February 21, 2025 • 48 mins
Join hosts this week, Damian Sassower and Vanessa Perdomo, for a look at some of the latest headlines and stories in the business of sports.
Sebastian Coe, President of World Athletics; also a former Olympic gold medalist, and former head of the London Olympic Games committee on his hopes of becoming the next president of the International Olympic Committee and the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Games.
San Diego FC CEO Tom Penn on becoming the MLS’s latest expansion team as well as the process of putting together a major sports franchise, the record valuations being seen across the league and the growth of soccer in North America.
Plus, tennis icon Billie Jean King on empowering girls worldwide to join sports and New Orleans Saints legendary quarterback Drew Brees on investing in pickleball.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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 start to break into.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
We really appreciate when our owners are actually there, you know,
with us through the journey.
Speaker 4 (00:19):
Teams ours especially have been very intentional to diversify at
all levels of the company. I think we're in bolden
years for the NFL and college football. Our demographic reach
has continued to explode.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
This is going to be really unlocking the streaming platform
for sports fans, sports evaluations arising.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
We'll see you when they peak.
Speaker 2 (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 4 (00:47):
This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports, where we explore
all of the big money issues in the world of sports.
I'm Damian Sasauer. Michael barr is off this week and
joining me in his stead is Bloomberg Business a sports
reporter none other than Vanessa Perdomo. Hi, Vanessa, Heydamen.
Speaker 5 (01:05):
Great to me in the studio.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
Well, coming up, we talk a sport in your wheelhouse.
We are talking soccer, Major League soccer. In fact, it's
kicking off its thirtieth season this weekend by debuting their
thirtieth franchise, San Diego FC, and later this hour we
speak with Tom Penn, CEO of San Diego on their
process of putting together a major sports soccer franchise.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
We come into a new stadium in the market with
excellent premium offerings. We added more premium on the pitch.
We innovated, and we put what we're calling pitch boxes,
these little eight seat race cars right down on the
field where your feet are on the grass. That's how
you generate the local revenue that makes you sustainable.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
We also have some of my favorite conversations I had
with sports legends down in New Orleans when we were
there for the Super Bowl, including a tennis great and
one well known saint.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
How all that and more is on the way on
the Bloomberg business of sports. But first, the Los Angeles
Olympics are right around the corner, and I'm just kidding
there a few years away, but it's never too early
to think about the business side of the Olympics and
Paralympic Games and its vision here.
Speaker 5 (02:13):
To take us through that.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Sebastian co He's the President of World Athletics. He's also
a two time gold medalist winning distance runner, former chairman
of the London twenty twelve Games and a former member
of the UK Parliament. So actually it's Lord Sebastian Co
joining us as well as Bloomberg News reporter Hugo Miller.
Sebastian Welcome to the Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast.
Speaker 6 (02:33):
Thank you very much, great to be on.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Well, let's crack into it. I mean we're looking ahead
to Los Angeles in twenty twenty eight, right, I mean,
it's a city you're very familiar with. And if we
look out just a month from now, if I'm not mistaken,
there's going to be a little bit of a vote
for the next president of the IOC, and that individual
is going to handle the LA Olympics. And from what
I hear, Lord Co, you are one of the front runners.
(02:56):
Tell us a little bit about the upcoming Olympics, the
up coming vote, and you know where you stand with
all that.
Speaker 6 (03:03):
This is obviously a big moment and actually, when you
look at the nature of an election, it does provide
the organization the sector you're in, whether it's sport obviously politics,
and we've had a mega year of elections. It does
give the organization an opportunity and I'm going to mix
(03:24):
my sporting metaphysire to put their foot on the ball
and actually just think things through and have the global debate.
And I think that this has been an important process
because the Olympic Movement is a phenomenal movement. It has
achieved extraordinary things both on the field of play and
(03:45):
off the field of play. It's been at the epicenter.
It's been at the crossroads of all the big moral
and political decisions of the last century. And it has
to remain there. But it also has to modernize. It
has to recognize that the world, well we say the
world is changing. It in many respects has changed, and
(04:08):
it's vital that the movement keeps up its relentless recognition
that the holy grail is to maintain the excitement, the salience,
the relevance of what we're doing, particularly to young people.
So yes, it's a huge moment and Los Angeles twenty
twenty eight is an extraordinary glide path for the movement
(04:34):
because the American market is a hugely important market. Many
of our top sponsors come from there, many of our
broadcast rights that are really up for a discussion and
debate at the moment reside there and those changes both
in terms of the way we address commercial partnerships. We've
(04:57):
got to change them from being transactional sponsorships to collaborative partnerships.
And we've got to look at broadcast in not a
new way, but in the way that the world recognizes
that broadcast has fundamentally altered, and an audience first approach
here is going to be vital. So we've got to
(05:19):
listen to what the audience is telling us, what they want,
when they want it, and critically where they want it.
And that's why an audience first approach turbocharged by AI
will really unlock new and fresh markets and particularly help
in the leveling up process that I'm very keen to
(05:41):
establish between the large, well heeled, well structured national Olympic
committees and the smaller national Olympic committees that are also
trying to keep up and run abreast of these developments.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
You know, Seb, you talked a lot a lot there,
and I think it really interesting. I think one of
the things, obviously, me and Hugo were together last year
in Paris for the Games, and it was really it
felt like it was back in that heyday, like you
were talking about a lot of great things happening. Everyone
was was locked in when you look at that. Obviously,
(06:18):
then also you headed the twenty twelve Olympics in London.
Speaker 5 (06:22):
So when you're looking at everything you've been a part
of over.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
The last you know, a few decades or so, how
does that influence you going into this election, what you
want to work on specifically and what you think you
can laser focus in on to you know, help the
games even even further.
Speaker 6 (06:42):
Well, one slightly pedantry point if I may, I was
president of the organizing committee in London at the Olympics
and critically the Paralympic Games, and that was that was
a very very serious moment for me because the legacy
of the Paralympic Games, particularly in my own, a reimagining
(07:02):
of disability in the workplace, in families, in educational establishments.
It is something that I look back with great pride.
But more broadly, what do I recognize, Well, in a
way I guess the task that lies ahead of me
in a few weeks time, and my tilt to become
(07:29):
a leadership figure in the Olympic movement. It is something
that I've devoted in large part most of my life
to ever since I got my first pair of running
shoes and joined an athletics club at the age of eleven,
which then took me from my career into a political
career both domestically and internationally. I've chaired a national Olympic committee,
(07:50):
I've bid for a Games successfully and being part of
that leadership team that also successfully delivered the Games. And
of course the experience of being the president of a
central plank of the Olympic movement track and field as
you would describe it athletics for most of us, has,
(08:12):
I guess, been the type of CV and the type
of experiences that I probably wouldn't have recognized in a
way that were coming together. But they came together in
a way that I think leaves me very comfortable that
I can do this role. What did I learn from London?
(08:32):
I learned the importance of building teams, the importance of
maintaining political impartiality, particularly in those delivery phases, critically making
sure that your organization, in our case, the London Organizing
Committee looked like the world that we lived in and
(08:55):
live in, and that's critical because young people don't look
at your organization as being a political party or a
non governmental organization or the International Olympic Committee or World Athletics.
They look at you and ask and sometimes it's probably
a subconscious question, but they're asking themselves a fundamental question.
(09:15):
Do you look like the world we live in? Do
you believe in the things that we believe in? And
that is critical for the movement to re engage with
young people the next Generation In London, mantra was to
inspire a generation and to inspire a generation through sport,
(09:37):
but not necessarily and only in sport. So if you
have an organizing committee that is responsible for delivering a
big cultural piece of the Olympic movement, which is important,
then you really also want a legacy afterwards, so not
just people joining athletics clubs or swim clubs, but taking
(09:59):
up the violin wanting to be in the artistic and
cultural landscape. And I think we achieved that. And critical
to all that is, don't allow other people to define
your legacy for you. You really have to be in
control of that. And for me, very very critically, what
(10:22):
is it that I want the movement to reset around.
It's the extraordinary nature of sport, the catalytic impact that
that has, the transformational impact that has on young lives.
Speaker 7 (10:35):
Can I see a quick question about you as a candidate.
I mean, what you've just described explains why you're such
a strong candidate. But at the same time, some people
have said you're you're a bit of an You're an
insider in the world of global sport and an outsider
to the IOC. And obviously your decision last year to
announce the award of cash prizes to track and field
(10:57):
gold medalists in Paris ruffled some IOC feathers. I struggled
to understand why that is given the amount of money
slashing around the Olympic sponsorship deals, broadcasting rights, and the
fact that so many athletes already when you're talking about
professional athletes like Novak Djokovic, to you know, world famous
(11:18):
gymnasts like Simon Wiles, they're already making tens of millions
from endorsements or prize money. Why do you feel the
IOC is so uncomfortable with this proposition you've brought and
has that given you any pause or do you really
much stand by.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
By that decision.
Speaker 6 (11:34):
Look, I'm not sure that the IOC per se or
the body politics is body politic, is that diametrically opposed
to prize money. And look, I published a speech that
(11:55):
I gave in nineteen eighty one. I was one of
the first athletes to address the International Olympic Committee to Congress.
It is extraordinary, even in nineteen eighty one that no
athlete had actually been invited to contribute to the movement.
And I spent four minutes talking about the welfare of
(12:15):
the athlete and the welfare of the athlete for me,
and I don't dissent from a word that I used
in nineteen eighty one, and I still think it's pertinent.
The welfare of the athlete for me is not just
their physical and mental welfare, critical as that is. I
think it is also the ability to provide where possible
(12:36):
and in a way that doesn't damage the values of
the movement, which we all hold deer, but where possible
gives some financial comfort. And I say that because the
world has changed. If you are a young competitor that graduates,
maybe in a scientific technical skill, then to then spend
(13:01):
twelve years dedicating your life to the furtherance of Olympic
sport and then to have to come back into the marketplace,
often ten years off the place means that a return
to hire or further education may well be necessary, that
(13:22):
financial welfare may be critical in doing that. That financial
welfare may also allow an athlete to remain in the
sport for another Olympic cycle. So I'm not the prize money.
