® WWW.SPORTSBUSINESSJOURNAL.COM MARCH 12-18, 2018 VOLUME 20 ISSUE 45 • $7.95 ESPN’s tricky NFL Instilling passion South Carolina’s Dawn Staley talks about problem her journey to coaching. Page 38 Pitaro’s to-do list: Repair relationship

BY JOHN OURAND STAFF WRITER

George Bodenheimer had only been on the job as ESPN’s acting chairman for a couple of weeks when he got word that Fox and the NFL would partner on the NFL draft, jointly producing a show that would directly compete against ESPN. ESPN executives were angry. ESPN created the NFL draft as a TV show Raising the game 38 years ago and popularized it to un- precedented heights over the years. It Recipe for success in women’s basketball: was one thing when the NFL Network Connect with community. starting covering it. But when the NFL Page 16 brought in a competitive broadcast net- CARTHY Better call Sal C work, it was seen as a slap in the face. Soon after, Bodenheimer heard rum- PATRICK E. M blings that the NFL was going to put Work ethic, perseverance, luck help turn See Pitaro Page 35 Sal Galatioto into a sports fi nance guru BY DANIEL KAPLAN STAFF WRITER openings for breathing. 2 groups vie Change overdue The creepy artifact is one of Gala- Madkour & Smith: Three LET’S MAKE A DEAL: few yards across from Sal tioto’s old radiation masks, evidence steps that would restore Charm, chutzpah, Galatioto’s desk inside his of the 33 excruciatingly painful treat- to establish intelligence deliver athletics’ credibility. A midtown offi ce is ments he endured during the last six Page 24 Galatioto free ride to a bookcase, on top of which stares years after a stage 4 cancer diagnosis esports PAs graduate school at Tufts, out a ghostly head-to-shoulder, white- in July 2012. Page 30 latticed-covered mask with small See Galatioto Page 28 BY LIZ MULLEN STAFF WRITER

Two very different, but serious, ef- The free tickets are forts are underway to create players part of a series of Orioles’ bold bet offers youth free admission associations for professional esports youth-driven efforts. competitors in two of the most popular BY ERIC FISHER STAFF WRITER properties across sports wrestle games — “Overwatch” and “Counter- with how best to attract youth au- Strike: Global Offensive.” In a move believed to be un- diences. The issue has been particu- If successful, the efforts would mark precedented in major sports, the larly thorny in baseball, which has the fi rst real grassroots, player-driven Baltimore Orioles will offer free seen its average TV audience rise moves to form offi cial groups to repre- admission to Orioles Park at Cam- to 57 years old, according to data sent the interests of esports players. United bid leader den Yards to any child age nine and from research outfi t Magna Global, One effort, being led by “Overwatch” John Kristick plays younger all season, part of a larger and frequently is tagged as having player-turned-coach Thomas “Morte” multifaceted role in effort youth outreach program the club is a graying audience. Kerbusch and veteran sports labor at- to land 2026 World Cup. developing. But the Orioles, which have seen torney Ellen Zavian, could result in the Page 4

BALTIMORE ORIOLESBALTIMORE The effort arrives as teams and See Orioles Page 8 See Esports Page 8 SA AA

