The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Sporting Class: Why Is Mark Cuban Selling the Mavericks?; CFP Selection Secrets: Is it All Rigged!?

Episode Date: December 8, 2023

Meadowlark Media CEO John Skipper and Nothing Personal's David Samson are back with another episode with Pablo Torre Finds Out host... Pablo Torre to host! Welcome to the Sporting Class! Mark Cuban is selling the Dallas Mavericks! No one had seen that one coming. Let’s discuss this deal. The truths. The rumors. Speculating on the WHY! Then, the College Football Playoff was announced. Alabama in. Florida State out. Did ESPN have something to do with this? Or was it always the way? Plus, what is the NCAA trying to do with NIL? It’s all confusing, but at least they’re trying something! Also, X is losing advertisers like some lose followers. Elon Musk went on stage and delivered his Gettysburg Address against Big Corps leaving X and had some not nice things to say. And finally, the NBA In-Season Tournament is a hit. It really is. We are sorry, Adam. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to Giraffe King's Network. This is the Dunlabel Tarshall with the Stugat Sputcast. There's a lot we have to get to today. John Skipper and David Samson. David has already vowed to make fun of John's shirt How do you not see over a company? He's in some sort of sweater with a big hole in it and I simply asked him are you where we're gonna be on camera today And you have a hole in your sweater. It's in the back That is the millifilus tone of John Skipper president head of metal arc media that was the

agitation of David Samson, I am Pablo Torrey. We have sports business topics that I actually want explained to me, and I don't want to dally too long on the various holes in our logic or our shirts. So number one is this Mark Cuban story. And so the news came out, and people I assume have heard this part, that Mark Cuban is selling the team that he is however retaining control of basketball operations, which no one's ever heard of before.

The team was valued reportedly at like $3.5 billion. And he's selling it to the Adelson family, which I urge you to Google because there's a lot there I can't recap right now. But John and David have unique insight into the story. David has particular insight into the background mechanics of how this story is going. What does what I said sound like to you? Poppycock because it was wrong on myriad levels. And I've tried to talk a little bit about this previously, but I think it's important

for all of us at this table to realize that Mark Cuban selling the Mavericks is a really big story, not only because of what the Mavericks are being sold for, but also because of the way it came out in the rumors that Mark Cuban could sell a majority of his team and still maintain control. And I have been very out front saying that does not happen. You do not get someone to buy into your company. If someone wants to buy metal arc, they're not going to say, well, John, keep going. Maybe you'd get a six month or a nine month or a one year, a bridge, but many companies, it

doesn't work that way. So for my standpoint, I was concerned that all these MBA insiders were teaching the public that the Mavericks at 3.5 billion, which is incorrect. And the reason that's incorrect is that it happened with the Marlins. The numbers are always reported wrong. Numbers are reported as enterprise values because it sounds very sexy to have Mark Cuban getting 3.5 billion dollars. But there's debt on the Mavericks. And so you subtract the debt from that $3.5 billion

number, which is also inflated. And that's the number Cuban would get if he owned 100% of the team, but he's keeping part of the team. So that's even less money that he's gonna get. Paying taxes on that, even less money's gonna get. Why is he doing it when he doesn't get to keep control? He's cashing out at a number that seems low.

Well, wait, on the control part, I want to clarify this. I'm reading this USA Today article from late November and it says that Cuban could keep the title of governor and maintain a rule in saying basketball ops. You cannot. So that again is being reported and I don't know how, the NBA, when there is a change of control, like an MLB or any sport,

there's only one person from any every ownership group Who is deemed to be in control that person has to own a certain percentage Generally 15% and that person is from league standpoint gets to vote Everything on the CBA gets to vote on expansion gets to vote on the TV deal and you can't not have expansion gets to vote on the TV deal. And you can't not have majority be the main owner, which is what the Adelson's will do and not have that control. So Cuban selling gives up that control. And the mechanism for that day was the league has to approve the deal. And there is no reason for the league to approve a deal that is contra to those strictures and appropriate Governments, right? They never minority owner being the one who gets to decide

Big issues. They would never do that and the reason they would never do that is they it's the same reason why and it just came out because it was initially Reported incorrectly Miriam Adelson has nothing to do with the mavericks It sounds counterintuitive because that's all you're reading is that Miriam Ad to do with the Mavericks. It sounds counterintuitive, because that's all you're reading is that Miriam Adelson is buying the Mavericks. Yes, the largest donor to Donald Trump's presidency, et cetera, et cetera. Well, that whole family.

I know. There's three more than just Trump. Again, Google them, yes. But actually, she's not the name that you're ever gonna hear again. She will never be at a meeting. She'll never be at a press conference. It's her son-in-law actually and not even from a daughter from

she'll then might i add funny because there's been a bunch of marriages and a bunch of you know what happens but it's the young man the forty-year-old or forty-one-year-old man who is actually the governor who is actually the one in charge from the mba standpoint that's what the other owners will be voting on. Do we know that person's name? Peter Domo Dalmont. I don't like mispronouncing last names, but I'm super bad at it and normally co-boying. This is a hate of telling me who.

And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact- And they fact-com who, uh, they could be brothers. It's a real pretty side of me.

