The Business of Sports with Abe Madkour

Welcome to the Athletics of Business, a podcast about how the traits and behaviors of elite athletes and remarkable business leaders frequently intersect. The real stories and hard lessons to help you level up your leadership and performance. Now your host, Ed Molitor.

Welcome back to another episode of the Athletics of Business podcast. I am your host and CEO of the Molotor Group, Ed Molatt. I mean, do we have an incredible conversation, high energy conversation with so much cool content today with our special guest, Abe Madcore, who brings more than 20 years of experience covering the business of sports. And he serves as Executive Director of Sports Business Journal, Sports Business Daily as well as Sports Business Global. Abe is responsible for shaping the editorial direction of the publications while managing the entire editorial staff and there is no easy or small task at all. He also oversees the editorial content for their amazing conferences which are produced by the Sports Business Group. Those conferences include the prestigious World Congress of Sports Business awards and the 40 under 40 awards.

He writes weekly editorials and features of the management leadership strategies of leading industry executives. Inside this conversation, he will also share with us the fundamentals that always show up that make these executives so successful. And Abe is a frequent industry speakers and serves as a lead moderator and editorial spokesman, as I mentioned, at all the company's events. Here's what's really cool. His story, his journey is so cool cause Abe joined Sports Business daily back in 1994 when it launched as a senior staff writer. And prior to joining Sports Business Daily, Abe was a legislative assistant for US Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont. And he also had stints working for the Washington Bullets, not the Wizards, the Washington Bullets and the Baltimore Orioles in 1993 and 94. Abe, thank you so much for joining us today on the Athletics of Business podcast.

I am beyond thrilled to have you here.

It's my pleasure. I've been looking forward to this. Let's have some fun.

You know, it's hard to believe it's already been close to a month since we last sat and had coffee and so much has happened. And I just said this to you, there's never really a dull moment in your world, is there Abe?

No. I mean the sports business is incredibly dynamic and it's incredibly active and it's incredibly engaging and popular. So there's a lot of news that people are making and breaking all the time. There's a lot of deal flow right now. There's a lot of movement in the industry, there's a lot of investment in the industry and there's a lot of startups in the industry and sports is an incredibly, I would say, as you know, very popular, engaging medium right now and people are interested in it.

So how do you keep up with it all? Because you have the ability to have a conversation articulate on almost any subject matter that I bring up. How is it that you are able to keep up with everything that's going on? There's so many different things moving.

Well, I think, as you know, when you're in the news business and you're a news junkie, you consume a lot and I consume a lot. And it's our business. It's my business. It's been my business for more than 20, almost 25 years. So I think that one, we work at it really hard. We do a number of news feeds every day. So I'm always reading our content, our product, I'm grading it, I'm assessing it, I'm critiquing it. And so when you read everything that's out there, you've got a good understanding of all the topics, whether it's related to sports marketing, sports sponsorship, sports media, the Olympics, collective bargaining issues, people on the move. So, you know, I oversee the entire business right here at Sports Business Journal, so I'm less focused on editorial.

I kind of missed some of those days when it was all about news and information. But it's my job to stay on top of it, so it's fun. And I do feel really fortunate that I can always feel comfortable having a conversation with anybody in different segments of the business of sports.

Is it safe to say that your business is a dance or a balancing act between relationships and information, secrets and trust and breaking news as well as educating the industry?

Yeah. I've always looked at our business as Sports Business Journal is to inform the business of sports and executives in the business of sports and allow them to make more informed business decisions. So we feed them and we deliver them and we serve them news information and data. We also bring them together to network at events so they can grow their business and make relationships that can grow their business. But to your first point, Ed, reporters and journalists are in the information gathering business. They trade off information. You and I may trade secrets that we have, we may keep them into our own little code of silence, but we trust each other. Where I'll share some things with you'll share some things with me. So reporters are. Yes, like you said, in the information sharing business, what are some of the.

Hot topics that are going on right now and what are the things that are just forefront of your Industry of the news cycle.

