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- [00:00]
Kristen
Guys, we are so excited to finally announce the launch of our long awaited talent accelerator, our exclusive live virtual training series. This is our chance to bring you our signature training to any company that wants their incoming talent trained by us, Kristen and Jen.
- [00:15]
Jen
We are running three live sessions over the next two months. First up, our Excel and Financial modeling bootcamp on May 8th through 9th, designed to get your new hires up the curve on Excel, accounting and integrated modeling fast. Then in June, we're running two intern focused sessions. Our investment Banking and Private equity accelerator from June 2nd to June 5th and our fixed income sales and trading accelerator from June 9th to 11th.
- [00:42]
Kristen
These are perfect for firms who want their interns to hit the ground running this summer and actually understand what's happening on the desk.
- [00:49]
Jen
And for individuals, we've got you covered too. Our self paced investment banking and private equity fundamentals course is live and available now. These courses are nothing like the boring online classes you're used to. They're video driven, visual and totally bingeable, just like our Instagram content. And yes, fixed income sales, trading and investing self study is still coming later this year.
- [01:12]
Kristen
Check out the link in our show notes to register your firm and start learning today.
- [01:25]
Jen
Finance can be boring, but it doesn't have to be. We should know. After decades working and teaching at the world's most prestigious investment banks, private equity firms and hedge funds, we are the Wall Street Skinny. Two lifelong best friends here to explain everything about how the world of finance works and make it feel like a gossip session with your besties. We break down deals, talk about the news in the markets, and bring on experts that we can ask all the dumb questions of so you can go be smarter in real life. Hi friends. Welcome back to Wall Street Skinny. I'm Jen.
- [01:59]
Kristen
I'm Kristen.
- [02:00]
Jen
And we are reunited. So we were missing Kristen last week. She was sick with the flu. So we're so happy to have her back. Today we're going to Talk Sports Investing 101. This to me, I mean, second to none is the coolest theme of 2025. We're going to break it all down for you. But before we get into it, we have a ton to catch up on because like I said, not only was Kristen not here, but Kristen has a little announcement for everyone.
- [02:25]
Kristen
So I I been so sick recently, it's funny. I was listening back because we've been re airing our industry podcast and I'm like, I'm sick. I'm sick. I've been sick because I've also been pregnant. So having our fourth Kid. And it's a cool thing to have kids, but the pregnancy part is not the, is not the most fun. So having the flu on top of being pregnant, where you can't take anything, like, that's the hardest thing. So when we were at Eye Connections, I sent Jen out cuz I, I literally started to come down with the flu and she was a saint and went and picked up some medicine for me and she's like, all right, can you do Tylenol? Cold and flu? Can you do da da da da da. Can you do Dayquil? And I was like, no, I can do Tylenol. And that's it. So. But yeah, but no, it's really exciting. And yeah.
- [03:08]
Jen
What's different about this pregnancy than your other ones?
- [03:12]
Kristen
It's a bazillion times harder. Maybe because I'm old, but also it's. I mean, so I have three girls and we're having a boy. So it's. I'm joining Jen in the boy mom camp. So it'll be, well, actually be a perfect split, Jen, because you have two boys. I'll have one. So it'll be three boys and we'll have three girls. Going to be. It's going to be a perfect 50. 50, perfect. And for the record, it's so funny because some people like actually think that we're together. We are not. We are not. We are. We are business partners and friends.
- [03:39]
Jen
Say we have five kids together currently or we're going to have six kids together.
- [03:43]
Kristen
It sounds like we are. Yeah, we are not. But between the two of us in this, in this joint venture, the company there is the family.
- [03:53]
Jen
We've chosen the business.
- [03:55]
Kristen
Exactly.
- [03:56]
Jen
One of us that's followers today was like, so what's the maternity leave policy like when you're a business owner? I was like, listen, I've been a business owner through both of my pregnancies and births. The reality is when you're an entrepreneur and a business owner, there is no maternity leave.
- [04:09]
Kristen
No. Because it's just, it's what you kill. Like, it's the work.
- [04:13]
Jen
I will say this. I do think that something I'm so grateful for that we have built that I didn't have in my previous business is we have kind of the gracious give and take. Yesterday I was barely functioning because my oldest was sick. He has norovirus. So I'm sitting there, there's literally. He vomited on my shoes. Like, it's just a disaster. And Kristen was like, I got you. You know what I'm saying? And it's not like I didn't work, I just did the work that didn't require me being on camera, you know what I'm saying? So there's always ways you can contribute to the business when you're not necessarily like on the front lines. Obviously, I don't expect you to be like me and like recording a podcast from the delivery.
