00:00He went to the Super Bowl last year. He's been in several UFC fights.
00:03He was in NBA Finals Game 3. Now he's attending the World Cup.
00:07And the reality is he's just a big sports fan.
00:09And I think that these TV products and these shows that you call them, these sporting events, they draw a
00:17large audience.
00:17You put President Trump on the screen. I think nobody likes that more than him.
00:21And it brings a spectacle. So it is what it is.
00:24I know you have a lot of news stories to talk about, but I'm just curious what it feels like
00:28when you watch and you know the president is there.
00:30Maybe not personally, but is security tighter? What is it on the ground?
00:34Oh, yes. It makes getting into whatever stadium, outside of the UFC.
00:38The UFC events, he comes in for the main card for the most of the time.
00:41And so by that point in time, everybody's in their seats.
00:44But for the Super Bowl, for the NBA Finals, for I imagine the World Cup, it's going to be a
00:50madhouse.
00:51And it just means that there's Secret Service everywhere.
00:54There's people that are armed everywhere.
00:57And it just creates very long lines, very, very long lines that I feel has a bit unnecessary.
01:02Right. And everyone just has to kind of wade through it and kind of wade it out.
01:06OK, so there's a story here where you guys put out a weekly newsletter and the headline is FIFA, not
01:13Argentina or Spain, who are, of course, playing for the final, is the real winner from this World Cup.
01:19FIFA really called the shots on this World Cup, didn't they?
01:22Yeah, they did. And I think that I would consider them a big winner, too.
01:26Like there's there are a lot of critiques about FIFA and how they ran this tournament, whether it be the
01:31public transit, whether it be the ticket prices.
01:33But how much of that has actually been a discussion over the last six weeks?
01:37There hasn't really been a lot of controversy outside of President Trump asking them to review Flo Balligan's red card,
01:45Flo Balligan playing and then Belgium putting belt to the USA's behind on the pitch.
01:52And so outside of that, the matches have not been all that controversial.
01:56There's VARs and those conversations.
01:58But if you ask every single sporting organization, what type of controversy do you want?
02:02You want it to be on the field.
02:04Right. You don't want it to be off the field.
02:06And so FIFA is a big winner of that.
02:07And they're going to make a boatload of money.
02:09And you also had this great school of Yankees saying to be in talks for three billion dollars in financing
02:14with Apollo.
02:15Talk to us more about the significance of that.
02:17I would just ask Scarlett off air.
02:18Why would they do that?
02:19And she said diversified returns.
02:21Yeah, I think that if you're Apollo, it's the Yankees.
02:24Like, who does not want to be in business with the Yankees?
02:26It's a meeting of the titans.
02:27Right.
02:27And I think that the three billion dollars, as we reported, is going to go towards debt.
02:31They'll receive some equity.
02:32What that looks like, I'm not so sure yet.
02:35But that's a lot of money.
02:36And I think the MLB's cap for private equity is 15%.
02:40So whether it be, you know, two point five billion dollars in private equity dollars or three billion or two
02:45billion, it doesn't really matter.
02:47It's that's a lot of money in terms of total valuation of the Yankees business.
02:51Well, how much is the Yankees business worth?
02:54We'll find out when it closes.
02:56Is it the most valuable franchise in the world?
02:58In the MLB, I'd say.
03:00I think the Cowboys have held the top rank for most valuable franchise in the world.
03:04I think the Rams are in there.
03:06The Lakers should be in the Warriors.
03:07And then it's the Yankees are undoubtedly the baseball team that is in the mix.
03:12As long as we're ahead of the Red Sox, I'm happy.
03:15There's a big gap between the Yankees and the Red Sox in terms of valuation.
03:18And this is the biggest investment Apollo would have made in the U.S. sports to date if it goes
03:24through.
03:25Why now, though?
03:26I mean, you said, Scarlett said it's a meeting of the Titans.
03:29So, I mean, why didn't they do this last year or two years ago?
03:32I think that it has to make sense, the timing of it all.
03:35And I think that the Yankees, as we've reported, there's some debt in there.
03:39And I think if you go to a private equity firm, the Yankees print money.
03:42They have so many games.
03:44You think of outside of the games themselves.
03:46Jay-Z just had three nights of sold-out dates there and concerts.
03:50They have NYCFC matches there.
03:52They have a lot of different outlets to generate dollars.
03:55And so, even if Apollo is giving this money, the Yankees and Apollo are inevitably going to make it back
04:02in a short amount of time.
04:03Whether that be 18 months, two years, three years, they're both going to get a return on investment unless there's
04:09a lockout.
04:10Okay, dumb question here.
04:11With all this institutional money, private equity money, can Apollo ever get to a point where it starts calling some
04:17of the shots on the field?
04:19I don't think that we will live long enough to see that.
04:22And the reason, all of these structures for private equity do not allow private equity firms to have controlling ownership,
04:29at least in U.S. sporting teams.
04:30And the reason for that is because it's the same fear that everybody has with private equity, that they will
04:34come in, they will extract dollars, they'll cut star players, they'll make business decisions that aren't fan-driven.
04:40But they're very impressed with their own ability to operate businesses.
04:43I feel like at some point, it seems inevitable that they're going to want to have a say.
04:47I think that it's more likely that there are some sports franchises that go public before handing over.
04:52Now, I think that the limit will definitely increase, but taking over, I don't know about that.
04:57All right, Randall, you are wearing light blue and white.
05:00What does that say about what you think is going to happen Sunday?
05:03I'll say Lionel Messi is my favorite player, but I'm rooting for the best match possible.
05:07So let's just do a repeat of last time.
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