Well, I mean right now as we head into the Olympics, it was announced today that there'll be no spectators at Tokyo. Not a surprise. But I do think the Olympics over the next three or four weeks will be an incredibly big part of our coverage. The business of sports is really looking at the Olympics in terms of, you know, how it brings the world together, how the event get executed, how the broadcaster NBC covers the games, what will be the ratings. So we are keeping a real, we're keeping a real, I would say barometer on fan interest across sports. Ed. And so, you know, we're in the midst of the NBA Finals as you and I are talking and the early numbers for the NBA finals are very soft. They're very, they're quite low. So is that an aberration? Is that a concern?

You know, we'll dig into that. We'll look at the numbers of the just completed NHL Stanley cup finals. In addition, you're starting to see, you know, we're going into the MLB All Star Game. We're starting to see trends in Major League Baseball on the business side, many of them positive in terms of business being backed to pre pandemic levels in certain areas. We'll look at user engagement, ratings, attendance, and I do think that baseball will take us with the Olympics into August and then all of a sudden it was surprising. But then we come into football, US Open and then the NFL which will be real barometers of the fall.

Okay, that's so interesting. And how about in your world, does the nal is all the things going on at the NCAA right now, does that play into what you'll talk about?

Yeah, I mean I missed that one. I mean that's been a dominant focus of our coverage over two weeks. I was at a dinner last night here in Charlotte where I live, and that was the only conversation pretty much of the entire dinner. And so NIL is an incredibly groundbreaking game changing action in the world of intercollegiate athletics. Perhaps the most significant, probably easily the most significant since I've been in the business. So we're starting to see a couple of weeks in Ed, some of the early trend lines and some of the early deals that are being done. And it's a really wild west out there and it's got to be difficult for the schools to deal with this.

Yeah, I mean, what are your thoughts on it? I mean the Power five obviously will make out well with it, but you got the guy, the mma, the gentleman owns the MMA gym down in Miami saying he wants to Bring back to you. Right. And he's going to do whatever he has to provide monetarily to have the best players on the field. And what are your thoughts on all that?

Well, I think there are a lot of. That's a tough one. There's a lot of thoughts. I mean what I'm looking at, I'll just maybe narrow it that way. I'm looking at some of the sizes of the deals, of course, that are given to the athletes. I'm looking at the. I would say that the scope of the athlete who are receiving deals is a pretty balance between male and female athletes. What revenue sports and non revenue sports are getting deals. Whether it's like I said, someone last night was saying that their early indicators are that surprisingly many of the athletes in the non revenue sports are getting pretty good deals. Tennis, soccer or something sports or some international players that are benefiting. And that's good. Where I fear Ed, is that this breaks up locker rooms and that it causes concerns for coaches.

And number two, I really fear that a deal is contingent on any athlete's integrity being ever into question. And so those are some things I'm keeping an eye on. And also if that person who you mentioned in Miami who had the gyms, he was an acknowledged big donator to the University of Miami's athletic department, does that money no longer go to the athletic department but now just go to the athletes? So those are some of the things I'm keeping an eye on.

So interesting. Now how do you figure with so much going on and you just named. I mean we just bulleted six or seven things that are going to take us through August that are such big focal points. What makes it a big focal point? Obviously it's a no brainer when you talk about the MLB All Star game, the NBA Finals numbers and things like that. But what are some of the things that you look for to provide, to inform and to educate?

We cover all the sports and we look at the business side of all the sports. But I definitely focus in our publications and our media outlets focus on the sports that really move the needle. So I mean we'll still cover tennis and we'll still cover lacrosse, but we're also probably over indexed on covering the NFL and Major League Baseball and the NBA because they are social drivers. They've been known to draw huge audiences and for years growing up in the mid to late 90s that I remember following is like how the NFL goes, so goes the sports business. So you really took your cues from the big properties it's changed a little bit. Where some of these newer properties like Premier Lacrosse League or the National Women's Soccer League, they're very innovative and they're taking chances.

