Mark Ein has a passion for sports, business, and entrepreneurial endeavors. He is a co-owner of the Washington Commanders, owner of the Mubadala Citi DC Open tennis tournament, owner of the Washington Kastles tennis franchise, successful investor and venture capitalist, owner of Kastle Systems, and former competitive tennis player.
Come learn about Mark’s experiences in and out of the sports business world and get his insights on the future of the sports industry as he joins Dean David Marchick and AU Men’s Basketball Coach Duane Simpkins for a conversation in the Veloric Center for Entrepreneurship. The event is co-sponsored by the Kogod School of Business, AU Department of Athletics and Recreation, WCL’s Sport and Society Initiative, the Veloric Center for Entrepreneurship, and the Alan Meltzer CEO Speaker Series.
When everyone Guys hear me. Good afternoon. Soccer coach, Please have a seat. Good afternoon, everyone welcome to the Vallourec Center for this wonderful event with entrepreneur Mark. I am thrilled to see such a great crowd after Thanksgiving and before finals. Before introducing Mark. I want to thank the co sponsors of this
Event. First Department of Athletics and Recreation, led by Dr Billy Walker, please give Dr Walker hair. The center of Entrepreneurship, led by professors Tommy White and Daniel Vogel. Please give him a hand. Co God’s business and entertainment program, which just hosted an amazing concert with Florida. Thank you, Professor Simpson, uh Simpson
AND BLOSSOM BLOOM BLOSSOM BLOOM. The Washington College of Law, Sports and Society Institute, led by Professor Jeremy Darroch. Where’s Jeremy? Sports entertainment and business are part of the fabric of American University. Depending on the year between 4050 50% of student athletes are business majors or minors. We have a number of a U
Grads, who are owners of teams, including Manchester United. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, The Atlanta Hawks. And the CEO of the Green Bay Packers. Two weeks ago, Jeremy Darryl hosted at form for the Washington Council for the For the General Council of All Washington Sports franchises. The Nets commanders wizards. We’re just not doing
Too well right now, are they? Mystics and the spirit. Sports represents one of the most important forms of entertainment in our country. We have a wonderful sports law program at our law school. And Billboard magazine, just named co got as one of the top universities in the country for business and
Entertainment. Please give it a hand. Today We have one individual Who brings all of these strands together. Mark. I He’s an entrepreneur. He manages huge events He owns the Mubadala will battle I knew I was going to screw that up. I got it. Mubadala Mubadala City opened, Uh, City Open tennis tournament,
The Washington Justice E Sports franchise is co owner or owner of the Washington commanders and also owns the city paper. He is one of the most successful and business leaders in Washington. And he is a professional. He’s a former professional tennis player. It’s pretty impressive. I also want to thank Allan
Meltzer for supporting our CEO lecture series and Co God. Allen is a former wrestler at AU Service on the board and is one of a U S Most important supporters. Thank you, Alan. Thank you again for being here and let me turn it over to David Marcial, dean of the Kogod
School of Business to interview Mark. I thank you, coach. Um I love coach Simpkins. And I can’t wait to see what he’s going to do with this program. Thank you. Dr Walker for hiring such a great basketball coach. Um Mark, thank you for being here for
Those of you who we have a bunch of people stream watching on stream and so you can ask questions when we open up to Q and a by entering your question in the chat, and we’ll get that question Asked. So we have a number of online students and
Alums. So my first question for you, Mark is you grew up in Chevy Chase, and there was a kid in your fourth grade class. Named Josh Harris. And the two of you now own the Washington football team. So when you were in fourth grade, did your teacher I think that you and
Josh we’re going to be really successful, or were you getting in trouble at that age? That’s why, um Gosh, you have, I don’t know, Actually, for sure they knew that that was always going to happen. Okay Let me just start by saying Thanks for having me so many connections to
You. First of all, we’re long term friends. It was a big fan of coach Simpson’s Simkins when he played basketball. Allan Meltzer is a friend. Uh Bob Koga . It’s an incredible guy, a guy who has kind of been a mentor and advisor for me so Um, that’s
Great. And so it’s real pleasure to be here and I live close by and I just Why didn’t I get invited to flow Rider? Britain that into my deal. Yeah exactly. You have someone like that. Please. I wanna I wanna come. Um yeah, I mean, it’s uh, life’s
Funny how it works. You know, I grew up really close to here. I grew up in Chevy Chase. Right by UM East West Highway and Connecticut Avenue and I went to rolling would elementary school and Josh and I were literally Really close friends from third grade on We were always we’ve
Got to be really close friends because at that age, they line you up by height, and we’re always the two shortest guys, So we’re always at the end of the line talking to each other, and then we played soccer and Rock Creek Park. And our whole lives tracked. And sometimes when I do
These, I have these pictures of us in fourth grade seventh grade playing soccer, and it is hard to imagine the way life sometimes. Ends up but I look forward to talking about some of the lessons I’ve learned along the way. But at that time that and after we did the commanders,
And Dwayne said that I On the tennis tournament in town where I was a bald head when I was a young boy, um guy that I grew up with said, You know the two things that matter to us most When we were kids were the tennis tournament and the
Football team, and now you’re on both, and it’s like You can’t You’ve never The other thing That’s incredible about you is I’ve known Mark’s mom for many years, Um. To do that all over again. Okay so I’ve known Mark, okay? I’ve known Mark’s mom. For many years, both his parents are
Living and his mom was a survivor of the Holocaust. And his dad left right before the war. And essentially, you’ve lived the American dream and think about how I remember his mom saying, You got to meet my son Mark. He’s a businessman, and he’s going to Be a big shot.
