Mexico's Cartel Raid Spooks Visitors Ahead of World Cup; Hockey's Olympic Springboard

15:09Michael Barr:Youth sports usually see a bump in interest coming out of the Olympics, and this year is no different.

15:16Vanessa Perdomo:Here to discuss the power of the Olympics in the business of youth sports is Senior Vice President and General Manager of Brand Solutions at Team Snap, Nicole McCormick.

15:24Michael Barr:Nicole, welcome to the Bloomberg Business of Sports, and I'm going to give you a chance to brag about Team Snap. It is the number one platform in youth sports. Tell us about it. Nice to be here. Thanks for having me. TeamSnap, as you said, is the number one platform in youth sports. Our consumer mobile app is in the pockets of over 30 million coaches and parents and players and administrators. And then we also work with almost 20 ,000 clubs and leagues who use the TeamSnap platform to manage the business of sports. So we're doing everything from organizing team schedules and rostering and communication to helping those sports organizations create teams, register kids, assign coaches and really just power the whole ecosystem of youth sports.

16:15Vanessa Perdomo:Nicole, it's this interesting thing, right, that now we have all this technology. I mean, you and I both played Division One sports and we played youth sports growing up. It's so different now, though, with all this technology and how everything's changing and the business of youth sports is so vast. Can you tell us why this platform needs to exist in the current landscape for youth sports?

16:39Michael Barr:Well, I think we go back a little bit to the origin story, which TeamSTOP was founded, gosh, probably 15 years ago by a couple of sports dads who just wanted to tackle the problem that I think, Vanessa, you and I have been there. Our parents were there back in the day of we showed up at the wrong field at the wrong time because we missed the phone chain or the text chain or the email chain, right? And so that was really where it started. But youth sports is so central to families' lives. You know, people talk about like share of wallet and I often talk about youth sports and the share of life that it has in families' lives.

17:16Michael Barr:but it's complicated and there's a lot of organization that needs to go behind it and so that's really where team step tries to step in and organize that chaos let coaches focus on coaching and having a great experience for the kids on the field let administrators do their job to run the programming of sport and then keep parents sane and organized during these busy these busy times for them that reminds me of the old michael waltrip commercial from years ago i'm at the wrong track.

17:47Vanessa Perdomo:That literally has happened to me all the time.

17:49Michael Barr:I want to bring up Women's in Sports Day, and it has recently passed, celebrating the 40th anniversary of honoring the achievements, power, and leadership of female athletes. Tell us about that. Yeah, so it was at the beginning of February, so just a little earlier this month, and as you said, the 40th anniversary of it, but I think this year it was particularly special, the timing of it, because it came right before the Winter Olympics as well, and the Milan Olympics. And, you know, one of the storylines of those Olympics, which have been incredible and amazing to watch, but one of the storylines was that they were the most gender-balanced Winter Olympics in history.

18:31Michael Barr:47 % of the athletes in the Games were female. We had 50 women's events, which was a record. And we saw really cool things for the first time, like women and men competing at equal distances in cross-country skiing. And so I think National Girls and Women in Sports Day is always a moment to recognize and celebrate the achievements of female athletes and the progress and advancements we've made in women's sports. But this year, I thought it was particularly special coming right before the Milan Olympics. Go women's hockey. Go hockey. Go. Oh, yeah, the men won too.

19:09Vanessa Perdomo:Yeah, I know. Exactly, Michael. Exactly. And I think the interesting thing there is, you know, the way women represented on the stage. And Nicole, is there any correlation, do you know, of after the games, you know, the momentum of more girls staying in sports or or, you know, trying new sports for the first time?

19:29Michael Barr:So we always see this, Vanessa, after a big global sports moment like that, especially, by the way, we'll talk about, you know, when it's on U.S. soil. So we have the World Cup coming up, which we expect to drive a surge in youth soccer participation. We saw it in 94. We saw it in 99 when it was on our soil. We have LA 28 coming up, of course. But even the Milan Olympics, especially to your point with how well women performed, especially U.S. women, you know, eight of 12 golds for the U.S. came from women, 21 overall medals for the women, female athletes. And so we will absolutely see a surge in youth sports participation, both from boys and girls, which is wonderful, but definitely from the girls as well.

