🌲 “LIVE from Seattle” — The AC/DC Election. Supersonics’ NBA biz. Magic The Gathering’s $2B card. +Salmon Toss MBA

0:00This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Thursday, the new Friday, November 5th and today's live show from Seattle.

0:14is the best one yet. It's a T-boy, baby. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. This is the IPO tour, the last stop. Our in-person offering. Jack.

0:34Three fantastic stories. What do we got live from Seattle, Jack? For our first story, The results are in for the midterm election. It was a blue nami. This was the energy election. Actually, the ACDC election. And the votes have already impacted the markets. For our second story, in the age of tech, how did Hasbro's toy stock hit an all-time high today? Well, it's magic. Literally magic. The gathering. And our third and final story. Before the new year, the NBA will decide its two expansion teams. And Seattle. And Seattle is a front runner. Because the Seattle Supersonics basketball team stopped playing 18 years ago, yet the brand's never been bigger.

1:21But, Geddes, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories... Love the mix of stories, Jack. Costco is the coolest club on Earth. It's a$500 billion card carrying Kirkland Colt. Starbucks is the biggest coffee chain on Earth. First location right down the street. doubled as Dr. Evil's headquarters. Microsoft and Amazon stocks both hit all-time highs today. Uh, Jack, the market cap in this room? Never been higher. Boeing, Filson, even Nintendo's U.S. headquarters? Seattle's corporate resumes making San Francisco freak and Portland streak. So here's our big question. What is the secret to Seattle's business success?

2:05It's not tech. It's not money. It's not the weather. It's actually the salmon toss. Because Seattle's Pike Place Fish Market is famous for tossing fish. We're talking salmon and halibut. Fishmongers never hand someone a sea bass. They toss it to them. But did you know this fish tossing tourist trap is actually a business school? Because get this, 40 years ago, Pike Place Market was struggling. On the brink of collapse, actually. So they made a bold bet. They turned the fish toss into a corporate training program. And it actually started hosting seminars for Seattle's biggest brands. Because picture the team-building classes that can happen while you're tossing some fish.

2:46Why fish scales can actually help startup scale. How do you give feedback like you're filleting a flounder? What throwing a 46-pound salmon taught me about B2B sales. So besties, we stopped by Pike Place Market to learn their fishmonger's four keys to business success. Right, Jack? This is the thing. It's actually called the fish philosophy. It is. Here are the four parts. One, choose your attitude. Two, be there. Three, make their day. And lesson four, learn to play. Well, no joke, Jack. I mean, Pike Places Fish Philosophy, it is studied by businesses and it is studied by organizations. Is it not?

3:23It absolutely is. Because, Nick, we don't have time to actually explain each of these seafood-themed career hacks, but we like to call the Salmon Toss the Salmon Toss MBA. Because it saved the fish market. It boosted Seattle's businesses. And it may have turned Bill Gates into a billionaire one bass at a time. See, you know, the real secret to Seattle's business success? It's the elegant art of tossing salmon in front of 50 strangers. Like, what do you think, Jack? Oh, here's the salmon.

3:57All right, who wants this bad boy?

4:04Yetis, besties, Ken Griffey Jr., you all look fantastic tonight. Even though it's raining the rest of the week, Seattle, you have never looked brighter. Hey, Meg Ryan, let's hit our three grunge stories. Let's hit them, baby.

4:29to practice 50 that's a fat tip t-boy city on your at list if you know you know because we ready to go we can't wait no more so just start the show

4:42start the show first a quick word from our sponsor

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5:54That's ZipRecruiter.com slash tboy. Meet your match on ZipRecruiter. Monarch. In 2015, after my third banking bonus, I finally paid off my student debt. Then in 2019, after we sold our startup, I finally paid off my graduate student debt. Yeah, and is everyone throwing random parties these days? Well, Jack threw a long overdue debt payoff party. Gotta love that party. Yeah, because for 10 years, I kept a manual Excel spreadsheet tracking my debt payoff progress. And it was very satisfying watching the bad numbers get smaller and the good numbers get bigger. You see, when you're paying down your debt, it helps to have a target date to plan your celebration around.

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7:00For our first story, it's the Blue Nami. Stocks just had their best day in a year and a half after the votes were counted. 2026 was the energy election. Or as we call it, the ACDC election. And it was the moment that we paced the frontier. Yetis, the news, the Democrats flipped at least seven Senate seats, probably nine once the votes have finally come in. The popular vote, as measured by the House races, is expected to be 13 points in favor of the Democrats, the biggest margin in 50 years. President Trump promised to lower prices, but the opposite happened. They still got the inflation situation.