- [04:51]
Kristen
I probably will.
- [04:52]
Jen
Like I was writing an offer in real estate. But like, you know, there's the, I mean, it's the beautiful thing about working for yourself. And that's why when people talk about like, oh, I want to stop work, I want to stop work. You really want to work for yourself and be able to have that freedom to pursue these things that you're passionate about on your own time.
- [05:11]
Kristen
Well, even with my third, if I taught, I got paid. If I didn't teach, I didn't get paid. So I ended up like, just going back and working at six weeks postpartum because it was like, if I don't work, I don't get paid. So it's like I'm going to just work. And I do think to your point, the beauty of having your own business is it's on your own time. It's, there's, it's flexible, you can do as much as you need to do to get done. But then also because of the fact that we're social media based, a lot of the stuff you could do. Like if you're nursing, like, you can like work on your computer while you're doing it. I mean, I also, I get bored really easily and I remember when I was on maternity with my first, I was like, bored out of my mind and I love her so much, much. But like, again, kids think, I mean, when they're a newborn, they don't really do much. It's not like you're gonna like, take your kids out for a fun act, you know what I mean? It's like they just kind of lie there and like, yeah, that's all they do. So it is, it is kind of nice to be able to use your brain in other ways if you're also like, stuck at home not being able to do much. But it's so funny. I, I'm like very much a person that like, believes in signs and we weren't sure if we were going to have another kid. But it was so funny when we were at the case conference in la, Jen, first of all, Jen was like, I think you're pregnant. And I was like, I'm definitely not. As I'M like chugging martinis.
- [06:26]
Jen
But I had a dream.
- [06:27]
Kristen
Oh, that was what it was.
- [06:29]
Jen
I had an incredibly vivid dream the night, the second night of the conference that you were pregnant to the point that I, I like, it was the first thing I said to you the next morning. Do you remember this? I mean, it was beyond vivid. And you were like, well, dream, you know.
- [06:44]
Kristen
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But it actually turns out it was. But I think it's one of these things where it's like someone says, think about a ride car so you see them everywhere. But like I kept noticing that all these really high powered women who we were interviewing, like Avery Sheffield or Michelle from Zinnia, like they all had four kids. Or we were talking to Matt at the CASE conference and he was like, I have four kids. And actually it was funny because then in the conversation we had with Eli Manning when we were at I Connections, it was this really great conversation. We're going to air it a little bit later in this episode. But he was saying how he has three girls and then we stopped recording. He was asking us about our kids and I was like, oh, I have three girls too. And he's like, oh, yeah, I have three girls and I have a youngest son. And I was like, oh my God, you know, so it was just. Anyway, like you start seeing these things everywhere and as I've said before, I don't know how much of it is just your brain then focuses in on details that are then relevant to your life or it's the universe giving signs. I like the logical part of my brain says it's the former, but like the spiritual part says it's the latter. So who knows?
- [07:40]
Jen
But it's so exciting and I'm so excited for you and I'm so glad that we are finally able to share that with you guys. So let's talk a little bit about what we're going to get into today. So kind of the genesis of this conversation actually started at the CASE conference. There was a panel there about sports investing with Todd Boley, who is one of the owners of Chelsea Football Club and also launched the deal that formed sportsnet la. So, like, it kind of got on our radar. Then I was lucky enough to sit next to one of the writers for Sports Business magazine. So the seed was planted and I think there were some structural changes which we'll get into that were at the heart of why this has picked up so much steam. But then we've had a number of conversations, whether it be with former athletes turned Investors like Eli Manning, whether it be with investors like David Adelman, who we got to speak to. We'll also be airing that conversation today as well in its entirety, who's one of the co owners of the 76ers and the new Jersey Devils. It's very clear that sports teams in various capacities are the hot area for investment these days for both kind of like the LPs, the family offices and things like that at the micro level and also at the big institutional level with some of the big private capital investors. So that's something we're going to unpack.
- [09:02]
Kristen
A little bit today.
- [09:03]
Jen
We're going to talk about the mechanics of how it all works and break that down for you guys so that you can understand it a little bit better than what I always classically thought of as like, oh, it's just some billionaire who owns a sports team or like, oh, it's some too soon fail bank or crypto firm that has their name on a stadium. Like there's way, way, way more to it than that.
