Welcome to sportfolio, bloombergs weekly inside look at the business of sports. In july of 2010, hollywood producer peter guber and his partner bought the Golden State Warriors for 450 million. It was the highest price ever paid for an nba franchise. Since then, they have gone from perennial losers to bona fide championship contenders. The franchise has recently been revalued at 800 million, nearly twice what they paid three years ago. Did anyone see this coming . I sat down with and found out what he knew in 2010 at the rest of the world didnt. It hadnt been properly developed. I dont know that we knew anything more than the average fan, i was a fan for 20 some odd years and i thought there was a tremendous opportunity if someone were to really pay attention. When you bought the franchise, concorde was ok, but now you have almost double the waiting list for season tickets. Winning helps, but it can explain all of that. We have done something that you are doing any business if youre coming in and wanted to turn it around. Youd hire the best people. We spent six months trying to figure out who was good and who wasnt good. We gave everybody an opportunity and then six months into it started making changes. There was a lot of hard work and it is not about me and peter guber, it is about the people who are here in the great work that theyre doing. Do you spend time at your former company . No. Even though i was transitioning, had a lot of responsibilities. By necessity i have had to spend a lot of time here and i am virtually 100 here. He is immersed in the nba now, but he first immersed his toe with the boston celtics. Now it puts you in a position to be a majority owner. Was that tough for you . Youre are not a minority owner guy. Was it tough at first . Actually, that is not entirely true. I come from Venture Capital where you never control or own the business. We always own between 10 and 40 . I have been in that position before and that has helped me in this as well. To your point, if its turned really did help me quite a bit by giving me advice. I got to note david stern and know the leak. That really helped when an opportunity came up in my hometown in terms of acquiring a franchised area the hometown connection is critical to lacob. I tried to smile but i wasnt smiling inside. It was personally a hard thing to do and to absorb at that moment. Three years later, everywhere i walk around San Francisco and oakland, people are really nice to meet. They always say, joe, so sorry you got food that day. Personally, i think living in the town where you own your franchise is really important because you get involved. You have to hear the boos if youre here. You have to hear the cheers. You know what is working and what isnt. That is what is really important, to be local and impassioned. Lacob will need to incorporate every ounce of civic capital. They plan to open a stateof theart arena with retail space and open public space. The plan faces hurdles and will require hundreds of millions in financing. The season vcc is the opportunities beyond the obstacles. This will be something to be proud of. I dont know if you know this, but when the Golden Gate Bridge was else, there were a lot of opposers to that. It was tricky. Now it is considered an icon. I hope people view this building and what were doing there and all the advantages for the city in terms of seven acres of public space and a park and all the other things like the fire station as a great advantage for the city. The bottom line is, having done a lot of these over 30 years, it requires tenacity but it also requires stability to involve and compromise. Youve had the intellectual and emotional skills to get this done longterm. The point is that you have to work with everybody. You have to listen to people and everyone has a voice. Owning a Basketball Team and owning a business like this requires a lot of skills that arent required normal businesses heard we own this but we are really part and parcel of the community as well. We do have to listen and hopefully at the end of the day we get that arena situation to a point where the majority of people believe we have got it right. The success on the floor, is it as you had hoped . It is easy to say the expectations are there, are you surprised at how the team is come together and captured the hearts and minds of San Francisco . When do we get to talk about basketball . And my surprise . I will tell you this. We had a plan and that plan was to emphasize defense, rebounding and size. We have stayed true to that plan. We turned it around. We drafted well, we made a few good trades and signings and we need to continue that heard we are not there yet. Getting the playoffs in the second round, nice. We need to go further. The goal is to win a championship and we are very serious about that. The warriors released version 3. 