And like the pride that they have of what you’ve done is just incredible. So congratulations. I mean, I just on that point. I think one of the things and Like they didn’t. It wasn’t a big part of our life growing up like they didn’t come to this country
And say you have to live every day thinking about we went through, they actually said, we just just go like build a life. Um My mom came when she was a little girl with her family, and they just said, you know, we’re not gonna pretend it didn’t happen, but we’re not going to
Let it dominate her life, and I always appreciate that. They put it there. But in the back of my mind that always made me appreciate which I do every day. The precariousness of life like you just don’t know what’s going to happen from one day to the next, and that’s obviously you
Know, unimaginable. But that kind of unimaginable stuff is happening to people all over the world, Unfortunately, but people get sick. They I mean, stuff happens. And so you just need to wake up every day and try to make the most of every day, And I think that’s the biggest
Impact that family’s history had on me. Well. So let’s just start about talking about your start. Okay So you went to undergrad. Then you went to Harvard Business School. And you started off working for big institutions Goldman, Saxon and Carlisle where I used to work. Um so When
Did you pivot to say? I want to not be part of the big institution. I want to be part of. I want to be an entrepreneur. Yeah so I sort of had this mindset that In my twenties. I wanted to experience a little bit of everything. I wanted to live in different
Places. I want to work for different kinds of firms. Different size firms, and I want to use my summers to have different experiences, so that when I finally set my firm path I felt like I tried enough stuff, and so that was sort of intentional. And then I also
Thought I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I mean, in sixth grade, and Chevy Chase, the thing that mattered to us, the most growing up other than the tennis term and the football team was our soccer team. And it was like the thing that kept us together. And the guy who
Coached in organized it for our whole elementary school in sixth grade, moved And none of the parents picked it up. And I was 1/6 grader like reorganize our soccer team, and God is in a league coach. And so that was always the and so I knew that’s ultimately what I wanted to do.
But I also thought I kind of want to make mistakes on someone else’s dime first and learn from other people and be an environment where I could be mentored. And it was hard because I was always entrepreneurial. I sort of chasing the little bit of being in a And I worked at Carlisle
Together. But when I got to Carlisle, it was 30. People is very entrepreneurial. Um and I just wanted to wait for the right time. And it really was just I love Carlyle. I still obviously love a lot of the people there. It just went when I got there was 30 people, I
Think 15 investment professionals and when I left, it was 1000 people and it was becoming More of a bureau more of an institution and I wanted to do something smaller and on my own. And so what was your first entrepreneurial initiative ? Like, what was your first deal
Or what? What was the first thing you did when you said I’m going out on my own? So I a bunch of times in in my first I left after seven years. A bunch of times I thought of doing something else. There was actually a partner Carlyle, who
Got upset one day and Had me over to his house very early on and said, Let’s go start a firm together. That didn’t happen. Josh and I came very, very close at one point. And then there was he was an Apollo, which is he helped build Apollo and then
There was a financial every time I was going to start something like a financial crisis and the way and then eventually decided I was going to do it because it was sort of the late nineties very late nights like around 99, 2000 and Tech was booming. I’ve
Done a bunch of good deals, A bunch of people are offering money. I had a good track record that I was going to do it. But the interesting thing is that I was going to leave my God set up. And they wrote an article in The Washington Post and I, um
That day I went to the office and I had two other people with me and I went home and again. The big thing was that it was in the Washington Post and I went to bed and at three in the morning, I woke up in a cold
Sweat. And I’ve never had a cold sweat before, and I know what it was, except I was sweating. I was cold, So I figured this must be what it called sweaters. And I couldn’t I couldn’t go back to sleep. And so I’m a more a late night. Worker and get up a
Little later, But I just like went to the opposite seven because I was wide awake. And I worked through that. I remember how tired I was. I was like, I’m so glad I’m gonna go to bed. So early night I went home went to bed three. In the morning. I
Woke up in a cold sweat again. And this happened literally every night for two months. I couldn’t shake it and it wasn’t. I knew I could be a good investor. I knew I’d done it with total confidence. People are giving me money. It was just the feeling that this is now all
On me. It’s not on someone else. Obviously subconsciously totally freaked me out, and it took two months to shake that. And you know, and then you get over and then you do it. And then you have successes. And you have failures. Now people go. Oh, you’re so entrepreneur Such entrepreneur but don’t realize
Like it was so hard for me at the beginning and the way I got over it just by doing it and persisting and getting through it, But it’s not like that was a natural thing. And I’m looking. I’m trying to see Tommy White here who runs our entrepreneurship program. This
Is essentially what he teaches, which is all entrepreneurs are kind of making it up as they go along, and everybody has these cold sweats and You know, that’s that’s what we teach at the Vallourec Center and what Tommy and Daniel teachers so Your first big success, I think was
Castle systems, right? It was actually a company called a thirst systems back, Um In the mid nineties. And um, I met this guy and he wanted to buy this division of Westinghouse. He was running. And I looked at it and I said, You know what? We’re not really buying anything. We’d
Better off just starting it. This was like no iPhones, no blackberries. This was like Flip phones, no data over them, But I had this vision that like if people use their phones for voice that they would eventually transmit data, that was the thing, and so the idea was to
Build a wireless data platform that would do infrastructure and content. That was the idea, and he said, Now I’m gonna I’m gonna go. Um Try to buy this, and I checked in with the months and while he had Madison Dearborn, who was going to back him in the
End, the deal fell apart and he called me and he said, I want to get together and fell apart. So we went and had lunch and we outlined how to do it came back and sort of on a White board and what it would look like. And
That was all and then six months he called me and he said. I want to meet with you guys. So why? So I’m doing it and it’s working, and I want you to be involved and help me And so, um, that company then ended up going public and its peak in 1999 was
Worth $12 billion. We raised a billion and a half dollars. Um It was extraordinary outcome for a long time. There was a lot of lessons learned in the end the company actually going bankrupt. But but you sold by then I didn’t. I’m I usually stick with things. I saw it a little bit.
