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Bloomberg Business of Sports
Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman on March Madness and UConn Basketball
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IBM Representative
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Bloomberg Business of Sports Host
Bloomberg Audio Studios Podcasts Radio News this is the business of Sports. Our aim is always to leverage the global appeal of football.
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Nick Solsky
Having representation in college sports is even more important than pro.
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Bloomberg Business of Sports Host
10% of Americans now claim soccer to
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Vanessa Perdomo
be their favorite sport.
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Bloomberg Business of Sports Host
We estimate the youth sports audience has
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Lisa Bethal Merage
$3 trillion in spending power.
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Corey Dropkin
The nature of baseball is it is
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Nick Solsky
worldwide and it is global.
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Corey Dropkin
I'm very happy for the WNBA and how the NBA has embraced.
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Bloomberg Business of Sports Host
Sports are not going anywhere and sports
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Intuit Advertiser
betting is only growing.
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Lisa Bethal Merage
We have a super team running this
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Vanessa Perdomo
league and this league is here and
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Bloomberg Business of Sports Host
it's here to stay. Bloomberg Business of Sports From Bloomberg Radio,
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Vanessa Perdomo
this is the Bloomberg Business of Sports where we explore the big money issues in the world of sports. I'm Vanessa Pradomo. Michael Barr is out this week. Coming up today, I'll be speaking to the owner of the WNBA Portland Fire, now that a new collective bargaining agreement is finally in place. Plus, I'll check in with a Winter Olympic silver medalist who is helping launch a new startup league for curling. That's straight ahead in the Bloomberg Business of Sports, but we start with March Madness. I spoke with the commissioner of the Big East, Val Ackerman, for her thoughts on this year's tournament and how she's hoping to see a double national title for UConn men's and women's basketball. I spoke with Val right before the Final Four kicked off. Here's a bit of that conversation. I just want to start with getting a vibe check. I mean, UConn men and women are both back in the Final Four. How does it feel to have them back there together?
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Bloomberg Business of Sports Host
Well, this is. It was a magical weekend, really, for the conference. We had teams advancing to the second weekend, which is really hard to do. You know, our school, some of them have been there before, and they know that every game is a really. Is a battle. I think, as it relates to UConn, this proves, if there was any doubt, that they really are in the top tier of college basketball programs around the country, both the men's and women's sides. Not many programs can boast that, to be honest. You know, they have, on both sports, great talent. They've got leadership, they've got grittiness, which, you know, you need an equal measure to keep advancing in March.
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Vanessa Perdomo
Yeah, definitely. I mean, it's. It's interesting. Like you had said, obviously, it's. It's not always that common that both the men's and the women's programs can be so competitive, especially at the same time. I mean, this isn't the first time they've done it, right. They did this just in 2024. But how impactful is it for the school, for the Big east as a whole, you know, given the popularity, especially now, for women's and men's basketball?
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Bloomberg Business of Sports Host
Let me just go back and, you know, throw a couple data points at you and the listeners, which is that this is the UConn Women's 25th Final Four May or may not be a record. I'm not sure someone can fact check that. On the men's side, it's their eighth, and this is the sixth time that the men and the women have been in the Final Four together. So it's not common generally, but it is a thing for UConn. So, again, quite an accomplishment for the university, for the Big East. It proves what we have been aspiring to for as long as I've been in this position, which is that the Big east is part of the. The power tier in college basketball. Our schools, you know, in general are very committed to the game. It's. We don't have football that we sponsor in the biggie, so basketball is the primary sport. It just means everything to our campuses to be not only competing, but winning at a national level. We take pride in our history. We take pride in the national championships we've won over the last eight or nine or ten years. We've won four men's championships and One women's over the last ten year span, which is, you know, I don't know if that's rivaled by any other conference. Somebody could fact check that also. But, you know, this is, it's a big deal for any school and for the Big east, where basketball matters so much, it really is, you know, kind of a crowning achievement.
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Vanessa Perdomo
Yeah, it's an interesting thing. Like you said, you've worked really hard on making sure that the Big east as a basketball conference is still thought of as one of those major conferences.
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Interviewer
Right.
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Vanessa Perdomo
It's not smaller or anything like that. Just because there's no football schools. Can you tell me, you know, a little bit more about that and the relationship between just focusing on basketball, how you've been able to do that and grow the Big east in that way, in the name of revenue, in the name of business, everything like that, just focusing on basketball?