- [09:23]
Kristen
Yeah. And then we also sat down with someone who like literally walked us through how this works. And so at some point we might be able to reveal who this mystery person is, but they gave us like the best lesson in sports investing like I've ever heard. So we're going to take some of those key summaries and, and share with you some of the things that we learned. But you know, it's really interesting because like you hear people talk about, oh, like xyz, you know, Mark Cuban owns a sports team, Stephen Cohen moans a sports team. And for me like it didn't really, not that it didn't mean much. Like obviously I follow sports. Ish. I mean as any American, I feel like does you tend to follow whether it's baseball, basketball or football, by the way, American football, since I know we have international listeners, but I never really appreciated just the vast difference in how the various teams make money. And so three major teams, NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball or mlb. So I want to start with just like the NFL, because the super bowl is this weekend, which is one of the things that sparked us wanting to have this conversation to begin with. And I have to say, go Birds. My husband is a huge Philadelphia Eagles fan, but the NFL is basically one of the best run sports leagues out there, period, full stop. So if an investor buys in, let me just quickly go through just the mechanics of how the cash flows work because as a banker, you know, I tend to think about like, okay, you're buying into this team, what do you get? Whether it's, again, Philadelphia Eagles, whether it's the Patriots, a huge chunk of what you're getting is the portion of, like, NFL Inc. On the national level. So the NFL has these huge TV contracts with the networks. So the NFL signed $110 billion deal over 11 years, and that basically is then split up evenly amongst, like, the 32 teams. So that works out. If you buy into a team, you're getting something like $400 million a year from that TV deal. And so that's on, like, the revenue side. And then on the expenses side, there's this hard and fast salary cap of, say, like, $250 million. You cannot pay more than that in salaries for your players. So it doesn't take, like, a genius to make money at the NFL level. But this is why you have teams, whether it's like you own the Giants based in New York City, or you own the Kansas City Chiefs. And the valuation of those teams is roughly the same because the way that, again, from evaluation standpoint, it works, 80% of what you're getting is from that national level and only 20% is local. So it makes it actually really easy for, like, those rain bankers or whoever's doing the valuation to, like, figure out what the teams are worth to, like, run the comps. But that's gonna be a really important point because as you think about. I know, Jen, you're in Charlotte and you were saying that, you know, it's like, it's not like the. The stadiums are so super packed, but again, if you own the end, what are the Charlotte team? Panthers.
- [12:06]
Jen
So we have the Carolina Panthers.
- [12:07]
Kristen
Yeah, they're not Carolina Panthers. But the point is, like, if you own the Carolina Panthers, even if you're not filling up the stadium, you're still getting such a giant chunk of those cash flows from the national level that, like, that almost doesn't matter that much. Again, it does matter a little bit, but it's not going to be the huge thing that makes or breaks everything. But the thing is, is that just there's been a huge conversation recently about who can buy into these teams. So, Jen, I know you wanted to talk a little bit about, like, some of the laws that have changed to enable different people to buy in.
- [12:34]
Jen
Well, yeah, so historically there's been different ways to invest. So it's historically been much, much, much easier to buy, say, a baseball team or a hockey team. There's, I believe, one historically publicly traded NFL team, and that's the Green Bay Packers. They've issued actually like shares of stock that you can buy into. But unless you were a super billionaire like David Tepper, who bought the Carolina Panthers outright. Right. Just with his cash, that was really not accessible. However, there's been recent changes that now allow a certain group of whitelisted private equity firms to invest in NFL teams. And so that's really shaking things up because now you've got Arctos, you've got Aries, 6th street and a consortium group including Blackstone, Carlisle, a couple of other names who can all start investing in the NFL. What does this mean though, if you are say a small family office or someone like that who maybe can't buy into one of these funds but wants exposure? Well, now all of them are saying they're watching what's happening at the NFL level and saying, I want a piece of that kind of action. So so much investment is now happening too at like the micro sports level. People are buying things that previously weren't seen as these like gangbusters investments to get their hands on anything. And we obviously have like the old storied investors. We referenced Todd Bowley earlier, but like the owners of Liverpool and Chelsea and you know, these are like classically trophy investments. So now everyone wants a piece of the action, is trying to get in on it.