20:16Michael Barr:We're talking with Nicole McCormick with Team Snap. And you brought it up, the latest Olympics, the Winter Olympics, the stereotypes, the women. Women have to face some of these stereotypes. Can you tell us more about that? Yeah, I think a couple of things when you talk about the stereotypes. One, I think to some extent, Milan has been a reflection of the broader women's sports ecosystem as well. And there's some of the stereotype that what's happening is kind of a moment. And I don't think that's true at all. And this is the business of sport. We can get into some of the economics behind women's sports.

21:00Michael Barr:But one of those stereotypes is like, oh, it's having a moment or, you know, it looks like Milan is like this sudden surge of interest. And it's not. It's really delayed recognition and kind of a market correction that we can talk about. The other thing about the stereotype and Vanessa, you alluded to it a few minutes ago, is keeping girls in sports. Right. Girls are really the foundation of the whole women's sports ecosystem. And what happened in Milan didn't start in Milan. It started at youth fields and rinks and arenas all across the country. But one of the challenges we have is that girls drop out of sports at a rate two times that of boys by the age of 14.

21:45Michael Barr:And some of that, Michael, is related to sort of stereotypes of, you know, what a girl is supposed to be, what feminine is supposed to look like, you know, who sports are really for. And those are some of the things we have to continue to challenge and overcome to keep this whole women's sports and girls sports ecosystem going.

22:07Vanessa Perdomo:Absolutely. I mean, Chloe Kim said it best when she said, I think I can snowboard better than I can walk because she grew up on a snowboard. You know, I love that. That's right. I love when she said that. So, you know, like you had mentioned, let's get a little bit into the economics of women's sports and of of girls sports and of youth sports there. What is the economics behind girls and youth sports in that particular business?

22:30Michael Barr:Yeah, well, first of all, we have to recognize how massive youth sports is just broadly, right? There are 60 million kids in this country participating in youth sports. When you add in their parents and their coaches and those referees and administrators, youth sports really touches 50 % of the U.S. population, which is massive. And, you know, when we talk about the economics, the other thing we look at, I work with a lot of brands who are starting to lean in and invest in youth sports. We estimate that the youth sports audience has$3 trillion in spending power. You know, so that's sort of setting the landscape, Vanessa, of youth sports more broadly.

23:10Michael Barr:And then, you know, what's exciting to see on the girls front, 36 % of girls are participating in team sports regularly. That's the highest it's been since 2012. Now, it still trails boys, 45 % of boys. But we see some exciting progress on TeamSnap, for example. 58 % of teams on TeamSnap have girls on the roster, which is huge and super exciting. And, you know, we're seeing huge surges in certain sports in terms of growth, whether that's volleyball, whether that's flag football for girls. But, you know, just a lot of great growth of girls in sport. One athlete that I think a lot of women and I think men look up also is Lindsey Vonn.

23:55Michael Barr:Now, unfortunately, she had a tough time in this one because she had a bad crash as she was downhill skiing. and she almost lost her leg in general at all they were thinking about an amputation but they were able to save it but I think that a lot of females look to Lindsay Vaughn and say hey you know what okay she's done it this didn't go well this time but you know what she's my idol can I get your thoughts on that yeah well what a story of grit and guts and and resilience right for her to come back. And then, yes, of course, the Olympics didn't go the way she wanted or any of us wanted to see.

24:38Michael Barr:But I agree with you. And that's really important for girls in sport. It's the sort of, you've got to see it to be it, right? And so to have those role models, whether it's Lindsey Vonn, whether it's Michaela Shifflin, whether it's Chloe Kim or Alyssa Liu, you know, or Ilingu, or the names just, you can go on and on from this Olympics as an example. But to have those role models is is a really important part of this.

25:06Vanessa Perdomo:Nicole, when we're looking at, you know, the youth sports landscape, I mean, we're talking about how big the business is and it's and it's great that it's expanding and obviously TeamSnap and the innovation of it. But also it's gotten really expensive. Can you tell us a little bit about that and and how we can balance, you know, the people who are going to be competing in the Olympics and, you know, their track and then some people who just want to have fun in youth sports?

