Creating Unreasonable Hospitality: Paul Caine, President of On Location

00:01

Paul Caine

Hey, this is Paul Caine, president of On Location. And this is the Sports Business Conversations podcast from ADC Partners.

00:25

Dave Almy

Hey, this is Dave Almy of ADC Partners and I've got a quick question for you to get things rolling. If you were in charge of the world's most innovative sports experiences and hospitality company and you were responsible for major global sport events, how would you spend your time at those events? Walking the sidelines like a boss? Maybe catching the action from the comfort of your luxury suite? Well, if you're Paul Caine, the president of On Location, you spend it wiping down tables, making sure everyone has a drink, and almost never catching the end of a game. On Location is the gold standard for sports hospitality. Think of a major global event and they're responsible for creating the out of this world experiences for fans and sponsors. The Olympics. Yep. FIFA World cup also. Yup. NFL Super Bowl.

01:19

Dave Almy

een leading on location since: 2020

02:14

Dave Almy

Paul, I want to begin by diving into your career and the trajectory it's taken because you had a very successful career in both, I guess what could be today called traditional media. Right. Print media. As the publisher and president for Entertainment Weekly and people, your chief revenue officer for Time Inc, CEO of Westwood One, the enormous audio company, and global chief revenue officer for Bloomberg. And then you seem to make this pivot towards On Location became president of On Location. So can you, as we get started, provide a little bit of perspective on that journey and what led you from, like I said, traditional media to where you are today in hospitality?

02:56

Paul Caine

Yeah, it's a great question, David. I mean, first of all, thank you for having me. I love this podcast. So I'm a pleasure to be here.

03:01

Dave Almy

Well, you and my mom, that's. Those are the five stars that we get.

03:05

Paul Caine

Look, I've had an amazing career. I really Have. And when I look back and say my journey, and you did a great job of outlining what that was, it's been, It's. It's one of those things I never dreamed of being able to do. And there I was doing it when. When it came to the transition from traditional media to what I'm doing now. To a lot of people, it feels completely foreign, but in the reality, it's very familiar.

03:35

Dave Almy

It was pretty seamless for you.

03:36

Paul Caine

Yeah, it's pretty seamless, you know, and it really comes back to how I got into On Location and what was that step. Yeah. So I think. Let me go into that first and then I'll talk to you about the transition. How I got there first was after Bloomberg Media, I. I stopped working and I had this vision of doing something completely different, which was getting involved in smaller companies and being. Having a much more entrepreneurial time of my life.

04:07

Dave Almy

If some of the ones you had worked for previously were pretty monolithic, for sure, like big.

04:11

Paul Caine

Big corporate conglomerate, big companies, big agendas, things like that. And so I did, and I started working on some startups and had a decent portfolio going. But there was a lot missing in my life. And the biggest piece of missing in my life was feeling part. Ms. Being part of the game, if you will, like being in the world of sports and entertainment and being right in the epicenter of it. But I didn't want to just work for another company. I really. Just based on the encouragement of my wife, I really felt like there was only really one person I wanted to work for, and it was Mark Shapiro.

04:46

Dave Almy

And so that's not the first time I've heard that particular refrain about Mark. He has. That. Has that magic about him.

04:54

Paul Caine

It's beyond magic. And I knew Mark because he and I worked together on projects when I was the president of People magazine. Mark, as the CEO of Dick Clark, produced our award show. And I got to know him back then, and I certainly knew Ari for a very long time. And what. And they did. Before I went to Bloomberg, they did talk to me about coming over when they were buying img, which I didn't do. I went to Bloomberg instead. But knowing that I didn't want to work for a company, I wanted to work with Mark, I called him and I said, look, I don't know what you have, but this is where I want to be. And he said he was looking at. On location, would I look at it with them? Which I did.

05:34

Paul Caine

And after that, they said, listen, if we get it, would you run it. And it was a dream come true, first of all, because working for Mark is a dream come true to begin with. And secondly is the vision that he and the team had for on location was, I thought, spot on. And what we worked on together was this vision of taking what onlocation was, which was really the leader in hospitality and sports, mostly because of the NFL, and turning it into or building on it actually from a hospitality company into an experienced company. And the reason why that's important is because when you look back to my career experiences was exactly what we built in media.

06:22

Paul Caine

Whether it was, you know, the old EW hot lists and the must lists and all those things that we used to do were people, magazines, relationship with award shows and Sexiest Man Alive and World's Most Beautiful. And all of those things had events attached to it. And we did the same thing at Westwood One, the same thing at Bloomberg. The live event strategy of Bloomberg was so important. And what we realized is we could generate and build stronger relationships with their advertisers by having premium experiences. And that translated into advertising revenue. Our notion was, could you do that in the broader market? But here is the real magic to it all. What we realized is it's more than just a ticket, right? A ticket is a permission to sit into a seat.

