SBJ’s Abe Madkour and John Ourand discuss the trending topics after Day 1 of the CAA World Congress of Sports. They also tell you some of the stars of the day. The duo also previews a very strong Day 2 from the CAA World Congress of Sports in Los Angeles.
We are taking a look at day one of the CAA World Congress of Sports in a special Morning Buzzcast coming to you from Los Angeles, California. And this is your Morning Buzzcast for Wednesday, April 19th. Good morning, I'm Abe Madkour, joined today with my colleague John Ourand, who joined me yesterday on the Buzzcast. John, great to be with you this morning as we talk about what went on day one at a great event.
There is a lot of energy in the building. It's almost like COVID is over and people just want to get together and there's just a real good feeling in the crowd.
We had standing room only in a huge ballroom at the JW Marriott at LA Live. You had a standing room only for NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. You had a 30-minute one-on-one. A lot of takeaways.
Abe, I'm calling Adam Silver for the day, our senior statesman of day one because he came out, he has a labor deal virtually in place. He's sitting pretty in terms of the next media rights deal. And even though the RSN, the Regional Sports Network business seems like it's in disarray, the NBA is just chugging forward and moving forward. But what I really took away from Adam's talk today is toward the end of his interview, I asked him about Major League Baseball, and you know, you never like to ask commissioners about other sports. Other sports are competitive to them. And he was very happy to talk about the changes in Major League Baseball. He shouted out Rob Manfred from the stage and he talked about the things that he learned from baseball making all those changes, instituting a pitching clock, getting bigger bases, getting rid of the shift. And Adam basically said if baseball can do that, given their long, rich history, wow, the NBA really can look and do just about anything.
That's a great point. Before we talk about the sport that was, I think, mentioned the most during day one of the CAA World Congress of Sports. I do want to circle back. Also, Commissioner Adam Silver talked, I thought very interestingly, about the mid-season tournament. So there are some more details about that that you got out of him, John, that I had not heard. Such as teams will wear different uniforms. Didn't that stand out to you?
They're going to play on a court that's going to look different than a hometown court.
Right.
These are going to be different games. They're going to be regular season games. They're going to count toward the regular season, but they're going to be in instituted into the tournament. And look, I'm the media reporter for Sports Business Journal, they're going to go to ESPN and Turner this fall.
Right, they said that.
They're going to be played probably in November and December, but you know by the time the rights come up and they start negotiating these rights, this is going to be a nice package for somebody that's going to come in.
But to your point, stays with the incumbents for now.
Absolutely. Yeah. Adam said especially given all the problems in television, he's not going to say, "Hey, you owe us more money for this tournament."
But to your point, John, he made it clear, you're going to know that you're watching a different part of the season when he watched this in-season tournament. It's not going to look and feel like a regular season game. So I found that pretty interesting. You mentioned your senior statesman award, maybe my award for the sport mentioned most often during the day is baseball. To your point, John baseball's rule changes and increased pace of play was really the topic du jour. Everybody brought it up. They brought it up on the opening panel where they talked about innovation and taking chances and taking risks, working with players. You mentioned Adam Silver speaking about it. Michael Rubin and others talked about how baseball has really taken steps to change the game and listen to fans. That was another consistent theme, that they listened to fans and made a change for the better.
Something that Adam Silver said, something that Nick Khan said, we're focused too much, and I am too, Abe, in terms of how long these games take, how much time is coming out. And he said it's not about how long they take, it's about the pacing of the game. And so if you get a batter that doesn't get out of the batter's box and it still goes three and a half hours, if the pacing works, it just is an easier watch.
I have another award and it was from one of your sessions, I would call him almost the, not most fearless, but what would you call your interview with Nick Khan?
Nick Khan is unafraid.
Most unafraid, OK.
He'll talk about anything. And he got up there, we talked about the WWE and we talked about Endeavor buying it. We talked about the upcoming media rights environment around it. He loves to talk about that. But if Nick Khan is on there, he of course is the uber agent from CAA, and I asked him about the NBA and I asked him about Major League baseball. And I asked him about different streaming companies that are out there. When is ESPN going to go and take its main channel direct to consumer? And Nick Khan had an answer for every single one of those. Similar to what I said about Adam Silver and when you asked him about Major League Baseball, these executives never answer those questions.
Right.
They don't want to talk about other companies. But Nick Khan not only likes to talk about it, he has very concise, clear opinions and very, very smart.
I would agree. He's to the point. He has a point of view and he's speaking with a real sense of knowledge and observation. And to your point, John, most people would say, "Well, I don't know, but it'll be fascinating to watch," with Nick Khan, you get a specific answer.
You interviewed Michael Rubin, what's your award for Michael?
Most patient panelists.
I would not describe Michael Rubin as patient, Abe.
