00:00So we're just days away from kickoff, as I said, and you know, as Julie was talking about with Dan
00:05Hunt,
00:05there's a whole range of estimates for what the economic impact could be.
00:10And before we get into, you know, how you're invested around this,
00:13I am curious, you know, what you make of some of the figures that are coming out here.
00:17Well, they're mind-blowing when you think about it.
00:19$13 billion of revenue generated in 39 days.
00:22The World Cup final match will draw between 1.5 billion and 1.8 billion viewers.
00:27I mean, that's Super Bowl is 130 million people.
00:30So just unbelievable, 6, 6.5 million attendees, three continents, 16 cities, 104 matches.
00:37I mean, big and impactful.
00:39Yeah, absolutely.
00:40And, of course, I'm just thinking about the traffic, but that's not fun.
00:43We spoke to you about a month ago at the Milken Conference over in California,
00:49and you said that a lot of our businesses this summer will have enormous success because of the World Cup.
00:54So let's dig into that a little bit more and how, you know,
00:57Bruin Capital has approached investing around this space, around soccer.
01:02So we have a number of portfolio companies.
01:04We actually are going to be lighting the pitch at all the stadiums for the matches.
01:07We've got players playing on the field.
01:09We have LED signage and virtual technology.
01:12We're in and around the game in many different ways.
01:14So it drives financial results for our companies in a big way.
01:18We have a gambling tech stack called Fair Play Media.
01:21We'll have an amazing summer in terms of activity and betting.
01:26So just in a lot of different ways, it drives interest, which drives engagement.
01:29When you look at sort of the evolution of soccer here in the U.S.,
01:33and obviously a lot of it started a few decades ago with the big Women's World Cup win,
01:37and that sort of created sort of new fan engagement,
01:40what's been the trajectory up until this point?
01:42And do you think that this current World Cup, the 2026 World Cup,
01:46will also sort of be kind of one of those inflection points where we see a lot of new folks,
01:50new U.S. folks, because obviously everyone outside the U.S. has, of course,
01:55have been on this train for years.
01:56Regrettably, I remember 1994, that really was the impetus for the launch of soccer.
02:00I think the Women's World Cup and Women's Euro has really propelled soccer on a global stage.
02:06And I think the World Cup here, it will mesmerize America.
02:09The whole world is going to be focused on these matches.
02:11And I think it will do a lot to drive interest and awareness of the game.
02:15I do want to ask you about the other big sporting event, at least taking place,
02:18at least if you're in New York City, and that is, of course, the New York Knicks,
02:21which are on probably one of the more improbable runs,
02:24the first time in the finals since the late 1990s.
02:28And we were talking the other day here about sort of the increase in wealth that we've seen Jim Dolan
02:33have.
02:33But I was taking a look at just the valuation of the Knicks as a franchise,
02:36as you would expect, given how big this market is.
02:38I think it's ranked number three or four, depending on who you believe.
02:41Does winning a championship, assuming they do, does that actually have a significant increase on a team's value?
02:49It does.
02:50In the case of the Knicks, because they're publicly traded,
02:52that stock has appreciated dramatically during this last year as a result of their performance on the court.
02:58So I would say that the Knicks' performance is driving the value of that stock today.
03:01And obviously the value of the team.
03:03And look, New York is a basketball town.
03:05New Yorkers love basketball.
03:07And it's been a long time since the New York Knicks have been where they are today.
03:10And you can just feel it in the city.
03:12It's great for sports.
03:13It's great for New Yorkers.
03:14And it's good for business.
03:16Yeah.
03:16And it's good for the NBA because it's driving ratings for the NBA.
03:19The finals are up 90% year over year.
03:21And the New York Knicks have a lot to do with that.
03:24Yeah, it's a big market team.
03:25Biggest media market out there, more or less.
03:27I've watched more basketball in the past three weeks than I probably have in my entire life.
