BONUS: Fireside Chat with Washington Commanders President Mark Clouse

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1:24I'm Miranda Williams, and recently I traveled to the Washington, D.C. Bureau, where I had a special conversation with the Washington Commanders president, Mark Klaus, in a Bloomberg Newsmakers Fireside conversation on stage before a live audience. We talked about the most important thing that everyone cares about in D.C., which, of course, is the new$3.7 billion stadium, probably going to be the second most expensive stadium ever built when it's all said and done. That stadium will be built at the RFK site where the commanders slash Washington football team used to play. And so they'll be returning there.

1:56They're anticipating the stadium being complete by 2030. In the meantime, they will also have the NFL draft, which to many NFL people, they consider that a prerequisite for hosting the Super Bowl. We'll see if the commanders in Washington, D.C. will someday host a Super Bowl. I would I think that they will. Outside of that, we also discussed flag football, the NFL's international business. And we talked about Mark himself and the job that he has being a team president. So Mark was great. Now let's listen to my Bloomberg Newsmakers Fireside conversation with Washington Commanders President Mark Klaus.

2:31Mark, thank you for doing this. It's been to be here. It's been about 18 months since you took the job a little over that. Right. at the NFL League meeting last year. Remember well. Somewhere on the West Coast. But for those of you who don't know Mark, Mark is, before he was in the football business, had a very prevalent past in the food industry. That's right. And so when the commander's role, team president, opened up, what piqued your interest about it? That seems like a dramatic shift from food, team president. Well, other than being, you know, probably every 12 - or 13-year-old boy's dream to work on a sports team, For me personally, there were a variety of things.

3:13And first of all, I should say, loved, you know, feel very lucky to have been able to spend the time I did with the Campbell's Company. And that journey was an extraordinary gift. And, you know, I was lucky enough that I had a great successor there ready to go. and thinking about the next chapter, my life and so many things in my life have revolved around sports. And my perspective was in this next chapter, I wanted to try to go do something different, but I wanted to be able to bring some of the things that I had learned or that experienced in turning around businesses or transforming brands.

3:59And I couldn't have found a better owner in Josh Harris and what Josh has done consistently, what his vision was for the commanders. I don't think there's any mystery. We were a team in transition on a lot of different levels. And that opportunity to come into sports, but also bring some things to the table that are relevant from my past, I thought was just this perfect mix. And so I went through a very rigorous interview process, as Josh does most things in his business life. But I think the combination of those areas, as well as the evolving world of sports, and I'm sure we'll talk about that more, made for just really a match made in heaven and to be happier.

4:48Based on your previous history, what is the biggest difference that you find between corporate culture and team culture? Well, I tell people a lot of times it's been kind of like 50-50, right? 50 % of this are things that I know very well. Like, you know, the business is kind of the business. It's not a particularly complicated business model. It doesn't mean it's simple, but it's not particularly complicated. A lot of the organizational demands of what you're trying to do to set clarity of direction and build culture, very, very consistent. But there are some things that are quite different. I affectionately say to people sometimes that there were many people that like soup.

5:30These guys love football, right? And it's a different level of passion. And that makes for this kind of added, I think, level of responsibility, I would say, or this, you know, at least for me personally, feeling like, you know, the things that we do, we've really got to get done right. And, you know, as it relates to culture, I honestly think there's more alike than there is difference. You know, this was an organization that had gone through some tough times. And I think in many ways we started kind of at the beginning again, reestablishing what the purpose and the values of the organization was going to be.

6:12Would never have come if I didn't have that alignment with Josh, who's got a very clear view of how we want to do things. And it's exactly the way that I believe we should be doing it. And so establishing that for an organization, you evaluate the talent. Do I've got the right people in the right chairs? A lot of really credit to Jason, who had the job before me, certainly brought in some really talented folks. And so for me, it felt very familiar. Most of my career on the business side has been spent in businesses that were in turnarounds. and a lot of that playbook we applied here. So probably from a cultural standpoint, I'd say more similarities than differences.

6:55Interesting. A couple of years ago when the commanders, Jayden Daniels had been drafted and the commanders were riding high, I wrote this story that said the commanders are the most exciting team in the NFL. And I talked to Josh about it and I talked to some season ticket holders, I talked to some fans. And one of the fans that I spoke to said, the previous ownership was the previous ownership, but it feels like Josh owns the team on behalf of the fans, and it feels like he's one of us. Can you speak to that side of him, maybe the passion that Josh has about this team? Yeah, I think, you know, there's no mystery in how Josh and the broader ownership group has approached the team.