Not that much. I saw it a little bit. Um but I like holding things for a long time. And actually, he and I like I’ve There’s a fundamental rule I learned From Bob Rubin, who was Treasury secretary, which is like once you get to a certain point in life, people fundamentally don’t change
Unless they have a tragedy of life and to like anything you do where you you’re planning on someone Changing who’s an adult is probably a bad strategy and my wife tells me this all the time. Yeah. Um And the other thing I’ve learned is, uh, from backing entrepreneurs is almost
Everyone’s greatest strength is the flip side of their greatest weakness. So the things that make people great or the things that also often are their biggest weaknesses and vice versa. And so this is a little bit of this little bit of a detour in the story, But there
Was a guy Carlisle actually the first big deal. I did Carlisle before this. Um there was a guy who was an unbelievable entrepreneur had this vision and he ran through walls and made stuff happen that no one could make happen, But it was totally uncoachable and everyone calls like it’s so frustrating.
Uncoachable was like, Well, if you listen to us here, he wouldn’t have done this because everyone’s telling you can’t do it. And so his same stubbornness that made him a great entrepreneur made them hard to do that, And so Um, so like people’s greatest strength is the flip side of greatest
Weakness. People fundamentally, don’t change this entrepreneur. That company actually did change as much as I’ve seen anyone. The wealth and success completely got to his head. We had a ton of hubris. We raised a billion and a half dollars. He started just investing it. He kind of got
Control of the board, and it was It’s unfortunate because there were other kind. I mean the other companies at that time who ended up pivoting and finding a way to become successful, and we didn’t but that was sort of the first big thing. So you were an athlete growing up? Very good
Tennis player. You’ve been around a lot of athletes. Um what a lot of the student athletes in our D one program or our business students and Carlisle. We used to hire a lot of athletes. So what are the attributes that you think people learn as athletes that are applicable to business? So
There’s a lot and it’s one of the reasons I love the sport of tennis because I think tennis is the sport of a lifetime. Not just because you play your whole life, but the lessons you learn on the court. Stick with you throughout your life and then everything you do, but I think
That’s true on everything. Um, to me my core mantra in my personal life, my business life of my family life. Is continuous improvement is just always get better get better every day always get better and better and better. And there’s nothing that teaches that better than trying
To be good at sports, right is like how do you get better and better? How do you assess what your weaknesses are and how you can get better? How do you assess your strengths and do more of that, and so at the core , like learning to improve all
The time is that But then you also have hard work and discipline. Teamwork fair play all those things. So I have young kids and I, You know, I don’t have hopes are going to be professional or even great athletes. I just want them to be. Playing sports, so that the
Lessons they learned they can use and everything in their life. So you moved. You started off doing kind of traditional investments in tech and a lot of other areas. And then you move to starting to invest in sports. So are you doing that? Because you love sports or because you
Think you can make money or are you going from a business perspective or because you just love sports or what? What Yeah, I sports. So you mentioned my first big thing in sports, and it’s a great origin story. Maybe we’ll get to was the world team tennis team. The Washington
Castles in D. C. Which we ran for a long time, and I always call it my biggest accidental not for profit because it just kept losing money wasn’t the intention, but we never made a profit. Um now my motivation in sports is literally one thing. It’s just sports and music are
The two things that bring people together and There’s never been a time where we need to bring people together more. And when you come to our sporting events, whatever they are, um, you know, the greatest compliment I get every year at the tennis is people look and say this is the
Best melting part of our community I’ve ever seen uniquely like it’s people from all geography is a judge. Religion race, politics, everything, and it’s not like Oh, these people are here, and these people are there to everyone together, enjoying something that they can all agree on. Music does that to the
Two things and so I just get very passionate about that. I also get passionate because obviously I grew up a kid who went to sporting events with my dad and my mom and my brother. We sat at RFK Stadium and Section 320 Row five seats, 19 and 20. Those were the best
Memories of my youth. And so being able to provide that for you know the mark kinds of today who are little kids matters a ton to me, and so it is if we end up making money and I, actually now I think the things we’re doing well, but it’s a
Secondary. It’s not primary motivation. So when you bought the tennis team In the Tennis League. You your counter party was Billie Jean King. She owned it. Okay So what was it like negotiating with her? And did you? Did you kind of say, Oh, that’s okay. You take that money
Or like I don’t need to negotiate hard just because it was Billie Jean King or ship. They be careful what I say She, uh No, She’s unbelievable. I mean, There are people like her like Bob Co got. I’ve had a few people in my life. Who, when you
Just spend time with them, you get these like life, gems and observations and some of my really fondest memories of the castles where y sitting with her for three hours watching a match, and it wasn’t about like, go look at someone hits a forehand like the stuff she
Would observe in the crowd or the players were just Ah, really special and she’s obviously an icon who changed the world. Um and I met her. Because a friend of mine who was a pro tennis player. Played world team tennis for the first time, and I saw him play this city open
Tournament before I own that. And this was a low key guy, and he was very animated that year, and I said what happened, he said. I played team tennis and encourage us to engage with the fans. And I love it. And the fans love it. And so now I do it
And I said, You know, just a light bulb went off. I wonder why we’ve never had a team here introduced me to Billy Jean. The league had been around 35 years she had never, she said. I’ve always wanted a team in DC I’ve never found the right person.
