NFL's Kansas City Chiefs Announce Move to Kansas; The 85ers Tell Their Story

0:28I'm Carol Masser. We also have a lot of fun doing it. Bloomberg Business Week also brings you the analysis behind the headlines through conversations with our expert guests. And we are doing this all live each weekday. And then we bring you the best analysis in our daily podcast. Search for Bloomberg Business Week on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or anywhere else you listen. Check it out on your way home from work to catch up on the conversations that you miss during the business day. And on the weekend, check it out for a complete wrap-up of your business week. That's the Bloomberg Business Week daily podcast.

0:57I'm Carol Masser. And I'm Tim Stanovic. Subscribe today wherever you get your podcasts.

1:28important buildings for businesses, for fans. COVID was one of the best things that ever happened to golf. The NFL is a bulletproof business. Racing's unique because there is absolutely no reason why we can't compete with the guys. Come on, is pro pickleball real? Are people really going to tune into this? If you're playing money ball with a huge bag of money, you're going to be really, really good. Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio. This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports, where we explore the big money issues in the world of sports. I'm Michael Barr. And I'm Vanessa Perdomo.

1:59Damian Sassauer, he is off this week. He'll be back, though. Coming up today, the legendary Brandon Steiner on his new partnership that will let fans on a piece of the soon-to-be-demolished Buffalo Bill Stadium. And one of the original members of the U.S. Women's National Team, Michelle Akers and Lauren Gentile, on bringing the stories that make women's sports special to life. That is straight ahead on the Bloomberg Business of Sports. But first, let's look at some of the top stories of the week, beginning with the Kansas City Chiefs. The NFL team announced the plan to move across the Missouri border to Kansas after lawmakers approved a finance package for a new stadium.

2:37Bloomberg News municipal finance reporter Maxwell Adler joins us now to discuss the financing plan. Max, welcome to the Bloomberg Business of Sports. Thank you for having me. This caught me off guard. I'm just going to be blunt. It's like, I mean, I knew about the situation with the Cleveland Browns. I knew about the situation that was coming up with where Buffalo Bills, where they played in Chicago and all this stuff. This came out of left field. Take us more about why the Chiefs are now going to move to Kansas. Well, surely some of the non-football fans were also very surprised by this because they were confused that the Kansas City Chiefs didn't already play in Kansas.

3:23Geography, am I right? Yeah. But, yeah, the Kansas City Chiefs are moving across state lines from Missouri to Kansas. This will be the second NFL team in the last decade or so to move out of the state of Missouri because the St. Louis Rams went back to their original home in Los Angeles. And now the Chiefs are going to Kansas because essentially Kansas gave them more public money than Missouri was willing to offer them. In Kansas City recently, they voted down an extension of the sales tax that would have funded a new stadium or a renovation of Arrowhead Stadium. And that ultimately led to the county executive being recalled there.

4:05So it was obviously a very politically fraught situation. Simultaneously, the voters in Missouri, in Kansas City, were saying, we don't want to be publicly funding all of these sports stadiums. But then that gave an opening to lawmakers in Kansas who came through with a three with a huge public subsidy to fund a three billion dollar stadium in the Kansas City, Kansas part of the city. It's really interesting, Max, that you said that, you know, that Missouri voters, they didn't want to be publicly funding a stadium. But now that it's leaving and they're going to Kansas, how is the temperament there by residents?

4:46You know, are they actually regretting that decision, do you think? Like how contentious was this fight between Missouri and Kansas? Also, I want to know. So there seems to be just spending fatigue when it comes down to publicly funded stadiums across the country. Voters in Tempe recently voted down a publicly funded stadium package. They're just voters aren't willing to be giving billionaires this much money. Simultaneously, there was a big backlash, especially from Chiefs fans. You know, like they've been playing in Arrowhead Stadium for nearly 50 years at this point. It's one of the historic stadiums in the NFL.

5:22They'll tell you that it's the loudest stadium in the entire league. So people are upset to leave that behind. There's a lot of history there. And there's a big attachment to the Chiefs in Missouri. Granted, they are only going to be moving a couple of miles across state lines. It's not like they're going to a new media market. It's not like fans are going to be having to travel significantly further distances to get to the new stadium. Still, there was a strong emotional attachment to the Chiefs and people are mad that there's going to be change. The interesting thing about this, if this all goes through, which it looks like it will, as they had, they're not, by the way, the Chiefs are not going to change the name.