7:34I think they've been very, very clear that this is more than just about a business, right? Obviously, putting a product on the field, The hiring of Adam Peters and Dan Quinn were great first steps in the right direction, obviously drafting Jaden. And the commitment to investment in ensuring that winning in championship football is part of what we're bringing to our fans is obviously paramount. But I would also say that the things that also make fans proud of their franchise is also very important to Josh. So, you know, how we reflect on the heritage of the team, how we treat our legends, how we engage and interact with the community, all of that has been elevated as a very significant priority in the agenda.

8:27And, you know, to be perfectly honest, we had some work to do there. Rebuilding trust in those relationships in some cases were very important. But from, you know, day one, the clarity that Josh has had on this. And, you know, I think it's born from, you know, who he is. But it's also born from the fact that he grew up here. This, in many ways, is his team. Like, he grew up as a fan. He, you know, treasured moments where he was going to the stadium and to the game. And I think that responsibility shapes a lot of his thinking. but I will tell you in watching him more broadly across the business world, he brings very similar values to those businesses as well.

9:11And that's something that I really admire. And as someone who's working for him in that ecosystem is really encouraging. So let's stay on business. And sponsorship, I think, is something that is really important to NFL teams in terms of the revenue that they're able to bring in. And it's no secret that before Josh Harris' time, the value of the commanders had decreased over time due to a multitude of situations. But since then, I believe there was a report last year that came out from The Athletic and ESPN that said the commanders' sponsorship revenue was in the top third of the league. What has your conversations or what have your conversations been like with these sponsors who are now, once again, excited and being welcomed back into the stadium?

9:52Well, not that we're competitive or anything, but we are actually in the top 10 now. Excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me. We've come a long way from where we were. No, we're I think, you know, again, I approach this through a couple different lenses. The first is recognizing that the building trust with our partners was really important. And so spending time better understanding, you know, what their concerns were, what their opportunities were, was a big part of our outreach. There's no question that improved performance on the football field helps. Those things are certainly part of the, you know, kind of the algorithm.

10:30But we want to also be able to control the variables that we can control. And so, you know, part of what's helped me a little bit is I sat on the other side of that table for many, many years in the food business as a client. And so what we've tried to do is adapt our model on sponsorship from what used to be, and it drove me crazy, are these very pedestrian conversations on how many signs do I get my name on? No, what we want to understand is what a business's goals and challenges are. We want to establish a strategy where we're able to address those goals or those KPIs. And then we want to hold ourselves accountable.

11:16So I'll sit down with our top sponsors and we'll reflect on the past year. What were the goals we agreed upon? Did we deliver upon that? Yes, great. Or no, what did we need to do differently to adjust? And so what we're trying to do is differentiate ourselves at the same time we're recovering from a period where we weren't performing at the levels that we want. And, you know, I fully anticipate being in the geography we're in, the team we have, and the vision that we've got going forward, that, you know, being in the top 10 is a great, you know, measuring stick. But, you know, we want to chase that number one, those guys down in Dallas.

11:59We want to go after them. And they've set a great bar for us, but I think we have the ability to compete in almost every aspect of the business with the best-in-class teams. I do feel like a good portion of this crowd is here to talk about the new stadium. Yeah, sure. But we're going to get to that. I want to do a couple quick hits on business first. Number one, which is what area of the business do you think has the most room to grow based on your first 18 months of the job? Yeah, I mean, there's no question that, you know, one of the things that great teams have is this loyal season ticket member fan base, right?

12:40And you have to earn that. Like, you don't just get that. Like, you've got to, that's a combination of what you're doing on the football field, but also the experience for our fans when they come. And so when I look at where we started from relative to other teams, we were well behind. And so a lot of my energy has been on trying to rebuild that season ticket base because my feeling is, you know, those are our most committed fans. Those are the folks that are investing the most, you know, hard-earned money on the experience. And that's why you see a lot of our marketing and what we're doing geared toward them.

