April 3, 2025 • 43 mins
In this episode of The Deal, Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly talk about Major League Baseball’s opening weekend and the new torpedo bat everyone is talking about. Then, they speak with Tom Garfinkel about the business empire he leads as President and CEO of the Miami Dolphins and Hard Rock Stadium. Garfinkel tells the hosts why his partnership with Dolphins owner, Stephen Ross, is so special, how he was able to negotiate a 10-year deal to bring Formula 1 racing to his stadium, and how his work is impacting the city of Miami.
You can also watch our interview with Tom Garfinkel on the Bloomberg Podcasts YouTube page here: https://youtu.be/1CBHTZZ-ZIg
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.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hi everyone, welcome to the Deal.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
I'm Jason Kelly alongside my partner Alex Rodriguez. Coming up
on the show this week, Tom Garfinkel. He runs basically
everything in Miami that you don't run. Alex, we're talking
about F one, We're talking about the Miami Dolphins, the
Miami Opened.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
So much going on in his empire.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
But first we got to talk about some really big
stories in the sports world this week starting. I have
to start here because this is one of those as
soon as this starts happening over the weekend, you're my
first call, You're my first text.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
These bats man, What is going on with these bats?
Speaker 4 (00:46):
These torpedo bats? I mean, what a story. People thought
that somehow the Yankees were cheating and that they were
using these like big alpha bats whatever with big heads
and it was helping, and you know, somehow the Yankees
were getting some type of an advance that wasn't quite kosher.
Well none of that is true. I mean basically, bats
they have a maximum kind of weight and maximum limb
(01:08):
They can't be longer than forty two inches, and how
you distribute that weight in a thirty four to thirty
five inch bat is totally up to you. So while
the Yankees are getting a lot of flak, the league
already came out and said bats are a okay.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
So Aaron Leenhart is the guy. He used to work
for the Yankees. He now works, i believe for the
Miami Marlins. He's an MIT brainiac who loves baseball. He
came up with this concept. It's about redistributing the wood essentially, right,
But like, how does that make a difference for you
as a hitter.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
Yeah, that's a great question. And then the question is
where do you take that weight from to add it
to more closer to the label. Now the label. As
for you know, fans at home that don't play baseball,
I've never used a wood bat. If the ball hits
near the label, which is kind of closer to your hands,
it's a broken bat and the ball is going to
go nowhere. And you've seen bats, you know, shatter all
over the place. Actually it's very dangerous. Yeah, there's two
(02:06):
ways to break a bat, either close to your hands
or at the very end. But what you've done is
you've redistributed the weight to the label, which means that
jam shot is no longer longer a jam shot. It
could be actually a home run, or it could be
a double in the gap because you have so much
more weight and meet there. So it's kind of a
clever way to hack the system because you're taking the
(02:27):
weight at the very end of the bat. It doesn't
matter if you have weight there or not. If you
hit it there, it's going to again a broken bat.
So you're basically taking the very weight of the end
and putting it closer to the label, which.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Helps your power. Okay, dumb question. How come somebody hasn't
done this before.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
Because there's not a lot of Mit guys like this
gentleman Aaron walking around figuring this stuff out. Yeah, it's
a brilliant thing. Now. There's versions of this that have
been out there, not quite like this. I mean, when
you saw it on social media and Michael Kay mentioned
it like twitter it up, I have thirty people text
me and call me and like, what's going on with this?
Is crazy? The next controversy. But it was, you know,
(03:05):
nothing like that. But it does look very odd when
you look at pictures. It's a very strange looking bat,
that's for sure.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
I mean it also is interesting. I mean, you know,
this is a business show. We think about deals, we
think about you know, transactions and people, you know, gravitating
to a product or not. I mean, what better advertisement
than three pitches, three home runs Opening Day Weekend by
the New York Yankees. I mean, seriously, you can't make
that up.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
You can't make it up. And then the irony is
you have Aaron Judge who hits four home runs in
the course of two games, three in one game, but
he's not using the bat. So yeah, like, okay, which
one is it? Right? Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
That's a really good point.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
All right, So let's talk a little bit about Opening
Day Weekend. I mean, I can't even begin to tell
you how distraught I am, at least initially as a
Braves fan. They as we're recording this on Tuesday, they
haven't won. They've yet to win a game. This is
a great team. They just got rouped on the West coast,
first by the Padres, then by the Dodgers. Like, what
are the storylines that are emerging when it comes to
(04:06):
the smart deals that were made for players? What seems
to be paying off what may be tvd.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Well a few things. I think it's just from a
baseball centric comment, not to say the obvious, but the
Yankees are not going to go one sixty two and
zero and the Braves are not going to go oh
in one sixty two.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Okay, thank you for assuring me.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
And while Aaron Dreds is on pace to hit three
hundred and eighty home runs, he's probably not going to
do that as even as great as he is. But
I think, Jason, the one thing you have to focus
on is the explosion and potential revenue for the Mets.
This is really has been so far a home run deal,
no pun intended for Steve Cohen, the owner of the
New York Mets, because if you look at Jersey sales, memorabilia,
(04:46):
ticket sales ratings are all going very very aggressively up
into the right.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
That's the one Soto effect.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
That's the Juan Soto effect exactly, and a very much
underrated move. Is also he also brought back Alonzo to
protect him. Yeah, Peter Alonzo, Yeah, yeah, Pee Alonzo. You
have Lindor, you have Soto, and you have Pee Alonzo,
which is really nice. I think the Braves are going
to be a juggernaut again. I think, you know, just patients,
it's always very difficult. And I've done this a couple
of times in my career. To have spring training for
(05:15):
six weeks in Florida and then be stuck with the
West Coast that that's a hell of a tough carry.
And I think they'll be fine. And I think overall,
we just got to keep watching, you know, the ratings,
and overall, I think there's more balance. I think the
Red Sox being good is a really good thing for baseball.
They've been non existing in the last few years. I
think watching the Yankees and how they react from Juan
(05:35):
Soto leaving them, I think they did a wonderful job
of deploying that capital they were going to use for
Juan Soto and using it brilliantly. And so far, so
good for the Yankees. And yeah, I'd like to see
what happened in the New York battle, right like whose
city is it? Is it the big app of the
Mets or is it the you know, the big bad
Yankees again?
Speaker 3 (05:53):
I know, yeah, I mean, listen, two great teams in
New York is never a bad thing. With apologies to
all of our listeners, you know, in cities across the world.
But I mean, man, when baseball is really hitting in
New York, there's nothing better, all right, So let's shift
sports before we get onto Tom Garfinkel. And actually this
is Garfinkel adjacent at least, which is the NFL. I
(06:15):
mean talk about flexing, man, I mean, the NFL can
flex like nobody else, reports early this week saying that
the NFL looking across the media landscape, seeing what they
can command, and likely to opt out of their media
deals because they can get more money.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
What do you make of that?
Speaker 4 (06:35):
Well, the gifts keeps on giving for NFL owners. I
got to tell you, it's an incredible business, one that
other owners from other teams around the world are very
envious of. And look, out of the top was a
one hundred television you know broadcast. There were like, you know,
ninety five of the hundred, right, and the other college
football or something like that. So football is the king
of kings. And look, they're in a leverage position. Networks
(06:59):
can work without the NFL, the shoulder programming, the income
it makes, the amount of leverage and power they have,
and these networks are second to none, and they're going
to capitalize it and can't give Roger Goodell, the commissioner,
NFL commissioner enough credit for what he's done here the
last ten or twelve years.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah, it's funny.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
I was talking to a former media executive this morning
and she was saying to me, this is the nightmare
scenario if you are on the media side of the business,
because you don't want to give this right. You do
not want to give this clause to anyone. But if
you're dealing with the NFL, you have no choice because
to your point that they're in charge of everything. And
(07:39):
when you have what is it, you know, ninety four
ninety five of the top one hundred shows or NFL games,
When you have the most watched super Bowl ever in
twenty twenty five, like you're in position to call your
shot and do whatever you want.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
And it's hard to believe that you have over one
hundred million people watching the super Bowl and some of
these forty or fifty million for some of these playoff games.
And they're still growing. And I think the reason they're
growing is they're just getting better at their craft. They're
getting better at television. They really think about being an
entertainment business first, not a foot football's just the mote.
But they're really the greatest media company in the world.
(08:16):
I had one high ranking officer about a year ago
tell me, if we do not get the NFL in
our program, there is a chance we can file bankruptcy.
Oh my gosh, that is how powerful the NFL is
to us. And to make no mistake, Jason, when Roger
Goodell sits across from you in a boardroom, whether you're
one of the big media companies, whether you're a big sponsor,
(08:38):
or whether you're a private equity group that wants to
get approved by Roger and the thirty two owners to
be able to invest in the NFL deals, the answer
is yes, sir, Yes, sir, yes, sir. Please please pick us,
Please pick.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Us, and we'll take a show whatever you want because
we know it's good for our business.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Well spe give watching programming.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Note for our listeners out there, you can now watch
us and see these two handsome faces just talking back
and forth with our guests. You can go to the
Bloomberg Podcast YouTube channel and watch this episode and coming
up Tom Garfinkel again. He is the king of Miami.
I mean, I guess the other king of Miami. Two
Kings of Miami on the upcoming episode. Tom Garfinkel, of
(09:18):
course the vice chairman of the Miami Dolphins organization and
has a lot to say about the business of football,
the business of racing, the business of tennis, and really
just the business of entertainment. So looking forward to that.
Check it out, all right, Joining us now, Tom Garfinkel.
(09:46):
He's the vice chairman the presidency of the Miami Dolphins
in hard Rock Stadium. Also the managing partner of the
Formula one Crypto dot Com Miami Grand Prix that's coming
up in just a couple months. Alex and I will
be there, Tom, So great to see you to the show.
Speaker 5 (10:00):
Great to be here, Thanks, guys, appreciate you having me.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
All right.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
I was joking Alex that this guy is like the
hardest working man in Hollywood. But you know, Miami is
the new Hollywood. Everything's happening down there. You guys saw
it before before anybody else. I mean, Tom, give us
a sense of what's going on these days with you.
I mean, all year is your busy season, but this
is an especially busy season for you.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
It is. Yeah, this is a very busy season.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Wrapped up the football season moved on to the College
football semi championship game. Then we have our big Dolphins
Cancer Challenge bike ride here. We raised over fifteen million
dollars this year to fight cancer. Then we prepare for
the Miami Open, and we have the Miami Open tennis
tournament going on right now, and then preparing for the
Formula One race in early May. Right after the race,
(10:46):
we'll have a Shakira concert and a Post Malone concert,
then Club World Cup.