25:33Michael Barr:Yeah, well, you touched on two topics. Yes, it has definitely gotten expensive, which is the downside of it, because, of course, we don't want to be limiting access to youth sports. And a key reason for that is we know youth sports involvement and participation in sport drives positive outcomes for kids, higher graduation rates. You know, if you look on the again, we're talking women and girls in sport. If you look on the female side, 90 % of women in C-suite positions played sports growing up because they developed those leadership skills and the resilience and the confidence and all those good things.

26:10Michael Barr:So with the rising costs, the challenge is how do we not limit access? And you're right. You know, since I think the status since 2019, the cost of youth sports has increased 46%, which is massive. You know, you're looking at$197 average registration costs,$414 average annual travel costs, which is probably low. So you're right about that. And we can talk a little about some of the ways that we can try to combat that. I know we're running out of time, but I want to talk about one of the most important topics, the money. Global women's sports revenue projected to reach$2.35 billion in 2025. That's up from 2024.

26:52Michael Barr:where do you think it will be now in 2026? I don't have an estimate on where it'll be but I think if you look at the indicators and the biggest one is media rights right and some of the deals that are happening you know WNBA 11 year 2.2 billion media rights deal NWSL the highest ever at 240 million you know broadcaster don't commit those kind of long-term dollars unless audiences and advertiser demand are predictable and durable. So Michael, you know, this isn't the ceiling. I think we're going to continue to see those kind of numbers, 25 % year over year growth, et cetera. And we're going to continue to see more sponsorship dollars coming into women's sports as well.

27:34Michael Barr:I think sponsorship dollars doubled last year as well. So a lot of room for growth here.

27:39Vanessa Perdomo:That was Nicole McCormick, Senior Vice President and General Manager of brand solutions at Team Snap.

27:44Michael Barr:Up next, we talk hockey and how the sport in the U.S. stands to benefit from two big gold medal wins. That is straight ahead on the Bloomberg Business of Sports. I'm Michael Barr with Vanessa Perdomo. You are listening to the Bloomberg Business of Sports Bloomberg Radio around the world.

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29:12Michael Barr:This is Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio. Thanks for joining us on the Bloomberg Business of Sports. We explore the big money issues in the world of sports. I'm Michael Barr.

29:24Vanessa Perdomo:And I'm Vanessa Perdomo.

29:25Michael Barr:Now, let's talk some hockey.

29:27Vanessa Perdomo:With both the U.S. men's and women's teams winning gold in the Winter Olympics, hockey has huge momentum going into the later part of the season.

29:34Michael Barr:Here to tell us about how this will impact the NHL and the PWHL is sport business journalist Alex Silverman. Alex, welcome to the Bloomberg Business of Sports. Thanks for having me, guys. You got a chance now to really see the NHL take off because after the break from the Olympics, hmm let's see i think the men's team won the gold i think hmm the women's team won the gold they just went in all over the place man it's it's a great feeling especially now that the nhl is back

30:14Vanessa Perdomo:yeah it's a good time to be an american hockey fan i was actually i was just at a conference the sports business journal national sports forum and you know it's a good mix of american and canadian attendees and uh you know the dynamic was kind of flipped from from what it would usually be with hockey dominance. So, yeah, it's an interesting time. I think that's the interesting thing there is that obviously the NHL isn't just this American league and neither is the PWHL. They both have a massive presence in Canada. But what does winning the gold do? How much of an impact does it actually have on the popularity of the momentum going back into those seasons?

30:51Vanessa Perdomo:Yeah, it's really interesting. When the NHL and its owners decided to stop sending players to the Olympics after the 2014 games in Sochi, you know, the owner's view basically was that any sort of halo effect that they were getting was outweighed by the disruption to their season, the risk of severe injuries to players. So at least at the time, they didn't really feel like they were seeing the lift in ratings, ticket sales, sponsorship growth that would have really made it worth it to them. But like you said, the difference this time is the U.S. winning for the first time since 1980. And it's the first time ever that the U.S.

31:26Vanessa Perdomo:has won at the Olympics with NHL players involved. And while Gary Bettman won't say it, I'm sure, the U.S. winning is the best thing that could have happened for the NHL. So it'll be different. It'll be interesting to see, you know, if all the people who were clamoring to buy Jack Hughes jerseys after he scored the game winning goal will now, you know, support their local NHL teams.