03:31So your point is well taken there.
03:34But when it comes to valuations of teams, obviously the Knicks valuation has increased.
03:39But does winningness always translate into higher valuations?
03:43Do those two lines always correspond?
03:45Because I was actually having a conversation last week in the context of football.
03:50And someone made the point to me that you think about the Cowboys, for example.
03:53I don't know football at all, so I'm sorry if I'm speaking out of turn.
03:56But I heard that they actually haven't been winning many games recently in the past few decades.
04:02But when you think about sort of the legacy, the valuation of that team,
04:05you wouldn't necessarily know it by looking at that sort of figure.
04:09Every sport's a little bit different.
04:11I think a good example here will be the Seattle Seahawks, which will be in market, the Super Bowl champions.
04:16And my guess is that trade's somewhere between $9, $10, $11 billion.
04:20So pretty good for the market of Seattle.
04:22The Knicks are different, of course, because they're public.
04:24So it doesn't always correlate to on-track or on-field performance.
04:28But there is a correlation.
04:30And it certainly doesn't hurt.
04:31Can I just piggyback on our question, though?
04:33Because it does raise good points.
04:34And, you know, you don't want to say it.
04:35But let's face it, the Cowboys have been, you know, stinkers for years.
04:37I feel like I don't have the authority to say that.
04:39On the field.
04:40But obviously, they're very adept at marketing, very adept at keeping their name in the zeitgeist.
04:45I mean, people still call them America's team for some reason.
04:48I don't know why.
04:48I can hate on them, but you see the disconnect sometimes between winning and just having a good business model,
04:54which they clearly do.
04:56They are great business people.
04:57I remember 15, 20 years ago, their sales team came in, and I said, these guys are the best salesmen
05:02I have ever seen.
05:03So in terms of making money and monetizing a sports asset, the Dallas Cowboys are as good as anybody in
05:08the world.
05:09And they've been good on the field, haven't won a championship.
05:11Yeah, okay.
05:12I'm still going to hate on them.
05:14Yes, fair enough.
05:15But, George, it's interesting, and this harkens back to our conversation that we were having at Milken.
05:19You're not necessarily investing in teams, though.
05:22That's not necessarily your sweet spot.
05:24You're more about the enablers of the game, as you were talking about when it comes to the World Cup,
05:29you know, lighting the fields rather than, you know, buying stakes in the teams themselves.
05:34Correct.
05:34And so the higher the valuations, the higher the meteorites, the more important and valuable those services are.
05:40And, of course, our businesses have generate cash.
05:43They have high cash flow conversion, certain liquidity, and we're able to add value.
05:47So that's more of a traditional investment where the teams are great investments as well, but a different type of
05:53investment, something that appreciates and, over time, more steady.
05:57But it's interesting, too.
05:58I mean, and teams have woken up to this idea.
06:00You have a lot of teams that now control their own media, more or less.
06:02Some of them have gotten into some of the ancillary businesses that you yourself is in as well.
06:08And this is kind of a selfish question as a Bears fan.
06:10The Bears are leaving Chicago, so they'll be dead to me as soon as that happens.
06:14But they're moving to Indiana.
06:16But it does raise a lot of questions.
06:17I mean, here's a chance to build something from the ground, meaning a new stadium.
06:20And I assume that the economics of that have to go beyond just that physical space, right?
06:26I mean, there's got to be more of a business ecosystem around that to make this.
06:29Well, the economics are just so compelling.
06:31If you can build a whole real estate development and you're the landlord, I mean, just the value of that's
06:36amazing.
06:37And in the case of the Bears, they don't have certain rights in the stadium they have.
06:41So they're going to monetize the stadium better, but also the whole area around it.
06:45And it's just so compelling.
06:47It's billions of dollars.
06:49So it's kind of, in fairness, if you owned the Bears, it'd be kind of hard to turn that down.
06:52It's only 20 miles from Chicago.