In fact, understandably was the headline, but it's only a
(13:44):
very small part of what I mean when I say
we don't just want to listen to the athletes. We
need to share with them, and we need to make
them our commercial partners. And how do I mean that
we hold a lot of data. Giving athletes datas we
have actually done in World Athletics allows them to raise
(14:07):
their profile, maybe to be very much more specific about
how they pitch themselves to partners and sponsors, giving them
more flexibility around their content. I'll give you a really
good example.
Speaker 7 (14:21):
So you want the IOC to monetize, I want the
hammer throwers, not just the sprinters.
Speaker 6 (14:27):
I want the athletes in every Olympic sport to have
more flexibility, to be able to access their own data,
their own content. Let me give you a good concrete
example of that. Next year in twenty twenty six, we
have something called the World Athletics Ultimate Championships Unashamed. It's
(14:50):
a three night, three night championship aimed specifically at TV
three nights, three hours, sixteen of the top track app athletes,
eight of the top field of ent athletes. That's the format.
But critically, we've created a new model, particularly for the athletes.
So we're going to fly the athletes and their social
(15:13):
media teams. We will give them video content that allows
them to promote themselves and their own partners. We're making
it apparel neutral so that we're not freezing out an
athlete that doesn't want to be there because they're on
a night contract or a Puma contract or an added
(15:34):
ask contract, and we have to give them. We have
to give the athletes more flexibility in this space, and
we need to give them the opportunity to build their
profiles and actually tell their own stories, because they tell
their stories far better than we tell their stories on
their behalf. Those are the things that I've been talking
(15:57):
about in liberalizing the landscape for them so that they
are actually able to monetize away from the field of play,
which is as just as critical as it is when
we come to discuss prize money, and I wouldn't want
people to run away with the misconception here. The prize
(16:19):
money issue in athletics was to address a very specific
vulnerability that my executive board, my council, and my commissions,
and it was a unanimous view, a very specific vulnerability
that athletes and athletics faces. When I go to the
Caribbean Championships, the carrifta games which I would advise anybody
to go to because you see some of the most
(16:42):
extraordinarily talented young athletes. When I'm standing trackside watching it,
I'm surrounded by more recruiters and agents from NFL, basketball, baseball,
even netball in some parts of the world, and we
need to make sure that we retain that talent and
(17:04):
creating an opportunity for them to have that financial security
around prize money that we create within our own World
Championships and the opportunity that we provided with them for
prize money in Paris. But if I may, but if
(17:24):
this is a very important point, if I may finish it,
if I am successful in a few weeks time. It
isn't a one size fits all. Do not assume, nor
would I suddenly say well, we did it for athletics.
So it pertains to every international federation, large or small,
(17:45):
that I would have a completely different mandate, a completely
different remit. And at that point you have the discussion
which I would actively encourage. And there is absolutely this
is not a fat to comp because we did it
in athletics.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
We do not.
Speaker 6 (18:03):
I would simply not sit there and say, well we
did in an athletic except for we it's something we
will just force upon everybody. No, there would be a
collaborative discussion about it, and maybe we decide it isn't
the route to go.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
Well, well, lord co I mean, the prize money is
obviously a very big, a very big point, but you
know there's also eight billion dollars of sponsorship and broadcast
deals that are going to be on tap for the
LA Olympics, you know, and as president of the IOC,
you know you're going to be able to control that narrative,
you know. And so you know, I have only two
words to kind of share with you, and they are
(18:39):
flag football. I mean, talk to me. I mean, we
have tennis, we have basketball, we have soccer, track and field, swimming, gymnastics,
but we're going to get flag football. We all know
the Super Bowl, the impact that has on marketing and
advertising and the like. I mean, what are your thoughts
on flag football at LA twenty eight.
Speaker 6 (18:58):
Look, I'm not going to get in to the individual
discussions about a particular sport, a new addition to a
particular sport. We're all trying to make sure that we
appeal to new and younger and fresher audiences and to
really push the envelope there. I remember as president of
the organizing committee in London, I would love to have
(19:21):
had Rugby sentence in the stadium for the three or
three days after the opening ceremony. It would have set
the huge party apps. We created the party atmosphere anyway.
So look, every organizing committee has to have the flexibility
to be able to bring new and fresh ideas. I'm
discussing already with Los Angeles twenty eight our ability maybe
(19:45):
to take some of our offense out of the stadium.
We have an out of stadium policy strategy now World Athletics.
So I'm never going to be the one stifling innovation
and creativity here. The real challenge, of course, is to
harvest creative thinking but have executable delivery, and we've got
(20:12):
to make sure that we're not putting pressure, undue pressure
on National Olympic committees to introduce new sports that may
only survive a four year cycle. That puts them under
pressure in terms of investing in those sports selection processes
only for that sport maybe not to have a life
(20:33):
cycle beyond. So there is a balance here. But look,
we need to we need to be creative, We need
to be innovative. Above all, we need to really address
what our audiences want. You don't frame everything around it,
but you have to be data driven and understanding what
(20:53):
they're saying to you, what they want, where they wanted,
and critically when they wanted, and in formats stand. You know,
I look at some of the Olympic broadcast channel. It's
long format, it's expensive, and it's really only getting to
a small marketplace. We have the ability to be very
(21:14):
much more flexible and creative in how we create our
broadcast partnerships, particularly regionally, in a way that allows smaller
National Olympic committees to view at the critical moment the
work at an Olympic Games that they are involved in
for four years. Kenya is a really good example of this.
(21:35):
Go to Kenya and you will realize that running is
not just a passion, it's a religion. It's front page,
it's back page. It dominates broadcast broadcast time on virtually
any platform you choose to name. But when it gets
to the Olympic Games, those broadcast rights are very, very expensive,
(21:58):
and you've suddenly got National Olympic Committee who work four
years to help build the profile of their sport and
then are really struggling at that critical moment to have
a population that may love that Olympic sport that is
in some cases being priced out of it. And that's
why we need to be We really need to free
(22:20):
up what I describe as the brand equity around the
rings and give more people greater access to it. And
my fear at the moment is that it becomes more
of a policing exercise than it does an ability to
create accessibility to something that we are all passionate about
(22:41):
and moves global populations in the way that very few
other things do.
Speaker 4 (22:46):
Our Thanks to Sebastian co President of World Athletics and
to Bloomberg News reporter Hugo Miller, up next Major League
Soccer season is officially upon US we welcome the CEO
of their newest expansion franchise, San Diego FC. I'm Damien
Sasauur along with Vanessa Perdomo. You're listening to the Bloomberg
(23:07):
Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio around the world.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
This is Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports where we explore
the big money issues in the world of sports. I'm
Damien Sassauer along with Vanessa Perdomo. Michael Barr is off
this week.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
The twenty twenty five MLS regular season kicks off this weekend,
having reached an impressive milestone it's thirtieth season, and to
celebrate this incredible and truthfully resilient feat, Major League Soccer
will debut their thirtieth franchise in league history in their
thirtieth season, San Diego FC.
Speaker 4 (23:47):
But it really is no easy feat for the newest
expansion team, with their first game this Sunday against the
defending champs, the Los Angeles Galaxy. Here to discuss the
process of launching a nascent franchise in Major League Soccer
in a city like San Diego is the CEO of
San Diego FC, Tom Pen Tom, Welcome to the Bloomberg
Business of sports.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Amy and Vanessa happy to be here.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
Talk to us a little bit about you know, not today,
but you know, go looking ahead, you know what's the future,
not just for you know SDFC, but you know San
Diego sports more broadly speaking, I mean, are you looking
at perhaps getting your own stadium? You know, new arena's,
new ballparks, that sort of thing. I mean, is the
sports buzz hopping in San Diego the way it is
in most other cities across the country.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Yeah, we won't be building our own stadium because snap
Dragon is virtually brand new, and it's right sized for
the current MLS. It's upsized. You know, many of the
successful MLS markets with soccer specific stadiums are in the
low twenty thousands. We're in the upper low thirty thousands.
We're at thirty two, six hundred seats with some more
(24:55):
standing room. So it's a bigger building. In fact, it's
the biggest soccer specific venue if you take away the
NFL shared buildings. So we see this as a competitive
advantage when we fill the place up, because it's going
to first of all, be an economic engine because we've
got a lot of premium inventory we can sell at
(25:15):
higher prices, and then we've got all low inventory and
a lot of the masses or the lower price points.
So you put those two things together, you get thirty
plus thousand people on any given night, all whearing chrome
and azul Are colors, and all intensely engaged in the game.
It should be a competitive advantage. You know. The other
competitive advantage long term in San Diego is just the
(25:39):
quality of player in this region. Disproportionate amount of National
team players come from San Diego. There's always been just
this pipeline of talent. And then when you throw in
across the border in Mexico, which is also our territory.
With the way the rules work, we have this catchment
area of excellence and it's our job to developed that
(26:00):
excellence and over time that can feed our first team
and be a real competitive advantage along with the size
of the building. So back to your original question, things
are rolling in San Diego, all this opportunity for greatness,
and we're just really excited to get it going.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
You know, Tom, you were talking there about playing in Snapdragon,
and I've actually been there, but I went there for
San Diego Wave game. How I'm curious, you know, how
has it been working with the San Diego Wave and
the NWSL, you know, to bring in another soccer team
there and you know, to grow the fever for soccer
in the city.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Yeah, it's interesting. San Diego State University owns and operates
the building, so they're the landlord and that's who we've
dealt with mostly as it relates to Snapdragon Stadium. The
Wave and us are similar in that we're both tenants
in that building and we'll share that building and we're
really just getting started with figuring out how to do that.
We've done a good job with scheduling, for example, where
(27:02):
we find alternate weekends to play. But then we do
have some soccer weekends where they play Friday, we play Saturday,
you know, and there's a little bit of this back
to back. It's San Diego against the world. We're all together.
So we look forward to you know, rising tide lifts
all boats, just amplifying soccer, amplifying the love of football
(27:23):
in this community because football thrives here, you know, it's
in the DNA of this community. You know, we really
look forward then to winning, right, we both want to
win We especially want to win. We want to compete,
we want to be immediately relevant competitive. We've signed some
(27:44):
really significant players, including the best player in Mexico, Chucky Lozano.
