Private Equity & Naming Rights; Is Charles Barkley retiring? | The Sporting Class

Welcome to The Sporting Class! Meadowlark Media CEO John Skipper and @NPDS’s David Samson are back with another episode with host of @PabloTorreFindsOut… Pablo Torre! We are live from Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity! The boots on the ground from the biggest global advertising meet-up. (12:01) All colleges are trying to find new ways to bring in money, but Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark has an idea on how his conference can. The Big 12 has decided to sell the name of the conference and is looking to bring in private equity. Florida State wanted private equity for just itself. The Big 12 wants private equity for the whole conference. Let’s also discuss naming rights, what they are, and how/if that money is well spent. (34:02) What else are we thinking about? Charles Barkley retirement? Paramount Global failed merger? NFL Sunday Ticket lawsuit? Tune in to find out!

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so the thump that you just heard was David Samson dropping his unsponsored Gatorade sorry unsponsored Anonymous bottle of something onto the ground um David and John can you explain where we are right now can you explain for the people only listening what’s around us right now what is around us is a multitude of sweltering human beings on the beach in the south of France um meeting and greeting and hugging and slapping and spitzing and trying to justify their expense account which is what brings us here today so I uh have wanted people to understand that we are not just a show that I call Rich guys only fans um we’re a show that lives the lifestyle of Rich guys only fans we’re in the south of freets we’re at con Lions we’re at sport Beach specifically we are suspended in a cube above a stage and if you watch on YouTube for the DraftKings Network or just on YouTube I don’t know what we’re doing with this episode because it came together quite suddenly but beneath us I mean there are there are athletes there are marketing people this is the largest advertising Festival John on the planet yes it is and so so David John is grumpy I think we need to put that out there right now yeah I am he’s a 10 I’m about a seven great and and we’re on the south of France guys I I hear you there’s a couple things missing right now What’s missing uh air conditioning yeah is number one number two a place to keep liquid is missing there’s a table in front of us I have to call out that coke is not in my ear so there’s two things that are necessary to do a proper sporting class one the bracelets done yeah slept them all the way to France to Coke in the air so now we’re basically going we’re flying solo no net we have great people here from sport Beach yes I mean we have a whole crew here to support us I would just I would just point out we can watch the guys below a shower this guy appears to be soaping up and curing the result of his fitting and I would have passed on an episode this week but for there’s more going on if we were back in studio in metal Arc Studio there just happens to be so much going on that people are taking a break to go to a conference here but the World of Sports business has no break it’s absurd what this speech has become so for people who have not had the pleasure of being at the south of France with two of their friends who are also their colleagues sometimes their boss other times their arch nemesis you see that the whole beach has been overtaken by mostly tech companies it seems like meta here Amazon Netflix and then there’s also the sports stuff and so I want to actually use this opportunity John and David John former president of ESPN David Samson former president of the Marlins um what were’re doing when it comes to the trajectory of sports as it fits into the age of tech because there is money in sports still and I would have assumed that oh wait a minute Tech’s here to eat everybody’s lunch and so what is happening John from a big picture perspective well Tech is here to eat everybody’s lunch but the best way to eat the traditional media companies’s lunch is to buy the sports rights from them because it is continues to be the most predictable the most valuable content in the universe so I had the great Fortune to mostly be in the sports media before they emerged as the Bist they are but but Sports is going to be more valuable than ever I’ve never thought that the entry of tech companies would have any effect on Sports other than to make them more valuable what interests me is that you were in the business of and we’ve talked about this a bit about long-term deals versus short-term deals when you’re trying to get live rights and what I thought would change is that leagues conferences Etc would be more interested in staying shortterm because if you look at what we’re looking at here up and down this beach sport beach has this amazing setup and it almost feels like the anchor of what everyone else is trying to do it’s the biggest setup and so when you’ve got that sort of asset I’ve always liked the idea of being a free agent as often as possible it’s betting on yourself it’s maximizing your earnings in many instances and leagues and we’re seeing this with conferences now they’re really so worried about cash flow that they’re willing to go longer and that acrs to the benefit of the networks without a doubt well I always felt that we were