It was from the French part of the Upper East Side. It's Patrick Dumont. Patrick Dumont. Um, he's a certain name French, first name Irish, I guess. So he married one of the daughters of Miriam Adelson. The point is when the NBA chooses the NBA gets involved in this much like baseball, MLB wouldn't allow Derek Jeter to be the control person

in the Marlins because he wasn't put enough money in. So they control all that. So John, as President of ESPN, you of course, new Mark Cuban, you know Adam Silver, these headlines about this sale, this very, maybe those famous owner in sports, what was your reaction to? He is one of the faces of the NBA, right?

And has frequently been among Adam Silver's, you know, members only, media committee. I think he was on the media committee when we did the last deal. So yeah, I'm surprised. And I've only known Mark to be thrilled that being an NBA owner, he's been a very involved in an NBA owner often on the court helping the referees

Figure out what they should do. I however, I'm stuck on another point, which is had I married an Adelson daughter. I could now be running the Mavericks Yes, that is true and it's not too late never give up hope I should say that Mark Cuban was not allowed to be an MLB owner. He did not have 23 votes He wanted to buy an MLB team and there was a conscious effort made by all of us at the time to not allow him and by telling him He would not get the votes because because he is such a obstructionist he violates the unwritten rules of baseball ownership and a basketball so silver most I think the most Individual ever is he not I can't imagine Adam silver is

Despondent to have Mark Cuban out of his inbox. He is sort of out of the frying pan into the fire of the Adelson family's politics which will Which will conflict with generally what the NBA's values are. Yes, they're brimped. I'm surprised at the timing of this. I'm not, again, I would have thought Mark was very emotionally tied. He may have reasons to do this. He certainly is making a nice profit.

But again, think the right now, the NBA is negotiating their new deals. As I've said many times, I think the NBA is going to do great. That doesn't sound like a deal with great new long-term money locked in. Why are they only worth and you're suggesting there were less less, or for mark purposes. There's been value of is under three and a half billion. Why? Can we just do some quick math? Please, back to the envelope.

In contextualize what three and a half billion is the annual broadcast fee that you paid to ESPN? Do you remember? You made the annual fee that ESPN paid to the MBA. A billion? I do have to remember, 1.346 billion. So I'm going to have to have an around and a half billion if you don't mind for purposes of this conversation.

Yeah, what's a couple hundred mills between friends? So one and a half billion per year. Now there's going to be a new deal. Let's say it's worth double. Three billion? Would you be willing to say that it could be a double or do you think it'll be even more? Well, what matters is the overall. They're going to end up with more partners than they have now.

They're going to end up in my opinion with somewhere between two and three times the money they get now. Because of broadcast partners in television but also then the tech companies. Divide that by the number of teams. There are in the NBA as we all know, is it 32? I can't cut this out. We can make it 30. Math is easy with a $3 billion. One of the most big news. Misconceptions.

It's $100 million a piece, I believe. Yes. So with 30 teams in the NBA, they're all literally 30 teams. 30 teams. If it goes up by $3 billion, do you think it can go up by three billion dollars per year? You do. Yeah. That the increase is going to be three billion dollars per year. Yes. Which would be a hundred million dollars per team. You're not impacting it. My point, thank you, is very simple that when you're selling a team, the fact that Cuban knew about the right steel, that right steel is baked into any enterprise value already.

There is no really tremendous difference in what the sale price will be. When what Adelson's are doing, are they doing the gambling play? What Cuban is doing? Is he doing the estate plan in play? Is he doing the politics play? So just to be very clear though, you are saying literally what's a couple hundred million between us. And that's exactly right.

And what John is saying is with a new deal coming, would he sell now he knows the new deals coming he knows exactly what the terms are because adam silver as commissioner his job is to tell the both union and the owners to forecast what revenue is for salary cap purposes so it's not like it's coming out of the clear blue sky right though they of course don't know it exactly yet. They're in the middle of deals, in fact, I don't think they can even have negotiations yet with anyone other than ESPN and TNT. So I'm sure Adam is giving them counsel here's where I think we can end, and it's probably very close to accurate, but they don't know. But now I'm stuck on another thing, which is why would Mark Cuban sell to the

Adelson's? He happens to actually generally be very progressive in his politics. So why would he choose to sell now? I can't. What? Well, hold on. Anyway, why you're doing math, David? All it matters to get somebody to pay six billion, instead of three and a half, is to find the person who pays six billion, right? Do you think the math look for that? Do you think the market is too far? Certainly would have. This is what the Mavericks are worth.

But let me lay out some of the other contributing variables, perhaps, in this developing public theory. Right? So do Mont, by the way, President and Chief Operating Officer of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation. This is a casino. Probably just seen his resume in. Had the best qualifications, the best guy for the job. And what a coincidence. So you would just be the son-in-law. One wonders if the casino... I was the step-son, by the way, stop looking at me that way. I know, I was waiting. I was waiting for the drill. It's a drill. Well, in your case, you work off on it and he may be as well.

But Patrick Dumont, my point being there, is that this son, the illegal means, is in this casino dynasty, right? And so there's this theory about, okay, Mark Cuban, there's a play here with Texas and gambling. Furthermore, the political stuff that John was looting to, does Mark Cuban want to run for president? Mark Cuban has come out and said he does not,

but he's also leaving Shark Tank after filming one more season apparently. So there's just some stuff that's not exactly adding up. Seems impossible you would go from, like, being a gallon shark tank to the president of the United States. That couldn't happen, could it? Not in anything other than a fantasy world.