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Bloomberg Business of Sports Host
Well, you know, I kind of. The way we think about it is, yes, the being able to focus on basketball. It's hard to quantify what that means, you know, how many hours we spent compared to a school that has football. I don't know that we can give you those stats, but what I can say is we do think we have the ingredients to remain successful. And, you know, what do I. What does that include? Well, it includes having resources which our schools have in part because they don't have football expenses. We've got excellent national television arrangements which are really important for exposure and credibility and revenue. We just completed year one, nearly completed year one of a six year national media deal with major national networks. Fox Sports is the lead network, but we've got NBC, Peacock and TNT Sports also in the fold. And plus we've got additional programming on espn. Plus we're in business with all of the major national networks. We've got the relationship with Madison Square Garden, which is one of the most, if not the most prominent basketball arena in the country, belongs to the Big east, in a manner of speaking. We play our men's basketball tournament there. This year was our 44th rendition of that. We're locked up there through 2032, which will be the 50th year of the Big east tournament at Madison Square Garden. So we've got the ability to play on the world's, practically the world, certainly the country's biggest basketball stage. And then we've got the benefit of major media markets, excellent facilities on our campuses. A number of our schools play in NBA arenas, which enhances the stage that our players are displaying their talents on. So we've got a long way of saying we've got, we think, the ingredients that we need to stay relevant and competitive and successful in basketball. And so, you know, while not having football revenue is, you know, a disadvantage, to be honest, because we don't have the resources that the conferences we consider peers in basketball have. The fact that we have all the other things I just mentioned we see as a plus and hopefully will keep us, you know, going and growing in the years ahead.
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Vanessa Perdomo
And it's interesting on that note as well, like you're mentioning, you know, as we talk about like revenue sharing, you know, when, now that it's something that schools are able to opt in on revenue sharing with athletes. And at first, when this happened last year, people thought that the Big east would be, you know, the big winner in this sort of, you know, world that they didn't have to share revenue sharing with football schools, I mean, with football teams. But I've heard you say that that's not necessarily the case. Can you tell me a little bit about how you've navigated the revenue sharing with the athletes and how you feel that it's going for the Big East?
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Bloomberg Business of Sports Host
Well, just again, for the listener, the ability to share revenue directly with student athletes by the school is optional. And all of our schools opted to do that. Not every school in D1 is opting in to the rev share model. So our schools have done that. And my sense is that because there's a cap on the amount that a school can share directly to athletes, we are on the high side of rev share for basketball. Why is that? Because the football schools, from what we gather, are spending most of their rev share dollars on their football teams. So that leaves less money for for them to share directly for basketball and any other sport. Without football players that we have to pay, we have the ability to. And I believe our spending more than they are directly on basketball players. At the same time, payments to athletes can still be made by third parties and those payments are not capped. They are subject to scrutiny by an entity called the College Sports Commission, which was set up following the House settlement last year to monitor third party payments to make sure that they were for a valid business purpose and were within a reasonable range of compensation. So those payments are, you know, they're not necessarily cleared. They have to be approved by the commission. And so my sense is that the schools that aren't able to pay as much for basketball players because they're paying so much for their football players are taking advantage of the third party payment system that's still in effect and in effect enhancing the payments that they can make for basketball through that apparatus. And I don't know because of that, I can't speak to what their total numbers are for basketball, but I suspect that it's likens what we're spending in the aggregate. And so this is going to be one of the questions in the model is does spending a lot of money on players guarantee success? I don't believe it does. I came out of the NBA and the teams that spent the most didn't always win the championships. And so, you know, to me it's going to the algorithm here will be spending enough and spending wisely because spending the most dollars on players that you think might be good may not necessarily pan out. But again, we're in the early stages of this system and I think it remains to be seen who the winners are going to be when all is said and done.
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Vanessa Perdomo
Do you think that and from your seat see that maybe the winners are women's players under a conference like the Big east where they don't have to compete with football players.