And we want and we did it, okay? So speaking of icons when you bought the commanders Your counter party was Dan Snyder. Who I would say. I don’t know. It was not an icon. But what? What was that, like that experience? Um this is confidential. By the way, it’s
Not like people on YouTube. Yeah. No I knew Dan. Dan and I are the exact same age he wants to either Wooten or Woodward in Montgomery County. I went to D. C. C, So we’re like Exactly the same year. Different schools and I think our relationship at a
Couple points we weren’t like we were. We actually knew each other pretty well. Ah! Sort of 1015 years ago, Kind of fell out of touch. There were a couple of points where it’s actually helpful, I think Um and you know, Look, it’s not easy. It’s unimaginable to have to sell
This if you or to want whatever ever reason you do it, That’s a tough thing to be in. And so, um , you know, I’m sure it wasn’t easy, but in the end, we figured out how to all collectively make it happen. And I think he’s happy, so it’s good to remember
David Rubenstein interview Josh Harrison. He asked a great question, which was alright It was $7 billion, wasn’t it Wasn’t okay Wallet. Many 6 billion. Okay, I’m sorry. So we wouldn’t have done it for salmon. Did you just sex was our limit. Just write a check, or did you bring
Cash or like, How do you? How do you deliver that amount of money? Well yeah, it’s it was. He has a lot of money was my it was the most expensive sports team in history. So Which really isn’t the idea to pay the most actually, not really. What you
Tried to do it. Josh is the lead owner. It’s like known for being a value investors, so I’m not sure anyone calls a value investment. But, um One of the things that made it a challenge is there’s very strict rules in the NFL about how you can bring
A group together, so the other leagues have let you bring in private equity firms and sovereign wealth funds. And other institutions are not allowed has been individual here . You’re only allowed 25 owners, you’re only allowed to borrow a billion dollars. And so subsequently I learned that like there were three groups.
Fortunately we were the only one who had a nexus to Washington, which is really important to us. Um who also had a lead owner who could do it, but they couldn’t figure out how to get the rest of the money and We pulled together a group of 20 incredible people, including
People like Magic Johnson and Eric Schmidt and Mitch Rails. Um that at first, people thought, well, it’s going to be an unruly group, and it’s going to be difficult. It’s actually been the opposite. It’s like created this ownership family. We all have Thanksgiving in Dallas together, and everyone’s trying
To pitch in and help that I think Is actually gonna be a big asset for the team. So when you bought the team, I would say there was a sigh of relief in the whole city. Assume Dwayne feels the same way as a long time. So And that lasted. For a
Woman Still Okay, so we’re still in the honeymoon. We are, um how like what are the plans like? How do you rebuild a franchise like that? Um, And how long will it take? Yeah. So, um. You know for me? This is a little bit like what I built. My what gave
Me the means to be able to be involved in this was I sort of specialized in buying really great companies that for one reason or another had weren’t reaching their potential. Usually they were owned by people owned them a long time and Like Castle, for instance, amazing guy and love him. We’re
Still super close friends, but I sort of say he got to the point where he didn’t have fear or agreed. Like the business was so stable. He didn’t worry about paying the bills, but each kind of stopped trying to make the most of it. But it was an incredible company. We came in
And have just massively grown it and I’ve done a bunch of that. And this is the way it is for a different reason. But it takes the skill sets that I’ve learned from doing that, and then I’d also say the tennis tournament which we did in 2019 when another perfect example. That
Was a really good tournament. But the fan experience was not good. You’ve been going for 20 years and you saw I went as a fan, and there was nowhere indoor air conditioning Go. It’s in August. The food was inedible. So if you like tennis, you went and then you left
Because you have to go eat. And so I said, we’re going to completely transform this and make great fan experience. And now we’ve sold out every session for three years and the things thriving and it’s great, So I think there’s a lot of analogies to this. People love this team.
It was number one in the league in revenues, ticket sales, attendance and 2008. It’s now at the bottom gone from first to affectively last Not because people stop loving football because the organization didn’t give something people wanted to be part of, and so And as you said, we feel super Lucky and
Grateful for the embrace. We’ve had people here that we think gives us tail winds and now we have to deliver. We have to make it better for fans have to make it better for players. We have to make it better for municipality. We’ve made a better for everyone, And so
We’re super hard at work and A lot of the stuff. There’s just low hanging fruit. Ever give you 11 example. But I could go on for hours about this. So one of these people don’t like about FedEx Field is it’s hard to get in and out and traffics mess right. Everyone’s nodding their
Head. So like the month before this happened, I sort of was like Okay, explain this to me, and there’s a whole bunch of reasons. Um But one of them is you know the signs when you go in, and there’s either like a green or red like it’s green.
