Jerry Jones and Roger Penske Talks IndyCar Race Plans

Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. So a very special day here in Arlington, Texas. Two guys we have come to know pretty well for their achievements in sports. Jerry Jones, Roger Penske, thank you so much for being with us to talk about a massive project you guys are doing together, you know.

Talking about this massive project. How long have the two of you known each other?

Well, I think we go back twenty five years. I think the first time that we met, and I think I mentioned it before I had to give a proposal.

To the owners and Jerry was in the front row.

I remember to try to get the Super Bowl to come to Detroit.

So we're back here again for another iconic moment.

Well, it took Roger and a great Detroit group to get that super Bowl because there was a mentality of manha your super Bowl with a Sunday shouting on January we can play golf. And here comes Roger Penske leading the charge through the door, saying where this super Bowl needs to be is where it can be cold, but the feelings will be warm.

We'll warm it up for you up there.

And he was unquestionably the figurehead or the face that was persuasive to the NFL owners for us to go that way.

Now, the Fords are so.

Beloved and leading the pack for the Fords would be me.

I truthfully will tell.

You that when I got involved in the NFL, one of the motivating things was the fact that the Fords.

Had the Detroit Lines.

A part of America, part of the automobile business was a part of the NFL through the Ford. So I was excited about being there and I was very all ears open minded when Roger was tiding the Detroit application, Well.

You made a difference, I can tell you today that was really I think the pivot for the city of Detroit to Orions today was at Super Bowl in two thousand and six.

And so obviously you stayed in touch over the years. So how did this combination of such strong people and so many teams actually happen?

Well, I'd say that it really my son Greg.

We bought the speedway and off always a series in two thousand and we were looking at at major locations that we could bring our series to and there was no question, you know that Arlington and Dallas just stuck out. We need to contact there, So through relationships we had with Jerry's team, and certainly that manifested over a number of years. It didn't happen overnight, because this is a

All right, So Jerry talk.

To us about the scope and scale of this.

I mean this, They're going to be race cars going around these streets in just a few years. What is this compared to in terms of what you've done already here in Texas?

Well, The.

Image, if you will, from looking at five and ten thousand feet is that this is a happening that's going going on really in not only the Dallas area but for the world to see. But the Dallas area is having the event, and that.

Is the key. We're used to appealing to thirty million people.

And of course our good friends at Fox are going to be so involved with us and how to present this race.

I know that for instance, when.

We had the Super Bowl here, we were just enjoying our second year and mister Murdoch called and he said, we're going to make the stadium the star of the ship. Well, how do you do that when people are looking in to see the ball game the Super Bowl? Well they were able to do that, And for instance, my ex coach Jimmy Johnson and I walked around the stadium and talked about old times and talk about some of the nuances of the stadium.

Well, what will.

Happen here is will not only have millions of people that are looking at this race, but we'll share the nuances of what this race is about. And it will be certainly those cars going two hundred and something miles an hour around all these streets and around all these great sporting venues, but it will also be about as far as the millions of eyes that are looking at this thing, It'll be about It'll be about Roger Penske, it'll be about cowboys, it'll be about tradition, it'll be

When you look at this area here, so much has developed around.

At and T Stadium. What is the vision now?

I mean you're adding this, is this the end or are you planning to do more in this area?

Well, this race, I'll start at Roger.

This race is a part of the building, if you will, of this area personally, the way that I look at sports and the interest in sport and what sports brings to our society.

What sports brings to commerce.

Roger is such an innovator in the world, and he took racing and he made it.

A part of a lot of things. Fox will tell you that.

I'll tell you that I've taken a lot of what I've done off watching what Roger Penske does in racing relative to selling the sport or selling sports in general.

That's what this is about. And there's nothing like it.

Sports that moves the needle where and it can go against all kinds of products, services, disciplines. Sports is a unique speaks to emotion.

I think when you look at an anchor tenant, an anchor event, and what Jerry's done here to take the stadium and build it to just look outside here and you can see it, and I think word I use every day's utilization. What the City of Arlington's doing is taking Jerry and the other teams that are here and utilizing you know, their capital. You know there are people and their vision to make this much greater. And I think we're just going to be a part of that.

And so what are we going to see here, Roger in terms of like how many people?

What's the sort of the economic element to this?

Because you put on races all over the world about seventeen I believe in twenty twenty five for the Indy Car Series. What does it look like number of people that those.

Sorts of things.

Well, I think what we have to do is look at other cities where we do business.