So I'm in this personal phase of we've been trying
to sell what this is going to be and explain
what it's going to be, and we're about to express
it for real. So then you pivot to sort of
selling what we are and that's the part that's going
(28:04):
to be fun and dynamic.
Speaker 4 (28:07):
Well, Tom, you know, I mean the reason I ask
about stadiums is this. You know, I live in New
York City. You know NYCFC they're playing in Yankee Stadium,
but my goodness, they would love to be playing in
their own stadium. And then you look at Inter Miami
they play in Chase what I think, LAFC they play
at Bimo. I mean, talk to me a little bit.
I mean those are teams that are valued at over
a billion dollars, right, and I believe the collective worth
(28:29):
of all MLS clubs is now approaching world It's over
twenty billions. So does having your own stadium, you know,
you know, obviously it must add to the valuation of
your franchise. But just how much value does it add
is my real question here. I mean, where are you
getting the bulk your revenue from?
Speaker 2 (28:45):
Is it?
Speaker 4 (28:46):
Is it broadcast rights? Is it is it you know,
you know?
Speaker 8 (28:48):
Is it?
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Is it the games themselves.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
I'm just curious to hear your thoughts on that.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
The bulk of our operational cut revenue comes local, right,
So your thing about stadiums is incredibly relevant local value.
Now broadcast rights have been consolidated, all local, national, international
rights are part of this big Apple TV deal, this
historic deal with one place to go, high quality production,
(29:16):
consistency of product. Plus you're partnered with the biggest company
on the planet that can take this literally all around
the world. So broadcast sits there. We're in charge of
our own local business and that's local sponsorship, local ticket sales.
What do we do at game day with all those
ancillary sales? I mean those are the big three buckets.
(29:39):
Talk about the middle one ticket sales, premium sales. All
that comes from how your building is situated and what
you can drive in terms of revenues. So do you
have high quality premium areas? Do you have club seat
areas that warrant multi year deals, can you get a good,
solid average ticket price overall? When New York City goes
(30:03):
into their brand new stadium that they're building right near
to the Mets near City Field, that building is going
to be an atm It's going to be a juggernaut
because it's got such great offerings. When you see their
premium offerings, they're amazing. Same down in Miami, they're building
a brand new stadium out in Freedom Park. It will
(30:24):
be a juggernaut. In our case, we come into a
new stadium in the market with excellent premium offerings. We
added more premium on the pitch. We innovated and we
put what we're calling pitch boxes, these little eight seat
race cars right down on the field where your feet
are on the grass, and those are the hottest product
we have. And then on the other side of the
(30:46):
field where we're putting pitch suites. Nobody's ever done it
this way, where you take the suite experience, the luxury
suite experience and put it right down on the grass
and have your suite where you're walking around on the
actual pitch. Really cool premium offerings for our market. That's
how you generate the local revenue. That makes you sustainable.
Speaker 5 (31:07):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
I think you know, one of the other things that's
really exciting for for San Diego. They're coming in as
the thirtieth team and the thirtieth season of the MLS.
You've worked now in the MLS for a while, but
also you worked in the NBA for a long time.
As the MLS stands in its thirtieth season, where do
you think it is compared to you know, obviously other
leagues that have been around longer, but like, as it
(31:30):
stands in the thirtieth year, how do you think the
business of the league is doing?
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Clearly major league clearly in the major league category of NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, MLS. Right,
there's five, the big five clearly on the rise. I
mean the rise in valuations, the level of investors coming
(31:56):
into MLS. Our chairman are our lead investors, a multi
billionaire from Egypt, Sir Mohammad Mansour. He operates out of London.
He instead of buying a Premier League team, wanted to
buy an MLS team. He wanted to come into Major
League soccer. So the world is seeing it. The quality
of the product is continuing to improve, and then you
(32:19):
get this double booster. That's happening. Messi arriving in the
States is an amazing event. That's booster number one. The
World Cup coming in twenty twenty six booster number two.
You put those two together and the trajectory of where
the league goes is clearly up into the right. We
(32:39):
just don't know how far and how fast? Right. So
that's the fun part is what is this World Cup
going to mean to stack? On top of the fact
that the world's best player has come here and is
expressing his talents in our league, others want to follow.
More will happen, But then how is this all going
to play out? And what is the MLS look like
(33:01):
on the other side. That's what's exciting and intriguing.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
Tom. I love that you brought up Leo Messi going
into Miami, you know. And I love even more that
you brought up Sir Mohammad Mansur, who we're very familiar
with by the way over here at Bloomberg, And I
want to ask you this, what are the chances of
most Salah coming to San Diego by the time his
career wraps up? I mean, come on, man, if anyone
can get him over there, it's got to be Mansor.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
No, how cool would that'd be. He might be the
best player in the world today, right, he'd be got
the best player of all time to come. But you know, look,
a player like Mossallah is something everybody would dream of, right.
He is a world class talent still producing at such
(33:47):
a high level and then high high character. What's interesting
with Moe is his trajectory, his path coming from Egypt
and kind of coming from nothing, and that resonates with
our enterprise. Right to Dream. Sir Mohammad Mansur is the
chairman of Right to Dream. Right to Dream is one
(34:08):
of the most unique and impressive soccer organizations on the planet.
It's a family of youth academies that started in Ghana
twenty five years ago and they provide opportunity to children
that never would have it otherwise. They go village to village,
find the best talent in Sub Saharan Africa, give that
(34:30):
talent at age ten to eleven, a full scholarship to
a school, a youth academy and a character development program.
And it's a residential facility that's in Ghana. Then it
went up to Scandinavia and expanded into Denmark. Mister Mansour
made his investment and built one of these in Egypt
(34:50):
and said take it to America. So we have four
youth academies all training the best young ten eleven, twelve
year old talent boys and girls. Put them all together.
They're going to feed into our clubs, or they feed
into the best prep schools and colleges in America. No
child's ever left behind as they develop. That's a remarkable thing.
(35:12):
So back to moss Law, he really had lived that trajectory, right.
So there's all this opportunity for us with right to dream,
to develop the future mosts laws of America and of Mexico.
Mexico is part of our territory because we're within fifty
kilometers of the border, so we can recruit the best
Mexican kids, the best American kids, and then give them
(35:35):
all this opportunity.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
That was San Diego FC CEO Tom penn Up next,
Tennis legend icon Billy Jean King on encouraging more girls
to get involved in sports and New Orleans Saints' legendary
quarterback Drew Brees on the future of pickleball.
Speaker 4 (35:52):
Ohoa, that's straight ahead. On the Bloomberg business of sports.
I'm Damian Sasaur along with Winnessa Prodomo. You're listening to
the Bloomberg Busy This of Sports from Bloomberg Radio around
the world.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
This is Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 4 (36:13):
Thanks for joining us on the Bloomberg Business of Sports,
where we explore the big money issues in the world
of sports. I am Damian sas Hour along with Vanessa Perdomo.
Michael Barr is off this week. Now that the confetti
has been swept off Broad Street in Philadelphia, the NFL
off season officially commences, and this past week we got
some big news. The San Francisco forty nine Ers are
(36:33):
reportedly exploring selling a ten percent stake at evaluation of
more than nine billion dollars, potentially making it one of
the world's most expensive sports teams.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
We should note it's unclear if the forty nine ers
will choose to seek a private equity firm to buy
the stake or other investors such as wealthy individuals or
family office. Deliberations are ongoing. For the latest go to
Bloomberg dot com.
Speaker 4 (36:55):
For now, we pivot our attention to pre Super Bowl
as Vanessa down in New Orleans for Super Bowl fifty
nine just a few weeks back, and had the opportunity
to speak with some legendary athletes.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
Yeah, and one of those was tennis legend Billy Jean King.
I mean speaking with her was truly a dream come true.
As a female athlete myself. It really felt like staring
into the eyes of the godmother who gave us women's sports.
So we spoke with the importance of empowering girls through
sports and what it takes to get there.
Speaker 5 (37:21):
Take a listen, leadership.
Speaker 8 (37:24):
They've done so much research now that we know if
you put a girl in sports, she's got a much
better chance to be a leader. And also ninety four
percent of C suite women ninety four percent identify with.
Speaker 4 (37:37):
Being an athlete.
Speaker 8 (37:38):
Yeah, and so in half of those women played D one.
Speaker 4 (37:41):
Yeah, I know what. People don't realize what sports did.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
That's an interesting part of the stat that I haven't
actually heard before.
Speaker 5 (37:47):
Fifty percent played D one. Oh, it's amazing.
Speaker 8 (37:49):
They are athletes, and I know of when I'm hiring someone,
I asked them, have you ever And I don't care
how good they were, I asked, were you ever a captain?
Speaker 5 (38:00):
Captain?
Speaker 8 (38:01):
Captain, you don't have to be You don't have to
be the best player, our best athlete, but you want
to know their experiences and where they've kind of molded
their lives and how they believe in themselves.
Speaker 5 (38:14):
And I think that's something that's lost today in the
youth system.
Speaker 3 (38:16):
Actually, you know, we talked about forty five percent of
girls kind of drop out of sports, but now actually
they're not playing as many sports.
Speaker 5 (38:23):
You know, what do you think about the landscape of
youth sports right now?
Speaker 4 (38:26):
They have proven.
Speaker 8 (38:29):
The best of whatever they are usually played other sports.
I would have my children playing sports, and I don't
care how good they are, but different sports because you
learn different things in each sport. You've learned different techniques,
you learn how to maybe perceive things a little differently,
so it helps your real life and that is real life.
I mean, I'm a jock, come on, give me the vault. Yeah,
(38:52):
but no, it teaches you so many things. Is and
if you want to be even the best in the
sport when they're young, you want to play. They've done
recent search the players who did many sports, are a
few sports at least, and then decided to be number
the best or professional in one sport. They did better
than the kids who always specialize in one sport when
they grew up. Because you want to.
Speaker 4 (39:13):
Learn, like learn how to run, kick, throw.