advantaged by going as long as possible and I was always slightly puzzled that the rights holders would sell us their rights for a long time which they did simply because of the gratification they got from the large increases uh right the and and people always forget that those are increases that are average annual increases not year-over-year increases but oddly enough the rights holders I think not certain that the tech companies were going to come in began to want to go longer uh I do know that some some of the rights holders are putting in options to get out probably to hedge their bets but I would think that your point of view is right with the emergence of the tech companies the continuing interest of the traditional media companies I would go short there’s something else here I wanted to mention that is it the sweat pooling down onto your microphon it’s disgusting I’m sorry I yes it is very very hot in here if only I had known so what what what you have to do is just sort of to relax that’s right that’s right Caribbean music play Breathe In look I just want to point this out the Cur is you pronounce it David how do you pronoun is right there it is so blue and relaxing the kazour is here too that’s a region in your armpit it’s also in your armpit I digress it’s okay don’t touch me please it’s so moist I’m I’m going to see Pablo if you and I can avoid sweating ex I feel great the more you think about it feel great can we return to a quick Point here which is I want to bring you back to the moment when mlb.com was invented and was approved it was the first owners meeting I ever went to my first day in baseball and it was a group of old rich white guys trying to explain this internet company and they didn’t know anything about it we just knew that we had Pro forers of what distributions we’d get and we voted for it we’re like let’s start this company Bob Bowman tried to explain what it was But the irony of why conferences and owners are not necessarily able to maximize their revenue until they’ve put their trust in younger people look at the people if you walk around this beach we’re old this is now when it comes to Tech and sports sorry to break it to you John I’m sorry I’m I’m aware so it’s it’s just a different it’s it’s become a different world where to maximize value you have to actually embrace what all these companies here on on sport beach in conon line are able to do for you and it’s something that it’s hard to comprehend and interesting enough in retrospect Bob Bowman was one of the early people to understand what the value would be though he mistakenly believed that what it would do was allow the leagues to control their own rights and distribute them digitally as opposed to continuing to sell them so so I want to explain he wants that pardon he he wanted that and now the leagues want that now explain though Bob Bowman for me was always associated with mlbam right MLB Advanced media and for for people who are not familiar what were they ahead of mlbam one they were ahead of the technology of Distributing games over digital over over the internet right and they were ahead in sort of understanding that you could sell subscriptions to Consumers um again they thought it would lead to a different outcome but Bob really did understand what digital media meant for media rights and we were hired it actually broke off in a transaction that you’re very well aware of mlb.com versus mlbam versus the digital side we ended up running other people’s technology NHL and other entities Disney’s right well Disney became a partner and it was another screw job by John and his folks that’s why we’re here why we’re we bought we bought bam because they had built Superior technology and I do think then dve you tell me if I’m wrong that the baseball owners understood that they were never going to forego the big checks that media companies now media and technology companies would pay them in order to build media themselves we were cautioned to not do the deal which deal any sort of transaction with Disney when we split it up and then sold it off and then remember we sold the last part off as well for another huge chunk of money yes and it was advised and it wasn’t a big chunk after all you were ready in the in the black for that and we were ready we could have held out for way more I think you agree but for the record I’m not agreeing publicly he’s merely tolerating David I’m I’m sitting merely nodding at your assertions but uh I believe we played far Market Fair market value of the time and by the way the CFO of the company was dramatically against what’s the deal of of Disney yes do you think today looking back the CFO of Disney would be upset I believe that Disney looking back thinks that it was a smart acquisition well but this is what my question is which is David so I I like to imagine making me more grumpy I cover part of what I love we never know what we’re going to do on this show part of what I love that we do though is we end up Rel litigating the ways in which your paths have crossed throughout time and so I’d like to Imagine John of course uh president of ESPN and David relatively younger person executive 30 with one vote of 30 but there in the room meant to foresee You Were Meant to sort of tell the future you were the young person and so when you look back at how this all went down David what would you have counseled your younger self you could whisper into young David Samson’s ear anything