Speaker 5 (10:52):
So a lot going on here.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
So Alex, I'm going to actually ask you a question
that I then wanted to turn to Tom, which is like,
what the hell is going on in Miami?
Speaker 2 (11:00):
I think, how did this all happen?
Speaker 3 (11:02):
You grew up there, You're the longest standing Miami resident
of any of us.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Like what happened down there?
Speaker 4 (11:08):
You know, I'm not sure what the heck's happened down here?
But I had dinner with Tom a few years ago,
and a mutual friend hosted at a small private dinner.
And when I was hearing Tom explain all the things
that a he was working on, which was a lot,
but he gave us a little preview of what was
in the pipeline, and not only was it true? But
he actually undershold it, and that's hard to do because
(11:31):
what you know, Tom and Steve Ross have built down
here is really nothing short of spectacular and he's made
our city better. But he was also ahead of the curve.
Remember he was doing this before this explosion that's happened
here in the last two or three years. So it's
been a perfect formula. And Tom, My question to you is,
(11:51):
when you think about your schedule, you just kind of
gave us a little blip. How do you divide if
it was a pie percentage wise? Is it Shakiro? Is
f one? Is a cancer? Dolphins? Where are you with that?
Speaker 5 (12:04):
Well, we have a lot going on.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
But you know, we had about twenty seventeen eighteen, we
had about twenty six major events we do here at
the stadium, about a million one point four people that
would come through here. Now we're doing i know, forty
eight major events two point three million people, so the
calendar is pretty full, you know, all of them. I
think I think tennis formula one.
Speaker 5 (12:24):
Obviously.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
The most important thing we do here is the Dolphins
football season. We host the Miami Hurricanes for their home games,
their college football games.
Speaker 5 (12:32):
We have the Orange Bowl.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Here, we have the semi this year, we have the
National Championship coming in twenty twenty six, the Club World
Cup this year, the FIFA World Cup hosting seven matches
next summer.
Speaker 5 (12:44):
So you had a fun never stops here.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
I like to say it's maybe the only place in
the world where, you.
Speaker 5 (12:50):
Know, we try to create something.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Steve and I have this vision for global entertainment destination
and trying to create something where the most talented people
in the world could all come to perform.
Speaker 5 (12:58):
And when you think about, you.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Know, Roger Federer, Serena Williams, Messi and neymar Lewis Hamilton
and Max Verstappen, your greatest players in the NFL, college
football artists like Shakira or jay z and Beyonce et cetera,
et cetera, have all performed here.
Speaker 5 (13:14):
Taylor Swift this past fall.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
It's a very unique thing that all of those people
have been on our site in one place, and I
think we may be the only place in the world
where that's the case.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Tom.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
I know Alex is going to want to talk in
a few minutes a bit about your work in baseball,
but before we go back there, we're always interested in
sort of like that initial deal. You know when you
and Steven Ross get together and you know, you sort
of circle around each other, and you know, you're a
big hire, he's a big name. Like, how does that
deal happen? How does that come about that you guys
(13:46):
formed this partnership.
Speaker 5 (13:48):
Well, Steve and I actually met first.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
I interviewed for the job in two thousand and nine
and I was with the Arizona Diamondbacks at the time,
and we were introduced, and it's kind of a longer story,
but one thing led to another, and I actually we
pulled out of the process and went to the San
Diego Padres. At the Padres, I had three owners in
four and a half years. There was an interesting situation there.
I learned a lot, had a great experience, and then
(14:10):
was fortunate enough to reconnect with Steve and come here
at the end of twenty thirteen. And you know, Steve
and I a very close relationship. None of this is
possible without it. And in fact, the other day I
had a just an overwhelming moment of gratitude. I was
sitting with someone in the soccer business who works with
players like Paul Ba and Messi and these different folks,
(14:30):
and he just said, you know, you guys are the
best of what you do in the world. And I
had it just a moment of none of this is
possible unless Steve, you know, gives us sort of the
autonomy and the resources and supports us with the ideas
that we have and also contributes to those ideas and
has a vision with us.
Speaker 5 (14:46):
So that's kind of where it all started. We met,
we kept a relationship.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
I came to work with them, and we just sat
down and started collaborating and both share this desire to
do things differently, to think big, and fortunately he's allowed.
Speaker 5 (15:01):
Us to do it.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
Yeah. So Tom, following up on Jason's question, I mean,
we love great partnerships here and this seems like a
match made in heaven. When you think about Steve Ross,
is his background over fifty years in real estate, a
true savant, as blue chip as they come. And then
with your background, with your global experience on sports, media, entertainment,
building these great platforms. How is that conversation? Is that
(15:24):
a weekly conversation? Do you ask it for advice? Does
he ask you for advice?
Speaker 5 (15:28):
Yeah? A little bit of both. At Ebbs and Flows.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
I mean, we'll have a week where we talk three
times a day, and then maybe we don't talk for
a week.
Speaker 5 (15:35):
Steve is a visionary.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
He's first of all, I think Steve's just a really
good guy. Like he's the kind of person you enjoy
going to dinner with, you enjoy spending time with.
Speaker 5 (15:44):
He makes you laugh, You want to spend time with him.
He's a good person. He treats people well.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
So I think it all starts there, and then we
just kind of enjoy each other's company, you know. And
he allows me to argue with him and fight with
him a little bit and debate because we're always just
trying to get to the right conclusion of things for
the business and to grow things. But yeah, it ebs
and flows in terms of how much time we spend together.
Steve is just changing the landscape of South Florida, and
not just here with the stadium and all the private
(16:13):
investment he's put into this, but also what he's doing
in West Palm Beach right now is incredible. What he's
doing there to create a vision that he has to
create the best most livable place to live, work and play.
Speaker 5 (16:24):
In the country. He's all in on it. It's quite
a thing to watch. It's amazing. He's doing incredible things.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
So let's talk about that for a second. I'm glad
you went there, Tom, because I sort of joked about
this at the top. But there has been I mean,
this has been well documented by Bloomberg and everyone, this
massive economic boom in South Florida that you just described,
and Steven Ross has obviously been at the white hot
center of it, as have you, as says Alex. For
that matter, help us understand how sports and what you're
(16:52):
doing fits into that, like how does each feed the other,
you know, and what has that boom done to either
enhance to make more challenging sort of your broader business,
Like how does that all fit together?
Speaker 1 (17:05):
You know, when we think about this place again being
a global entertainment destination, what we do is so much
more than selling tickets.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
We really focus on impacting people's lives. You know.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
I think when the pandemic first happened, Steve called and
he said, you know, so.
Speaker 5 (17:20):
Many people are going to be hungry there.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
We need to put, you know, a food program together,
and we need to feed people. And we went and
we got local restaurants who would have went out of
business and kept them in business with over three million
dollars from Steve personally and from the Lennard Foundation where
we went and bought meals and did a thousand meals
a day initially intended to be for three months and
(17:44):
we ended up doing it for over a year for
local residents in Miami Gardens.
Speaker 5 (17:48):
And that was really Steve's initiative.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
So there's so many things that we do here to
try to help people's That are the fifteen million dollars
to fight cancer. Just this year now almost one hundred
million dollars we've raised for Sylvester Cancer Center at the
Versus to Miami through the community of people that participate
in that, and so that's a big part of what
we do. I think what we do is put on
events that in today's world, that is, you know, people
(18:10):
are isolated, people are lonely, people are stuck on their phones,
particularly post pandemic. We bring people together to experience life.
I communicate that often to our team. We've got an
amazing team of people here do great things and work
really hard, and they need to know that what they
do has purpose, it has value. And when we do
something like bring the Formula one race to Miami. It
(18:32):
doesn't just have the economic benefit locally here of having
a Super Bowl every year. Basically, I have this vision
where I'd like to see young kids that grew up
here in Miami gardens that ten twenty years from now
are working in Formula one as PR people, marketing, people, engineers,
whatever the case may be, because they came out and
were inspired by what we're doing here and by a
(18:53):
sport that they may not have had, you know.
Speaker 5 (18:55):
Exposure to otherwise.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
And so we do things with STEM programs and with
community ticket program and everything else to keep the community involved.
But the culture migration here, what's happened in Miami, I
say it's a curator of culture really for the rest
of the country in some ways the rest of the world.
You think about sports, but music, fashion, art, the hospitality industry.
(19:17):
It's a center of culture really for the rest of
the country now. And so we try to bring that
all here to the campus and do that in different
ways and show that off to the world in different ways.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
So Tom, obviously our viewers know a lot more about
the NFL and the Miami Dolphins obviously one of the
one thirty two blue chip franchise in sports, around the world.
My question to you is, you've had multiple years where
you've broken records in revenue, whether it's ticket sales or
team revenue. But for listeners and viewers at home, you
(19:48):
have this F one week. How would you compare, say,
nine to ten weeks for the Dolphins total revenue in
comparison to one week of revenue that you can create
for the F one.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
To answer your question directly, Alex, every year, really for
the past several years has been a new record in
terms of ticket revenue thanks to our great fan base
and the renovation of the stadium and all the things
that we've done. So this year was the most we've
ever done. I think we were a third in the NFL. Actually,
it grows ticket revenue this year and the weekend of
the race, the ticket revenue is more than the entire
(20:20):
Dolphin season.
Speaker 5 (20:21):
Just to put it in perspective.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
Wow, my god.
Speaker 5 (20:25):
Wow, it's quite an incredible thing.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
And you know, Formula one has just continues continues to
grow here in the United States.
Speaker 5 (20:32):
Now, I'm not suggesting it's a.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Bigger business than the NFL by any means, or the
NFL is the most relevant, most important, maybe cultural phenomenon
in the country, even beyond sports. That's not what I'm
suggesting by any means, but I do think that you know,
Formula one racing here in Miami and International City, bringing
it here to the United States. You know, people come
out to the race for a great event, and then
(20:56):
they fall in love with the racing and then they
become fans of racing.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Tell us at a little bit about that decision and
that deal, Tom, because becoming a promoter for a Formula
one race is not something anyone takes lightly. It's a
huge commitment. It's a you know, ten year commitment. I
believe in your case, you got to build some infrastructure.