Speaker 5 (39:17):
Yeah, well you need.
Speaker 4 (39:18):
All these different things.
Speaker 5 (39:19):
There's so many different elements that work in different sports.
Speaker 8 (39:22):
Especially when a child's young. You want them to use
their big muscle groups more not they're fine muscle groups.
So you want them to kick, run, and throw, just
basic stuff. And those are the types of things you
want to do when a child young, and parents should
think about that.
Speaker 5 (39:36):
Let them have fun.
Speaker 8 (39:37):
Like my brother played twelve years of professional baseball. Randy
Moffat's our birth name, and he's five years younger, and
we played all sports together. We had so much fun.
I love my baby brothers.
Speaker 3 (39:49):
Yes. One of the things that's interesting too about if
you specialize, say in something like tennis at a young age.
I was just recently talking with Sean White about this,
and he told me him starting his company and getting
things the newest thing for him in bus. It wasn't,
you know, learning the business side. It was actually being
part of a team, yes, because he wasn't he was
an individual athlete.
Speaker 8 (40:06):
No, But I was in team sports in my whole life.
I was in basketball, first I played shortstop. Susan Williams
in fifth grade said you want to play tennis, and
I said, what's tennis? And we went to her country
club to play and I said, well, I'm not playing
tennis because my dad's a firefighter and we're barely making
as as is. So but we also played on a
softball team and she said to the coach Val hollerin oh,
(40:30):
I took Billy to play tennis, and she says, oh,
we have free instruction here every.
Speaker 2 (40:35):
Tuesday at Hopen Park.
Speaker 4 (40:37):
Okay, that's how.
Speaker 8 (40:38):
That's why I became a tennis player. I went to
the public park, free coaching free, you know, if the
courts were free. And after the first day of tennis,
I realized that I want to be number one in tennis.
I found what I was going to do with my life. Yeah,
and I was about ten, just before I turned eleven,
and I knew that was it and I knew it
was global. I realized global. I read the history. I'm
(41:00):
big on history. The more you know about history, the
more you know about yourself. But most importantly, it helps
you shape the future.
Speaker 3 (41:07):
How would that relate to you know, the landscape of
women's sports today because now they're more you know, visible
than ever. Last year is an amazing year for women's sports.
But how would you categorize, you know, where we are
right now, how they have to.
Speaker 8 (41:19):
We're the best place we've ever been. Yeah, but we
still have so long to go. But all these you know,
like Angel Rees and Caitlyn Clark getting into it, all
those things, it shows and how many people are showing
up and watching. And men do watch a lot of
women's sports. It's like eighty five percent watch women's sports.
People don't realize it's men and women who watch women's sports,
(41:40):
and men and women who watch pro sports. In men's
sports and football, we're here at the Super Bowl, yeah,
and we're going to start the flag football, which I'm
so into for the last four years. I was here
four years ago, did the coin toss. And I just
want them to have an association.
Speaker 5 (42:00):
I don't play football. Association.
Speaker 8 (42:01):
Oh absolutely, Yeah, have the men and women together maybe.
Speaker 3 (42:04):
Maybe it's really interesting though, because it is a great
way for girls and women to start getting into football.
Speaker 4 (42:10):
Oh it's great. Oh I played football.
Speaker 8 (42:11):
I played flag when I was a kid. I played baseball, football, softball,
I played you know, volleyball, track and field. I love
I love them all. So I'm interested in everybody. But
I want people to find their sport, whatever it is,
love it. I think. Well, for me, I know that
a lot of kids don't know about tennis. They really
It's too bad because tennis is global.
Speaker 5 (42:30):
Soccer's global. Yeah.
Speaker 8 (42:31):
I went to the World Cup of Soccer in Australia
and met the Spanish players.
Speaker 5 (42:35):
Yeah, so no, it's.
Speaker 8 (42:38):
No.
Speaker 4 (42:38):
I love sports. I love all of them.
Speaker 8 (42:40):
And we went to the Women's World Cup of Cricket yeah,
you know, in Melbourne, Australia not too long ago. So
that was an amazing experience where the Australians beat the
Indian women from India. But what was really wonderful is
the men told the Australian women, if you should win,
we will make you hold. We will get you as
(43:00):
much as we got. And that's where the men are
really really helpful. But people can help each other, you know,
and the men the fathers, like my dad was fantastic
on them. About your family, you said.
Speaker 5 (43:10):
Your dad, Yeah, my dad is the one who trained me.
Speaker 8 (43:12):
I think fathers are fathers don't realize how important they
are to girls. And my dad was amazing, and my
dad believed in me as much as my brother, and
that set the tone for me to go for it.
And I just want to talk to all the fathers
out there. You have no idea how important you are
(43:33):
to your daughters, and I hope you'll step up if
you don't, if you haven't already, and just include them
and believe in them and get them into sports, get
them into activities. Because girls are taught not to trust
our bodies. Sports teach you to trust your body. Sports
helped me so much to trust my body, to believe
in it.
Speaker 3 (43:54):
And I think and believing yourself in all different parts
of your life. Because you've been in the business part
of it, you you recognize that early part of your careers.
Speaker 8 (44:01):
I was in my twenties with my former husband and
I owned tournaments. And once you own something and you're
on the other side as well, then you understand the
whole picture.
Speaker 5 (44:09):
Yeah, and it really helps.
Speaker 3 (44:11):
That was my conversation with Tennis icon Billy Jean King
and Daman. Another conversation I had when I was down
in New Orleans was with a legend of the city.
He helped to bring them a Super Bowl championship back
in twenty ten and was inducted into their Hall of
Fame last year. I'm talking, of course about former Saints
quarterback Drew Brees, and we didn't just talk.
Speaker 5 (44:28):
About the big game. We turned his attention to another sport.
Speaker 3 (44:31):
He fell in love with pick a ball, which him
and I actually played together a couple of years ago.
Me and him played against Jason Kelly and Larry Fitzgerald
in our episode of Nexs and Sports. It was really amazing.
He remembered me, but I did let him down, so
that's upsetting. But he does hope that his investment in
the league will elevate viewership nationwide.
Speaker 9 (44:50):
The big news about eighteen months ago was the merger
between the PPA, which was the Professional Pickaball Association, and
the MLP Major League Pickaball, which was the team concept.
So by combining the two, everybody rown in the same direction,
kind of joint sponsorships, and you start thinking about, you know,
broadcasting and network deals and just everyone you can now
bring to the sport again, bring a lot of continuity.
(45:13):
MLP is so much fun, like the professional pickball players
love being in the team concept. It's almost like this
Ryder Cup you know, and it's only you know, it's
men and women. You're playing right next to each other,
whether it's you know, you got your mixed doubles, you
got your men's men's doubles, women's doubles. And then we've
got this dream breaker concept that's like this one on
one where you could have women and men on the
on the court at the same time playing against each other.
Speaker 5 (45:35):
Like it's and sometimes they avoid they avoid the women.
Speaker 9 (45:38):
But it's the only kids are so good an water.
Nobody want to play Anie Wall, She's she's phenomenal. So
like that's what's so great about the Sport's the only
spore you can do that.
Speaker 3 (45:47):
Do you think that because that's a new thing, right
because they when they were separated, they used to be
kind of every other thing. You didn't know exactly when
the MLP season was going to be. Which do you
think that's going to help garner new fandom for Professional Pickaball?
Speaker 9 (46:02):
It absolutely does, because in the past there was you
were kind of competing for weekends, you know, PPA and MLP,
But now that we are, you know, really a joint
venture or together you the PPA has their season. MLP
is specifically scheduling their season around kind of home locations
and not disrupting PPA. Plus, honestly, it's a change up
for the professional players. Like they like knowing, hey, I've
(46:24):
got this season where I'm competing in singles, you know,
and then I've got my doubles partner. But then the
minute we get to the MLP season, it's like you
shift gears and it's.
Speaker 2 (46:33):
Like, Okay, this is my squad.
Speaker 9 (46:34):
Yeah, this is my team, and we're kind of making
these stops and you know, each stop kind of has
a little bit of like a home field advantage feel
to it, you know. Yeah, And I think that's what
we want in MLP is we want to start to
develop fan bases, right, Yeah, Like we want the pickaball
community in southern California to latch onto the Los Angeles
matt Drops Pickball Club and the Texas team. You know,
(46:54):
you got one in Austin, right, you got one in Nashville,
You've got one in Columbus, Ohio. Like, so we want
these home you know, pickaball communities to say, all right,
this is our team, this is who.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
We're going to support. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (47:03):
Absolutely, So you're invested in that, and so are there
any other leagues in sports that you're looking at that
you really want to get into.
Speaker 5 (47:11):
Now next.
Speaker 2 (47:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (47:14):
I love youth sports. I mean just from the perspective
of I think it's so positive that kids play sports,
have access to sports, be multi sport athletes. So I
am huge into the flag football space. We start our
own flag football league about eight years ago, but we're
kind of taking that to a whole another level, building
experiential tournaments and opportunities for kids, both.
Speaker 2 (47:35):
At the rec level and at the more competitive level.
Speaker 9 (47:38):
Flag football has been announced as an Olympic sport, yeah,
in twenty twenty eight LA Olympics. So that's going to
be huge, not just I think for the flag football community,
but also globally. Right as other countries start thinking about
how they can put together teams to compete.
Speaker 4 (47:52):
That's gonna be a.
Speaker 2 (47:52):
Five on five for Matt.
Speaker 9 (47:54):
So I think flag football is just kind of like
getting kicked off as to where it can go, building
national teams, doing kind of select type tournaments, and we're
going to be right in the center of that.
Speaker 3 (48:05):
And it's a really huge way to get girls and
women involved in playing the game of football.
Speaker 9 (48:10):
Right, that's exactly right in fact, flag football is now
a sanctioned sport for a lot of high school programs.
In fact, in the state of California was adopted two
years ago. So I actually helped coach our high school
inaugural flag football team for girls I was, which was
Oh dude, it was awesome.
Speaker 2 (48:24):
Are you kidding?
Speaker 9 (48:25):
Like the girls listen so much better than the guys do, right, So,
like I like coaching the girls better than I like
coaching the guys.
