We did it, you did, miss Neil Young old man?
Oh no, no, really, you know what, Porter, Let's let's fire that back up, because I know that would put him in the right frame of mind. I was debating which songs to play for you today, and I landed on Neil Young, which I figured you'd appreciate.
Hi, Dad, what is hi son?
But what is the right frame of mind to go on your son's radio show?
Exactly?
What's an excellent question. You should do this for a living. That's a good question. I mean, just put you in a good mood because you are a Neil Young fan.
I am. I love that song too, great song. How you doing, I'm doing great.
I just came last night from three days in Nashville at the World Congress of Sport, and it was just amazing to see so many people haven't seen in a long time, owners and presidents and people that have the commissioners that have been around sport and and and I was, I was. I was privileged enough to be to be given an honor there. I was honored as a I think they call it these sports champions, pioneers and innovators. Pioneers and innovators, and you.
Were rightly honored for that.
Okay, it was it was a it was a just reward that you've earn't it was a great, great honor.
Well, thank you for that. I it was. It was very nicely done. I have a beautiful statue at to go in my to go in my study. And then, as you know, your youngest sibling was also given a chance there by her her agents C A. A. Was doing, was sponsoring the whole thing, so they arranged for her
to speak after Adam Silver spoke. I mean, here's Lily check Its Shimbashi going up on the stage to talk about her business and about especially about engaging women as fans of your team and what a positive thing that is. And then they asked me to introduce her. So the whole thing was was fun. It was really fun.
Tremendously impressed with Lil's former friend of the program. When she first started sports at sports Ish, we had her on almost on a weekly basis, right, so.
Does she even want to anymore?
Now she's too big for us, she doesn't even return our calls. But really really proud of her and what she's built.
And you know what's funny.
I've had multiple people over the past few months somehow find out that were related Lily and I because her last yard, her married name is Shimbashi, and you know, so if you just see Lily Shimbashi, and I've had direct messages from women that I went to school with, like, wait, Lily is your sister. We love what she's doing. So people haven't even really made the connection. And it's it's got to make you a proud dad to see what she's built because she's worked real hard at it.
It does, and I'm not sure sure it's for better for worse. But her agents represented and they basically were sold on the fact that she had to start going by Lily check at Shimbashi. And I said to her husband, I said, look, this was not me. I did not say this needed to be a hyphenated name or anything else. But I have noticed that that's what Sports Business journal calls her now and to the extent if it helps her at all in this industry of ours, I'm all for it.
Yeah, no, for sure, and I'm so proud of her. You know, watching those videos of her on stage just owned it. You know, she stepped up and did a really good job. So exciting news broke last week, and you've been working on this for a while now with the Eccles family, who of course sports business royalty in our state, and often say Spence Ecles does not receive
the credit he deserves for a myriad of things. I mean, his name is on building, his name is on a bunch of buildings at the U. But take us through this process, your new partnership with the Eccles family and what should the community know about what's coming up next?
Okay, So it was twenty twenty one when your mom and I returned from England after three years serving as mission leaders there, and it was just one of the great experiences of my life. Seven hundred volunteers, fifty four countries.
COVID language. You were COVID mission presidents.
Yes, so we had twenty months without COVID and sixteen months with. But I came home just exhausted because I there wasn't a single week that it wasn't like working ninety hour weeks. Just that's what's necessary to do that job. And so I'm glad that they they're calling younger and younger guys and women to do that. But anyway, when I came home, I knew a couple of things. One, I wanted to work with my sons. Two, I wanted to work with my daughters. I wanted to I didn't
want to jump into the industry right away. It's now been three and a half years since we've been home, and earlier this year I started to think that I'd like the last chapter of my career the last ten years, because I think I'll work another ten years, but I'd like the last ten years to be in a situation where I have a significant sports fund and can invest it in the many opportunities that I just uncover literally
weekly that are good places to invest our industry. Even during COVID, when the rest of the world was in financial crisis, sports continued to grow seven percent a year during COVID. During COVID, when the financial crisis of COVID and everything that stopped, but sports continued to grow. And so this is an industry I've been in for a
long time. And so it became about identifying who would I like to do this with, because I felt like the firm that I founded in New York has a lot of really good people, but it's lacking the kind of investment expertise that it would take to both raise a large fund and to invest a large fund. And I was out here actually in Deer Valley, and it was a conference put on by a private equity fund, and you came up and interviewed me. When we talked about sports and collegiate sports and where to invest.