what would you have said about what the old DAV say it I said it at the time and I said it now the owners wanted the because they believed they would use it to acquire players in order to win a World Series and you knew that and everybody who does business with rich white people knows it because they’re old it’s what Scott Boris trades on that’s his currency is hey let’s say you’re one piece away and I’ve got your piece was there an actual vote of course and did you vote against it I Jeffrey wouldn’t allow it I for an octogenarian white owner who wanted another world series don’t talk about your stepfather former former in that way David I’m telling you it’s The Perfect Storm owners versus tech companies owners versus which brings us to where we are today it certainly does walk around here there’s not a lot of people who who are in a position to say no to this they don’t come to this right right um what they come here for though is the opportunity to obviously make deals of a way that is um staggering when you see all the again seae people who are here but also to find like what you can monetize in sports these days right and so when it comes to John naming rights you know like we come here with a docket of stories one of the stories we bring back from the United States is the idea that the Big 12 is looking to monetize its naming rights brilliant this this is of a piece of what we were just talking about which is they believe they’re going to get Capital they’re going to use that Capital to win championships or Excel on the field and get more donor ex contributions and make money and they’re not they’re going to take this money and they’re going to use it to overpay coaches and and try to compete with the big 10 and and um the SEC I just I continue to be puzzled by the proposition that private Equity will come into college programs and that that money will be sensibly used to build something of value I believe that there will be grumpy legislators and grumpy College presidents who will be going what do you mean that we have to pay down this debt and we’re still going five and seven every year there’s no cough button so excuse me there’s two issues here the private Equity issue and the naming rights issue Brett ymark is who we’re talking about to start with we can use him as a conduit the commissioner the commissioner of the Big 12 which I have now been calling the big 16 because there’s 16 teams so I can’t stand not all six of them are big all 16 of them are big but so they’re going to get rid of the big and maybe name it the All State 12 you’re right the big All State conference is on the table wait why would you rename the conference and not correct the number why would you continue to call it the All State 12 since the only reason to call it the Big 12 is some perceived brand value from history just rename it the All State 16 so when Yark ran for commissioner he was told that he was going to raise revenue cuz that’s his thing the ymark brothers are famous for this they find a way to get blood from Stone and this is a brilliant thing that he’s doing I don’t want to Sully him in any way because if you can get a company to give you 30 to 50 million a year that’s money that is incremental that will be distributed to the schools whether they use it for coaches whether they use it for nil for players or for a nicer house doesn’t matter he his job is to distribute more money to the member schools and my skepticism is not relative to his skill at driving money look at the rights deal he did for the Big 12 I mean arguably not as competitive not as good a conference as the Pack 12 and he got the deal that had the Pack 12 gotten that deal they would not have disappeared still be the Pack 12 not the pack two I don’t think they’re they should see they just keep should just keep calling the Pack 12 uh Washington State or state although I think they went to a different conference the Mountain West I believe so there’s no more pack two there may be a pack two because there still is a contract for media rights to be paid that I’m not sure has been obviated yet the real conference was the friends they made a the way David have you learned nothing about sports and business um the second thing you mentioned was Private equity and we covered this once on a sporting class when we believe it was Florida State who was looking to bring in money and we had a great conversation about it now your Mark’s doing the same at the conference level at the conference level it’s not at the school level so you’re talking about a venture capital firm buying 15 to 20% of a conference for up to what they’re saying is a billion dollars so quick math let’s say you got 20% of a billion easy math you’re valuing the big 16 the All State 12 whatever you want to say at $5 billion the only assets of that conference this is what I’ve been racking my brain about while sitting in traffic and shitzen what are the assets that generate that uh valuation the grant of rights is let’s explain John what a grant of rights is for people who are not fluent in college football speak the colleges all grant their rights to the conference to be sold in aggregate so the 12 to 16 teams in that insurance company are um are put together and sold to an entity and the value of the grant of rights is the amount of money that some tech company or some traditional Media Company agrees to pay but so it differs from Notre Dame I I’m trying to draw the iction