Galatioto ■ Sicilian immigrant overcame personal, professional hurdles to become sports fi nance pioneer FROM PAGE 1 “I went from fi ne to you are dead,” the sports investment banking pioneer said. “I was stage 4, so there is no stage 5. Stage 5 is you go from the sports business to the fertilizer business. “I had it decontaminated,” he said of the mask. “Any time I am having a bad day, I look up at that and I think to myself, you know what, a bad day at work is better than a good day at Sloan [Kettering cancer cen- ter]. It just is.” During his treatments, he had to carry a letter from Sloan in case he set off the radiation detectors at Grand Central Sta- tion near his offi ce. Given the grim diagnosis, those closest to Galatioto believed he wouldn’t make it. “It was scary,” said , owner of the Chicago White Sox and Bulls, who used Galatioto’s fi rm for franchise valu- ation and has a bobblehead of his friend in his own offi ce. “I really didn’t think he was going to survive. I remember one conversa- tion I asked him how he was doing and he replied, ‘They tell me I am doing great; I feel sorry for the SOB who is not doing great.’” But Galatioto, who refers to the radiation room as the torture chamber, did survive and is now free of the dreaded disease. While cancer was obviously his biggest hurdle, Galatioto has cleared many in a life that’s taken him from a small olive farm in Sicily to helping create and then getting to CARTHY the top of sports investment banking in the c U.S. No challenge was too big, starting with making it to the U.S. in the fi rst place. Gala- PATRICK E. M tioto had no money for school. He’s worked Sal Galatioto helped establish the sports finance industry over the last 25 years, becoming a go-to voice for team sales and franchise loans. dozens of jobs. He’s been laid off. When he a few years earlier. Galatioto’s mother he went to business school. He called cus- been delivered for a second time. His only wanted to focus on sports his employer told sewed collars on shirts for 3 cents a col- tomers whose beds, sofas and other items problem: He hadn’t kept a record of his him not to. Big banks threatened his fi rm, lar in a Garment District sweatshop, and weren’t delivered. initial stories. Galatioto Sports Partners, with a $100 mil- his father secured a backbreaking job as a “I had the best job ever,” he said, con- “It was great,” he said. lion lawsuit just for keeping his word. longshoreman. vincingly. “I would make up a story when Galatioto is proud of his hard and con- Yet, through it all, thanks to hard work, “He couldn’t straighten up” when he it didn’t get there. The truck was hijacked. tinuous work. It’s a trait that has never left intelligence, chutzpah, some luck and his came home, Galatioto recalled. “I would … It was 1970s New York; it was perfectly him. When he fi rst returned to the offi ce trademark humor and sales skills, he’s have to take his big work boots off, untie plausible. The truck broke down, there after cancer treatment, he couldn’t eat. His cleared everything that life has littered in them, because he couldn’t bend down. And was an accident. You had to come up with nutrition came from a bag connected to his his path. he would work no matter how cold it was. He had a goal: He wanted to get a house, ■ ■ ■ ■ and we did it.” His 97-year-old mother still lives in that Galatioto’s par- tiny row house they ents, Giuseppe and eventually bought in Giovanna, were THE CHAMPIONS Maspeth, Queens. poor farmers who At 10, Galatioto started lived outside Castel- This is the third installment in shining shoes on Knick- lammare del Golfo, the series of prof les of the 2018 erbocker Avenue in Sicily, and applied class of The Champions: Pioneers so the family for visas to the U.S. & Innovators in Sports Business. could save up for their in 1948, four years This year’s honorees and the issues version of the American before Galatioto in which they will be featured are: Dream home. Polishing was even born (he shoes became the first has an older broth- DATE CHAMPION of scores of odd jobs he er, Rocco, nine years Feb. 26 Ben Sutton would hold in the years his senior). At the before he got his fi rst fi - March 5 Kay Koplovitz time, the U.S. had nance position. quotas from cer- March 12 Sal Galatioto “I liked that, that was tain countries and March 19 Howard Ganz fun,” Galatioto said of his only allowed 4,188 shoe-shining business. Italians to immi- March 26 John Wooten “I learned everything I DANIEL KAPLAN grate annually. The April 2 Paul Beeston know about marketing A radiation mask from his cancer treatments gives Galatioto perspective at the office. Galatiotos won the from that business. lottery in 1957. “I did,” he responded something, you couldn’t just say, ‘You know stomach. “My entry num- to the laughter brought what, the Teamsters, they decided they were “It was pretty ugly,” he said. “I had to plug ber was 2333,” Galatioto said smiling seated on by the comment. “I learned how to talk going to take a longer lunch break and they into this goop. That was my meal every day.” in his New York offi ce. “That was my lucky to people.” didn’t get to you.’” Tom Ricketts, the Chicago Cubs owner, number.” His favorite job? Bloomingdale’s furni- He got so good at the job that Blooming- recalled the laborious process he endured The family came to Brooklyn because a ture warehouse, which he worked in the dale’s promoted him to “Double Fails,” buying the club over three years because the man from their village had moved there evenings after a day job in the year before calling people whose furniture had not Cubs’ then owner, The Tribune Co., declared