- [14:06]
Kristen
Yeah, yeah. And so I'm just going to back up for one second because I think it's really important to just hammer home the thing that makes the NFL so unique, which is you have again, the majority of the revenues coming from that national level. And then on the expenses side, there is that hard cap. So I used to actually always find it hilarious that like Tom Brady made less than just out like Tom Brady, because Jen and I, we are obviously from the Boston area and so it was really fun to be a Patriots fan when they won all the time. But like he didn't earn, I mean, I thought like as much as you would think someone of his capacity would because of those hard caps. Because if you think about it like even just on a player basis, like you want your team to win, there's only so much money to go around. You're not going to want to. He's not going to want to take all the money because then there's nothing else like pay for the rest of the team. And he wants to get the best players. So it does kind of create, I think, a good teamwork mentality. And you did hear about he would accept less so that they could get better players on the team. Yeah, but so the point though is that there's this hard and fast cap at the NFL. Now, next up, I want to talk about the NBA. And so this is kind of like more in the middle. We're going to see the two extremes are the NFL on one end and then Major League Baseball and the other. But so the NBA in this case, you have basically 60% of the revenues coming from that sort of national level. So the NFL, we said, signed like $100 billion contract for 11 years. The NBA is closer to like, 77. And so that means that, again, 60% of the revenues is coming from that national deal. 40% is local. And so this became actually kind of interesting in the conversation we had with David Adelman, because he's a part owner of the 76ers, right? So the Sixers based in the NBA team for Philadelphia. And so he's. We're going to talk about how he's making this huge investment in a local arena because again, like, the team and then that local arena kind of go hand in hand. But what's interesting here is that there's not hard caps on the expenses side. So again, you think about, like, revenues, then you think about expenses. There's not a hard cap on the expenses side the way there is in the NFL. There's sort of more like these soft salary caps. And so this actually is like, a little more complicated. And I was talking to my husband, I was like, have you heard of this thing called, like, the first apron, Second April? And he's like, no. What the heck is that? So the basic idea is that there is that cap that's referred to basically as the luxury tax. And so that is the threshold over which they don't want you to spend more on salaries. So to use them generic, nice round numbers return $150 million. That's that recommended spending limit if you own an MBA team. Now, they added some more restrictive thresholds, and so they then had these additional lines that come over that luxury tax. So if the luxury taxes call it 150 million, there's then this line called the first apron, where there's more restrictive financial penalties, as well as some additional restrictions. If you go over, say, like 155 million. So that gets you into what's called that first apron. That's that again, that first threshold, you start to have some restrictive penalties. There's not a second threshold that gets even more restrictive. And so that's called the second apron. So again, let's just back up 150 million, sort of the recommended spending limit. 155 million first apron, 175 million second apron. If you go above this, you really start to get financially screwed because the penalties aren't anything like, you know, 10% here, 20% there. No, no, no. It's 420% or 4.2 times. So again, just as an example, right, pretend the second apron starts at 175, but you want to hire another player and you want to pay him enough so that the all in salaries go to say 185 million, which puts you at $10 million over that second apron. That would mean that additional $10 million you're over. You'd be hit with a 4.2 times penalty, which means you would then have to pay an extra $42 million in fines. So the point is that it's this huge disincentive to not go over that. And Jen, I know you had looked into the actual numbers, so I was just trying to use some generic nice round numbers. But I know if you have some of the data on actually like what the numbers were for the last season.
- [18:07]
Jen
Well, yeah, so I think for the 2024, 2025 year, first apron is triggered at 178.1 million and second apron at 188.9 million.
- [18:23]
Kristen
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- [21:15]
Jen
And you see that too in the way that teams are incentivized to shake things up. If you're losing, you're incentivized to lose big so that you can get a higher draft pick placement for the draft the following year. And it's funny because my husband is a huge sports fan and I don't listen to him speak about this stuff as much as I should because he's actually like very, very, very insightful. The man like wakes up, you know, in the middle of the night and will like listen to sports podcasts to fall back asleep. But I think it's interesting that when our kids always ask, well, who do who? Which team are you rooting for? Who do you want to see win? And he's like, I just want to see a good game, right? And I think the NFL has really tapped into that, trying to keep there from being just these ruling dynasties. Sadly, unfortunately, my husband was branded a Jets fan at birth. And while there may not be ruling dynasties in the NFL, the jets always seem to be a losing time.
- [22:05]
Kristen
It was bad luck.
- [22:06]
Jen
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But. But that's one of the things, too. And. And I live here in Charlotte. When I was talking about empty stadia, I actually wasn't talking about the Panthers stadium. I was talking about the Horn Hornets, the NBA team. So that's a very different story. Now, the Panthers are an interesting team to watch because Charlotte is fundamentally a transplant city. Right. Our city has exploded in the last 10 years with so many people moving from other places. So we decided, like, hey, listen, we're gonna go all in as Panthers fans. When we moved here, and, like, that was part of our integration into the city. We lived in an apartment building with so many of the players. Like, I've got some crazy Kelvin Benjamin and Luke Keighley stories from back in the day, but the point is, is that you look around the stadium and somet you'll be like, who's the home team? Because you'll see so many people with jerseys from the other teams. But I think it's kind of this cool thing that, like, the NFL has become not hyper local thing that, like, you living in Charlotte will be just as fine watching Red Zone and watching all the different teams play throughout the day. Whereas, like, it's very unlikely or much less likely, I'd say, and sometimes impossible because of these contracts. You can't just, like, go watch a random baseball game.