But John, you and I have heard Michael Rubin speak at the World Congress. He spoke at '21, in '22 and now in '23. And at the start of the interview, we outlined his grand goal in '21, when he said in five years, sports fans will be going to Fanatics for all sorts of things, ticketing, media, collectibles, merchandise, sports betting. And I asked how are you along that path and that vision? And he fully admitted he's learning to be patient. Not all of it's going to come at once. Things are going to take time. But he still has goals in the next decade to be an $8 billion EBITDA, not just top line revenue, but bottom line profit revenue, company a year. And he still feels he's well on his way and they still think they're going to be in many states for sports betting by the start of the NFL season.
I want to go on to another one of your interviews, Abe. I love watching NBA playoff basketball, especially when the Clippers are playing and the camera goes to Steve Ballmer on the sidelines, who looks and acts like a fan. What's your award for Steve Ballmer?
Oh, the most energetic.
By far.
And by far panelists. He lit up the morning. There was a standing room only. He asked me before we got on stage, "Do you mind if I jump out of my chair a few times?" I was like, "Go for it." And he did and he ended the session with a, "Let's go Clippers." But he was very, very passionate about the Clippers, very passionate about...
Hang on for a second. Let's go Clippers? Did the crowd go into the, I don't think I would've done that.
There were a few people, there were some Clippers fans in the audience of course, we're in Los Angeles. He talked openly about the challenge of going head-to-head with the Lakers. He talked about the LA sports market. But if you fly into LAX, you go right over the Intuit Dome, which is under construction. And he spent most of his time talking about how he's making this a mecca for fan experience and making it a true home court basketball, just a homage to basketball. And it's his vision, it's his money, it's his ideas. He said he went to more than 20 different facilities around the world to get all these ideas. I would call Steve Ballmer just one of the most engaging and fun interviews I ever do, I've done it now a couple of times.
And I thought it was interesting, John, Adam Silver, second row, sitting, watching that interview, sticking around. It's very rare when you see a commissioner stay at a sports business conference and take in. But Adam listened to both Steve Ballmer, but also then Utah Jazz owner, Ryan Smith and his partner Dwayne Wade, who gave, I thought, a really good storytelling about how they met and their vision for the Jazz. And really, Ryan Smith's vision to really, I would say, open the eyes of a lot of people about the state of Utah through sports ownership. Well John, at the end of the day, you had a lot of media heavy hitters and they gave very frank open opinions about hot sports, why some deals are taking longer. They didn't want to answer what were undervalued sports, but what was your main takeaway from those leaders of the media world?
Well, when I got there, it was Rick Cordella from NBC, it was Mark Silverman from Fox, it was Burke Magnus from ESPN. And as we are putting this panel together, Abe, they each have different strategies moving forward in terms of media. ESPN has a direct to consumer service, but it's exclusive. It doesn't share from linear TV to that service. Fox has no direct to consumer service to speak of. And NBC, you can watch Sunday Night Football and a lot of his shows on his direct to consumer service. I thought there was going to be robust talk about that. They were very much in agreement about how everything is going to move forward. The title of the panel is 2030.
Right.
And there's going to be traditional linear television, there's going to be streaming direct to consumer, there's going to be a social media. And we also had on the panel WSC Sports.
Yep.
And they were talking about how they were going to be able to provide for all those different constituencies going forward. So what I took away from that is there's a lot more agreement there than I was thinking at first.
So the more things change, they could even stay the same in this mix and balance of different distribution platforms.
Exactly. And I got to say, the most poignant part of the day to me, Jerry West, we had on a panel, gave an interview. You were there, what did you think?
Oh, Jerry West, I think, had the whole conference spellbound. I mean, Jerry West doesn't speak publicly very often. He hasn't spoken publicly much at all in the last couple of years. And he spoke while accepting his Champions Award and then later at a panel after lunch and very heartfelt comments about how to treat people, how the games today are being played, what does leadership look like to him, how he worked with others, how he became one of the greatest basketball players of all time, but also an accomplished executive on the business side, which you could tell he didn't love the business side of sports. And he just, you could hear a pin drop in both of those rooms when Jerry West spoke on Tuesday. And I just think it shows the amount of respect and admiration that people have for that man. And it was good to see him because as you know, there have been some different issues with Jerry West in terms of his portrayal on the Lakers documentary on HBO, which he knows.
And we know he wasn't pleased with that because he was very vocal in the depiction of him. And I think this was a way for him to speak to the sports business audience and tell his side of the story a little bit more. But I don't know, you were in those rooms too. It was pretty powerful. And we also had other great champions with Al Michaels and Bob Bowlsby and Micky Lawler. So it was a great first day at the CAA World Congress of Sports. John and I will come with you on the recap of day two as well. And if happen to be attending the CAA World Congress of Sports, don't let us down. Hope you come by and say hello to John or myself or anybody here at SBJ. We'd love to see you. So I'm Abe Madkour, for John Ourand, that is your Morning Buzzcast for Wednesday, April 19th. Stay healthy, be good to each other. We'll speak to you tomorrow.