You can go thread. Well In theory, you’re supposed to push a button at halftime and change them. So you have more people going in and out, but that like it all broke so like they didn’t work, And so they’re actually like people could go. But the signs wrong and so because the
Stuff doesn’t work, why don’t we order it? It’s a year lead time. We didn’t get approval in the budget, so that’ll get fixed. But like I’m until then, can we just literally go up at halftime and turn the things around? Or have people waved people and so that plus like working with PG
County didn’t really want to work with the team before we opened the lane, and we’ve cut traffic getting out from like 45 minutes to 30 minutes, which makes a big difference, and there’s literally endless stuff. There is that in the food there is that in the leaks, there’s that and like everything, so
We’re doing a lot. Honestly I’m I want to do more and more and more and more. We did a lot in a month before we The season started, well do a ton in the off season and hopefully I believe people will be really patient. People really want to
Love this team. There’s so many people like me who grew up in this mattered so much to them and they want to re embrace it. I and they’re super excited. And um, and so I think we’re gonna do a good job and I think it’ll get back to the top of the
League for sure. And how long do you think that like your long term investor, But is it a two year five year and eight years? There’s like what happens on the field and what happens off the field. If you went on the field, like people will deal with any amount of traffic, Horrible
Food, anything. That’ll like, take care of everything, but you can’t count on that. So we got to do both on the field. I’m actually despite the season not being great. We’re really well set up. We now have three draft picks that Woods got graphics just got better last night when
The Bears one but like we have not that were cheering for other people to the lights Get better Drop IX were not. But if so happens, we get better draft picks. Um No, but but like, but we’re really not like it’s not intentionally. We want to win every game and it kills this
One. We don’t But we now have five draft picks in the top 107, and we’ve got cap space and it’s a place people want to come. So like we feel like we’re going to be able to get better on the field and a reasonable look a couple of years, maybe sooner,
Um and then off the field, Um Off the field. Um you mean in the stadium? We’re gonna constantly improve it now. Ultimately you need a new stadium. We’ve said that everyone knows that. But we can’t wait to make it better for that. And so there’s a whole
Bunch of things we can do to make it better. In the however long it is 78 years before 678 years before we get into the stadium, ask you about creating buzz at events because actually John Simpson manners are business entertainment program and with the donor actually built the Vallourec Center Gary
Got his start being entrepreneur Kind of like you did on your soccer team. He managed concerts here and he said, I learned how to be an entrepreneur. By doing that, and he went on to make Huge amounts of money and gave money to the floor center. But Like this summer at the like,
What you’ve done at the tennis tournament is you brought great food. You’ve Elevated women’s tennis to the highest level. Equal pay as well. And then you bring these stars. They’re like this summer I went And I sat two rows away from Kevin Durant. I can’t remember who played the
Debt day, but I remember having a picture of Kevin Durant. So like, yeah. What’s your strategy with creating Buzz? Strategy is just like making it a great experience for every stakeholder . It’s like you have to make a great for fans. So you wanted to be there and you didn’t just
Come for the tennis and then have to go find a restaurant. You come with four Michelin star chefs a dozen of the best of D C went from nowhere indoor air conditional, like four different indoor places You can go and so we want to make a great for you
Investing in Maine, great for players has been to the player of quality player fields gone off massively because We’ve made their experience massively better than a doll there for the first time to there, and cocoa and Serena Venus was there and Serena almost played, but she practiced there for a week long
Out there to practice for a week because it was so good so and you want to make a great for your sponsors like they need to feel good, so they invest and that gives you more resources to invest. You want to make it great for media, like the media
Tent was horrible. Like People always are upset about meeting out writing. Good stuff. Well, if you give him an unfair conditioned place with potato chips, they’re probably not in a great mood. So we give them caviar with butlers. Now we don’t do that. But it’s like, you know, we make it a nice
Environment for them, And so it’s just making it something everyone’s come to. And then if you do that people want to come out. So Cady turns out he’s a massive commanders fan. First of all, so we were talking to him just about his love of the commanders. He had never been to
A tennis match. His agent. Rich Kleiman is a friend of mine and has gotten to know Francis, who’s there, watching? And so that’s how stuff comes together. If the better you make things, the more you Make it a great experience for all stakeholders like than magic happens like in
A world team tennis. The Obama family came four straight years they would sit there and I intentionally like left them alone. I didn’t sit with them. We just gave them a fun night out alone with their family, and they loved it. And so like some of the stuff you plan, but a lot
Of it just happens if you create a great platform for people, Maybe if Taylor Swift breaks up with Jason Kelsey, there’s a commander’s player that we Yeah, yeah, yeah, I just want I just I’m super focused on really want I really want FedEx Field loses
Out on the lot has lost out on a lot of concerts lately. We obviously didn’t get Taylor Swift and so Ah, we really want to figure out how to make sure we’re in the game for in all seriousness, like how do we get all the major towards the want
To come here while we’re still there, too? And then we get a new stadium. It’s going to be when we eventually when we do that, like the group. I’m Josh. You know, really has a vision for making this grade and Mitch rails if you’ve ever been out to
Glenn Stone and see his art museum, Obviously, Magic has the highest point. Everyone’s really committed. To making this like the best franchise there is And this summer at your tournament, Cocoa golf kind of emerged. She won her first major tournament that went on to win the US Open,
Do you? How good is she going to be as she can be as good as Martina and Serena? Or like she’s 19 years old? She’s just amazing. You know, you really never know. I remember when I first bought into world team tennis. Um Novak Djokovic had this habit of actually
Defaulting in the finals of turning like he would pull out of the finals or he’d retire. Um you know, he now says he had a gluten issue, and he changed his diet and has become the greatest player of all time. I remember Billy telling me this wasn’t