5:58It will be the Kansas City Chiefs. They're just going to the Kansas City, Kansas area. Kansas part of it. But what's interesting about this is also in Kansas City, Kansas, there's a big NASCAR track. So all of a sudden, after several years, Kansas City, Kansas is like, heck yeah, we're in play. Talk more about that and what this means now for Kansas City, Kansas. Not only is the Kansas Motor Speedway right there, but also the hometown of Kansas City's MLS team is going to be right in the same vicinity of the new Chiefs Stadium. So that's going to be a little hotbed of sports over there. Additionally, the Chiefs are going to be moving their headquarters and their training facilities a little bit south of where the new stadium will be in the city of Olaf.

6:47So there's a lot of interesting sports development happening on that side of the Kansas City border. One of the things that you just mentioned is obviously the training facility. And in your report, you mentioned that Governor Kelly had said that there's going to be mixed used entertainment districts around both the stadium and the training facility. And this is something we see with stadiums quite a lot. Obviously, they want to get the most out of before and after games, but not typically with training facilities. and typically teams want them to be on their own. So they're not really bothered on off days and non-game days by fans and things like that.

7:25Why do you think that the Chiefs said yes to this? Was it a contingency on getting more public money, do you think? I don't know. I think it might be just another way to monetize a different aspect of their business. We see the Dallas Cowboys in Frisco, Texas have a really thriving training facility. They have fans come down every training season and it's a big part of that community down there. I think that they're hoping to monetize this. We also saw that David Tepper with the Carolina Panthers was trying to get a similar facility built in South Carolina. And he also thought that that would be another strong revenue stream for the team.

8:03So it seems like a lot of owners are trying to develop around these training facilities and bring a lot of economic activity there. And in terms of just like around where the stadium will be, you guys know like every single owner right now is trying to develop commercial entertainment districts around their stadiums. Robert Kraft of the New England Patriots was one of the first owners to really understand this, that a huge portion of the value of your team comes with the real estate that surrounds the stadium. And he developed in Foxborough a big retail and entertainment district surrounding their stadium there.

8:40And now just about every single new stadium development, whether it be a soccer stadium, baseball stadium, football stadium, they're all looking to monetize and own the land surrounding their stadiums. Like also in Chicago right now, Wrigleyville surrounding Wrigley Field is this thriving bar scene and entertainment district right now. Now, I said it looks like it's going to happen. There's still some hope. Missouri is hoping that they're going to keep the team because they're proposing a quarter of a cent sales tax to help finance renovations for their current stadium. What are the odds of that flying?

9:21And the chief said, OK, we'll just stay. I don't know. So a big part of the pull of Kansas is that they'll be able to build a dome stadium at the new facility near the Kansas Motor Speedway, and that will be able to attract a Super Bowl. Whereas if they renovated Arrowhead, they likely wouldn't be able to put a dome over it and they wouldn't be able to host a Super Bowl. Also, in April of 2024, I was mentioning before, voters in Kansas City rejected a three eighth cent sales tax, and that was rejected by a vote of about 58 to 42 percent. So granted, this is a little bit less of sales tax revenue that would be going towards a stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, but voters recently rejected a similar proposal.

10:08So I just don't know how likely it'll be that that actually passes. It's interesting because the NWSL seems that they might be the only team. Are they the only team left in Kansas City, Missouri? The Kansas City Current now has their own stadium right on the Riverside that was privately funded by the owners. So is that the only way anything is going to be able to stay in Missouri if it's privately funded by the owners? Most likely. I don't know if that's the only way. You know, they might be hungry for some sports development at this point. And I believe they still have a basketball and hockey arena that gets used for the NCAA tournament and the Kansas Jayhawks play there.

10:50I remember the Big 12 tournament used to be held there. But in the near term, I don't see any big sports developments happening in Kansas City, Missouri. Let's put it this way. The Chiefs have had a rough season. They're not in the playoffs. They lost their star quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, for the season. And now the fans get this news. Can you tell us more how the fans have reacted to all of this? The Chiefs fans are so accustomed to winning. I think that over the last six Super Bowls, they've been in five of them. They've won three Super Bowls since 2020. This is a very successful franchise as of late.

