Abe Madkour:
We wrapped up the CAA World Congress of Sports on Wednesday, and John Ourand and I have our takeaways. And this is your morning buzz cast for Thursday, April 20th.
Good morning. I'm Abe Madkour. I am joined with John Ourand. We both hope everybody is doing well. We are also presenting All In today in Los Angeles, our event on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
But John, I want to start with how day two of the World Congress of Sports took shape and how it ended. It started with a great discussion from Box to Box. We also heard about the LA sports scene, and we heard from Bill Simmons.
John Ourand:
A lot of really good discussions on stage, Abe. I loved, of course, Bill Simmons when he came on. He doesn't speak at a lot of these events. Mike Levine, who is co-head of CAA Sports, he took on the unusual role as a moderator, he did a great job, and it just felt like an abbreviated Simmons podcast.
His podcast generally go, what? About an hour and a half? He was up there for a half hour. They hit a lot of topics, just kind of talking about his rise from being the Boston sports guy to being a blogger to really running and being responsible for lots of people over at The Ringer.
So just listening to his rise and the way that he views the media business, I just was really intrigued by that.
Abe Madkour:
It was a really good entrepreneurial story, how he kept thinking differently. How he kept saying that he needed to do more, something different. That led to 30 for 30. That led to Grantland. That led to The Ringer.
And then he talked about trends that he's seeing in podcasting. He talked about some of the shows he liked. He also talked about the preparation to do his BS pod and how much work that goes into that. How he can't go out for dinner during the NBA at NHL playoffs, NBA playoffs specifically, because he has to be home and watch every game.
So it was a real good inside the business story with Bill Simmons and Vino. And Vino did do a great job in moving things along and touching on a lot of topics.
John Ourand:
I want to hit on the LA market because that came up. We're in Los Angeles, of course, and the LA market and the strength of the LA market came up repeatedly on panels today.
Abe Madkour:
It really did. And on that one, John, they talked about not just the big events that they've had recently that you and I touched on the Buzzcast yesterday, Super Bowl, CFP, all-Star games, but also looking ahead World Cup Olympics, but also that they're going to bid on another Super Bowl. Kevin Demoff from the Rams admitted that they're looking at 2027 as another bid. You and I were both here when the Super Bowl was in Los Angeles just a couple of years ago.
But I can't get over the amount of energy, and I would say the enthusiasm about the LA sports scene. And by seeing everybody on stage there, John, you see how they're all really working collectively to try to bring as many big high profile events to this market as possible.
John Ourand:
That just came up today, the Super Bowl in 2027. We haven't talked to anybody at the NFL to know whether that has a good chance or not, but I can tell you from being here during the Super Bowl the NFL loved it. It was a showcase for the NFL, for their new stadium, for their offices here where the NFL Network is. So it would seem to me, again, we haven't checked, so we don't know, but it seems, to me, that they would have a pretty good shot at it.
Abe Madkour:
They're definitely going to be in the rotation. It's just a matter of what years, to your point. John, you've talked a lot and written a lot and reported a lot. Everybody wants to be in the content business. Everybody's in the storytelling business. And this morning, we had the head storyteller from Box to Box. And as you know, Box to Box is responsible for Drive to Survive, Break Point, Full Swing. And it's probably one of the topics you're asked about the most, outside of RSNs, on your beat.
John Ourand:
Absolutely. Everybody's looking for access. And you have these leagues that are coming to every single network and every single streamer with "we're promising you access. We're promising you stories." All of these leagues are looking at shows like Drive to Survive, and they're looking at the ratings increases that F1 saw afterwards. But they're also looking at the rights fee increases that F1 saw. Whether there's a correlation or not, that's still to be debated, but all of these leagues think that it's a really good way to get their message out.
Abe Madkour:
Yeah, every property is trying to story tell. Bill Simmons talked about it too, about the 30 for 30 and how they started that because he saw these HBO documentaries that weren't in his demo anymore and he wanted to do more relevant contemporary storytelling.
And that's what Paul Martin from Box to Box hit on. And he talked about the difference between the F1 drivers and the golfers. And working with Brooks Koepka to try to get storylines and how they're different from tennis players. And of course they're doing a series on surfing. And so that was just a really interesting take on storytelling and character development on Wednesday at the World Congress.
And John, you and I were out on Tuesday night, and it really felt like we had to go from reception to reception. A lot of companies doing a lot of entertaining and hospitality here at the CAA World Congress of Sports.