for people Notre Dame is historically not in a conference and they are sell their media rights oneof their football yes I cart they’ll go to in fact they sell a grant of all their rights except the football to the ACC and then they separately sell their football games to NBC though five of those games are with ACC teams so I’m not quite sure how that can’t remember how that works the theory is that the grant of rights in the big 16 that they’re more valuable as a group than they are individually so people put their grant of rights in the pot and then the conference goes out and gets a media rights deal right then the conference has money that it distributes to the 16 schools but if you’ve got a venture capital investment where they need to get maybe a preferred return on their invested capital or they have some sort of there’s going to be a agreement that’s been NE negotiated that will explain how they get their money back mhm it turns out that I can’t figure out what the benefit is other than there’s going to be a distribution made from the billion dollars from The Venture Capital firm that’s going to go to schools outside of the media rights deal that can be used for paying coaches more nil players Etc a mirror of the baseball Dynamic right it is an interesting change from our discussion about Florida State cuz if you remember that discussion David you were asserting and it’s certainly correct from a business point of view that it would force Florida State to make their athletic department a profit Center it becomes even more complicated when you’re now talking about 16 teams and you’ve got to figure out how to make Texas Tech and Kansas and Oklahoma State and San Diego State and Central Florida and two lane as an aggregate profitable enough for the conference to pay back the private Equity Firm that invest do the individual schools have to be profitable for the conference to be profitable I had it as different different classes of assets the conference setup has never been intended to create profit there is a amount of the money they gets taken off of the grant of rights or sponsorships that go across the conference that fund runs the administrative office but it’s always been a fairly marginal amount of money these conference offices aren’t big companies I mean you go in the SEC and I I don’t know how many people it is but it’s it’s not a big company is it bigger than this booth uh it is bigger than this booth but just about the same number of people they do not have Eric Cantona though beneath us speaking poetry to Applause um if you heard that in the background um that’s also happening right now but I ask the question about how to monetize all of this because we’re now getting to the idea of is this a good business is is let’s start with that just broadly I I I don’t think this is a good business but I do never underestimate the willingness particularly of male Executives particularly male Executives of a certain age at marketing companies and private Venture fund to want to be close to sports and I do think that’s a lot of what sponsorship dollars and naming rights dollars and I think these investments will be is oh my gosh I’ll get to sit uh in the booth you know at the University of Texas and watch them play and I’ll get to go in the locker room uh and that’s what these college conferences and college teams are looking at is compromising themselves in terms of what they’re going to do how they’re going to comport themselves and it does and David said this last time and I agree it forces them to sort of make these real businesses which is a natural a natural outcome of making the players employees and they will resist that term right they don’t want to call them employees but I don’t know what it is when you pay somebody to do something it’s either work for hire or you’re an employee do you know of any other designation for people who get paid hourly but that’s either it’s a freelancer it I mean that that’s a hard contractor I don’t see how you navigate col cred the contractors is a work for hard it’s work for hard employ face that this is not going to be the last conference to try to raise money this way Florida State won’t be the last school everybody’s looking for influx of capital everyone’s trying to find a way and because you’re hired to do that and so I believe that what we’re seeing in many of the stories we cover is just starting whether it is the naming rights the private Equity whether it’s things related to gambling to me all the things that we’re seeing now were were starting and it’s not going to stop one of the interesting things that you guys have established though is the idea that these deals are made by individuals for whom Sports holds a lure these are the most exclusive events at highly exclusive locations I just want to drill down on like when we talk about marketing and deal flow here how much of that actually matters because Tech promised the the rigor of data but we’re not talking about data we’re talking about a human element in a sense and John this has been obviously how business has been done for decades yes and I do think the tech companies are a little less Smitten by the idea of getting to port with athletes and see them however I I’ll suggest there is a new golf league in which golfers are going to tee off and hit into a green screen and someone called to ask me my opinion of whether this was a good investment and I said it’s a great investment if