Legislative Action and Closing Thoughts

Welcome back To the corporate gossip, podcast Patreon. I'm your host, CuPAS Gorn Rebecca Platsky. I'm with my co host. Out of office reply guy, Robby Slovik. Robby, before we start, can I just say happppy birthday? Thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah. The big one was just over the weekend. Was it a big one? Was it a milestone birthday? No, I mean, they're all at this point, I've hit the point where it's just remaining alive is the milestone Yeah, so get on in there. Wish wish Robbie a happppy birth. What do you do you think you're going to have a good year this year? I think I think we are going have a good year. I think I' excited about this year We've done a lot of manifesting, and I think it's going to be a good one forty No, you don't wan to say how old you are? I could say it. Okay, say it. twenty six. forty three. forty. forty three is gonna be a good year. Yeah, do I actually agree. I think twenty twenty six is gonna be my favorite year b. So many crystals, so many vision boards Robbie, today's episode is about private equity and youth sports. It's an episode that has been requested many times. That may have been Tw things that are meant to go together. large hedge funds bigig sums of money in children playing sports. Yeah, it just makes sense. like how have you not done? you've not done this already. USA Today just came out with an excellent nine month investigation on one of the architects of this cluster fuck Uh USA Today gets our corporate like what's our corporate gossip pulitzer? Like, I'm calling you the Bethany McLlean Honorary Golden skilling Award for journalism. That's a lot of words. Yeah. You think we could workshop thatbe tighten it a bit. Okay. Robbie, I think our listeners As they're getting to know you They know you're a comedian. Chack, they know you wrote for Johonn Stewart nominated for an Emmy. But what they might not know, and I think is particularly relevant for this episode Is that You? T somebody Something. You taught Somebody who's currently on the Baltimore Oriolals used to be on the New York Mets, Pete Alonzso. That's right. How to play baseball. That's not true. I didn't teach how to play baseball. You're sticking with this lie. No for a brief time back when I was like a teenager No, in early twenties, I was his martial arts instructor If he ever gets hit by a baseball and charges the man, that's my work. If you ever karate talk. if he ever does jump flying kick at the first baseman, that was my work I don't know I thought you' I don't know why I thought that. He would not be a professional baseball player if I had taught him how to play baseball. I could just swen you said That taught me a lot of everything he knew as he had that walk off home run a couple of years ago. Anyway, either way Pete Al Lonsoa was a youth playing sports and you were there. Yes Yes, I was part of his youth sports in some ways. Yeah. So I want to know how much Did you charge for a martial arts lesson and how much of that went to private equity It was all private equity funded. We had a deal going with the CIA as well. It was very No, yeah, I will say we could do like for my short time in that world, like we could do an episode on how fucking gross like those like stripall martial arts places are about making money, but that's that's pretty niche. Okay. Yeah. Yeah let us know if you guys want that. Your kids, I think are a little too young for sports. I don't know what they do at Three for sports Yeahah, it's it's a lot of scratching, a lot of biting, not martial arts. But every parent I talk to is like up to here with you sports Like too expensive, parents of regular kids spending like ten thousand dollars a year on their kids sports And they feel like they have no choice. I was talking to the person who does our social now. um who has a six year old And she's like, she's in second grade. We move to a new town. I want to get her in soccer and they're like too late going Well, not even seasons going. You would have had to get her in at three to start playing soccer. She's not Oh, that's crazy. She hasn't specialized enough. She doesn't know she's a sideide Okay, not qu position sure You have to pay obviously for equipment, team fees, lessons, coaches, travel. and that isn't even for the parents who think that their kid is like a future Olympian. Right. This is just like regular parents of the fifty percent of American kids who are in sports, the average family and Remember, this is average, according to New York Times, spends fif thousandteen hundred dollars a year per kid on sports Youthports is a forty billion dollar industry Bigger than the NFL and MLB combined. That true. Socked me. Yes That is shock. Yes. Yeah Was it like that when you grew up in terms of how much money your parents put towards your orting careers. I think first of all it was very evident very, very early on that I was not going to be a star Sure. But no, I think I played like most kids, I played L little League baseball. R. think cost anything, you know, local like businesses sponsored stuff. Same exactly thing talk Yeah. schoolool had some sports stuff that I guess would be like subsidized by government or whatever. But like yeah, I don't know. I don't think I think probably like martial arts was what I did that would have cost money and we're still like talking like at that time, like fifty nine dollars a month or. Great, totally. Yeah. It was rec leeague softball for me Um I don't think you guys want me to talked to know that I'm not very good at sports, but I did try a lot of them. I did tons of different sports, but they were also they were always like, o, it the municipal park or yeah YMCA something like that. Catholic Youth Oganization was big, CYO, sports. My best friend's dad was the coach of our softball team. and for many of our listeners, I'm sure you can relate to that growing up So What the hell happened, right? A few things. I want to look at it from like the demand side and the supply side. I' get into the private equity of it all. from the demand side, We've got parents who realize that like For their kid, the only way to get to college or to pay for college is with A scholarship. Right Then you also have a sports scholarship. You also have college more expensive than ever, of course And now with these name and likeness deals you can be like, well shit, if I invest two hundred thousand dollars in my kid. U Over the time they go to grade school, by the time they get to college, if they're the quarterback of Michigan, you're going to get fifteen million dollars and name in likeen this Yeah play quarterback on Michigan. Yeah. That's a big gamble that, you know, but yes, that makes sense that they're like it's always for a long time it's always been like schcholarship might be our only option or. And even those kids are then going up against like Laorie Laoughlin you know, just straight up bribing, pretending that her kid is like a kayaker or whatever it was, you know? Yeah, like ue Crue. yeah, yeah. And of course, obviously like there's the c shape economy, right where we got a small subset of parents who are willing to pay crazy money for their kids and it kind of raises the cost