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Bloomberg Business of Sports Host
I've seen a lot of winners among frankly non football and non basketball playing athletes. I mean, it's sort of the recipe here for success in the rev share slash nil world is, you know, success on the field or, you know, field of play, whatever it may be, some sort of je ne sais quoi, whatever. I don't know what the French word for that special something that makes somebody marketable. Okay, a great story. Appeal. In this day and age, a large social media following is attractive to an advertiser. And so to use the Big east as an example, we've seen great success in this environment from UConn women's basketball players because they're successful on the court, they're marketable for a variety of reasons. A couple of them have substantial social media followings. And so that all translates into lucrative opportunities in a, you know, and now, you know, the environment where income possibilities are available to these, to these athletes. And so yes, I think it can happen. I think it's sort of on a campus by campus, sport by sport basis. I do think the primary winners here are football and men's basketball for the most part, because those are the priority sports on campuses. They're the ones that have the most commercial appeal. They're the ones that drive the most alumni engagement. It's just a fact. And our league's no different than other leagues on that score. But I do think, you know, the opportunities are certainly there and you know, the combination of factors I mentioned at the top of this answer can all come together, then I think athletes can certainly win out.
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Vanessa Perdomo
That was the commissioner of the Big East, Val Ackerman. Up next, my conversation with WNBA and NWSL owner Lisa Bethal Merage on Portland being the epicenter of women's sports. That's straight ahead on the Bloomberg Business of Sports. I'm Vanessa Perdemo. You're listening to the Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio around the world.
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- [15:44]
IBM Representative
lot of noise about AI. But time's too tight for more promises, so let's talk about results. At IBM, we work with our employees to integrate technology right into the systems they need. Now a global workforce of 300,000 can use AI to fill their HR questions, resolving 94% of common questions, not noise proof of how we can help companies get smarter by putting AI where it actually pays off, deep in the work that moves the business. Let's Create Smarter Business IBM
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Bloomberg Business of Sports Host
Bloomberg Business of Sports From Bloomberg Radio, this is
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Vanessa Perdomo
the Bloomberg Business of Sports, where we explore the big money issues in the world of sports. I'm Vanessa Perdomo. Michael Barr is off this week. The WNBA has been in a very contentious labor fight this entire off season with threats of a lockout, but the union and the league were able to reach a deal in March in order to go ahead with the season as planned. Great news, especially for Portland Fire owner Lisa Bethal Mirage, whose team is set to make its WNBA debut this year, but due to the CBA negotiations have been unable to sign players until now. The expansion draft for the Fire and Toronto Tempo was earlier this week. I spoke with Lisa the day after the CBA was announced at Avenue Capital's Power Play event in Los Angeles about how they were able to build the team amidst uncertainty, but also about how they parlayed their ownership of the Portland Thorns into building a women's sports empire in the city. Here's my conversation with WNBA and NWSL owner Lisa Bethal. Mirage, you've been at the helm of
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Interviewer
the Portland Thorns now for a couple of years, had a couple of seasons in how would you describe your first few years in it?
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Lisa Bethal Merage
The first few years have been so fun. Lots of challenges, lots of exciting things, tremendous momentum. We've made lots of changes. We've completely built out the business office. So when we acquired the team we did not have a business office at all. So we started department by department and eventually built out built out ticketing and marketing and our sponsorship team and HR and IT and now we are close to 100 people strong. We've also in the past two years we hired a new GM, we just hired our second coach that was announced recently and we're building a performance center which will be finished up later this year. So a lot of exciting things going on.
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Interviewer
Was that at all surprising like when you had come in and you had to build all that stuff out? Very different from, you know, your family being in the Sacramento Kings. Like very different. So was it surprising to you that you had to build all this out for an existing team?
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Bloomberg Business of Sports Host
No, we we knew what we were
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Lisa Bethal Merage
doing going, you know, getting into it. We actually had a shared services agreement on the Thorn side with Peregrine, who previously owned the Thorns and still owns the Timbers and the mls. So we knew we had work to do, but we're really kind of roll up your sleeves type people and luckily we have an amazing head of Raj Sports, Mike Whitehead, who's built out his team and then on the Thorn side, we have Alexis Lee, who's our president of business operations. And then now we have Jeff Agus, who's our president of soccer operations. And they just really set the right tone and the right culture and the right work ethic within organizations.
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Interviewer
You obviously don't just own the Thorns, but also now the WNBA team, the Portland Fire. When was it in. When you had been in part of the Thorns that you decided, wait, we need to add a WNBA team to this? Did it already come together? How did that deal come together for you guys?