You have to have this partnership with Formula one and
the FIA to sort of do all this. Talk to
(21:21):
us a little bit about those conversations between you and
Steven when you're like, okay.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Like we're going to do this.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Was it a hard decision? Did it feel risky? Like
what was the sort of the tenor of that at
the moment.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Well, Steve is first of all, he's just he's amazing,
because I'm not sure he really even understood what it
was when it first the process first started it's like,
let's bring a Formula one race.
Speaker 5 (21:45):
That's great. Maybe let's do it, you know. So and
then we went to the race in Montreal.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
This was back in I think twenty eighteen, and we
were driving a hawk away from the racetrack afterwards, and
he looked at me in the car he said, I
had no idea how big a deal.
Speaker 5 (21:58):
This is, Like, are you sure you can do this?
Speaker 4 (22:00):
Wow?
Speaker 5 (22:01):
And I looked at him and I said, yeah, yeah,
we can do it. We can do it. He said okay,
And he said okay. And that was it.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
And why did you think it was a good business?
I had worked in most Yeah, you had worked in motorsport, yeah.
Speaker 5 (22:12):
Previously in my career, and I knew what Formula one was.
I knew a lot about it.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
I had relationships and things throughout motorsports. And I actually
when I first got here in twenty thirteen, I drove
my car out one hundred and ninety ninth Street, out
in front of the stadium, and I thought to myself, well,
this is a racetrack, you know. And I had always
had this idea to want to build a racetrack around
a stadium. I don't think street races in the United
States worked particularly well. I was on the board of
(22:37):
the Houston Grand Prix when I worked with Texaco way
back in nineteen ninety eight, and I learned a lot
in that process about, you know, the business interruption and
what happens you're interrupting residences, businesses, and not just for
the three days, for three months leading up, a month afterwards,
et cetera. And on this site, we have a contained environment.
We're only interrupting ourselves, right. We have to put on
(22:59):
all these other events.
Speaker 5 (23:00):
We're getting ready for a race and building a racetrack
and everything.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Else, and we can control that and contain that, but
when you're doing it in city streets, it's very difficult
to do. And so I knew putting it around a
stadium made a lot of sense in a lot of
different ways, and had a vision for that. I think
Formula one we first met within seventeen eighteen ish.
Speaker 5 (23:18):
And they wanted to put it downtown Miami.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
They wanted the blimp shots of the yachts and these things,
and the TV.
Speaker 5 (23:25):
Shots, and you know, there's a lot of challenges.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
I mean, you get twenty thousand people in and out
of there for a heat game and there's traffic, and
so I don't know how we're going to get one
hundred thousand people in and out of here. You're disrupting
all these businesses. You have to take things, put them
back up. You've got the heat, you've got the port,
you've got residences, you get all these things where you're
really disrupting them. And I finally was able to kind
of convince Chase carry of that through the diligence process,
(23:49):
who was at Formula one at the time, and then
brought him out here to the stadium, put cones out
in the parking lot where the racetrack would go, took
him out on the top of the stadium, walked them
around and said, we're gonna have views.
Speaker 5 (24:00):
That no other racetrack has.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
And by then we had in twenty nineteen, we had
done the tennis tournament for the first time, so we
had kind of proven we could create this oasis that
wasn't a parking lot anymore. And I think their biggest
concern was, we don't want to have a race and
a parking lot. And so once they understood that we
were going to create something really unique and different, they.
Speaker 5 (24:22):
Got on board.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
And then we were negotiating, and then COVID hit and
then that delayed it, so it really took four four
and a half years to get the deal done. When
Stefano came on board Stefano dominic Aale the CEO of
Formula one in January of twenty twenty one, we got
on a couple of zoom calls and hammered out a
deal actually pretty quickly, and by April of twenty one
(24:43):
we had it signed and the first race was in
May of twenty two, so that was an eleven month
thrash by the time we had it signed and started moving.
But I really credit Chase and Stefano wouldn't have gotten
done without them. And then obviously Steve, I mean his
commitment and willingness to say, hey, I trust you, like
let's go do this.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
So Tom, you have this incredible platform you and Steve
have built. And when you think about just zoom out
and look at the hold Coe, and you look at
Team Cod Dolphins, and then you look at real estate code,
how beneficial has it been to be able to control
own or control the site as almost a blank canvas
as you're talking about cones and this versus if you
(25:39):
didn't have control of the real estate. How much smaller
or how much bigger is your business Because you control
the real estate.
Speaker 5 (25:46):
It's significantly bigger. That's a great question, Alex.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
You know, having worked at other stadium environments, fall park
environments where it's owned by a municipality, you have a
lot more constraints, you have a lot more restrictions, you
have a lot more process to go through the get
things done, and so owning the site, owning the stadium
is a big difference maker. But because we own it
means we can do a lot of you know, just
permitting processes and things. But you know, it's really just
(26:12):
going to Steve and saying, hey, can we do this,
And that's a lot different than going through you know,
a civic you know sort of organization or municipality for sure.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
So let's talk a little bit about football if we can.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
That is the crown jewel the Dolphins obviously one of
the most storied franchises in the National Football League, which,
as you rightly said, Tom, is like it's the big
cahuna of global sports.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
You know, it is the.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
Envy of every league that's out there. Talk about what's
happened in that business. Lately and specifically around ownership and
the decision to sell a stake to be one of
the first to participate in this you know, new institutional
capital program.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
How does that come about?
Speaker 4 (26:51):
What?
Speaker 2 (26:51):
What's that process like?
Speaker 5 (26:53):
Well, I think that's been a longish process as well,
you know.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
I think the NFL, Roger and then all the owners
membership are very deliberate, very thoughtful about these types of things.
They take their time wisely so, and I think structured
over a period of time a very smart sort of
you know, way to start that process. And so there's
sometimes unintended consequences with these types of big decisions, and
(27:19):
I can assure you that group of people has tried to,
you know, think through all of them before doing something,
and I think that's wise.
Speaker 5 (27:26):
The process itself, you know, was pretty easy.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
I don't want to speak for Steve, but having you know,
been along the process with him, I mean again, he's
he's very.
Speaker 5 (27:34):
Passionate about what he's doing in West Palm Beach. He's
changing lives, he's changing a city.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
And the evaluation was high, certainly a lot higher than
he paid for it. And so the opportunity to generate
some liquidity when debt markets are expensive to generate some
cash flow to both invest into West Palm Beach and
to potentially invest in more sports assets.
Speaker 5 (27:54):
Moving forward as well and grow.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
The sports assets here in South Florida and other places,
something that he was trying to do. And look again,
what he's doing in West Palm Beach is he's trying
to really create the most livable city in the country.
And I don't think he's very concerned at the stage
of his life about the.
Speaker 5 (28:12):
Profitability of it. He's genuinely just not.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Unlike the tennis tournament here when he called me and
said the tennis tournament might be leaving Miami, let's let's
keep it here and do it at the stadium, he's
trying to do the same in West Palm Beach. So
I think pulling some money off the table was really
about having that liquidity to reinvest back into these types
of products.
Speaker 4 (28:30):
So, Tom, a lot of our listeners and viewers are
enormous sports fans. Some of them would love to be
LPs to an NFL team, whether you know some of
the new volleyball leagues or you know, you name it.
There's a lot of people saying that there is a
bubble in sports in valuations. Where do you stand in
that is it? And why or is not? And why
(28:54):
why not?
Speaker 5 (28:54):
I don't believe there is. And the reason is that
it's simple supply and demand, alex.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
I mean, there's constraints, supplies, scarcity, principal thing. These are
very desirable assets, the NFL especially, and when you have
more people that want to buy them than there are
assets available, the price goes up. And you know, when
you think about you know what's happening in the world
today and the availability of the number of people that
(29:20):
have the ability to purchase one of these teams, and
then you know the scarcity of the teams available to purchase,
that's going to suggest that the price is going to
continue to go up. I think again, the NFL, in
particular to speaking for that league or in terms of
that league rather is again I believe, the biggest cultural
phenomenon in the United States. What is it? You know,
ninety four of the top one hundred television programs or
(29:42):
NFL programs, I think three of the other four college
football programs. So you know, you're talking about something that
is iconic, systemic to what our culture is, what our
society is how we live every day. It's a sport
that for me, you know, I tell people high school
football has more to do with who I am as
a man than anything except maybe my mom and dad.
(30:03):
It teaches you, maybe not unlike baseball and some other
great sports, but teaches you character development, team work, hard work, discipline,
physical mental toughness, overcoming adversity, competitiveness, things that are important
in life. And I think it's a million high school
football players are so a year. I think about seven
percent of them play college football and maybe you know,
(30:24):
I don't know the exact number, called three hundred of
them get drafted roughly, you know, But all those other
ones that play go on to do things in life
and the lessons they learn playing football or baseball or
you know, hockey or basketball, whatever the case may be.
Men and women, it teaches you things that you take
with you as you go into life and helps you
(30:45):
become a high character, harder working, better person.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
And so Tom just just back briefly to sort of
the transactional nature of the sport. You know, this notion
of institutional capital coming in. You're very familiar with that
at You've seen the sports world from so many different angles.
Ares Capital Management, I believe is one of your partners. Now,
what does that look like, because you guys are one
of your one of only two teams so far who
(31:11):
have done those sorts of transactions. What does it feel
like sort of in the day to day Is it
at all different?
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Like? What role has this played for you so far?
Speaker 5 (31:19):
Well, We're very lucky. Areas has been fantastic.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
I mean, you know, the folks at Areas that we
work with are a part of discussions that we have
about growing the business and growing the enterprise, and so
you know, they're very collaborative partners. You know, this isn't
how you think about private equity. This isn't you know,
they come in and buy something and then you cut
the number of pencils you have in have cut all
the costs, and then flip it in seven years for
(31:42):
more money.
Speaker 5 (31:43):
It couldn't be further from from that stereotype.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
I think, you know, these are people that are interested
in growth. I think they see that the NFL is
you know, maybe the safest asset class you know in
the world in terms of the likelihood that it's going
to go down is probably smaller than any other investment
you can.
Speaker 5 (32:01):
Make and so they understand that, they see the upside.
And then they've seen.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Sort of the management discipline we employ and the consistent
growth we've had in both revenue and profitability, you know,
every year for the last decade, regardless of other things
that have happened in the world. So they saw that,
they invested in that, and they've just been fantastic partners.
Speaker 5 (32:21):
Do they have tremendous access to capital.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
Obviously we have conversations with them as partners about potentially
doing more things.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
So, Jason, I got to tell you the first time
I heard about Tom was through a mutual friend that
Tom and I have a gentleman by the name of
Jeff Morad. So it's Scott Boris, and then it was
Jeff Mooread in the World sports as an agent, and
then he crossed over to the dark side and became
an owner with the Padres in Arizona, and about.