We were in Saint Pete, We're in Long Beach, We're in Detroit by the way, and I think that we typically on a weekend like this will have between one and one hundred and fifty thousand people for the weekend. Yeah, we're gonna have twenty seven cars, We'll have great teams here. The competition has never been greater, and I think to bring this here obviously Fox is our new partner, which is going to be terrific.

Eric Shanks that we're gonna make this series where we want to go.

So I see fast cars, I see a lot of people, a lot of interest here. I think we'll see diversity from this fan base as we come here, and to me, we're gonna make a big difference seeing something different. But guess what, we're in one of the greatest stadiums in the world coming.

Here with Jerry Roger.

There's all types of different car racing, as you know, But what is the next big thing in IndyCar?

What do you think the next big thing is?

Well, I think that what we've done this year is we've taken hybrid. As you know, in the automobile business today, hybrid is a bridging strategy and we're now taking that into our Indy cars. We'll take that to the next level as we get into twenty six and twenty seven beyond, and I.

Think we're going to see more dynamics.

We're going to see the hybrid technology for a power train and obviously the number one thing we're doing with a new car is safety.

So Roger picking up on that racing is having a moment.

You know, next weekend, a lot of people, hundreds of thousands people are going to be down the road in Austin at the circuit of the Americas for Formula One. How do you punt intended draft off of some of what's going on in the broader motorsports world to grow your business.

Well, I think what I've said to our team is we got to focus on our business.

I do that every day Monday through Saturday or Sunday.

And I think we look at open reel racing we have here in the United States. It's the highest technology, it's the fastest cars.

And I think we want to continue that.

And then it's a diverse Remember we run on street courses like here in Arlington, we run it into Applis where they qualify at two hundred and forty four miles an hour. We're running at permanent road courses. So ours is diverse and we're going to keep that. It really is our total and that's going to be our monitor. Is going to be diversity from the standpoint of the types of racing that we do here in the United States.

You know, Jerry, You've gotten into a lot of businesses, but why.

Did you pick this one?

Well, first of all, I love sports. Sports is very unique in terms of the word business. It's bottom line, but it's really not bottom line like you would have with the grocery business or the automobile business.

There's more to it. Sports is about tradition.

All you have to do is go up here to that Saint elmos Tekasse and in Annapolis and be around where that where the big graces have been overheld of shamp cocktail.

For that.

It's about tradition.

It is about entertainment, and therein lies the innovatedness of a man like Roger Pensky or if you will, what we can do in the NFL to make it entertaining.

But here's the deal.

Real sports is about really putting it on the line. It didn't make believe. It isn't staging, it isn't produced. Real sports is real competition. Now, these guys behind the wheels, they're putting it on the line.

That's not funny.

They are competing, and they're competing with everything in my sport. In football, those guys have to call on themselves to give it up. That's not natural to get out there and get in front of three hundred.

God tells you to get out in front of three hundred, not in front of me.

So when you have sports, it actually calls on people, then it transcends other phases of life because out here in real life we're having to get called on and this didn't make believe out here in real life. So sports identifies with that. Then if you put it on, then you put it on in a great, great event like we're talking about this racing, but yet with Fox we're getting to go out in front of millions of people. The combination of those things is why I'm sitting in this chair.

And so Roger.

You know, Jerry brings up a lot of good points about sort of the storytelling and the personalities no shortage of personalities around the Dallas Cowboys, and including the man who's sitting right here in front of us.

How do you do that in your sport?

You know, Michael Andretti steps back, you know from what he's doing. Who's going to carry the torch forward and ensure that Indy car and your racing empires.

It was just stays in the center of the conversation.

I'd have to say that you hit it right in the middle of the bull's eye. We've got to build stars. Jerry's got to build stars, and so do we, And I think that builds our brand. I would say for us, racing has been a common thread through our company for fifty years because it shows TeamWorks, effort, show's integrity. And I think from my perspective is we build a sport, we've got to give the fan. My son calls them guests to come to your stadium, come to your track and experience.

They want to tell their neighbor.

It's all about telling people I had a great time and I want to come back. But then when you can put that across a stadium like we have here in Arlington, it's a double hit for us. And I think our goal is to build the new gardens, you know, bild Alex Pelows. We've got some great young guys coming up through the through the series. It's like any sport, the big guys retire. There's enough jobs for all of them to be announcers at this point, so your jobs

People know we're going to.

Be at Indianapolis in May, We're going to be in March at twenty six, We're going to be in Arlington.

Those are things that.