for everybody Okay from a supply side. We've got these municipal parks and recs programs that have been decimated First from the two thousand eight financial crisis And more recently from COVID, I watched a congressional commommittee on Education and Worforce from december two and twenty five And that's one of the best ones. I like that one. I didn't even recognize any of the senators. I was like, wow, there's like no names on this count. like, the fuck are you The Trump administration last year cut an additional four billion dollars from national parks and recs programs in twenty twenty four. And we don't subsidize sports like other countries do. Like you watch the winter Olympics in Norway is just like cleaning up. And part of that is because the country puts tax dollars towards making sure that winter sports are affordable for all families. Yeah, so that they can dominate at the Olympics. Like for many countries, that's an investment that they're willing to make so that they can, you know have competitive sports. So now we have this void in the sports market, the private equity is like Perfect, this is a private equity size hole. Dude do you guys have any money in that? Is there any money on that field? is that little eleven year old there just trying to have fun with his friends? Does he have some money on him? We should We should get that money. They're literally taking all the youth and like hanging them upide taking the money out of their pock.actly The other problem is when you have these municipal leagues All the competitive players, like the good kids on the teams are scooped up by the private equity teams. and then everybody left is like m sorry, kids. like you can play, I guess baseball with the kid who started on second base That would mean. But what is private equity? this is like What I'm picturing is like in like mighty Ducks when like the other like the team that is wearing like all the matching tracks suits and they're like eleven, but their whole life is is hockey or whatever. you're like, is that what we're talking here? Yeah. It's so funny you mentioned the Mighty Ducks. I have I think Disney movie like kind of trite Um plot line alsoso like Bink where you kind of have the soul skkaters who do it for fun and then the really the other ones who are sponsored and they have like the nicer Rink and all the nicer stuff and Eric Vanderkamp or whatever loveove him. He's like struggling of like which path should I take? And I think that's relevant here Um Yeah, and it's like, is They're a better villain for this podcast. when we zoom in to like who's in the board room Yeah above the little league, above the littleittle League stadium Yeah doing these Do these deals, these three grown men destroying youth sports. like would via private equity? Is there a better villain for this podcast? I don't think that. Yeah.' like sometimes hurting kids is like a byproduct of making money, but this is like it's like a feature of the making money here. We're gonna to talk about three private equity guys. We'll talk about billionaires, Josh Harrtz and David Blitzer who own the seventy Sixers and the New Jersey Devils and a bunch of arenas, including Wolen Rink in Central Park. Oh yeah. That wasy Trump Rink, I think. I know it was.. We've made a lateral move, it seems And they also own like ticketing and promotional services very live nation coded U undernder this umbrella called Unrivaled Sports, which is a youth sports class. I mean, what a perfect name for someone trying to build a monopoly of unrivaled sports? We're also gonna talk about Murray Gunty, who runs Black Bear Sports Group. He took his thirty year experience in private equity and he used it to become the Tony Perkins of youth hockey. That's a heavyweight reference. Another great Disney movie where you have a family owned camp and then a profit seeking maniac comes in to destroy it Being an only child Educated entirely by private tutors my whole life I'm looking forward to interacting with children for the first time Yes, these guys are literally like Disney villains this is like Dodgeball as well or like any of these things where it's like the people who just wantna have fun versus the people who think everything needs to be a competition and money needs to be at the center of it. Do you think when they were kids they watched those movies and like saw it completely differently than the rest of us? Obviously, you know U I'd actually like to start with Murray Guntty. This guy runs or ran, and we'll get into that shortly, this company called Blackbear that uses typical private equity practices to buy up hockey arenas Um and teams in the Northeast His argument is these municipalities are sick of operating, these rinks that are lost U so here comes the business guy. To save the day It's like mighty ducks, but the S is money so. But what if Gordon Bombay went to the struggling parents of this team and was like, I'll buy your team for a dollar Uh hu. And they're like, no, I don't want to do that And then he said, Ohh, you know't, Well then I'm banning you from the rank Is that what happened? Yes wait, wait so he was like I'm going to try to buuy your team for one US dollar and they were like, why would we do that? And they're like, then you can't play here Yes He would buy these rinks, he'd tell the parents, So basically the way this works is like there's juni leagues and there's teams and there's all this, and it's kind of run by a board. It's like a community situation. And he went to the parents, the board and was like, I want to buy your team for a dollar now that I own the rink. And I'll give you my coaches, but you have to play in my tournaments and you have to play by my rules And if you don't, you're gonna have to find somewhere else to practice. I get it. Okay. so it's also like and by bringing you into my thing, then it's like, I will extract money from you because there'll be a fee for everything. There'll be a rink fee and a tournament fee and a this. You're going have to wear this is true. You're gonna have to wear the uniforms from my supplier where I get a kickback from. Right. Yeah, yeah. I get it. So it's just this like discussing what I guess they would call like vertical integration, where they bring you in into their ecosystem And then suddenly every gott to wear these skates and do this stuff and he's going to make money off of all of it It was a team called the Pittsburgh Vipers And Pittsburgh, by the way, is a very much a hockey town. It's a hocy town. Yeah yeah yeah. And yeah, they said, join Black Bears's new in house teams or find another rink. quote from a parent. It was a hostile takeover. And in twenty twenty four, the board voted, board of parents and alumni voted to fold this team after six years in operation There's stories of like these vipers alumni coming in from all across the country and like sobbing at the last game and being like, I can't believe this is it. Like, you know, they stood up for something, they stood up against this guy, but then like they lost everything. I will say this, all of that sucks and it's awful, but also if you're like fifty eight and you played on the Vipers in nineteen eighty three and you're like, I can't believe it