0 of the project in november after San Francisco voters rejected a ballot measure to allow a highrise Condominium Development along the waterfront. The teams latest plan scales down the height of the arena and expands the amount of Public Open Space to 60 of the entire site. The design must be reviewed by the seven cisco Port Commission and other local agencies as the permit process goes forward. Coming up, kobe bryant unveils a new design for his latest shoe and tells Jon Erlichman that these days hes wearing many different hats. Then you have to wear the the the satin get the public backlash. Sportfolio is coming right back. . Welcome back to sportfolio. Eight months after achilles surgery, the lakers star kobe bryant is playing again. His twoyear extension contract is worth over 40 million. Jon erlichman cut up with him last week at an event celebrating the release of the kobe nine, his latest sneaker. And while the player may have lost a step, kobe the businessman is clearly just hitting his stride. I am an executive for whole brand of products. I learned a great deal from nike. It is tough for athletes because you are asking to wear two hats that contradict each other. If i from an athletes perspective you have to be passionate about her sport and think team first and winning first, right . Then you have to put on the business that and get the public backlash for being a business minded businessperson. For whatever reason, i think athletes have become reluctant to do business things and make Business Decisions because of that. I think that is something that needs to change. Magic johnsons business path, is that something you see yourself going after your days on the court . I really enjoy building things. I enjoy the process of starting a company and partnering with someone that is launching a company and adding creative in marketing and helping with the design of the product from the inception of the brand. More so than lending your name to an established brand. I enjoyed doing into the trenches and growing something from the beginning to the end. And you are already thinking about the next kobe . Kobe tens and kobe elevens. Will there be more . May be well beyond my playing days. The Nike Partnership and the lakers partnership are both important to you or it was important to you to get the contracts signed before he got back on the court . I guess from an individual perspective, yes, because obviously whenever you have an opportunity to have security and have things locked up youd rather have that. From the way i was viewing it, i wanted to do what was best for the lakers because i was extremely thankful for everything they had done for me throughout my career. I was really just stepping back and saying whatever they wanted to have a conversation. They were great and we went through a myriad of offers and they presented an offer that i accepted. What about next year . Will you be chief recruiter for the lakers and making calls on the teamstaff . One of the things that is a pet peeve of mine is that i am concerned about what will happen to the Lakers Organization when i step away from the game. I dont want them to have any dip whatsoever. I want them to continue to win championships and do what they do. I absolutely will. Michael jordan recently made headlines saying that he could put together a team of five guys to have some fun on the court. Heres who i would pick and if i ask you the same question . Im liable to pick the same team. That is not a bad group. Thats if i could name some. I can name the same players he named . You can do whatever you want. I would do magic, myself, bill russell, Kareem Abdul Jabbar and larry bird. To my colleague, ownership is not something that interests you. I might reconsider not that im considering new collective bargaining rules. I might consider owning a new team. What about other sports like soccer or Something Like that . I will look into it. Obviously another sport is something im passionate about. To be around sports and any type of fashion, never say never. Kobe bryant identifies passion as a factor that can lead him to the owners suite once his playing career is done. Epic ceo Mark Greenberg tells us why his company is sold on sports. For us, those investments and content are a major part of reaching a younger audience. Here is the sportfolio stumper. Can you name the nba team that has been in its current ownership the longest . 19s have been nine teams we will give you the answer when we return. Heres the answer to the stumper. Los Angeles Laker has been another current owner since 1979. His family continues to own and operate the franchise. We have heard it over and over and over again on sportfolio that Sports Properties are among the most valuable assets in media and the market for sports programming, especially live event programming is hotter than ever. Does that premise extend beyond traditional Sports Networks . Can premium entertainment channels leverage the sports boom . Epics is giving it a shot. Theyre putting resources and promotion behind sports programs and the president and ceo of epix joins us. How do sports fit into your model . Sports has been a component ofepix the beginning. My personal history comes from putting on boxing events. I dealt with mike tyson as well as felix trinidad. We did live sporting events that were part of the network. We evolved that to really more storytelling on the world of sports. For us, a big part of that was to reach a younger audience. A very engaged and very involved audience. For us as a network, we think we can take on stories others cant and really bring them to live in a very interesting way and a unique way. Theres nothing more of a reality show than dealing with mike tyson. As you said, you did the mixed martial arts and boxing, but the focus on documentaries as well now. Give us the investment and revenue perspective on that change. For us as a Premium Network much like hbo, we are not selling a cpm per show because we are a subscription service. That allows us to take on issues that are more controversial and complex. We are not worried about advertisers. We are looking to the enduser and subscriber as a way for them to look at what our content is. For us, we are making a significant investment in our series of bill roden is doing a series called personal. Our first one was with oscar de la hoya. A halfhour show. We have been the same thing with another franchise called in the