Jeff Vinik - Owner, Tampa Bay Lightning (NHL)

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craft brews anytime and without any downside. Use code summer15 to get 15% off your first order at athleticbrewing.com. Near beer exclusions and conditions apply. Mark Cuban. How you do anything is how you do everything. If you're not, you don't pay attention to detail on the little things. You're not going to be an avid, a paying attention to detail for the big things. Ken Griffey Jr. Hey,

where's his hat back? Well, where my hat got this? Because my dad had a fro and I wonder where his hat. And if I put a hat on at 86, and you know, he's got an 8 1 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1 I just can see everybody. John Smolts. If you don't have the imagination and the willingness to fail or not being afraid to fail, I don't think you can

be truly great. Candace Parker. I have so much hope for this generation coming up that I've grown up with women in sports, in leadership roles, on television, speaking about sports, speaking knowledgeably about sports. To me, all the work that I've done, all the humanitarian work that I've done, has always given me great perspective. I've grown and has really put and reminded me what's truly important. Damien

Miller. That was for Seattle. Just to name a few. Welcome to Sports Business Radio. Now, here's Brian Burgers. Well, thanks for joining us on this edition of Sports Business Radio. I always loved and were able to talk to owners of Pro Sports franchise. We have one of the best on with us. Jeff Vinic, the owner of the NHL Tampa Bay Lightning. He's going to join me

for an in-depth conversation in the 12 years that Vinic has owned the Lightning. The team has made the playoffs nine times. It's been to the conference final seven times. It's won the Prince of Wales trophy four times. And the Lightning won back to back Stanley Cups in 2020 and 2021. They came darn close to a three-peat earlier this year, losing to the Colorado Avalanche. And the

Stanley Cup finals. Vinic is widely regarded as the best owner and the NHL. One of the best team owners in Pro Sports. He's helped reshape the downtown Tampa Bay area with his vision for developing the area around the arena. And he's one of the most community-minded team owners in all of sports. I had a chance to go to the Tampa Bay Lightning Toronto Maple Leafs overtime

game. Yeah, the day four three Tampa Bay one. Really cool experience to go see the Lightning. I mean, in person, I think you're going to enjoy my conversation with Jeff on our show this week. I'm joined by executive producer Brian Griggs. Greg Soario. I'm doing good. And man, he has had a great run with Tampa Bay. You just mentioned rolled off all the accolades there. And

man, he knows what he's doing. And I love the interview. How we dip into the community and what he's done for the community on the players respect him and the owners. And the fans respect him. And yeah, just a cool interview. Anytime you can have an owner on, especially with championship team like Tampa Bay, it's a good conversation. Tampa Bay, as they call him here in

Tampa. And seriously, other than the Golden State Warriors, who has had a better run in pro sports in North America in the last 10 years than the Tampa Bay Lightning? I defy you to tell me. And, you know, I think if they had won three in a row, the Warriors haven't done that. So some serious success. Like you said, it's not just on the ice. He

has some terrific. He's got a great insight on when you're hiring people. He has a story that it actually blew me away with what he does when he's going to hire someone. So you're going to want to make sure to listen to that. Because a lot of people listening to this. I'm sure are going to be responsible for hiring people at some point in their career.

But really good stuff. I see organizations all the time. They give away some money and they think it's a big deal. Like this is someone who's given away $30 million in the last seven years. And he's been working for several years with this $50,000 a game to honor a community hero at all Tampa Bay Lightning home games. He gave a each employee in the organization $5,000

and said donate it to your favorite charity. So that totaled $1.2 million. He puts his money where his mouth is. And it's not just, hey, you know, let's get some good PR out of this. This is changing the community. And I talked to a lot of fans at the game the other night. And this guy walks on water. Jeff, any more? So, you know, there's a

lot of teams and they don't really like their owner very much or they wouldn't mind trading their owner for another owner. That's not the case here with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Yeah, no, I think in that, that speaks volumes. I think when you can have an owner. And like you said, you, you sat with some fans that have been seasoned ticket holders forever. And they love

everything he's doing. I mean, that's where that's where it matters. You know, it's with the people. It's the season ticket holders. It's the athletes. It's the people he works with. I mean, that's more, that's worth more than, you know, what you do on the ice. It's about the community build around it. All right. Before we get to my conversation with Jeff, let me go out this

early. It's going to be interesting to see what the TV ratings do from here because, you know, here in America, the most, or the highest rated, the most watched matches so far were team USA. Now they're out. So, you know, what are those numbers going to look like going forward? That's going to be interesting to watch. Yeah. I think you still got the big names. You