wass going away, like let it go, dude, grow up. you know T me that's so relatable. let. I was a viber in news J be vipers let find something else. but I also I do get it Again, that's literally the plot of the Mighty Ducks when Gordon Bombeay has those flashbacks of him like as a child. Gordon Bombay, I actually he was like alcoholic lawyer? What I to remember his name? we gotta watch that again. It seemed like he got like shuttled around in like a town car. it's is Gordon Bombay U whereah So Guy, Murray Gunty, they ask him about this. They're like, what about the Pittsburgh Vipers? He was like, they were a failing organization who I tried to buy to lend a helping hand. They didn't survive because they were a quote, very, very difficult organization that didn't want to work with us. So okay, tried to buy for one US dollar But this is like, I can, you know, I guess my analog here oftentimes is show business, but it's like You see this all the time like this person is difficult and hard to work with. It's like they don't want to bend to your bullshit. That doesn't make them difficult. You're an asshole and they're standing up for what's right. Yeah. They're not difficult. You're fucking trying to force them into something wrong. R And they're standing up for themselves. Well then when I run a monopoly You're not supposed to do that. That's the whole point. I'm supposed to smmooth out all the rough edges that makes doing business difficult. so that way I can get on a fucking stage at Harvard and talk about how much I've overcome. Right. Let me tell you how I've taken advantage of families who want their children to play sports. Affordably Qote, We don't place any value on the vipers, Guty said. We don't think they're worth anything Well, let me say this Yeah, I agree and that's the point. L youth sports aren't supposed to have financial value. They're not supposed to be worth anything. It's supposed to be a place for children to learn teamwork, team building, have an outlet for their energy where they can have all these amazing. I have I'm terrible at sports by the way. And I have so many wonderful memories from my childhood of like You know, for me, like I'm sure there's a lot of kids who was like Th then I got up and I hit the winning home run. It's like I don't have that one, but it's like, you know, we did like rally caps and had fun like dug out and like it was an important part of my childhood I actually hit the winning home run once. Is that true? l, it's crazy. I like I I actually wrote my college essay about it. I would do. I had how I'd introduce my stud. God it was crazy. I couldn't remember it. It's so storybook villet. Yeah. It's so storory. Like you're literally Taking joy away from children. Yes.. so you can monetize it. And you're probably already, this is the other thing It's like, I don't know what fucking Billy Guy, what Marty Gunty, what is it? Mur M Gy. Villain name. I know. Villain name. Villain face. He's acting very gunty right now. Yeah, he is I assume he has a billionish dollars. Like I'm sure he's probably worth hundreds of millions former Backstone guy. So it's like on top of being that rich, then you're like, I still need to make more money by sucking joy away from children and families. He also has kids. likeike he says he's a hockey dad. I don't know how old his kids are, but can you imagine being that kid and then you show up in school and all the all the other kids are probably like Your dad's a fucking asshole and you took away the only joy I have in this life being on the rink. I love being on the rink. I love the ice, it's waing because my parents are getting a divorce and I have no joy anywhere else. Why is your hockey player such a broadway dramatic actor Take away my one love, the brink And he goes into song Ice Do you know what's next? These fuckers are going to come for community theater. They're going to come for the fucking high school production of Oh, of course. yeah. was there was no value in your version of Oklahoma That's right. Yeahah. Well, that's right, we had Ly Manuel Miranda make it rap Oklahoma. Not much rhymes with Oklahoma. We're figuring it out No, I do think, I mean I will have I'm not going to take shot at this guy's kids and I'm sure whatever, but it's like Also the way these people operate is his kids probably go to an elite priice with other kids who also play forty thousand dollars a game hockey and they feel it nor understand like. their dad is doing to other kids in the world He's got control over these rinks and he'll basically pull these teams out of the community leagues so that like I said, the only teams left are the shitty poor teams Yeah and start his own for profit leagues, which you're mandated to play in if you're playing in these rinks and he causes these old leagues to f fold. runs Tournaments and showcase cases, get this, where in order to play at the showcase and this is the place where like, College recruiters will show up and it's important to go In order to play in these tournaments, you have to stay at the hotels designated by the tournament where Guty gets kickbacks, even if you live in town It's disgusting I mean, it's disgusting.'sain, it's like it's this like idea of like vertical integration just taken to the nth, you know, per like where it's like, that's crazy, you're just It's extortion. The words extortion. you're extorting people out of money. and also rinks just simply aren't plentiful. So you can't go find another ring. It's not a random like baseball, right? All you need is anybody can make a baseball field anywhere in an open field of dreams Anybody can make one. Apparently that state of play rule is really common in these private equity tournaments happens a lot with like the Cal Ripkin League and some of these baseball tournaments where they kind of make it seem like it's a fairredom. like it's fair. Like if some people don't get to sleep at home, then everybody shouldn't before the game, but it's like, no, you're getting kickedback. What does that even mean? No, and it's also likeren. Yeah It's children Apparently, if you don't stay at a hotel, I don't know how they fend this out, but they say that those who flout the rules of state of play face disqualification from the events without a refund So we're just like we are keeping the money. We want, you know, the money stays with us. Okay, then the live streaming. this was this viral for you? Did you see this? Where a couple of months ago somebody was posting that Um this ice rink in this tournament, this is Black Bear, told parents, you cannot live stream your kids' events The only way your family or friends can watch the event is if they Pay for Black Bear TV. which is fifteen dollars a game or three hundred and twenty dollars for an annual subscription So these parents, including Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, were told If you Videotape your game. This game, your kid is gonna to get like whatever penalized put in the penalty box or your team is going to be penalized for that So this became very viral and everybody was like, what the fuck? That's actually insane. I should be able to take my own kid playing hockey And they clarified, okay, this is what they said. This is