And I think a lot of people are looking at some of these startup leagues that are doing some innovative things and that gets our coverage meter up just as much as a big deal. But we're looking at the major deals. We're looking at the first movers, whether it's on the NFT space, whether it's in sponsorship, whether it's in streaming or traditional media deals. We're looking at new stadium developments, things that we think are going to be legacy, things that we think are going to be precedent setting. Those are the areas that we really want to focus on and we really want to inform people. Like, this is important. This is why you need to pay attention to this because it's going to have a long tail effect on the business.

So interesting. I briefed the listener on your background and your journey a little bit, but can you tell us about Sports Business Journal, your time with them? From that was then, this is now, from your start to where you're at now and towards the end of that, what are some of the new things that you guys have done so much during the COVID on this podcast, right from the beginning, we talked about the difference between growing through this adversity and going through this adversity. And there's no question in my mind that you guys exponentially improved your business platform.

I appreciate that. I mean, the business has come a long way. I mean, I was with a group of young people in 1994, working out an old Victorian house and started putting together aggregating news from major markets around the country. And we would fax it out to a couple of sports teams and sports leagues and sports media companies. And were charged up to $500 or more. People were like, what is this product and what do we do with it? But it got a following. And a couple years later, street and Smith started a weekly news magazine called Sports Business Journal. They acquired where I was, Sports Business Daily, and they brought both under the street and Smith Sports Business Group's banner. Really, since 1998, the two have been together. And we started as, like I said, a simple daily and a print product.

And then we've morphed into, you know, we do 14 industry conferences a year. Right now we have five different daily editions that go out of our daily product. We also have five different vertical newsletters that go out once a week, one on Just on sports media, one on just on sports betting, one on just on football, one on sports marketing, one on colleges. And so, you know, we've really, to the, to your point, we've diversified. We do a weekly, a bi weekly video news show called SBJ Spotlight and we do a number of things in the audio space. SBJ iFactor tells stories about many sports business professionals who've been honored by our company. And also we do a morning, probably about an 8 minute roundup of the top news called morning buzzcast. So we're playing in a lot of spaces. It's pretty exciting.

What kind of numbers in terms of staff does it take to make all that go, make it all work?

Well, editorially we have a staff of about 40 and as a company, we have a staff just over 100.

Wow. Okay, so what do you have as the person behind, you know, that runs the show, what do you have your hands in? Because I've listened to some of the SBJ iFactor podcast. The conversations have been phenomenal and you know, you leading the charge on some of those. What do you have your hands in?

Well, since I came up from the editorial side, Ed, I've always had a kind of a leaning towards that space. So I'm still involved on to your point, the audio, I still do that morning buzzcast. That's generally something I lead every morning. I do lead the SBJ iFactor. These are interviews with people I've had relationships with for a long time. So at least to start, we'll have other people lead those interviews. But right now I'm doing those. And I also am very engaged with our SBJ Spotlight show, the new show. And then when we start our conferences back up in the fall, our in person conferences, I think we do 13 and 14 weeks. You know, I'll be, you know, leading conversations.

I'll be, you know, sort of serving as the host on stage at many of those events and also moderating many of the conversations. So it's pretty varied. But you know, the rest of my time is focused on the people and the business and the strategic planning of how we grow our business.

So what was that like during COVID I mean, without the events, without the human factor, in person factor, how did you guys handle that situation?

Yeah, no doubt our business was dramatically impacted by Covid. Quick story, three weeks into March was going to be our biggest event held in Southern California and we canceled it on say roughly March 3rd or 4th or 5th of 2020. But I was proud because we, I think a month later, like April 20, a month later from the originally planned event, in person event in Los Angeles, we put on a two day virtual event. So we really pivoted very quickly into virtual technology. We're able to bring the industry together virtually now. I'll just say that, you know, the revenue from 2020 was not what were expecting, not what we had budgeted, but we created new products, we created a whole virtual business that we didn't have before.