13:17value menu, better pricing, better perks, more days at training camp, all the things that are valuable to them. And so I would say coming in, that was a big gap that we needed to fill. I honestly felt like the sponsorship, we were going to get that back. I'm not saying that has been easy. My team has worked incredibly hard, but given our location, given the history, we had been at the top of the pyramid in the past and and i felt we could do that but regaining our fans trust and loyalty to me is the biggest and we've made great progress but a lot more to do so now let's talk stadium which is of course again why everyone's here i just want to give my perspective on things josh of course bought this team in the summer of 2023 the season uh last year i guess two years ago you know that there's the teams on the up and up go to the nfc championship game in january i believe is when rfk was signed over to the team to potentially have an opportunity to build on that that land um and so from my perspective i've joked with josh about this where he told me when i bought the commanders all my values as an investor were broken because i spent so much right um but then when the state smarter these days right with the seahawks sale yeah look a little better look and he turns around uh sometime later and you think about the stadium deal and it's$2.7 billion from the team, a billion dollars from everybody else.

14:41And I wonder from your perspective, as you've thought about the process in building a new stadium and having conversations with the community, what's that been like so far? Well, it, you know, to be honest, a lot of times people will ask me what, what has been the most surprising or the most different on my day-to-day relative to corporate. And, The honest answer is the amount of politics that I've had. If I had any illusions of being in politics, I've been cured of that. That's out of my dream plan now, off my vision board. I will say that we've had an incredible partner in Mayor Bowser. The process of this is a very elongated one, as you know.

15:30It started with an incredible win in essentially bringing back responsibility for the land to the district. And then from the district, that's when I kind of stepped into the storyline and started working with the mayor to align on a deal. following that then we went to the district council and started to work with uh the chairman of the district council phil mendelson and then the broader um district council so it was a six month labor of love and um six months i'd say six months i will say is a lot quicker than it is stadiums and i you know i i just made it look easy i had no frame of reference but look i think the key to it was, you know, and one of the things that was really important to me in the process was to ensure that our vote count at the council was a more decisive mandate.

16:30And for those that follow along know that we ended up at 11-2 vote, by far the highest ever on a sports platform. And part of that was a really concerted effort to enroll every district council member in a way that felt like the district was winning. And so that just takes time. That just takes you going down and, you know, I had a great team. And, you know, we listened to the community. We listened to council members. We really tried to craft a deal that made it a resounding victory for the district. And that, I think, is why it went as well as it did. And I think the commitment that Josh, the owners had, everybody had in this project, the vision for it being much more than just a stadium, but really, you know, a community renaissance, which I think is exactly what's going to happen and how we're, you know, approaching it.

17:27That's why we got that 11-2 vote. And, you know, it was not easy. A lot of, you know, late night back and forth. As I've learned, people will negotiate until you say I'm done. And so we had a lot of good conversations, but I think we ended in a great place. I really do. a win-win for everybody, and we are committed to living into that, and things are moving in a great kind of cadence and right on pace with our schedule. So the stadium itself looks like a monument. I wonder, just from your perspective, if you're going to get everybody excited, what is going to make this new stadium so special, besides the fact that when it's all said and done, it will be the second most expensive stadium ever built.

18:08And the first, of course, is SoFi Stadium out in Los Angeles, which is a$5 billion. Expansive, expansive. Yeah. I, you know, look, I think we have a, you know, I tell people we have both a unique challenge, but also a little bit of a gift, right? I don't think you could just build any stadium in Washington DC. I think you had to figure out a way from a design standpoint to fit into the fabric of the district. And so for us, this vision of creating yet another incredible monument in the city and how it fit from a design standpoint, you know, probably gave us a little bit narrower, you know, runway to focus on.

18:57You know, we certainly had a lot of good dialogue internally on a variety of different elements, But I think we landed in a really great spot. I think what people should be excited about, this is going to be the nation's stadium. It really is. That's our vision for it. That's where we are. I think I can tell you from the interest of taking advantage of that stadium, there's no shortage of inbound folks being excited about whether we're talking Women's World Cup in the future or Super Bowls or other things. There's a lot of Operate Final Fours, WrestleMania, if that's on your agenda. You never know.

19:35Yeah, big revenue maker for the city. But anyway, these are all areas where I really think we're going to be just an unmissable location for people to come and have the biggest and the best shows and programs in the country. While remembering that this is going to be a football-first stadium. You know, we, I've said this before, our goal is to make the most terrifying stadium in the world to come play in. I want visiting teams to look at their schedule and circle the date they're coming to D.C. and be terrified by that. you know our fans i want up close i want loud i want you know everybody in that building unified uh in our shared goal uh to win championships and so when we design the stadium that's how we're going to design it right so we design engineering it to be the loudest everything all the way to the um very well remembered and beloved shaking seats um from the original rfk Although, as I joke, they will be structurally sound this time, not just wobbly because they were wobbly.