In sports, Rick new heisl on the panels. That was fun.
And then the next night Mitt Romney came up and spoke, and I've you know, I've known myt since my days in Boston and Vane a million years ago, but I've never seen him so relaxed as he was that night.
He came up and spoke.
He you know, he has a lot of concerns about our country, but we'll leave that alone. We could go for hours on that because I'm right with him on his views. But anyway, at the end of it, a lot of people ask him questions, and one question.
Was where will you invest? Now?
What are you going to do? He said he was moving to Florida. He wanted Anne to ride horses. I'm not going to share anything that I don't think he would want shared. But he when he talked about how he was going to invest, he said, I'm no longer looking at internal rates of return. I'm not looking for track records. I'm looking for people that I trust. I
want to do things with people that I trust. And you have to understand, when I came to saw Lake in nineteen eighty three to try to save the Utah Jazz and turn it around, my one friend in town consistently was the president Heir Security Bank and the chairman, Spencer Ecles, who's now ninety years old. He's still skis.
I see him up at the Ute Games. I see him at the Jazz Games, and every time I see him, we go back to the old days and we talk about, hey, Spence, if you hadn't done that eight million dollar loan when no one else would help us, and we weren't making payroll, and we were losing a fortune, and we were drawing six thousand people a night, and no one told me, not even David Sterned, that this club was on the
verge of bankruptcy. But it was Spencer Ecles who understood that if Salt Lake lost the Jazz, we would we would go a long time before we ever got another NBA team. And I think he pushed his board into making a loan that no elsewood because Larry Miller was the borrower. Larry Miller owned exactly two dealerships. Larry Miller didn't have the net worth to borrow that money. But but, but Spencer was so impressed with the things we were starting to do with the team, and with Larry's earnest
desire to keep it here. He found a kindred soul. He made the loan, we paid off the debt, We put two million dollars into the bank. I remember that day thinking, oh my gosh, the heavens have opened up.
And today that's pennies. But back then you needed it.
Yeah, yeah, And that's on the heels of in eighty four drafting Stockton and eighty five drafting Alone. Everybody thought we had a future suddenly, and all we needed was the right capital. And it was Spencer Ecles that made it all happen. So with that in mind, and thinking about what Mitt said that it was going to be totally about who your partners are, I went to Spence Els, Spencer p. Eckles, his son, who I'm really good friends with.
I met Randall Corels, who is the chairman and former vice chair of the Federal Reserve enormously qualified Davis Polk of one of the America's premier law firms, thirty year lawyer. These two gentlemen sat down with me listen to my dream about finishing by investing a billion dollars or more in sports, and the conversations went really very quickly, and
already we have places we can invest. There's a lot of work to do to finish up all of the administrative side of a fund, but the one thing when I go to sleep at night now is I know I've got the best partners I could ever ask for. Yeah, these they run a great firm. They're very six sucessful in their own right. They didn't need to do this, but they're excited about it because you know what the Echos family has meant to the University of Utah, to
southern Utah. They're all over the place. That's why I said my quote in the press release is you know they brought the way. They were instrumental in getting the Winter Olympics here and financing so much of that. They were key in keeping the jazz here, and they've built great collegiate programs across the state. So so now to pursue this fund with them is I couldn't be happier. I couldn't be more optimistic about the things we're going
to do. And I'm all And since the press release, my phone has just blown up from people all over the world that I've done business with in the past, in Japan and in certainly in London, in Germany and France. And I'm going to be over there next week and start the process of creating a real flow of deals coming to us.