got name are still playing. You've got Ronaldo. You've got Messi. You got in Bap and all the big names and soccer are still involved. So I mean, if you're a soccer fan, you're going to be one of the best players in the world. I'm watching, but I agree. The ones that are just kind of the, you know, you know, not the big go go crazy soccer

fan with US out. Will they still be tuning in? I'm watching. It's fun. World Cup. You know, we, we like the Olympics. The World Cup. The big sporting events like this. It's been fun to watch. But we'll see how it comes down to the wire as we get through the knockout round. We told you on our show last week that Ronaldo parted ways with Manchester United.

Well, guess what? That's kind of weird. Two and a half years with Saudi Arabia inside Al Nasser in a deal potentially worth. Are you sitting down? Yes. 200 million dollars per season. This would be the highest amount of money that an athlete has ever been paid by a team in global sports history. 200 million dollars per season. We'll see if that comes to fruition. But Marka

is reporting that. And a lot of people are like, oh my god, 200 million dollars for one season. So the rich get richer. Ronaldo already has a pile of money from his career and from his endorsements. But if he's making 200 mil per season for, I mean, I'd like to just have the half a season. Like just give me, give me the 100 mil for the

half a season and I'll be fine with that. I love the two and a half season contract. That's kind of funny. You don't see that very often. But yeah, I mean, he's been top five highest paid athletes. Basically, since he started, it feels like, right. And this is just going to make him number one even longer because no one's getting paid that much in the NBA

or NFL yet. But man, 200 million a season nuts. All right. The MLB hot stove is heating up a lot of free agents on the market. Two of note. So Justin Verlander and his wife Kate opt in head to the New York mats, two years, 86 million dollars, according to multiple reports. Verlander had been in Houston. He's the current raining, siong award winner. So that's a

ton of money for him, especially at his age. But he's still producing results. But that'll be interesting. Trey Turner to the Philadelphia Phillies from the Dodgers, 11 years, $300 million, according to multiple reports. So those are the two biggest free agent signing so far. Still on the market, Aaron Judge, Dan's B Swanson and a few others. These 11 year contracts, like a lot of MLB players

don't even play 11 seasons. I mean, in their whole career. And they're signing these 11 year contracts. I don't understand the long contracts. We've talked about that before. I just don't, I just don't, there's just no way he's going to be there 11 years. But who knows? I guess it's, it's the money and you know, maybe he thinks, okay, I can have my family here and

we can just live our life for 11 years. But that's just nuts. Well, according to the reports on Turner's contract, it's a full no trade for him. So he can be there for 11 years if he wants, unless he waves his no trade clause. All right. Let's look at the college football playoff. Those matchups are set. There was a lot of controversy around who was going

to make it. And Georgia is the number one seed. They're going to play the number four seed Ohio State. Michigan is the number two seed. They'll take on the number three seed TCU. Griggs did the committee get it right. I think with the crazy games there this last weekend with USC dropping out and then TCU losing to it's just like, where do you put people? I

was glad that Alabama didn't sneak back in because I was worried they were going to somehow pop up because they're Alabama. But I think Georgia Michigan got to have it. Those are the two that are that are definitely solid. I think Georgia is going to repeat. But I don't know. I mean, I think that Michigan TCU games can be fun too. It's because TCU can compete

in their quick team. It's fun to watch. I'm looking forward to tuning in. I just I'm happy Alabama is not on the top four. Yeah. I like TCU's quarterback. He has some grit and grind and begun. So, you know, those will be fun games to watch. But I agree with you. I think Georgia is going to smoke everyone. So it's just going through the motions. All

right. Here's the New Year's six slate. The capital won Orange Bowl. Tennessee versus Clemson. The All-State Sugar Bowl. Alabama versus Kansas State. I think Alabama was going to smoke Kansas State. The Fiesta Bowl, as we told you Michigan TCU, the Chick-fil-A, Peach Bowl, as we told you, Georgia versus Ohio State, the good year cotton bowl to Lane versus USC to Lane had a surprising season. And

then the Rose Bowl Penn State versus Utah. I think both of those fan bases are going to travel well because they haven't been that game in a long time. So they're going to be excited to be in the granddaddy of them. All great. Yeah. I think those are good matchups. A lot of those games. I'm curious about the Clemson Tennessee. I think that'll be a fun