The reason why owners sell, he won a championship. He has a new arena that he has to get done because they're old American Airlines center there. They need a new arena. The team loses money. Even rich people don't like writing checks every year He's accomplished what he wanted to accomplish since he bought the team. I get it He's not a young man. He's not old

But he's owned it for 20 I want to say 22 years something in that range is 65 damn well Looks good for sixty I would take a render Well, there's been a little I think there's been a few visits to the Pimple Popper, but I am absolutely respectful of his decision to do it because there's so many financial reasons. He also is retaining a piece of the team, so he gets a piece of any upside if a huge change happens in Texas, which I don't see happening so fast, where gambling is legalized. Because Cuban came out and said,

I want to do the Venetian endalus. The Venetian, the hotel in Vegas, is right next door to the circus. And the question is, are you waiting to take advantage of that? Maybe he is, but at 20%, he's certainly not gonna be in control. On the board of governors,

control the team, basketball operations, none of that's gonna happen. None of the, okay, so that is news that I think I could use, the idea of governors, control the team, basketball operations, none of that's gonna happen. None of the, okay, so that is news that I think I could use, the idea that, okay, he's not gonna be in the board of governors meetings making the calls on the maps, but I wanna get to, John, this larger picture of three and a half billion dollars give or take

being a disappointing valuation, because look around at what teams have been going for, I'll pull up some of those comparable valuations. But the most recent one, David, is which one? You can go to Indianapolis. The Indianapolis Pacers, that's the one. They just had a 20% sale to,

God name Stephen Rails. Stephen Rails is a name that, last name that some of you may know, there's a Rails involved in the Washington commanders with Josh Harris There was a Rails involved with me in the Marlins the dad Norman Rails these are his sons and These are the Rails who actually sued me and they went off the rails They say it went off the rails. I'll tell you that it certainly did and The Pacers valuation you're right there I'm still playing hurt.

Still playing hurt. What's the lawsuit between friends for a couple hundred million? That's right. Stephen Rails, Indiana Pacers, three and a half billion. Yeah, they just seems that was the fact that at least counterintuitive. Why team in Indianapolis would be worth the same as a team in Dallas, which is what the fourth largest city in the country, fast growing. So here's the first market that I think you'll agree with.

In the NFL, our valuations of teams based on location. Oh, I actually find that valuations of teams because of the fact that they share all the revenue, which is something that you've talked about on this show, which is that the future of the NBA could very well be that it's national revenue-based, not local revenue-based. And so therefore, you've got a smaller collar of valuations of teams because they're dealing from the same revenue-based, which is in large part based on the national broadcast revenue. Interesting. And so I don't find it as crazy today,

as I would have 20 years ago, to think that the Pacers could be worth what the Mavericks are. But today I find it much more reasonable and possible. And the Pacers look very good Monday night. They did, but again, it never came up in the sale of a franchise. They're getting the hell. They're getting the hellurton premium the Halliburton bum. Yes, I would I love that you're bringing your sports knowledge and your holy sweater to this

But no, I do not in any negotiation Someone had written that the Cuban knows the mavericks aren't gonna win in a few years. So he would sell None of that really is part of the equation I should point out that to the Adelson family the Halliburden bump given that political circle might be a very different reference as both the Tyres. But John, if I were to tell you, the sons in the Mercury and Phoenix went for four billion dollars to Matt Ischbier. Would the Mab's at three and a half be shocking to you, you would say?

It, I don't know if it's shocking, I am surprised that it doesn't at least start with a four. Yeah. So what we don't know about the Sun's deal versus the Maverick's deal, because the Sun's deal is now public, we don't know exactly all the assets that are included in the Maverick's transaction, but what we did know about the Sun's, hey, remember that deal, that was a distressed deal with speed. They needed someone to close really fast because it was the server situation

where Adam Silver needed to get him out. Now, if there's an acute reason to get Cuban out, we don't know it, we haven't heard it, we're not speculating about it. Is another theory though? Is that a theory that's been... Well, it's the theory of why is Rich Guy giving up his favorite thing while also leaving the TV show that made him famous. Is it president? Is it something from his past coming back?

We don't know, but certainly this is all in the bucket of speculation. I think that when people are not on TV, they fantasize about what it will be like when they're not famous. They want to be famous, but then when you are famous, you realize, wow, I still am just like everybody else. While Mark Cuban wanted to be famous and got famous and is rich, being on Shark Tank, by the way, he's done it. I'm not sure people are reading a lot into that. I don't think it's a huge deal that he's leaving Shark Tank. I don't think he would have to sell a team to run for President. Just put it in a trust the way what he johnson did with the uh... jets when he was the ambassador tingland

it's enough for us to sell anything just to be president nothing to disagree with their as hard as you may try so um... i just gonna be more problem well there's gonna be more there will be more and i should point out that there are things in mark ubyn's, like this thing from September 2018, if you remember the controversy internally with the Mavs.

