Earl Patton on the Business of Sports

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00:00The NBA playoffs are going, and probably one of the most talked about stories is the idea

00:04of kind of the parody, the idea that these aren't necessarily dynasty teams right now in this. You

00:09have kind of everyman teams, if you will, Indiana, Oklahoma, Minnesota, and I mean, I hate to say it

00:16but the Knicks, but as a Bulls fan, it pains me to even point them out. But we should point out

00:21there's a lot of interest in this. And I am curious about fan adoption when you have, I guess,

00:27parody or at least something that looks a lot more like parody than what we've had in the past.

00:31Well, first of all, thanks for having me. I think this is what the NBA dreamed of. I mean,

00:38the NFL has been pretty much the pinnacle point of parody. And with the NBA, it was always led by

00:46superstars, and particularly superstars in big markets, and the LeBron and the Curry effect.

00:52Now you have a surgence of young stars in smaller markets from three of the teams with the exception

00:59of the Knicks. I don't think the NBA could be in a better place right now because if you look at the

01:04next generation that's going to be ushered in, you're going to need more markets to get involved

01:09for the growth of the sport.

01:11Does that, does this drive more eyeballs to it? Because I mean, you know, let's face it,

01:16we all watch what LeBron does or what Seth Curry does. You know, those individual names draw

01:22eyeballs. They draw ticket sales. How does a team like the Pacers or the Knicks, which doesn't

01:28necessarily have that same singular star at the same level as a LeBron, how do they do that?

01:33Well, if you think about it, I mean, it's not just the team or just the league. These athletes are

01:37supported by blue chip marketing and endorsements. So with, with Anthony, you have Adidas is one of

01:46his sponsors. I mean, if you turn on, watch the playoffs, there's an Adidas commercial coming

01:50on every 10 seconds with him. Obviously with the New York market, Jalen Brunson is leading that.

01:56But the interesting thing about Brunson is that the New York market is so important.

02:01You don't necessarily have to be a national or even a global superstar to move the needle.

02:05So, um, and then you have, you know, just storylines, you know, the Knicks and the Pacers

02:10have historically have, you know, had a clash. Um, Tyrese Halliburton is going to take that over

02:17to the, to the next level. And then you have, um, you know, a market like, uh, Oklahoma, Oklahoma

02:22city and Oklahoma city with, you know, um, arguably probably the league's MVP, but also I think a lot

02:29of people also pay attention to the business dynamics of Oklahoma city because of the moves and

02:35the insight that Sam Presti does in shaping a team. Yeah. I hear what you say about parody,

02:41how it's exciting, but doesn't the lack of a dynasty, something that fans can kind of hook

02:45onto like a story that spans years, um, also remove something exciting from the picture overall.

02:52I mean, in terms of economics, you want something that people can get invested in for years at a

02:56time, just as they were getting excited about the Boston Celtics, the whole thing has fallen apart.

03:00And it's unlikely that they can return to the form they had last year. Well, look, I'm a Yankees fan,

03:05so we all want, you know, dynasties. Um, but what I do think is with technology in particular,

03:13with sports being spread globally, you can pretty much supplement what you don't have in a dynasty

03:18with respect to distribution. So, you know, you're going to have, you know, more fans around the

03:23world of particular players and particular teams that I think will probably supplement,

03:27you know, the, the dynasty aspect, but I would say, you know, a New York Knicks, uh, championship,

03:33if you will, uh, would one championship would be a dynasty is the funny thing is, uh, we were

03:41having a conversation about what a New York, um, championship would mean to the city. And, um,

03:47you know, New York has luminaries and, um, icons, you know, from music, Jay-Z, um, Derek Jeter,

03:54um, Michael Bloomberg, but let's say, you know, and we also have restaurants that are table,

04:00hard tables to get to. Yeah. Let's say Mr. Bloomberg respectfully made a reservation at

04:05Tatiana's two months in advance and a world champion, Jalen Brunson walks in with flip-flops

04:10and a t-shirt. Oh gosh. He's going to get the table. Yeah. I can't, I can't get the table.

04:14I've been trying to get back there, by the way. That's what a New York championship would mean.

04:17I want to ask you about college sports. And we should mention, by the way, that the president right

04:21now is hosting the 2025 NCAA men's basketball champions, uh, the university of Florida Gators

04:26right now at the white house. Um, when it comes to college sports, there's a lot of talk about how

04:31perhaps private equity will be getting into that space as well. What kind of complications does that

04:36create? Because a lot of endowments end up investing in alternative investments assets like

04:42private equity. Right. Well, I think the first thing is if you have to take a step back to straighten

04:47out NIL, um, number one, I think when they put the NIL in place, they did not account for

04:53the plethora of money that was going in, particularly with the big conferences like the

04:57sec being able to outbid for players. And there's no, um, fundamental structure and how that's

05:03managed. So I think that's the first thing. Um, you know, with private equity, they look at it

05:07quite simply. You can make a case that the university of Alabama has just as much evaluation as the

05:13New York Jets. So they don't look at it in terms of separate, in terms of, you know, teams and

05:17leagues, what have you. Um, will it get a little bit messy? Um, to, to be determined in all, in all

05:23quite honesty, but I do think, um, the influx of, um, capital will provide a, um, a, um, more depth

05:33and, and more, more organization to the leagues and so forth because they're continuing to grow.

05:38I just want to point out, Earl, you know, normally I do a segment called on this day in history. And

05:43I just want to point out yesterday, May 20th, back in 1994, one of the greatest days in history

05:48ever. That was that Scotty Pippen dunk, the greatest dunk ever over Patrick Ewing. Okay. Well,

05:54I think he's still hurting from that to this day. Are you just trolling him? I am. I am arguably

05:59and look, Charles Smith is a friend. Um, you know, if Pippen didn't foul over the top, you know,

06:05we could be looking at two championships, but, um, you know, look, I know you Chicago fans are

06:10going through a hard time right now. So, uh, but that 94 season was great. I mean, I was,

06:15it wasn't 94. That was the, um, the Reggie Miller game too. When, uh, he scored like 25 in the last

06:20like quarter. Well, the exciting thing is that, um, Michael Jordan is going to be a,

06:25I guess a commentator on the new NBC sports segment. They need to boot him up right now for that.

06:31I want it unfiltered though. I want Michael Jordan with a cigar on a golf course with,

06:36uh, making some bets on the side with alcohol and beverage. You know, you talk about the spring

06:41of 1994. I can only think about the Rangers who actually did win a championship. So in any

06:45case, uh, good luck tonight tonight. I wish you much appreciate it.

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