That long ago. I was like, you know, in 2009 10 that he’ll never be a great champion. Because if you let yourself quit, that means you don’t have it in you to fight through stuff like that was a fair observation, actually. But look what he ended up doing. Never
Have imagined that And so it’s a little hard to tell. She has the athleticism. She has the drive for sure she has the You know, she and Kobe. We’re good friends . She has the Mamba mentality, which is really important, but You know you just It’s hard to
Know. Okay She’s great for I mean, having a great American champions on both male and the female side is so fantastic Electric and Francis Chopper Um We have a number of students here who are athletes. Were business students or business entertainment students. So when you’re hiring young people What
Are you looking for? And this is a debate I’ve had with some of the owners that Dwayne mentioned of teams, including Marc Murphy, who went to co got and now is the CEO of Hackers. Would you rather hire someone who loves sports and needs to learn business or someone who knows
Business and learns to love sports? I think either can be, but it really comes down to, uh It really just comes down to attitude and mindset like I think about the people in our Tennis organization built. There’s so many of the people who run the departments who started as interns. We have a
Lot of interns, but there’s certain that every year you’re like, Wow, that person is just great. They solve every problem. They run through walls. They communicate. They collaborate. They have the most unbelievable minds that land one thing about all sports and everyone I’ve been in. It’s like it’s hard
Events are hard there long, grueling hours. There’s a lot of rewarding psychic reward, but it’s hard so you really need to have a positive mindset and a good attitude. But you can identify them. And when I look back at them, I don’t know the people loved at most of them
Didn’t even know about tennis. Um They just They just love like being in the event business, making people happy. They love interacting, seeing how happy it makes our fans that gives them motive of Asian to just always figure out how to get better and do a great job and to me, that’s
The most important thing. Um I’m going to open up for questions. But here’s my last question for you, which is There’s a lot of students here. What advice would you give them? In terms of lessons. You’ve learned your successes and your failures because every good investor has
A lot of duds. But what what advice would you give them at this stage of their life? That um Maybe they’ll remember 10 or 15 or 20 years from now. Yes So I think for me, um As I look back on my journey, there’s a couple of things one is this
Continuous improvement mindset that I talked about. And if you read about every great company looked at the MIT trails, and he built Danaher in the most valuable company in Washington, and his brother effectively started it or bought at $60 million in the mid eighties Now worth $200 billion. And at the
Core of their business philosophy is continuous improvement. You watch videos of All the great athletes. It’s continuous improvement. And it is the thing that just every day if you’re always getting better, you’re creates separation from the people who aren’t so always just maniacally always get better and just always try to
Improve, So I think that’s one. Persistence and resilience are another is just I look back on my journey, and I’m thinking about how many times I could have gotten derailed. How close how bad A failure could have been the end of my positive journey and could have been to
Aside or a down and you just put you keep pushing through and I’d say resilience of something. I think a lot from my mom and her family is just like, you know, the I think resilience is most amazing Human trait is just something embedded in all of us as people overcome the most
Unimaginable Horrors and thank God I’ve never anything in the realm of what her family went through. But like, just don’t let things get you down and push through and get better. And then the last thing is just a north star like I had a vision of my life. I can tell you exactly
This, but directionally like when I came back here after business school and worked at Carlisle when it was small, My vision was like I want to come to my hometown. I wanted to build a career start a family. And I wanted to be involved in civic life, and I actually
Thought I want to be involved in sports life and I want to be involved in Cultural life, and I want to be involved in philanthropic. That was actually my vision. That what specifically that meant? I don’t know. So, like I had this North star, and then you go on your
Journey and someone’s like, Well, you can make a lot of money moving somewhere and doing this. And you go. That’s really tempting, but I didn’t and then you you know, And then you have people pulling you in other ways, But like I had this thing I wanted to get to and it goes
Like this. Not like this. But you just keep that in mind, and then when you have the failures You don’t let it stop. You just keep going and going and going and then you know if you have a bunch of good luck and keep working hard Hopefully, Richard All right, great advice.
Resilience, continuous improvement. Be ready for failures. Okay, so let’s have some questions. Uh back here, maybe introduce yourself and what year you are. Hello. Hi My name is Joel. I’m a second year MBA student. Um also grew up in the area. I went to Churchill. So long time commanders fan, Um,
Although there are always going to be the football team to me. Yeah anyway, So my question is. I know we’ve talked about them getting a new stadium. So outside of I guess the team you know what’s off the field? What do you think The biggest factors are for improving the fan
Experience when choosing a new location? So again, there’s a lot we can do in our current when we need to do our current stadium. Um And it really is the basics. It’s how you get it out, but a lot of it’s around food, infrastructure seating one things we’ve been doing. Um is
Every time we go to an away game we go do tours of the best stadium, So it’s amazing. I was just in Dallas. On Thanksgiving that place Jerry’s world is extraordinary. We want to Atlanta. That was amazing. We haven’t played in Vegas, but I happen to have been there to go
To the sphere and toward their stadium. It’s amazing, and there’s a lot of things done in new stadiums that we can do a version of now. So like we’ll do that, and then ultimately when we decide where to go There’s a lot of factors some of it is
Just how convenient it you want to make it as convenient as possible to as much as your fan dates I’d say in terms of where you go. That’s a big thing. But then there’s a lot of other factors. You know, there’s a vision of stadiums where it’s a catalyst to build a community
Around it, and it’s not an isolated destination with parking lots. We would rather not do that, rather have it. Part of something bigger and so Right now. We’re just assessing everything and again. Really When we build this, we want it to be You know, one of the great stadiums in the world. Yes.