Mark Cuban paid $10 million to women's leadership and domestic violence organizations under this agreement with the NBA because of the harassment scandal and the improper conduct stuff that happened in the front office. So thank you for bringing that up because people never want to talk about that. He was crying to Rachel Nichols on his fn and was a whole nighter before snider was snider except he had the ability to actually have plausible deniability saying I don't know and I went on record at the time saying mark human is such an involved owner that it is very

difficult for me to believe that he doesn't know what's going on in this company i would suggest that Daniel s Snyder is in a whole category by himself and would reject that Mark Cuban is much like Daniel Snyder, including he actually won. Is he all of that is true? Daniel Snyder, who yes was facing investigations by believe the state, federal, NFL level, simultaneously half dozen of them. Serious. A tonnage that Mark Cuban, despite his wattage,

does not quite match up to. But I want to get to other conspiracies, because John, I bring this conspiracy to your doorstep. Because College of Bull Play of Committee, of course, was the big story this week. FSU is out. Alabama is in, Texas is in, Rhonda Santas now is at the table threatening all sorts of things. And the main conspiracy here is that of course, I'd like to see Rhonda

Santas play Michigan. He was a baseball player. Yeah, I know it was. I've followed by his shame now actually having gone to that. That's right. I have an institution. That's right. But he's not a shane in money. He put a million dollars in the state budget to help Florida state sue, which is a laughable response but probably popular with FSU graduates. I think this is a bit of a travesty. Well, the ESPN conspiracy, John, again,

you've presided over the network while the conspiracy, so the conspiracy that's clearly it's it's got to be true. I want to I want to teach the controversy here. In how I was there and was the most interested party for 13 years of my employment. They picked and almost every one of those years four teams to play in a playoff. They never asked me my opinion. I never offered it to them. The idea that there's some secret calls made

from ESPN into the 13-member room, it's just silly. I saw some guys talking about ESPN blocked this because they won't FSU to go to the SEC conference. It's absurd. The ESPN has no reason to want to punish FSU. Did you watch the selection show when you were president of ESPN and see, oh, those are the four teams. I got a call before it was announced telling me who the four teams were. I love it. That's what you get for your half a billion dollars annually for broadcast

meetings before. This playoff is you get the special half a billion dollars annually for broadcasters. A few minutes before. This playoff is you get the special call like the rock got about Osama bin Laden's assassination. But wait, if I actually had had him put into it, I would never have created a 14 playoff. I would have created an 18 playoff how five college commissioners went into a room and came out with, oh, we're going to leave one of our champions out of this makes no sense. And this is finally coming home to reach for the first time, really. And I just believe the sort of introducing the new element of, oh, if you have injuries, I don't know if your coach gets COVID, suddenly you can't appear.

What if the player got hurt in practice leading up to the game? Stop getting all of us distracted by what you're saying, because what you're not saying is that ESPN having Alabama and the SEC in the championship game is better than having Florida state in the ACC in the game. That doesn't mean it's beautiful. It doesn't mean that A is greater than B. B is greater than C. Are you doing transit or property? A is greater than B. B is greater than C. So A is greater than C.

That is true. So you, but you are in sensitive. Stop the SAT practice test and speak to incentives. David, John, you know how David's brain works? David believes that anytime anything happens, it happens because it benefits somebody financially. Can you imagine thinking that? I must be out of my mind to think about it.

I just tell you, I was there. We tried hard to influence things. We did not yet to pick Alabama being in an FSU being out. I will guarantee you that nobody at ESPN called and said, we're going to pay you less money or we're going to, you have to do this for us. They didn't. Is there a change in the SEC broadcast partner next year? So next year, the European takes over the only game they did not have.

The three, what was the CBS 330 window? Which had been a big thing for CBS. They've had it for 24 years or something. They've tried it into the broadcast base. That's how big it is. At CBS, where once in a while I am, the SEC, it's a big deal to have that game. It's a very big deal to have that game.

They had it for $55 million, and the USPN is now paying three hundred million dollars now given that they're now paying three hundred million dollars do you agree that having the scc represented in the cfp who broadcast the cfp i can't remember usp and of course oh no hold on they do the cfp and the scc we can go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let SEC. Let's go. Let's stay in. Let's go. I'm happy to move on, John.

I just don't believe him. And it's fine if you don't want to sell out. No members of the committee ever contacted you. Nobody ever asked me my opinion. Who should be in the four? He's answering in a way. But can I, can I? I don't know.

You're actually around. I know. And this is sort of like not telling you, I know you're telling me that this is how it worked with the Marlins. But I appreciate what you're saying. But I'm talking about this year, this year. I have no idea. Maybe since I left, they become corruptible.

Let's get that bullquote. Let's trickle that on TikTok. I want to though understand the magnitude they have, by the way. No, I believe, look, we had a selection committee member on publics out on Erichel who spoke to the true mundane nature of

this exercise that said, I want to be realistic about acknowledging the magnitude of incentive, right? So keep aside the frost Nixon vibe you guys have right now and get to the question of how much more helpful is it to have Alabama in a game versus Florida state,

without a quarterback, but maybe even with a quarterback. What's that difference like? It's better. It's the difference of a 13 point spread versus a two point spread. It's the difference in a game that where Alabama has a greater following. I'm sorry to all the seminals out there

and the FSU people, many of whom I know and love, Alabama is more both positive and negative. More people have an opinion about Nick Sabin and Alabama than do about FSU. Though the difference in fan base between Florida State and Alabama is not vast. I mean, Florida State is one of the teams you would like to have in. I mean, it's ironic. I think they overthought it. I mean, for's ironic. I think they overthought it. I mean, for a minute, let's just get to what we can, so I think they overthought it. I think they thought exactly what you thought, David,

me, but I think it happened in that room. I don't think ESPN called. And the people in that room went, oh my gosh, we want the best possible tournament. We want the four best teams. We're looking at a Florida State team that didn't look very good against Louisville. We're afraid that what's gonna happen is what happened last year.