31:50Michael Barr:we're talking with sports business journals alex silverman and you brought up jack hughes they gave him a hero's welcome when he played when he came back from the olympics and to new jersey yep unfortunately they lost that game to the sabers 2-1 but we won't talk about that this what it is bringing is an attendance that the nhl loves because they're going to see another season of record attendance.

32:20Vanessa Perdomo:Yeah, and they've been on pace for that, so I don't want to give the sense that that's entirely due to this Olympic bump, but yeah, I definitely have seen some early indications that ticket sales in certain markets have been stronger since the Olympics. I think the one place for the NHL that they're going to really see a direct impact is the World Cup of Hockey. They're bringing that back in 2028. That's an event that they and the NHLPA own and operate. So they'll directly see revenue upside from that event. And the momentum from this Olympics is no doubt, you know, proof to brands and media companies that international hockey is captivating and can get people to watch who aren't necessarily going to be watching the NHL on a day-to-day or week-to-week basis.

33:07Vanessa Perdomo:To quote Al Michaels, the people who don't know the difference between the blue line and the clothesline. So, you know, I think sponsorship and media rights for the 2028 World Cup of Hockey, you know, definitely became more valuable as a result of this year's Olympics. Again, I'm just really interested to see whether, you know, it affects sort of the 30 clubs or 32 clubs and the league's kind of day-to-day operations. Well, I think the interesting thing there is what Michael kind of had alluded to about Jack Hughes and Hillary Knight on the women's team is that it creates now this sense of they're now household names, right?

33:43Vanessa Perdomo:You see them win big and you see them do big things on the world's biggest stage. And hopefully that carries over. That's what the World Cup, the Women's World Cup had relied on for a really long time was, you know, these stars at the biggest level carrying over and trying to get them to people to root for their club teams. But that's how that's how the WNBA grows. That's how the NBA grows is star power. Do you think that that is going to have a massive impact is now that them actually having more household names and people knowing these stars? Yeah, you know, even though the men's game had, you know, considerably higher viewership than the women's game, which also set a record.

34:24Vanessa Perdomo:And I think the PWHL is probably in the best position to benefit from this. I mean, it's a two year old league. A lot of people probably didn't even know it exists quite yet. And now, you know, not only is the fact that, you know, not only is women's hockey in the spotlight but like you said you're making stars like hillary knight and megan keller and aaron frank frankle so um i think it's really uh that's where i think you can you'll see a lot of impact i mean certainly in the nhl as well you had to have a guy like jack hughes i mean that photo of him with you know his missing teeth and and the flag wrapped around him is one of the most iconic instantly iconic sports photos i've ever seen it'll definitely help you know the nhl and And I think NHL players have kind of struggled relative to players in other leagues to generate off-ice marketing activity, especially in the U.S.

35:16Vanessa Perdomo:They have a lot more opportunities in Canada. So, yeah, I'm curious to see what happens with Jack Hughes' endorsement portfolio and some of these other guys as well.

35:24Michael Barr:Unfortunately, there is an impact in the NHL, and when a star participates in the Olympics, there's the risk for injury. And it happened to Sidney Crosby. He's going to be out for several weeks after he had taken an awkward hit, star for the Pittsburgh Penguins. that is a risk if you're going to play in the olympics for the united states of america for canada uh whichever you're with it's it's going to be a risk period sure and you know i'm

36:02Vanessa Perdomo:kind of of the mind that you know whether your player gets hurt in the olympics or in a regular season game the result is sort of the same maybe you can argue that the risk for injury at the Olympics is slightly higher than in a regular season game just because of the stakes and the intensity there is more kind of like playoffs in the NHL. But yeah, I mean, that's definitely one of the reasons that owners, you know, aren't necessarily as gung ho about their players participating in the Olympics as, you know, fans are and the players themselves are, you know, that's also partially been a negotiating position by the league.

36:37Vanessa Perdomo:You know, they keep saying, oh, we're doing this for our players. We're doing this for our players. You know, they the players had to sort of negotiate for the right to go back to the Olympics in collective bargaining. So there's some sort of rhetorical tricks there by the league. But yeah, no, it's definitely a concern. And, you know, Kevin Fiala for the Kings being out for the season is a big blow to them. So, yeah, it's a consideration. You had mentioned earlier that NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman had spoken at the SBJ National Sports Forum. Tell us more about what he said there. You know, what's what's interesting going into the last part of the season here for the NHL?