Second year NBA on one second, just grab like yes. Um I’m curious about private equity and sports. In the past four years, there’s been an explosion, obviously, with private equity firms purchasing shares in F one other teams, even KD getting involved with the Philadelphia Union. Yeah I’m curious. How do
You see private equity and sports? Uh continuing in the next few years, and are there new opportunities that you’re looking at? That haven’t really been touched. Yeah. So It is interesting, I will say Actually , when you sent me that question I am When I was graduating business school. I actually
Thought about going into sports because I thought this is actually no one really thought about it as a business that was 1992 like they really didn’t. It was. We’re not thought of, but it was pretty clear that ultimately if you were looking for something that was sort of under managed under focused on
By people coming out of business school. That that would change over time. It turns out, you know, for a lot of reasons. It wasn’t the right thing to do then. But obviously the change has been incredible, and institutional investment is a part of that, Um And, Yeah, I
Think it is going to continue because the headline Growth Trends in sports are really good , Like, if you just look at it again, Sports is the thing that brings people together. Physically it’s the audience that brings people you know, online on broadcast. It’s just it’s endlessly growing. Um, And
So he could P. Investors want to follow good trends. And there’s good trends. You know, there are challenges like F one is a little different, because it’s a business, not a team. You know, one of the things that makes teams a little bit of a challenge is it’s hard to like
Peas, all based on what’s your exit? And so I also had this idea before dial and Arc toast These firms that are investing. I thought about this again, So I saw like these teams that have limited partners and I knew some of the people and People put
What was a lot of money for them in and then all of a sudden became worth a ton. But it was massively liquid and I was like, how do you There’s gotta be a way to tap into it. The hard part is how do you deal with an
Exit? And I know it dial marked, Oh, sort of thinking. We’ll see if that works out, but it’s like that’s the one challenges P returns are usually based upon selling, and if you’re a limited partner in the commanders You should not plan on ever selling it, so I don’t you know, you’ve
Got to solve for that. And so I think in teams, that’s a bit that’s a bit of an issue and again, the ones that have done it have a An idea in their head how they’re going to manage that, and hopefully that works out. Um so I think the trend
Will continue. And yeah, I get I get I get asked a lot to look at a lot of stuff. And um, I honestly right now I’m really trying to focus on the two big ones, the tennis tournament and the commanders, but I’m definitely looking more in the
Future. We have We have a good basketball program and need some. N I l support, so that’s another one. Right Questions. Yes, um, over here. I don’t know if we have Jill. I don’t know who’s doing the online questions, but You are. Do we have any online Mike or what?
Okay. Hi I’m Meg. I’m from the law school Professor Dario question revolves around going public. The Atlanta Braves recently went public and I just don’t know if there’s a trend in sports with other sports teams going public, or if you think you’re going to go public anytime soon, which was the one
That went public. Atlanta Braves Atlanta Braves? Yeah it kind of went public public public. Yeah. It would be great. And I know there are people who are thinking about it. Okay, I’ll tell you when I went to Carlisle out of business school pretty early on. Dave’s like, I’m gonna
Go public and people laughed at him and I went to banker meetings with David in New York to Morgan Stanley’s and public and people like No one wants to private equity firms are not public. Uh cos they’re not. They’re They’re like law firms. They shouldn’t be public And lo
And behold, David, you know they found a way Apollo KK are of TPG found a way to structure their businesses. So I’d say, and I know the teams that are thinking about possibly tapping in the public markets. At some point, they’re they’re not just there actually trying to build their
Businesses in a way that will appeal. To public market investors, and there’s one in particular I’m thinking about. Um but I would say the NFL. I don’t think we’ll a lot like I don’t think they’re gonna let new teams do that for a lot of reasons In the foreseeable
Future. We’ll see. I’m not sure in the end that teams themselves are great public. Companies for a variety of reasons, But I do think That people will look at it when the moment arises. Um But I couldn’t see any like an explosion of Public of sports companies going public. Um Mike,
You have an online question. So this was a question posed by an AU staff member. From an investor’s perspective, is it more important to invest in the consumer experience? Or is it more important to invest in the players and the on field experience and those components? Um, and which one has a greater
Return on investment? Uh, well, They’re both super important because what you want to do in honestly, everything in life and every business, but it’s really a cute and sports as you want to get on the virtuous cycle where positive things are feeding off each other so The simple answer
Is well fan experiences because you charge more for tickets and more for merch. And more of like you can see the R O I squeaker and more clearly there, but Um If you have a winning team, everything gets better faster. But the way you get a winning team is having a winning culture
, winning mindset and winning atmosphere. A lot of that is how people feel in their physical facilities, whether it’s the locker room at the stadium or the training the place they go the quality of the coaches, trainers and all that stuff. And so like. It’s a less tangible
Roo I, but it’s actually equally important because if you create the right environment to attract the right players, and you’re going to get a winning team, that’s your greatest catalysts to success on the business side, and I would say that, you know the tennis tournament. It’s a little different. It’s not a
Team. But one of the reasons we’ve gotten all these great players coming. As opposed to what it was was like Our player area is unbelievable. It used to be used to be so bad. It was so bad before. Uh it was it was indescribably bad. And so you know, we built this beautiful
Tent, this beautiful indoor gym, this beautiful outdoor gym and then it’s just It’s funny. We hired tension detail. We hired this fantastic guy to be our tournament director and he’s Swiss. And as we were going through it, he said, You know the one thing that Europeans players can’t understand is why