7:38You've heard the expression, it's the economy, stupid. Well, the election was a rejection of his economic policies. For example, Jack, let's go Carmen Sandiego on this and look at Iowa. Farmers there suffering from tariffs and record high diesel prices. And so voters rejected both by flipping the governor, the Senate, and three out of four House seats from Republican to Democrat. Now, those Democrats got elected on the same promise to lower prices. The big question, will they deliver? We'll have to do like 600 podcast episodes to find out. But President Trump's first social post after the election was the word VETO in all caps.

8:13So we may have two years of gridlock ahead. But interestingly, since 1946, the S &P 500 has grown by 14 percentage points in the year after a midterm election. And stocks got started right away. Yes, they did. All the major indices rose 2 to 3 percentage points on Wednesday. Smack that cha-ching button. You see, Yetis, in the era of unaffordability, 2024 was the grocery election. 2026 was the energy election. All right, first, home heating oil. In Maine, it's going to cost 82 % more this winter than last to heat your home. Jack, talk to me about the gas prices. The average U.S. household has paid 534 extra bucks at the pump since the war began.

8:53You're filling up at Costco to save money. Kirkland gas, but the biggest energy annoyance on the ballot is electricity, which is why you get ACDC. ACDC. What does that stand for, Jack? Americans complain of data centers. Yeah. Basically, we all got thunderstruck. We all got thunderstruck. Because your electricity bill isn't up from the war in Iran. It's actually up from artificial intelligence. So this week, 29 separate states or cities voted for moratoriums on data center construction. It's interesting. While our federal government has not regulated AI, voters essentially just did, but at the state level.

9:32Texas, Ohio, Georgia, they are the number one, two, and three states in terms of the data center construction right now. Texas, Ohio, and Georgia just elected governors who all ran on anti-data center messages. Now, Jack, we should point out North Dakota is the one state that did vote for more data centers. Data centers get warm. It's cold in North Dakota. That kind of makes sense. They got a lot of land. Plenty of land as well. It heats you up. But an early takeaway of this election is good news for our special guest tonight, who's building data centers in space. Yep. And that's infinite from what I understand from watching Interstellar, Jack.

10:05But there's a bigger takeaway here. And it's not the highway to hell. No, it's our takeaway. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies looking at the ACDC election? Voters just paced the frontier. And stocks and jobs like it so far. Now, Yetis, remember, earlier this summer, we told you the CEO of Anthropic said, we must pace the frontier for safety. Well, voters just paced the AI construction frontier. You see, Congress didn't regulate AI. Voters just did. According to Axios, two out of three of the 2028 data center capacity faces delays because of this selection. And that could actually be why stocks soared so much on Wednesday.

10:46Ben Thompson of Stratechery thinks that this gives big tech cover to chill it with all the data center splurging. Which could be a relief to Wall Street, which is worried that maybe we're overspending on AI. And slowing down the AI transition, that could also give workers more time to transition. If humans are going to get displaced, this slowdown could buy them an extra year or two. Now, Jack, we should point out the downside to an AI slowdown is China. Yeah. This could help them win the AI race, potentially. But add it all up, besties, and this was the ACDC election. Americans complaining about data centers.

11:20And voters just paced the frontier. Yeah, they did. Nice.

11:31for our second story why did hasbro's toy stock just hit an all-time high well it's magic literally it's magic the gathering this is a story of innovation investing and elven writers jack let's go back to 1990 a walla walla washington college grad who launches Wizards, a game company. The lawyers told him that Wizards was too generic a brand name, so he had to update it. Wizards of the Coast. That guy was Peter Atkinson, who gets a pitch one day from another guy named Richard Garfield. He says, hey, let me build a board game for Wizards of the Coast. It's called Robo Rally. Peter says no. No. Instead, he tells Rich to go make me a card game instead.

12:17A card game where the cards are collectibles. Richard did that, and he called it Magic. But then he spoke to the lawyers again, and they said that name was too generic again, so he renamed it to Magic the Gathering. And in 1993, from a basement just outside Seattle, Just outside. Wizards of the Coast launches the first ever trading card game. Well, each card was a work of art. Like Magic's Michelangelo's. Yeah, and still today, the illustrator of each Magic the Gathering card gets an artist credit at the bottom of the card. Yeah, like Picasso. You see, four years later, Magic acquires Dungeons & Dragons, a rival becoming the Berkshire Hathaway of wizards, warlocks, and soul-shifting totem armor.

13:03Now, fast forward to today, and Magic the Gathering walked so that Pokemon could run. And Wizards of the Coast has been part of Hasbro since 1999. And thanks to the Wizards, Hasbro stock hit an all-time high yesterday. Magic the Gathering. It hit$1 billion in sales in 2022. They're on pace for$2 billion this year. Last quarter, Magic's revenue rose 34%. And excuse us for mixing magical worlds here, but that is order of the Merlin first class. And here is what Jack and I find fascinating. Despite this techified, screen-filled video game world we all live in, IRL a card game? It's living its best life.

