In the latest discussion of how the Tsai family sees the future of their holdings in the Brooklyn Nets and New York Liberty, Clara Wu Tsai recently told fellow sports team owner the Baltimore Orioles David M. Rubenstein that she hopes to see the two teams stay in family hands for “generations.”
In the wide-ranging interview which aired on Bloomberg TV and was part of Rubenstein’s research for his new book on sports team owners, “Inside the Owner’s Box.” Wu Tsai makes it clear that even in an era of rising
valuations and big sales, she wants Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment to remain “the family business.” Indeed, she would not dismiss buying additional sports assets. The Tsais are known to have interest in other women’s sports.
In answer to a Rubenstein question about whether she and Joe Tsai intend to keep their teams “in the family”, she emphatically says that is the plan. Her comments about generational ownership goes beyond earlier statements about the family’s role.
“Yeah! We intend to have this asset in our family, yes, for generations. So we are stewards of it and we try to take care of it and we tell them they need to take care of it as well.”
She also emphasized that as future owners of the team, her children will need to develop the skillsets that will be helpful in the sports business…. if that’s what they want.
“I say to them if they want to be part of the sports organization, that they need to learn a skill that’s valued in the sports business,” he noted. “whether that’s data analytics or media rights or negotiations or deal structuring, they should learn that because sports is an emotional business — it is for fans at least — but on the business side, it really requires and rewards business expertise.”
The Tsais have three adult children, a daughter and two sons: one who’s worked at Silicon Valley AI start-ups, another whose interest he’s said lies at the “intersection of sports, culture and design” while the third is a sophomore studying economics at Yale, all of which could fit easily within sports ownership and management. In addition, the three have played Division I sports, the older two lacrosse at Stanford, the younger basketball at his father’s alma mater. The two oldest have also played for Hong Kong’s national lacrosse teams.
The interview took place before the Tsais announced on July 31 that they were divorcing but the couple noted at the time that the split is amicable and would not effect Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment. Joe will remain Chairman and Clara will remain Vice Chair of the parent company which controls Barclays Center as well as the two teams. In that same statement, they noted that “In the long run, they also plan to involve their children.”
Wu Tsai also spoke about how owning and running a sports team is different from owning and running a traditional business , focusing on her experience with the Liberty. The WNBA team won the WNBA title two years ago with her in charge of everything from signing the best executive talent and personally recruiting Breanna Stewart.
“I can think of nothing more fun than owning a sports team … when your team is winning. People come up to you, they thank you, tell you how much the team means them and their family and how they’re grateful,” she told Rubenstein.
Earlier in her career, Wu Tsai worked at Taobao, one of the world’s biggest consumer-to-consumer e-commerce sites which is part of Alibaba. Equipped with an international relations degree from Stanford and an MBA from Harvard, she pioneered cross-border operations between Hong Kong and mainland China. Taobao is now the eighth most visited website in the world. The demands between the two, she said, are quite different.
“In the traditional business, you’re more focused on quarterly earnings and I think for sports team owners, you’re thinking about decades and generations and instead of thinking about earnings. You’re thinking about increasing the value of this institution,” she argued in yet another indication of her and the family’s long=term plans.
Asked if she and Joe had plans to purchase interests in other teams, she said “yes, but selectively,” adding that pro sports with its live experience have increased value in an era of artificial intelligence … a comment that carried a but of irony in that Alibaba is one of the world’s leader in AI technology.
“As you know,” she told Rubenstein. “Pro sports has become a legitimate asset class and are very good investments. Who knew that we needed to develop an ‘anti-AI’ and who knew that live experiences would become so valuable and who knew that something that was unscripted and unpredictable and caused people to come together in a shared experience was something that was monetizable and also really valued but that in fact has happened. Live sports is a place where that can all be manifested.”
Rubenstein’s daughter, Gabrielle, is among several minority owners in the Liberty
As she has in the past, Wu Tsai spoke about her pride in helping develop women’s sports whether in building a woman’s sports team, producing a movie on the lives of women athletes or financing a health initiative that looks into things like why women are so much more susceptible to things like ACL tears. She’s noted as well that only six percent of sports science studies are done exclusively on women.
Rubenstein also questioned Wu Tsai about recent controversies involving WNBA and politics, some of which have been tinged by race and gender issues. Without discussing specifics, Wu Tsai argued that in New York, tolerance for diverse views is always going to be in greater supply than elsewhere and so she has encouraged dialogue.
“We’ve been very clear that we support our players and their ability to express themselves, but we play in New York in a very diverse community with many different points of view,” she said. “We also want players to be able to express themselves and want to set an environment where we encourage dialogue, conversation and really respectful conversation if there are different points of view.”
Wu Tsai spoke as well about the family’s commitment to Brooklyn whether supporting the arts or funding Brooklyn start-ups through the $50 million Brooklyn Social Justice Fund or setting up the Brooklyn Basketball Training Center (where the interview took place) to provide training sessions for the borough and city’s youth.
“I think it’s so important what sports can teach you — teamwork, discipline, for kids, for their own physical and mental well-being and also learning leadership skills — and it should be equitable. So we have this here and making it available to everybody in the community and it’s also a way to develop a pipeline of fans.
Bottom line though is much simpler and much shorter term. Wu Tsai said her top priority is winning anothre W title because the “joy makes any other business success that I’ve had pale in comparison. You experience it, you taste it. It is so sweet that you automatically feel like you want to do it again.”
The WNBA playoffs begin next week.