We used the time also to get smarter in our, and more sophisticated in our operating systems, in our sales process. We feel very good about where we're coming out of it now, but let's face it, I mean companies budgets were slashed so they weren't subscribing to necessarily news products. The event business, in person registration. I mean some events we get a thousand people who pay over $1,000 to attend that was gone. Dramatic impact, but we really did a great job in getting through it and we feel very good about where we are heading into, you know, the back half of 21.

And now that you're back at it and you start in the fall with the in person conferences, how much significance will that have for the folks that are there in attendance? Like understanding the value and the power behind what you folks do.

I think we've already heard from a number of people at how excited they are to get back to in person events. I mean our events are basically a networking factory. I mean people just meet each other and whether it's over lunch or over cocktails or breakfast or just in the meeting rooms. I have been told so many stories over the years of us doing these events. Like hey, we got into business together at one of your events or hey, the idea of what we're launching here, it came from when were sitting, having lunch together at one of your events. And so I would say so much business, so many relationships, so much good has come out of some of those live events. People are just eager for them.

And I also think people will be even eager to hear from the leaders in sports talk about the strategy of sports going forward. I mean let's not kid ourselves, Ed. There's a lot of people very bullish about the future of sports. I'm one of them. But there's still a lot of uncertainty. So people want, they want to hear some planning for the future, vision for the future, how the sports business has changed dramatically. What will it be like? How are we all going to be prepared and capitalize and hopefully be successful in it? So it's a pretty key tipping point for the business, I think.

You know, you just said something that really piqued my interest. I firmly believe that constraints can drive our creativity. Not can they do drive our creativity. Right. And we've had so many constraints on us in the sports business world has so much, so many constraints on it. Have you seen that you talk about being bullish about the future of sports. Have you seen the creativity factor go up in the way people are trying to do things in the industry?

Oh, absolutely. I mean everybody has their story of how this pandemic has basically expedited innovation and creativity and accelerated it. And I think it's fantastic. I mean you're seeing things like payment systems now being contactless order, contactless food and ticketing within venues. You're seeing all new ways for people to enter and exit venues. And I think you're going to see more ways of people accessing content unlike any before. I do think that all these ideas that people basically had in their to do list, they were forced to bring them out and act on them. So I do think the, I think the industry had got a real nice, I would say jump starting of innovation and creativity and I think the fan is going to be the recipient who will benefit the most, so to speak.

Biggest win.

Yeah, I think that is the biggest win because let's face it, I used to complain pre pandemic that I didn't think the industry was doing a good enough job at making the sports experience. I would say accessible, easy, enjoyable or affordable. And I think now a lot of the elements that have been put in place will hopefully address a lot of those concerns. I do think we need to make it far more accessible and easy for people, families, young people, old people to enjoy sports, specifically the live sports experience. Television's a great experience and I think it's only going to improve through technology. But the live in venue experience, whether it's cost, whether it's sight lines, whether it's just getting in and out of the building has to be improved.

Let's talk about the major leaders in the fan experience, right? We talk about someone like Elevate and the work that they have done for the fan experience and how they have grown. And you're talking about people have their to do list and now they're forced to put them into action. Right? It expedites innovation and creativity. What are some of the changes that you've seen that you've heard about or that you even expect in the fan experience to take place?

Well, like I said, I think when you go into a venue now, it's going to be far more manageable. I think they're going to be different access points staggered at different times. I think it'll be much. It'll be far more mobile. So, Ed, if you're going to go to a game, you'll get a notice where they want you to go into Gate three at a certain time and it will be far more seamless for you. When you order, you won't be standing up, hopefully six people deep and waiting for a server to wait on you. You'll be making that order far earlier. You'll be going and picking it out of it, maybe a kiosk or maybe even like a convenience store where you're opening up a drawer to get your food in order.

I think you feel the orders probably prepared in a more cleanse, in a more safe environment. So I think some of those things will definitely. We've already seen it with mobile ticketing and the way that you can get your tickets delivered to you. So that's just in the fan experience at the venue. There's going to be far more. I'm trying to think of some others. You know, I do think personalization is going to be a bigger item as well in the future in terms of getting you the news and information and the information about your team, your players, your event experience far greater. I think that you could see different parts of venues be responsive to this, whether there'll be smaller communal areas of people gathering together at a venue, so venues could look and feel different as well.