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and working part-time jobs. He applied to actually every time people bitch and moan several New York colleges and Columbia about the New York state income tax, which accepted him. I know I probably do, I remember the citi- “My dad said that is very nice, you should zens of the city and state of New York paid frame that,” he said, laughing of the day for my college education.” the acceptance letter arrived. During the four years at Hunter, from There was no way he could afford to go, which he graduated magna cum laude, ironic now because he’s taught a sports fi - he worked afternoons and Saturdays at nance course at the school for years. (“No Ohrbach’s department store near Herald matter how busy you were, you made sure Square. Asked why he needed to work with you made time to make an appearance at such low tuition, Galatioto replied that one Sal’s class,” Levine said.) always has to work. He also needed money Instead, Galatioto went to Hunter Col- for graduate school. lege, part of the City University of New After Hunter, Galatioto went to the Fletch- York, then one of the crown jewels of public er School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts higher education. University (see story, Page 30), thinking he “It was $41 a semester,” Galatioto recalled. wanted to become a diplomat. When he went “I am very proud of the city for that, and See Galatioto Page 30 CARTHY c PATRICK E. M Among his clients are the Yankees and Cubs, both of whom gave Galatioto a ring. bankruptcy. Ricketts said he was surprised “A lot of the big deals the Yankees have Galatioto did not walk away. done, whether it be YES [Network], whether “At some point I thought it would not be it be Legends, whether it be fi nancings, we worth it for him,” Ricketts said. “He had to consult Sal on all of them,” said Randy put in thousands of hours because of all the Levine, president of the Yankees. complications. “Turned out to be almost three years to the day we retained Sal to the day we “A lot of the big deals closed.” In apprecia- the Yankees have done, tion, Ricketts gave Galatioto whether it be YES one of the team’s [Network], whether it be 108 World Series rings from its 2016 Legends, whether it be championship — 108, of course, for f nancings, we consult the number of years between Sal on all of them.” the Cubs’ World Series titles. RANDY LEVINE | PRESIDENT, In the 1950s, when Galatioto arrived in Brook- lyn, he spoke no English and the Dodgers and Giants had And the Yankees must regard him the way just left for California. So, baseball talk per- the Cubs do. In addition to his Cubs World fumed the air. Listening to Yankees games Series ring, Galatioto boasts one from the on the radio taught him English and made Yankees’ 2009 title. him a lifelong fan. In 1961, he sneaked onto the subway to see his fi rst Yankees game, ■ ■ ■ ■ paying 75 cents to sit in the bleachers. Today, Galatioto still has a hard time Galatioto attended a traditional Catho- believing he now has the team as a client. lic high school in Brooklyn, running track