37:12Vanessa Perdomo:Yeah, I mean, on the Olympics front, what really interested me about what he said is he said, of course, this was a great tournament. We knew the hockey was going to be great and it exceeded all expectations. But there's a lot that we can do, hopefully, with the cooperation of the IOC, the International Hockey Federation and NBC to make this tournament more impactful, both for the NHL, but kind of for the sport as a whole. For example, the NHL hasn't been able to use highlight rights for these Olympic games involving its players because the IOC is very protective about that. The gold medal game started at 8 a.m.

37:48Vanessa Perdomo:Eastern time, 5 a.m. Pacific time. You know, Gary Bettman said that he thinks that the rating based on the NHL's data could have been close to double what it was had the game started in the afternoon. And that's something that the NHL would like to have influence on going forward. So that was really an interesting takeaway for me from from Bettman's comments that he really wants to continue to refine this relationship. He talked about meeting with Christy Coventry, the new president of the IOC, while he was over there. So I think the NHL, you know, yes, that they're back in the Olympics after not going for a long time.

38:29Vanessa Perdomo:But I think they still you know, I think they want to take more control over this going forward. Is that really a possibility, though? I mean, I mean, like you said, the IOC is very protective over their IP. And so is, you know, the NBC is very protective over their coverage of the Olympics. Is it really even a possibility that the NHL will be able to take some of that control? I mean, that's a question. I mean, for the benefits for the IOC and NBC of the NHL players being there are very obvious. Like no one has cared about men's Olympic hockey the past two cycles when the NHL players weren't there.

39:04Vanessa Perdomo:NBC wasn't doing 18 million for the gold medal game. So I don't know. I've been honestly a little bit surprised by how how little the NHL has been able to extract to this point. But I think given how well this year's tournament went and how big of a part NHL players were in that, that that maybe the NHL has a better bargaining position.

39:25Michael Barr:By the way, a shout out to Kenny Albert. He gave you guys a very big thank you for the NHL, saying that he called, by the way, 24 hockey games during the Winter Olympics, and you guys had a chance to speak with him. And he put the Milan hockey on par with his biggest event that he has ever called. Can you tell us more about that?

39:52Vanessa Perdomo:Yeah, he spoke with my colleague, Austin Karp. for the sports media podcast. And yeah, like you said, he really put this event at the top of his list of games that he's called. And I mean, Kenny Albert, he's called Super Bowls, you know, other just massive sporting events, Stanley Cup finals. And yeah, it just, it does seem like this Canada-US rivalry, just the heat of it, the stakes have really, you know made for a special moment and and for kenny albert to say that is is pretty incredible as the world cup comes around alex i'm curious you know i feel that uh with this momentum that hockey has going on and then going into the world cup i'm curious what your take is because i know you cover both on which sport really is the number three most watch most power like what has the most you know fans and what is the number three sport in the U.S.

40:53Vanessa Perdomo:in terms of fan is it hockey or is it soccer it's a good question I think you know soccer is is such a different animal because there are so many different competitions leagues federations so the NHL is is clearly still a much bigger business than major league soccer but you know there are plenty of American soccer fans who aren't necessarily watching MLS, but they're watching the Premier League or La Liga or the UEFA Champions League. So I think, you know, the sense that I've gotten is that if you kind of aggregate all that soccer interest, it's bigger than hockey. But all of the hockey interest is sort of concentrated on the NHL, whereas the soccer interest is fragmented.

41:37Vanessa Perdomo:That's Sport Business Journal reporter Alex Silverman. Sports Business Journal has partnered with Bloomberg through our new subscription bundle, which gives readers across both Bloomberg's business reporting and SBJ's industry-leading sports coverage.

41:50Michael Barr:Oh, man, that's it for today. Thanks for joining us. Tune in again next week for the latest on the stories moving big money in the world of sports.

41:58Vanessa Perdomo:And don't forget to catch our podcast on all your podcast platforms and go to Bloomberg.com to subscribe to the Bloomberg Business of Sports newsletter to stay up to date on all our juicy insights.

42:08Michael Barr:You're listening to the Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio around the world.

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