Yeah, it's exciting, it's interesting and it gives us stuff to look forward to. I want to bounce back to something here that we mentioned earlier. We talked about the SBJI factor and I've noticed that several of your recent guests on there were Sports Business Journal 40 under 40. And you have some great awards and some great folks that you honor in terms of the future of sports. Can you talk about those awards, what they mean and what the criteria are to be nominated and elected?

Sure. So we do a couple of awards. I'll point out Sports Business Journals 40 under 40 awards launched in the early 2000. It's really the best of the executives under 40. It's highly coveted, it's very popular, it's quite prestigious. And the people who have won that award, Ed, have gone on to run leagues. Adam Silver was an early 40 under 40 winner. He's now NBA commissioner. I think that if we go back and look at our list of previous recipients, they right now are the leaders across the business of sports. That's how we pride ourselves to spot talent that we think will have a very long Runway and be very successful in being real visionaries in the business of sports. We do Game Changers, which honors really talented women in the sports business.

Because that was an underrepresented area, we felt that we really wanted to celebrate and recognize the diversity of the sports business. And so that's been going on for more than 10 years. And over those 10 years, I think we've honored more than 400 different women in different segments of the sports business at that are really leaders, innovators, idea creators, entrepreneurs, who have just really been probably overlooked at times. And so that is something I'm incredibly proud of. And we created the Sports Business Awards 14 years ago. The vision then was, let's do the Oscars, the Tonys or the Emmys for the sports business. And where we recognize team of the year, league of the year, event of the year, the sponsor of the year, and those have been very popular as well. And again, for us, we're in the business, we cover the business.

Of course, we're critical of the business. We're objective about the business. But I've never apologized for celebrating the business and celebrating the industry. And we are a trade publication that serves the sports industry. That's some of the highlights that we've done. Companies submit some of their best people for 40 under 40, and we'll get more than 600 submissions that we'll have to narrow down to 40 across sports. And that's incredibly challenging. But this is not, you know, most votes win. It's a very arduous review process. We talk to people, we study resumes, we study work history. And we just created a new awards program about three years ago called New Voices Under 30, which really looks at, of course, the next generation of leaders in sports. So it's been pretty fun.

And with all those. Let's go back to 40 under 40 really quick, because you talked about spot talent, where you a perceived long Runway of success. Right. And impact in the industry. What are the things you look for to figure out what the potential long Runway is? And the spot, the talent, what are the characters? What are the behaviors? What are the benchmarks, the metrics, whatever it is?

Well, I would say benchmarks would be at a young age, what is their role within an organization? How much influence do they have within an organization? And that's the first indicator. So if we're looking at someone who's in their early 30s and is already a senior vice president at the NBA, where they oversee 40 people and they're in the executive management team with the commissioner at the early 30s. You know, they've got some really serious chops. Then we dig into their background and you find out, okay, not to sound at all elitist, because I'm not trying to, but you see their education. Maybe they went to Penn undergrad and then Harvard Business School or vice versa. Or you look at their education levels, you look at where they', gone, you look at what they've done. But also it's not just about education levels.

It's about really what they. Some are entrepreneurs and they've started a company or created a product that has been a game changer in the sports business. So, you know, I'm really proud of the areas that we've been able to focus on, whether it's a young person who's had an unbelievable influential point of view on stadium development, to someone who's put together incredibly difficult and complex sponsorship deals at a very young age, to an attorney who has put together or overseen some very complicated mergers of leagues or operations, or very difficult collective bargaining or legal issues, all at very young ages. So I think those are the things we look at. Influence, significant role within the organization, and I would say a creativity and an innovative spark that people will gravitate to. Or I would say follow.

And dare I ask who some of your favorites have been? I don't want to put you on the spot, I know that's tough, but even go recent. Go recent.