Speaker 5 (32:47):
Two d went he went to the good side, the.
Speaker 4 (32:51):
Bright side, the bright side. You know what's interesting is
that on twenty twelve or so or thirteen, maybe you know,
Jeff says to me, the most talented guy out there
is Tom. And he's a young guy. He's up and coming,
but trust me, this guy's going to take over the world.
And I was like, okay, whatever, whatever. You know, Tom's
still a young guy and he's you know, kind of
(33:12):
you know, still cutting his teeth a little bit. But boy,
I mean, Jeff is a great scout. And you know
you worked with Jeff for a minute, Tom, what were
some of the lessons you learned? And I guess the
part you enjoyed the most about working with Jeff Morad Well.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Jeff, you know, Jeff's a great guy, and he was
one of the first ones to see what was happening
in Formula one and made a big investment in McLaren Racing, right,
you know, back maybe four or five years.
Speaker 5 (33:36):
Ago, which was a very wise decision at the time.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Defending champion McLaren right, and.
Speaker 5 (33:42):
They just won one of the first two races of
the years.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Yeah, exactly, and current leader and constructors.
Speaker 5 (33:47):
Yeah, that's right. I learned a lot from Jeff.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
But I learned you know, negotiation is sort of Jeff's
strong suit, and so participating in several negotiations with him,
how he's able to position deal. You know, I would
come with sort of a strategic analysis of a situation,
Here's what I think it's going to be, Here's where
I think it's going, Here's what I think we should do.
And he said, well, what do you think is you
(34:12):
know what's the right number?
Speaker 5 (34:13):
And then I tell the number and tell them why,
and he.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Then and then he would go and negotiate the deal,
and I'd write along with him sometimes.
Speaker 5 (34:22):
But I learned a lot in terms of, you know,
listening first.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
You know, if you listen during a negotiation, you're going
to find out a lot people tend to want to talk,
and I think if you listen first, that's that's hugely important.
Speaker 5 (34:35):
And just not you know, being careful with your word choice.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
And careful with your body language and got everything you're doing.
And the negotiation is telling the other side something I personally,
I'm sort of a I believe in when when deals
work out the best and if you do those things
over a period of time, you're able to do more deals,
develop a better reputation. Trying to win a deal is
probably a bad idea from my perspective. I think you
(34:58):
really want to create situations, be as well informed as
you can, and for me, being willing to walk away
the formula one deal took four to half years basically,
and I was negotiating with probably.
Speaker 5 (35:12):
Three different parties throughout that.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
You know, at one point it was one person and
another point it was another person. In the end it
was Stefano and and there was different models that were
being used, you know, for us to be a promoter.
Speaker 5 (35:23):
There were different financial models.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
There's different ideas about downtown or here, there was different
ideas about.
Speaker 5 (35:29):
What it could generate or not generate.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
And so I think being consistent throughout that process, and
I did walk away a couple of times. You know,
it's kind of what that deal doesn't work for us,
We're not going to do that. There have been deals
that I've gotten excited about, worked hard on for a year,
done the diligence, gone through the process, and in the
end the deal wasn't the right deal. And so you know,
I'd tell Steve or you know whatever, like this isn't
the right deal, we just need to walk away and
(35:54):
the deal goes to someone else. And you have to
kind of know what makes sense for you, not just
in terms of a price, but in terms of the
amount of control and who you're partnering with and what
you're willing to accept or not accept and think long
term about it. From my perspective, if it's going to
work out and you're going to be able to operate it,
you know, to become a success.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
And so Tom, you know, we mentioned baseball.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
And your experience there, and you guys talked about it
a little bit. You know, I do wonder as someone
who has this pretty broad portfolio in sports, it's like,
do you guys think about, you know, investing in different sports?
You know, does baseball make sense? Or there are challenger
leagues out there? I mean, you you have been you know, fortunate,
and this is not an accident that you're in some
(36:38):
very high growth, very valuable sports already. Like what do
you look at out there that that piques your interest?
Speaker 4 (36:44):
Sometimes?
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Yeah, we're looking. We're looking at all kinds of different opportunities.
I think it's less about specifically. I mean the sport matters, obviously,
but I think you know, the market matters, The geography,
the context of the situation, the brand, what you're walking into,
the control, the degree of control anyway, all of those
(37:05):
things matter a lot. So I don't know that we're
you know, desperate to get into a specific you know,
and other sports specifically, as as much as we are saying,
you know, trying to be a little bit opportunistic about
is it synergistic with and strategic with other things we're
trying to do. So, for example, you know, we're going
to play a game in Madrid this year through the
(37:27):
Global Markets program with the NFL the Dolphins.
Speaker 4 (37:30):
Are you talking about the Dolphins?
Speaker 1 (37:32):
We have Mexico, Brazil, Spain, Columbia, Argentina as our global
markets in this Global markets program. Well, you know, we
have a Brazilian tennis player out here today Fonseca.
Speaker 5 (37:45):
We've had Alcoraz out here from Spain.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
We've got you know, Carlos Signs driving in Formula One.
We've got you know, La Liga matches, We've got World Cup,
FIFA World Cup. We've got like I mentioned, Shakira, Carol
g Bunny play of concerts here.
Speaker 5 (38:01):
And so we've really expanded our data.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
Capabilities and our data initiative to collect data on all
the individuals that buy tickets from us and come here
and where they live and what they do and what
they like. And so I think there's more a more
strategic relevance to what we're trying to build than just
here's an opportunity, let's buy into this this team or
that team in this board.
Speaker 5 (38:21):
That's what I think.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
It's how does it tie into what we're trying to
do with the rest of the enterprise and how we're
developing and growing people, and how we're developing and growing
certain capabilities, whether that's you know, stadium designed for revenue
and fan experience versus you know, to win design awards,
whether that's operationally what we do with taking up and
(38:44):
down tennis and Formula one, and what we do on
this campus which is pretty complex, whether it's sponsorship sales,
are ticketing sales capability, and analytics capability. So it's how
do we how do we take advantage of all of
those things, and what are the opportunities to invest in
a strategic that can take advantage.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
Of those things. It is interesting to think about, and Tom,
you and I got to visit a few weeks ago
in Miami, and I was intrigued by this idea, This
notion of you know, this very diverse demographic that you
guys probably have a not just a window into, but
like really hard data about that is probably the envy
(39:22):
of a lot of other organizations in terms of being
able to cater to them, you know, not just in
an individual sport or an individual artist, but you know,
across to your point music entertainment and sort of takes
us back to where we started in terms of the
cultural relevance of Miami, especially as a gateway to Latin
and South America. And you think about the messy effect
(39:44):
you know there in South Florida. You think about the
World Cup, the Club World Cup, all of those things
do it does seem to create this momentum around a
real business case that is probably very distinct from any
other sort of sports empire out there.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
Is that fair?
Speaker 5 (40:00):
I think it's very fair.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
You know, it's the fastest growing segment of the population
in the United States. You know, the world is shrinking,
So from a global perspective, I think there are people
that live in Latin America that may have a place
in Miami or a place in Madrid or both. And
so Madrid in Miami are very kindred, you know, cities
in a lot of ways.
Speaker 5 (40:20):
I was just there a couple of weeks ago, and
you know, there's.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
A lot of things happening in Madrid is a vibrant,
booming city as well.
Speaker 5 (40:28):
It's beautiful, it's clean, it's a fantastic place.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
And so when you think about the synergies between cities
like that, and then you think about Sampaulo or Mexico City,
and you start tying these things together through sports, entertainment, hospitality,
you know, and how we bring people together, I think
it starts to become an interesting business.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
All right, So we're going to wrap up with our
lightning round. This is our favorite part. We get to
ask you five questions. We go back and forth really fast,
and so just you know, drop the first thing that
comes to your mind. I'll start, Alex, then you can
pick up. All right, Tom Garfinkel, what's the best piece
of advice you've ever received on deal making or business?
Speaker 1 (41:19):
On business, I'd say it's, you know, always be learning,
always be learning and growing and never thinking.
Speaker 4 (41:24):
Who's your dream deal maker? Not named Steve Bross, it
would have.
Speaker 5 (41:30):
Been Steve.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
Alex, I love it.
Speaker 5 (41:34):
Man.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
You know, there's a person named Kevin Copton who have
tremendous respect for Kevin was an original partner Cline Perkins
and has become a friend and mentor. He's the kind
of person that if I had him sitting next to
me and to her deals. I know we're going to
make good deals.
Speaker 4 (41:47):
That's a good one.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
What's the most nervous you've ever been?
Speaker 1 (41:51):
Probably fifth grade when this kid challenged me to fight
after school, and the whole day I had to wait
and know that I had to go after school and
the whole schools.
Speaker 5 (41:58):
Gouldn't be there, and I had to get in a fight.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
What happened?
Speaker 1 (42:01):
He punched me in the face, and then my lips
started bleeding, and then I wasn't nervous anymore, and I
did Okay.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
You took care of business. I like it.
Speaker 4 (42:10):
Speaking of fighting, what's your hype song before you go
into a big meeting or negotiation?
Speaker 5 (42:16):
That would be Tupac when we write.
Speaker 4 (42:19):
Oh, good one.
Speaker 3 (42:20):
What's your advice for someone listening who wants a career
like yours?
Speaker 1 (42:25):
Be willing to make sacrifices, work really hard, you know,
always be learning and create value. You know, you get started.
First of all, there's no perfect job. But when you do,
you're gonna have to make sacrifices. You're gonna have to
work hard.
Speaker 3 (42:39):
That's really really good advice, all right, Tom Garfinkel, great
to chop it up with you, Vice Chairman, President CEO
of Miami Dolphins, hard Rock Stadium, managing partner of Formula One,
Crypto dot Com, Miami Grand Prix. He's got his fingers
a lot of pies. Alex Rodriguez, your neighbor. You guys
are making it all happen down in South Florida.
Speaker 5 (42:58):
Great to be with you, guys. Thank you very much
for having me.
Speaker 4 (43:00):
Thank you, Tom.
Speaker 3 (43:09):
The Deal is hosted by Alex Rodriguez and me Jason Kelly.
This episode was made by Anamazarakus, Stacy Wong, and Lizzie Phillip.
Amy Keen is our editor and Will Connelly is our
video editor. Our theme music is made by Blake Maples.