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Lisa Bethal Merage
I think the universe told us that we needed to have the Portland Fire because we were in the middle of closing our Thorns deal, and the WNBA had decided to grant an expansion team to Portland, but the leader of that expansion team fell out. And we read about it in the newspaper. And then we called the NBA office and said, hey, it's not public yet, but we're up here. And they knew us from the NBA. So we went through a process with them. And it just kind of. Like I said, the stars aligned and one plus one equals five. The Fire and the Thorns. Here we go.
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Interviewer
Didn't even realize yet the power, or you hadn't exactly experienced the power of the Thorns and the women's sports, you know, fandom there before even really acquiring the Fire.
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Lisa Bethal Merage
Well, we knew about the women's sports fandom, and that was something. When we were looking at the Thorns, I went up for a game and saw firsthand the. What I call the Magic at Providence Park. Our women's sports fans in Portland are the most passionate fan base. I've said this in the world. And we actually have metrics to back that up. So, you know, when we talk about the Thorns, the attendance on average is just under 20,000 per game. And I always. I always frame this in a way and explaining it. When you compare it to a typical NHL team or NBA team who plays an arena, those arenas hold 16 to 17,000 people. So our average attendance is higher than what fills an NHL or an NBA arena, which is crazy. And we've seen that fandom continue with the Portland Fire. We are leading the league with new season ticket sales and the fans. I think when we. When we did our launch of the Fire brand name, there were about 2,000 people that showed up outside Motor center in the middle of the day. There were people that got tattoos. We had a tattoo truck. People got the fire logo on them.
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Interviewer
Yeah. Before you even play a game.
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Lisa Bethal Merage
Oh, yeah. It was amazing. It's incredible. The fans are incredible in Portland.
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Interviewer
Yeah. So let's talk a little bit more about the fire and building that team out, especially amid everything that was going on. So, one, there has been a verbal agreement for the CBA when you heard the news. Again, verbal agreements. It's not official yet, so I know that you probably want to make sure, you know, you're going to have your conversations about that later. But did you breathe a sigh of relief at all when you first heard the news?
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Lisa Bethal Merage
We've been waiting, and we've been having contingency plan after contingency plan. We went through looking at, you know, our wish list of players, because we have everything else lined up. We have, you know, we have season tickets, we have marketing plans, we're auditioning the dance team. You know, everything else is completely rolling. We. We just need players.
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Interviewer
It's a small thing.
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Lisa Bethal Merage
And so, you know, we have. If this, then. If this, then. If this, then. And we'll see. We're going. We're going.
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Interviewer
Yeah. How was it for you building out that front office, doing all the things like you said, ticket sales, building out the logo, the colorways, the jerseys, all of that, without knowing exactly what's going to happen, without having any players? How was it to get those fans, like you said, having those fans out there already being fans of the team before you even have a player? How was that navigating that for you?
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Lisa Bethal Merage
I mean, I think it's kind of just like you said. The fans are there, they love the team. They're, like, crazy about sports in Portland. And maybe that part of it is that Nike's in our backyard with the corporate headquarters, and then also, you know, Adidas North America headquarters and some of the other sports brands. Sports is a way of life in Portland. That's really why we call Portland the global epicenter of women's sports. It's been proven. It's been, I think, since the early 1970s, when Portland was the first city to host an LPGA tournament, that it started kind of this. This appreciation and love for women's sports. And it's just grown and grown and grown. Yeah.
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Interviewer
How have you found it different? Obviously, aside from the cv, how have you found it different coming into the thorns, a team that had already had a fan base that was already around for years and come and building from scratch.
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Lisa Bethal Merage
I think that it's in. In a way, it's a little bit easier to build from scratch because we could say, these are the colors we want to have. This is the logo we want to have. This is. This is how we Want to set the tone of the game experience and the fan experience and we can create that from scratch. And, and sure they'll maybe sometimes we hit a bump or make a mistake and we could course correct from there. You know, with the Thorns, we came in and we have a very passionate fan base. We have our supporters group called the Riveters and they are, they're known throughout frankly the world as the most passionate women's soccer fan supporters group that there is. And you know, we have to make sure that we keep them happy too. So we talk to them regularly, we build those relationships and you know, we have to kind of walk a little bit slower with some of the things that we may want to do with the fan experience.
