01:23:11 · John Coogan, Jared Allen, Jordi Hays
[01:23:11] S0: Yeah. [01:23:12] S1: And just all the different opportunities that the fan base, how loyal it is, and and and all the content creation around it. And then with Nick's background in in in gambling and and stuff like that in gaming, it was like, man, the opportunities for that was like a whole another level of all the different all the different metrics that come into a curling shot. Right? All the different measurables. But but more importantly, it's it's these athletes that don't get a credit for being elite level. I mean, you're talking about throwing a stone a 140 feet and having to hit like a millimeter or a centimeter of of a rock to to make certain shots. And so it really is fascinating, the athleticism to sweep on ice. If you watched our very first grand slam of Curling in United States, you'll see I snapped a broom. So it's not it's not always the easiest [01:23:54] S2: thing I mean, hey. Hey. We break these mallets all the time. So we're we're we're familiar. By that? Yeah. We...
01:23:54 · Jordi Hays, Jared Allen, John Coogan
[01:23:54] S2: thing I mean, hey. Hey. We break these mallets all the time. So we're we're we're familiar. By that? Yeah. We... [01:24:01] S1: So we got together. I was one of the founders of the group, and it's done a great job of taking it. And, you know, we we bought the grand slams at Curling. We've... We got the Rock League. And now with with people like David coming on board, it really it pushes the sport to the next level. Yep. It it... When... You know, as an athlete, I always tell people, you know, football, basketball, all that stuff would be nothing without the outside support, without the media attention, without the influx of revenue for people other than athletes Mhmm. The the game wouldn't be wouldn't be what it is today. And that's what we're trying to create with, The Curling Group and The Rock League. And that's why people, you know, like David are so important to to see that dream, to see the the the business side of things, to to create that, to bring exposure to those athletes, and and to create revenue based around it is is fantastic. [01:24:48] S0: Yeah. [01:24:50] S2: We covered that story of an American guy who's like a lawyer, I believe, who was competing in the Olympics and is kind of like a... I believe acts as somewhat like a father figure for the team. I really, really enjoyed that. Then and then I wanted to [01:25:05] S1: That's one of my old teammates. Awesome. Go
01:25:05 · Jared Allen, Jordi Hays, John Coogan
[01:25:05] S1: That's one of my old teammates. Awesome. Go [01:25:08] S2: Yeah. He seems seems like a legend. And then and then talk about the talk about, like, the the drama in the sport because I remember there was also this last Olympics. There was, a bunch of cheating scandals. Seemed seemed like cheating happening and they were, like, catching them in four No. They were catching him in four k. [01:25:27] S0: Oh, yeah. You were. I [01:25:28] S2: remember that. I I don't know. I think it was pretty black and white. [01:25:31] S0: Double touch. [01:25:32] S1: Yeah. I don't... You know what? Listen. I don't know why... I think it was Jacob Brad Jacobs with team Canada. Think he was the one that was involved with with Switzerland. You know, you look at Sophie Cunningham, she got all the attention for, you know, his pointing and sticking her tongue out. I'm like, Jacobs did it first in curling. [01:25:47] S0: Oh, you did that. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. [01:25:51] S2: All sports are downstream of curling. Yeah.
01:25:51 · Jordi Hays, David Rader, John Coogan
[01:25:51] S2: All sports are downstream of curling. Yeah. [01:25:56] S6: Well, and Jared brings up a good point of of the... You know, about the drama and and all of that. Yeah. There's there's... It's coed. Right? There's there's women involved. There's men involved and and on the same team, on the same ice at the same time. It's one the things we love about it. And I think it it drives the the excitement. It drives a whole different audience for it. The, you know, these these kinds of scandals and and and, you know, the the drive to to win is what gets people excited. And we actually, you know, the the the numbers are fantastic. The interest from from women is actually, it's actually outdrawing men. The audience is more female than male for the most recent Grand Slam event. And it's, to Jared's point, like it's because it's exciting and the drama from from many of it really, really gets people going and gets a good mix of an audience. [01:26:47] S0: Yeah. How are you thinking about the revenue mix over time? Is it like a third tickets, a third merch, a third ads and sponsorships? Like, give me a rough feel... Feeling for, like, how these businesses evolve. [01:27:01] S6: Yeah. So so, look, we invest in a lot of emerging sports. Yeah. We've we've had investment in the in the X Games League Sure. Which is is super fun. That's amazing. [01:27:10] S0: We love the X Games. [01:27:11] S6: Won the championship over the summer for for Club New York. And and a lot of these these sports had a similar model where [01:27:19] S0: it's Yeah.
01:27:19 · David Rader
[01:27:19] S6: Look, we're gonna we're gonna sell a bunch of tickets. We're gonna have you... You can see the the audience, the excitement for audience. But you also make a ton of the money on sponsorship. Sure. And it's the brands that are excited to connect with these audiences. And so when you have a team that, like we said, has a lot of drama, it appeals to both men and women, it appeals to younger audience. You're gonna get more more sponsors, more interesting sponsors, and a good mix of of all of those kinds of things. Then you add an incredible live experience, and that's that's what it is. Jared can tell you about the... Just the fun of being at at some of these events. You go there and you got live music going. You've got a fun crowd. You have a couple of drinks. You have have have, you know, some excitement on the ice. I mean, it's an amazing experience, and that's why people wanna go. And then you add the third layer, which is really the media deal. So the Curling Group just announced, you know, part of our thesis as we got in was announcing three hundred plus hours of of content on CBC in Canada on an annual basis. CBC is investing not just for... You know, in a short term, but it's actually a five year deal replacing Canada... Hockey night in Canada on on many of the programs up there. So we're gonna be all over TV. You're gonna love it if you're a sponsor. The fans are gonna wanna be there, and and the and the the revenue mix will come from that. But they're already... It's already growing. The the numbers are kinda off the charts. It was like 400 plus percent growth, over a 100,000,000 social views on social. Incredible. Just just from the first event.
01:28:58 · John Coogan, David Rader, Jordi Hays, Jared Allen
[01:28:58] S0: Yeah. I wanna talk about that. It feels like Curling Sorry. Go ahead. Sorry. I I... It feels like Curling is, like, uniquely great for social media in that one throw is the perfect length. It's it's actually a vertical ice even. Like, it frames up well. And I'm and I'm interested in, like, are you are you having fruitful conversations with sponsors around, hey. We're gonna bring you on social media and your logo will be there and maybe even, you know, ad reads, overlays, stuff like that to monetize that attention that might be a little bit more passive but still extremely valuable. And, obviously, it's a funnel to going deeper with the sport, but are advertisers comfortable yet saying, okay, I'm getting a lot of impressions just on social media? [01:29:40] S6: Yeah. I mean, you're right. You wanna come be our head [01:29:42] S2: of sponsorship? We're... [01:29:44] S0: Fantastic. Yeah. No. We love this. [01:29:46] S1: I just wanna pitch for it. [01:29:47] S0: Yeah. Exactly. Mean, love we love clipping and bringing the advertisers with us. You can see the advertisers at the bottom corner right here. If this goes out... [01:29:56] S1: One sec before David answers Yeah. That. So to your point that was one of the the things excited when Nick and I were talking about this. So curling is one of these rare sports that actually shows better on TV. Yep. Right? Because you can you can reach such a broader audience. Because if you're live, you need to have education. When you got four or five games going on on one seat or on on one sheet of ice [01:30:16] S0: Yep.