Speaker 5 (48:32):
That was my conversation with New Orleans Saints legend.
Speaker 4 (48:34):
Drew brees Well, Vanessa, thank you so much, and thank
you to our audience for joining us. Tune in again
next week for the latest on the stories moving big
money in the world of sports. You've been listening to
The Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg 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 start to break into.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
We really appreciate when our owners are actually there, you know,
with us through the journey.
Speaker 4 (00:19):
Teams ours especially have been very intentional to diversify at
all levels of the company. I think we're in bolden
years for the NFL and college football. Our demographic reach
has continued to explode.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
This is going to be really unlocking the streaming platform
for sports fans, sports evaluations arising.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
We'll see you when they peak.
Speaker 2 (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 4 (00:47):
This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports, where we explore
all of the big money issues in the world of sports.
I'm Damian Sasauer. Michael barr is off this week and
joining me in his stead is Bloomberg Business a sports
reporter none other than Vanessa Perdomo. Hi, Vanessa, Heydamen.
Speaker 5 (01:05):
Great to me in the studio.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
Well, coming up, we talk a sport in your wheelhouse.
We are talking soccer, Major League soccer. In fact, it's
kicking off its thirtieth season this weekend by debuting their
thirtieth franchise, San Diego FC, and later this hour we
speak with Tom Penn, CEO of San Diego on their
process of putting together a major sports soccer franchise.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
We come into a new stadium in the market with
excellent premium offerings. We added more premium on the pitch.
We innovated, and we put what we're calling pitch boxes,
these little eight seat race cars right down on the
field where your feet are on the grass. That's how
you generate the local revenue that makes you sustainable.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
We also have some of my favorite conversations I had
with sports legends down in New Orleans when we were
there for the Super Bowl, including a tennis great and
one well known saint.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
How all that and more is on the way on
the Bloomberg business of sports. But first, the Los Angeles
Olympics are right around the corner, and I'm just kidding
there a few years away, but it's never too early
to think about the business side of the Olympics and
Paralympic Games and its vision here.
Speaker 5 (02:13):
To take us through that.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Sebastian co He's the President of World Athletics. He's also
a two time gold medalist winning distance runner, former chairman
of the London twenty twelve Games and a former member
of the UK Parliament. So actually it's Lord Sebastian Co
joining us as well as Bloomberg News reporter Hugo Miller.
Sebastian Welcome to the Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast.
Speaker 6 (02:33):
Thank you very much, great to be on.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Well, let's crack into it. I mean we're looking ahead
to Los Angeles in twenty twenty eight, right, I mean,
it's a city you're very familiar with. And if we
look out just a month from now, if I'm not mistaken,
there's going to be a little bit of a vote
for the next president of the IOC, and that individual
is going to handle the LA Olympics. And from what
I hear, Lord Co, you are one of the front runners.
(02:56):
Tell us a little bit about the upcoming Olympics, the
up coming vote, and you know where you stand with
all that.
Speaker 6 (03:03):
This is obviously a big moment and actually, when you
look at the nature of an election, it does provide
the organization the sector you're in, whether it's sport obviously politics,
and we've had a mega year of elections. It does
give the organization an opportunity and I'm going to mix
(03:24):
my sporting metaphysire to put their foot on the ball
and actually just think things through and have the global debate.
And I think that this has been an important process
because the Olympic Movement is a phenomenal movement. It has
achieved extraordinary things both on the field of play and
(03:45):
off the field of play. It's been at the epicenter.
It's been at the crossroads of all the big moral
and political decisions of the last century. And it has
to remain there. But it also has to modernize. It
has to recognize that the world, well we say the
world is changing. It in many respects has changed, and
(04:08):
it's vital that the movement keeps up its relentless recognition
that the holy grail is to maintain the excitement, the salience,
the relevance of what we're doing, particularly to young people.
So yes, it's a huge moment and Los Angeles twenty
twenty eight is an extraordinary glide path for the movement
(04:34):
because the American market is a hugely important market. Many
of our top sponsors come from there, many of our
broadcast rights that are really up for a discussion and
debate at the moment reside there and those changes both
in terms of the way we address commercial partnerships. We've
(04:57):
got to change them from being transactional sponsorships to collaborative partnerships.
And we've got to look at broadcast in not a
new way, but in the way that the world recognizes
that broadcast has fundamentally altered, and an audience first approach
here is going to be vital. So we've got to
(05:19):
listen to what the audience is telling us, what they want,
when they want it, and critically where they want it.
And that's why an audience first approach turbocharged by AI
will really unlock new and fresh markets and particularly help
in the leveling up process that I'm very keen to
(05:41):
establish between the large, well heeled, well structured national Olympic
committees and the smaller national Olympic committees that are also
trying to keep up and run abreast of these developments.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
You know, Seb, you talked a lot a lot there,
and I think it really interesting. I think one of
the things, obviously, me and Hugo were together last year
in Paris for the Games, and it was really it
felt like it was back in that heyday, like you
were talking about a lot of great things happening. Everyone
was was locked in when you look at that. Obviously,
(06:18):
then also you headed the twenty twelve Olympics in London.
Speaker 5 (06:22):
So when you're looking at everything you've been a part
of over.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
The last you know, a few decades or so, how
does that influence you going into this election, what you
want to work on specifically and what you think you
can laser focus in on to you know, help the
games even even further.
Speaker 6 (06:42):
Well, one slightly pedantry point if I may, I was
president of the organizing committee in London at the Olympics
and critically the Paralympic Games, and that was that was
a very very serious moment for me because the legacy
of the Paralympic Games, particularly in my own, a reimagining
(07:02):
of disability in the workplace, in families, in educational establishments.
It is something that I look back with great pride.
But more broadly, what do I recognize, Well, in a
way I guess the task that lies ahead of me
in a few weeks time, and my tilt to become
(07:29):
a leadership figure in the Olympic movement. It is something
that I've devoted in large part most of my life
to ever since I got my first pair of running
shoes and joined an athletics club at the age of eleven,
which then took me from my career into a political
career both domestically and internationally. I've chaired a national Olympic committee,
(07:50):
I've bid for a Games successfully and being part of
that leadership team that also successfully delivered the Games. And
of course the experience of being the president of a
central plank of the Olympic movement track and field as
you would describe it athletics for most of us, has,
(08:12):
I guess, been the type of CV and the type
of experiences that I probably wouldn't have recognized in a
way that were coming together. But they came together in
a way that I think leaves me very comfortable that
I can do this role. What did I learn from London?
(08:32):
I learned the importance of building teams, the importance of
maintaining political impartiality, particularly in those delivery phases, critically making
sure that your organization, in our case, the London Organizing
Committee looked like the world that we lived in and
(08:55):
live in, and that's critical because young people don't look
at your organization as being a political party or a
non governmental organization or the International Olympic Committee or World Athletics.
They look at you and ask and sometimes it's probably
a subconscious question, but they're asking themselves a fundamental question.
(09:15):
Do you look like the world we live in? Do
you believe in the things that we believe in? And
that is critical for the movement to re engage with
young people the next Generation In London, mantra was to
inspire a generation and to inspire a generation through sport,
(09:37):
but not necessarily and only in sport. So if you
have an organizing committee that is responsible for delivering a
big cultural piece of the Olympic movement, which is important,
then you really also want a legacy afterwards, so not
just people joining athletics clubs or swim clubs, but taking
(09:59):
up the violin wanting to be in the artistic and
cultural landscape. And I think we achieved that. And critical
to all that is, don't allow other people to define
your legacy for you. You really have to be in
control of that. And for me, very very critically, what
(10:22):
is it that I want the movement to reset around.
It's the extraordinary nature of sport, the catalytic impact that
that has, the transformational impact that has on young lives.
Speaker 7 (10:35):
Can I see a quick question about you as a candidate.
I mean, what you've just described explains why you're such
a strong candidate. But at the same time, some people
have said you're you're a bit of an You're an
insider in the world of global sport and an outsider
to the IOC. And obviously your decision last year to
announce the award of cash prizes to track and field
(10:57):
gold medalists in Paris ruffled some IOC feathers. I struggled
to understand why that is given the amount of money
slashing around the Olympic sponsorship deals, broadcasting rights, and the
fact that so many athletes already when you're talking about
professional athletes like Novak Djokovic, to you know, world famous
(11:18):
gymnasts like Simon Wiles, they're already making tens of millions
from endorsements or prize money. Why do you feel the
IOC is so uncomfortable with this proposition you've brought and
has that given you any pause or do you really
much stand by.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
By that decision.
Speaker 6 (11:34):
Look, I'm not sure that the IOC per se or
the body politics is body politic, is that diametrically opposed
to prize money. And look, I published a speech that
(11:55):
I gave in nineteen eighty one. I was one of
the first athletes to address the International Olympic Committee to Congress.
It is extraordinary, even in nineteen eighty one that no
athlete had actually been invited to contribute to the movement.
And I spent four minutes talking about the welfare of
(12:15):
the athlete and the welfare of the athlete for me,
and I don't dissent from a word that I used
in nineteen eighty one, and I still think it's pertinent.
The welfare of the athlete for me is not just
their physical and mental welfare, critical as that is. I
think it is also the ability to provide where possible
(12:36):
and in a way that doesn't damage the values of
the movement, which we all hold deer, but where possible
gives some financial comfort. And I say that because the
world has changed. If you are a young competitor that graduates,
maybe in a scientific technical skill, then to then spend
(13:01):
twelve years dedicating your life to the furtherance of Olympic
sport and then to have to come back into the marketplace,
often ten years off the place means that a return
to hire or further education may well be necessary, that
(13:22):
financial welfare may be critical in doing that. That financial
welfare may also allow an athlete to remain in the
sport for another Olympic cycle. So I'm not the prize money.
In fact, understandably was the headline, but it's only a
(13:44):
very small part of what I mean when I say
we don't just want to listen to the athletes. We
need to share with them, and we need to make
them our commercial partners. And how do I mean that
we hold a lot of data. Giving athletes datas we
have actually done in World Athletics allows them to raise
(14:07):
their profile, maybe to be very much more specific about
how they pitch themselves to partners and sponsors, giving them
more flexibility around their content. I'll give you a really
good example.