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Interviewer
How have you seen like through the data you have from the ticket sales you already have for the Fire and stuff like that, how many people cross over between Thorns and Fire fans from what you know already?
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Lisa Bethal Merage
I actually don't know if I have that information and I've asked for that information. But one thing that we are talking about that's been wildly requested is having a premier season ticket holder package where you can go to both games. And I mean I was just sit. Sitting with somebody who's local in the community last week and she asked for that and she was like, I will buy that, I will spend the money. So you know, we're looking into that.
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Interviewer
And obviously with the nwsl, there's a new rule in place with the, the high impact player rule. And that's the helped keep actually this conversation that a lot of players are going to go overseas and you know, Talon, you know, you know, going back overseas and staying in the nwsl. Sophia Smith has agreed to a longer contract with you guys and she's one of those players that does meet those requirements. Right? How does it impact having stars like that for the Portland Thorns, for the NWSL to stay here and be able to play here?
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Lisa Bethal Merage
Well, I think in the nw, I think anywhere stars are important, right? And it's, it's seeing their quality of play, the excitement on the pitch and then also what they bring through a commercial lens. I mean, if you look at Sophia Wilson with Gigi, it's just, I mean first of all, she's like the most adorable baby ever. Can I just say that?
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Vanessa Perdomo
She's very adorable.
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Lisa Bethal Merage
Yes. But you know, I think the other thing with the NWSL is we see as a whole that the league, teams in the leagues are investing in facilities, whether it be in Kansas City where they have their, their stadium or with Us with our Kaiser Permanente Performance center that will be ready this year. And I don't know if you necessarily see that investment across the pond. The grass may not be greener.
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Interviewer
Absolutely. When you guys came in, in 2024, officially coming into that NWSL and coming into women's sports, like you said, it was around this conversation of, this is a change in tide for women's sports and really a lot more visibility, a lot more fan growth. Did you already see that happening or did you. Do you feel like you got in right at the right time?
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Lisa Bethal Merage
Well, it's funny because I don't know if you noticed, but our family's business prior to being in sports was in the fashion business. And I like to say we can sometimes smell trends before they happen. So we started hearing a lot about the rise of women's sports. I hate when people say the moment or whatever it is, because it is. It is the rise. It is here to stay. And, you know, we started smelling it, seeing the clues, and looking at different opportunities. And then when we, you know, we actually looked at the Thorns deck and then kind of put it aside. And then we heard again about women's sports. Women's sports. So we revisited it, and we're like, yes, this is it. This is what we need to do.
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Vanessa Perdomo
What did you see at the time
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Interviewer
when you had revisited that that you felt like, okay, actually, no, this is 100%. We're going in for it.
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Lisa Bethal Merage
For us, then I would say it was that first game that I went to, where the game that I went to was Portland versus Seattle. And there it was, Megan Rapinoe's last game play, you know, Seattle playing against Portland. And there were 25. Over 25,000 people in the stands. And I was like, are you kidding me? You can't manufacture. These fans are incredible. And I took a video and I went home and showed it to my parents, actually, at dinner the next day. And my. My mom was like, are there people way up there? And I'm like, yes, there are. They're way up there. And my dad is like, I really believe in women's sports. And that was our tipping point. So we were like, let's go.
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Vanessa Perdomo
That was WNBA Portland Fire and NWSL Portland Thorns owner Lisa Bethal, Mirage. Up next, a conversation with Winter Olympic silver medalist Cory Drapkin about the sport that sweeps up everyone's attention during the Winter Olympics. Curling. That's straight ahead on the Bloomberg Business of Sports. I'm Vanessa Perdomo. You're listening to the Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio around the world. This message is brought to you by Apple Card Apple Card members can earn unlimited daily cash back on everyday purchases wherever they shop. This means you could be earning daily cash on just about anything, like a slice of pizza from your local pizza place or a latte from the corner coffee shop. Apply for Apple Card and the Wallet app to see your credit limit offer in minutes subject to credit approval. Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA, Salt Lake City branch terms and
- [29:04]
Intuit Advertiser
more at applecard.com support for the show comes from Public. Public is an investing platform that offers access to stocks, options, bonds and crypto, and they've also integrated AI with tools that can assist investors in building customized portfolios. One of these tools is called Generated Assets. It allows you to turn your ideas into investable indexes. So let's say you're interested in something specific like biotech companies with high R and D spend, small cap stocks with improving operating margins, or the S&P 500 minus high debt companies. Chances are there isn't an ETF that fits your exact criteria. But on Public you just type in a prompt and their AI screens thousands of stocks and builds a one of a kind index. You can even backtest it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks, go to public.com market and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com market ad paid for by Public Holdings Brokerage Services by Public Investing member finra SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors SEC Registered Advisor crypto services by ZeroHash sample prompts are for illustrative purposes only, not investment advice. All investing involves risk of loss. See complete disclosures@public.com disclosures the thing about
- [30:19]
IBM Representative
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- [30:47]
Bloomberg Business of Sports Host
IBM this is Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio.
