00:00More local flavor.
00:01Remember Travis Kelsey?
00:04He's part owner of the Cleveland Guardians now.
00:06Ratnall resident, Travis Kelsey.
00:08They're all owners, part owners of the Cleveland Guardians.
00:11Yeah.
00:13What actually do you get with a minority state?
00:16You have to get a return on investment somewhere.
00:18You get a parking spot.
00:19Okay, what else do you get?
00:22Sweet Access.
00:23Sweet Access.
00:23Well, can't you just buy Sweet Access?
00:25You don't have to actually buy into the team?
00:27This is different.
00:28It's a different suite.
00:30How much does it cost him to get a baseline buy-in to the Cleveland Guardians?
00:34How much do you think?
00:35A million.
00:37That's it?
00:38Not two?
00:39Not three?
00:40It's got to be more than a million.
00:42You think it is?
00:42Yeah.
00:43I don't know.
00:44It's got to be more than a million.
00:46But Denzel, his career earnings are $100 million.
00:51Because, like...
00:51So what would his accountant...
00:53What would his financial planner say is a smart investment?
00:57I bet it's $10 million.
00:59Okay.
01:00Because if you're like...
01:01Yeah, that's a lot.
01:02But think if you're a sponsor.
01:03That's a lot of his career earnings.
01:04Think if you were a sponsor.
01:07Okay, at least five.
01:09Okay, do we want to keep going lower or just five?
01:11Let's start with five.
01:12If you're a corporate sponsor, how much are you spending a year with the Guardians?
01:16Oh, say seven figures.
01:18Okay.
01:18I mean, could be...
01:19All right, so am I just going to consider them part owners, too?
01:22And now we're just talking, like, that's to get your signage, too, or just to get access
01:27to them?
01:27You're getting tickets, too.
01:29It's more than low sevens.
01:30Yeah.
01:31You're getting tickets.
01:32You're getting signage.
01:33You're getting the whole deal.
01:34You get to send out a new employee every first pitch.
01:37To do a first pitch?
01:37Yeah.
01:38You get to do the...
01:38Yeah.
01:38To do one of their 240 if you do three per home game?
01:42First pitches, yes.
01:44You get all those.
01:45Maybe Denzel gets unlimited first pitches.
01:47You get to allocate them over time.
01:49I'm willing to bet to buy in to have some sort of, like, a 1%.
01:541% is probably high for...
01:56I mean, they're probably worth a billion dollars, the Guardians.
02:00Right?
02:00Yeah.
02:01Okay, so 5 million bucks is not 1% of a billion, is it?
02:05I don't know.
02:05Someone's got to do the math.
02:06I don't know how to do math.
02:07No.
02:08Just...
02:08All right.
02:08I can tell you right away, 5 million is not 1%.
02:12What is it?
02:12Do we know what the percent is?
02:14But the numbers would have to be similar for it to be a 1%.
02:17I don't know.
02:18Yeah.
02:18I have no idea.
02:19Yeah.
02:1910 million.
02:20Okay.
02:20So 10 million is 1%.
02:2210 million is 1%.
02:23So 5 million is half a percent.
02:25Yeah.
02:25Okay.
02:25So maybe it's 10 million bucks you got to put in to get 1%.
02:31It's a nice figure.
02:33Yeah.
02:34Good for Denzel Ward.
02:37Yeah.
02:37This is all about, you know, Blitzer, who's not from here, getting just some local, identifiable
02:44people.
02:45Obviously, Travis Kelsey's famous.
02:47Denzel's famous in Northeast Ohio.
02:49So you do that because you're not here.
02:52You're invested in all these other teams and...
02:55What does that make?
02:56It's Teflon?
02:56Because...
02:57All other real estate properties.
02:58I don't even know what David Blitzer looks like.
03:00So I can yell...
03:01Like, if they start making bad moves...
03:02I assume he looks like Wolf.
03:03If they start making bad...
03:05That's...
03:05Honestly, when I think of David Blitzer, I just think of Wolf Blitzer.
03:08So I'm just going to think I'm yelling at Wolf Blitzer.
03:11It's like, they make bad moves and they're somehow even more fiscally responsible than
03:17what even the Guardians are right now, which is a very difficult thing to do, but it can
03:21be done.
03:21You know who's going to get tweeted at when people don't agree with what's happening?