you prepared to pay money to spend time with Tiger Woods and Roy maal m m Rory um a tough day for Rory for this weekend tough day but he’s he’s still somebody profitable day yes A profitable day but people have agreed to pay money in order to watch people hit into a green screen who are very famous right well people are paying money left and right to watch people do things to feel close to them that’s how twitch was born that’s what YouTube is we know metalarc media when we do watch parties when we do an Oscars watch party or a Stanley Cup watch party there’s great audiences who are interested in watching us watch something now that is counterintuitive to my upbringing in the world of business where I thought I had to add value in order to extract value from somebody but the value changed with the watch party you’re not extracting value other than the value of somebody’s time uh but you’re actually getting You’re Building subscribers M you’re getting more time allocation which you can then go sell you’re getting sponsors for that watch party it’s an act profitable event so something like this comline but let let me pivot that right so what David is talking about I believe is the idea that there is audience pre-existing desire for these events that is a cough from David Samson it’s it’s okay we’re just in a tiny glass Booth um I’m not contagious it’s allergies I don’t believe you uh what David is talking about is the idea that you go to where the audience will be so the parallel to the sports marketing executive is they want to be there too but so does an audience the question returns us to naming rights so here is a thing David that you have sold before with the understanding that there would be visibility there would be audience but it’s not a show it’s a name so how do naming rights work it’s really such crap I mean I’m sorry to say it all the all the companies that do it when you make a budget you have a marketing budget and marketing people need to spend their Mar marketing budget or they lose it but when you’re out selling naming rights you are selling a promise that you are getting the following exposure and you give them all sorts of analytics and the marketing people are pretending they analyze it and they do their own spreadsheets Chase does it when it came to the Garden or the US Open Pepsi does it all the time they have whole departments in place City Bank has entire departments where they’re evaluating these deals and it’s just absolute horse hockey the City Field deal is a great example at uh the new Shay Stadium where the Mets play everyone said my god there was a meeting in baseball when they got 20 million a year everyone was ecstatic and blessed memory Ted Lerner former owner of the Nationals quick story said David look we’re going to get 20 million for Nationals Park I said Ted who did the financing for Washington’s Stadium I don’t know it was already built we got it for free all public money I said okay City Field was built there were huge amounts of fees that City Field collected they were hired by the Mets as part of the deal they named the facility they get a suite they get various things that have actual ascertainable value and then you’re left with a piece that they call naming rights because really who gives a rat’s ass when someone says oh today’s game is at City Field oh I’m going to switch banking to City Field I’m moving out of Chase and I’m going to City it’s not measurable it’s all made up but it feels good for marketing people to see their name it makes them feel as though they are associated with something and that’s why they spend the money and it’s fantastic though though when you did suggest there were fees now that could be good business right which is gee we’re going to do banking the Mets are going to do banking yeah that’s good business the putting your name on a stadium I’m hoping that all these companies get something other than just that they do they do get tickets I know that and they get to go to games and you can take your clients and make them feel good about it giveaways um but I do think it very hard to do the mathematics to make it feel like it actually is good expenditure of marketing famously uh and I can never remember who said it but there was a famous um ad person who said I know that 50% of my money is wasted I just don’t know which I think in naming rights I think it’s closer to 75 to 90 I know 75 to 90 is wasted but it still feels good it’s one of the great Vaudeville acts of this century is the way we’ve seen naming rights and you see it up and down this beach there’s people they have Inflatables everything is sponsored everything is sponsored but but again the logic though is simple on the level of name recognition is by definition the simplest form of what advertising is have you heard heard of us are we in places where you associate us positively with things you like that’s the very basic premise what’s that worth well I will say it kind of feels to me like it’s worth more to a newer company I do not understand how a ubiquitous brand like allate finds value in putting their name on something well now we’re getting to something else the Super Bowl commercials and the prices of those continue to go up and it really goes back and forth with companies are startups who want want to spend their entire annual marketing Budget on a 30C Super Bowl ad and then people look at it and they’re like ooh I I don’t know even what that company