00:00Bob Iger and Josh Kushner were looking at the NBA expansion team in Las Vegas,
00:05and then the price was getting high, is what Iger told me.
00:08And at some point, a little birdie or an intermediary suggested or told Bob Iger and Josh Kushner,
00:14hey, you should go look at the Lakers.
00:16And sure enough, that had to be on Saturday or Sunday.
00:19And some 72 hours later, maybe 90 hours later, they had a deal.
00:24You know, they were looking in Vegas.
00:26Yeah.
00:26They were going to start a team from scratch, Randall.
00:28What happened?
00:31I really think that there's a Walmart family involved or a Walton family involved.
00:36And there's a couple other groups involved in Las Vegas, including Bill Foley,
00:40who's the owner of the Golden Knights.
00:42And then you have Mark Lazzari and a group known as the Las Vegas Jacks.
00:46When you have that many groups involved, naturally, that competition is going to drive the price high.
00:50Now, Josh Kushner and Bob Iger were considered favorites.
00:53However, if they say it's high, I can only imagine that it's it.
00:57I would guesstimate that it's over $10 billion.
01:00I got to go from the Lakers to the Knicks.
01:02I'm a Knicks fan.
01:02I'm sorry.
01:03I got to go there, guys.
01:04And Randall and I, we were at the New York Knicks parade.
01:06So we did that together, too.
01:08We had a great time out there.
01:10But now all this, the Knicks moving closer to this New York Rangers spinoff.
01:15I mean, what's going on?
01:16Is this going through?
01:18I think so.
01:20I think, you know, the Knicks are, or Madison Square Garden Sports Corporation,
01:23is targeting separating the Rangers business from the Knicks business.
01:27And so what this will mean is that Madison Square Garden Sports Corporation
01:30will become the Madison Square Garden Knicks Corporation,
01:33and then there will be a separate Rangers business.
01:36What's expected to happen is this is going to extract value.
01:39This is going to figure out the difference between the Knicks business
01:42and the Rangers business.
01:43And, you know, James Dolan has said that he has no plans of selling either team.
01:48But once you see the value of those teams,
01:51who's to say he couldn't get $2 billion for 20% of the team
01:55or maybe even 15% of the team?
01:57Enter Jeff Bezos.
01:59I know.
02:00Not to be left out of this game, as Randall reports.
02:03Fenway Sports Group from beautiful Boston selling a minority stake in Liverpool.
02:08So he's got 30% of the team or the franchise, Randall.
02:13Delivered next day.
02:15Yeah, by drone.
02:16Just saying.
02:17Is this a vanity piece or an investment?
02:21Yeah.
02:22I think it's a bit of both.
02:23But the reality is that any team in the world that Jeff Bezos wants, he can have.
02:27You know, at some point, when you have as much money as Jeff Bezos does,
02:34someone could not be looking to sell.
02:35And he would say, name your price.
02:37And they would say $25 billion.
02:38And he would just write a check.
02:39And so the fact that this is, you know, a 30% stake shows, I think there's some interest.
02:44But the fact, I don't think he's going to be involved on the day-to-day.
02:48This is something I think that is very small in his world.
02:51You know what's interesting?
02:52I think the FT had a piece, too.
02:54And we talked about this on air with David Weston, of course, formerly head of ABC News.
02:58He knows Bob Iger.
02:59But we were talking about this idea, Randall, and I'm curious what you guys are hearing,
03:03that the interest in sports teams kind of resilient to AI, artificial intelligence.
03:09As we think about it in a world where we don't know, feel like a lot's going to be impacted,
03:13sports maybe not so much.
03:15Live sports, certainly.
03:16Yeah, I doubt it.
03:17I doubt it right now.
03:19I think that AI will enhance sports experiences.
03:21You think about walking into a new arena.
03:23If you're a season ticket holder, is your experience now customized?
03:27Does the arena or does your app say, welcome back, Carol?
03:31We'd love to have you eat the barbecue chicken you had last time.
03:35Like sort of those customized experiences is what I expect.
03:39Now, long term, if someone's able to create a technology-based league,
03:45something with robots or something that I think we're far away from,
03:50that's the only threat that I see, but it's not in sight.
03:52It's a fantasy.
03:54Randall, I got to ask you, are you okay?
03:56Because there was so much sports breaking over the past.
03:59The headlines just keep coming out yesterday, yesterday.
04:01He's still in his pajamas.
04:03Randall's always okay.
04:04You're in your pajamas, aren't you, Randall?
04:06Am I okay?
04:07Let me tell you.
04:08I'm not okay.
04:10When this news broke on Wednesday,
04:13I got a call maybe two minutes before Ramona Shelbourne at ESPN's story went live,
04:17and it just took over my day.
04:19And then yesterday, it had to be around 6 p.m.
04:21that the Knicks and Rangers announced that they were separating their business,
04:24and I quickly did that, too.
04:26So I don't need any news to break for the next week or so.
04:29Everybody just settle down and let's get ready for the NFL season.
04:32I think we wanted you to come in studio, and Tim Stanovic, my co-host, during the week,
04:36and he was like, I think he messaged him like,
04:38if everybody would stop messaging me, I could get to Bloomberg.
04:40I did say that.
04:41You did?
04:41I did say that.
04:42Just leave me alone.
04:43I was trying to get to Lex around noon, and I did not get there until 2.30.
04:47You got the best around.
04:48He's like the coolest cucumber at Bloomberg News.
04:52You got this.
04:52We talked about this purchase of the Lakers, and he came in wearing a jersey.
04:56I was.
04:57We were blown away.
04:58He came in prepared to play.
05:00He came in prepared to play.
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