Speaker 7 (14:21):
So you want the IOC to monetize, I want the
hammer throwers, not just the sprinters.
Speaker 6 (14:27):
I want the athletes in every Olympic sport to have
more flexibility, to be able to access their own data,
their own content. Let me give you a good concrete
example of that. Next year in twenty twenty six, we
have something called the World Athletics Ultimate Championships Unashamed. It's
(14:50):
a three night, three night championship aimed specifically at TV
three nights, three hours, sixteen of the top track app athletes,
eight of the top field of ent athletes. That's the format.
But critically, we've created a new model, particularly for the athletes.
So we're going to fly the athletes and their social
(15:13):
media teams. We will give them video content that allows
them to promote themselves and their own partners. We're making
it apparel neutral so that we're not freezing out an
athlete that doesn't want to be there because they're on
a night contract or a Puma contract or an added
(15:34):
ask contract, and we have to give them. We have
to give the athletes more flexibility in this space, and
we need to give them the opportunity to build their
profiles and actually tell their own stories, because they tell
their stories far better than we tell their stories on
their behalf. Those are the things that I've been talking
(15:57):
about in liberalizing the landscape for them so that they
are actually able to monetize away from the field of play,
which is as just as critical as it is when
we come to discuss prize money, and I wouldn't want
people to run away with the misconception here. The prize
(16:19):
money issue in athletics was to address a very specific
vulnerability that my executive board, my council, and my commissions,
and it was a unanimous view, a very specific vulnerability
that athletes and athletics faces. When I go to the
Caribbean Championships, the carrifta games which I would advise anybody
to go to because you see some of the most
(16:42):
extraordinarily talented young athletes. When I'm standing trackside watching it,
I'm surrounded by more recruiters and agents from NFL, basketball, baseball,
even netball in some parts of the world, and we
need to make sure that we retain that talent and
(17:04):
creating an opportunity for them to have that financial security
around prize money that we create within our own World
Championships and the opportunity that we provided with them for
prize money in Paris. But if I may, but if
(17:24):
this is a very important point, if I may finish it,
if I am successful in a few weeks time. It
isn't a one size fits all. Do not assume, nor
would I suddenly say well, we did it for athletics.
So it pertains to every international federation, large or small,
(17:45):
that I would have a completely different mandate, a completely
different remit. And at that point you have the discussion
which I would actively encourage. And there is absolutely this
is not a fat to comp because we did it
in athletics.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
We do not.
Speaker 6 (18:03):
I would simply not sit there and say, well we
did in an athletic except for we it's something we
will just force upon everybody. No, there would be a
collaborative discussion about it, and maybe we decide it isn't
the route to go.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
Well, well, lord co I mean, the prize money is
obviously a very big, a very big point, but you
know there's also eight billion dollars of sponsorship and broadcast
deals that are going to be on tap for the
LA Olympics, you know, and as president of the IOC,
you know you're going to be able to control that narrative,
you know. And so you know, I have only two
words to kind of share with you, and they are
(18:39):
flag football. I mean, talk to me. I mean, we
have tennis, we have basketball, we have soccer, track and field, swimming, gymnastics,
but we're going to get flag football. We all know
the Super Bowl, the impact that has on marketing and
advertising and the like. I mean, what are your thoughts
on flag football at LA twenty eight.
Speaker 6 (18:58):
Look, I'm not going to get in to the individual
discussions about a particular sport, a new addition to a
particular sport. We're all trying to make sure that we
appeal to new and younger and fresher audiences and to
really push the envelope there. I remember as president of
the organizing committee in London, I would love to have
(19:21):
had Rugby sentence in the stadium for the three or
three days after the opening ceremony. It would have set
the huge party apps. We created the party atmosphere anyway.
So look, every organizing committee has to have the flexibility
to be able to bring new and fresh ideas. I'm
discussing already with Los Angeles twenty eight our ability maybe
(19:45):
to take some of our offense out of the stadium.
We have an out of stadium policy strategy now World Athletics.
So I'm never going to be the one stifling innovation
and creativity here. The real challenge, of course, is to
harvest creative thinking but have executable delivery, and we've got
(20:12):
to make sure that we're not putting pressure, undue pressure
on National Olympic committees to introduce new sports that may
only survive a four year cycle. That puts them under
pressure in terms of investing in those sports selection processes
only for that sport maybe not to have a life
(20:33):
cycle beyond. So there is a balance here. But look,
we need to we need to be creative, We need
to be innovative. Above all, we need to really address
what our audiences want. You don't frame everything around it,
but you have to be data driven and understanding what
(20:53):
they're saying to you, what they want, where they wanted,
and critically when they wanted, and in formats stand. You know,
I look at some of the Olympic broadcast channel. It's
long format, it's expensive, and it's really only getting to
a small marketplace. We have the ability to be very
(21:14):
much more flexible and creative in how we create our
broadcast partnerships, particularly regionally, in a way that allows smaller
National Olympic committees to view at the critical moment the
work at an Olympic Games that they are involved in
for four years. Kenya is a really good example of this.
(21:35):
Go to Kenya and you will realize that running is
not just a passion, it's a religion. It's front page,
it's back page. It dominates broadcast broadcast time on virtually
any platform you choose to name. But when it gets
to the Olympic Games, those broadcast rights are very, very expensive,
(21:58):
and you've suddenly got National Olympic Committee who work four
years to help build the profile of their sport and
then are really struggling at that critical moment to have
a population that may love that Olympic sport that is
in some cases being priced out of it. And that's
why we need to be We really need to free
(22:20):
up what I describe as the brand equity around the
rings and give more people greater access to it. And
my fear at the moment is that it becomes more
of a policing exercise than it does an ability to
create accessibility to something that we are all passionate about
(22:41):
and moves global populations in the way that very few
other things do.
Speaker 4 (22:46):
Our Thanks to Sebastian co President of World Athletics and
to Bloomberg News reporter Hugo Miller, up next Major League
Soccer season is officially upon US we welcome the CEO
of their newest expansion franchise, San Diego FC. I'm Damien
Sasauur along with Vanessa Perdomo. You're listening to the Bloomberg
(23:07):
Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio around the world.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
This is Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports where we explore
the big money issues in the world of sports. I'm
Damien Sassauer along with Vanessa Perdomo. Michael Barr is off
this week.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
The twenty twenty five MLS regular season kicks off this weekend,
having reached an impressive milestone it's thirtieth season, and to
celebrate this incredible and truthfully resilient feat, Major League Soccer
will debut their thirtieth franchise in league history in their
thirtieth season, San Diego FC.
Speaker 4 (23:47):
But it really is no easy feat for the newest
expansion team, with their first game this Sunday against the
defending champs, the Los Angeles Galaxy. Here to discuss the
process of launching a nascent franchise in Major League Soccer
in a city like San Diego is the CEO of
San Diego FC, Tom Pen Tom, Welcome to the Bloomberg
Business of sports.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Amy and Vanessa happy to be here.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
Talk to us a little bit about you know, not today,
but you know, go looking ahead, you know what's the future,
not just for you know SDFC, but you know San
Diego sports more broadly speaking, I mean, are you looking
at perhaps getting your own stadium? You know, new arena's,
new ballparks, that sort of thing. I mean, is the
sports buzz hopping in San Diego the way it is
in most other cities across the country.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Yeah, we won't be building our own stadium because snap
Dragon is virtually brand new, and it's right sized for
the current MLS. It's upsized. You know, many of the
successful MLS markets with soccer specific stadiums are in the
low twenty thousands. We're in the upper low thirty thousands.
We're at thirty two, six hundred seats with some more
(24:55):
standing room. So it's a bigger building. In fact, it's
the biggest soccer specific venue if you take away the
NFL shared buildings. So we see this as a competitive
advantage when we fill the place up, because it's going
to first of all, be an economic engine because we've
got a lot of premium inventory we can sell at
(25:15):
higher prices, and then we've got all low inventory and
a lot of the masses or the lower price points.
So you put those two things together, you get thirty
plus thousand people on any given night, all whearing chrome
and azul Are colors, and all intensely engaged in the game.
It should be a competitive advantage. You know. The other
competitive advantage long term in San Diego is just the
(25:39):
quality of player in this region. Disproportionate amount of National
team players come from San Diego. There's always been just
this pipeline of talent. And then when you throw in
across the border in Mexico, which is also our territory.
With the way the rules work, we have this catchment
area of excellence and it's our job to developed that
(26:00):
excellence and over time that can feed our first team
and be a real competitive advantage along with the size
of the building. So back to your original question, things
are rolling in San Diego, all this opportunity for greatness,
and we're just really excited to get it going.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
You know, Tom, you were talking there about playing in Snapdragon,
and I've actually been there, but I went there for
San Diego Wave game. How I'm curious, you know, how
has it been working with the San Diego Wave and
the NWSL, you know, to bring in another soccer team
there and you know, to grow the fever for soccer
in the city.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Yeah, it's interesting. San Diego State University owns and operates
the building, so they're the landlord and that's who we've
dealt with mostly as it relates to Snapdragon Stadium. The
Wave and us are similar in that we're both tenants
in that building and we'll share that building and we're
really just getting started with figuring out how to do that.
We've done a good job with scheduling, for example, where
(27:02):
we find alternate weekends to play. But then we do
have some soccer weekends where they play Friday, we play Saturday,
you know, and there's a little bit of this back
to back. It's San Diego against the world. We're all together.
So we look forward to you know, rising tide lifts
all boats, just amplifying soccer, amplifying the love of football
(27:23):
in this community because football thrives here, you know, it's
in the DNA of this community. You know, we really
look forward then to winning, right, we both want to
win We especially want to win. We want to compete,
we want to be immediately relevant competitive. We've signed some
(27:44):
really significant players, including the best player in Mexico, Chucky Lozano.
So I'm in this personal phase of we've been trying
to sell what this is going to be and explain
what it's going to be, and we're about to express
it for real. So then you pivot to sort of
selling what we are and that's the part that's going
(28:04):
to be fun and dynamic.