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Galatioto Continued from Page 29 division. After several years he proposed ex- to interview there, it was one of his fi rst times panding into sports, a sector he’d identifi ed as out of . a promising area. Charm, chutzpah deliver Later, he chose to go to business school and At the time in the mid ’90s, sports was largely landed at Arizona State’s Thunderbird, choosing it free ride to graduate school over UCLA because living costs were lower. BY DANIEL KAPLAN STAFF WRITER travel.” “It’s always about the Galatioto laid out his credentials of money,” he said. “My dad … pointed to Sal Galatioto showed up at his 1974 working his way through Hunter and interview for the Fletcher School of graduating with honors. He threw in ■ ■ ■ ■ the Statue of Liberty and Law and Diplomacy at Tufts Univer- that he had taken the Graduate Record sity soaking wet, with none of the Exams and his results would be stellar. he said to me in Sicilian, Galatioto’s first finance background of a typical applicant He read 20 volumes of history books job was with the Insurance and not enough money to go if he to study for it. … You know what that Company of North America somehow got in anyway. “So he said, ‘If you get in the top 5 in , which made means? It means we are He ended up going to the school percent, I will consider,’” Galatioto him take what he called the for free and earned a master’s in said. “Poor Dean Shane. I said to him most boring accounting in America now. And international relations. — I am always negotiating — I said, classes in history at Wharton. The day before his interview, Gala- ‘I will tell you what, I can’t afford if a person works hard “They were awful. I did tioto fi nished up a Friday at Hunter to come here so if I make the top 2 that and I said, ‘I got to get College and a shift at Ohrbach’s de- percent, you let me in for free.’ He’s enough and studies hard out of here,’” he said when partment store before driving up Sat- like, ‘You are not going to get in the confronted with the prospects urday morning to the suburb top 2 percent, so I will make the deal enough, anything is of a career in insurance. of Medford for his interview with with you, but that’s a mug’s game.’” He turned his attention possible. I never forgot Dean Charles Shane. It poured the Nine days later, Galatioto’s results to banking, but only foreign entire way from New York to Bos- came and he had scored in the top 2 banks. those words.” ton, where he had never been, and percent. “Domestic banks, I had no he parked on the wrong side of the “So I picked up the phone and I SAL GALATIOTO interest in them. Not that I Tufts campus. He had no umbrella. called Dean Shane, and I said, ‘Do hold a grudge, but I hate them “I looked like a drowned rat,” you remember me?’ He said, ‘How all and I want them to die,” Galatioto recalled. “Dean Shane can I forget you? You were the only Galatioto said with a dose of starts the interview and he is like, person who came to an interview his trademark humor. a mom-and-pop business, and only Fleet Bank ‘You look like you just came out of completely soaked.’ I said, ‘Well, He landed at Royal Bank of Canada, and then really paid attention to it among fi nancial insti- a shower.’ I expect to get my acceptance let- Australian bank Westpac, which laid him off tutions. But there lay the opportunity. “Basically, I had none of the quali- ter and free ride.’ I said, ‘We had in 1993 as part of a round of cost cutting. Gala- “I am thinking not Goldman, not JPMor- fications to get into the school. I a handshake.’ He said, ‘We had a tioto then found himself at French bank Société gan,” Galatioto said. “I think I can compete had never lived overseas. I had no handshake.’” Générale running its U.S. East Coast lending with Fleet.”

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VALUE OF A DOLLAR

Some of the jobs that Sal Galatioto held while growing up in Queens

Shoeshine boy His dad helped him make the box, but the money was not his to keep. It went toward the family’s house fund. Galatioto says he learned how to speak to people with that job. Shines cost 25 cents, and sometimes he received a 10-cent tip. Messenger He delivered letters and packages in the summers during high school. The delivery service was in the middle of Times Square, “which was a demilitarized zone at that time.” Irv’s grocery store In Maspeth, Queens, stocking shelves. The Astorian Manor Worked as a waiter. Canada Dry bottling plant In Maspeth, Queens, loading trucks. “It was hard work. I wasn’t very big. It was physical labor.” Ohrbach’s department store Worked 4-11 p.m. four days a week and

CARTHY all day Saturday during his four years at c Hunter College.