Our executive producers are Kelly Leferrier, Ashley Hoenig, and Brendan
neonham Sage Bauman is the head of Bloomberg Podcast. Additional
(43:31):
support from Rachel Carnivale and Elena Los Angeles. Thanks so
much for listening to the Deal. If you have a minute, subscribe,
rate and review our show. It'll help other listeners find us.
I'm Jason Kelly.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
See you next week.
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hi everyone, welcome to the Deal.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
I'm Jason Kelly alongside my partner Alex Rodriguez. Coming up
on the show this week, Tom Garfinkel. He runs basically
everything in Miami that you don't run. Alex, we're talking
about F one, We're talking about the Miami Dolphins, the
Miami Opened.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
So much going on in his empire.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
But first we got to talk about some really big
stories in the sports world this week starting. I have
to start here because this is one of those as
soon as this starts happening over the weekend, you're my
first call, You're my first text.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
These bats man, What is going on with these bats?
Speaker 4 (00:46):
These torpedo bats? I mean, what a story. People thought
that somehow the Yankees were cheating and that they were
using these like big alpha bats whatever with big heads
and it was helping, and you know, somehow the Yankees
were getting some type of an advance that wasn't quite kosher.
Well none of that is true. I mean basically, bats
they have a maximum kind of weight and maximum limb
(01:08):
They can't be longer than forty two inches, and how
you distribute that weight in a thirty four to thirty
five inch bat is totally up to you. So while
the Yankees are getting a lot of flak, the league
already came out and said bats are a okay.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
So Aaron Leenhart is the guy. He used to work
for the Yankees. He now works, i believe for the
Miami Marlins. He's an MIT brainiac who loves baseball. He
came up with this concept. It's about redistributing the wood essentially, right,
But like, how does that make a difference for you
as a hitter.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
Yeah, that's a great question. And then the question is
where do you take that weight from to add it
to more closer to the label. Now the label. As
for you know, fans at home that don't play baseball,
I've never used a wood bat. If the ball hits
near the label, which is kind of closer to your hands,
it's a broken bat and the ball is going to
go nowhere. And you've seen bats, you know, shatter all
over the place. Actually it's very dangerous. Yeah, there's two
(02:06):
ways to break a bat, either close to your hands
or at the very end. But what you've done is
you've redistributed the weight to the label, which means that
jam shot is no longer longer a jam shot. It
could be actually a home run, or it could be
a double in the gap because you have so much
more weight and meet there. So it's kind of a
clever way to hack the system because you're taking the
(02:27):
weight at the very end of the bat. It doesn't
matter if you have weight there or not. If you
hit it there, it's going to again a broken bat.
So you're basically taking the very weight of the end
and putting it closer to the label, which.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Helps your power. Okay, dumb question. How come somebody hasn't
done this before.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
Because there's not a lot of Mit guys like this
gentleman Aaron walking around figuring this stuff out. Yeah, it's
a brilliant thing. Now. There's versions of this that have
been out there, not quite like this. I mean, when
you saw it on social media and Michael Kay mentioned
it like twitter it up, I have thirty people text
me and call me and like, what's going on with this?
Is crazy? The next controversy. But it was, you know,
(03:05):
nothing like that. But it does look very odd when
you look at pictures. It's a very strange looking bat,
that's for sure.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
I mean it also is interesting. I mean, you know,
this is a business show. We think about deals, we
think about you know, transactions and people, you know, gravitating
to a product or not. I mean, what better advertisement
than three pitches, three home runs Opening Day Weekend by
the New York Yankees. I mean, seriously, you can't make
that up.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
You can't make it up. And then the irony is
you have Aaron Judge who hits four home runs in
the course of two games, three in one game, but
he's not using the bat. So yeah, like, okay, which
one is it? Right? Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
That's a really good point.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
All right, So let's talk a little bit about Opening
Day Weekend. I mean, I can't even begin to tell
you how distraught I am, at least initially as a
Braves fan. They as we're recording this on Tuesday, they
haven't won. They've yet to win a game. This is
a great team. They just got rouped on the West coast,
first by the Padres, then by the Dodgers. Like, what
are the storylines that are emerging when it comes to
(04:06):
the smart deals that were made for players? What seems
to be paying off what may be tvd.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Well a few things. I think it's just from a
baseball centric comment, not to say the obvious, but the
Yankees are not going to go one sixty two and
zero and the Braves are not going to go oh
in one sixty two.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Okay, thank you for assuring me.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
And while Aaron Dreds is on pace to hit three
hundred and eighty home runs, he's probably not going to
do that as even as great as he is. But
I think, Jason, the one thing you have to focus
on is the explosion and potential revenue for the Mets.
This is really has been so far a home run deal,
no pun intended for Steve Cohen, the owner of the
New York Mets, because if you look at Jersey sales, memorabilia,
(04:46):
ticket sales ratings are all going very very aggressively up
into the right.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
That's the one Soto effect.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
That's the Juan Soto effect exactly, and a very much
underrated move. Is also he also brought back Alonzo to
protect him. Yeah, Peter Alonzo, Yeah, yeah, Pee Alonzo. You
have Lindor, you have Soto, and you have Pee Alonzo,
which is really nice. I think the Braves are going
to be a juggernaut again. I think, you know, just patients,
it's always very difficult. And I've done this a couple
of times in my career. To have spring training for
(05:15):
six weeks in Florida and then be stuck with the
West Coast that that's a hell of a tough carry.
And I think they'll be fine. And I think overall,
we just got to keep watching, you know, the ratings,
and overall, I think there's more balance. I think the
Red Sox being good is a really good thing for baseball.
They've been non existing in the last few years. I
think watching the Yankees and how they react from Juan
(05:35):
Soto leaving them, I think they did a wonderful job
of deploying that capital they were going to use for
Juan Soto and using it brilliantly. And so far, so
good for the Yankees. And yeah, I'd like to see
what happened in the New York battle, right like whose
city is it? Is it the big app of the
Mets or is it the you know, the big bad
Yankees again?
Speaker 3 (05:53):
I know, yeah, I mean, listen, two great teams in
New York is never a bad thing. With apologies to
all of our listeners, you know, in cities across the world.
But I mean, man, when baseball is really hitting in
New York, there's nothing better, all right, So let's shift
sports before we get onto Tom Garfinkel. And actually this
is Garfinkel adjacent at least, which is the NFL. I
(06:15):
mean talk about flexing, man, I mean, the NFL can
flex like nobody else, reports early this week saying that
the NFL looking across the media landscape, seeing what they
can command, and likely to opt out of their media
deals because they can get more money.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
What do you make of that?
Speaker 4 (06:35):
Well, the gifts keeps on giving for NFL owners. I
got to tell you, it's an incredible business, one that
other owners from other teams around the world are very
envious of. And look, out of the top was a
one hundred television you know broadcast. There were like, you know,
ninety five of the hundred, right, and the other college
football or something like that. So football is the king
of kings. And look, they're in a leverage position. Networks
(06:59):
can work without the NFL, the shoulder programming, the income
it makes, the amount of leverage and power they have,
and these networks are second to none, and they're going
to capitalize it and can't give Roger Goodell, the commissioner,
NFL commissioner enough credit for what he's done here the
last ten or twelve years.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah, it's funny.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
I was talking to a former media executive this morning
and she was saying to me, this is the nightmare
scenario if you are on the media side of the business,
because you don't want to give this right. You do
not want to give this clause to anyone. But if
you're dealing with the NFL, you have no choice because
to your point that they're in charge of everything. And
(07:39):
when you have what is it, you know, ninety four
ninety five of the top one hundred shows or NFL games,
When you have the most watched super Bowl ever in
twenty twenty five, like you're in position to call your
shot and do whatever you want.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
And it's hard to believe that you have over one
hundred million people watching the super Bowl and some of
these forty or fifty million for some of these playoff games.
And they're still growing. And I think the reason they're
growing is they're just getting better at their craft. They're
getting better at television. They really think about being an
entertainment business first, not a foot football's just the mote.
But they're really the greatest media company in the world.
(08:16):
I had one high ranking officer about a year ago
tell me, if we do not get the NFL in
our program, there is a chance we can file bankruptcy.
Oh my gosh, that is how powerful the NFL is
to us. And to make no mistake, Jason, when Roger
Goodell sits across from you in a boardroom, whether you're
one of the big media companies, whether you're a big sponsor,
(08:38):
or whether you're a private equity group that wants to
get approved by Roger and the thirty two owners to
be able to invest in the NFL deals, the answer
is yes, sir, Yes, sir, yes, sir. Please please pick us,
Please pick.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Us, and we'll take a show whatever you want because
we know it's good for our business.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Well spe give watching programming.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Note for our listeners out there, you can now watch
us and see these two handsome faces just talking back
and forth with our guests. You can go to the
Bloomberg Podcast YouTube channel and watch this episode and coming
up Tom Garfinkel again. He is the king of Miami.
I mean, I guess the other king of Miami. Two
Kings of Miami on the upcoming episode. Tom Garfinkel, of
(09:18):
course the vice chairman of the Miami Dolphins organization and
has a lot to say about the business of football,
the business of racing, the business of tennis, and really
just the business of entertainment. So looking forward to that.
Check it out, all right, Joining us now, Tom Garfinkel.
(09:46):
He's the vice chairman the presidency of the Miami Dolphins
in hard Rock Stadium. Also the managing partner of the
Formula one Crypto dot Com Miami Grand Prix that's coming
up in just a couple months. Alex and I will
be there, Tom, So great to see you to the show.
Speaker 5 (10:00):
Great to be here, Thanks, guys, appreciate you having me.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
All right.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
I was joking Alex that this guy is like the
hardest working man in Hollywood. But you know, Miami is
the new Hollywood. Everything's happening down there. You guys saw
it before before anybody else. I mean, Tom, give us
a sense of what's going on these days with you.
I mean, all year is your busy season, but this
is an especially busy season for you.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
It is. Yeah, this is a very busy season.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Wrapped up the football season moved on to the College
football semi championship game. Then we have our big Dolphins
Cancer Challenge bike ride here. We raised over fifteen million
dollars this year to fight cancer. Then we prepare for
the Miami Open, and we have the Miami Open tennis
tournament going on right now, and then preparing for the
Formula One race in early May. Right after the race,
(10:46):
we'll have a Shakira concert and a Post Malone concert,
then Club World Cup.
Speaker 5 (10:52):
So a lot going on here.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
So Alex, I'm going to actually ask you a question
that I then wanted to turn to Tom, which is like,
what the hell is going on in Miami?