Speaker 4 (28:07):
Well, Tom, you know, I mean the reason I ask
about stadiums is this. You know, I live in New
York City. You know NYCFC they're playing in Yankee Stadium,
but my goodness, they would love to be playing in
their own stadium. And then you look at Inter Miami
they play in Chase what I think, LAFC they play
at Bimo. I mean, talk to me a little bit.
I mean those are teams that are valued at over
a billion dollars, right, and I believe the collective worth
(28:29):
of all MLS clubs is now approaching world It's over
twenty billions. So does having your own stadium, you know,
you know, obviously it must add to the valuation of
your franchise. But just how much value does it add
is my real question here. I mean, where are you
getting the bulk your revenue from?
Speaker 2 (28:45):
Is it?
Speaker 4 (28:46):
Is it broadcast rights? Is it is it you know,
you know?
Speaker 8 (28:48):
Is it?
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Is it the games themselves.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
I'm just curious to hear your thoughts on that.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
The bulk of our operational cut revenue comes local, right,
So your thing about stadiums is incredibly relevant local value.
Now broadcast rights have been consolidated, all local, national, international
rights are part of this big Apple TV deal, this
historic deal with one place to go, high quality production,
(29:16):
consistency of product. Plus you're partnered with the biggest company
on the planet that can take this literally all around
the world. So broadcast sits there. We're in charge of
our own local business and that's local sponsorship, local ticket sales.
What do we do at game day with all those
ancillary sales? I mean those are the big three buckets.
(29:39):
Talk about the middle one ticket sales, premium sales. All
that comes from how your building is situated and what
you can drive in terms of revenues. So do you
have high quality premium areas? Do you have club seat
areas that warrant multi year deals, can you get a good,
solid average ticket price overall? When New York City goes
(30:03):
into their brand new stadium that they're building right near
to the Mets near City Field, that building is going
to be an atm It's going to be a juggernaut
because it's got such great offerings. When you see their
premium offerings, they're amazing. Same down in Miami, they're building
a brand new stadium out in Freedom Park. It will
(30:24):
be a juggernaut. In our case, we come into a
new stadium in the market with excellent premium offerings. We
added more premium on the pitch. We innovated and we
put what we're calling pitch boxes, these little eight seat
race cars right down on the field where your feet
are on the grass, and those are the hottest product
we have. And then on the other side of the
(30:46):
field where we're putting pitch suites. Nobody's ever done it
this way, where you take the suite experience, the luxury
suite experience and put it right down on the grass
and have your suite where you're walking around on the
actual pitch. Really cool premium offerings for our market. That's
how you generate the local revenue. That makes you sustainable.
Speaker 5 (31:07):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
I think you know, one of the other things that's
really exciting for for San Diego. They're coming in as
the thirtieth team and the thirtieth season of the MLS.
You've worked now in the MLS for a while, but
also you worked in the NBA for a long time.
As the MLS stands in its thirtieth season, where do
you think it is compared to you know, obviously other
leagues that have been around longer, but like, as it
(31:30):
stands in the thirtieth year, how do you think the
business of the league is doing?
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Clearly major league clearly in the major league category of NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, MLS. Right,
there's five, the big five clearly on the rise. I
mean the rise in valuations, the level of investors coming
(31:56):
into MLS. Our chairman are our lead investors, a multi
billionaire from Egypt, Sir Mohammad Mansour. He operates out of London.
He instead of buying a Premier League team, wanted to
buy an MLS team. He wanted to come into Major
League soccer. So the world is seeing it. The quality
of the product is continuing to improve, and then you
(32:19):
get this double booster. That's happening. Messi arriving in the
States is an amazing event. That's booster number one. The
World Cup coming in twenty twenty six booster number two.
You put those two together and the trajectory of where
the league goes is clearly up into the right. We
(32:39):
just don't know how far and how fast? Right. So
that's the fun part is what is this World Cup
going to mean to stack? On top of the fact
that the world's best player has come here and is
expressing his talents in our league, others want to follow.
More will happen, But then how is this all going
to play out? And what is the MLS look like
(33:01):
on the other side. That's what's exciting and intriguing.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
Tom. I love that you brought up Leo Messi going
into Miami, you know. And I love even more that
you brought up Sir Mohammad Mansur, who we're very familiar
with by the way over here at Bloomberg, And I
want to ask you this, what are the chances of
most Salah coming to San Diego by the time his
career wraps up? I mean, come on, man, if anyone
can get him over there, it's got to be Mansor.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
No, how cool would that'd be. He might be the
best player in the world today, right, he'd be got
the best player of all time to come. But you know, look,
a player like Mossallah is something everybody would dream of, right.
He is a world class talent still producing at such
(33:47):
a high level and then high high character. What's interesting
with Moe is his trajectory, his path coming from Egypt
and kind of coming from nothing, and that resonates with
our enterprise. Right to Dream. Sir Mohammad Mansur is the
chairman of Right to Dream. Right to Dream is one
(34:08):
of the most unique and impressive soccer organizations on the planet.
It's a family of youth academies that started in Ghana
twenty five years ago and they provide opportunity to children
that never would have it otherwise. They go village to village,
find the best talent in Sub Saharan Africa, give that
(34:30):
talent at age ten to eleven, a full scholarship to
a school, a youth academy and a character development program.
And it's a residential facility that's in Ghana. Then it
went up to Scandinavia and expanded into Denmark. Mister Mansour
made his investment and built one of these in Egypt
(34:50):
and said take it to America. So we have four
youth academies all training the best young ten eleven, twelve
year old talent boys and girls. Put them all together.
They're going to feed into our clubs, or they feed
into the best prep schools and colleges in America. No
child's ever left behind as they develop. That's a remarkable thing.
(35:12):
So back to moss Law, he really had lived that trajectory, right.
So there's all this opportunity for us with right to dream,
to develop the future mosts laws of America and of Mexico.
Mexico is part of our territory because we're within fifty
kilometers of the border, so we can recruit the best
Mexican kids, the best American kids, and then give them
(35:35):
all this opportunity.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
That was San Diego FC CEO Tom penn Up next,
Tennis legend icon Billy Jean King on encouraging more girls
to get involved in sports and New Orleans Saints' legendary
quarterback Drew Brees on the future of pickleball.
Speaker 4 (35:52):
Ohoa, that's straight ahead. On the Bloomberg business of sports.
I'm Damian Sasaur along with Winnessa Prodomo. You're listening to
the Bloomberg Busy This of Sports from Bloomberg Radio around
the world.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
This is Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 4 (36:13):
Thanks for joining us on the Bloomberg Business of Sports,
where we explore the big money issues in the world
of sports. I am Damian sas Hour along with Vanessa Perdomo.
Michael Barr is off this week. Now that the confetti
has been swept off Broad Street in Philadelphia, the NFL
off season officially commences, and this past week we got
some big news. The San Francisco forty nine Ers are
(36:33):
reportedly exploring selling a ten percent stake at evaluation of
more than nine billion dollars, potentially making it one of
the world's most expensive sports teams.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
We should note it's unclear if the forty nine ers
will choose to seek a private equity firm to buy
the stake or other investors such as wealthy individuals or
family office. Deliberations are ongoing. For the latest go to
Bloomberg dot com.
Speaker 4 (36:55):
For now, we pivot our attention to pre Super Bowl
as Vanessa down in New Orleans for Super Bowl fifty
nine just a few weeks back, and had the opportunity
to speak with some legendary athletes.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
Yeah, and one of those was tennis legend Billy Jean King.
I mean speaking with her was truly a dream come true.
As a female athlete myself. It really felt like staring
into the eyes of the godmother who gave us women's sports.
So we spoke with the importance of empowering girls through
sports and what it takes to get there.
Speaker 5 (37:21):
Take a listen, leadership.
Speaker 8 (37:24):
They've done so much research now that we know if
you put a girl in sports, she's got a much
better chance to be a leader. And also ninety four
percent of C suite women ninety four percent identify with.
Speaker 4 (37:37):
Being an athlete.
Speaker 8 (37:38):
Yeah, and so in half of those women played D one.
Speaker 4 (37:41):
Yeah, I know what. People don't realize what sports did.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
That's an interesting part of the stat that I haven't
actually heard before.
Speaker 5 (37:47):
Fifty percent played D one. Oh, it's amazing.
Speaker 8 (37:49):
They are athletes, and I know of when I'm hiring someone,
I asked them, have you ever And I don't care
how good they were, I asked, were you ever a captain?
Speaker 5 (38:00):
Captain?
Speaker 8 (38:01):
Captain, you don't have to be You don't have to
be the best player, our best athlete, but you want
to know their experiences and where they've kind of molded
their lives and how they believe in themselves.
Speaker 5 (38:14):
And I think that's something that's lost today in the
youth system.
Speaker 3 (38:16):
Actually, you know, we talked about forty five percent of
girls kind of drop out of sports, but now actually
they're not playing as many sports.
Speaker 5 (38:23):
You know, what do you think about the landscape of
youth sports right now?
Speaker 4 (38:26):
They have proven.
Speaker 8 (38:29):
The best of whatever they are usually played other sports.
I would have my children playing sports, and I don't
care how good they are, but different sports because you
learn different things in each sport. You've learned different techniques,
you learn how to maybe perceive things a little differently,
so it helps your real life and that is real life.
I mean, I'm a jock, come on, give me the vault. Yeah,
(38:52):
but no, it teaches you so many things. Is and
if you want to be even the best in the
sport when they're young, you want to play. They've done
recent search the players who did many sports, are a
few sports at least, and then decided to be number
the best or professional in one sport. They did better
than the kids who always specialize in one sport when
they grew up. Because you want to.
Speaker 4 (39:13):
Learn, like learn how to run, kick, throw.
Speaker 5 (39:17):
Yeah, well you need.
Speaker 4 (39:18):
All these different things.
Speaker 5 (39:19):
There's so many different elements that work in different sports.
Speaker 8 (39:22):
Especially when a child's young. You want them to use
their big muscle groups more not they're fine muscle groups.