We have to do to draw on this network of people and fans that we have around the world.

And so Jerry, NFL sort of racing never short on the headlines.

I think that's a fair as.

A largely owing to you. You're you're good at making some headlines. We're sitting here with Bloomberg. The biggest headline right now is new money coming into the NFL. You guys approve private equity coming in. What does that mean for you? What does that mean for you as an owner and you as the Cowboys.

When I got into sports, when I got not playing, but when I got into sports as it retained business, I know football didn't work. The Cowboys were losing one million dollars a month cash flow. When I bought the Dallas Cowboys, there was there was a great model of publicity, huge coverage in media, But that's not marketing. Marketing is when you use the pub and you use the interest to have enough left over to come back and get to go again.

Well, sports is it? To Pro football was almost a charity.

It had to be really wealthy to be involved.

I was not that wealthy to be involved.

So you had to have a model that somehow brought the juice back. No school, no family, no city, nobody can be for what they have potential to be.

If they're broke, you have to have.

Some financial substance to really show out and be everything you can be for entertainment. Consequently, the business model for me has always been a major interest for us. And consequently, sitting here with Roger Penske, this is running with the ball off tackle.

This has helping football to be sitting here with Roger.

This has helping racing to be sitting here and a part of the NFL and doing the races around these type of venues.

It's cross promotion, but it's all real. It's very real. It's sports. I had a guy at one time, tell as Dan Burke.

He was chairman of cap Cities, and he said, Jerry, you're at the right time of year. You're in the fall. It's wanted like to have the people in front of the TV screen to make decisions.

He said.

Secondly, you got the right breaks, unintrusive break so that we can say some messages. Put all that on the side. What it is you're a soap opera three hundred and fifty days a year. You've got them, You've got them talking about them because You've got so many guys, so many people out here creating stories three hundred and sixty five days a year. He said, when we make a movie at ABC, when we make a movie, we have spent as much to promote it as we do to

Ought to have a.

Little controversy with it. So with that in mind, right off the bat, it influenced me. When it gets slow around the Cowboys, I stir the butt.

I think we have the recidi. We all have the receipts through that.

So given that you have built inarguably the world's most valuable sports franchise, now with institutional money coming in, how does that affect you.

Do you think about selling mistake or is that for the other.

Folks in the league to do well.

My complete thought is the viability of the game, viability of sport, And anytime you have attractive place to attract capital, then that gives you a sense of the strength or the viability of the sport.

So when I look ahead from now, as I.

Look into the future, that being able to take and sell parts of these teams, the demand being there to invest for parts of the team going forward, because I think there's huge growth left. When I look at that, I see a plus for a running off tackle and throwing touchdown passes for the game.

Except I've got.

To imagine your phone's blowing out with people that are interested.

Well, I'll say that I never thought that.

My family's involved and have been involved from the very beginning. It's the very best part of having been with the Dallas Cowboys all these years is to have my entire family. As a matter of fact, the things that I usually get credit for were not only their ideas that my children executed them for us, including my wife, who was very involved with what we're doing.

So the involvement, you know, I test.

I'm here to say that I thought I'd done a little something when I bought the team. I knew I had a rough road ahead because it financially didn't work. I had no idea that being a part of my passion, something that passionate that I was about, that that would cause me to try things that works, let's try it again and keep trying. And it caused me because I was in my passion to do something, I never thought I could ever attain or even try to do.

So we're sitting here right by at and T Stadium, You're going to see cars going on. When both of you think about this and what it's going to mean to Dallas into racing, you know what goes through both of your minds.

Well, I think one thing that we can't miss here the stature of the sport, whether it's the NFL, it's the IndyCar, is the brand. And think about the sponsors because of what we've done in an IndyCar and what Jerry's done with the team in the NFL.

That's the bedrock here. We talk about people that want to invest.

They see the value here and that's one of the most important things we can do is maintain the credibility for our guests and our fans that they come to these events because that capital outside maybe not the capital inside, that capital is spending money every weekend on television and other areas.

Is critical to keep this value up.

So we own that have to be sure that we provide the highest level of an experience for people. So I look at it execution on race day, execution on game day, but also be sure that we give our sponsors what they need so they can continue to invest.

Certainly, it's key to the television networks too.

I'd add this to it.

As these cars are competing, and at that level of competition, they're going to drive by.

The new, brand new, brand new.

National Museum of the Medal of Honor for our great American heroes. It's being built not a mile from where we're sitting here having this interview.

The point I'm trying to make is.