Of course, what happened last year? Was it Michigan? Who got beat by? TCU, 45 or something. I think that what John is saying is exactly how it happened. So they were motivated by money. And remember, they're gonna be going to market here very soon. I think they went we do not want that to happen. What do you mean by that the cost football playoff Deal with the ispian is coming up there in fact talking about having a Rotation the way the super bowl does right so smart looks what it's probably which is quite

All the go to 12 and rotate you're gonna bring in way more revenue. And once again, they picked the wrong number. They're gonna go from four to 12. They shouldn't be going from eight to 16. The point of the whole thing is to create games that create value. Why you want to give four teams a buy, I don't know. So I should point out, in defense of the committee

who has been the punching bag that you guys can agree on is that on the rules On the rule book there is this clause that talks about if a player or coach is missing that affects their performance going forward That is a consideration that's always been a rule It was cited before the decision was made for that reason I was unsurprised by it. However I do want to get to this other conspiracy about Rhonda Santas Because the other thing, of course, is that Donald Trump tweets on truth social about how, let's blame Rhonda Santas for FSU being left out. Rhonda Santas is now full-throwedly saying, a million

dollars. And to you guys, well, to others, there is the Disney connection. Not to me, but yes. So the Disney connection is this for those of you not in Florida, in which I'm not anymore, but it's a pretty big deal. The Santis and Disney are at war. The Santis is the governor of Florida. Disney does a lot of business in Florida in Orlando, and there are a lot of benefits that Disney gets to being in Florida. And Rhonda Santis would like to get rid of some of those corporate benefits, to which I

would assume you'd appreciate some of the things he's trying to do to level the plane field for the corporate welfare. And so the thought is that it is a FU to DeSantis by keeping FSU out of it, by the Disney company. And to that, I say horse hockey and you say, same thing, bullshit. Right. That's it.

Having said that, I also would call a little bit, DeSantis does not really care. He picked a fight with Disney for political benefit. I don't think he picked a fight because Disney is getting, oh, I totally agree. He benefits it. Other people shouldn't get. He thought he was gonna ride this,

I'm Mr. Antioh Woke to the Republican nomination that has proven to be a very ineffective strategy. Most of the country does not believe that Woke versus Antioh Woke is our most important issue right now and it's proved to be a big failure and I wish him continued bad luck. Well, the Santos has actually, they're not one thing I was going well in his campaign. I can't think of one thing in his self. No, it's campaigned in the league, too.

Maybe this year actually was not ideal for, yes, challenging Donald Trump, you think. And it really, well, he initially thought, I mean, now we're completely off the subject, but the whole purpose for the Santos was, this is the exact time to challenge Donald Trump. We are though off the rails, which actually does in this case again mean talking about lawsuits. Don Lebertard.

David Samson weirdo. Because he was not the fun substitute teacher who wheeled out a TV and play a VHS tape on Armageddon in science class. He was the weird one who would eat an ex-salad sandwich while clipping his toenails into the trash can and running about Ronald Reagan. Stugats. The guy kept talking about how his ass was smooth. Smoother than a newborn's cheek.

He wouldn't stop bragging about his bare buttics to me. This is the Don Lebatar Show with a Stugats. this to get I want to get to another Topic related to the NCAA Which is the NCAA getting woke because they're now trying to pay players in this roundabout way that I don't understand So there are these headlines about how Charlie Baker who replaced Mark Emmerd as the president of the organization, is now talking about a new subdivision inside of Division I athletics that allows schools to put money into a fund that would eventually compensate athletes. Maybe. That could.

So I truly don't understand what this story is, so I need you guys, David, please begin. I'm going to. What's going on? I summarize just very quickly and very easy. However, he's digestible peace what the nca is trying to do is make sure that they stay relevant and that they can maintain some sort of control over college athletics and what they want to avoid is any sort of group of people basically separate themselves like in England with the super league remember that

whole super league that the year across Europe for football and soccer and The thought is some of the schools may want to be out of the NCAA as John Skipper on this show has said makes perfect sense Why have an NCAA? So what they did as they said hey, we have an idea you make rules on your own if you want to opt into this new Division you can set aside money to pay to players and we'll have a few sort of regulations out of do it, but basically you're on your own. Brilliant. I love it. Except what you're doing is you are basically categorizing and cataloging your own demise. I believe they're creating the subdivision of authorized cheaters, right?

They've basically said instead of our trying to figure out rules about how to do the NIHL thing, we'll just allow you to do whatever the hell you want to do. So, we the regulatory agency will give up our actual reason for being because what we care most about is that we be, not that we do anything. This just proves that the NCAA is an organization which does, in my opinion, not need to exist. But do you not agree that you want the schools to have the power? Do you not want the schools to have the individual power to do what they think is right or what they want to do for their athletes?