FAQ. Are parents allowed to film their children playing youth hockey? Yes, of course. parents are always welcome to record videos and take photos of their own child during games and practices The only restriction is live streaming, broadcasting, simulcasting, or any other form of transmitting full games and practices. Allowing this kind of broadcasting is a significant safety risk given that it's impossible for our ranks, leagues, and teams to ensure everyone on camera has given consent. Okay And then I've never seen this done in an FAQ before. They go earlier this year, a third party streaming provider in Canada broadcasts children at a summer camp without proper safeguards and demonstrated how easily risks can arise when live streaming minors without strict controls. That same company is being sued by another group for broadcasting without their consent I'll say on this one, like I get that they're like behind this is their nefarious intent to force people onto their Blackberry kid streaming TV or whatever, but like On its face, I also get that like there are parents who don't want their kids live streamed or whatever, but like if you're live streaming them anyway on your wall thing, like it's a little hard to make that argument. That's what I'm saying?. So you got consent? I don't understand. I assume it's a situation where you go in and there's a thing that says you're being recorded. and if you don't want to be recorded, don't come in Uh you know who weighed in on this Boys pretend news.. are boys TVPN? What did they say I bet it has a trillion views GE firm is buying hockey rinks and banning parents from recording and taking photos of their kids' games. Based. This story broke. How youed? You still think this is based, Tyler Youre still saying hello base department. I mean, My mind's You appreciate value creation. How else? How else do you expect private equity firms to make money? Yeah. how else do you expect them to make hard working private equity firms? to make They may end up on a blacklist that punishes their k Well what they need to do is they need to form some sort of like union basically, where they all say, we all are going to film or none of us are going to attend and we're going to take oures elsewhere. Those threats were even reportedly made to a US a sitting US senator. Look, when you've got like the fucking the business bros network being like the parents need to unionize like we got him, sir. We got his ass It' straight up Marxism this guy. No, I'm like has something checked on that? Workers of the world unite. my God. I'm surprised they were near allowed to say that. I also do, I mean, who knows if this makes the ultimate clip, but I do wanna start just saying on this podcrast. Tyler still think that's base Like he just hears the word private equity he goes He feels based But they fucking they they stuck it to Tyler. I don't think so, Tyler Yeah. I love how they're kind of throwing shade to private equity to I'm like f. They are, yeah Tim hit. Yeah, the fucking TBTN boys or whatever it is Bys business business is space Who knew Okay, so there's a couple of rabbit holes we're going to go down on. It's Muray Gunti, we're going to do a little rabbit hole on him, and then I have an even better rabbit hole later in the episode. So Muray Gunte has always been kind of a low life. We should not be surprised that this is what he's doing. I mean, there's part of it that's like the rules and regulations allow him to do that, but he is particularly villainous And I think this was He's just taking advantage of. He didn't wake up and have a sudden villain time. He wasn working at a soup kitchen and you know what? I'm fucking sick of this. I want to go ruin children's lives. So when he was at Harvard Biness School, I need a sound for that yet totally L you exactly. Harvard Business School, Harvard MBA, Wharton You're done, You're done. You're done He was caught tampering with the votes to elect himself president of the Finance Cub It was called Guntygate It was apparently on the campus newspaper, and then I don't know how or why, but somehow it was a national headline. Okay And people called for his expulsion Instead Gunty wrote in a public apology letter that he had convinced administrators to, among other things, let him author an ethics case study to be used in the school's curriculum. Oh, what I did was so wrong. It's actually become a case study. And as such, I must be part of the school again. Amazing. Good for, you know, you hear some of that and you're just like, good for you Good for you. I'm so happy that you've ever rem the president of the Harvard Business Finance Club, fucking Dork Blackstone heard that and was like, Oh o, you are fucking perfect for us. Come work for us. That's right. That's like there should be this thing that's like, okay, we know you're completely unethical. and that like for companies to be like, well, that's exactly what we want. that what happened? Yeah. So he goes to Blackstone and then he starts his own PE firm called Blackstreet in two thousand two, which is also the name of You know, no dignity. were at the same time. R of all time. It was notot at the same time as. it was. Yeah, two thousand two, but Blackstreet was around I looked I nineteen ninety five, But I'm saying like, ye, it's not like he named his firm Blackstreet and then the band came out. Like that was a very popular Imagine they were nam themselves after the private comp firm. Yeah yeah a new band KKRa So he starts his own p private equity firm. and then this is what your friend texted you about. Did you want to explain what what he told you? I don't remember. Okay. So Robbie sent me a screenshot of his friend who said, his private equity firm bought a baby products company that produced bassinetets that killed two babies. So naturally, they kept producing them and killed two more. Now I looked this up. That's exactly what happened What your friend was not had it exactly right So what how So there was reports that basically this bassinet and then trigger warning, this bassinet. So this bassinet basically had a rail on it that was big enough for a baby's body to go through. too small for their head to go through You don't need to say more. I don't want to say more.. You understand why that's the dumbest thing on earth. So there was reports that this happened, the company knew about it, and rather than taking them off the market, a reporter actually went out at the time and investigated it and found that after the reports came out, after there was news, articles about it, he could go to what I don't know, babies RS and pick up one of these bassinetets and bring it home Yeah. And when asked about this story for this USA Today investigation, Guni said the incident was a long time ago. I think it went out of business. We only owned it for a short period of time. It's like that flippant nonchalant like. You know, we I don't I don't I barely remember this company. Maybe it came in, it came out like four, you know who doesn't bare remember the fucking parents. P peopleople who lost their babies it's the biggest deal In the world in the world, this isn't just some like part of your portfolio, like you're partially responsible destroying