Speaker 2 (11:00):
I think, how did this all happen?
Speaker 3 (11:02):
You grew up there, You're the longest standing Miami resident
of any of us.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Like what happened down there?
Speaker 4 (11:08):
You know, I'm not sure what the heck's happened down here?
But I had dinner with Tom a few years ago,
and a mutual friend hosted at a small private dinner.
And when I was hearing Tom explain all the things
that a he was working on, which was a lot,
but he gave us a little preview of what was
in the pipeline, and not only was it true? But
he actually undershold it, and that's hard to do because
(11:31):
what you know, Tom and Steve Ross have built down
here is really nothing short of spectacular and he's made
our city better. But he was also ahead of the curve.
Remember he was doing this before this explosion that's happened
here in the last two or three years. So it's
been a perfect formula. And Tom, My question to you is,
(11:51):
when you think about your schedule, you just kind of
gave us a little blip. How do you divide if
it was a pie percentage wise? Is it Shakiro? Is
f one? Is a cancer? Dolphins? Where are you with that?
Speaker 5 (12:04):
Well, we have a lot going on.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
But you know, we had about twenty seventeen eighteen, we
had about twenty six major events we do here at
the stadium, about a million one point four people that
would come through here. Now we're doing i know, forty
eight major events two point three million people, so the
calendar is pretty full, you know, all of them. I
think I think tennis formula one.
Speaker 5 (12:24):
Obviously.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
The most important thing we do here is the Dolphins
football season. We host the Miami Hurricanes for their home games,
their college football games.
Speaker 5 (12:32):
We have the Orange Bowl.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Here, we have the semi this year, we have the
National Championship coming in twenty twenty six, the Club World
Cup this year, the FIFA World Cup hosting seven matches
next summer.
Speaker 5 (12:44):
So you had a fun never stops here.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
I like to say it's maybe the only place in
the world where, you.
Speaker 5 (12:50):
Know, we try to create something.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Steve and I have this vision for global entertainment destination
and trying to create something where the most talented people
in the world could all come to perform.
Speaker 5 (12:58):
And when you think about, you.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Know, Roger Federer, Serena Williams, Messi and neymar Lewis Hamilton
and Max Verstappen, your greatest players in the NFL, college
football artists like Shakira or jay z and Beyonce et cetera,
et cetera, have all performed here.
Speaker 5 (13:14):
Taylor Swift this past fall.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
It's a very unique thing that all of those people
have been on our site in one place, and I
think we may be the only place in the world
where that's the case.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Tom.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
I know Alex is going to want to talk in
a few minutes a bit about your work in baseball,
but before we go back there, we're always interested in
sort of like that initial deal. You know when you
and Steven Ross get together and you know, you sort
of circle around each other, and you know, you're a
big hire, he's a big name. Like, how does that
deal happen? How does that come about that you guys
(13:46):
formed this partnership.
Speaker 5 (13:48):
Well, Steve and I actually met first.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
I interviewed for the job in two thousand and nine
and I was with the Arizona Diamondbacks at the time,
and we were introduced, and it's kind of a longer story,
but one thing led to another, and I actually we
pulled out of the process and went to the San
Diego Padres. At the Padres, I had three owners in
four and a half years. There was an interesting situation there.
I learned a lot, had a great experience, and then
(14:10):
was fortunate enough to reconnect with Steve and come here
at the end of twenty thirteen. And you know, Steve
and I a very close relationship. None of this is
possible without it. And in fact, the other day I
had a just an overwhelming moment of gratitude. I was
sitting with someone in the soccer business who works with
players like Paul Ba and Messi and these different folks,
(14:30):
and he just said, you know, you guys are the
best of what you do in the world. And I
had it just a moment of none of this is
possible unless Steve, you know, gives us sort of the
autonomy and the resources and supports us with the ideas
that we have and also contributes to those ideas and
has a vision with us.
Speaker 5 (14:46):
So that's kind of where it all started. We met,
we kept a relationship.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
I came to work with them, and we just sat
down and started collaborating and both share this desire to
do things differently, to think big, and fortunately he's allowed.
Speaker 5 (15:01):
Us to do it.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
Yeah. So Tom, following up on Jason's question, I mean,
we love great partnerships here and this seems like a
match made in heaven. When you think about Steve Ross,
is his background over fifty years in real estate, a
true savant, as blue chip as they come. And then
with your background, with your global experience on sports, media, entertainment,
building these great platforms. How is that conversation? Is that
(15:24):
a weekly conversation? Do you ask it for advice? Does
he ask you for advice?
Speaker 5 (15:28):
Yeah? A little bit of both. At Ebbs and Flows.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
I mean, we'll have a week where we talk three
times a day, and then maybe we don't talk for
a week.
Speaker 5 (15:35):
Steve is a visionary.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
He's first of all, I think Steve's just a really
good guy. Like he's the kind of person you enjoy
going to dinner with, you enjoy spending time with.
Speaker 5 (15:44):
He makes you laugh, You want to spend time with him.
He's a good person. He treats people well.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
So I think it all starts there, and then we
just kind of enjoy each other's company, you know. And
he allows me to argue with him and fight with
him a little bit and debate because we're always just
trying to get to the right conclusion of things for
the business and to grow things. But yeah, it ebs
and flows in terms of how much time we spend together.
Steve is just changing the landscape of South Florida, and
not just here with the stadium and all the private
(16:13):
investment he's put into this, but also what he's doing
in West Palm Beach right now is incredible. What he's
doing there to create a vision that he has to
create the best most livable place to live, work and play.
Speaker 5 (16:24):
In the country. He's all in on it. It's quite
a thing to watch. It's amazing. He's doing incredible things.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
So let's talk about that for a second. I'm glad
you went there, Tom, because I sort of joked about
this at the top. But there has been I mean,
this has been well documented by Bloomberg and everyone, this
massive economic boom in South Florida that you just described,
and Steven Ross has obviously been at the white hot
center of it, as have you, as says Alex. For
that matter, help us understand how sports and what you're
(16:52):
doing fits into that, like how does each feed the other,
you know, and what has that boom done to either
enhance to make more challenging sort of your broader business,
Like how does that all fit together?
Speaker 1 (17:05):
You know, when we think about this place again being
a global entertainment destination, what we do is so much
more than selling tickets.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
We really focus on impacting people's lives. You know.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
I think when the pandemic first happened, Steve called and
he said, you know, so.
Speaker 5 (17:20):
Many people are going to be hungry there.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
We need to put, you know, a food program together,
and we need to feed people. And we went and
we got local restaurants who would have went out of
business and kept them in business with over three million
dollars from Steve personally and from the Lennard Foundation where
we went and bought meals and did a thousand meals
a day initially intended to be for three months and
(17:44):
we ended up doing it for over a year for
local residents in Miami Gardens.
Speaker 5 (17:48):
And that was really Steve's initiative.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
So there's so many things that we do here to
try to help people's That are the fifteen million dollars
to fight cancer. Just this year now almost one hundred
million dollars we've raised for Sylvester Cancer Center at the
Versus to Miami through the community of people that participate
in that, and so that's a big part of what
we do. I think what we do is put on
events that in today's world, that is, you know, people
(18:10):
are isolated, people are lonely, people are stuck on their phones,
particularly post pandemic. We bring people together to experience life.
I communicate that often to our team. We've got an
amazing team of people here do great things and work
really hard, and they need to know that what they
do has purpose, it has value. And when we do
something like bring the Formula one race to Miami. It
(18:32):
doesn't just have the economic benefit locally here of having
a Super Bowl every year. Basically, I have this vision
where I'd like to see young kids that grew up
here in Miami gardens that ten twenty years from now
are working in Formula one as PR people, marketing, people, engineers,
whatever the case may be, because they came out and
were inspired by what we're doing here and by a
(18:53):
sport that they may not have had, you know.
Speaker 5 (18:55):
Exposure to otherwise.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
And so we do things with STEM programs and with
community ticket program and everything else to keep the community involved.
But the culture migration here, what's happened in Miami, I
say it's a curator of culture really for the rest
of the country in some ways the rest of the world.
You think about sports, but music, fashion, art, the hospitality industry.
(19:17):
It's a center of culture really for the rest of
the country now. And so we try to bring that
all here to the campus and do that in different
ways and show that off to the world in different ways.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
So Tom, obviously our viewers know a lot more about
the NFL and the Miami Dolphins obviously one of the
one thirty two blue chip franchise in sports, around the world.
My question to you is, you've had multiple years where
you've broken records in revenue, whether it's ticket sales or
team revenue. But for listeners and viewers at home, you
(19:48):
have this F one week. How would you compare, say,
nine to ten weeks for the Dolphins total revenue in
comparison to one week of revenue that you can create
for the F one.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
To answer your question directly, Alex, every year, really for
the past several years has been a new record in
terms of ticket revenue thanks to our great fan base
and the renovation of the stadium and all the things
that we've done. So this year was the most we've
ever done. I think we were a third in the NFL. Actually,
it grows ticket revenue this year and the weekend of
the race, the ticket revenue is more than the entire
(20:20):
Dolphin season.
Speaker 5 (20:21):
Just to put it in perspective.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
Wow, my god.
Speaker 5 (20:25):
Wow, it's quite an incredible thing.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
And you know, Formula one has just continues continues to
grow here in the United States.
Speaker 5 (20:32):
Now, I'm not suggesting it's a.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Bigger business than the NFL by any means, or the
NFL is the most relevant, most important, maybe cultural phenomenon
in the country, even beyond sports. That's not what I'm
suggesting by any means, but I do think that you know,
Formula one racing here in Miami and International City, bringing
it here to the United States. You know, people come
out to the race for a great event, and then
(20:56):
they fall in love with the racing and then they
become fans of racing.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Tell us at a little bit about that decision and
that deal, Tom, because becoming a promoter for a Formula
one race is not something anyone takes lightly. It's a
huge commitment. It's a you know, ten year commitment. I
believe in your case, you got to build some infrastructure.
You have to have this partnership with Formula one and
the FIA to sort of do all this. Talk to
(21:21):
us a little bit about those conversations between you and
Steven when you're like, okay.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Like we're going to do this.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Was it a hard decision? Did it feel risky? Like
what was the sort of the tenor of that at
the moment.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Well, Steve is first of all, he's just he's amazing,
because I'm not sure he really even understood what it
was when it first the process first started it's like,
let's bring a Formula one race.