one to watch. But, you know, it's the the age old question. What seniors are going to play? What big athletes are going to play? What what team are you going to see in these games? Other than the big four game or the big, you know, two games. But, you know, if some of these bowl games, you never know who you're going to see. So that's kind

of a little bit frustrating as fans. But it's going to be a good New Year's six for sure. All right. As I told you, just then the owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning coming up next, but next week, Greg's, we're going to look onto the hood of another championship organization. You and I are headed on the road. We're going to be in San Francisco for the

sports business radio road show presented by boy and go. I'm going to sit down with Golden State Warriors president Brandon Schneider for a conversation at the Chase Center in front of a studio audience. Our conversation is going to post on our December 14th podcast. So be on the lookout for that. Thanks to boy and go. We're going to be on the lookout for powering the sports

business radio road show. And thanks to Brandon and the Warriors for hosting us. Griggs, we haven't been at the Chase Center. So it's going to be really cool to see that state of the art venue. And, you know, like I just said, if you're looking at the two most successful organizations in North American sports over the last 10 years, it's got to be the Warriors and

Lightning. So for us to have back to back shows where we get to talk to leaders of both organizations, that's pretty great insight. I'm excited to hit the road again with you. We always have a good time. I've never been to San Fran. So I'm looking forward to seeing a new city. And yeah, the live shows are always fun to do. It's going to be fun

to see the venue, which is, you know, from what I can tell is, you know, stay in the art and iconic and just beautiful. So I'm looking forward to getting the road and possibly hitting the ice ring again. All right. Do you think those shots from staff, the full court shots that are making the way on social media or those for real or are those doctor.

There's no way he made five full court shots in a row. Right. I watched that video probably five times because I'm like, okay, where's the edit? I'm trying to look for an edit or a clip or something weird, but I don't know. His reaction is on point with every shot. So, and he goes crazy after the fifth one. You got guys yelling the background saying, that's

five. That's five. And then he hits it. I mean, it's Steph. The guy, if anybody else could do it, no one else could do it. It's going to be Steph. So I kind of am leaning towards believing it, but I'm not sure yet. He's the greatest shooter of all time, but even the greatest shooter of all time, I'm not sure it can make five. I mean,

they're just he's there. Just one or I'm like, yeah, just one arm he's and five in a row. So that's one of the questions I'm going to have to ask Brandon. I don't know if he's going to sell Steph out. He'll probably say, oh, yeah, of course he made all those shots. But, uh, and then I want to see maybe we can get some shots up

at Chase Center. What do you think? How cool with that, be man. I would love to take a shot from Steph Ranger behind the backboard or, you know, from the front row in the stands. See what happens. Yeah, they'd probably be afraid that we'd like knock the basket down or exactly something like that. All right. On top for our food in San Francisco, we're going to

Geardelli to have a hot fuck Sunday because you've never been there. We're doing some sourdough bread down at the Wharf. Yep. We're going to Chinatown and having some dinner there. Um, but you know, usually when we do these road shows, we eat our way through the city that were, uh, and we're both in pretty good shape. Yeah. We got to spoil ourselves now and again. So,

um, you know, my inside tracker app may go crazy with my blood work after the trip. But, uh, you know, we're, we're going to have some fun while we're there. Well, like you said, they're short trips so we can, you know, spoil ourselves a little bit for a day or two and then get back on the Peloton and run in the streets or whatever. But, uh,

yeah, I'm looking forward to a little trolley trip down to the Wharf and seeing a beautiful city. Yeah, I did not take the ice at the lightning game. So even though you and I went skating a few weeks ago and we may take the ice in San Francisco at Union Square, uh, I, I saved the Tampa Bay lightning fans. Uh, some pain and heartache from having

to watch me, uh, skate on the ice at the lightning game. Yeah. It's probably a good move. When you're watching an NHL team skate, there are probably a little bit more caliber up than us. But, uh, it's close. I mean, it really is amazing to see professional hockey and person. It was fantastic. All right. Coming up next, Jeff, Vinnet, the owner of the NHL Tampa Bay

lightning. You're listening to sports business radio. We'll be right back. When it comes to your health and longevity, you hold nothing back. You understand what it means to push harder, reach farther and go the extra mile. This relentless drive runs in your blood. That's why inside track or provide you with a personalized plan to build strength, speed recovery and optimize your health for the long haul