Lot lot famamilies. families. Yeah. partart. I mean, definitely fully responsible for those that happened after you found out about it Yeahah, clearly those second two like U, it's it's sickening. It's truly sickening. Yeah Okay, twenty sixteen, there was a US SEC investigation unrelated to the bassins that found that Gnti misled his private funds investors He c he had this private fund, he was cutting deals for himself instead of investors, billing the funds hundreds of thousands of dollars in undisclosed management fees, using the funds for unauthorized expenses, including a luxury suite at the stadium where the National Hockey League's Washington capapitals play Um Black Street Capital Magement, which denied all wrongdoing, which fucking pisses me off that you can do a settlement. This would never in a normal criminal suit. Yeah. Like if you do something wrong and you settle, part of the settlement is you have to admit you did something wrong. accountability. Yeah. can't be then don't settle. If you don't believe that you did anything wrong You have to go to court and prove that That and our whole culture of like NDAs of. I did something fucked up, but here's seven million dollars and neither of us are going to talk about it ever again is like I don't that whole thing as far as It's the legal system doing what it does, which is like protecting rich from consequences. He and his firm, and this is like less than ten years ago, agreed to pay two point six million dollars to the SEC, return five hundred thousand dollars to investors, and revise their policies to stop charging oversight fees. Again, this is like None of it's surprising when it's like, I'm the guy who tried to rig the finance club election in college. You're has scumbag his whole life. Yeah Um Again, the USA in today reporter asked him about it. he said, I'm not here to talk about issues that have long been since resolved Like that was only ten years ago. You don't think it has any indication on like what you're doing today or there what what What chehecks and balances do we have in place? What controls do you have in place?ike We know the fraud triangle works, so you're gonna to do it again probably. And again and again, and I don't care if you're here to talk about it. like parents aren't here to fucking bring their kids to some stay at one hotel and do some travel team. like they just want their kids involved in sports. So that you can say in a fucking luxury sueite. Yeah. I love how once you're a CEO, you don't have to explain anything on your resume. Like when I apply for a job, I have to explain Every single thing I did and give details and give backup. But no, you can like be negligently responsible for the deaths of two people, have an SEC fucking investigation against you and you can still be a CEO. Imagine getting, interviewed for a job and being like, o, that one no that so that is when I actually that's when I tried to rig the election to win the thing. and I got I got so bused, it became a national story. So But then what I did was I made a case study about it that made me look like an absolute criminal to the point where they were like, you gott to get back in reverse youo card. Yeah Okay, so now you have his background This is what he's doing within Black Bear and questions are coming up like, right, are you using the money that you're extorting Even for a lot of these rings, a lot of these rinks are falling into disrepair, despite the fact that money is You've promised your private equity money to dress it up. Right. L desespite the fact that you're also jacking up the prices, now a lot of there's plumbing, there's no plumbing. There's no heat. These parents are sitting in the freezing cold and having to pay double for their kids rink time Yeah and On top of that, they have no choice, right? So he's created a monopoly. So This is rom one analyst, he says thellmark of monopoly is a company's ability to raise prices without losing customers. That's exactly what Black Bear did And the reporter asks Murray, are you a monopoly This Blackberry monopoly I uh is no black There are seventeen hundred ice rinks in the United States. We own forty seven. There As I said, there are ten rinks in Michigan that we own and there are one hundred rinks in the state. I think we are required every single year to deliver a great product to our customers. and we have been fortunate that we are growing in states where hockey is declining. We are not a monopoly. We are a small piece of the overall hockey market I see how he can make the case he's making, but What we're talking about is a very localized thing So. if on a national scale, you might not be a monopoly yet. I'm sure you would love to be and you're working in that direction, but like As far as the region where this hockey rink is concerned, you are a monopoly. You are the only game in town for these what fifty thousand families who live within driving distance because there probably isn't another option close by for many of them. So yeah, maybe you're off the hook on a global scale, but locally You are a monopoly and you are making sports worse for families I h and you know, you can probably hear it in his voice, but he's like, no I'm not on a monopoly, you know? It's just ye Yeah, it's intentionally dismissal. Howd you're so do the math. Howd you's such a fucking dick Listen, Gnty isn't alone If you're into Netflix cheer, which I was into during the pandemic, you know about Varsity brands, which has a monopoly on a lot of the cheerleading competitions. There's actually a class action lawsuit against them. A judge told a reporter that they were told to give additional points to teams that used that war Varsity own outfits giveive additional points to them during competition. Oh my Godd, it's gross. I'm also so happy I don't know anything about this. It it' be weird if' like, I know about this one. Oh I know all about this. But she had a triple triple backfip. Okay, I want to hit on two other guys, David Blitzer and Josh Harris David Blitzer is from Blackstone. Josh Harris is from Apollo A Apollo, you probably haven't heard of from a private equity perspective, but you definitely have heard of it from an Epstein perspective, because Leon Black who's the CEO of Apollo I think iss in the Absen trial like five thousand times D't quote me on it but's it's in the mid mid thousandousands. Um The two of them own the seventy Sers, the New Jersey Devils, part of the Guardians, Washington Commanders. and Josh Harris is a very unpopular owner. I just want to hit on two things if you're in the Philly sports world, this will be relevant to you. Apparently, a fan just two nights ago was kicked out was kicked out of the seventy sixers game for telling Josh Harris to sell the team. I told Josh Harris to sell the team and they want to kick me out. There's another, there's a song that somebody wrote. encouraging jobking. Dam manam,. sccreaming fuck Josh on the dance camp. L my team from the bottom of my heart. It' the pedopo h it from us off that we can't stand. Good. Yeah. I'm withing. So the lyrics where I'm screaming This is from a fan I'm screaming fuck Josh on the Dance cam. I love my team from the bottom of my heart. It's the pedophile