PATRICK E. M Interboro hospital Taking a page from his parents, Galatioto has always been driven by an unwavering work ethic to achieve the American Dream. Hired to develop a color-coded system He had already made a name internally at at sports but only narrowly, and it could not His first deal was nearly his last. He for expenses. Worked the job in the year SG by going to Paris and telling the bosses, distract from his real business. bought a piece of the loan Fleet made to after the Fletcher School, from 9 to 5. who were hyping French business culture “Yeah, OK,” he said. “I lied to them and John Spano to buy the . Bloomingdale’s furniture warehouse to him, that the “French were a mixture said, ‘Of course it won’t.’” Spano would famously turn out to have de- After he was done at the hospital, of Italian effi ciency and German charm. Within a few years sports became his frauded Fleet (it became an ESPN “” Galatioto worked 6-9 p.m. here during the “I became a legend,” he said, still laugh- full-time focus. episode), but Galatioto and the other banks week and all day on Saturdays, calling it ing at the memory. “I used to tease them got out whole when Fleet paid them dollar his best job ever. His job was to call people constantly, and I don’t know why they took ■ ■ ■ ■ for dollar. Galatioto led the banking group who waited home all day for deliveries it; maybe it was the way I did it.” that pressured Fleet to take the entire hit. that did not arrive. He got promoted to Indeed, Galatioto has a way of delivering Targeting sports was one thing, but how One crisis averted, he nonetheless calling people whose furniture failed to both bad and good news with equal charm, to actually get into such a clubby world, couldn’t get his foot in the proverbial sports show up for a second straight scheduled which his clients appreciate. especially from a French bank, was another door. So, one summer afternoon in 1997, he delivery. “He’s not one of these guys who tells you matter. Doors were slammed in Galatioto’s fi gured most secretaries had gone home — Compiled by Daniel Kaplan what you want to hear,” Levine said. face, and he often couldn’t even get by the early and he cold-called Abe Pollin, owner His French bosses told him he could look secretary. See Galatioto Page 32

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Galatioto Continued from Page 31 assistant Pat, sparking an eye roll, as if they of the Washington Bullets. Pollin, who died were an old married couple. Had he died in 2009, picked up and Galatioto started his from his bout with cancer, Galatioto had a pitch. Pollin interrupted and asked what did succession plan ready so the fi rm wouldn’t the New York banker know about sports. die with him. The brash Brooklyn and Queens product “Brad and Phil would basically run the replied, “Everything.” business,” he said of his trusted employees, “He said, ‘OK, 1968 the Bullets had the Brad Katcher and Phil Landolphi. best record in the NBA and some people say Galatioto wasn’t looking to leave Lehman we tanked the last game against Philadel- in 2004, but luck came into play. Real estate phia because we wanted to play the Knicks, developer Howard Milstein, whom Gala- who had the worst record going in, and the tioto advised on selling the Islanders, asked Knicks swept us in four games,’” Galatioto to go into business with him and create a recounted Pollin saying. “‘If you can tell me new investment bank. Few if any saw any the fi ve players who started for the Knicks, fi nancial instability with Lehman. It was you can come and see me.’ I said, ‘Mr. Pollin, a powerhouse. I can tell you the fi ve players who started “Three years later it was gone,” Galatioto for the Bullets.’ He said, ‘No you can’t.’ I said. “Pure luck.” said, ‘Yes I can.’” Launched in early 2005, GSP established Galatioto reeled off the fi ve names and itself as a major player, arranging sales of the next week he met with Pollin. He would teams ranging from the Golden State War- one day work with the team, but more im- riors to the Stars. mediately Pollin referred him to the San Perhaps his biggest test would come in DANIEL KAPLAN Antonio Spurs. A $15 million loan to the A plaque on his desk next to a model World War II tank offers insight into Galatioto’s success. 2010. GSP had lent into the bank syndicate Texas franchise was Galatioto’s fi rst deal that was negotiating with the owners of the in sports. was 9/11 that obviously stands out. They Galatioto. His style is to treat customers Texas Rangers as part of the bankruptcy He really made his name in 1999, lending were in one of the two towers that collapsed as family and offer them advice even if sale of the team. Galatioto pulled in Mark Dan Snyder the cash to buy the Washington and were among the lucky ones to escape. it means he doesn’t profi t. The Yankees’ Cuban and Jim Crane to bid on the team Redskins. Galatioto structured the $340 mil- “I can’t even tell you what I saw,” he said. Levine said many times Galatioto has ad- against MLB’s preferred buyers. lion loan to skirt NFL debt limitations by “It was really ugly.” vised the team not to pursue deals that could The night before the auction, the two pledging as security future dividends, not They worked out of hotel rooms, strug- have lined the banker’s pockets. major lenders, JPMorgan Chase and Mon- team cash fl ow. gling on early 2000s cell phones to keep the “There are certain people who tell you arch, struck a deal with MLB to avoid an “That deal put us on the map,” he said. business together as their records lay smol- what you want to hear all the time,” Levine auction. The judge asked Galatioto what In 2001, with the business growing and dering in lower Manhattan. Only one client said. “Sal tells you the straight scoop.” he wanted, and he insisted on an auction. making a name for itself, Galatioto and by bolted, though even to this day Galatioto It’s not uncommon for clients to receive “JPMorgan threatened to sue me for $100 then nine other sports bankers, along with won’t say who. (Sources have said it was lunch invitations to the GSP offi ces, where million,” he said. “I was completely insane. his longtime assistant Pat who is still with Mike Ilitch, the late Detroit Tigers and Red the whole team eats together, white nap- “So, what should I have done? I should him, moved to Lehman Brothers. That’s Wings owner.) kins often tucked into necklines in the old have given up. But f--- them, I promised where he did his fi rst Yankees deal, but it It’s clear that defection still grates on Italian custom. Galatioto will bark at his See Galatioto Page 34