does but I remember it made a top 10 list of good Super Bowl commercials but this brings us to again what tech is and I I often say that we have been promised things and you guys fight back under the premise that there was never a promise you merely you being the larger consumer believed a sales pitch that was on us from the start but the premise here of what a Super Bowl commercial gets you right is the promise of um here is um here is the last remaining monoculture right no one else what else are we Gathering underneath when it comes to tents in America and so truly if marketing is going to matter anywhere I would imagine that Sports would be the place because everybody’s still across the aisle religious political it’s amazing musical still gathers here well it’s and it’s also so for traditional 30 60c advertising Sports is the only place you can get a large concurrent audience at the same time that is valuable that’s why ads at the Super Bowl costs so much money right hund and somewhere near 140 million people watch last Super Bowl there clearly is value however I will point out I once bought a Super Bowl ad I can’t actually remember I think I bought two when we introduced what did you advertise p in the phone oh perfect and I must tell you it was a disaster and I am sure that I know that way more than 50% of that money was wasted and I think that was in the day when they cost only $1 million which would be a bargain I think 1 million for a 30 and I think we projected we’ get like 880,000 subscribers we thought the phones would light up and I think we got about 15 or 20,000 subscribers dying to know was this brought to you or did you bring this to somebody else I had to say it was my idea despite everything I’ve said here today I thought by the way I thought by the way I thought it would make me a mocka I thought I would be the man God do I love when goam speak yish so good making a CL hon but it did not it did not do any such thing uh and we shortly closed ESP in the phone happened to that by the way do you have a prototype anywhere no I do not I in fact I’m embarrassed that I brought it up I should have forgotten about it all together every now you can run no you still run into a few people who remember ESPN I vividly remember it because in a way by the way this is another recurring line very cool phone very cool phone quote John Skipper but we got our ass kicked by the telephone companies who actually knew how to sell telephone plans what we knew how to do was broadcast sports and talk about sports and report on Sports and we should never have gotten into the phone business there’s a lesson there David there is a lesson no no there’s a great lesson which is we entered it and exited it very quickly because we understood uh that we were not going to succeed and there was a rationale and I’ll stop number portability happened which is when you could actually change your phone number and we thought that meant that many people would be more willing to change their phone plan but it coincided with the introduction of free phone plans when Verizon would give you four free phones and we were selling a foam for $500 it’s it’s the interesting thing CNN plus is an example of a of a network that started a big startup cost they had a change at the top and they immediately stopped it I think that was around for a day or two days by the way I think it cost twice as much as the phone yeah for sure in terms of the expense but the idea of like how quickly do you pull the plug on something it is as soon as you know it’s not going to work but there are very many people who are not willing to admit it so they they end they throw good money after bad is one of the greatest ways that companies go bankrupt and have to go into the world of financing to borrow expensive money is because they’re willing to keep going because they’re not wanting to admit they’re wrong yeah look there is of course um a through line here today also of Executives and their incentives personal incentives being confused with macro companywide uh needs really yeah oh my gosh I wish could remember that name of that uh Paramount committee that was there to protect prot sance protection plan that’s a good one and a shout out without Coke in the year he would have had it for you right now I know that that that’s a merger that I’ve been still if you’re asking me I don’t know where we are in the show because I don’t see a clock but I think Frank Lampard walked around downstairs that’s why I was monitoring sorry yeah you to see if we’re done no no no just just knowing that uh and if Matt cooku was here we could find out if it’s Eric canant or I think it’s probably that one and I also believe it’s Frank Lampard there you go I’m playing the role of uh ugly American no no this just means I’ve been watching European football longer than you have I think in fact I’ve been living longer than you well also John and I on the walk over here David um we walked by the FIFA tent did you kick a ball no but I did notice to see if they spotted one John Skipper former witness in the FIFA Federal corruption trial walking by as we walked by I saw large sums of money being handed from one person to another that is a joke but I’m pretty sure you sure not sure actually I did not actually see it the tents are all there are people enclosed in in h non seethrough tents they did have those pins though that indicated that they are they’re they’re powerful should