So certainly, and I had a chance to see Spence up at the Utah spring football game. He sat with Ron McBride and shook his hand. He's still skis as your reference just turned nine years old. And certainly with a fund as large as this and the goals you have that are as big as they are, only time will tell what the execution looks like and what you invest in. And if it's teams here in state, if it's teams across the landscape of the country, or maybe
you do some international deals. Obviously those things will manifest themselves when they do.
It's not going to happen tomorrow, but I'm.
Sure people are curious if you have any tangible plans with one point two billion which is the goal we do.
So we love teams, but we will probably not be buying any majority piece of a teams where we determine how to run things. But I do think we'll get involved because that's that's what I've done sure, so, so we'll get involved with teams where they're in good markets, they have excellent operators, and.
They they work hard.
This is the this is the eCos value that is going to run through our organization. How are they doing in the community and are they caring about the community and are they making a difference in the community. So that will be on the team side. We'll look for media assets during this transition from from you know, cord cutting and cable and satellite into streaming and what happens and direct to the consumer, which ESPN is now doing. As all of this happens, there's going to be a
tremendous capitalization of media assets. We want to be in the middle of that. I've I've spent my life running MSG network, buying companies like Gravity Media, so I'm very, very keen to do some things in sports media. There are startup leagues that I think are interesting. The three on three unrivaled thing I think is very interesting. There's startup volleyball. There's so many places to invest, and I don't think we'll have one hundred by any stretch investments.
It's more likely that will take significant positions in sports assets that have value and will continue to accrue value where we can make a difference.
So over the course of your career, one of the things that I've always found interesting is, excuse me, when you were here, you work with Larry and then you go to New York and after a stint with David starting in the League office, you land with the Knicks in Madison Square Garden, where you work with a lot of different owners, four different owners, and the first three I think you I enjoyed working for and the last one was probably a little a little sticky from time
to time. Right, and Jim Dolan still owns the New York Knicks and and also the New York Rangers and Moonlights playing the kazoo for his band.
That's a true thing.
You also spent some time working with Jerry Jones, so you've had a bunch of interesting relationships and synergies with a lot of different owners with a lot of different styles.
My question to you is what makes a great owner?
Well, that's that's a great that's a that's a wonderful question. I think the great owners are people who create a culture not of winning, but of championships. And that means they create a culture of high levels of trust and high levels of expectations. If you if you've watched the whole family and the way that they have owned the San Antonio Spurs, they've got the same general manager. And sadly, you know, Greg, Papa bitch, looks like he may not be able to push on much longer.
He's not in good health. And I just feel so bad.
But look at the years they've had for championships, the teams, and and they have done it right. And it's by the way, both Larry and I knew this when we came in. When when when I brought Larry in, we started to talk about the teams that had really done well, and we could see that they had very little turnover in coaches and general managers, very little turnover at all,
very little turnover in owners. That's why Larry, when Frank Layden stepped aside and we put Jerry Sloan, you know, I mean Jerry Sloan coached here for twenty three years.
Yes, so, and had a.
Great, amazing history, you know, making the playoffs pretty much all the time. It was just a regular thing. So good owners take a back seat. They they step back, They hire really great people, They show them a tremendous amount of respect and trust, but they also want them to know that, you know, there are expectations here to win,
not a free ride. We're here to win, and we're here to win all the time, and we're you know, this is not the place to debate whether losing to try to get you know, the first pick in the draft is a good strategy.
For me.
I could never live that strategy. And I'm very much like building the pat Riley. You know, Miami just keeps somehow squirting in and getting in the playoffs and competing. Even after that Jimmy Butler trade here, they are still in the playoffs. And that's the kind of culture that I respect. Mickey Rison and I have had our differences, certainly when he stole a pat from us, but I give him a lot of credit. Pat's been down there twenty years. He's had you know, the same people around
and and they're very that's a very successful franchise. So what's a great owner. I think an owner is someone who hires really smart, really good people, shows them a high level of respect and trust, does not try to do the job for them or get involved, and and it steps back and establishes that kind of culture and rewards the people that win for him.
