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00:00First of all, this is quite a venture. You've got a partnership between Penske Entertainment,
00:04the Dallas Cowboys and the Texas Rangers. First year here. So I want to know what are both of
00:10your expectations for the event? We'll start with you, Charlotte. Yes. Well, you know, we love to do
00:15things bigger and better in Texas. And why not pull the strongest partners that we can together
00:22to make sure we create a lot of incredible excitement and something really that our
00:28fans have not seen before. And I think when you get to put two iconic venues or three together and
00:37go as fast as you can around them, then something exciting is going to happen. But it doesn't happen
00:42without an incredible partner. And Greg Penske has been that to both of us. And we are just thrilled
00:50that we are so close to this event actually coming to fruition. So we couldn't be more excited.
00:55It's interesting because in 2024, I sat down with your father and I sat down with Charlotte's
01:01father. It somewhat seems like yesterday, but now this is really coming together. It's about a year
01:06and a half. How did you get it done so quickly? Well, look, I think first off, I think when
01:10we
01:10looked at, you know, trying to put this event together, you know, we bought the business back
01:15in January 6th at 20. And of course, we had a pandemic three months later. So of course,
01:20always good to buy a business during a pandemic and no revenue. But, you know, we wanted to try
01:25and go grow the business and look at different locations. And when I had met Charlotte and actually
01:32Charlotte and her dad and her brother, we had bought a business, actually a piece of property
01:36up in Prosper, Texas, and went to their new headquarters. And I'll never forget when in
01:42there and people are cleaning the place. It's all organized, looks great. I said, man, they're just
01:47like us. They like to have everything clean and organized. And you add in the Rangers and you
01:52really, what a great partnership. And you look at one plus one plus one equals one. And I think what
01:57we've said was, look, we've got great facilities. We have the people, meaning their resources. When
02:03you start looking at, when you operate a business like this, we can help operationally. We can put the
02:08track together. But when you can take two great organizations and their back of house, their
02:14operations people, even their food and beverage, their security, where we would have to go out and
02:19get that if we were going to do a temporary circuit. So we really looked at that as a big
02:24opportunity to be able to work with them and their people. And it's been very great to be a part
02:29of
02:29that. And now we just got to execute the first race. You know, we'll learn a lot through the first
02:33race. But I do believe there's a motorsports festival, quite honestly. And I think you'll see some
02:40cowboys and some cheerleaders and maybe some mascots and the Rangers and kind of similar things
02:44around the race as well. So it's racing, but it's also a festival, you know, here in Texas.
02:50You know, Greg, let's talk about physically putting this track together. It goes around
02:54AT&T and Stadium, Globe Life Field. It's a 2.73 mile long street course. What has it been like
03:01to
03:01actually create this? Well, we had a really good designer who designs a lot of tracks. A guy named Tony
03:06Cotman. So he did this track. He's done the Formula One track in Las Vegas and a couple other
03:12locations. And so we looked at him and he just looked at the facility and the property around
03:18AT&T Stadium and Globe Life. And how do you put together a track? It's the longest track we have
03:23on
03:23the circuit. So 2.73 miles for a road course. We have a 0.9 mile straightaway. That's almost as
03:29long
03:29as Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which is two and a half miles. So it's going to be a very fast part
03:34of the
03:34track. We call that the speed trap at the end of it. So it goes past Choctaw and you make
03:39a hard
03:39right turn, a 90 degree turn. But to put it together, we have 2,750 barriers, crash wall
03:46barriers that we have to put up. We have to put up 2,750 fences that go on there for
03:51safety and
03:52security, you know, with the track. And so that's a big part of it. We've got 76 suites we're putting
03:58up right now and right across from AT&T Stadium there, which will be great. We have to put the
04:04grandstands up too. So we've done it. We run in Long Beach. We also race in Detroit and other
04:10temporary circuits. We start the season in St. Petersburg. So they also is a temporary circuit.
04:15But it takes a village to build these, I can tell you. And it'll be the same thing operating the
04:20business where we'll probably have about 1,500 people. But the other thing I would say is having
04:25the Cowboys and the Rangers, especially when you start looking at operationally and we have food
04:31and beverage and those kind of things coming out of the Cowboys. And they're used to doing 350 suites
04:36where they've got their chef Marcel, who's a super guy. He's going to do all the food and beverage
04:41and pastries and those kind of things. So all that really accounted for trying to make it a great
04:46event, right? And make it a festival. Charlotte, you're obviously at AT&T Stadium frequently.
04:52So actually seeing this come up and having your people work on this.
04:57Yes. I tell you what, it is incredible. I was just talking with Greg of the progress that's
05:02already been made. If you haven't been out there, you will certainly see the midst of all the intense
05:07construction that is happening. But to put an event like this on and literally the 2.7 miles,
05:15there is something on every inch. And that requires a lot of incredible coordination,
05:20a lot of dedication from our teams to make it happen, a lot of collaboration to make it happen
05:26as well. But there is such a passion to do a first of its kind event like this here.