In America everyone uses to split paper plates and utensils like everyone serves it on proper China and proper silverware. They’re like that would really matter. It’s like, come on. It’s really, really and by the way, it’s like, actually environmentally, probably even better, because you’re not throwing stuff away. So I asked
Our caterer and they said, no, we could actually do that. That’s fine. And so like we did that and all these European players who are a big part of the best tennis players like notice that we’re serving them. The only tournament America that’s on proper China and proper silverware. And they tell
Their friends that like these guys actually get it, and it’s a great place to come play. It’s funny because Coach Simpkins wants his players to use China for you should try. It worked for us question back here. I’m Marco. I’m a junior. So in your opinion, what separates like the
Oakland A’s owner who kind of you know, fans bring signs into the stadium lampooning him from someone like Steve Bomber That’s more widely beloved among the fans. Yeah well, the Oakland A’s owner is having issues because you want moving the team forever to Vegas. So like That’s the
Thing. Um you know, being a sports owner is It’s a very public thing, so people gravitate to people. I think who they believe. Look out for the fans. Best interest they want to build great fan experiences. They want to win, and I believe they also like tap into authenticity. You know, they tap
Into people who aren’t just there when things are good, but they are there out there and accountable when things aren’t good as well. I think that’s really important. And so when you look at the owners, the mark Cuban’s of the world and the others who people like a lot of
It is just about like They’re authentic. They’re the real Selves in good times. Bad times. People look at them and say they really want to build a great Team for me, and even if they have a bad year, they never doubt that the owner really wants the best for them. And so
I think that’s that’s really what separates the good ones from the bed from the ones who will not as well liked. Last question right up here. Yeah. Alright This is Ahmed, First year master’s and finance student. So you mentioned about your North star and you worked in Carlisle. Now you’re on a
Team. I mean, you basically reached most of our goals here in life, so I wanted to see what’s next for you. Because as an entrepreneur, he never stop. Thank you for that, Um Um. For me, my big thing that I that I’ve learned and that where I am
Is I want to actually try to do less. Spend more time on fewer things. And just make them incredible. And I so now have these things that If we work really hard will be massively impactful for a really long time, so I’m actually what I’m trying to learn to do is say no
To more things get rid of things even that I’m doing that matter less for whatever reason in the right way at the right time and be able to focus more on the things I’m super passionate about that are big platforms that can do great things. That’s
Kind of where I am now. When we get through that, then it would be like maybe, you know, you just don’t know Like what? What? It’s November like 13 months ago . It was inconceivable that we would have been where we are on the commanders. And a camp. Ah!
The tennis tournament was really my dream because I was a ball kid, and I knew how much better it could be. And I tried for a long time to see if they would be interested in doing something they wouldn’t And then one day it came. And so it’s I don’t
Know what it is, but I want to be. I want to be in a position where I have the time and bandwidth. To be able to do whatever it is when it comes along, or if I see it, and I go after it that I have that ability. I’ll tell you, um You
Mentioned Castle Systems, and this is a great lesson for me for people who want to be investors. Um I was looking after security companies. Security company? Yes So we’re like the biggest provider of building security in America. We do like electronic. We don’t do guards. But we do access control
And cameras and all that an incredible business. Um it’s kind of synonymous with the people call their security card there Castle card, Even if it’s not ours, it’s like Coke or uber. One of those things, and so I was looking for a platform company at that point. And I had
Been looking for about two years and I came close to a few things and applied for me, Cos I could put a ton of time and a ton of money I could own all or almost all of that I could compound and grow for like a really, really
Long time. And so that was what I wanted to do. At that moment I was looking. I got introduced. Through a mutual friend who I ran into on a plane to the two guys who worked for the founder of Castle and he’s in the he said. Would you take a medium
Like Of course, that sounds like the perfect platform company and so I went to have breakfast with them. And they told me about the business and they shared a bunch of information. And they and I left, and I was like, this is the opportunity of a lifetime. I
Just like I just found the opportunity of a lifetime. They said. We don’t know if he’s going to sell, but he might. And so I went back to my office and I did something I had never done before, and I’ve never done since although I wish I had done
Since I told my assistant Come in my office bring my calendar. Bring two copies. One for you May and let’s talk about the issue comes in. I said, Cancel everything for the next month, But you literally went from the breakfast to my office. I said, Cancel everything for the next
Month. She’s like, What are you talking about? With your calendar? Look at all these things. I said, I don’t care. I’m dropping everything until I see if I can get this done, and I dropped everything in my life, and I worked 18 hours a day, seven days a week. And ended up
Like doing everything to prepare for him remained my meeting with the entrepreneur doing everything raising money and we ended up getting it done, and it will be the biggest financial thing I’ve ever done and the company’s great I’m super proud of it changed a lot of lives
With the people there. But if I wasn’t in a position, which a lot of times I haven’t been where I could drop everything I wasn’t the mindset to do it right. Didn’t take that meeting. None of that would have happened right And so and that was a little bit the same with the
Commanders when that happened, and so, like all the great things you need to have focused, you need to have the bandwidth to be able to be focused. And so that’s where I am is trying to always be in a position where I can spend my time on the things
I love to have impact. And then if something comes along or I see something I want to do. I have the time and Ben with to go do that. Well mark on you said you’re saying no to a lot of things. We’re happy. You said yes to come into the coconut
School. Thank you to our co sponsors, the Vallourec center business Entertainment. Jeremy, do are you and the Sports and society. The Department of Athletics and thank you mark for sharing your wisdom with us and thank you very much.