The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 8 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Why Velocity Capital Management refuses to invest directly in sports teams
“And we decided definitively we were not going to be investing in sports teams.”
Velocity Capital Management invested in carving out the X Games from Disney
“Ultimately after a lot of stop and start negotiations and a long year-long discussion, it was carved out of Disney and the transaction closed in October, and given Arnie's historical knowledge of it and relationship, we invested in it in Velocity.”
ESPN operated the X Games without a dedicated sales or management team
“Inside ESPN, given the size of the X Games, the prioritization was on much bigger intellectual property. The NFL, UFC, Major League Baseball. So not a dedicated sales team to monetize the IP through sponsorship. So having a dedicated sales team, and by the way…”
The X Games historically generated zero game-day ticketing or hospitality revenue
“Historically just given the size of it for the game day events, whether it's the winter games in Aspen or summer games elsewhere, there were no game day revenues. So think of going to a baseball game where all the tickets are free and there's no hospitality an…”
Apollo was founded to buy distressed assets originally financed by Drexel
“And a firm I eventually went to work for Apollo came out of Drexel, and their business was buying up the assets that they had been the investment bank for that actually raised the money and issued all the junk bonds.”
Abrams sold his Yankees AAA team in 2021 but kept Crystal Palace
“We ultimately sold the Yankees AAA team at the end of twenty-twenty-one, and Crystal Palace, we still own.”
Abrams admits Keemotion's premium pricing was a costly go-to-market mistake
“If we go back to Keymotion for a second, one of the lessons I learned, and it was certainly a mistake that I made, was our go-to-market strategy was pricing our product at a premium level, and in the case of Keymotion, we had by far the best technology and the…”
Abrams: New York investors constantly exaggerate their fund returns and hide losses
“Especially being in New York, people exaggerating how great their funds are and how great their returns are. You only hear about, oh, I did that deal, or I did this one. There's a band of returns that are the top, and there are a lot of people who will say tha…”