11:32And this season was a big bummer for their fans. I actually saw an interesting tweet. They had a super fan who was called the Chiefs-aholic who recently went to jail. And since he went to jail, the team has just been on a tremendous downturn. You know, now Patrick Mahomes has an injury. He's going to be out for some time. Even their backup quarterback, Gardner Minshew, is going to be out for the rest of the season. So Chiefs fans are just not in a good place right now. These guys, like I said, are so accustomed to winning at this point. And it's never easy for a franchise like that. I'm from New York, you know, and the Yankees are 27 world championships.

12:12Anytime that they have a bad season, it's they're getting killed in the local New York press. And a similar thing is happening right now in Kansas City. You know, these guys are the best franchise in the NFL over the last decade. And people still suspect that they'll be good going forward because any team that has Patrick Mahomes is likely to make the playoffs. But they are not happy right now. There has been a lot of change over the last week, and the lack of success on the football field is not helping. Because I think sometimes franchises like that need a little bit of a downtick. I mean, everyone else, outside of, I think, Chiefs Kingdom is getting a little fatigued of seeing them win.

12:53And then, you know, people like to root for an underdog, a comeback story. I'd like to see Patrick Mahomes come back healthy, you know, eventually. Is Taylor Swift still going to the games, by the way? I'm sorry. This thought that popped in my head. Sorry, man. Go ahead. Oh, I wish I had the answer for you on that one. I actually haven't seen her too much being shown. Maybe that was a little fatigue as well, but I'm sure she's still supporting her man, I would assume. He's on my fantasy team, and he had a very bad week last week. He only caught one pass for six yards. Luckily, my team ended up making the fantasy football finals, so all is forgiven on Travis Kelsey's part.

13:30But that might have been the reason. And if Taylor wasn't there, that might have been one of the reasons for his poor performance. Max, we are honored because you always drop knowledge on us. And again, here we are. Read the articles, folks, because Max has great stuff in there. Thank you guys for having me. Our thanks to Bloomberg News municipal finance reporter Max Adler for joining us. Up next, we speak with sports memorabilia legend Brandon Steiner. That is straight ahead on the Bloomberg Business of Sports. from my colleagues, Vanessa Perdomo. I'm Michael Barr. You are listening to Bloomberg Business and Sports Bloomberg Radio around the world.

14:11I'm Barry Ritholtz, inviting you to join me for the Masters in Business podcast. Every week, we bring you fascinating conversations with the people who shape markets, investing, and business. CEOs, fund managers, billionaires, Nobel laureates, traders, analysts, economists, everybody that affects what's going on in the market, whether you own stocks, bonds, real estate, commodities, crypto, you really need to hear these conversations. Sometimes it's behaviorists like Dick Thaler or Bob Schiller. Sometimes it's fund managers like Peter Lynch, Bill Miller, Ray Dalio. Sometimes it's authors, Michael Lewis, author of The Big Short and Moneyball.

14:56Regardless of the conversation, these are the folks that move markets each week. That's the Masters in Business podcast with me, Barry Ritholtz. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio. This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports where we explore the big money issues in the world to sports. I'm Michael Barr. And I'm Vanessa Perdomo. Damian Sassauer is off this week. The Buffalo Bills will have a new home soon, but diehard fans could literally take a piece of their current stadium home with them when it's demolished. Oh, shoot.

15:37It's a new initiative from sports memorabilia legend and collectible exchange founder Brandon Steiner. And Brandon joins us now to discuss it. Brandon, welcome to the Bloomberg Business of Sports. Well, thank you. It's great to be here. I love this building. It never gets old coming here. And the food's good, too. You guys do a great job. This is, you've never been up here. This is one of the cooler offices on the planet. And I get the many of them. It's very, we're real lucky. It's a good time. It's a good time. And especially if you forget lunch, there's always food. Food's big. Anyway. You have written a lot of books about about the industry, the business playbook, living on purpose.