Speaker 5 (21:45):
That's great. Maybe let's do it, you know. So and
then we went to the race in Montreal.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
This was back in I think twenty eighteen, and we
were driving a hawk away from the racetrack afterwards, and
he looked at me in the car he said, I
had no idea how big a deal.
Speaker 5 (21:58):
This is, Like, are you sure you can do this?
Speaker 4 (22:00):
Wow?
Speaker 5 (22:01):
And I looked at him and I said, yeah, yeah,
we can do it. We can do it. He said okay,
And he said okay. And that was it.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
And why did you think it was a good business?
I had worked in most Yeah, you had worked in motorsport, yeah.
Speaker 5 (22:12):
Previously in my career, and I knew what Formula one was.
I knew a lot about it.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
I had relationships and things throughout motorsports. And I actually
when I first got here in twenty thirteen, I drove
my car out one hundred and ninety ninth Street, out
in front of the stadium, and I thought to myself, well,
this is a racetrack, you know. And I had always
had this idea to want to build a racetrack around
a stadium. I don't think street races in the United
States worked particularly well. I was on the board of
(22:37):
the Houston Grand Prix when I worked with Texaco way
back in nineteen ninety eight, and I learned a lot
in that process about, you know, the business interruption and
what happens you're interrupting residences, businesses, and not just for
the three days, for three months leading up, a month afterwards,
et cetera. And on this site, we have a contained environment.
We're only interrupting ourselves, right. We have to put on
(22:59):
all these other events.
Speaker 5 (23:00):
We're getting ready for a race and building a racetrack
and everything.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Else, and we can control that and contain that, but
when you're doing it in city streets, it's very difficult
to do. And so I knew putting it around a
stadium made a lot of sense in a lot of
different ways, and had a vision for that. I think
Formula one we first met within seventeen eighteen ish.
Speaker 5 (23:18):
And they wanted to put it downtown Miami.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
They wanted the blimp shots of the yachts and these things,
and the TV.
Speaker 5 (23:25):
Shots, and you know, there's a lot of challenges.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
I mean, you get twenty thousand people in and out
of there for a heat game and there's traffic, and
so I don't know how we're going to get one
hundred thousand people in and out of here. You're disrupting
all these businesses. You have to take things, put them
back up. You've got the heat, you've got the port,
you've got residences, you get all these things where you're
really disrupting them. And I finally was able to kind
of convince Chase carry of that through the diligence process,
(23:49):
who was at Formula one at the time, and then
brought him out here to the stadium, put cones out
in the parking lot where the racetrack would go, took
him out on the top of the stadium, walked them
around and said, we're gonna have views.
Speaker 5 (24:00):
That no other racetrack has.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
And by then we had in twenty nineteen, we had
done the tennis tournament for the first time, so we
had kind of proven we could create this oasis that
wasn't a parking lot anymore. And I think their biggest
concern was, we don't want to have a race and
a parking lot. And so once they understood that we
were going to create something really unique and different, they.
Speaker 5 (24:22):
Got on board.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
And then we were negotiating, and then COVID hit and
then that delayed it, so it really took four four
and a half years to get the deal done. When
Stefano came on board Stefano dominic Aale the CEO of
Formula one in January of twenty twenty one, we got
on a couple of zoom calls and hammered out a
deal actually pretty quickly, and by April of twenty one
(24:43):
we had it signed and the first race was in
May of twenty two, so that was an eleven month
thrash by the time we had it signed and started moving.
But I really credit Chase and Stefano wouldn't have gotten
done without them. And then obviously Steve, I mean his
commitment and willingness to say, hey, I trust you, like
let's go do this.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
So Tom, you have this incredible platform you and Steve
have built. And when you think about just zoom out
and look at the hold Coe, and you look at
Team Cod Dolphins, and then you look at real estate code,
how beneficial has it been to be able to control
own or control the site as almost a blank canvas
as you're talking about cones and this versus if you
(25:39):
didn't have control of the real estate. How much smaller
or how much bigger is your business Because you control
the real estate.
Speaker 5 (25:46):
It's significantly bigger. That's a great question, Alex.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
You know, having worked at other stadium environments, fall park
environments where it's owned by a municipality, you have a
lot more constraints, you have a lot more restrictions, you
have a lot more process to go through the get
things done, and so owning the site, owning the stadium
is a big difference maker. But because we own it
means we can do a lot of you know, just
permitting processes and things. But you know, it's really just
(26:12):
going to Steve and saying, hey, can we do this,
And that's a lot different than going through you know,
a civic you know sort of organization or municipality for sure.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
So let's talk a little bit about football if we can.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
That is the crown jewel the Dolphins obviously one of
the most storied franchises in the National Football League, which,
as you rightly said, Tom, is like it's the big
cahuna of global sports.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
You know, it is the.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
Envy of every league that's out there. Talk about what's
happened in that business. Lately and specifically around ownership and
the decision to sell a stake to be one of
the first to participate in this you know, new institutional
capital program.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
How does that come about?
Speaker 4 (26:51):
What?
Speaker 2 (26:51):
What's that process like?
Speaker 5 (26:53):
Well, I think that's been a longish process as well,
you know.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
I think the NFL, Roger and then all the owners
membership are very deliberate, very thoughtful about these types of things.
They take their time wisely so, and I think structured
over a period of time a very smart sort of
you know, way to start that process. And so there's
sometimes unintended consequences with these types of big decisions, and
(27:19):
I can assure you that group of people has tried to,
you know, think through all of them before doing something,
and I think that's wise.
Speaker 5 (27:26):
The process itself, you know, was pretty easy.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
I don't want to speak for Steve, but having you know,
been along the process with him, I mean again, he's
he's very.
Speaker 5 (27:34):
Passionate about what he's doing in West Palm Beach. He's
changing lives, he's changing a city.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
And the evaluation was high, certainly a lot higher than
he paid for it. And so the opportunity to generate
some liquidity when debt markets are expensive to generate some
cash flow to both invest into West Palm Beach and
to potentially invest in more sports assets.
Speaker 5 (27:54):
Moving forward as well and grow.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
The sports assets here in South Florida and other places,
something that he was trying to do. And look again,
what he's doing in West Palm Beach is he's trying
to really create the most livable city in the country.
And I don't think he's very concerned at the stage
of his life about the.
Speaker 5 (28:12):
Profitability of it. He's genuinely just not.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Unlike the tennis tournament here when he called me and
said the tennis tournament might be leaving Miami, let's let's
keep it here and do it at the stadium, he's
trying to do the same in West Palm Beach. So
I think pulling some money off the table was really
about having that liquidity to reinvest back into these types
of products.
Speaker 4 (28:30):
So, Tom, a lot of our listeners and viewers are
enormous sports fans. Some of them would love to be
LPs to an NFL team, whether you know some of
the new volleyball leagues or you know, you name it.
There's a lot of people saying that there is a
bubble in sports in valuations. Where do you stand in
that is it? And why or is not? And why
(28:54):
why not?
Speaker 5 (28:54):
I don't believe there is. And the reason is that
it's simple supply and demand, alex.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
I mean, there's constraints, supplies, scarcity, principal thing. These are
very desirable assets, the NFL especially, and when you have
more people that want to buy them than there are
assets available, the price goes up. And you know, when
you think about you know what's happening in the world
today and the availability of the number of people that
(29:20):
have the ability to purchase one of these teams, and
then you know the scarcity of the teams available to purchase,
that's going to suggest that the price is going to
continue to go up. I think again, the NFL, in
particular to speaking for that league or in terms of
that league rather is again I believe, the biggest cultural
phenomenon in the United States. What is it? You know,
ninety four of the top one hundred television programs or
(29:42):
NFL programs, I think three of the other four college
football programs. So you know, you're talking about something that
is iconic, systemic to what our culture is, what our
society is how we live every day. It's a sport
that for me, you know, I tell people high school
football has more to do with who I am as
a man than anything except maybe my mom and dad.
(30:03):
It teaches you, maybe not unlike baseball and some other
great sports, but teaches you character development, team work, hard work, discipline,
physical mental toughness, overcoming adversity, competitiveness, things that are important
in life. And I think it's a million high school
football players are so a year. I think about seven
percent of them play college football and maybe you know,
(30:24):
I don't know the exact number, called three hundred of
them get drafted roughly, you know, But all those other
ones that play go on to do things in life
and the lessons they learn playing football or baseball or
you know, hockey or basketball, whatever the case may be.
Men and women, it teaches you things that you take
with you as you go into life and helps you
(30:45):
become a high character, harder working, better person.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
And so Tom just just back briefly to sort of
the transactional nature of the sport. You know, this notion
of institutional capital coming in. You're very familiar with that
at You've seen the sports world from so many different angles.
Ares Capital Management, I believe is one of your partners. Now,
what does that look like, because you guys are one
of your one of only two teams so far who
(31:11):
have done those sorts of transactions. What does it feel
like sort of in the day to day Is it
at all different?
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Like? What role has this played for you so far?
Speaker 5 (31:19):
Well, We're very lucky. Areas has been fantastic.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
I mean, you know, the folks at Areas that we
work with are a part of discussions that we have
about growing the business and growing the enterprise, and so
you know, they're very collaborative partners. You know, this isn't
how you think about private equity. This isn't you know,
they come in and buy something and then you cut
the number of pencils you have in have cut all
the costs, and then flip it in seven years for
(31:42):
more money.
Speaker 5 (31:43):
It couldn't be further from from that stereotype.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
I think, you know, these are people that are interested
in growth. I think they see that the NFL is
you know, maybe the safest asset class you know in
the world in terms of the likelihood that it's going
to go down is probably smaller than any other investment
you can.
Speaker 5 (32:01):
Make and so they understand that, they see the upside.
And then they've seen.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Sort of the management discipline we employ and the consistent
growth we've had in both revenue and profitability, you know,
every year for the last decade, regardless of other things
that have happened in the world. So they saw that,
they invested in that, and they've just been fantastic partners.
Speaker 5 (32:21):
Do they have tremendous access to capital.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
Obviously we have conversations with them as partners about potentially
doing more things.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
So, Jason, I got to tell you the first time
I heard about Tom was through a mutual friend that
Tom and I have a gentleman by the name of
Jeff Morad. So it's Scott Boris, and then it was
Jeff Mooread in the World sports as an agent, and
then he crossed over to the dark side and became
an owner with the Padres in Arizona, and about.
Speaker 5 (32:47):
Two d went he went to the good side, the.