So you want them to kick, run, and throw, just
basic stuff. And those are the types of things you
want to do when a child young, and parents should
think about that.
Speaker 5 (39:36):
Let them have fun.
Speaker 8 (39:37):
Like my brother played twelve years of professional baseball. Randy
Moffat's our birth name, and he's five years younger, and
we played all sports together. We had so much fun.
I love my baby brothers.
Speaker 3 (39:49):
Yes. One of the things that's interesting too about if
you specialize, say in something like tennis at a young age.
I was just recently talking with Sean White about this,
and he told me him starting his company and getting
things the newest thing for him in bus. It wasn't,
you know, learning the business side. It was actually being
part of a team, yes, because he wasn't he was
an individual athlete.
Speaker 8 (40:06):
No, But I was in team sports in my whole life.
I was in basketball, first I played shortstop. Susan Williams
in fifth grade said you want to play tennis, and
I said, what's tennis? And we went to her country
club to play and I said, well, I'm not playing
tennis because my dad's a firefighter and we're barely making
as as is. So but we also played on a
softball team and she said to the coach Val hollerin oh,
(40:30):
I took Billy to play tennis, and she says, oh,
we have free instruction here every.
Speaker 2 (40:35):
Tuesday at Hopen Park.
Speaker 4 (40:37):
Okay, that's how.
Speaker 8 (40:38):
That's why I became a tennis player. I went to
the public park, free coaching free, you know, if the
courts were free. And after the first day of tennis,
I realized that I want to be number one in tennis.
I found what I was going to do with my life. Yeah,
and I was about ten, just before I turned eleven,
and I knew that was it and I knew it
was global. I realized global. I read the history. I'm
(41:00):
big on history. The more you know about history, the
more you know about yourself. But most importantly, it helps
you shape the future.
Speaker 3 (41:07):
How would that relate to you know, the landscape of
women's sports today because now they're more you know, visible
than ever. Last year is an amazing year for women's sports.
But how would you categorize, you know, where we are
right now, how they have to.
Speaker 8 (41:19):
We're the best place we've ever been. Yeah, but we
still have so long to go. But all these you know,
like Angel Rees and Caitlyn Clark getting into it, all
those things, it shows and how many people are showing
up and watching. And men do watch a lot of
women's sports. It's like eighty five percent watch women's sports.
People don't realize it's men and women who watch women's sports,
(41:40):
and men and women who watch pro sports. In men's
sports and football, we're here at the Super Bowl, yeah,
and we're going to start the flag football, which I'm
so into for the last four years. I was here
four years ago, did the coin toss. And I just
want them to have an association.
Speaker 5 (42:00):
I don't play football. Association.
Speaker 8 (42:01):
Oh absolutely, Yeah, have the men and women together maybe.
Speaker 3 (42:04):
Maybe it's really interesting though, because it is a great
way for girls and women to start getting into football.
Speaker 4 (42:10):
Oh it's great. Oh I played football.
Speaker 8 (42:11):
I played flag when I was a kid. I played baseball, football, softball,
I played you know, volleyball, track and field. I love
I love them all. So I'm interested in everybody. But
I want people to find their sport, whatever it is,
love it. I think. Well, for me, I know that
a lot of kids don't know about tennis. They really
It's too bad because tennis is global.
Speaker 5 (42:30):
Soccer's global. Yeah.
Speaker 8 (42:31):
I went to the World Cup of Soccer in Australia
and met the Spanish players.
Speaker 5 (42:35):
Yeah, so no, it's.
Speaker 8 (42:38):
No.
Speaker 4 (42:38):
I love sports. I love all of them.
Speaker 8 (42:40):
And we went to the Women's World Cup of Cricket yeah,
you know, in Melbourne, Australia not too long ago. So
that was an amazing experience where the Australians beat the
Indian women from India. But what was really wonderful is
the men told the Australian women, if you should win,
we will make you hold. We will get you as
(43:00):
much as we got. And that's where the men are
really really helpful. But people can help each other, you know,
and the men the fathers, like my dad was fantastic
on them. About your family, you said.
Speaker 5 (43:10):
Your dad, Yeah, my dad is the one who trained me.
Speaker 8 (43:12):
I think fathers are fathers don't realize how important they
are to girls. And my dad was amazing, and my
dad believed in me as much as my brother, and
that set the tone for me to go for it.
And I just want to talk to all the fathers
out there. You have no idea how important you are
(43:33):
to your daughters, and I hope you'll step up if
you don't, if you haven't already, and just include them
and believe in them and get them into sports, get
them into activities. Because girls are taught not to trust
our bodies. Sports teach you to trust your body. Sports
helped me so much to trust my body, to believe
in it.
Speaker 3 (43:54):
And I think and believing yourself in all different parts
of your life. Because you've been in the business part
of it, you you recognize that early part of your careers.
Speaker 8 (44:01):
I was in my twenties with my former husband and
I owned tournaments. And once you own something and you're
on the other side as well, then you understand the
whole picture.
Speaker 5 (44:09):
Yeah, and it really helps.
Speaker 3 (44:11):
That was my conversation with Tennis icon Billy Jean King
and Daman. Another conversation I had when I was down
in New Orleans was with a legend of the city.
He helped to bring them a Super Bowl championship back
in twenty ten and was inducted into their Hall of
Fame last year. I'm talking, of course about former Saints
quarterback Drew Brees, and we didn't just talk.
Speaker 5 (44:28):
About the big game. We turned his attention to another sport.
Speaker 3 (44:31):
He fell in love with pick a ball, which him
and I actually played together a couple of years ago.
Me and him played against Jason Kelly and Larry Fitzgerald
in our episode of Nexs and Sports. It was really amazing.
He remembered me, but I did let him down, so
that's upsetting. But he does hope that his investment in
the league will elevate viewership nationwide.
Speaker 9 (44:50):
The big news about eighteen months ago was the merger
between the PPA, which was the Professional Pickaball Association, and
the MLP Major League Pickaball, which was the team concept.
So by combining the two, everybody rown in the same direction,
kind of joint sponsorships, and you start thinking about, you know,
broadcasting and network deals and just everyone you can now
bring to the sport again, bring a lot of continuity.
(45:13):
MLP is so much fun, like the professional pickball players
love being in the team concept. It's almost like this
Ryder Cup you know, and it's only you know, it's
men and women. You're playing right next to each other,
whether it's you know, you got your mixed doubles, you
got your men's men's doubles, women's doubles. And then we've
got this dream breaker concept that's like this one on
one where you could have women and men on the
on the court at the same time playing against each other.
Speaker 5 (45:35):
Like it's and sometimes they avoid they avoid the women.
Speaker 9 (45:38):
But it's the only kids are so good an water.
Nobody want to play Anie Wall, She's she's phenomenal. So
like that's what's so great about the Sport's the only
spore you can do that.
Speaker 3 (45:47):
Do you think that because that's a new thing, right
because they when they were separated, they used to be
kind of every other thing. You didn't know exactly when
the MLP season was going to be. Which do you
think that's going to help garner new fandom for Professional Pickaball?
Speaker 9 (46:02):
It absolutely does, because in the past there was you
were kind of competing for weekends, you know, PPA and MLP,
But now that we are, you know, really a joint
venture or together you the PPA has their season. MLP
is specifically scheduling their season around kind of home locations
and not disrupting PPA. Plus, honestly, it's a change up
for the professional players. Like they like knowing, hey, I've
(46:24):
got this season where I'm competing in singles, you know,
and then I've got my doubles partner. But then the
minute we get to the MLP season, it's like you
shift gears and it's.
Speaker 2 (46:33):
Like, Okay, this is my squad.
Speaker 9 (46:34):
Yeah, this is my team, and we're kind of making
these stops and you know, each stop kind of has
a little bit of like a home field advantage feel
to it, you know. Yeah, And I think that's what
we want in MLP is we want to start to
develop fan bases, right, Yeah, Like we want the pickaball
community in southern California to latch onto the Los Angeles
matt Drops Pickball Club and the Texas team. You know,
(46:54):
you got one in Austin, right, you got one in Nashville,
You've got one in Columbus, Ohio. Like, so we want
these home you know, pickaball communities to say, all right,
this is our team, this is who.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
We're going to support. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (47:03):
Absolutely, So you're invested in that, and so are there
any other leagues in sports that you're looking at that
you really want to get into.
Speaker 5 (47:11):
Now next.
Speaker 2 (47:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (47:14):
I love youth sports. I mean just from the perspective
of I think it's so positive that kids play sports,
have access to sports, be multi sport athletes. So I
am huge into the flag football space. We start our
own flag football league about eight years ago, but we're
kind of taking that to a whole another level, building
experiential tournaments and opportunities for kids, both.
Speaker 2 (47:35):
At the rec level and at the more competitive level.
Speaker 9 (47:38):
Flag football has been announced as an Olympic sport, yeah,
in twenty twenty eight LA Olympics. So that's going to
be huge, not just I think for the flag football community,
but also globally. Right as other countries start thinking about
how they can put together teams to compete.
Speaker 4 (47:52):
That's gonna be a.
Speaker 2 (47:52):
Five on five for Matt.
Speaker 9 (47:54):
So I think flag football is just kind of like
getting kicked off as to where it can go, building
national teams, doing kind of select type tournaments, and we're
going to be right in the center of that.
Speaker 3 (48:05):
And it's a really huge way to get girls and
women involved in playing the game of football.
Speaker 9 (48:10):
Right, that's exactly right in fact, flag football is now
a sanctioned sport for a lot of high school programs.
In fact, in the state of California was adopted two
years ago. So I actually helped coach our high school
inaugural flag football team for girls I was, which was
Oh dude, it was awesome.
Speaker 2 (48:24):
Are you kidding?
Speaker 9 (48:25):
Like the girls listen so much better than the guys do, right, So,
like I like coaching the girls better than I like
coaching the guys.
Speaker 5 (48:32):
That was my conversation with New Orleans Saints legend.
Speaker 4 (48:34):
Drew brees Well, Vanessa, thank you so much, and thank
you to our audience for joining us. Tune in again
next week for the latest on the stories moving big
money in the world of sports. You've been listening to
The Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio around the world.
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