- [23:16]
Kristen
Right.
- [23:16]
Jen
It may not even be playing where you are. Same thing with the NBA. So, like, it's just really interesting to see that all play out.
- [23:23]
Kristen
It reminds me of when you were talking about rooting for whatever team. It reminds me so much of the old Seinfeld episode where he was like. He's like, I don't really understand, like, having a sports team. He's like, you're rooting for laundry. It's like the players get treated all the time, you know, so, like, you're basically rooting for the person that puts on the shirt. But, like, as your, you know, has your team, but it does. It does, like, move around all the time.
- [23:44]
Jen
So with all that being said, we're going to air two interviews now that we had the chance to record when we were at Global Alt. So the first is with Eli Manning, who is an investor in his own right. And this is something that I think is also critical to Understand in the world of sports investing that you have these professional athletes, whether it be a Rod Shaq, Eli Manning, Tom Brady, so many of these athletes who maybe their original source of wealth was their athletic career, they have become legitimate institutional investors in their own right and are becoming big players in the space. So we're going to talk to Eli about his latest venture and what's going on there. And then we're going to have a conversation with David Adelman, David Edelman. He's also agreed to do a full episode with us, so we're really excited to record that. So I won't spoil it with his full story. But I mean, kind of the apocryphal tale with him is that he is the son of Holocaust survivors who literally invested the $2,000 of his bar mitzvah money into campus apartments, which is the commercial real estate development that he has in Philly servicing like the upenn campuses. And spoiler alert, he's now worth about $2 billion and is part owner of, like we said, the Philadelphia 76ers, the New Jersey Devils. He's a, he's a founder. He also, I think has a new tequila brand and he is developing kind of a landmark high end arena in Philadelphia to service the teams there. So we're going to talk about the infrastructure element of that and commercial real estate as well as that pertains to sports investing. So two super interesting conversations. We're just going to air them back to back after this and we hope you guys enjoy. Okay, cool. So this is like an insane moment and we're so excited to be joined here by Eli Manning. So Eli, many of you will know him as one of the world's most famous athletes, but also as an investor and a thought leader in the finance world. So tell us about Brand Velocity Group and what you're doing and what you're most excited about.
- [25:36]
Eli Manning
Well, looking at the business side of sports and obviously there's a lot of talk about private equity getting involved in the NFL and a lot of these sports teams, but there's a lot of other opportunities to get involved in sports and not having to buy a franchise. Yes, a lot of the adjacency around the game of sports, whether that's youth sports, whether that's, you know, in the content on the media, whether that's in equipment and, or collectibles or gaming, there's so many opportunities and that's the areas that we're looking at. And with the kind of the changing landscape around professional sports and private equity getting Involved. We think there'll be a lot of things coming downstream for us to get involved in. And excited for that opportunity.
- [26:17]
Kristen
Are you mostly involved in the NFL?
- [26:19]
Eli Manning
Anything involved in sports? So I'm personally involved in the. In Gotham fc, which is the women's team there in New York, New Jersey, and excited about that. I have three daughters that are all involved in sports and playing in it. It's so cool for them to have role models to get to see women's sports on tv, go to live events, seeing them active and what they're up to. And so I think just growing the game, the impact that sports has on our community, on our children, on the kids, the life lessons you learn through sports is so important. And that's how I grew up. And I was playing basketball, baseball, football, grew up playing soccer, volleyball, whatever, whatever is out there, you get involved, you learn about it, you make great friends, you great life lessons. And so if we can make an impact on our community, get involved in sports in any way, grow the game, give people opportunities, find their passion. That's what we're all about.
- [27:10]
Kristen
I love, love that.
- [27:11]
Jen
Okay, one quick question for you. So we are both moms of young children, and I feel like there's so much pressure these days for kids to specialize basically from infancy. Kristin was telling me a story the other day about how one of her friends was like, well, my kid is 6. They missed the opportunity to play hockey.
- [27:27]
David Adelman
It's over.
- [27:28]
Jen
And you were just talking about how you played any sport you could, right? And you basically were a jack of all trades and then became master of one, which is amazing, right? So I'm curious, like, what do you think that you, as a leader in the sports world, like, if you could give a message to parents of young kids today?
