It was a newsmaking day at our second annual Asset Class summit, when this newsletter came to life on stage. Giants co-owner and Gotham governor Carolyn Tisch Blodgett and DraftKings CEO Jason Robins were among the speakers. But perhaps nothing went more viral than a comment from Duke University legend and ESPN host Jay Williams about “black duffel bags” full of cash college players received before the NIL era was formalized. Read about that and more below.

—Ben Horney

Overheard at Asset Class

“Just in black duffel bags… Sorry, we all participated.”

Former Duke basketball player Jay Williams said this in response to a question about the NIL era that existed before name, image, and likeness payments were formalized in 2021. Those days were often characterized in pop culture by handshake agreements or cash in duffel bags.

“I never participated,” former football NFL player Ndamukong Suh responded. “I don’t know what y’all do at Duke, but don’t bring that over here to Nebraska, sir.” (Suh played for the Cornhuskers from 2005 to 2009; Williams played for the Blue Devils from 1999 to 2002.) Watch the full conversation.

“They’re always gonna be looking for those returns. To me, I understand it, but I don’t necessarily agree with it.”

Ndamukong Suh said he knows private equity isn’t going away in youth sports, but investors need to find a better balance between their pursuit of returns and what’s best for young athletes. Jay Williams noted that while the cost of youth sports keeps rising, his kids are “actually not getting the type of skill training that I would like for them to have.” Watch the full conversation.

“What’s really clear in sports right now is that stars are driving interest.”

Gotham FC governor and co-owner Carolyn Tisch Blodgett said attracting stars is especially crucial in soccer, in which U.S. leagues “need to live in the reality of a global sport” and compete with leagues around the world for big names. But Tisch Blodgett, also co-owner of the New York Giants, still wants the NWSL to keep its hard salary cap that’s not traditionally implemented in top European leagues in women’s and men’s soccer.

Gotham, the reigning NWSL champion, recently used the High Impact Player rule—also known as the Trinity Rodman rule—to re-sign U.S. women’s national team members Rose Lavelle and Emily Sonnett to its squad. Tisch Blodgett credits the rule as a reason for her team’s ability to attract stars. Watch the full conversation.

“When you look at the NFL, you see just a massive audience, a massive connection with the U.S. population, and a goal to grow globally, which we’re seeing more this year than ever.” 

Sam Porter, Apollo Sports Capital chief strategy officer, said the firm has the NFL in its sights.

The sports arm of the alternative asset manager—which isn’t currently one of the NFL’s approved private equity firms—has stakes in the New York Yankees, Wrexham AFC, and Atlético de Madrid, but “we’d be remiss if we didn’t take a hard look at [the NFL] given how big it is,” Porter said. Watch the full conversation.

“We’ve had an opportunity to sort of rewrite the rule book and bring best practices and scale to Minor League Baseball.” 

Diamond Baseball Holdings CEO Peter Freund said the Silver Lake–backed company is seeking to bring a new level of efficiency and scale to Minor League Baseball. After MLB relaxed team ownership rules following a 2021 takeover and reorganization of MiLB, allowing for larger holdings of multiple clubs, DBH has amassed a portfolio of 49 of the 120 affiliated clubs in less than five years. Watch the full conversation.

“That was a total hit piece, so obviously they’re gonna throw that in there.”

DraftKings CEO and co-founder Jason Robins fired back at Fortune magazine over a recent article, which came under the headline “Exclusive: Struggling DraftKings awards $30 million marketing contract to cofounder who recently stepped down.” The sportsbook’s shares are down more than 40% over the past year, but Robins said the “business itself certainly isn’t struggling. We’re doing great.”

Robins tried to dispel a common misconception: that the rise of prediction market platforms are bad for his company, which launched its own prediction market product last year.

“The other weird thing is it’s getting beaten up on predictions, and we like predictions, so it’s this bizarre thing where we see a headline that is positive on predictions, and everyone in the company [celebrates] and our stock goes down. Or we see like the Ninth Circuit rules against predictions, and we’re like, ugh, and the stock pops. And so it’s this weird disconnect between us feeling happy about things or not happy, and the stock having this completely opposite reaction, which is a first,” Robins said. Watch the full conversation.

“What happens for a reason happens for a reason. We’re just really focused on our women’s sports properties in Portland.”

Portland Fire and Thorns owner Lisa Bhathal Merage touted the city as a “mid-market unicorn” amid uncertainty over whether Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon could move the franchise out of the city.

Bhathal Merage and her brother, Alex Bhathal, tried to buy the Blazers last year but lost out to Dundon. They sued one of Dundon’s minority investors before ultimately dropping the case, and are now focusing on their WNBA and NWSL teams. The Fire and Thorns have a new joint facility, the Kaiser Permanente Performance Center, which cost more than $150 million and was financed privately.

“It is a home for our athletes,” Bhathal Merage said. “Great athletes want great environments, so it will hopefully attract and retain athletes, as well as staff, to us in Portland.” Watch the full conversation.

“As a company we’re hugely supportive of women’s sports, and it’s a huge component of our platform. We never intended to portray female sports. Sydney is an actress, the biggest movie star in the world. We’re a prediction market focused on sports. That is the story she was communicating.”

Novig founder and CEO Jacob Fortinsky responded to backlash about his company’s racy advertisement featuring movie star Sydney Sweeney. He said Sweeney, who is an equity holder in Novig, served as the controversial campaign’s creative lead. The aim was to “introduce [Novig] to the nation” ahead of football season.

“It was a very exciting process to work with her, both on the commercial side and the creative side. It really was Sydney who was driving a lot of the visuals and the messaging.” Watch the full conversation.

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