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Vanessa Perdomo
Thanks for joining us on the Bloomberg Business of Sports where we explore the big money issues in the world of sports. I'm Vanessa Perdomo. Michael Barr is off this week. It may be April, but I'm not ready to to let go of the Winter Olympics. And luckily for anyone else like me who finds curling to be one of the most intriguing sports at the Winter Olympics. You can watch it in a new professional league that is starting up on April 6th. Joining me in studio to talk about how to grow the sport of curling is the founder of Rock League, Nick Solsky, and Olympic silver medalist Corey Dropkin. Nick, Corey, welcome to the Bloomberg business of sports.
- [31:29]
Nick Solsky
Absolutely. Thank you so much for having us. It's a pleasure, Corey.
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Interviewer
Thank you.
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Vanessa Perdomo
I have to. I mean, I feel like the Winter Olympics, hype and momentum, it just. It's. It's still going on and apparently this are going on, but I feel like it is bigger than it's ever been. Have you come down from the height yet?
- [31:44]
Nick Solsky
I've definitely been starting to come down from it. You know, I was on the highest of highs, especially, you know, after winning the medal and going through all the celebrations coming home. We had a big, you know, welcome home celebration in Duluth, and it was just amazing. And it's been so nice to celebrate with, you know, all of our family and friends and, you know, there's definitely still a lot of hype, but, you know, just so happy to be, you know, part of it and proud that we were able to bring home a medal.
- [32:10]
Corey Dropkin
Did. Did you see John Thurston's shot?
- [32:13]
Nick Solsky
Unreal.
- [32:13]
Corey Dropkin
There was a shot. Vanessa, in wheelchair curling.
- [32:16]
Interviewer
Yeah.
- [32:16]
Corey Dropkin
Which is probably the greatest shot of all time because wheelchair curlers don't. Oh, by the way, thanks for.
- [32:22]
Vanessa Perdomo
Thanks for having me.
- [32:23]
Nick Solsky
This is great.
- [32:24]
Corey Dropkin
And it's so fun to be here with Corey. There was literally a shot in wheelchair curler. There's no story sweepers. And it was. I mean, it blew up all over. All over the Internet. I will say my favorite. My favorite Instagram video that I've seen was a lady in Duluth who was buying a house and her tag was, my realtor is cooler than yours. And then she pulls up the silver medal and there's Corey in the background. That was really good, man.
- [32:51]
Nick Solsky
Oh, shout out to Jenna. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
- [32:54]
Vanessa Perdomo
How nuts are those moments? Or going back into regular life? But it's not the same sort of life now that you're an Olympic silver medalist.
- [33:02]
Nick Solsky
It's pretty wild. You know, we've been getting some really flattering recognition, sometimes overwhelming. You know, when we were flying back home, trying to walk through the Minneapolis airport to get our. To our gate for our flight to Duluth. You know, Corey and I didn't quite get, you know, 10 to 20 steps without, you know, someone, another person coming up asking us for, you know, a picture and an autograph, something like that. And you know, it's been. It's been amazing coming back. And, you know, we're just. We're just regular, everyday people. We, you know, work full time, you know, doing jobs outside of curling so we can make a living. But, you know, curling is what we love to do and what we're passionate about, and we want to be the best in the world. And, you know, we've been dreaming for years and years, 20 years, for me to try to get to the Olympics and, you know, get on that podium and, you know, just finally achieve that is just surreal. It's a dream come true. To do that and do that with Corey and also have our family and so many of our friends there in Italy to. To cheer us on. It's been wild.