moment or it wouldve taken Lindsay Vaughn, mare stoudemire and we have a production on dwight howard. Those investments and content are really a major part of reaching that younger audience. Epix today is reached on over 400 devices like the gs four, ps3, ps4, that younger audience really wants to engage. Review sports and telling those shows as a way to for that younger audience, we know that sports is a passion. We really want to be able to activate that passion group. You launched in 2009. Your five coming up. What would you like to be doing as a sports part of your network grows. We continue to look at life sports and constantly look and entertain what might happen in the boxing or mma world if we see a good opportunity. I think we feel really good about expanding our sports telling franchise. Our first hardhitting doc was schools and the price of College Sports which deals with the ncaa on football and basketball and are these kids really being appropriately rewarded . We want to take on an issue like that whereas other networks have conflicts because they are doing business with the ncaa or with the leagues. We are really excited that Ross Greenberg who is an Emmy Award Winning producer and has run hbo sports for years has brought to us a great documentary called the forgotten for. It is really the first time with Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in 1947. No one knows that the nfl broke the color barrier in 1946. The Los Angeles Rams and the cleveland browns. So we will continue to tell stories that people didnt know and that help provide insight and understanding. We will continue the in the moment franchise which we have done with Lindsay Vaughn and white which are what i call inspirational stories. We will expand that. We are doing three a year and will try to wrap that up in the next few years. We think those franchises will really have a lot of value for us over the next few years. We will continue to expand that the cause we know that this audience, whether it is live or ondemand, which is where this world is going, it will be a great way to take those stories and bring them to life. Storytelling involves a lot of passion. You absolutely have it heard Mark Greenberg, best of luck here thanks for joining us on sportfolio. Still plenty left on sportfolio. Did you notice that it snowed up and down the east coast last sunday . Heres a preview of super bowl xlviii. Whether contingencies will be handled as sportfolio plows forward. Congratulations are in order for three masters. The Expansion Era Committee selected bobby cox, tony larussa and joe torre for enshrinement this summer. Apparently, managing in the steroid era did not tarnish their candidacy. Last sunday, a winter storm dumped several inches of snow along the eastern seaboard. It affected nfl playing conditions in baltimore, washington and philadelphia. With a first outer coldweather super bowl about to be held in the new york area, and turns over possible snow snafus remains high. Bloomberg Stephanie Ruhle sat down with al kelly, head of the new york and new jersey Host Committee to discuss the Business Impact of unpretty bull elements. Of unpredictable elements. What is the contingency plan if we get a snowstorm . If we play outside in the state that is this cold . I was certainly not predicting that we would do anything but be prepared. There are so many great things about this area and one of them is that we know how to clear snow. I spent time this afternoon with folks of that department of transportation in new jersey. We can bring thousands of allows here to move the snow. It would really take a very bad storm at exactly the wrong time to be an issue. I think there are two very wrong times during the course of the week. One is what affects economics of the week which as we get a bad storm on thursday and friday and it prevents people from getting into the airports because they are close to slow down. Because theyre closed or slowed down. Obviously the other bad thing is to get a bad snowstorm at the wrong time that prevents the kick off at six 30 on sunday evening. You mention the economics of bringing it to new jersey. What about the economics if you have to bring a thousand plows in . That costs a lot of money for the state of new jersey. The state will have to clear the roads no matter what the event is. The state has been very supportive as is the city of new york and making sure whatever Public Services we need are provided at a firstclass rate. There is no differentiation as to what happens on a saturday or sunday on that weekend or during the week. I think our government has our back on this because they realize it is important that people can move around the region and move around freely and safely and comfortably. That way they will go out and go to restaurants and bars and Entertainment Venues and still spend money. For what it is worth, only one half inch of light snow fell last weekend at the meadowlands. All agree it is impossible to agree on what will happen on the weekend of february 2. Our thanks to al kelly, Mark Greenberg and kobe bryant. Thanks for watching. For more video and bloomberg sports business coverage, visit our website bloomberg. Com. Im rick horrow, great to be with you, see you next time on sportfolio. This week on Political Capital harry reid and Chris Van Hollen talk about the budget deal and 2014. And also the volcker rule. And talking about paul ryans future. We begin the show with the Senate Majority leader harry reid. Thank you for being with us. You do not need another all night session. Does this mark the end of this war that has transpired . The trouble has not been over