hiding from us all that we can't stand Hashtag sell the team. And this is from an account called Emotional Sixer Fan. Josh Harris sell the team. Emotional Ser. I mean, look, we are We are nothing if not polite to a fault here where it's like We're dealing with like French revolution time type of stuff, open pedophiles kind of flaunting it in our face. And at one point, people were getting guillotined for this type of stuff and now we're like All we're asking is that you sell the t You can sell it for a profit, dude, but please just like Yeah someone who's in the Epstein files. So so okay, so right. So the other part of this is Josh Harris is in the Epstein files bigly Over seven hundred times. That's a lot Um And now he's part owner of a youth sports empire. Yeah, like that that should clearly not be legal. He and Josh Blitzer basically are like disgusting brothers, they're, business partners. They bought unrivaled sports with money from their family foundations, according to The New York Times Um o, by the way, so I pulled up one of the more Notorious, Josh Harris emails to Jeffy Epstein. I'll read it to you. This is to Josh Harris r Jeffrey Epstein. This is on september twenty sixteen, so many years after we knew. We all knew ye Jeffrey goes, you should be free to call me directly so that I may explain my thinking. Any conversation that you prefer to stay between us, period will, period. It is my financial confessional booth for Jews What do you say? I mean, ye, I don't know what you say to that. I will say here's what I'll say No I won't. Here's them M I't want'hing. There's nothing Um This is what he says. Our ambition. still the most trusted expansive and impactful youth sports platform in the country. This is the that's what Mr. Harris said. But it's like you're al ready disqualified for that. You're ready disqualified from that from corresponding with the world's most notorious pedophile over seven hundred times on record, right? This is just emails. I don't know many texts you had I don't know many calls you had. I don't how many times you hung out with him. So if that's your starting point and it's We're going to have the most trusted sports leeague. that's clearly not a possibility. I don't have the raw data in front of me, but in terms of anecdotally It's like the Catholic Church and its youth sports in terms of the places that are most risky for kids to have these experiences like these negative, whatever. L I immediately think of the gymnastic stuff and the fox that that wrestling place super abused.ure Yeah. Yeahah, it's like This This is Or or or fucking, um enn state the guy from Penn State. Like it's like these stories happen all the time. It's not like this is like so far out of the question that these kids should be protected in particular and they're already being exploited financially. I mean Yeah, we have a right to question you when this is your email correspondence. It's beyond a right to question you. It's just like at you just like If you're in constant regular known communication with a pedophile then you're out of the you. Find something else to do. findind a new ambition. Yeah. There's a lot of things you can do that have nothing to do with kids actually. There's so many. Go do one of those Okay telling that this is what you've chosen That's it. I'm not saying anything beyond that. I'm just saying it's interesting that's what you've chosen. Okay, here's the company's CEO. this is their value proposition, right This is crazy. I think it's interesting that This company unrivaled sports who also owns Cooperstown's All Star village, which if you're from upstate New York, you know, this is like the mecca for Little League, right? It's Cooperstown, It it's theaseball of fame. Kids come from all over the country to come to this All star village, which I think is now related to Cal Ripkin, which is also now owned by private equity. So it's a bunch of kids, Dick and Under Armor are sponsored sponsors and Dix has actually invested in this unrivaled sports, which I think is Fucking ironic Um you know, given that they always talk about like, hey, we have all these foundations for kids to learn how to play sports and then like they're also directly contributing to something that's taking that away from kids. Here's their value proposition, okay? for why Unrivaled sports is better than like the municipal leagues, right? There's a lot of brands out there. quote, There's a lot of brands out there that would love to connect with youth in an authentic and impactful way But because the industry of youth sports is so fragmented, it's almost impossible for them to do it. What we're trying to create is a way for brands to connect at greater scale with athletes Tell me that, could the Catholic Youth Organization connect brands with youth in a meaningful and authentic way? Can the YMCA do that I don't fucking think so And for children. you use the like you're using the word athletes, but what you mean is children. Can we provide a marketplace for brands have direct access to children It's gross. It's all every piece of this is fucking gross. And there's something look, I'm not like I know we obviously like, what we talk about on this prous, I'm not like against business. I'm not against making money. I like please find a way to make money, but like If if the way you've done it is by looking at a thing that is a community driven part of like the wholesome familyily American experience and being like, how do I make this worse while extracting money? Go fuck yourself. No. G fuck yourself. It's not impressive. It's not impressive. Like you're looking at this and being this very Larry Ellison, like we actually looked at youth Sorts and we realized that that it's inefficient. Nobody's making money off of it. And we thought like, wow, we're smart. We never noody else is thoughtaught to do this. No, I'm sure you're not the first person to have that thought.'re just Shitty enough person to actually do it. hundred percent. You just happen to be living in a world where we have so much other shit going on that nobody can focus on creating regulations to prevent you from doing that and protect children Yes, one hundred percent. And also also the inability for these people to understand that like municipal services and things for the community like They don't have to operate at a profit They were losing money, right because the tax base has been destroyed, the fucking austerity measures because of debt that corrupt politicians have taken on. like we can go into the details of why these municipal leagues cannot afford to continue Right. But it's like it has nothing to do with the town just being like, yeah, we want to make this a profit center. It's not the point. It's just not the point. And also it's like as a as a taxpayer, if I got to choose like Do you want to go do you want your tax money to go to like droning the street of Hormuz. Or do you want it to go to like youth sports in your town, like that's an easy choice for my guess is like ninety percent of Americans We'll pick I would like it to enrich the lives of children here in the country On opposite day, said Trump The vertical integration just to note, like the vertical integration