03:25It's Denzel.
03:26Yeah.
03:26It's Travis Kelsey.
03:27No, I was going after Taylor Swift.
03:29But that's the...
03:29And Donna Kelsey.
03:30But that's the beauty.
03:31What am I going to do?
03:31Every day, Donna!
03:32Donna, this is your fault.
03:34Well, not Denzel's mom.
03:35You better not go after Denzel's mom.
03:36No, we can't go after her.
03:38No, I'm not going after her.
03:39No, no.
03:40Absolutely not.
03:40She's on local TV every day.
03:42Can't do that.
03:45I've seen her on TV a lot.
03:47I've met her.
03:48I think I was intimidated.
03:50Oh, yeah.
03:50I think I was intimidated.
03:52Yes, I was.
03:54Actually, very intimidated.
03:55Like a strong, confident woman.
03:56Yeah, I was very intimidated.
03:58Very scared, even.
04:01And then, yeah, I would tell you that I'm not going to yell at Denzel Ward's mom about
04:08fixing the Guardians unless the car's moving.
04:12I might yell out of a moving car, but I'm not going to yell out of a car that's at
04:15a stoplight.
04:17I think with Denzel, I can't yell at Denzel.
04:20I can't yell at Travis Kelsey.
04:22So do you build yourself a buffer?
04:24This is the thing.
04:25Do you build yourself a buffer at Cleveland?
04:27That's a buffer.
04:28That's you, Ken Tarman, who understands the hierarchy in Guardians' ownership, right?
04:32Yes, yes.
04:32That's not, you know, John and Wycliffe who doesn't pay attention to day in, day out of
04:38Guardians' ownership.
04:39But John and Wycliffe is probably a big Denzel Ward fan.
04:42He definitely knows who Denzel Ward is and Travis Kelsey is, and he doesn't know who Wolf Blitzer is.
04:46That's true, but is he going to, is John and Wycliffe going to give Denzel Ward a piece of his
04:51mind
04:52at a high school football game?
04:56I'm more likely to see Denzel Ward in the community than I am to see David Blitzer.
05:01Here's, I think, what the biggest misconception is about what this is going to be when Blitzer takes over,
05:07who also, if you look at his portfolio, the 76ers, New Jersey Devils, the Commanders, the Real Salt Lake,
05:17or is it Real Salt Lake?
05:18I think it's Real.
05:19Utah Royals, the Philadelphia WNBA team, which is yet to be announced.
05:24He's got international soccer clubs.
05:26Man, there's four of those.
05:27He's also a minority stakeholder in Joe Gibbs Racing.
05:33Guys.
05:33Well, that changes everything.
05:35This is, oh, I had to do that for Kenny.
05:36I saw my eyes pop open.
05:38Oh, oh, really?
05:39Oh.
05:39This is not going to be some wild influx of money.
05:43Like, the way these work, and a lot of also the private equity firms work,
05:49they're going to run it like a business exactly the same way as the Guardians are run right now.
05:56Private equity to a sports fan is a four-letter word.
05:59Yeah, look at Kroenke, even.
06:00The way that he has been running things in Denver.
06:04Like, they've been talking about how cheap he is.
06:06This is how all these groups, it's going to go down with the exception of the Dan Gilberts of the
06:13world,
06:13the Jimmy Haslam's of the world.
06:14We are very fortunate to have two of the owners where they have literally proven they will spend whatever it
06:21takes.
06:22That is a minority viewpoint in ownership groups in professional sports.
06:27There's a drawback to that, though.
06:28They are such fans of their sports that they believe they know those sports very well,
06:33and that they're the ones who hold the power.
06:35It's the yin and the yang in this.
06:36So that's the drawback of it.
06:38But, I mean, you mentioned the four-letter word when you say private equity on that.
06:41That's no fun for everybody.
06:43I think with David Blitzer, I do think there will be a splash for David Blitzer.
06:48Because you've got to do that if you're a new owner.
06:50Yes, he'll make a splash.
06:52Here's an extra $30 million we'll spend, and that'll be a one-time thing.
06:56Because if it ends up being a bad one, then...
06:57Well, when are we splashing?
06:59After the work stop.
07:01Yeah, after the work stop, it gets fixed.
07:03Like, immediately after, do I have to wait another year or two?