- [27:46]
Eli Manning
It's hard. It's hard. It's hard on the kids. You know, it's not fair to them that they have to make a decision when they're nine years old, what sport do I want to play. And if this is my opportunity to make it to the right college, and the pressure is being put on them by coaches, by parents. And then the. And from the parents side, you're like, all right, I want my kids to play mini sports, and I want them to just be happy in whatever season. And then all of a sudden it's like, well, this other parents, they're doing travel and they're doing this league. And so you're like, oh, am I not giving my kid all the opportunities to be great and special? And so you're getting pulled a lot of different directions and it's kind of easy for me to say, no, you got to just play different sports. But I fall into the trap of like, well, you know, she likes this sport, maybe we got to put her this travel, but she still wants to swim and she still wants to play hockey and she's trying this. So ultimately you got to kind of know your kid. What are they like, what are their passion, what can they handle, what do you think they're gonna do? And it's kind of that you always want to push them to do the things they may not necessarily want to do. So they become the person or the player or the athlete they want to be. And just trying to make sure they're happy once they are overwhelmed or not doing that's my biggest concern. I want my kids to play sports, but I don't want them to get burnt out at an early age and then quit. And we're kind of fighting that fine line every single day.
- [29:10]
Kristen
When you're a junior banker, your job is Excel. You are building complex, airtight models. Every formula has to be perfect, every number formatted just right. And so Excel efficiency isn't just nice to have. It can be the difference between getting out to see your significant other on a Friday night and the difference between landing a top tier analyst ranking instead of a lower tier one, which can mean tens of thousands of dollars in bonus. But let's be real, there's only so much that native Excel can do, and so that's why every top tier banker uses some kind of Excel productivity tool. My go to is training the Street's Turbo macros. They fill in the annoying gaps native Excel leaves behind. Did you know that there's no quick way in native Excel to toggle a number or a color format? These macros fix that. They also come with next level auditing tools like the Precedent Tracer or Dependent Tracer, allowing you to see the key components of each cell. Training the Street Turbo macros were built by former investment bankers for bankers. If you're serious about modeling faster and more efficiently, this is a must have. Start your free trial of training the Streets Turbo macros using the link in our show notes. I'm actually curious. When did it emerge, just like for you and your brother, that you guys were obviously superstar football athletes and like when did you specialize there? Just because back to that same question of like, you know, obviously there is the talent aspect. But I also believe, and maybe this is incorrect, that if the talent is there, even if you start at 6 years old or 8 years old, like it's going to be there.
- [30:36]
Eli Manning
Yeah.
- [30:37]
Kristen
So I'm just curious for you.
- [30:38]
Eli Manning
I think. I think first off, each sport is a little different on the commitment and when you have to get started based on what the specialty is and what the requirements are. And football, you can start a lot later. Quarterback position, you might have to start a little earlier. But it was still in my senior year in high school, I played basketball. I played baseball up until my junior year. And so it was very late for me to specialize and say, really? College is when I say, all right, I'm only playing football now. And I think I worked harder at football than the other sports, but I still played them. And I think, you know, kids can do that. Like, you can say, hey, I want to go play college lacrosse, but I.
- [31:16]
Kristen
Still like playing basketball.
- [31:17]
Eli Manning
I'm going to play on my high school basketball team just for fun. And I might not grind at it and do every travel league, but I can still. You can still, you know, play that. And that is an option I think that people can pursue.
- [31:29]
Jen
Yeah. Okay, last question.
- [31:30]
Kristen
Question for you.
- [31:30]
Jen
And then I promise, having fun, but getting into the investing side, when did you develop that passion and how did you get up that curve? We talk about this all the time, that increasingly, I think people are coming to different phases in their investing careers later in life.
- [31:47]
Kristen
Right.
- [31:47]
Jen
So we talked about having to specialize physically as an athlete, but I think people are specializing academically and intellectually so much earlier, too.
- [31:55]
Eli Manning
Right.
- [31:56]
Jen
So when did that shift happen for you, and how did you navigate that?
- [31:59]
Eli Manning
Well, it's really happened. Once I retired from playing football, I always had an interest in it, always had an interest in business and kind of connecting people and open doors and getting involved. But I always came back to the fact that as a professional athlete, I only had so much time to play this sport and to play this game and to do it at a high level. And if I wasn't giving 100% of that commitment to that sport, it was on a takeaway. And I would be doing this other business day, maybe before I really wanted to. And so when I retired, that's when I really dove into it and met with a lot of people, sat in a lot of different meetings and tried to figure out, you know, what my passion is, where do I want to spend time, you know, where can I make. Make an impact and help out? And so it's been fun, it's been a journey. And I think I'm still at the Beginning stage of it. I don't know exactly what I'm doing sometimes. That's why I to these events and learn from people, have great conversations and every day is an opportunity to get better, make improvements. I'm going to make mistakes, I'm going to say the wrong things and just kind of as an athlete you learn from it. I like being coached. If I tell people I work with, I say the wrong thing or that's not accurate, tell me, tell me I'm wrong and I'll fix it. But if you don't tell me, I'm going to keep doing the same incorrect thing.