Is that sport is a part of what's happening in America, and in.

That case of the Medal of Honored recipients.

How we got here and how we maintain being a part of America is the bravery and the heroes that fought for us in the wars. Those with what you do when it's real competition, not made up competition, when it's really on the line, And that's the attraction now to come along and fix it. For stadiums, for suites, for the great ways.

That we present them.

You know, before the Cowboys, I would take people hunting, and I would take them hunting because I wanted them to be sweet to me. I wanted them to help me in my business. Well to me, sports was just a natural way to take advantage of showing someone what you care of.

How about going.

Out to the Great Race in Annapolis five hundred, Those are the places for sports.

So Roger, you know, we talked a little bit about the investment coming into the NFL. What is the investment case for Indy Car for the rest of racing right now? Where's the new money coming from? What are you hearing? We know people are knocking on Jerry's door and his fellow owners. How's it going for you in terms of drawing new investment and where do you see that coming?

Well, I think I think you've seen a lot of this capital go into Formula One owning teams. We've seen this from a charter. We put charters in here in the last couple of months in INDYCARSOS NASCAR, So we're seeing people that want to invest in a charter and build a team. So to me, it's again it's the experience and we're using it as a tool to drive our marketing and our companies, and that's how we sell sponsorship.

Sports and the emotion, the emotion around winning.

You just can't you can't buy it, you know, Roger, you talk about my experience on winning.

Only about two percent of the time.

In my mind, do you have feeling around sports? Sports is work to participate.

Just think about it. As a player, it's go to work time. That's nothing.

Now again I mentioned natural, it's go to work. It's a lot of being dissatisfied.

I was not happy in college.

I wasn't happy because I thought I was going to be the greatest running back that's ever hit college football.

And being a.

Lousy guard and blocking for the running backs that go consequently.

I was always wanting more.

But when I was through, I looked back on it and all those days that I got it shoved in the dirt, all those days that I had disappointment, all those days I had one or two for it moments at that particular time, and I know that inspired me to get to sit here today in this chairby Roger Pinsky and be a part of sport.

When you talk about being part of sports and all changes that you've seen.

I mean, our evaluation is going to go through the roof.

Have they hit the ceiling and both in your sports, I would say it's going to continue to grow. But it's interesting that that people own these teams like Jerry does, and is it a family ownership or is it going to be a capital ownership where you can raise more capital to grow. I think you'll look at that as an opportunity if there's another expansion opportunity. But I think in Indy Car right now, lots of interest.

We're growing at a rate. We feel good about it.

Our TV ratings were up, obviously, the tracks have made more money this past year. So we're looking at the basics We're not an NFL. We're not trying to be We're not trying to be Formula one. We think we've got the most sophisticated cars. We have this diversity from a standpoint of the tracks that we run on, and we need to stay in our lane because this.

World is big.

There's a lot of people like racing, and I think we need to be sure that we're promoting our sport every day. And to be able to partner with someone like Jerry Jones and the teams down here, it's just amazing.

It just accelerates us as we go forward for the quality of what we're trying to produce.

And so Jerry, for you on the valuation question, do values get higher faster now with all this new money coming in?

Do you think?

Well?

I think it's again.

Capital is important, but it's only one of the ingredients from the standpoint of values as far as that's concerned. But the big thing that I look at is that we are all in different situations. I completely understand. I'm from the natural gas business originally, and I coveted getting to be a part I went to the five hundred up there in Annapolis. I went to those sporting events, all the great fights. I just couldn't stay away from sports.

And it's real and pretty good business too.

Well, it can be. It really can be, and should be if you want to go again. I've been criticized for people with think, well, I had a little money when I bought the Cowboys relative to what it took to buy them. I didn't have any money, but I had a little bit of money. And I could have kept that money. But the hell with the money. I spent it all to take a big chance to be

Roger, what's next for you?

Just as we as we wrap up here, what's the thing you're mostly important in the business of your sport?

Well, I think it's about growth.

I think we need to look at there's some international opportunity for us that we might look at going forward. I think today it is the innovation of the new car, this bridging strategy with hybrid which we see on the highway today where the beds are not selling.

Its key.

We hit the sweet spot there.

So we'll continue to invest there and again look for opportunity like we have here with Jerry and the team here in Arlington. In Dallas is amazing. So for me personally, that's where we're focused on. We don't want to have one hundred races. We want to have the best races and bring something to the community. Because when we come to the community, we do more than just race. We reach out to people that need help. That's one of the things that I want to be sure we give back going forward,