The Deal with Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly
When sports, business and culture collide, there’s often a deal to be made. Join Alex Rodriguez and Bloomberg correspondent Jason Kelly as they get the inside track from corporate titans, sports champions and game-changing entrepreneurs on investing, strategy, reinvention and the ones that got away. The Deal is a Bloomberg Podcasts and Bloomberg Originals series that’s passionate, relaxed, insightful and inspirational. If you think you know these icons, prepare to be surprised. Hosts: Alex Rodriguez is chairman and chief executive of A-Rod Corp, an investment firm that backs startups and partners with global companies across real estate, sports and entertainment. While best known as a fourteen-time All-Star and World Series champion with the New York Yankees, Rodriguez is now an owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Lynx sports teams and an on-air analyst for Major League Baseball. Jason Kelly is the chief correspondent of Bloomberg Originals. During his two decades at Bloomberg, Kelly has served as executive editor of Bloomberg Television, hosted Bloomberg Businessweek on television and radio, and also hosted Power Players and Next in Sports series. He’s also the author of two books, The New Tycoons, about the global private equity industry, and Sweat Equity, an inside look at the business of fitness.
Episodes
In this episode of The Deal, Jason Kelly and Alex Rodriguez reflect on baseball legend Cal Ripken Jr. and his influence on Rodriguez and the broader baseball community. Then Ripken tells Kelly about his business partnership with Josh Harris and David Blitzer, and their effort to expand youth sports. He also discusses the effect his father had on his career and the challenges of building a business that remains true to the Ripken fa...
In this episode of The Deal, Monarch Collective's Jasmine Robinson tells Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly about the business case for investing in women's sports leagues. Jasmine explains how her $150 million fund decided to invest in the NWSL and how she sees future growth opportunities for women's sports.
(Corrects to remove reference to the WNBA in first paragraph.)
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In this episode of The Deal, The Chernin Group's Jesse Jacobs tells Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly about a few of his notable deals, including Barstool Sports, the Professional Lacrosse League and his recent venture in Unrivaled Sports alongside Josh Harris and David Blitzer. Jesse shares his unique approach to business, the impact of digital media on sports and his thoughts on the evolving landscape of college and youth sports mar...
In this episode of The Deal, entrepreneur Joe Pompliano tells hosts Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly about his rise in the sports media landscape, potential directions for sports valuations and future trends in sports media.
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In this episode of The Deal, Jessica Gelman, chief executive of Kraft Analytics Group, tells Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly how she navigates the intersection of business and sports with a special focus on the transformative impact of data analytics. Alex and Jason also discuss Willie Mays' legacy and the lessons they learned from Reggie Jackson at a celebration of the Negro League.
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With all the money pouring into sports these days, big-time investor Marc Lore says he has an additional metric for success: happiness. On the latest episode of The Deal with Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly, Lore lays out his thinking on some of his deals, including a few with Rodriguez.
Lore and Rodriguez initially tried to buy the New York Mets, a race they ultimately lost to billionaire hedge fund manager Steven Cohen. Then came...
Stephen A. Smith says he’s always been ambitious, but nothing fueled a burning drive to succeed like being fired from ESPN. His exit from the sports network in 2009 radically changed how he felt about himself, Smith says—and how he wanted to make a living.
After ESPN and Smith parted ways, he began the long road back, starting on radio and leveraging his experience as a print journalist to develop sharp points of view. He eventuall...
Serena Williams revolutionized tennis—that much is unquestioned. With her sister and fellow superstar Venus beside her and father Richard behind them both, Williams went on to transform the way the world looks at tennis stars. Having now put her racket down, she has moved on to the world of finance and started her own venture capital firm, Serena Ventures. But this time, she’s doing it all on her own. On the latest episode of The D...
Mark Shapiro has a habit of making the unlikely happen. From marrying Ultimate Fighting Championship with World Wrestling Entertainment to making the call to hire Stephen A. Smith at ESPN, Shapiro finds a way to get deals done. Now, as president and COO of Endeavor and TKO—the publicly traded combination of WWE and UFC—he and Ari Emanuel are reshaping sports, media and entertainment. On the latest episode of The Deal with Alex Rodr...
Future Hall of Fame wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald said he always expected to be coached. Just not by a Wall Street banker. So when Frank Bisignano—then a senior JPMorgan Chase & Co. executive and now CEO of Fiserv—pushed a twentysomething Fitzgerald to think about life beyond the National Football League, it changed his trajectory.
That led to a series of internships between football seasons, touching on everything from ventur...
Twenty-five years later than expected and following several false starts, women’s professional soccer looks to finally be planting long-term roots. And at the center of it all is one of the icons of a US championship team.
Brandi Chastain, whose electrifying penalty kick in front of more than 90,000 screaming fans at the Rose Bowl sealed the 1999 Women’s World Cup, is a co-owner of Bay FC, the latest franchise to join the fast-grow...
From George Steinbrenner to Jerry Jones, Gerry Cardinale has done deals with some of the biggest names in sports.
These days, the Goldman Sachs alum is making moves under the auspices of RedBird Capital, the firm he created in 2014. His purchase of the AC Milan soccer franchise and the resurrection of American football’s XFL stem from two decades spent at the intersection of sports, finance and media.
At Goldman, Cardinale got a ch...
Hannah Storm’s analysis of how pro basketball got so big is pretty simple: That guy from North Carolina.
“What happened was Michael Jordan,” Storm said on the latest episode of The Deal with Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly. She should know, since the pioneering television broadcaster and ESPN anchor was there from before the beginning. She had a front-row seat—literally—to basketball’s popular explosion in the 1980s, when Jordan ele...
The Big Take from Bloomberg News brings you inside what’s shaping the world's economies with the smartest and most informed business reporters around the world. The context you need on the stories that can move markets. Every afternoon.
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George Steinbrenner’s decision back in 2004 to pair Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez—two generationally talented baseball players—turned out to be one of the biggest and arguably most successful deals in New York Yankees history. Or all of sports history for that matter.
The results that sprang from the Boss’s machinations became clear: a perennially contending team, a 2009 World Series championship and yes—a lot of headlines. For Je...
Back in the day, a professional athlete played, maybe made some money and then hung it up. When they retired, there was sometimes a chance to work for a local company to leverage whatever fame they had accrued. But a few players have realized there was much more to be done both before and after that final whistle blew. They also recognized it would be a good idea to get some help. That’s where Constance Schwartz-Morini comes in.
Was Michael Strahan always going to be a ubiquitous presence—from Good Morning America host to NFL commentator to having his own line of clothing at Men’s Wearhouse? Maybe—but if you ask him, he would tell you it wouldn’t have happened were it not for his move from Texas to New York. There was also another thing: winning a Super Bowl.
On this episode of The Deal, the ex-football Giant says trial by fire in the most unforgiv...
Maria Sharapova, the global tennis icon who spent her career defeating the sport’s best, is looking for some losers. On the premiere episode of The Deal with Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly, she tells us exactly what she means.
For many, Sharapova is a figure frozen in time. It was 2004 when she stunned Serena Williams on Centre Court to win her first Wimbledon and first Grand Slam. Sharapova would go on to become (like Williams) on...
The Deal, hosted by Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly, features intimate conversations with business titans, sports champions and game-changing entrepreneurs who reveal their investment philosophies, pivotal career moves and the ones that got away. From Bloomberg Podcasts and Bloomberg Originals, The Deal launches on February 29, 2024. The Deal is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, Bloomberg Carplay, or wherever you get you...
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