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team in 2010. I had a chance to take in the lightning. Four to three overtime win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night. It was an outstanding game from start to finish. Jeff, how are you? Thanks for joining me on sports business radio. Yeah, pleasure to be here. Brian and it wasn't outstanding game one because we won with two. Also, it was just fun. It

was a lot of action. But going on. So it's fun to play great teams like Toronto. I tweeted out whoever does your game ops deserves a raise because your game ops. I've been to lots of sporting events in my career. It's as good as I've seen. Well, thank you. I really appreciate that. We appreciate that. From day one, when I got the team 13 years ago,

something that was really important to us. We want to, you know, treat our fans. As well as we can. Whether that's, you know, when they walk in the door or arena or when it's during TV time, that's during the game. And we pride ourselves on really providing great respectful respectful to the game of hockey entertainment. Yeah, and you even got some lightning in arena. I mean,

you don't see that every day. Yeah, when I asked for that again, go back 13 years ago, I said, why can't we have a throw of lightning? And they saw I was crazy when we asked for and mixing. You know, we looked into it. And those are Tesla coils. And the end of the game or when we score, yeah, we have real lightning and our arena

and. I'm proud to say that the we haven't heard anybody in the all time while we've done a celebrate goals. That's wonderful. All right, let's go back to 2010. You know, you could have purchased a lot of different teams out there and a lot of different leagues. What was it about the Tampa Bay lightning and the NHL that you saw? Because, I mean, Jeff, this was

a downtrodden franchise. The season ticket base was very low, very little corporate support. It wasn't what it is today. What was the vision that you saw for the club when you purchased them? Yeah, I think it's exactly right. I saw opportunities. What I saw. But you're right. Going back to 20 2008, 2009, which was when I decided that I wanted to buy an NHL team because

I love this for a hockey and I was looking forward to, you know, hopefully making a difference in the community and bringing a winning team somewhere helping a team win. That's when I started the process and terrible recession at the time. There were probably somewhere between five and 12 teams that could potentially have been available for sale. I looked at them all. Now I'm an analyst

by training. I invest in the stock market. So my life is about evaluating pros and cons, major factors, minor factors. And I did that as I looked for what I thought would be, you know, the best available opportunity for myself and my family. So we did evaluate a lot of different teams. Frankly, I knew again that one of the critical ingredients for having a successful all-frigerator.

And I was very excited about getting my time and I was really excited to be able to do it. So, I was kind of thinking about creating a successful brand. It's to live in the city I am in which you own the team. That was really important to me. And with most of my kids, licking a house at that time and my wife and I in

middle age, you know, frankly, we rather than someplace warm than someplace cold. It wasn't the only factor. But that certainly was something attractive about the sun belt states in the U.S. And then we Florida teams and the lightning, you know, population increasing one to two percent a year is an incredible tailwind to half. I mean, in 13 years population in Tampa Bay is gone 25% that's

25% were demand for everything. And if anything, it's accelerating right now since the pandemic because there's so much good stuff going on in the region. So that was a big factor to me. Lots to do. You know, great exciting growing regions. History of success. Led to league in attendance for three years in a row in the mid 2000s. Frankly, great franchise players just drafted in Stamco's

and headman. And three years later, nobody else remained on the team that when I bought the team, except those two. And obviously, as, you know, we won two cops and they're still on the team and still two of our very best players. And, you know, you put it all together. The franchise was in very difficult state. The brand was irrelevant in the community. Season take. And

I think it's where low. There was a huge amount to be done. And but I did see that opportunity with the with the love of sports here in the area, the history of success with hockey, the great young players. I get think if we ran the team really well. There was an opportunity to build a strong franchise. And, you know, what wasn't easy. Your next question.

Maybe how you do this all answer before you ask it. And my answer is pretty good. Very simple. As I've learned more and more is the older I've gotten higher grade people, given the resources to see and then get out of the way and let them do their jobs. And I was so fortunate to be able to hire a child. I wiki a CEO, one of

the very best in all the sports. And hire see guys and manage general manager right off the bat. And one of the most respected guys, you know, alive and hockey and one of the smartest. Really, really, both really, really good people. You know, I could have gotten hit by a bus in X. Day and it all slowed from there. And again, we, you know, we just

we discussed strategy. But I have not in 13 years ever told my general manager, whether it was Steve Eisenman or Julian breeze blow. I was succeeded. Steve. I've never told them who to dress, who to trade floor, who to bench, who to put on the power play. You know what? If I'm making those decisions, we got some. No problems here. We have experts, whether it's our

GM or a coach to hold hockey ops department who should be making those decisions. Well, we tell you what, every owner doesn't think like you. There's a lot of owners that get into the weeds on that. But let me ask you this. You obviously have an excellent eye when it comes to hiring people. You just mentioned some of the executives that you've hired. What are some

of the characteristics that you look for when you're IDing that talent to run hockey ops or business. Yeah. And I have learned over the last 15 years through the lightning through our real estate companies, other business ventures that have been involved in that. I, I seem to be pretty good at hiring people. You know, you've got to, you've got to miss completely in terms of values.