07:06Well, I don't know.
07:06Are we actually going to figure out a salary cap and a salary floor?
07:09Because then you've got to make all that fit.
07:11I'm going to guess no.
07:16Well, then continue.
07:17I'm just tired of having the same complaints that we've had for over 20 years.
07:22Easily over 20 years.
07:23Don't they get tired of it, too?
07:24Don't you guys see what's going on in the NBA and football?
07:28And don't you want some of that?
07:29I'm buying a minority investment into the Guardians.
07:33Or name what other Clevelander that's made a little bit of money in their life.
07:38I can't just keep yelling at athletes.
07:39Terry Rozier.
07:40Terry Rozier.
07:40Oh.
07:41Wow.
07:43Put the safety on.
07:46Maybe a year ago.
07:47I do think this Dodgers...
07:49If you play your cards right.
07:49I do think the Dodgers...
07:52You've got to know when to hold...
07:53The scandal with the Lakers and the Dodgers...
07:56You've really got to know where to hold them and fold them is the whole key to that.
07:59The scandal with the Lakers and the Dodgers,
08:01I do think that is going to lead to much more oversight over how the wealthy owners...
08:09You're talking about the McCourts, then you're talking about the Buss family, or what scandal?
08:13No, the guy, I already forgot his name.
08:16Marty Moreno with the Angels?
08:17No, the Dodgers.
08:18The Dodgers owner.
08:20About where the money...
08:22Enrico Palazzo.
08:22Where the money was diverted from.
08:25I think there's going to be more oversight over how these owners spend anyway.
08:29So I think you're going to see less and less of the,
08:31hey, I'm just going to spend as much money as I possibly can.
08:34I think that, especially with the valuations where they are, think about it.
08:37If you get in for an NFL or NBA team at $8 million, $9 million, $10 billion, $11 billion,
08:45if you get in at those prices, you're not then going to go ahead and spend so much more money
08:51year to year.
08:51It's not happening.
08:52I don't think it will.
08:54I think you're going to actually see more restraint than ever before in the spending of these teams.
08:59I know that's not what fans want to hear.
09:01So we're back to treating them like businesses and not like toys?
09:06Because that's what they've been treated for 30 years is toys.
09:11I would still rather them treated as toys.
09:15Because there's still some...
09:17Yeah, that's fun for the fans.
09:17Yes, because you have one person to yell at and there's that one person I can go...
09:22Like, Paul Dolan is a mixed bag.
09:24He is definitely committed to the city.
09:27I know he can't just go...
09:28We always get the Dolan family trust mixed up with what Paul Dolan's personal worth is.
09:33He and his brother and his sister have to go and spend the key at the same time
09:36and get promises from the family to be able to take that money,
09:41the $4, $5, $6 billion, whatever it is, and throw it into the Cleveland Guardians.
09:45I don't think that's going to happen.
09:47So we say, like, oh, Paul Dolan's worth this, that, and the other.
09:49It's like, well, that's what he's worth.
09:51He can't spend that money.
09:52He can't do it.
09:53Well, it's because they lumped James Dolan in with him.
09:55There you go.
09:56They are a separate entity.
09:57They always do that.
09:58I can always defend them.
09:59They always do that when they do the value of the teams and the owners.
10:02I'm like, I don't think that Paul Dolan has ever played jazz saxophone.
10:07I don't think that has ever happened.
10:09But I do commend him for his commitment to Cleveland.
10:12I do worry about new owners anytime we have new owners.
10:15But when you have the one owner, yeah, they can get pretty nuts.
10:19Like, you can have a bad, bad, bad Dan Snyder thing
10:22where you just keep making the same mistake and making it worse,
10:25and then you've got all the other things in there.
10:26Or you can try to learn from your mistakes.
10:29I think Dan Gilbert's learned from his mistakes.
10:31I think to the degrees they're still trying to learn from their mistakes
10:34with the Haslams and the Browns.
10:35And hopefully that'll start to pay off over some time.
10:38But you're going to have to go through, you're going to have to take your knocks.
10:40But I still think it's better to have one person at the end
10:43that you can throw vitriol or praise or whatever towards
10:47instead of this board of nameless gray faces
10:50where, again, David Blitzer's a businessman.
10:52Man, we just think of Wolf Blitzer when we think of that guy.
