and I always have a great catch up.
Speaker 8 (35:32):
You know.
Speaker 6 (35:32):
He wrote the forward for my book Life on the Green,
Lessons and Wisdom from Legends of Golf, and I'm so
very grateful to Jim, I mean, such a legend himself
to devote a couple pages about my career and my
book as in the forwards. So Jim's the best, and
he'll always be the Master's voice to me no matter
how long he continues to do it, or and he
(35:55):
decides to stop. But yeah, it was interesting to see
that he put that out there publicly.
Speaker 8 (35:59):
I know, getting short on time, but I want to
talk about Brooks Kopka for a second now. He is
hinted that he wants to return to the PGA from Live.
Two questions. One, I thought in the Masters that rule
really didn't apply. But how can Kopka get back into
the PGA.
Speaker 10 (36:17):
That's the loaded question right now.
Speaker 6 (36:19):
He denies, saying that Freddy Couples is the one that
really put that quote out that Freddie Couple said, I've
been talking to Brooks Kopka and Brooks really wants to
get back on the PGA tour. Brooks is under contract
with Live, so Brooks can't really he's not in a
position where he can really talk about getting back on
the PGA Tour until his contract would Live is over
(36:41):
right now, there is no reunification. There's no deal between
PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund which owns Live.
It seems to be at a standstill. It's been what
a couple of years now that they've been negotiating, and
at the Players Championship, the PGA Tour Commission j Monahan said, Listen,
(37:02):
we will not negotiate in public. But the little information
that they can divulges is that they want to see
golf reunified, meaning PJ Tour players and Live players playing together.
But that's all he basically said. And it just seems
to me like these talks are going nowhere. So the
top players from Live can play at the Masters. It
(37:25):
will be interesting to see if there'll be allowed to
rejoin the PJ Tour. Maybe they're waiting for Brooks Koepka's
contract with Live to expire. But the PJ Tour and
the Public Investment Fund have not come to any agreement,
so it's still up in the air as.
Speaker 10 (37:42):
To what's going to happen.
Speaker 8 (37:43):
And Legury you mentioned Jim Nance had written befored for
your book Life on the Green, Lessons and Wisdom from
Legends of Golf and by the way what a fabulous book.
To me, is one of the best golf books out
there in the sport ever, and you really kick believe
with them. That's really cool.
Speaker 6 (38:02):
I really appreciate that. You know, it's a very uplifting book.
It really transcends golf. I have these twelve legends, six men,
six women, everybody from Tom Watson and Jack Nicholas and
Gary Player to Anica Sorenstem and Bernard Longer and Nancy
Lopez and Padre Carrington. They all talk about what they
(38:22):
bring from, you know, the golf course, from their iconic
golf careers to life, and so you can be a
diehard golfer and really enjoy the stories in the book,
or you don't even have to have an interest in
golf and still be inspired by the wisdom that they share.
So I'm very proud of it. All twelve legends actually
thanked me for including them, which kind of shows you
(38:43):
what amazing people they are. I'm so thrilled that we're
spreading some positive inspirational messages out there.
Speaker 10 (38:51):
So pretty proud of it.
Speaker 8 (38:52):
A shout out to you because you're also the founder
and president of the and Lagery Foundation. You raise money
for cancer research and care through charity, go off events
and more, and that needs to be mentioned. Also, you
are first rate and thank you so much for joining
us on the Bloomberg Business of Sports.
Speaker 10 (39:09):
Ah it's a pleasure and enjoy the Masters.
Speaker 8 (39:12):
And thank you for joining us. For my colleagues, Damien Sasaury,
Vanessa Pernomo, I'm Michael Barr. Tune in again next week
for the latest home of the stories moving big old
money in the world of sports. You're listening to The
Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberger Radio around the world.
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