- [34:01]
Vanessa Perdomo
How many people did you have over there?
- [34:03]
Nick Solsky
You know, we. We had at least 70 people that we knew were planning on going, but there was a lot more people there for. For mixed doubles. It was crazy. It was wild. We had a great cheering section. I mean, and it helps, like, I definitely feed off of that type of energy. It helps me feel my fire when I'm on the ice. You know, I kind of like to bounce that energy throughout the arena. And, you know, our semifinal game against Italy, both games against Italy, the round robin and semifinal game, you know, both crowds showed up and were super, super loud for their own, and it was just such a great atmosphere. You have cheers that are just bouncing off, echoing off of the. The stadium walls and. And you could kind of just feel, you know, that that type of like, almost like a heartbeat that is. Is just, you know, going crazy throughout the arena. And. And with that semifinal game, there's so many momentum swings and so many big shots being made. And, you know, so the Italian crowd going wild and the American crowd going wild. I mean, that gave me goosebumps. I just loved every bit of it.
- [35:05]
Corey Dropkin
And it's funny, the curling world historically has been really traditional and very kind of quiet and tame. And during the Olympics, there were a couple things that were really apparent. One, the US crowd, as Corey said, totally, totally showed up. You could hear those USA chants like crazy. The Italian crowd was great. But there were moments throughout the mixed doubles competition when our boy Corey here, like these. What people don't realize is these are real athletes who are emotionally and passionately connected and hyper competitive in their sport. And, you know, historically, there have been times when, let's say more of the traditional fans kind of look down at curlers showing emotion and pumping up the crowd. But one of my favorite moments was probably after your third or fourth game, like you guys won and Corey's flexing to the crowd and getting all pumped up and really like, you know, playing. Playing the role of a sports star, getting everybody motivated. And it was a really incredible thing to see, especially in the early days of that competition, because mixed doubles was first. And I think Corey and Corey really set the stage and the American fans and the Italian fans really set the stage for what ended up being, I mean, not only the most watched Winter Olympic sport, but, let's face it, also the most talked about.
- [36:20]
Nick Solsky
Absolutely.
- [36:20]
Corey Dropkin
So it was, it was an incredible few weeks for the. For the entire sport.
- [36:24]
Nick Solsky
Yeah, that was easily one of my favorite parts too, of the whole experience is just the energy in the arena. And, you know, there's a couple times where I was, you know, getting the crowd going after wins after that fourth game against Czechia and then after a semifinal game against Italy and, you know, the Jurgen Klopp celebration with the crowd from Liverpool. But it's one that I saw at the Ryder cup this past year where Matt Fitzpatrick came back out after a big Saturday and he was getting the crowd going and he'd do these wind ups where the crowd, you know, start with the low sort of buildup, and then he would kind of fist pump at them like, you know, three or four times in a row. And that got them going wild and screaming and, and cheering for them and. And I kind of wanted to, you know, do that ever since because that was just such a sweet moment to experience, even being obviously the. The US fan, of course, but, like, it's pretty special when you see the European crowd go wild because they've just got some amazing chants and cheers. And so I did that with the US crowd and that was just such a sweet moment to have and be part of.
- [37:33]
Vanessa Perdomo
I love that you planned it, that you had something that you really wanted to do because, you know, that's for the moment. But, like, that is, like you said, it changes the dynamic.
- [37:40]
Interviewer
Right.
- [37:40]
Vanessa Perdomo
Of going into the competition. What do you think it was about that crowd that they were able to kind of break out of nickel, like what you were saying, the traditional, you know, quiet. Why were. Was it the Italian energy? Like, what was it about that competition where they were able to, like, really express themselves?