13:42And your hometown hobby store survived the Amazon effect because of all these loyal Magic fans out there. Get this. Jack and I noticed Hasbro mentioned the word wizards 49 times in their earnings call. And yeah, Hasbro's working on a Magic movie. So Magic is winning thanks in part to booster packs, which are the OG blind box that were here before Lububu dolls. And they're winning thanks to the kid old phenomenon. The average player, guess the age of the average player of Magic the Gathering. Well, I implied it was older, but it's 30. It's 30. It's 30. And these mostly men, Magic players, pay a premium, complain about paying a premium, but then still pre-order the next batch.

14:24Ah, Magic the Gathering. It has three separate official podcasts with 2 ,000 episodes total. Magic the Gathering, it's our competition? Are you kidding me? But the real reason that revenue is exploding for this 33-year-old card game, what is it, Nick? Actually, it's our takeaway. Good timing, Jack. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies who turn 30 and play in magic. Become a platform for passions. Now, Yetis, the OGmatic cards that we collected, they were Siobhan Dragons, Leviathan's Force of Nature. Force of Nature was the coolest card, by the way, when I used to play. And when used, it does eight damage on the opponent.

15:02I didn't know how to play, but it was a cool card, and I had that card. The cards, they were interchangeable. So Hasbro marketers are now interchanging them with Lord of the Rings magic sets. There's also a Star Trek magic set, a Marvel superhero magic set, and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles magic set. Cowabunga, because if you're a magic fan, you're probably a fan of other magical universes too. Actually, Nick, what's happening is that, according to Hasbro, Star Trek fans are becoming magic fans thanks to these claps, which is even better for Hasbro. Interestingly, LEGO does this too, right? By licensing fan-beloved IP, both LEGO and Magic keep customers buying more cards.

15:43Now, there is some tension here. Mm. Purists of Magic the Gathering, they're really annoyed by this universe is beyond IP strategy of Hasbro. Yeah, they think of Hasbro as like getting greedy. There's nothing magical, Jack, about Batman or the Spice Girls having trading cards. Basically, keep all these non-magical characters out of my magical card game. So Hasbro, they need to manage those VIP superfans, and so far, they are striking that balance. Hasbro stock, it's up 60 % in the last 12 months because it found a platform. It built a platform for passion. Totally. Now a quick word from our sponsor.

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18:39The NBA decides by the new year if the Sonics will come back to Seattle, but they already hold the keys to this city's economy. Yeah, it's a funny thing. The greatest mistake that Starbucks ever made was not olive oil coffee. it was selling the Seattle Supersonics.

19:01Because Starbucks' founder, Howard Schultz, owned the Supersonics basketball team, but sold the team in 2006. Now, he blames the city for not expanding the arena. He thinks the team would still be here if it were bigger. But to his credit, Howard Schultz also said this. He said, quote, selling the Sonics, as I did, is one of the biggest regrets of my professional life. I should have been willing to lose money until a local buyer emerged, I am forever sorry. He's probably financially sorry, too. Why, Jack? Because he sold the team for$350 million, and the average NBA franchise today is worth$6.6 billion.

19:41That is 28 times more. That's almost one lift. But here's the update. The NBA is expected this year to announce a 31st and 32nd NBA franchise. Now Las Vegas is a lock. Some billionaire is going to pay the league 10 billion bucks for a Sin City franchise, probably. And Seattle, according to a Bloomberg report on Wednesday, is not a shoo-in. There's not enough buyer interest, potentially. The league expects to fetch only$6 billion in new franchise fees, which apparently isn't enough. Which is why we are putting a portion of the ticket fees from this event to acquire this. No, we're not. We're not.

20:18But we could whip this up after the show, Jack. You know, a decision will happen before the new year, and the 2028-2029 NBA season could bring the Seattle Supersonics 2.0. And we are rooting for it. But this is what Jack and I find fascinating. The Supersonics may have secretly become the most profitable brand in sports. Because we spent this week walking around Seattle, and Sonic's merch is everywhere. I mean, do I have to strut around and show it off? Look at that jacket. Yeah. Sean Kemp is still generating IP dividends today. It's a profit puppy. Besties, the wildest IP drama in pro sports is this, because the Seattle Supersonics brand is basically in joint custody.

20:59Now, legally, the Oklahoma City Thunder own the Sonics' name, logo, and colors, but they're not allowed to use any of them. And if Seattle does get an expansion team, all that Sonics IP is gonna transfer back to Seattle at no cost. That's the custody agreement. In the meantime, the banners from the old arena, The trophies, the retired jerseys, 5 ,000 pieces of physical Sonics history are right now at the Seattle Museum of History. But while the Sonics are dead, the fandom is still alive, and sales of merch are huge. The Sonics are a zombie brand. They're dead, but still very much alive. Very much.

