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Carolyn Tisch Blodgett declined to address the issues surrounding her uncle, Steve Tisch, but she said the transfers of ownership shares in the Giants by Steve Tisch and his two siblings into trusts for their children are “done.”
“No, I’m not going to comment on anything related to him,” Tisch Blodgett said onstage Tuesday at the Front Office Sports Asset Class event in New York. “But I would say for me, I’ve been involved with the team for a number of years. … But the idea when I got involved was to be able to take a kind of high-tech, growth mentality and bring it to a very mature organization like the Giants.
“And so I’ve been involved for a number of years in international expansion, in fan development, in the in-game. If any of you were at the game on Sunday or you watched on TV, the in-game experience looks really different than it has in the last few years. I led our sales process for a minority interest last year,” she said, referring to the sale of a 10% stake in the team to Julia Koch and her family.
“So I’ve been involved in the team for a number of years. And this was just kind of a natural next step.”
Tisch Blodgett is the governor of the NWSL’s Gotham FC and is a strategic advisor to the Tisch ownership group of the Giants. She is the CEO and founder of Next 3 Ventures and formerly was the head of global marketing for Peloton.
Tisch’s grandfather, Bob Tisch, was the billionaire co-CEO of the Loews Corporation and bought 50% of the Giants in 1991. Bob Tisch died in 2005, and his children—including Steve Tisch and Tisch Blodgett’s mother, Laurie Tisch—inherited his half of the NFL team.
In February, documents released by the Department of Justice showed Steve Tisch was in regular contact with Jeffrey Epstein, the sex offender who died in 2019.
The NFL said in February that it would review the communications between Steve Tisch and Epstein.
“I would say that absolutely we are going to look at all the facts,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in San Jose, California, at his annual news conference during Super Bowl week. “We’re going to look at the context of them and try to understand that. And we’ll look at how that falls under the [personal conduct] policy. But I think you take one step at a time and let’s get the facts first.”
Epstein connected Tisch with numerous women, email exchanges in the released documents showed.
“We had a brief association where we exchanged emails about adult women, and in addition, we discussed movies, philanthropy, and investments,” Steve Tisch said in a statement at the time. “I did not take him up on any of his invitations and never went to his island. As we all know now, he was a terrible person and someone I deeply regret associating with.”
Steve Tisch has produced many Hollywood films, including Forrest Gump.
In March, the NFL informed teams that Steve Tisch and his siblings, Jonathan Tisch and Laurie Tisch, were transferring their remaining ownership shares into trusts for their children.
Asked Tuesday about the status of those transfers, Tisch Blodgett said: “Done.”
She did not provide specifics about how she envisions her future in Giants ownership, though she said she tried to be at the team facility at least once a week and “be as supportive as I can in any way that I can be.
“I’m just really trying to get through every day, to be honest, right now,” she said. “I’m not really focused on the future. I just continue to think about how I can contribute to the team every day. And, you know, I think there’s so much work to be done when you think about what it means to bring in a new coach and bring in a new culture, the same can happen on the business side as well. And so I am spending a lot of time thinking about, with a winning product on the field, what does success look like from a business perspective? … What are we doing in flag football? What are we doing internationally? What are we doing with a more diverse audience? So there’s so much work to be done right now.”
The widespread expectation within the NFL is that the Giants will remain within the Mara and Tisch families, sources have told FOS. Co-owner John Mara has announced he is undergoing treatment for cancer. He has remained active in team and league operations and was in the Giants’ locker room following the win Sunday night.
Last year’s minority stake sale to Koch and her family valued the franchise at $10 billion.
Forbes estimates the value of the Giants at $12 billion, third-highest in the NFL behind the Cowboys at $17 billion and the Rams at $13.5 billion.
Tisch on Harbaugh’s Debut
She called the Giants’ season-opening victory Sunday night over the Cowboys at MetLife Stadium “amazing.” It was the Giants coaching debut of John Harbaugh, the Super Bowl–winning coach who was fired by the Ravens following last season.
“He was fantastic,” Tisch Blodgett said Tuesday. “I think the coach has done such an incredible job. I’ve really gotten a front-row seat to see his leadership, you know, from the beginning. And he is somebody that sets incredibly high expectations for himself and those around him. And I think you saw that on Sunday.
“I think one of the things that excited me the most in that game … obviously we kind of dominated from the beginning. But there were moments where you could have—a team could have gone in a different direction. And, you know, there was an interception. There was a potential fumble. And I was just watching the sideline and no one stopped believing. And I think that’s what a great coach does. And he’s definitely brought that to the Giants.”
The Giants will seek a 2–0 start to their season with a road game Monday night against the Rams.