- [37:57]
Corey Dropkin
You think it's a good idea? I mean, it's a good. Great question. I mean, I think first off, I mean, the last Winter Olympics, there was no, There were no crowds. Right, Right. So I think finally being able to be back in, in A building watching the greatest curlers on earth compete. There was something exciting there. And, and, and, and I, I do believe, and, you know, this has been part of my whole mission is I do believe that the sport of curling is changing. I'd argue it has changed. I think people are starting to understand. We've been working really hard, you know, at the curling group, at the Grand Slam, curling, to really inject a new energy into the sport. Right. You know, we all saw what happened in golf, right? Forever. It was this historic, quiet, you know, I, I'd say, you know, quite stoic sport. And then a number of years ago, Phoenix Open, Waste Management Open, started embracing what the younger golf fan wants to do, embracing the energy and the fun around the sport. And they completely. That event, and it sparked a number of different moments with other events that are like, like the 16th hole at the Waste Management. But the, the perception of who a golf fan is and what a golf event is like to go to has completely changed. And I think we've started doing that with curling. I mean, I could hear it on. I wasn't in Cortina, but during the Grand Slam of curling events over the last year, people have started showing up wearing costumes. And there's a shot in curling, which is the most boring shot in the entire sport. It's called appeal. And there have been a group of people called the Curling Bananas who have started showing up at events dressed as bananas. And whenever there's a peel, you'll hear, peel, peel, peel. I heard the bananas chanting in Cortina. Now, it wasn't the official Curling bananas, but it has spread to a point now where people, when they go to a curling event, they're not expecting to sit on their hands and just be quiet. It's fun. Sports are fun. And that's what's so incredible about having ambassadors of the sport and incredible athletes, athletes like Corey, because the athletes are embracing it. Like, it's supposed to be fun. Like, I've spoken to a ton of curlers in the early days after, you know, I took over, and one of the questions was like, do you guys like noise? Do you guys like, like music in the venue? Do you like when the crowd is pumped up? And the. The consensus was, ah, we're athletes, man. We want to compete. We love that. We thrive off that. I mean, not to put words in
- [40:23]
Nick Solsky
your mouth, you pretty much just did.
- [40:24]
Corey Dropkin
Yeah.
- [40:26]
Vanessa Perdomo
No. Cory, what is it like for you? I mean, how have you seen it change since you've been in the sport?
- [40:31]
Nick Solsky
Yeah, I think for the Longest time, curling has been just such a sport of etiquette where, you know, there's an expectation that you stay quiet and, and, you know, composed and you know, as, as fans, you just, you applaud when there's good shots made and then you quiet down so that the other team can throw their shot. And, you know, I think there was a time and place for that, but I think in order for this sport to grow to where we want it to grow to and for it to build a fan base that, you know, wants to, you know, wants to continue to watch curling, you know, gets energized by the sport, gets, you know, pumped up to, to, to watch it, to have it be exposed, especially on, you know, national tv. You know, we need more energy, we need more noise, we need some more chaos in a sport of curling. And to be honest, as athletes, I think you can ask pretty much any of the elite athletes out there, you know, we want that too. Obviously it can be tough sometimes when you're sort of the. On the opposite end trying to deliver a stone when the crowd erupts. But that's just part of the game. You watch a football game and you know, a team's trying to make a three point field goal and they're in and they're at away game, you know, you know that that crowd's gonna go wild in the background to try to, you know, you know, get that kicker to bend it sideways and not quite get it through the, through the uprights. And you know, just like curling, it's. I think it's a positive to have that extra noise, to have that chaos and that energy on the ice. You know, at the Olympics, I think there was a younger audience in general. Like, I think that there was an audience that also understood the impact that they can have on the sport and on their team and on their athletes that were out there. So, you know, I think taking that all into account and I think that kind of set the Olympics up to be something really, really special for the sport of curling. And, you know, that I definitely enjoyed that. And I loved getting the crowd, you know, pumped up and wild and times when I could, you know, whether it's the sort of the hand behind, behind the ear to try to tell them, hey, let's make some noise here, or giving them some fist pumps or whatever it might may be. I enjoyed the crap out of that week. That was the most fun week of curling I have ever experienced my entire life. And I just can't believe it was
- [42:49]
Vanessa Perdomo
at the Olympics that was Olympic silver medalist Corey Dropkin and founder of the Rock League, Nick Solsky. That's it for today. Thanks for joining us. Tune in again next week for the latest on the stories moving big money in the world of sports. And don't forget to catch our podcast on all your podcast platforms. And go to bloomberg.com to subscribe to the Bloomberg Business of Sports newsletter to stay up to date on all our juicy insights. You're listening to the Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio around the world. Stay with us. Today's top stories and global business headlines
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Interviewer
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Corey Dropkin
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