compliment sport Beach at stagwell in one way to say that I got to here a couple days ago and this wasn’t nearly ready it was a Mad Dash at the end there were a bunch of people doing a bunch of things and now you can actually get food fries and working cameras and lights they erected a stadium I very quickly though of course I’m not loving that we are suspended we are very visible again in a cube over a stage somehow I’m confident tonight that there will be people both staggering well and not staggering well that is likely one of the people who are staggering uh it seems towards the exit is Charles Barkley can we talk about Charles because we take that story from across the Atlantic also biggest story of the it’s bigger story than any story here I believe his resigning has the same level of credibility as his running for governor of Alabama he did not resign I know he did not resign you’re right said he said he was going to retire he said that after his next deal after the next year which means a whole another year his claim is I won’t work for another Network which is total horaki and his claim is you know thank you very much but I’m done and he was nice enough to name his successor which I’m sure would make a media executive super happy coup we Nam several possib and by the way I actually feel slightly different I bet he beli I think he believes what he’s saying I think he believes he’s going to quit but I believe it might become irresistible to continue because it’s very good pay for having a little fun and um not a lot of hours well Turner’s statement certainly would indicate Turner very unusual I’m not sure that I would have actually agreed to this if I were to be running Turner they agreed to release a statement after Barkley did this and the statement was we love you and we are going to work with him to I don’t have the exact statement but it was something like hey it’s not over till it’s over and we’re going to work with them to figure something out I don’t know why you would let your company be put in that position where you’re basically over a barrel for an NBA analyst and uh for Barkley to do it the way he did it I just thought was very uh unnecessary immature but great great leverage for himself well and as always with uh Charles who is a very nice fellow it’s entertaining uh it does also seem to indicate and I don’t think he has any insid or knowledge but he seems clearly to believe that that wbd is not going to assert their matching right which may or may not exist no I actually believe it does exist I have reason to believe it does exist though uh and I was I said before I was very skeptical existed I now know from a very good source that it does exist there is a matching right for a third party who wasn’t involved that still seems peculiar to me would but uh I have heard that there is again from a good source but I do not believe they will exercise that nor do I believe nor do I believe John’s reporting David we’re upda changing his entire story no no no I did not change my story I’ve come upon new information and is despite your goting me to admit that I knew or didn’t know whether was matching right I apparently did not remember that there was such wait so you had one too you’re not saying that Turner got one and Disney did did not again someone who should know uh from either Turner or ESPN has told me that there is indeed a matching right for both parties yes David well You’ who knows you know I didn’t ever I never read those contracts why would I read those contracts we had an outstanding lawyer uh and legal staff and uh I felt no need to read the contract can we let people behind the scenes very normal that John would not read the entire contract start to finish owners don’t read Stadium Deals they don’t read the TV deals they didn’t read the formation of mlbam but you’re given a summary memo yes and that is often what owners will read and what I’m sure you got for the deal the summary memo would have contained a matching right that’s a Germaine provision I might not have read the summary oh no look I always believed in doing my job and letting other people do their jobs and my job was not to construct a contract it was to negotiate the basic terms of a deal you know how hard people work on those summary memos so that you can have an a working knowledge of what you’re signing I had a a guy who read the summaries David was that guy I was the guy who started my life writing the summary memos and ended my life reading the summary well you’re you actually have I believe a a uh law degree which is called what a jurist doctor doc yeah yeah JD JD yes I’m not a doctor doctor there’s a lot of noise is being announced our friend is being announced interviewing her uh not today but she is appearing beneath the cube we’re suspended in uh she’s somewhere there yeah it’s actually quite a system they have here I believe this studio is booked every single minute we are we are the ones who are most recklessly abusing our editorial freedoms inside of it to be very clear as we do but I love that David this is why I love this show is that JN will say something John is a reporter now in doses which I love I’ve watched him report I’ve watched him report along the beach while you’ve been schvitzing but my favorite part about John’s journalism is that he’s reporting about himself he’s realizing things and David is on the other side of the table throughout his career a gas well a gas absent Perfect