Oh, God, I hate to sound like my head's mushing in, but we've recognized him. Like you mentioned Mark Tatum, I mean, we recognize him in the mid 2000s. This is a gentleman who I think was born in Vietnam, came over to Brooklyn, worked hard, was a great student, went to Cornell and then did go to Harvard Business School later and then had an internship, I think, at Major League Baseball, but then went to NBA and just worked his way up. And when were recognizing him, he wasn't in the position he is now, but now he's deputy commissioner. Just incredibly likable, incredibly, I would say, well respected.

But then you've got someone like Scott o', Neill, who you and I both know, one of my favorites, I think just the way that he's been able to be a mentor to so many Mike Levine's at CA Sports, incredible personality. He and Howie Neucho, they were recognized in 40 under 40 around the same time, but they were in different jobs and then they became friends and they went to CA Sports as co heads and they have built that company into an incredible operation. But there are so many others. Molly Solomon at NBC Sports, she's going to go over to the Olympics and be a huge, I would say, influencer on what you and I watch from the Tokyo game. So there have been so many favorites and a person like Jessica Berman, she's now deputy commissioner of the National Lacrosse League.

But at the time we recognized her, she was a general counsel at the NHL and had just completed an unbelievably complex collective bargaining agreement. And so watching her develop in her career has been fun to watch. So there's so many.

That's so cool. Now we talked about, I asked you what are some of the characteristics or traits you see and we talked about influence their role early on in their career with their organizations. What are some of the fundamentals? Right. Whether it be their communication, whether it be their ability to ask great questions, whether it be their ability to connect the dots or network or their work ethic. What are some of the things you've seen at the very core of them? Consistently over your 40 under, between your 40 under 40, your game changer, your new voices.

Yeah. So I mean one, you just can't get around work ethic. These people just work, work. And I'm not saying, sure, some of it may be unhealthy and some of them have recognized that and stopped and had a better work life balance. But work ethic to me is number one, intelligence, both emotional intelligence and just native intelligence is always there. You have to have a real quick mind to be in some of these high pressure roles. I would say communication and social skills, be interesting and be interested. Like these people are both, you know, they have interesting stories to tell but they listen pretty well and they can pick up things and they can, they're very quick learners. They're very adaptive.

They can work a room generally very well and be very, I would say social in their ways of getting information from people and being connected to people. So all those things, you know. But again, it comes back to me like work ethic, innate intelligence, drive, people skills, all very important. I think that people want to get in the sports industry, think that it's going to be really easy and very high profile and lucrative. I mean none of these people started in that role. They all really worked their way through and they grinded through it.

The stories are amazing. Now you mentioned something. So it's a Fast moving industry. Right? It's fast paced, it's fast moving. Quick decisions, usually not with all the information. So in this industry you're going to take a lot of swings, you're going to take a lot of big swings, which means you're going to fail a lot. What have you seen in that fact? The failures that have taken place from these highly successful executives, how they responded to them, how they bounced forward from them.

Yeah, I mean, one of my favorite executives in all the business in my years has been former ESPN president George Bodenheimer. And he talked about a great failure which he was behind and bullish on was the ESPN phone. I don't know if you remember it, but the ESPN phone was going to be a certain industry innovation that was going to change the business and change communication. And it was a great abject failure. And he pulled the plug on it and he said it was just something that he hated to do. But like, and then George Borden, I went on to have incredibly successful career and ESPN went on and did just fine. Right. And so just because they had a pretty big high profile failure with the phone didn't mean that their business and their success and their business want to continue successfully.

You know, it's hard to say. That's a tough one. I've seen people, some people fail and kind of disappear, I'm not going to lie. And then you see some people fail, come right back up and launch something incredibly successful. You also see people who sell one successful business, take a break, start another one, sell that one, start another one. So it's just amazing to see the drive in some of those people. But we all fail all the time. I fail every day. Some of the visible high profile failures can be incredibly humbling and I think probably very discouraging and maybe even depressing to individuals and how they get back, how they respond, how they react to that's all within them. But I've seen it, I've seen in a number of different ways.