I don't know. I mean, they're clearly not going to decide what is best for anything other than getting really, really good football players to come to their school. This appears to be the NCAA saying, we will sanction you taking a bunch of money, putting it in a fund, and bidding against each other for the number one rated quarterback process that's happening now with an IELTS. So I should point out it. So all they're doing is they're abrogating their own duty to provide some level of regulation to bring to be a governing body that actually can prevent the greatest, you know, heinous crimes of and this just means that they're, they're mostly worried now about

the power conferences leaving and say, what are you quality and all this is gonna do Why wouldn't you as one of those schools go? Well, what do I need the insides of a lay to do that? Right to do this ourselves So I should point out that Matt rule coaching a brasking now Said that a good quarterback in the portal costs one to 1.5 to $2 million right now. There are some teams he says that have paid six to seven million dollars for individual

athletes, which is a lot and is a function by the way of a market forming in the absence of a market. It is a market. We said maybe on this show, but certainly nothing personal. You want free agency in college, you've got it. NIO is free agency in college. And now we're surprised that there is a actual dollar amount,

just like in every sport, there's dollar amounts assigned to positions. On the, I think it's a fact that only first day this year, you could go into the portal that 7% of all the players on the visual and rosters went into the portal. Yes. Yes. Every 14 players.

The Heisman finalists, the quarterbacks are all transfers. They've all gone through the portal because they found a market value that they wanted to uh, Reel on your dream. I may be misunderstanding you this whole time. Don't you want players to get paid the most they can? I'm not against players getting paid the most they can. So therefore these college players they can't do the portal.

They don't do it because they don't like the dormitory food. They do it for a variety of reasons which is led at the top of the list by money. So number one is that's great then, you should be happy. I'm not unhappy, I'm just suggesting that the NCAA laying out this proposal is fairly preposterous. Well, what they're trying to do, I thought, is give power back to the schools because what the schools are complaining about,

including Nick Sabin and others, is that with all this NIL, the boosters and the companies who are paying the NILs are taking control in a way that we want to have. And the only way that we can have the control is if we have the right to pay players, because now that tube is, to toothpaste is out of the tube, players are getting paid. So they want to be able to pay the players. That's really all this is.

I'm not against that either. My point is, then why do you need the regulatory agency? Yes. What are you regulating? Yeah. What are you regulating? What's your job? Well, they're regulating sign stealing and Jim Harbaugh. There's that. But I actually want to, but the details on like when these players can actually get the toothpaste out of the, the, the escrow font, whatever this is. Well, they're able to get it now from NIL. No, but in this proposal, like when can they access it? Like, to what extent?

This is not a today proposal. This has, this is sort of like live PGA announcing their merger and then here we are eight months later and we don't know for even one second closer to it happened. I agree, because in the article that this came out, it says the proposal was a culmination of a month's long review. By the way at the NCAA they're capable of having a month long review to decide what to have for lunch. There are schools. I remember when Syracuse got

sanctioned and it was like four years after the offenses and they have like a championship taken away and Jim Bayham from having 900 wins, having 700, what takes so damn long? Yeah, I mean he did not lose 200 wins. Huh? Jim Bohem, he may not have a 200 wins. I may be wrong on the number, but it was I believe north of 100 games.

That's very, very, very, very, very. We're gonna have Cocoa fact check that, as he also has already fact checked me, by pointing out that schools, this is the rule, to my, answer to my question, schools would determine when athletes receive the amount, which for four-year athletes will total at least $120,000, and then you gotta buy by title nine,

which means 50% of the investment goes to email athletes, which I guess is cool. And so far as I guess is cool. And so far as the NCAA is really amazing. It probably is not gonna be popular with the athletic director. Not for fun. So we're mostly interested in bringing

an $6 million quarterback. So they're gonna have to pay a lot of field hockey and crew members a lot of money. They're gonna find a way around it. Yeah, they're not gonna be a problem. It's not gonna be 50-50, it's not gonna happen. They're going to find a way around it. Yeah, they're not going to be 50-50. It's not going to happen. They're ways to get around it. So the title line violations, if you're running the company, which that's what a school is, you want to give six million to your football quarterback. You don't want to give six million to your field hockey

soccer volleyball and ball and ball and ball of players. Right. It's a, you don't. It does feel like the NCAA is creating an lieu of a coherent policy here, just as John put it, and excuse to survive. And I point out that John had the number directionally correct. It was 101 wins. That's a, exactly north of 100. That is true.

And south of 200. By about 100%. Speaking of people losing large numbers of stuff, Elon Musk was on stage with Andrew Rassorkin at this conference. And I bring this in as a story because this has to do with, I guess the very basic premise

of what advertising is. And also the fact that X Twitter, as it was called, and I still call it, is the place where sports media is uniquely concentrated among all the social media platforms. And so just to recap, Elon Musk told Bob Eiger to go f**k himself on stage. Not to his face.