05:31And I think the incredible thing about it is this is truly an event for the people.
05:37And although we have all the premium offerings that have already been sold out, this is an event
05:43to bring your kids to. It is available. You can get a pass for $35 and you can take your
05:51kids under 12
05:52for free. You can't do anything like that as a family anywhere these days. And that was really
05:58important for us is this is really about community. It's running through the community. We wanted the
06:04community to be involved for it to be accessible to them and to really be a part of starting an
06:11incredible tradition right here in the Metroplex area. And that kind of offering, it just is so
06:17unique for us. And to be able to bring something like this to a national stage that really impacts us
06:24locally is something that we've always wanted to do. And having the right partners to do it
06:29makes it that much more exciting for us, but also gives us the ability to really make it happen
06:36in a first class way. What do you envision, Charlotte, the economic impact being for the area?
06:42You know, we've already seen in our ticket sales that they're coming from not only across the nation,
06:48but across the country. And this really gives us another opportunity. I know we have the World Cup
06:54right around the corner, bringing in people internationally to our region. But this
06:59event will do that. It already is doing that. And I think that means we get a chance to have
07:04DFW on
07:06an international stage, on a national stage, and for people to come see us at our best. And I think
07:12bringing people together, entertainment is what we do really well. And now we get a chance to expose
07:19everybody to something just a little bit different.
07:21I was going to say, Charlotte, too, you know, when you think about it, I was looking at the ticket
07:23reports
07:24today. And you talked about international and different people that are coming into Arlington and the DFW area.
07:30Today, we're in 44 states that have bought tickets from 44 different states and 10 countries.
07:36Looks a little bit like the Olympics. We've got Finland. We've got Ireland. We've got Poland.
07:40I think Australia, France, Mexico, Canada. So we've got people now coming into the Metroplex.
07:45It's really going to be, you know, coming here for the first time. And we're going to give them that
07:50great experience in the Texas hospitality. So that was exciting to see that. And for the city of
07:55Arlington as well, they've been a great partner, too. Their safety crews, their fire crews, everybody
07:59that's going to work the event, the police, very excited to be a part of it.
08:05Greg, obviously, you're very familiar with this area. Up until 2023, IndyCar raced at Texas Motor Speedway.
08:11Do you envision Arlington now as the next home? We do. We think this can be a long term,
08:17as Charlotte said. I think we're looking at it's not as just a one year race and we're gone. This
08:22is something we think we've built for the future. Today at Long Beach, they just celebrated their
08:2850th year of running a race in Long Beach. So you start looking at that. I think St. Petersburg is
08:3320
08:33years. So this is the kind of legacy we want to have and build on the event. And I think
08:40we'll learn
08:40a lot this first year and grow from there. I think people get a chance to come and see this,
08:46see what racing is all about, but see what this festival is all about and how we tune in the
08:51Cowboys and the Rangers and maybe people maybe been a Rangers fan or been a Cowboys fan and
08:55look at each place differently. But there'll be activation areas, both in the Cowboys area,
09:00plus in the Rangers area and around Globe Life. So that's the exciting part. You can be in
09:06either of those locations. So that's what we're looking forward to.
09:10Greg, since I have you, Fox Corporation has acquired a third of Penske Entertainment. Of
09:14course, that's IndyCar and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Any other deal in the works you want to
09:18let us know about? Not right now. We'll take Fox first. We think they were a great partner. I'd known
09:25Eric Shanks for a long time in their team. But what they've been able to do and to really
09:31come into the sport and see what we've seen with the drivers, the different tracks we go to.
09:37We had a big increase, 27 percent, a 27 percent increase in our TV ratings last year. So I think
09:43that one of the highest in sports. So we're all in. And I think they really are excited about,
09:48you know, being a part of this and who we are and I think who the drivers are. And they
09:53see that
09:54as a real good lever for them long term to help them grow Fox Sports with us as well.
09:59And Charlotte, as Chief Rand Officer of the Dallas Cowboys, what's coming up next year?
10:05What's coming up next year? I tell you what, if we could get through March and have a really big
10:09weekend, then we'll think about next year. But right now, this is so exciting that, you know,
10:15I hope everybody understands that this is such an incredible race. There's incredible entertainment.
10:20There's also concerts, T-Pain, you know, all the works that this is really something that is a
10:27I can't miss opportunity. I think to have this in our own backyard is simply amazing. And, you know,
10:35and I always like to do or be involved in things that leave a lasting impact on community. And the
10:42Penske family has made an incredible donation to the National Medal of Honor Museum. I don't know if
10:48many people know, but there's a Medal of Honor recipient who was first involved in IndyCar. And
10:55his car back from World War II era will actually be there on display. But I think it just shows
11:02you
11:02that when you have good people that you partner with, they want to help community and they want
11:08to do things the right way. And this is going to be entertainment that is going to benefit locally,
11:14is going to be seen by people nationally and experienced by people around the world.
11:19And that's what we strive to do, to do first class events in the best way that we can.
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