Henrik Lundqvist on His Second Act at MSG After Hockey

Henrik Lundqvist isn’t just a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame and the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame, but he’s one of only 11 New York Rangers to have had his jersey retired. In this episode of The Deal, the Olympic and World Championship gold medalist tells Alex Rodriguez and J…

How K. Don Cornwell’s Private Equity Firm Is Changing the NFL

When K. Don Cornwell co-founded Dynasty Equity with Jonathan Nelson in 2022, investing in sports was seen as more of a vanity play than real business move. In this episode of The Deal, Cornwell tells Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly how he knew his thesis was strong, why he decided to invest in the S…

Olympian Gabby Thomas On Building a New Track League

The world of track and field is quite unstructured, with each race coordinated by a different entity and paychecks few and far between. A new track and field league called Athlos is trying to change that. In this episode of The Deal, three-time Olympic gold medalist Gabby Thomas tells Alex Rodrigue…

Atlanta Braves Investor on Selling the Team

The Atlanta Braves are one of only a few publicly traded sports teams, which makes the argument for its sale a unique one in a year when two other MLB teams – the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Angels – were sold at record valuations. One investor says the time for a conversation about sellin…

How AI is Changing the Fan Experience, with Jump’s Jordy Leiser

There are a lot of concerns surrounding artificial intelligence’s creep into all aspects of day-to-day life, but Jordy Leiser also sees a lot of opportunity for AI to help sports fans. That’s why he co-founded the AI-powered fan experience and ticketing platform Jump alongside Marc Lore and Alex Ro…

Kerri Walsh Jennings on Growing the Game of Volleyball

Volleyball is the world’s most popular female sport and it’s the top team sport for high school girls in the U.S., but the professional opportunities have not reflected that popularity. Until now, with the recent launch of two professional volleyball leagues: Major League Volleyball (MLV) and Leagu…

How Jenny Nguyen is Growing Women’s Sports from a Bar

Sports bars are a $2 billion industry, and women’s sports overall are now a $3 billion global industry. But there was a major gap in the market where the two intersected: Until 2022, there weren’t any dedicated sports bars solely dedicated to playing women’s sports on the TVs. Jenny Nguyen set out …

Re-Run: Serena Williams Wants to Conquer Wall Street

As the U.S. Open gets underway in New York City, the tennis world is abuzz to see the Williams sisters back on the court. Serena Williams’ return to the Open’s doubles tournament got us thinking back to an earlier episode of The Deal, recorded shortly after her retirement from the sport when she ha…

Ryan Howard on Sports Investing and MLB’s Labor Fight

Ryan Howard spent more than a decade as one of baseball’s most feared hitters. Since retiring, he’s built an interesting second act as an entrepreneur and investor, with bets spanning everything from the “Topgolf of baseball” to youth sports and professional soccer.  In this episode of The Deal, R…

Why Everyone's Watching Vanderbilt

Vanderbilt is having a moment. The university has transformed from a respected southern institution into one of the country’s most selective and sought after schools. Athletics has become an increasingly important part of that rise. At the center of it is Vanderbilt University’s Vice Chancellor for…