- [33:12]
Jen
Yeah, I love that. Well, is there anyone here, here or are there any mentors in the investing world that you really look up to?
- [33:19]
Eli Manning
Oh man, there's, there's so many people that, you know, I guess, you know, looking at the, the list here today, I just saw Shaq. I don't know if that's like my mentor in the investing world but, but you see how Shaq has got involved and he's used his brand and he's you know, bought into ownership in companies and just like you're doing endorsements for companies now, you're, you're buying into it and you're endorsing it also you can help, you know, make a real impact, get on the inside of, of learning. So he's been, he's been unbelievable, unbelievable personality and, and you know, set the example for a lot of other athletes coming up the ranks.
- [33:55]
Kristen
Thank you.
- [33:56]
Eli Manning
Appreciate it.
- [33:57]
Kristen
Thank you so much. We really appreciate it. Success.
- [34:00]
Eli Manning
Thanks so much.
- [34:00]
Jen
All right, let's do this. So following up on our conversation with Eli Manning where we were talking about sports and investing, we're here to talk about at the intersection of sports, real estate and investing. So we are joined by David Adelman who has so much going on. David, tell us what you're most excited.
- [34:13]
David Adelman
About right now we're doing a lot of things. I mean so you know, I'm involved in the Sixers, the New Jersey Devils, Crystal Palace. So you know, owning professional sports teams is fun but we're also working on building a world class arena in downtown Philadelphia. So the goal is to create a building where we can really give fans a world class experience. It's going to be open in 2030. Everyone create like a pre game environment outside, great fan experience, premium experience inside and then post game give them some place to go, go out to eat and like creative journey for people going to a game.
- [34:43]
Kristen
And so this is going to be.
- [34:44]
David Adelman
For, for basketball, basketball and Hockey. We're partnering with the Flyers of Comcast to do something really great about a billion five to spend. It's going to be a really fun project for the city of Philadelphia.
- [34:55]
Jen
I think it's so interesting thinking about the intersection of sports, investing and also kind of urban planning.
- [35:01]
Kristen
Right.
- [35:01]
Jen
And the development of a city. Are you guys doing a social district around it? Is there any kind of redistricting involved? Because I know that there's so much that's key to the success of these kind of ventures.
- [35:10]
David Adelman
So it's interesting. So we just announced originally we were going to put our arena in downtown Philadelphia and we just came together with Comcast to keep it at the sports district. So Philadelphia is very unique. We're all four professional sports teams playing one place. All the stadiums are there. And the goal now is to create a really vibrant mixed use environment around the stadiums instead of a sea of parking lots, apartments, retail, hotel, energy. And so I think you need that to kind of create life and vibrancy, to make it kind of active pre and post game.
- [35:37]
Kristen
And so are you also then involved in the investments in the infrastructure around it? Sounds like. As well as the stadium itself. Okay, that's so cool.
- [35:45]
Jen
And what do you think about kind of the commercial real estate environment writ large in the current world that we live in? I feel like it's been like a running joke, right? Like what's going to happen to commercial real estate? Like is the bottom going to fall out? What's going to change? What do you see as like the shifting dynamics in these urban environments that may potentially turn the tide, if at all?
- [36:04]
David Adelman
Well, the number one thing. And you're really referring to office buildings, right? And get people back to work.
- [36:09]
Jen
Yeah, right.
- [36:10]
David Adelman
And I think if you get people back in the office, remind them that talking to people, not behind a screen, but interacting and having real conversation will get people to fill these buildings. You know, some of them are going to be slated for conversion. They're just too old to be a kind of class C. Office buildings aren't going to make it. So you'll see some of them change.
- [36:26]
Jen
Is the dream of commercial inter real estate going to happen? Is it?
- [36:31]
Kristen
Yeah.
- [36:32]
Jen
What did I say commercial?
- [36:33]
Kristen
You meant conversion.
- [36:37]
David Adelman
I'm picking up what you're putting down. We want to convert these buildings. I think what you're going to see is a lot of cities expedite the planning and design approval process to allow for conversions. And so I do think that's going to pick up. I think eventually you'll see state and city tax credits to make that happen. And so I'm hearing a lot about that.