is crazy because basically what's happening is like think about it, this guy Blitzer and Harris own these junior leagues hockey and baseball and whatever. and then they also own like the New Jersey Devils. They also own the Sixers. like they could hypothetically Make money off these kids to their entire life. Yeah IMG Academy. this is this is like a side story of you know inlor Yeah I know. So you know this. like that was a a high level sports Boarding school owned by Endeavor. Yeah. IMG. and they would take these kids and I think they they recently sold it, but they would basically take these kids put them through through college, there' be pre NIL deals. And then by the time they graduated, like they would have already been represented by IMG. Yeah. It's fucking crazy. Yeah, I mean, look, it the commodification of children ultimately of like this is a long term play on this Yeah, a human being and hopefully we can get an ROI out of it So this is the part of the movie where there's like kind of a weird B plot for one of these vill villains that I just couldn't resist putoting in this episode. So this is is it Gunnty? Is it Blitzlitzerlitzlitzer. I want you to read Yes headline. The blue part right there Importer of Smurfs takes plea in a wacky eleven point five million Blackstone group extortion case. What happened? Okay So So David Blitzer marries this woman, Alon Blitzer My made a name is Ross Her dad named Stuart Ross and he owns the IP to the Surfs So she is the heir to the Smurf fortune. The heir to the Smurf's fortune. Her dad is Papa Smurf. Her dad is Stuart Ross, Papa Surf He plleed guilty in twenty ten for trying to extort David Blitzer They go to A way His father in law pled guilty to trying to extort him Okay Blitzer said Stuart Ross raaged a Verulant. Virulent. Verant Flitzer said Stuart Ros waged a virent cameave your guys so I can't read. I read a lot, but to be fair, reading out loud, it really turns the pressure. It's really hard. It's really hard.s difficult campaign of menacing emails and threatening all hours phone calls to himself and his bosses at Blackstone also to squeeze him for ever more millions. The Wall Street Journal said in June of twenty ten, Stewart Ross demanded more money and allegedly threatened to contact Black Stone executives and law enforcement with accusations that he said would ruin Mr. Blisszer's career if he didn't acquiesce. Here are some of the emails I will haunt you, David You have started aard, David and I will be the victor Mr. Ross called and emailed Blackstone employees from top executive like he was like What? What's he claiming he to been? I don't know. I looked it up. I was like, what are the fucking claims? I was like you what? What something He did something. He didn't do nothing. right He didn't do nothing. I'm not saying this mr. R, I'm not saying Papa Smurf's a good guy here. Yeah And I'm not y clearly he's not happy that Smurfet has ended up with Uh fucin Wolf Blitzer U what is it Davidzer Blitz? David Blitzer. but Uh, David did something I know. Yeah. I know that's what I couldn't figure out. I don't know what he had on him, But either way at the end of it Stuart Ross will serve two to three years of probation and avoid jail entirely, providing he gets psychiatric and alcohol treatment and has no contact with his daughter, Allison. David Blitzer or their children and the Blackstone group. he can't even He ain't even ste f. I fucking I don't need you. Yay, I want the fucking smurfs You think I need to see my daughter? You think I need spend Thanksgiving with this?? I I know no shit, David Flitzer. I'm lookingking Gargamel does what I tell him to do Oh, that's what he said that Wait, I didn't get, I'm so sorry. This is like, unfortunately again, like not in on the I'm right JenX references, but he said My name isn't Gargamel Ross joked as he left the court, smiling and plugging his latest TV cartoon project. Remember, it's papa smmurf Mhm That's exactly what Gargamel would say in this situation. Is Gargamel the evil guy? Gargamel is the evil guy. Ozriel is his cat Papas Smurf is the kindly old man Smurfed is seemingly the only female Surf the only gendered Smurf really, I guess Papa Smurf is gendered as well and the others are just Yeah, it's I really don't fully understand the world at the surfs are just a couple of random threads that I just want to like sprinkle in here if you weren't feeling bad enough already about this People are betting on the Little League World sereries Dave Mason, who is the brand manager for a gambling platform I'm not even going mention what it's called said about last year's Little Lague World series, which is coming up again this summer is quote, this will be shocking to hear, but we'll take more bets on these Little League games than we will on any professional tennis or soccer match over the next two weeks. The shocking part to hear isn't that people are betting on it. The shocking part is the wheel take is like just so you know We're open for business on this. We'll gladly take You're betting on children. And then how long before the next step of talking to an eleven year old to be like Look Skylar, like We need you to strike out here That'suck. I give you two hundred I give you two hundred bucks and And fucking order in a Uugo c, you know I love this Reddit commenter. If you're betting on this sort of thing, then it would seem like you were really bad down bad and need to seek help. Yeah, cororrect No, so but you're talking about, I mean, that's the hey, kid throw the game and we'll give you hundred dollars. But what about the other side of the pressure of like Hey kid That ten thousand dollarsing on this? Yes We need So I went to a Binghamton University basketball game over the winter And there was this NCAA advertisement like on them Jumbotron where they were like One out of every three college basketball players. gets harassed repeported experiencing online harassment related to sports betting. Like people are coming into their DMs and being like, I had twenty five dollars on you You fuck or you didn't make that has Yeah. Yeah, it's gross. And I I would not be totally shocked if the next step of the like Back bear vertical integration is like you can only bet on the youth hockey games on Black bear bet or whatever pressure of We've already we're spending twenty thousand dollars a year on you. writer We're putting bets on you. These kids, there's a reports of this kid who had a panic attack on the baseball field and had to be like carried off the field because he was just under so much pressure From his parents and from everybody who has all money on this it's like It's even worse. It's not just like, oh A subset of kids get to have this like elevated luxury experience where they're getting all this attention. It's like They're not even having fun. There' a twenty twenty one study from the American Academy of Pediatrics found that fifty four percent of young athletes who specialize in one sport, which is what they say you're supposed to do if you want Excel repeport chronic injuries. They're like under sixteen. Yeah. no, I remember kids even when I was playing like baseball, like kids were like, oh we don't let our kid play like golf or whatever