00:00Look, folks, right behind me are the Pro Bowl games, and for the first time ever, it is a private
00:04event,
00:05but you have a golden ticket through me, so congratulations. Let's go.
00:10I'm Miranda Williams, a sports business reporter at Bloomberg News,
00:13and I'm taking you inside the world's biggest, flashiest, and most expensive sporting events to answer one question.
00:20How did sports become this big of a business?
00:25This year, the Super Bowl week has something a little different on the schedule.
00:28And no, I don't mean the private party that somehow has an unlimited celebrity invite list.
00:34I'm talking about the Pro Bowl games.
00:35The event usually takes place on Sunday before the Super Bowl, but this year, the NFL moved it in the
00:41middle of the big week.
00:42Over the past five seasons, the Pro Bowl games, formerly known as the Pro Bowl, has undergone immense change.
00:48For over 30 years, the Pro Bowl was a Hawaii-based event, but Aloha Stadium faced longstanding infrastructure issues
00:54and a lack of upkeep causing the league to leave after 2016.
00:57Since then, the event hasn't had a permanent home.
01:00There's also been a shift in the culture of the game as well.
01:03At one point, the Pro Bowl was a full-contact football game with players clobbering each other, but that became
01:09a problem.
01:10Why?
01:10Free agency is just a few weeks after the event, and an injury can cost athletes millions.
01:15Behind the scenes, the league had been building its solution, flag football.
01:19But the game is substantially different.
01:21A flag football field is 70 yards long and 25 yards wide, with two 10-yard end zones, and the
01:27pace of play is much faster.
01:29I know, it sounds crazy, but the NFL has been investing time and energy into flag football for several years.
01:35NFL owners committed $32 million to partner with an organization on the creation of professional men's and women's flag football
01:41leagues.
01:42And in January, the NCAA voted to move women's flag football to the organization's emerging sports for women, signaling an
01:49opportunity for the sport to be played by large conferences like the Big Ten and SEC.
01:53It's one of the best strategies I've seen come out of the league office, particularly with participation growth.
02:01It's been a challenge to grow the sport throughout the globe.
02:05Throughout the globe, this is like rocket fuel for growth.
02:09The effort has been led by Vision 28 Group, a joint venture led by NFL Executive Vice President Troy Vincent
02:14and Pierre Trochet.
02:15Their goal, getting flag football included in the LA 28 Olympics, and that happened in 2023.
02:21I want to do it just to represent our country.
02:23And so with the stage set for flag football to make its Olympic debut, the NFL leaned into that, rebranding
02:28the Pro Bowl to the Pro Bowl games, with the pinnacle of the event being a flag football game.
02:33So, as the league continues to build toward a pro flag football league and prepares for the LA 28 Olympics,
02:39the Pro Bowl games are an opportunity to show the world the NFL sport of the future.
02:44Well, it was so lit.
02:45Like, we had such a great time.
02:46I mean, obviously, like, all these guys came here to have fun.
02:50It's just a blessing to be here with all these great dudes.
02:52But, hey, we got the dub.
02:54Let's go.
02:55Let's go.
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