John Ourand:
More than one person described this as the Super Bowl of sports business. I mean World Congress of Sports really has become a place that different brands are coming and they're hosting different parties just like at big events like the Super Bowl or the World Series. You and I went to AEG, right? The top of the Ritz here in LA Live, which was a packed crowd.
Abe Madkour:
Boldfaced names, and we had about five other events to hit last night. And so it was, it's great to see all these people really feeling so energetic about the business of sports and doing the entertaining around this event.
John Ourand:
I don't want to speak out of school, Abe, but we went to the Proskauer dinner, and I stopped there, but you kept going. You're a young man.
Abe Madkour:
And I was home much earlier, I bet, than you were, but still. Great night, great energy. And John, kind of as we put the bow on the world Congress, your takeaways, what stood out for you?
John Ourand:
The one thing that stood out for me is the one thing that I've been really reporting on hard for the past six months, and that's the regional sports network business.
And what I was struck with is we had Adam Silver on yesterday, we had Rob Manfred on yesterday, we had a lot of media executives on yesterday, and the RSM business is in disarray. Local sports rights, they're in disarray. Nobody knows this fall exactly how we're going to be watching local games, but there's not panic about it. They view this as an evolution to get to a different place.
Rob Manfred was talking about, eventually, we're going to do away with blackouts. Blackouts, he said, are caused by the RSNs. Adam Silver said, "look, it's pretty easy to see where this is trend is headed." So what I was struck with was not this, "oh no. We were having this huge problem with RSNs." It's like, "oh yeah. This is a changing business model, and we just have to adapt to it."
Abe Madkour:
And for the listeners tuning into the Buzzcast, John, at the end of the day, it should be good for them, right? They'll get more games. They'll get more potential to watch games in different services. So it's not the sky is falling.
John Ourand:
For the consumer, it's generally going to be better. For the teams, it means a lot less money.
Abe Madkour:
Correct. The narrative has shifted a little bit from the pain that the teams will face to, "Hey, this is going to be a new day, a new frontier, and a new model." Correct?
John Ourand:
Absolutely. What was your big takeaway?
Abe Madkour:
My big takeaway was there's still a ton of energy around the sports industry. And yes, there are certainly concerns about economic recession ahead, economic headwinds. We see what the NBA did in terms of a memo to its teams about watching spending, curtailing travel, worried about the second half of '23 in terms of the economic forecast.
But you see the Intuit Dome being built. You see investments in sports programming and content. You see a lot of elements and innovations around the fan experience. You see deal flow. So yes, there is some concern, but most people feel that sports still is resilient and almost recession proof. We'll see if that's the case, but I left here thinking of the energy and the enthusiasm around the sports industry remains.
And I do want to touch on a couple of quick things. Wherever we went, John, there was talk about the playoffs, NHL, NBA. Tonight will be Suns Clippers Game 3 here at the Crypto.com Arena. I know some people who are still in town will want to go to that game. What's your early indication on ratings, viewership, and just the overall marketplace for the playoffs?
John Ourand:
Viewership so far has been pretty good. A lot better than it was in the regular season as you would expect. I think we're going to start to see a lot of these storylines develop. Draymond Green and the Warriors up in at Sacramento. That's becoming a must see series as well. I know that we talked to people from Turner. We talked to people from the NBA. We talked to people from ESPN, and they are all excited about the playoffs and the promise that they have.
Abe Madkour:
And the NHL as well, John. Bill Daly was here, and of course, they have some marquee brands, some big historic teams in their Stanley Cup playoffs, so that should be interesting as it develops as well.
But overall, a fun time of year. I know that I'm also going to have to bring in our producer Reggie Walker next week as he starts to give his predictions for the playoffs as he was spot on for his NCAA men's and women's tournaments, though they're pretty good.
I also want to give a shout-out to all the people who are Buzzcast listeners who came up and said hi or chatted about the Buzzcast, and their listening and their support means a great deal for all of us here at Sports Business Journal. Any final thoughts, John, before we sign off?
John Ourand:
Abe, one final thought. You said it. I said it. There's chaos right now with the economy. There's chaos right now with the RSNs, but it's an exciting time. There's a lot of energy in the business, and people seem to be moving forward in a really thoughtful way.
Abe Madkour:
I would agree. And it was a great couple of days at the CAA World Congress of Sports in Los Angeles, and that is your morning Buzz cast for Thursday, April 20th. I'm Abe Madkour. For John Ourand and everybody at Sports Business Journal, thanks for listening. Stay healthy. Be good to each other. I'll speak to you on Friday.