16:26Take us through your journey about the books that you have written and the insight that you have given, Brandon, to all of us there in the industry. And my fourth book, The Ride-Alongs. But, you know, first, I'm half illiterate. I think it's important. You know, seriously, I really struggle with reading and writing, so I have a ghostwriter that helps me. These are my words. I usually will audio and then give it to my writer and in two of my books it's my older brother who's not a sports fan so it really works out well he's a lot smarter than me and he's a great writer has always been a great writer so he's able to put it in perspective so I don't overdo it and if somebody who's not a big sports fan they can read this book but the books it's not a sports book they're really about business entrepreneurship I've been a serial entrepreneur since I'm 10 I was one of those kids who listened to his mother I tell people listen to your mom who else is looking out for you better than her and she was really really smart I mean she had a business savvy that was different for women in the 60s which you know we know women were not business women in the 60s not many of them and she didn't really give a hoot you know she she wasn't no part of that so we had a really good business relationship my mom and I particularly because I started working when I was 10 because you know My dad died when I was 12, and their divorce went fourth.

17:45So going out to work was, at 10, you know, that was real, man. So I've learned a lot of stuff on the street. You know, I got bought in 2000 by a Fortune 200 company, Omnicom. So, you know, I learned how to work it on the corporate level, on a large level, especially when I'm working with my athletes, trying to find them corporate gigs. And the memorabilia was something like there was an add-on, really. I was just trying to figure out how to make more money on the corporate stuff I was doing, because the margins were small. And I was always a collector, and I kind of thought that someone needed to get in there and straighten things out.

18:19I think when you're an entrepreneur, you have to have an attitude that, first of all, you've got to find the white space, you know, what no one else is doing. Or if you don't do it, no one else will, and someone needs to go straighten this stuff out. And that's what I felt in the 90s with a lot of fraudulent autographs. I was booking thousands of appearances. People know me for that. And to me, it all came together. I took$10 ,000 out of the bank. I started Steiner with four, then 10 to start the collectible company. And this new company, Collectible Exchange, is exactly the same. Started very nimble, even though I made millions of dollars.

18:55I didn't start raising all kinds of money. I told people to stop doing that. Get a proof of concept. And I had an early indication. That indication, like most of my best ideas, early on came from my mom, and this one came from my wife, which was sitting on the couch at about 11 o 'clock at night. And I had about 7 ,000 collectibles in my room, 4 ,000 autographed trading cards on top of the 7 ,000. So it was a little daunting in there. And she's like, what are you going to do with all this stuff? You mean if I die, what should you do? And it was a good question. And usually my wife, who's very bright, does ask a lot of good questions.

19:35And the answer was, you know, I don't know. Well, I asked the kids if they wanted, and of course they didn't. and I realized that having put out over 40 million autographs they didn't? They didn't want anything except my World Series ring they lived Steiner, they lived the millions of autographs, the signings the players at the house, it wasn't a big deal for them it was my ride, my party they didn't want to party with it and particularly my daughter said Dad, I don't want anything ever to happen to you but don't leave all that stuff for me and you know if you're out there and you're listening and you have a parent that collects extensively something.

20:11You know, Steiner was a big force in the industry that I built. And people know Steiner. My kids had enough of it. But it raises a good question. What do you do with it as you get older? I realized that, well, first of all, 70 % of the wealth in this country is with people that are over 60. In the next 10 years, more people will die probably than in the history of ever people dying. And more people are downsizing. People are living longer, but they're downsizing. They're Now I'm turning 66. You've got to get your estate in order. You're downsizing. And I'm realizing people around me are passing, and they don't know what to do with this stuff.

20:48So I came up with a system that really helps people. And I've done well. I've made a lot of money, but I've been very fortunate. And this new company, Collectible Exchange, helps people that are sitting with thousands of cards. One guy called me and he had a million trading cards. Oh, my gosh. They didn't know what to do with them. Yeah. So I invested in a company called Hobby Scan, so you can take your car. It's literally thousands in an hour to figure out what you have and what they're worth. Amazing app. Just get the app. And then also, when you give me your stuff, we vault it. We make sure everything's authenticated because everybody's sitting with stuff.

21:22But it's embarrassing if you have a lot of stuff and you don't know what it's worth. Like, where do you go? Where do you ask? So you put it on eBay. An auction house comes. They buy you low, sell you high. When you bring me your stuff, I tell you what you have. I tell you what it's worth. And then we're partners. And I vault it. And I get, most importantly, I get it out of your house. Well, Vanessa, I want you to. Is that a good summation? That was pretty good. I want you to meet my new daddy because he's got all the good stuff. Is he going to get your line stuff out of your house? Well, when I die.