21:34All official NBA merch sales go into a revenue pool split evenly among all the teams in the league. Which means, unfortunately, a tiny slice of Nick's Sonics jacket went to the Thunder's coffers. Not proud of it. We didn't know it when we bought this. But get this, while Mitchell and Ness, which made that jacket, sells only 14 items for the OKC Thunder, they sell 40 items for the Seattle Supersonics. Simply Seattle, a local apparel chain where we got these jackets, says that Sonic's merch sales match the sales of the Seahawks and the Mariners, except for when those teams are in the playoffs. So if a 31st NBA team is going to be determined by the intensity of the fan base, Preach Jack!

22:17Seattle is very much a shoo-in.

22:22Do you see how wild this is? The Sonics haven't even touched the court in nearly two decades. And yet they're this popular. It's the ghost of Kevin Durant. Now, interestingly, part of this is our 20-year rule of nostalgia. It's been 18 years since the Sonics left the city. We're nostalgic for that time. And part is the 90s fashion moment. Gen Z has determined that the 90s were our most fashionable era. And part is, interestingly, psychology. We humans feel the pain of loss in a bigger magnitude than we feel the excitement and joy of a game. Let's sit with that for a second. Whoa. So yes, there is the four-time WNBA champion Seattle Storm, who honored the Sonics team with the green and gold colors and the space needle on the logo.

23:09Not too shabby, but we still missed the glove. We missed the glove. We missed the glove. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddy Gary Payton and all our buddies who are fans of the Seattle Supersons? If you put it on a jersey, they will come. Yetis, think about all those innovative companies Jack and I mentioned at the intro of today's show. Think of our guest, Beju Bhatt, who just moved to Seattle and is building next generation rockets here. You see, the space and tech industries of Seattle, they all go back to the 1960s. When President Kennedy launched our space program and our mission to get to the moon, Seattle seized the moment.

23:46Boeing was a critical partner to NASA's Apollo program. They built the supersonic jet. Seattle built the Space Needle in 1962 and named the basketball team the Supersonics five years later. Now, yes, we've all seen sports teams embrace their local historical industries before. The Pittsburgh Steelers, the Edmonton Oilers, the Detroit Pistons. But those looked backward. word. The Seattle Supersonics, they looked forward. The team manifested the ambition, innovation, and industries that Seattle wanted. The ones they wanted. You see, besties, Seattle, they put the Supersonic on a jersey. And Amazon, Microsoft, and now Cowboy Space, they came.

24:25They came. Good work. But this show's not over yet, is it, Jack? We actually need some of you to come up and help us finish this episode. Is Jesse Merck in the audience from lovely Seattle, Washington? Give it up for Jesse! Yeah! There he is. And is Mackenzie a winner in the audience from lovely Vancouver, Washington? For our first story, the blue tsunami was also the ACDC vote. Americans complaining about data centers. We voted to pace AI stocks at jobs like it. Our second story, Hasbro stock at an all-time high yesterday thanks to Magic the Gathering. It turned a card game into a platform for passions.

25:16And finally, the Supersonics could be resurrected in Seattle. The NBA owners decide by the end of this year. Seattle put Supersonic on a jersey and Supersonic businesses came. Not easy, not easy. Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Mackenzie Winner from lovely Vancouver, Washington, who's here live.

25:43So get this, Yetis and Betsies. Seattle's craziest earthquake was actually caused by humans, specifically Taylor Swift. Because the Seahawks football stadium, Lumen Field, was engineered to be the loudest stadium in the United States. Let's get that in there. When Marshawn Lynch scored a playoff touchdown in 2011, the eruption of fans registered 2.0 on the Richter scale. That became known as the best quake. But according to Western Washington University, during Taylor Swift's 2023 Eras Tour concert, the stomping of fans registered 2.3. That moment, a Guinness World Record, is now known as the Swift quake.

26:26the 12th man was bested by the 13th Swifty.

26:42Jack, amazing job. Stuck the landing on that. Yetis and besties, we have to thank a few people here. We've got to thank the Showbox Incredible Show. We got to thank the T-Boy team, including our editor Trey, who will be up till 3 a.m. this morning editing this episode so you can hear it on your commute. He's the man. But we also have to point out this is the last stop on our Seven City IPO tour all year long that has been a physical feat. Our wives have contributed because they're at home right now. So we can jump out and do this. You guys made this possible because you bought tickets to come and you're here with us every single day.

27:20Families, friends, the people we don't even see who helped make all this possible. It is incredible. This is the job of a lifetime. We are so fortunate. And honestly, sad that this tour of this year is ending, and we can't wait to do more of it. And we hope to see you again soon.

27:38And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate! Thank you, Seattle!

27:50Whoa! There we go!

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