Speaker 4 (32:51):
Bright side, the bright side. You know what's interesting is
that on twenty twelve or so or thirteen, maybe you know,
Jeff says to me, the most talented guy out there
is Tom. And he's a young guy. He's up and coming,
but trust me, this guy's going to take over the world.
And I was like, okay, whatever, whatever. You know, Tom's
still a young guy and he's you know, kind of
(33:12):
you know, still cutting his teeth a little bit. But boy,
I mean, Jeff is a great scout. And you know
you worked with Jeff for a minute, Tom, what were
some of the lessons you learned? And I guess the
part you enjoyed the most about working with Jeff Morad Well.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Jeff, you know, Jeff's a great guy, and he was
one of the first ones to see what was happening
in Formula one and made a big investment in McLaren Racing, right,
you know, back maybe four or five years.
Speaker 5 (33:36):
Ago, which was a very wise decision at the time.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Defending champion McLaren right, and.
Speaker 5 (33:42):
They just won one of the first two races of
the years.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Yeah, exactly, and current leader and constructors.
Speaker 5 (33:47):
Yeah, that's right. I learned a lot from Jeff.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
But I learned you know, negotiation is sort of Jeff's
strong suit, and so participating in several negotiations with him,
how he's able to position deal. You know, I would
come with sort of a strategic analysis of a situation,
Here's what I think it's going to be, Here's where
I think it's going, Here's what I think we should do.
And he said, well, what do you think is you
(34:12):
know what's the right number?
Speaker 5 (34:13):
And then I tell the number and tell them why,
and he.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Then and then he would go and negotiate the deal,
and I'd write along with him sometimes.
Speaker 5 (34:22):
But I learned a lot in terms of, you know,
listening first.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
You know, if you listen during a negotiation, you're going
to find out a lot people tend to want to talk,
and I think if you listen first, that's that's hugely important.
Speaker 5 (34:35):
And just not you know, being careful with your word choice.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
And careful with your body language and got everything you're doing.
And the negotiation is telling the other side something I personally,
I'm sort of a I believe in when when deals
work out the best and if you do those things
over a period of time, you're able to do more deals,
develop a better reputation. Trying to win a deal is
probably a bad idea from my perspective. I think you
(34:58):
really want to create situations, be as well informed as
you can, and for me, being willing to walk away
the formula one deal took four to half years basically,
and I was negotiating with probably.
Speaker 5 (35:12):
Three different parties throughout that.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
You know, at one point it was one person and
another point it was another person. In the end it
was Stefano and and there was different models that were
being used, you know, for us to be a promoter.
Speaker 5 (35:23):
There were different financial models.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
There's different ideas about downtown or here, there was different
ideas about.
Speaker 5 (35:29):
What it could generate or not generate.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
And so I think being consistent throughout that process, and
I did walk away a couple of times. You know,
it's kind of what that deal doesn't work for us,
We're not going to do that. There have been deals
that I've gotten excited about, worked hard on for a year,
done the diligence, gone through the process, and in the
end the deal wasn't the right deal. And so you know,
I'd tell Steve or you know whatever, like this isn't
the right deal, we just need to walk away and
(35:54):
the deal goes to someone else. And you have to
kind of know what makes sense for you, not just
in terms of a price, but in terms of the
amount of control and who you're partnering with and what
you're willing to accept or not accept and think long
term about it. From my perspective, if it's going to
work out and you're going to be able to operate it,
you know, to become a success.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
And so Tom, you know, we mentioned baseball.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
And your experience there, and you guys talked about it
a little bit. You know, I do wonder as someone
who has this pretty broad portfolio in sports, it's like,
do you guys think about, you know, investing in different sports?
You know, does baseball make sense? Or there are challenger
leagues out there? I mean, you you have been you know, fortunate,
and this is not an accident that you're in some
(36:38):
very high growth, very valuable sports already. Like what do
you look at out there that that piques your interest?
Speaker 4 (36:44):
Sometimes?
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Yeah, we're looking. We're looking at all kinds of different opportunities.
I think it's less about specifically. I mean the sport matters, obviously,
but I think you know, the market matters, The geography,
the context of the situation, the brand, what you're walking into,
the control, the degree of control anyway, all of those
(37:05):
things matter a lot. So I don't know that we're
you know, desperate to get into a specific you know,
and other sports specifically, as as much as we are saying,
you know, trying to be a little bit opportunistic about
is it synergistic with and strategic with other things we're
trying to do. So, for example, you know, we're going
to play a game in Madrid this year through the
(37:27):
Global Markets program with the NFL the Dolphins.
Speaker 4 (37:30):
Are you talking about the Dolphins?
Speaker 1 (37:32):
We have Mexico, Brazil, Spain, Columbia, Argentina as our global
markets in this Global markets program. Well, you know, we
have a Brazilian tennis player out here today Fonseca.
Speaker 5 (37:45):
We've had Alcoraz out here from Spain.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
We've got you know, Carlos Signs driving in Formula One.
We've got you know, La Liga matches, We've got World Cup,
FIFA World Cup. We've got like I mentioned, Shakira, Carol
g Bunny play of concerts here.
Speaker 5 (38:01):
And so we've really expanded our data.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
Capabilities and our data initiative to collect data on all
the individuals that buy tickets from us and come here
and where they live and what they do and what
they like. And so I think there's more a more
strategic relevance to what we're trying to build than just
here's an opportunity, let's buy into this this team or
that team in this board.
Speaker 5 (38:21):
That's what I think.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
It's how does it tie into what we're trying to
do with the rest of the enterprise and how we're
developing and growing people, and how we're developing and growing
certain capabilities, whether that's you know, stadium designed for revenue
and fan experience versus you know, to win design awards,
whether that's operationally what we do with taking up and
(38:44):
down tennis and Formula one, and what we do on
this campus which is pretty complex, whether it's sponsorship sales,
are ticketing sales capability, and analytics capability. So it's how
do we how do we take advantage of all of
those things, and what are the opportunities to invest in
a strategic that can take advantage.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
Of those things. It is interesting to think about, and Tom,
you and I got to visit a few weeks ago
in Miami, and I was intrigued by this idea, This
notion of you know, this very diverse demographic that you
guys probably have a not just a window into, but
like really hard data about that is probably the envy
(39:22):
of a lot of other organizations in terms of being
able to cater to them, you know, not just in
an individual sport or an individual artist, but you know,
across to your point music entertainment and sort of takes
us back to where we started in terms of the
cultural relevance of Miami, especially as a gateway to Latin
and South America. And you think about the messy effect
(39:44):
you know there in South Florida. You think about the
World Cup, the Club World Cup, all of those things
do it does seem to create this momentum around a
real business case that is probably very distinct from any
other sort of sports empire out there.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
Is that fair?
Speaker 5 (40:00):
I think it's very fair.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
You know, it's the fastest growing segment of the population
in the United States. You know, the world is shrinking,
So from a global perspective, I think there are people
that live in Latin America that may have a place
in Miami or a place in Madrid or both. And
so Madrid in Miami are very kindred, you know, cities
in a lot of ways.
Speaker 5 (40:20):
I was just there a couple of weeks ago, and
you know, there's.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
A lot of things happening in Madrid is a vibrant,
booming city as well.
Speaker 5 (40:28):
It's beautiful, it's clean, it's a fantastic place.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
And so when you think about the synergies between cities
like that, and then you think about Sampaulo or Mexico City,
and you start tying these things together through sports, entertainment, hospitality,
you know, and how we bring people together, I think
it starts to become an interesting business.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
All right, So we're going to wrap up with our
lightning round. This is our favorite part. We get to
ask you five questions. We go back and forth really fast,
and so just you know, drop the first thing that
comes to your mind. I'll start, Alex, then you can
pick up. All right, Tom Garfinkel, what's the best piece
of advice you've ever received on deal making or business?
Speaker 1 (41:19):
On business, I'd say it's, you know, always be learning,
always be learning and growing and never thinking.
Speaker 4 (41:24):
Who's your dream deal maker? Not named Steve Bross, it
would have.
Speaker 5 (41:30):
Been Steve.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
Alex, I love it.
Speaker 5 (41:34):
Man.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
You know, there's a person named Kevin Copton who have
tremendous respect for Kevin was an original partner Cline Perkins
and has become a friend and mentor. He's the kind
of person that if I had him sitting next to
me and to her deals. I know we're going to
make good deals.
Speaker 4 (41:47):
That's a good one.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
What's the most nervous you've ever been?
Speaker 1 (41:51):
Probably fifth grade when this kid challenged me to fight
after school, and the whole day I had to wait
and know that I had to go after school and
the whole schools.
Speaker 5 (41:58):
Gouldn't be there, and I had to get in a fight.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
What happened?
Speaker 1 (42:01):
He punched me in the face, and then my lips
started bleeding, and then I wasn't nervous anymore, and I
did Okay.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
You took care of business. I like it.
Speaker 4 (42:10):
Speaking of fighting, what's your hype song before you go
into a big meeting or negotiation?
Speaker 5 (42:16):
That would be Tupac when we write.
Speaker 4 (42:19):
Oh, good one.
Speaker 3 (42:20):
What's your advice for someone listening who wants a career
like yours?
Speaker 1 (42:25):
Be willing to make sacrifices, work really hard, you know,
always be learning and create value. You know, you get started.
First of all, there's no perfect job. But when you do,
you're gonna have to make sacrifices. You're gonna have to
work hard.
Speaker 3 (42:39):
That's really really good advice, all right, Tom Garfinkel, great
to chop it up with you, Vice Chairman, President CEO
of Miami Dolphins, hard Rock Stadium, managing partner of Formula One,
Crypto dot Com, Miami Grand Prix. He's got his fingers
a lot of pies. Alex Rodriguez, your neighbor. You guys
are making it all happen down in South Florida.
Speaker 5 (42:58):
Great to be with you, guys. Thank you very much
for having me.
Speaker 4 (43:00):
Thank you, Tom.
Speaker 3 (43:09):
The Deal is hosted by Alex Rodriguez and me Jason Kelly.
This episode was made by Anamazarakus, Stacy Wong, and Lizzie Phillip.
Amy Keen is our editor and Will Connelly is our
video editor. Our theme music is made by Blake Maples.
Our executive producers are Kelly Leferrier, Ashley Hoenig, and Brendan
neonham Sage Bauman is the head of Bloomberg Podcast. Additional
(43:31):
support from Rachel Carnivale and Elena Los Angeles. Thanks so
much for listening to the Deal. If you have a minute, subscribe,
rate and review our show. It'll help other listeners find us.
I'm Jason Kelly.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
See you next week.
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