In terms of the way you treat people in terms of the way integrity. All those kind of soft actors. They're really important. So, and it's an orc not a siren's hiring people. There's definitely a scientific element. You want to understand how they've done in previous jobs. You want to check all their background and, you know, people that they work with. But the art of it is,

and I always use this as an example. When I'm hiring senior level people, I like to go out to lunch or to dinner with them. I want to see how they retreat the waiter, right? Are they being respectful? Yeah, are they being respectful? The way they're doing it? They treat the waiter. If they're barking orders at the waiter, you know what? That's probably, you know, it

doesn't mean that person is eliminated, but it's a red flag in my mind. And that's the way you kind of get at the values. And then at the end of the day, I don't know, it's almost like I've invested in the stock market. I believe the stock markets were picking stocks as one art then a science. And at the end of the day, you have a

gut feel or just intuition. I think this stocks by, I think we should hire this person. And then lastly, I'll say is I believe if you can get a person who's the best, the person who's the best. Or let's say in the top 3% is often 10 times better than the person who's in the top 20%. So it's awesome, worth it. Pay that top 3% person.

Sometimes significantly more just to get them because there's so much better and going to have so much greater effect. And to be perfectly frank, the light being were losing so much money when I bought the team and such difficult straights. If I hadn't hired Todd and if I had a good chance, the Tampa Bay Lightning would no longer be in Tampa Bay right now. It would

be something else, something else. They were so good at, you know, they were able to create this turnaround. Stubble on a time and a lot of work, but obviously we're proud the way it's said of the host. All right, I'm going to read our audience from stats here because it is not easy to change culture. Since you purchased the Lightning, so that's 12 years. The Lightning

have made the playoffs nine times. They've been to the conference final seven times. You've won the Prince of Wales trophy four times. You won back to back Stanley cups in 2020 and 2021. And you came darn near to three peeting earlier this year. So this is a question that a lot of teams struggle with. How do you change the culture when it's been a losing culture?

It's been a downtrodden culture. Like you said, maybe the brand's not as strong. How do you? I mean, the stats I just read, those are as good as any team and all of sports anywhere in the world. As far as winning is concerned, how do you change that culture? It's a, a, a, well, thank you. Also, we're, we're obviously proud of those accomplishments, but it's old

news and we got to now we got to do well this year. And in all the years they have, we were never going to be satisfied. But it starts day one. First of all, it starts with the leadership people. Hopefully myself, you know, Todd Steve, the people that remain with the organization of people, they hire. That's where it starts. And then it is just, you know,

when I remember Todd used to talk about this for me when he would walk around the arena. If they were a tissue on the ground, he would pick it up. So people that work there could see him doing that. He would go meet me, me, too. I you know, it's like, you know, well, somebody just blew their nose. I can't believe I'm picking this up. Um,

the way you treat people day in and day out with respect. And, you know, just basic human decency. Uh, the way we treat our community, the way we write away gave our season ticket holders, you know, three jerseys in our first couple of years, uh, 25% off food and beverage, 35% off merch, uh, community heroes. It is, um, where we give away $50,000. To the charity

of choice of a hero, every single game we're up to, uh, 13 years now and closing in on $30 million to all kinds of grassroots organization. Those are six things at a 6,000 things that we have to keep doing in every single day to build up our brand and create that culture. So it is a nonstop. I know I'd have to use the. Well analogy blocking

and tackling it is just it, it's not one major thing. It is just relentlessly, uh, trying to be better every day. That sounds like a cook with our hockey teams. Relentlessly trying to be every better every day and continuing to make the organization improved our original intention. We wanted to be world plus world class. Two years later after we think we thought we accomplished it. I

said, let's be world class plus. And, uh, I can't, I can't, I can't. I don't know exactly how they grade world class plus. But again, I'm proud of our culture. I'm proud of the way, um, leads evolved and we continue to try to do better. Well sports business journal graded world class plus by giving the Tampa Bay lighting team of the year. So that's a pretty