And isn't that ability to pick up and move on to the next play? Right. And the quicker you do it, the more efficient you do it?

Yeah, it's easy to say and I don't know how I would react on certain large high profile failures. And you know, I certainly have had plenty of them. But like, I think that, yeah, people react differently because it can be very traumatic.

And how challenging is it in that industry? I know I struggle with this big time. When I was a college basketball coach, I know a lot of Folks in the industry do is not identifying who you are with what you do because you attach every ounce of energy into what you are doing for a living in that industry. How big of a challenge is that?

Yeah, I mean, that's a tough one. I think that for me, unless you get to know people, I'm going to identify the people we cover by what they do. People identify me as just because I've been here the longest, like Abe says. P.J. Abes at sports Business Journal. Abe works in sports business. That's what he does. And for many people in sports, I will say, their vocation becomes their advocation and they're really ingrained into it and it becomes sports is a lifestyle and the sports business is a lifestyle. And I remember that great quote from commissioner Gary Bettman plenty of times when you ask him about his 100 hour work weeks and he said, I told my wife years ago that this is not a job, I live a lifestyle. And we have to be comfortable with that.

And I think that's pretty common in the sports industry, Ed. It's a, it's a hard world to work in. It's a grind. The hours are long, the pay can be challenging. There's, it's fairly, I'm almost a cutthroat, but it's competitive as hell. And I do think that, you know, you have to be, you have to have stamina, you have to have resiliency, you have to have grit. All those things are pretty important now. You know, I can just say that, like most of the successful people I've known all have that and have those characteristics.

So how do you do it? Every time we talk, every time I see you look so fresh, you look so relaxed and you have so many things going on. What is it that's different about you now in the business where you're at than it was say 15 years ago?

It's harder. I will say that. And I'm more gray hair and I'm older. I don't know, I mean, just to tell you listeners, like, I'm single with no children, so I do focus on this and this is my life and my lifestyle and I pour a lot of my time and energy into it. I'm comfortable with that. I've been doing it a long time. You know, I try to get my sleep, I try to get my exercise, I try to eat pretty well. So, you know, those are pretty much it. But I mean, you know, I don't take a lot of time off. I don't have a. I sound Awfully boring. I don't have a ton of.

No.

I don't have 50 different hobbies that I focus on. I'm kind of a workaholic. And, you know, I'm 52. I'll do this for a few more years, but I'll be very proud of what I built with so many other people here and the people I worked with. And I'm so lucky and fortunate to be around just a great team who all are pretty passionate about it. And that's the key to be in the sports business. When I look at people, I said, do you love sports? Yes. Do you love the business of sports? Well, I don't know yet. Well, you'll have to find out because it's very addictive and it's very addicting and it's very interesting. And so I'm addicted to the business of sports. And that gets me up every morning and it really makes me happy.

But I mean, I do get a lot of that in terms of, well, Abe, I love sports. I just want to be in it. That helps. I'm in the minority on that, Ed, because if you did an interview like this with all the 40 under 40 winners, I bet less than 10% said they look for people who love sports. I do. Because if you're writing about sports or working in sports every day, I think you need a little bit of. You need some money in the game, so to speak. But a lot of people don't. They look for people who just know business or want to run a business or want to be in the business. So it's an interesting dichotomy. There's a.

And I'm going to take it back just for a second here. What you do obviously has an influence over the way that the industry grows and has an impact on the industry. And I have to think that it puts a little bit of pressure on you when you're choosing the 40 under 40, when you're choosing the game changers, when you're choosing the new voices. How humbling is that? How much pressure is that? How does that weigh on you? How do you work through all that?

Yeah, I mean, it's definitely. We're under pressure as an organization when our editorial team is responsible for coming out of that room at the end of the day with 40 honorees. I don't call them winners. I just call them honorees because, I mean, it's impossible to go to 600 down to 40 and not make somebody upset. I've disappointed. We've disappointed a lot of people. Over the years. And my argument has always been, I try to talk to so many of them personally. This is not you. Just because we screwed up and didn't honor you for one of our awards, that's not your identity and that has no reflection on you. And don't worry about it. Go do some other things. You're going to continue to prove us wrong throughout your career. And that's kind of the tact I've taken. Because you're right.