Memory you uh you post a report on yourself and and also disclose when a major update comes to the story as ajor this is we are transparent in terms of our venue and in terms of our ethos with the show I I’m interested in these microphones that you have a beach Sport and you have a sport Beach that’s right the more we say sport Beach the better it is I think I think my cube is on backwards oh Beach on top I’m not really positive how it’s supposed to be David as the person who cared about the word and the orientation when he sold naming rights when he was making sumary memos and is now and is now um in a relationship with a man for whom that could not have been close to the level of concern for him is a delight honestly Sean and I go back go back way variety is what makes the world go around the idea of the uh is this for the network too I don’t know you don’t know no idea are we being kicked out soon uh we got like five minutes oh cuz there’s some other things that what do you want to talk about of mentioning what what should we talk about David are you willing to just talk a little bit about what’s going on with that lawsuit would that bother you this is our prep live on the air with that lawsuit the NFL antitrust law suit oh the Sunday Ticket because in fact it impacts you and decisions you made and bids you’d be willing to think about making how much it mattered whether or not games can be free for everyone or not I’m not sure I understand what that lawsuit is about well enough to comment smartly upon it let’s have David time I’m going to do a little summary and then ask your opinion I won’t read it you only have to listen think about the concept where you turn on your local networks and you get to watch your local team and it’s free whether it’s CBS or NBC or ABC or Fox you’re watching your team but you want to watch another team you don’t have the right to just buy if you’re in New York and are a fan of the Chicago Bears you can’t just buy the Bears game on that Sunday you have to buy something called the Sunday Ticket right Sunday Ticket is very expensive several hundred and it gives you the right to watch every out ofm Market game not just the Bears that’s the concept there’s a lawsuit and it’s been going on for years and it’s basically an Anti-Trust suit where what people are saying is you made me pay so much money and I all I wanted to do was watch the Bears okay well I have two questions one doesn’t the NFL have an antitrust exemption so I love rear heads at the NFL does have an antitrust exemption but what’s being litigated now is that the exemption ought not to be covering this specific instance but it is certainly possible to combine multiple things into a package and sell it that’s not against the law right last I check I can get french fries with my hamburger for a single price or I might have to pay for them individually what I’m not quite sure what that violates you can go to any place to get fries there’s nowhere else to go to get a Bears game you can go to McDonald’s Burger King Shake Shack there’s very many options for fries we can argue quality later but when it’s for a live event there’s no way I think you’ll agree that’s not a good comp fries versus it’s probably not a good Bears game comp but I could go to a high school game or a college game for a flag football game I mean Chicago Bears is not the only football game I can see and if I mean now we’re going to run out of time that’s going to be your position I don’t even understand what the lawsuit is saying and people are thinking the NFL is going to lose this which would be an epic loss at this court level I mean they can appeal it Etc but think about what the NFL is arguing the NFL and they found emails saying we want to get the games to as many people as possible that’s one set of there’s other emails saying hey let’s make sure that we do not lower the price and we do not offer anything alak card you’re in you’re in for everything so they actually have a Smoking Gun of a behavior which drives upes to allegedly not really allegedly anymore it’s out as evidence which drives consumers to pay more which is what the government’s trying to protect against and the NFL could get caught they’re getting caught right now acting in a way that’s different than what they were saying which is we want our product for everyone in fact they were full of it they want people to pay the idea I’m skeptical that the NFL will lose this and I Can’t Tell You Why in a legal sense but I’m confident they can appeal it to the Supreme Court and samuelito will vote to uphold it and his wife will fly some kind of flag upside down like our microphone flag their American flag will be upside down I think it’s safe to say um they’ll flag the they’ll fly she’ll fly the NFL shield upside down um we are now officially I believe out of time we can get to antitrust exemption when we get home let’s do that for the next one baseball let’s just do that privately we we’ll get in the car and we’ll do it I’m not sure anybody wants to hear it we’ll review Thanks a Lot we’ll review some french fries here love you John thanks for being here what an effort John made to come by the way I think the chaotic nature of this was perfectly suited to sort of a environment we’re in which is fun and interesting and hot and chaotic David has dried up it’s a miracle look at this I I regulated I told you just relax um thank you both love doing this with you guys thank you