00:00I didn't realize it had been this long since an American had won a Grand Slam.
00:05Why is that?
00:06And then what are we expecting from this match?
00:09Well, I think the pretty easy answer to that question is the sport was dominated by Nadal, Federer, and Djokovic
00:16over the last three.
00:17So I think that they didn't really leave a lot of room for other people to win a title in
00:21that amount of time.
00:22But I do think if Ben Shelton is able to win and capture this title, then I think it has
00:28huge implications for what that means for the popularity of the sport here and what it could mean for him.
00:34Could he become the new face of tennis?
00:37Ben Shelton pulling a very late game a few days.
00:41Talk about him and the role that he's playing in this tournament.
00:43So, yes, you talk about the excitement he could create.
00:45I mean, he has emerged here as a major figure in the course of this tournament.
00:50Yeah, absolutely.
00:51The game that he played against Carlo Alcaraz, who is the two-time defending champion of the U.S. Open,
00:58was, you know, started at 11 p.m. and finished at 3.33 in the morning.
01:03This is not probably what tennis needs out of their biggest star.
01:08You know, they don't need to be playing at 3.30 in the morning.
01:10So I think today the final is in the afternoon.
01:14That's probably, you know, better for them.
01:16Obviously, during the weekdays, it's a little bit harder.
01:18They want to be in prime time on the weekdays, but prime time is not 3.30 in the morning.
01:22No.
01:23Did they have some scheduling issues this year, or was it that the early seeds were tougher and more evenly
01:29matched than they thought?
01:30Because it does seem like these matches are going really, really late, even from the start.
01:35I mean, I know there are a couple people on my block who are coming into hotels at, like, 2
01:39and 3 in the morning almost every night, even from the beginning.
01:41Is this something the Open needs to look at for next year?
01:44I do think it's something they should look at.
01:46I don't know if it was an actual scheduling problem.
01:49Like, would they have said it was a scheduling problem?
01:51I don't think so.
01:52They did come out and say they will, you know, take a look at it.
01:56And we did have the CEO of the Tennis Channel at Bloomberg Power Players event.
02:01That's our sports event earlier this week.
02:04And he had noted that, listen, it's not good.
02:07It's not good for business.
02:08And also, Martina Navratilova, who is a tennis icon, was on stage with him.
02:13And she said it is horrible for the athletes themselves because they don't go right to sleep.
02:19So you're not going to get the best tennis out of people if they're playing this way.
02:23So I do think they'll end up making some changes in the future.
02:27I think they need to open up probably, you know, both center courts.
02:31And I think Martina, what she had said was put the singles events a little bit earlier and maybe put
02:37mixed after that.
02:39Vanessa, you opened the door to that Power Players 2026 conference took place this week here at Bloomberg headquarters.
02:44I know a big subject of conversation over the course of that event was about professional players trying to go
02:51back to college football.
02:53This story is crazy.
02:55What is happening here?
02:56I know that there's still such ambiguity about these new rules, of course.
02:59But how real an issue is this for athletes and for schools as well?
03:04The reality is, I mean, it's an issue.
03:07And they have tried, you know, in certain cases have tried to block it.
03:11And then you have obviously some conferences still, you know, trying to make it happen.
03:15The instances where it's happening, you know, we've seen it at the NFL where someone tried to go to a
03:21training camp.
03:22They were, you know, at the training camp and they didn't make the roster in the end and tried to
03:26go back to college.
03:27I think this just shows exactly where we are with college sports.
03:31We're in the wild, wild west.
03:33You can try and do anything you can do to stay in college.
03:36And we've actually seen people elect to stay in college, go back to college because they're making more money in
03:41college than they would as a, you know, rookie in the NFL without a guaranteed contract.
03:47Quite a little sound here from that conference.
03:48Randy Levine, the president of the Yankees, addressed this during his comments.
03:51Take a listen.
03:52Are we going to have student athletes or professional athletes?
03:55The wall between the two has broken down.
04:00Very few people who are college athletes become professional, but they become great leaders.
04:06It's a great training ground.
04:08And that's why the concept of student athletes is so important.
04:13And I think that's why this has galvanized the issue, because people don't like the fact that people go into
04:22the pros, 26, 27-year-olds come back and they're going to play against 18 and 19-year-olds, take
04:29that opportunity away from them.
04:31And it's like people feel it in their gut.
04:35So I guess we're looking to Washington to do something here.
04:39As you see, is there any movement toward that happening in light of the Supreme Court decision we had and
04:43what's happened over these last few years?
04:45Well, actually, Randy Levine was talking there because, yes, he is the president of the Yankees, but he's actually on
04:50a commission for college sports, you know, at the Washington level to try and make something happen there.
04:57Because, like he said, you have 25-year-old, 26-year-olds going back into the college system where they've
05:04already got their degree.
05:06And a lot of the times they're not going back to, you know, get more of an education.
05:10They're just going back to play a little bit longer and against 18, 19-year-olds.
05:14And makes more money.
05:15So there is, yeah.
05:16I mean, there is a lot more money there.
05:18So they are trying to do something at the commission and, you know, at the Washington level.
05:23But it's still far from where we need to be and far from over in this sort of situation.
05:29Vanessa, we've only got about a minute left before we let you go.
05:32NFL games in Australia.
05:34Talk about wearing out athletes, making them tired.
05:36Is this really sustainable?
05:37That is not easy to get there and get back and keep a regular season.
05:42I think that what we saw at the NFL-Australia game was the fact that the 49ers got there a
05:48week early.
05:48They played well.
05:49The Rams, you know, the Los Angeles Rams got there the day before.
05:53Crazy.
05:53And they lost the game.
05:54So I think that it's all about the science of the body.
05:58And we had the president of the Rams actually on the Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast.
06:01And you can take a listen to that conversation because he did, you know, defend what they were doing.
06:05And it didn't really work out for them in the end.
06:08But I think playing there is fine.
06:10You just have to figure out the science.
06:11And I love that they're showing the Jonas Brothers halftime show there.
06:13There you go.
06:14Yeah.
06:15And quickly here, the strategy is just grow the game.
06:17That's why they played it.
06:18I mean, was there demand on Australia's side or is it the NFL kind of pushing out its brand?
06:22There actually is demand on the Australian side.
06:25And the Rams actually have a marketing strategy there.
06:28They have, you know, with the NFL, they're able to license in Australia.
06:31And when we talked to the president of the Rams, he said, because they're already, you know, English speaking,
06:36they already play sports similar to football, you know, rugby and other sports that they do feel like this is
06:42a really big market for them to be able to grow in.
06:44And a massive arena.
06:45I mean, they played at those cricket grounds.
06:46I think it was like more than 100,000 people.
06:48Well, I mean, cricket is huge.
06:49Rugby is huge.
06:50Everybody always says, like, if you want to go to a country that's the most like America, it's probably Australia.
06:54It does seem like it's smart.
06:55But the time difference is going to kill these poor guys trying to get on this planet.
06:58Do listen to that podcast.
06:59Vanessa Perdomo there in conversation with the president of the L.A. Rams.
07:02Appreciate you coming on the show.
Comments