Yeah, I always I often think of the pat Riley line. I think a lot of a lot of pat Riley lines. But in the NBA, there are two things. There's winning, there's misery right right and so and look, unfortunately, the incentive structure and pro basketball mostly rewards winners, but if you're not in that small group, it also rewards if
you lose. And that's the complicated thing because it's hard to you know, find that cornerstone, transcendent piece when you're building a team in Salt Lake City, if you don't get it through the draft and so, you know, if you can get number one in Cooper Flag, the pain's worth it. But if you can't, you're spinning your wheels
for a while. But we have an interesting dynamic in our market because there's new ownership with the Jazz with Ryan Smith and SEG Group, But there's also new ownership out in Sandy at the soccer club now the soccer club that you founded. And it's wild to think that we're twenty plus years later and now this is the fourth ownership group of RSL. So Jason christ is back with the club. John Kimball, after spending some time with the Jazz, has been running the club now for I
think five years. Maddy Raider's back. Shout out Trey. We need to say Trey's back. A lot of the old guard is back at RSL, and people that you know very well, the Millers and Miller Sports Entertainment has taken over the controlling ownership stake of the club.
The Blitzer group.
Maintains their portion, and Ryan and Ashley Smith and the Seg group will focus on their project downtown.
I know you, doctor Steve quite a bit.
You also are helping them bring Major League Baseball here, which Spinger's crossed. I hope that happens. But how have you digest did this whole story? And what would you say to RSL fans about how you think the Millers are going to handle this?
Well?
Steve was nice enough to invite me out for that announcement. I just couldn't make it. There was no way it could be here. But look, Salt Lake owes a giant debt of gratitude to David Blitzer. Yes, because he came in stabilized the whole situation there, put John Kimball in permanently as president, and John's you know, RSL runs deeply in John's blood. He was first employee. Maybe other than you, I don't. I think it was right around the same
time that both of you joined. I think we give it to John, Okay, I think we'll give that in.
That's right.
So John is an extraordinary guy and now, and you know, Dave Blitzer also let run within the organization a lot of people who understand what it was like in the early days to fight through and create a championship team YEP in two thousand and nine in a brand new venue and all that it took to get there. So Tony Beltran, for instance, is in the organization. Hamas and Nolave. Yeah, these guys that played for us, and then to bring Jason back was just a brilliant move. So I'm very
optimistic about what's happening there. I want to be helpful to them if I can. Time will tell whether that works for them. But the Miller family were tremendous stewarts for the Utah Jazz for many years. I said that my speech at the Utah Sports Hall of Fame.
I said to Gail, she was sitting right there.
I said, Gail, you guys have been the best stewarts the Jazz could ever have. Have lent permanence, have built a building and then redone it and made it beautiful. Now Ryan's going to do even more with it with hockey. So and not only that, but Utah has become like one of the most desirable sports markets in the world with the success of the college teams and the Big Twelve, and even the success of Weber State and Utah State, and and you know, there's a there's a level of
excellence here in athletics. I hope the Jazz can can get the guys they need to get back back at it over a long period of time. I know that's what they want. And I love you know how I feel about Danny Ainge and one of my dearest friends. So, so, look, there's a lot of great things happening here. With this fund, will we have an opportunity to invest here? I think we may if we get a baseball team, for sure, but even more than that, you know what's next and
where are their opportunities. And I've built stadiums of you know, I've bought television properties. This gives me a chance literally around the world, but but in Salt Lake, if it so happens to to really get back and back in the game.
Yeah, I think it's tremendously exciting.
And like you, my phone has also blown up from a lot of people wondering what this looks like and very excited for the possibilities of I will not call it the final chapter of your career. From as your oldest son, I view you working for another thirty years. Okay, so I'm not going to do the ten year timeline, but I know you've got to go.