good. Oner right there. I have had countless owners on this show in the last 19 years. I gotta tell you, I have not seen too many sports organizations do what you've done in the community. I mean, you just mentioned the, the community heroes I saw that the other night with the $50,000 at every single home game. Um, I was as impressed to be honest with you

with the fact that you gave $5,000 to every single one of your employees, totaling $1.2 million. And you said they can donate the $5,000 to the charity of their choice. I thought that was amazing. I, when I said the game, we did that in game six against Colorado or last home game that's for our community here. And it's funny, Brian. I'm really, I'm not always great

coming up with ideas, but I'm really good at when people have good ideas saying I love the idea. That one was my idea. So I was really proud of it. Well, I'll tell you what, it's a great idea. It gives some ownership to the employees. I'm sure they love being the ones who kind of directed where that money went to their favorite charity. I was at

the game. Yeah, then I sat next to a gentleman named Jose who has been a 30 year season ticket holder. And I'm telling you, you walk on water with he and his wife who have come to all the games and they didn't even talk about the hockey. They talked about what you've done in the community and how you've changed the downtown area. And, you know, that

you're a genuine person in this organization is a genuine organization. You're not just writing checks to write checks. You're making meaningful change in the community. Where does that come from for you personally? Because again, you're the leader of this organization. So everything kind of flows down. Word. So if you're not doing this, none of this is happening. Yeah, let's let's let's let's. I want to look

over. Yeah, I'm the owner on the leader of the organization. But this is the DNA of our organization. This is people we've hired over time. Share these values. Steve Griggs, I current CEO is fine. A person as you'll meet Julian breeze by the same way. So I'm just one person at the top. This is an entire organization. Living and breathing these these values. And I also

want to give a shout out to our community and whether it's people who live here or the public sector, the corporate sector. This is an unusual place, Tampa Bay. And it is really. I culture really nice people welcoming people. And I think they've responded incredibly well. We have tried to be outgoing and generous with the community. As an owner of a sports team, we have an

obligation to do the right thing. And you know, my parents, Penny, my wife's parents, they brought us up that way. So not only is it good business, frankly, but it's also just doing the right thing. We have this. I have this position where people listen, people follow. And especially as I get older, I get more meaningful. Let's help others out, whether it's throwing COVID or any

other time. I think it's really important. When we can make a difference, let's see if we can do that. You know, those of us, certainly in owner, but our employees, our players, your organization, we're very, very fortunate. That's not true. Everybody. So if we can just share a little bit, maybe we make the world of 1% or Tampa Bay 1% place. You're listening to sports business

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to Ron dot com. R H O N E dot com and enter code. SBR 15 at checkout like sports business radio 15 SBR 15 at checkout. Now back to sports business radio with Brian burger. Well, you know, I just have a great connection with the community. I I noted your connection with your players the other night when Stephen Stamcoose was honored for a thousand career points.

You honored him before the game started. His wife was there. His kids were there. I mean, there were flowers brought by players. You were there and gave him, you know, I think a golden stick or something to that effect. It was first class all the way. And I've heard, you know, from lots of people throughout the NHL that you treat your players and coaches with first

class and you look at someone like Stamcoose who you mentioned has been here for a long time and players don't want to stay that long if they're not going to be able to do it. They're treated well, right? Like they want to go somewhere else where they're treated better. So where does that connection with the players come from? Because dealing with a player or coach is

a little bit different than dealing with, you know, someone on the business side. Yeah. And I'm going to mention one thing on Stamcoose. It was a huge day for us. Probably now seven years ago after Stamcoose has yet is entry level contract. Then is I believe second contract was three years unless I'm mistaken. Was I'm remembering long grain. Pretty sure that was the case. You know,

and he was very close to becoming a free agent. And that's a time where a lot of players, I may have those years wrong, but anyway, Stamcoose, maybe he was a free agent. I just can't quite remember. But we had a sign in other contract. But then he could have gone to other places. He could have gone to Toronto. It's a rest. She stayed here. And

the late thing did not have a history. A lot of Tampa Bay teams didn't have a history of players when they had the opportunity to go out to places staying here. So that was really meaningful and really important that he did that. Again, different owners do things differently. I don't go into the dressing room after games. I choose my spots when I go down and talk.