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Galatioto Continued from Page 32 Crane and Cuban we are going to have an auction, we are going to have a f------auction, GALATIOTO’S which is probably a stupid decision to make but whatever, I made it. We had an auction TOP DEALS and got signifi cantly more money and then I was the hero. After that, all these guys Oakland Athletics / 2016 who threatened to sue me were slapping Sell side: Financial adviser to Wolff Sports me on the back.” Investors LLC on the sale of its interests Why did he put his neck out? New York Yankees / 2015 “One is they really pissed me off,” he said Co-syndication agent, $325 million of the larger fi nancial institutions, which senior secured credit facility would have gotten out whole with the earlier deal but left smaller fi rms with crumbs. Chicago Cubs / 2015 “And two, I gave my word.” Sell side: Sale of signif cant minority Cuban, the Dallas Mavericks owner, wrote interests in an email, “Sal was a straight shooter and Sacramento Kings / 2013 always told me the facts. Good or bad. There Sell side were threats coming from everywhere and Philadelphia 76ers / 2011 Sal never backed down.” Sell side At the time, word in baseball was that / 2011 Galatioto would be persona non grata. He Sell side had bucked then Commissioner Bud Selig’s Golden State Warriors / 2010 preferred buyer and dragged the league into Sell side an auction. But Reinsdorf said Galatioto’s Charlotte Bobcats / 2010 reputation always remained intact, and the Sell side disagreements between MLB and GSP were not personal. Chicago Cubs / 2009 Reinsdorf, an ally of Selig’s, certainly Buy side CARTHY didn’t let it get in the way of his friend- c Anaheim Ducks / 2005 ship with Galatioto. When the banker sent Sell side him a GSP sweatshirt, the owner put it on, PATRICK E. M Phoenix Suns / 2004 stuck a cigar in his mouth, took a selfi e and A photo of client and friend Jerry Reinsdorf in a GSP sweatshirt sits behind Galatioto every day. Sell side sent it back to Galatioto. That picture now thing they could do (today it’s free; in those then proceeded to speak his father’s words Anaheim Angels / 2003 sits in his New York offi ce. days a round trip cost 25 cents). of wisdom in that tongue. “You know what Sell side Galatioto, 65, likes to tell a story of the “We would go by the Statue of Liberty and that means? It means we are in America Washington Redskins / 1999 time when he was 8 and his dad would spend my dad … pointed to the Statue of Liberty now. And if a person works hard enough Arranged $340 million loan to Dan Sundays with him, often riding the Staten and he said to me in Sicilian, I could say it and studies hard enough, anything is pos- Snyder to buy the franchise Island Ferry because it was the cheapest Sicilian if you like,” said Galatioto, who sible. I never forgot those words.” — Compiled by Daniel Kaplan

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