- [36:54]
Kristen
And I'm curious, so how much of the decision, when you were thinking about, from an investment standpoint, to invest in the stadium was also driven obviously by the ownership in the Sixers? Because were talking about sports investing and how, you know, if you look at the NFL, it's like 80% is on the national level, whereas, like, basketball or, sorry, baseball is like 20%. And so then there's so much is local and, you know, basketball somewhere in the middle. So is it like, basically the investment sort of creates all these synergies with then obviously the ownership of the team? Is that something as, you know, as you're making these investment decisions, you're thinking about, or is this just like. I think this is going to be a great investment on the standalone basis and, like, independent of the.
- [37:31]
David Adelman
No, they're hand in glove. And so, for example, where we currently play, we're a tenant in the building.
- [37:35]
Kristen
Yeah.
- [37:36]
David Adelman
So we don't control certain components of our fan experience. We don't capture certain revenues of the building because we're a tenant, not an owner. And so, you know, the new deal that we cut, we're a 50, 50 partner. So we can participate in those revenues. We can, you know, create that retail and the ground floor of the buildings, the fan stores, the. The food and all those things and participate in that. And I, I do think all of those go into. Into the pot when you're thinking about valuation.
- [38:01]
Kristen
You were telling us the story earlier about how when you were coming up with the name of your, well, family office fund, and it's Darko. And so we asked, you know, like.
- [38:09]
Jen
We asked a stupid millennial question. We were like, is that Donnie Darko? Because that's what we assume, because we're morons.
- [38:14]
Kristen
So I would love your view on naming, how you came up with that and then just like, naming things in general.
- [38:19]
David Adelman
Yeah, I mean, I think as I transitioned from real estate to private equity to kind of investing on behalf of my family, you know, I was like, I don't know. Edelman Capital is kind of boring and probably a little weird.
- [38:30]
Kristen
Right.
- [38:30]
David Adelman
And, you know, some people do that. And I was like, But I wanted something so that when people heard that we had invested, they're like, oh, you know, so Darko's an investor. What kind of value do they bring? What's the value proposition when they have options to get investment from other people? And so, you know, when you asked me where the name came from, like, I Need a. A really cool name. I need something that people are going to remember. And, like, I was like, crickets. I. I couldn't think of anything right? You know, I'm like, I'm doing it. And then, like, one day, literally, I'm like, well, I don't want to do Adelman. I don't want to do this. But, like, so Darko really came to bear from David Adelman Realty Capital.
- [39:03]
Kristen
Yeah.
- [39:04]
David Adelman
And then I kind of drew the initials and I was like, oh, my God, I forgot a name that. It's kind of cool, right? It's catchy. And so, you know, so Darko's been around probably 15 years. And, you know, we're in everything from early stage venture capital, fintech, a lot of consumer products. Because my day job is a company called Campus Apartments, where I House about 25,000 college students. And so I would always get approached by consumer brands to say, hey, could we try this out at your properties? Can we do that? So we do a fair amount of consumer as well.
- [39:33]
Jen
Okay, last question. Being so in touch with kind of young people, because that's obviously the tenant in college apartments. So much of our audience is young college students who are thinking about coming up into the world of either investing or being somehow involved with everything that's going on here. If you had one piece of advice to give those young people who are thinking about starting a career in finance or investing, what would it be?
- [39:55]
David Adelman
You know, I give the same advice. Consistency consistently is your personal brand, your reputation. You get one reputation, and, like, that is your most prized possession and treasured asset. And so that comes to bear about integrity, honesty, you know, when you're interviewing, be honest about what you're looking for. Don't play games with different people. Like, and it starts there. But, you know, I say to young college kids, like, your brand is your power, right? And so if you can do something to really protect that, people know you're of high integrity. They know you're going to work hard, they're going to follow you and listen to you. Like, to me, that's it. Just, you know, be honest with people.
- [40:30]
Kristen
I want. Love that.
- [40:31]
Jen
David, this was such a pleasure.
- [40:32]
David Adelman
Thank you so much. Good stuff.
- [40:34]
Kristen
All right.
- [40:34]
Jen
I know you're going to have season ticket holders and all her.
- [40:36]
David Adelman
Yeah, please, we need it.
- [40:38]
Eli Manning
All right.
- [40:38]
David Adelman
We will take all we can get.
- [40:39]
Kristen
I mean, my husband is a. Is a Phillies, like, born and raised.
- [40:42]
David Adelman
All right, tell him to come visit us. We'll take good care of.
- [40:45]
Kristen
Okay, awesome.
- [40:45]
David Adelman
All right, thanks for the time.
- [40:47]
Eli Manning
Appreciate it.
- [40:56]
Kristen
Sa.