21:53And that's okay. As long as you have it organized and have a plan for it. It's amazing how many people do that and a lot of people that don't. I think it's interesting when we're talking about the card space versus collectibles. collectibles and I'm curious how you think about that cards versus physical collectibles like you're working on a deal with the Buffalo Bills and and having you know pieces of the stadium that people can buy how is the how are those different than say a card the card space well let me let me just say talking out of both sides of my mouth clearly like he's a man who sold a man who sold over 50 million dollars of dirt and that dirt is selling for a premium on eBay so clearly there's something a little bit wrong with me in my view sometimes.

22:37And I admit it. But, you know, like when I break down the stadiums, it's really just a love I have because I know how important these stadiums are. They're like a second home for people. When I took down Yankee Stadium or Madison Square Garden or Giant Stadium, Tech Stadium, I've now developed a reputation for doing this in a really unique, special way. But I don't tell people that, you know, buy a piece of this and one day it's going to go for a fortune. But on the other hand, like if you sat in this stupid seat, and you sat there for 20 years in the freezing cold like the Buffalo Bill. Super freezing cold.

23:09Bill's mouth, you're like, you've got to have that seat in your living room or on your deck. But I'm not telling you to go buy that seat because one day it's going to be worth a fortune. Now, there are some assets in the stadium that will auction off or sell that will be worth a lot. Like somebody's going to buy one of the goalposts. That'll be epic. Like somebody's going to buy the Bill's logo in the middle of the field. That's going to be epic to put in your backyard. The scoreboard and all the other stuff. Oh, I'm taking it all. And lockers, the grass. Well, in this case, the turf. But I've sold millions of dollars of grass.

23:42Because it's nice. I mean, that's the feel that the great ones have walked on, whether it's Mickey Mantle, Derek Jeter, Mariana. And to have a piece of that, you kind of feel it. I always felt like that would be really cool to have, and that's why I did it. And in this case, I'm selling the Ohio State turf. I'm selling the Michigan turf. And he said, well, think about the runs that those – and the players that have played on that feel like Michigan had the perfect season, national championship. I'm excited about selling that turf in the spring. So it's crazy the amount of projects that come to me.

24:16But I don't get on a soapbox telling you that if you buy a lot of this, one day you're going to be rich. I tell you that you're going to have a lot of joy remembering all the moments you had in that stadium. And you should have a piece of the goalpost or whatever it is to remember it. but I'm not big and I've never been big on buy this and you're going to make a fortune. I'm sitting with 4 million trading cards in my office. Some of them are incredible 20, 30, 50, $100 ,000 cards which is mind boggling to me that I actually could say it and it's true but they're rare cards. They're cards that are almost 100 years old.

24:49They're cards that are 75 years old. The first top set from 1948 I've never even seen. Like that's cool. When I make an investment in that I'm kind of, if I was allowed to bring it home, I probably would buy that set. But my wife has got me on a hold. It's unbelievable. You know why I mistakenly called you Rich? I know your name is Brandon, but why I called you Rich at first? Because in 1973, that's when Rich Stadium was set up for the Bills, which I remember as a kid. And here's Kurt Gowdy, because NBC had all the AFC games back then. Love Kurt Gowdy. Oh, man. Kurt Gowdy. Those AFC games. Oh, man.

25:31Vanessa's like, here comes the geezers. But what's crazy is, as I've seen it with Vanessa, it would be a rarity to find some women or some girls to watch the game with you. That would be like no way. And now you go to games. First of all, it's almost a 50-50 proposition. And the women ain't there for the guys. They know more than the guys. I'm sitting next to women at games that are schooling me on what's going on. They're extremely knowledgeable. They're fanatical as anyone. They come to my office to buy collectibles. They ain't buying it for their husband. They're not buying it for their dad.

26:04So even in the collectible space, is it 50-50 or are you still seeing more male collectors? It's not 50-50 because the men have had a tremendous head start, but you're seeing a lot more women collectors. They're knowledgeable about it. And they love sports the way it used to be just a man's thing. And now it's definitely a split deal. Like usually when guys come up, I can't believe how many women and men come up and they're both deciding. It's completely changed. It's one of the better things that's happened in the business because, you know, women do have a strong voice in what gets bought for the home.