This is their home. This is their living room. They don't need to see me after every game. I'm looking at the big picture. I'm not going around saying, you know, to break point break game, break point or something like that. So, you know, the relationship I've developed with them is based on a handful of times. We get together a year. We've been able to enjoy some

joyous moments celebrating Stanley Cups. Certainly the highlight whether you know, we parties are both parade and just winning right after. But other times charity events are beginning of the season. So, you know, I try to be very respectful of the players and their lives. The coaches also and their lives not interfering as I've talked about. I don't I don't interfere at all. So, you know, that's

the thing. The way I've done it now. Again, other owners do things very differently and other owners have a lot of success doing things very differently. But kind of shit's my personality of low key personality kind of fits. What's worked, I guess, so far. And I don't want to screw it up at this point by now, while going and visiting after every win and every loss.

Well, after every round my family does go after every round of the playoffs. Assuming we win. I do go in the top. That's one tradition that we've had that's been a lot of fun. Well, and they seem to like you a lot of those parades. I see a lot of hugs and high fives and arms around you and things like that. So, you know, you can

tell a lot about that that body language and that relationship. I want to spend a few minutes talking about. Also about the matter. You're that we all drink. Hey, that's the time to do it. Right. Yeah. Can't do it then. Then what are you going to do it? Exactly. The overall state of the N.A. L. So franchise values are up just signed a new media rights

deal with ESPN and Turner. Give me your general thoughts on the overall state of the NHL. I know you were, you know, you had part ownership of the Red Sox, I think for a while there. And I look at Major League baseball and, you know, they're kind of flattened even declining a little bit. I see NHL continuing to trend upward. Yeah. I think it's our commission

will be the first one to tell you. And I'd be the first one to second. And NHL is doing great. The game is fantastic. The pace of the games. There's more scoring than there was a few years ago. So it's more exciting. And, you know, the secret sauce at hockey NHL hockey, in my opinion, is just how close every game is and how close the standings

are overall. Because we have a great system in terms of the salary cap. It really, you know, I think it's a great thing. Equalizes play to a pretty good extent throughout the league. And, you know, I don't think there's another sport. The NFL would be closest where so many games are close, you know, with five, 10 minutes left in the game. There, there's forget the statistic.

Like 70 or 80% of games are within two walls in the, in sometime the third bridge, maybe 60% are within one goal. You go to, you know, when you go to a sporting event, you want your home team to win. You want it to the close game. And you know, when you go to a hockey game, almost always, it's going to be really close and really

exciting to the end. But in terms of you talked about ESPN and Charters, we have great partners, nationally, televising our games, our ratings are as good as they've ever been, both in the US and Canada. Again, the game continues to improve. We make, we continue to make the game better and better. And, you know, in my opinion, it's, and I think most sports fans opinions, it's

the best game in the watching person. So while personally, I love watching NFL games while sitting on a couch on a Sunday. I love watching hockey games while sitting on a chair in the arena on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Monday, whatever. Well, and I'm telling you out one of the smartest things the league did in recent years is I love the three on three and over

time. I love it. And we got to see it the other night. Yeah, it's so exciting. And I just think it's a different twist on things. And I loved it. I thought it was, it was a great outcome for you guys. It was over pretty quickly. Yeah, I'm wondering, do you guys practice? Like, hey, these are our three designated players for over time. And we're going

to, you know, not mix it up. Like these are the experts when it comes to playing overtime. Yeah. I mean, there's got to be flexibility in here. You put on the ice based on who's available, who's had more playing time, who played, who's playing well with whom. So, I don't think there's a set formula for what players come on the ice. But there's no question. All

CDs in the league practice. It's important part is, yeah, probably over 10% of games, players practice. You know, it's also right. That's an important part of it. And it's interesting. When three months restarted a number of years ago. I don't know if you remember. It was crazy. I was worried players were going to get hurt. It's still crazy. But it's, it's more contained now where, you

know, they'll sometimes take the knock in the opposing teams and then come out of the end to read group. You get worse. The so all teams have learned strategy wise, had a better, you know, give their team a better chance to win. But it is fantastic. I we all agree on that. Sports betting. The NHL has deals with, I think, Fan Duel and bet MGM. As