But he said it directionally. Yes. To words Bob Eiger and everybody else who he claims is trying to blackmail him. That's his word blackmail, because they are withdrawing their advertising from the platform formerly known as Twitter. And he believes it's a free speech thing, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, but you guys work in the business of all of this. You're familiar with all of these premises

and some of the people. Linda Yaccarino, by the way, is the person responsible for selling ads for Elon Musk and she's like her own character who is very funny to contemplate. So John, what was your reaction to this cast of people getting involved in this way? Well, I'm assuming that Bob and Elon will have to fight after Elon fights Mark Zuckerberg.

The next fight will be with Bob Eiger. And Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Yeah. I don't know why Elon would suggest it says anything do with free speech. You have every right to advertise only platform or not advertising on a platform. And a number of advertisers have decided his behavior is so bizarre and so ridiculous.

Yeah, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories being laid as three. Including his very unfortunate quote about replacement theory. So it's a reasonable decision to make that I'm not going to advertise on your platform. I don't know what Elon clearly doesn't understand how business works. He's an idiot in a genius. He clearly. So I don't disagree with what you're saying other than he does understand business. He has built a business. He runs a business, a very large business. I believe he may be the richest person in the world. He is sometimes certainly in the country. Exactly. Depending on the Tesla stock.

The Tesla stock. Exactly. My take on this was a little different in that what bothered me about it was not. It's his company. When you spend $44 billion on a company and you want to not have advertisers and you wanna say F you to people,

that's the very definition of many people's dream which is to have FU money. And that's what he has. So he has every right to do it. What I didn't appreciate about the way he did it is that it made it sound as though what he's doing on that app is right and that the thing is he's saying he believes in

as opposed to having the right to say them. And so I was bothered more by that nuance that are there really people who believe and is he one of them, what he spews, or is he playing a character, or is he just a crazy man? And my takeaway is that there's a screw loose with him and that he may actually believe what he says.

Wow. And that bothered me the most. That's a far out theory. Very far. I'm on a limb here. So save me if you can with your second hole, which just happened me the most. That's a far out theory. Very far. I'm on a limb here. So save me if you can with your second hole, which just happened by the way. It's now a second hole.

I don't know if you can see that. I'm not paying any attention to it. I am. It's in the back. Those bothered me. I'm a humble supplicate. I should point out that Elon Musk is an increasingly humbled CEO of this company because he's about losing $75 million in advertising revenue

because all of these major brands, Disney Apple, IBM, paused their campaigns. Because of all of this stuff, regardless of, to David's inquiry, regardless of the motive, it feels desperate. It all feels quite desperate the way that he is operating now. What if he's doing it to go to a subscription model? And he's going away from an advertising model and he doesn't care. What if the fact of the matter is that he doesn't... How much money do you think they spend advertising on X?

If you had a guess, the total amount Bob Eiger spends to advertise on X? I actually have no idea. But I suspect it's a small $10 million figure. I doubt it. Me too. That would be eight figures. And I would say maybe it's a $5 million deal. And that would be a pretty good spend.

Elon Musk gets to say, go F yourself and loses $5 million. The stock goes down a 30 second and he loses $200 million. So I just think that people are missing the math a little bit on this. You probably just proved your point. $75 million, he has a billion. For every million, he has lost on this. It's the definition of f**king money.

So then therefore that's how I came to my conclusion that I was more upset that he may actually believe what he says or that other people will then listen to him and believe it to That's what bothers me more than him saying F you to Bob I know right my personal theory is simply that Elon Musk's brain has been eaten by the internet and specifically the platform that he purchased for $44 billion that is now a emerging money Are there other people whose brains are impacted by twitter the year-of-year i mean actually pay attention to what's written about them are said about them and it impacts their behavior and thought process in business uh... he'd be the only one you know must be would not be the only person in sports

media or at our company uh... but i should point out that this woman linda yaccerino john uh... who has to be the corporate face of a guy who is the anti-corporate face of all of these insane people. What's it? Well, it kind of proves that he is a genius and an idiot because many people thought Linda Yaccerino was as good as there is in selling advertising

in the traditional broadcast media. She did a great job for us. You knew of her before all of this. She's very good at this. I assume she sort of knew what she was getting into and that she is somewhere in a dark room going, I know I'm gonna make a lot of money doing this, but I'm not sure how long I can stand to deal with this guy

She'll deny that tomorrow in a press release as she must But she's actually quite good at what she does and he is making her job impossible. It's sad. It seems she's on commission sad Pardon, do you think she's on commission? I would assume she's on commission, but I would assume that he made her for her to leave And go there a few M you made her an overwhelming offer, good for her. She has earned it, but she now is dealing with somebody who will make her job in box. So the way I look at it is she's the one who has to shovel the shit behind the elephant, right?

The elephant's out there, that's Elon Musk. And she's the one who's behind it with the shovel. Or the shovel. Or she's actually the shovel. Or she's actually the shovel. And you know what? You get paid to be the shovel.

So I don't believe that she's in a dark room despondent. I believe that she was sitting there like rolling her eyes and then they go after and talk. And he says, by the way, your bonus just went from 8 million this year to 13 million dollars. Are you okay with that? And then people decide whether they are.