It's impossible to not feel. I do. I feel like, God, I really wanted, you know, Ed to make a 40 and a 40, but he got caught in the numbers game. We had three people from his organization in the last two years and we just couldn't feel we have to spread it around or he just changed jobs. So we really weren't comfortable honoring him with a new job. So, yeah, there's people who ask me all the time, hey, I hope you can come through for my colleague and select them. You know, that's something that I hear a lot. But, you know, we try to make the best decisions with the information we have. We try to have a diverse list. We try to have lists that really represent incredible segments of this broad, dynamic industry.

I would say that's our North Star that we're looking at to really show and celebrate just how diverse and interesting the sports business is. You can't just pick 40 people from teams and 40 people from a league.

Right. And before I ask you the last question, because I know you've got things to move on to here and we'll wrap it up. But before I ask you the last question, where can folks find out more about sponsors Sports Business Journal, about everything that goes along with it, if they're interested in getting any of the things that any of the features that you folks offer and as well as where can they find Abe on social media, where can they find you?

Adcor on Twitter? And I would say for sportsbusinessjournal.com, you have access to a number of our podcasts. You can check out our videos. All we ask is that you register with your email to access certain parts of our content. And just so your listeners know, we are a premium product, I'm not going to lie here. It's $800 for what we call an all access subscription to our weekly and daily content. We are a B2B publication. It's not largely for consumers, but if you're a consumer out there and love it, there are other price points you can get in. You can get trial subscriptions to try our products. Most of our esports content on our new site is free, Ed, so that's something. Our podcasts are free that morning. Buzzcast is free iFactor is accessible.

But if they go to businessjournal.com they can explore and experience.

And it is B2B. But like you just said, all that other stuff, I've been consuming it since before I got to the airport that day when we first met. It's unbelievable. I mean, the content on there is unbelievable. So the last question, I'm going to put you on the spot a little bit. Okay. And no, I'm not going to ask you what your over and under is for. How much time until they blow the Cubs up. Okay. Because that's coming. But what is it? What's down the road that we might, if you're allowed to tell us what is down the road that we might not know about that is coming in the sports industry, that could possibly be a huge change or a huge story or what's in the news now that's brewing that could really blow up exponentially.

So those are all really great questions. I'm looking at a couple of things. I'm certainly looking at more media fragmentation. So a huge story when Apple or Amazon gets into the major media rights game. So if Apple or Amazon gets the main package for Major League Baseball or they won't get it for the NFL because they just did that deal, but the NBA or the, or even, you know, Major League Soccer, the main package, not a tertiary package, but comes in and bets all of the main programming, that would be a very big story. It could happen somewhere down the line, but it will happen somewhere down the line.

I don't know when, but that would mean a major shift from the traditional media companies, the Disney's, the NBC Universals, the Viacoms, okay, now it would represent a changing of the guard, where the tech companies now become the big players. That's something to really keep an eye on. Continue to look at commercialization of sport, meaning more jersey sponsorship, more sponsors within the field of play at the 50 yard line, on the bases, on the basketball hardwood. We're starting to see more encroachment of sponsorship within the field of play. I think that's something incredibly interesting to look at. You know, another main thing, collective bargaining and baseball. At the end of this year, at the end of December, the collective bargaining agreement between the players and the players association will expire. That's going to be a very significant negotiation.

If another sport goes on strike or there's a lockout. In this day and age post pandemic, what could that mean? And how would the public react to something like that after everything it's been through? I think those are some interesting stories you're going to want to keep an eye on.

Abe, I can't thank you enough. I appreciate you. I appreciate your time. This was absolutely fantastic.

Well, it's great to join you and best of luck to you.

I'm a fan and hope to see you soon.

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