I understand it, Florida sports betting not legalized here yet. So where's the future of sports betting? Because again, this is sucky, huge revenue strategy. And for these leagues and teams now. Yeah, it's a, it's a definitely a significant positive factor for all the sports and for the NHL. We do think in Florida sports betting. It's a matter of times. We, we actually did have it, have

it brought in a couple of years ago. And then it got overturned. I don't know if it was a court level or exactly what happened there. But we do think that we will have sports betting here and probably most of the country, although California voters turned it down a big way. I saw it. But you know, again, what we've seen in all the sports is my

concern was you might lose the tribalism of fans for their favorite teams. Because they become more interested in covering the spread or betting on sports. We have seen none of that be the love, the emotional bond between teams and their fans as remained as strong as ever. So I don't see that incremental negative happy. And you know, more and more. Casual fans would believe we'll get

involved in all sports, including hockey because they have other ways to enjoy it and other ways to bet on it. It's still early, though, in the evolution of sports betting. You know, in terms of, uh, uh, I came over to terms my progress, but you know, that's during games. That's still in the first or second inning of happening or watching alternative channels or streaming alternative channels

in terms of betting being, you know, shown an opportunity. Opportunities there, you know, uh, tailoring that for a different audience. We still have a long way to go to, uh, maximize the potential. Definitely incremental positive. Just a few minutes left before I need to let you go. You sold a minority stake to Arctose sports partners earlier this year. I believe. Um, why did you do that?

I know you're still in charge. Your majority owner. Some fans were like wondering, Hey, what's going on here? What led you to do that? Yeah, Arctose are, they are the cream of the crop in terms of this new breed of, uh, private equity companies that are investing in sports teams. You look at the roster. Of teams they've invested in. It is a who's who of the

best in this sport. Uh, they are out in front of every other organization. And I personally am very proud to be partners with them. Uh, we again, we don't share. Uh, I think that's a good thing. Our financial information with them. We don't share our hockey information with them. They're invested in so many teams that, that's all got to be kept private to us. But what

we do get, they have a list of advisors. Um, throughout all aspects of sports, whether it's media or partnership or, you know, sports betting or, um, analytics. They have a team of advisors that is also a who's who. And we get access to those people. We get access to talk. Talking to other teams and other owners. And it's just, it's a great win win because we've

learned so much from them about, you know, ways that we can run the Tampa Bay Lightning better. So, uh, it's a great partnership. They're terrific people. Uh, they're running Arctose. And we think it's a win win for them and the Tampa Bay Lightning. Now I do maintain full controls. And, um, I do maintain almost all the rights. So, uh, in terms of fans, who may worry

about any of that stuff, uh, they don't have to because, uh, you know, I'm in charge. I read a lot of people really, as you know, I'm in charge is over and out of the power play. Right. All right. Last question for you. And I asked this to a lot of owners that I have on the show. What's the greatest pleasure that you personally derive from

owning the Tampa Bay Lightning? Well, uh, winning Stanley Cups was a great pleasure. Um, watching hockey games is fine. I love watching hockey games. Um, you know, it's, it's, it's, and I guess I take a level higher watching hockey games with my family. I put a higher level than that. Playing a playoff to the extent my, my kids can get out of work. My wife, Fannie

and I and the kids will fly around to all the different places. And, you know, we get a lot of great bonding and family time together. I'm moving so fortunate to have so many playoff games the last few years. Uh, we also had another experience where, uh, all the metal, metal, of honor recipients in the country, um, uh, descended on a Tampa, uh, I'm four or

five years ago. And to have all of them in our company and to be able to put them all on the ice and honor them was an incredible experience. I'd put that up there. I put that 99% of the way up there with winning Stanley Cups. Why? In terms of the greatest experiences that I've had. Um, it's, it's, it's been terrific. But I love watching hockey

games. Well, the impact you've had on the NHL, the impact you've had on the Tampa Bay community, the impact you've had on the development around the arena. We didn't get to that, but you've done such an amazing job. There, uh, I tip my cap to you. You know, your widely regarded as one of the best owners in the NHL and continue to success to you. Well,

Fannie, I appreciate Brian, but, you know, I was not forget, we're supported by a couple hundred employees. Yeah. Yeah. Do I love the job source? Yeah. Jeff Vanick, the owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Thanks so much for joining me on sports business radio. That pleasure. Thank you. This episode of sports business radio is brought to you by Underdog Fantasy, the fastest growing fantasy app ever

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get started right away with a free match on your first deposit up to $100. Well, that's it for this edition of Sports Business Radio. Thanks for tuning in. Thanks to our team at Sports Business Radio. Brian Griggs, Josh Blank, Ryan Nakajima, and our friends at CG Sports who power Sports Business Radio. CG Young, Matt Amarlin, Nicole Wardle and Calvin Wurz. I'm Brian Burger. Have a great

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