20:50So we're going to we're going to engineer that into the stadium. But but I think that's the that's the the needle we're threading. Right. I want, you know, all of the great shows to come. I want all of the great programs to be here. But when you go in for a football game, I want you to know that you're at the at Commander Stadium, just like it was at RFK back in the day. That's Washington Commanders President Mark Klaus speaking with me as part of our Bloomberg Newsmakers Fireside Conversation before a live audience from our Washington, D.C. Bureau. Stick around for more of that conversation after a quick break.

21:23I'm Randall Williams. You're listening to a special edition of the Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio.

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24:29Bureau. Let's take a listen to more of that conversation. I do want to ask, one of the things that is a big revenue generator for teams is often naming rights. They come in different fashions. I think of GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium and Power Field at Mile High Stadium. There's Lambeau Field. Even with new projects, new Nissan Stadium with the Titans. And I wonder whether that be with sponsors, with government officials. Have you had any conversations about the potential name of this new stadium? Sure. I think this is, as I said, this is a little bit of this unique asset. And, you know, part of what makes naming rights, I think, so exciting is there's just so many of those that are out there.

25:14And in our particular case, you know, iconic design, iconic location. And so I think we just we want to be patient and do things the right way. And so we're probably a little bit ahead of time of really understanding, you know, how we're going to fully approach it. But generally speaking, I think we're going to have the right kinds of conversations and create opportunities for conversations with a variety of different folks and try to end up in what we think is the best potential for both, I think, the stadium itself and certainly the economics of it are significant. I mean, I think I talk a lot about the idea of doing good and being good at the same time and why that's very possible.

26:04And, you know, you're going to see us make a real concerted effort in the development of that community around it. Our commitments are clear and we're going to follow through on it. But we're also going to be, you know, the most successful business in the NFL. And that's a clear goal. And so we want to make sure that we're doing all the right things to achieve both of those objectives. two uh maybe well i don't know maybe one or two more on stadium on in uh in nashville they have a super bowl coming before the stadium's even open so i wonder from your perspective how quickly can dc host a super bowl well uh we certainly have negotiations now we are we clearly have an eye on that as an objective i think there's some really good milestones ahead of us that that we the draft yeah we need to knock the ball out of the park with the draft and And I'm very convinced that we will.

26:58Vents DC has been a great partner for us. The commitment from the district in supporting it. The playbook that the NFL has built over the years on drafts is second to none. And our commitment to make this a really special experience for our fans and for our community. and I think that's going to be a great test run, if you will. You know, I'm on your mind. I'm praying to the weather gods, by the way, to make sure that we've got nice, true summer warm weather. But regardless, we'll be ready to go. But look, I think that's a great chance for us to show and demonstrate our ability to host and bring and deliver world class events.

27:46Now let's go back to Northwest Field real quick. There's, of course, a couple more seasons left there. Josh has put over$100 million into upkeeping it. Is there any more money that's going to go into the stadium, or do you think that$100 million is enough to get to the new stadium? I think the bigger pieces of our strategy of rejuvenation for the stadium, as well as our practice facility, as you've said, we've covered a lot of ground on that. I think it's a building that had some really clear areas that we needed to invest in. So I would say we've covered most of the bigger pieces, but I know Josh is committed, as we all are, to making sure that fans experience in the current building.

28:33I say this all the time to the team. We can't start looking to the new stadium and making excuses for why the fans experience in the current building isn't great. and we can point out the limitations or the things that we wish would have been in the original construction or we can focus on what we've got to work with and turn it into a world-class experience. And so I can tell you that from Josh on down, we are committed to doing that. So if there are things that we discover as we continue to go through the year or there are things that need to be fixed, we're going to do that because until the day we move on, we are 100 % focused on making the value for those tickets for the fans the right value.

29:24Moving on to international, the Commanders will play in London. You also played in Madrid last year. Why are you all so invested into the international business, and what upside do you see in that? Well, you know, as a, you know, I always, I tend to look at these things through the lens of the business, which, you know, is clear. You are a team president after all. Clearing my background and my job. But I will give a lot of credit to the NFL for really having clarity on a strategic vision. And I'm not sure that that's always as present in sports as perhaps it should be. And when they look at the future of the sport and when they think about what is it going to take to sustain growth into the future, you really have to start to open your purview and think where does incremental fandom come from?