So can I ask a question that I think gets to the reality though of this. We've all expressed sort of our philosophical objections to various things today. But if you're one of these companies that pulled advertising from X, how do you contemplate when to put it back in? Is this a forever decision or what does it take to come back? I have an agency that gives me metrics that I'm not no longer appealing. I'm trying to find a demographic, and that demographic does not exist on Twitter anymore. Contrary to what many people think, there's a whole world outside of Twitter. And if you're trying to get to the 18 to 54s or the men, the women, there are a ton of people depending on where you are politically, there are where you are with money. They exist in tons of places. Disney didn't cut its ad buys. They're just reallocating them. And Twitter's never been a

primary ad buy for almost anybody. There is not near the F-crap. It's the thing they do just to say they do it. It is not. It's an interesting notion you brought up that he might pivot to because I think he's suggested it before. He might pivot to a subscription service. Well he does now with Twitter blue which is I pay a monthly amount and the reason I do is I like having more than 280

and I like being able to add. What is it for only fans? This is a Twitter blue. You actually... I do not show my feet. He does that for free. I did, exactly. But to the point, I also would like to not be undermined

by the algorithm, which punishes people who don't pay the protection mafia style fee that he demands. I'm good with it. Protection money, that's also as old as the hills. So I should point out that I want I've learned today as we get to now the end of the show, and I want to figure out what you guys are thinking about. What I've learned today is that hundreds of million dollars

between friends mean nothing, and that five million dollars is quote scraps. And I will bring these quotes to my next contract negotiation. But David and John, what are you both thinking about this week? Well, you said David and John, who's like, start with?

I would like to start with David. So what I'm thinking about this week, Pablo, is the NBA in season tournament, and how wrong I was, where I thought that no one would care about it. And I saw passion on the court. And I am so excited that Vegas got the semi-finals. It's gonna be a great final when it happens tomorrow. And my view is that Adam Silver knew exactly what he was doing.

And while I was cynical, he has created something that he can monetize because when you make games, regular season games matter and count, ad elimination games, ad money to players, you are doing something good. So I give Adam silver a lot of credit, and I've been thinking about that because I don't always, but today I am. And what's on my mind is a subset of that,

which is those spectacular courts, which made a lot of people crazy. I thought they were very cool. And it also was a brilliant way to signal that this game is different. And what he has done is brilliant. He's taken regular season games and you forever hear people talking about there's too many games. They can't change the number of games, right David? Because the owners want the games in the arenas, they want the ravenes. So that's not going to change the broadcast of games right David because the owners won't the games in the arenas they want the raven Yes, so that's not gonna change the rock gas partners

So he has now taken a subset of those games that don't matter and I say that in air quotes They do matter, but he's made the matter more He's made the ratings go up and he Depended upon the fact that players when they get on the court and they're playing for something and they are playing for money I have a million dollars. A championship. Each. Yes, each.

Each. Each. Which is, most players are not Janice. And what is interesting is that the player who may have responded the best is the league's marquee player, LeBron James, who is going to manage to maybe win a championship this year. I don't think it'll be at the end of the year, but he has now got himself in the semi-final, semi-final. Yes, as of recording time, LeBron James,

I was trying to go evergreen there. I know, but tomorrow, because Friday, and that's because the Thursday or the semis Saturdays. We're way behind the curtain now. Okay, that's right. All of that said, I would also say that what Adam Silver is going to do here, correctly and smartly, so he's going to package these again as part of the new deal. And the biggest worry they had, the biggest worry they had is it would take away from the

trophy at the end, the NBA trophy. Are people going to respect this, do they want this? It turns out if you pay players money in season and keep the NBA finals, as the NBA finals, you can do both, and that's fantastic. And by the way, they'll solve the problem with the name, which is sort of under markable now. The in-season tournament will become the...

Capital One tournament. Or will come the Amazon... The B-Fo-Radi's tournament. The Duke's May-O. Will become somebody's tournament. Will become somebody's tournament. is the tournament. The Duke's Mayo. The Duke's Mayo will become somebody's tournament. As it should. And it's a good idea.

Yeah, I mean, this was a thing that was declared essentially a doomed premise at the outset. And I'm curious about, beyond the core, I think the courts are like, they're a visual thing where you walk by a TV and you're like, what's happening there? And now you're wondering asking, what is the in-season tournament?

But in terms of like, why it's actually worked? To you guys, the biggest strategic wind that Adam Silver proved is half a million dollars per player is enough. And the second one, half a million dollars and? A championship. And no, not to me half a million dollars and... A championship. And no, not to me, a trip to Vegas. Oh God.

This is laugh as you want. You would be shocked the way players want to go to Vegas. It's interesting. It's true, but that's what we're thinking about. That's what we're thinking about. That's what we thought, David and I are on the same page. Yes. We are definitely not on the same page.

I can't sit next to him for another minute. Asthetic endorsements from the guy with two holes at his shirt. Do you have an excuse? Can I talk to someone about this? No. I'm buying you a sweater. Okay. And then I'm going back. I'm going to get a sweater.

Thanks. I'm okay with that. Give me some of my money back. I'm not going to. What's a couple of sweaters between us? Yeah. I want a lot less money. Not less job.

Okay. A lot more. Thank you, Pablo. Thank you, Pablo. Thank you. We were done before that. I hope. Now we're done.

Okay. I feel a lot less important. I need not less job. Okay. A lot more. Thank you, Pablo. Thank you, Pablo. Thank you.

We were done before that. I hope. Now we're done.