during like because he plays baseball and that will impact his swing. and it's like Man, just let please just let kids be kids, like just let them have fun. I also wonder if there is gota be some like I was just thinking like the psychology of this, like as a parent, there must be some like escalation of commitment where it's like, I've already spent ten thousand dollars. I might as well just keep going because at this point, if I don't, my kid's going to have to go back to the municipal leeague with the kids who can't even like throw a ball back with a. Yeah. like yeah, you know. And so I bet there's something of that going on. but Any other thoughts on this Uh, it's just a bummer that like you know, to take something that like at its core like, is one of the like good pure things about you know, youth and family and this country like Really, like one of the one of the nice things and corrupt it in this way. and I don't also, I don't want to paint some rosy pictures. Like there's a lot of shitty parents as who put like pressure on their kids talk shit about the kids, blah, blah, blah, blah, And that's whole separate, but like at its core for the most part, like Youth sports are really fun and important part of development and None of it needs to have any part of like the monetization life cycle of any It's just not it's just simply not what it is about a It's a real bumber I'm breaking in here with some really good news Tw and a half hours after we finished recording the episode that you just heard, USA Today Reporter, Kenny Jacobi, I wanna make sure we get his name out there He tweeted that a federal bill just announced would ban private equity firms from investing in youth sports, specifically targeting vulture practices like consolidation, bundling, and state of play. In announcing the bill, lawmakers repeatedly called out Black Bear Sports Group. Now this new bill was in part proposed by Chris Murphy, who the Connecticut senator who you heard about in this episode He says, quote, Black bears' ownership roots are in private equity. They see my son's hockey experience as a chance to make a massive amount of money. They are using youth sports to get The bill would ban vulture practices, which include consolidating power over local programs through serial acquisitions, locking customers into exclusive dealings with a company's affiliates, and degrading services while increasing prices. Companies that violate the law would be forced to relinquish their earnings to a federal youth sports fund, and then that money would be used to subsidize costs for families like for scholarships and to keep like municipal programs free and low cost for community use. It also would give parents and state atttorneys general the to sue some of these companies engaging in vulture practices. Let's watch this bill because it feels pretty freaking bipartisan to me. Let's see what happens. Robbie and I will keep our eyes on it. By the way, one other thing, I had this written in my outline, but as I was editing the episode, I realized somehow I totally failed to mention the fact that On march sixteenth of this year, which was when USA Today's Kenny Jacobbe was set to interview Murray Gunry, I guess hours after that interview, he announced that he would actually be resigning as CEO of Black Bear. now he's still obviously involved in the company.'s his ultimately, it's his private equity firm, but they replaced him as like the face of the company with another CEO. So I just wanted to point out these two things because it really does show right the power of journalism. Props to Kenny Je Kbe I mean, his efforts and the efforts of his editors like have made a significant impact on youth sports. and yeah, it's so nice to come back in here and say, guys, good news So I hope this made you feel a little bit better after listening to the cluster fuck that is private equity in you sports. Okay, I'm going to bring you back to the episode now. Let us know what you think in the comments. I'm sure especially parents, I'm sure like nodding along. So you know, let us know what your experiences have been. And I'm sure there's also like someome towns that maybe you guys live in that have like committed to making this still possible for their kids, and that probably feels really good. So yeah, let us know if there's any bright spots or people who are kind of like resisting this or sorry, in Murray Gui'sds, being difficult U And yeah, let us know if you were one of the ones who Hit a grand sllam like me. and it was so and it was I know. I'ob jealous of that. I was playing for the Bringhamton Teachherers Association. It was in Rerecck Park in Bringhamton, New York And I and I wasn't good at all. L I barely made the team. I was like, this is my fucking And if you would have ask me, I would have said it was three hundred yards. Let's just say it is. Yeah, on that And like softball, like we just couldn't throw. So I'm sure it was like it was just like stumbled into like just beyond the short stop Yeah, we got a g slam Quarter three Book Club is coming up on Sunday, may thirty first at two PM. You do not need to do any reading. If you want to, we were going to read the No one would listen, the Henry Marcopouolis book. and then we all kind of started it and we were like, eh, is as good as we thought it was gonna be. So I'm like halfway through that. I actually just read almost in onene night betetrayal by Andrew Kurtzman Excellent. It's such an easy weekend read. If you're going out to the beach, It is. No no what I when it's dawning on me right now, it's so funny because Messaging and communication is everything. So you got a guy who writes a bad book. It's like no one would listen. Th're fucking boring. Yeah you're boring and bad. He's boring. and other people were saying like there's a little bit of misogyny. likeike he really thinks he's the shit. Yeah someone if you made it interesting, someone would have listened. Yes. you're so right. And it's funny because betrayal actually talks about Henry Marcopouolis and how hard he tried H delivery was so bad. Yeah. So we just never learned. He probably should have gotten a ghost wrriter for that book. Anyway, there's a tons of different things you can listen to and watch. There's YouTube. Wondery did an American sccandal on Bernie Madoff that's supposed to be good. There's HBO miniseries with Wh's that guy Robert De Niro? There's a Netflix series. There's literally everything. The story is fascinating. Or if you don't want to do any of that, the made off episode is going to be out the Friday before that Sunday book club.ot it So you can listen to that and then just join us. And we're just gonna I'll put some topics in there and I'll put a post up in that week leading up to it and you can kind of drop your topics, but it's generally like, Robbie, you haven't been there. This will be your first one.. It's just like kind of a fun hang. We talk for about an hour. We cover lots of ground. and Adam Data Analytics Playboy will be there as well. I think I have to confirm that it's good for his schedule But yeah, it'll be really fun. and so we do that every quarter and then we'll pick a book for Q four. So we will see you guys next week. Bye. Bye.