I'm gonna ask you one more question. I'm good to buy time time wise okay.
Okay, yeah, yeah, BYU needs a new athletic director, Tom Homo after twenty years of stepping aside, and he has done a tremendous job.
Yes, traversing through independence.
I mean that when I found out that that was going to be their path, I went, Okay, let's see how this goes Utah gets the Pac twelve invite BYU. I think out of necessity did what they had to do and they found their landing spot in the Big twelve. And it feels like everything down there is in a really good spot. Nil has changed the game. Kevin Young, former NBA assistant, had a really good first year Sweet sixteen team They've got Gary Parrish put him as his
number five team in the country. Next year, Colotte had a really good year two in the Big twelve, and they appear to have a good team coming back.
As you like to remind me, you went to.
Both schools, so I know you don't have any allegiance one way or the other. But people are wondering whether or not you have been contacted to potentially be the athletic director BYU.
Any insight there.
The insight is absolutely not. I have no contact about that at all, and I'm not surprised, actually, I think they're probably I don't know what they're thinking. I am on the President's Leadership Council down at BYU and have been for a long time and have great respect for Shane and for Keith. Shane Reese, the president, Keith Warkink, who is over the Athletic Department, among other things great great people. I love Tom Homo and Chad Lewis and Brian Santiago. Those guys down there are great.
And that is I.
Did wear that uniform, so he did, so I kind of have have always cheered for them. But what Taylor Randall has done and uh and the Utah Athletic department and coaches and everything else, and and their plans, which I know something about, are are just off the charts. They are progressive, they are smart, they are they are engaging the community in a way that I don't think has happened before. And you know, I don't I don't know.
It's their football team had the first tough year and it seems like forever.
Yeah, that Kyle spoiled everybody. The standards are sky high.
When I was in school, there are five six wins Bowl game.
You know, it's different now. It's different now.
I know for him to be coming to the end is actually that's going to be a hard thing because he has been a tremendous in the state. So but but Spencer, when I stepped back and look at how the state is as opposed to the mid eighties when I was here trying to save the jazz. It is vibrant, The economy is number one in the country. The population is young and energetic, and there's there's really nothing to derail it other than you know, petty jealousies or you know.
I mean, there's nothing better than a good rivalry. But let it be a good rivalry and be glad that we have all this excellence. I mean the by U basketball team and they I mean when when when their coach, When when Mark Pope left and went to Kentucky. That was a really pivot old time. They reacted quickly and got Kevin. Then Utah went and got you know, really a great young coach who played there. I mean, these are all all the right things, all the right steps.
They're they're doing great things, and it is a It's a terrific time to be in the state. And one of the one of the blessings of this partnership with the Echols is I think I'm I'm going to be here more. I think Mom and I will be more in Utah than we have been. I don't think we'll move from Connecticut, but but we'll be here more, and we'll be bothering you more. You know asking you if there's an empty bedroom upstairs.
There is, there always is, but no, it's it's all exciting, and I think you should feel really used about the potential with this partnership. So we'll set you loose, though. I appreciate you stopping by, and yeah, all the insight. I wanted to give you the space to express other because everyone's asking me like what, so, what's the deal? And so I figured i'd give you the space to to kind of unpack it.
So, but I know you're busy and I'll see you soon, Okay. Can I say one last thing? You can say as many things as you'd like.
Can I say, I'm really proud of you and how long they've done this show and how important you are to people in this community. They tell me this all the time. Everybody wants to know what you're thinking about every item, and I'm really proud of the way you've handled everything.
No, I appreciate it, and I think it depends on who you ask, whether or not they're a fan. But that's okay. It's a phenomenal coup. It's a great way to make a living. But it's kept me around the things that I've always loved you know that.
No, listen, you're not going to make everybody happy, and if you were making everybody happy, you wouldn't have this job because even if they disagree with you all the time, they still want to know what is he thinking?
Sure?
Sure, okay, Well again, congratulations and thanks for coming in.
We'll see you soon.