07:10

Paul Caine

If you could develop experiences, would you be to build a better relationship with the customers? And the notion really went further as well. What are those experiences? And what we came down to was those experiences were really capturing the privilege that we've had in our careers of being around all these major events. What we got to do, because we are on the inside of it as broadcasters and reporters and media and so on and so forth, could we build that business so that people who don't have access, who aren't in the business, who aren't sponsors, who aren't inside, can we build experiences for them? And then secondly, for those that are inside, our sponsors are around the business, can we elevate their experiences? And do we do that through a high touch? So that high touch of just service and delight.

08:03

Paul Caine

I just recently read a book called Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidera, who I think you probably read David. It's so good and Will captures it so well. But it's really about those experiences that makes the difference in his world as a meal versus an experience. And in our world is attending the NCAA Final Four or being having experience in the Final Four.

08:28

Dave Almy

It's such an interesting all about and it's such an interesting perspective too from the standpoint of, you know, everything seems to be, particularly the marketing side leads with digital and social and all the things that go along with that. But it's really the experiential pieces that get people excited about that tangibility associated with being at an event like that. And that's really what on location is delivering in that kind of spectacular way. The other thing I wanted touch on really quickly is going back to the talking about Mark Shapiro from the standpoint of when you're joining a new company. I've heard this time and time again for people who both are in the entrepreneurial side, but also in the investing side. Sometimes it's not so much about what the business is, it's about the people who are driving it forward. Right.

09:11

Dave Almy

And that's given that sort of open that doors to you to explore this sort of related like adjacent opportunity to some of the things that you'd been doing in the past. But the fact that it was with people who you'd worked with in the past, had great faith in their capabilities really is what sort of opens the doors for you to explore new opportunities for yourself.

09:30

Paul Caine

s all the way to: 2013

10:18

Paul Caine

I mean, I joined Bloomberg because he's a once in a lifetime, once in a generation type of leader. And the magic that he created in that environment and continues to this day, I mean, as the career that he has, the fact that he comes to work literally every day and drives that business with excitement and energy like no other. I find that to be the reason why joining these great companies matter. Yeah, And I would put Mark and also Ari too. I don't want to segment Ari out of this, but for me directly, Ari.

10:52

Dave Almy

We'Re not leaving you out, Ari.

10:54

Paul Caine

Not at all. Because Ari is also once in a generation, once in a lifetime type of person. But working around Mark Shapiro to me is like, look, if I'm going to have one more job if that's what ends up for me in my life, being in that kind of company. Is it now what people ask me all the time like, well, what is it now? Now if you've met him or you've seen him on TV or if you heard him speak on a stage, you get it because it doesn't take long to understand that. But working in his environment, this is an entrepreneurial environment that really is set up to take the right balance of risk, but more importantly to drive the level of innovation that leads an industry. He is not an industry follower, he is an industry leader.

11:38

Paul Caine

He creates, he establishes and he drives that. That's what on location's really become in the last six years. Since it'll be six years this January since we've started working together on this on location is completely transformed. Now. We started with the NFL and the NFL is our heart. If we're a body, it's our heart. Without the NFL, our body does not survive because the heart stops beating. Right? We need the heart, but outside of in addition to the heart. And we've built a lot with the NFL because when I first got here, a lot of the NFL was really the super bowl. And now we're not just the super bowl, we also do the draft and the hall of Fame.

12:19

Dave Almy

It's a year round endeavor now.

12:21

Paul Caine

It really is. And the commissioner is another once in a generation type leader that you really see the growth that you see there. Similarly, what we've done around the collegiate space, golf, tennis, music, entertainment, and then adding most recently the Olympics and the World cup to the portfolio. Now the growth of on location has been extraordinary. What we've learned how to do is to create unique experiences that an individual or group can enjoy at scale. And now since in the last six years there's no other company that's established this level of scale with the service of an individual.

13:06

Dave Almy

It's interesting to hear you talk about previously too. Like, you know that the transition between legacy, traditional media and on location, which is more hospitality driven, you said it really wasn't that hard because we put on events and they were connected to. And so you came to the table. Add on location with that sort of baseline understanding of the importance of these kinds of things. But I'm wondering what kind of skills that you came to the table with that were just ready to go sort of out of the box and I can take this and run with it and what were some of the things that you kind of had to learn by now with putting on hospitality events or some of the things that you as a leader had to develop in this new position for a second somewhat new discipline for you.

13:50

Paul Caine

The. It's a great question. I mean, look, I think my. One of my greatest. The thing the things I learned in business and in life is number one is you don't walk into these worlds with a knowledge of everything. You just don't. You got to learn it along the way somewhere. Right. And. And some people stay within a single industry their entire career and others pivot around and what I've, and I don't necessarily feel like I've pivoted. I think what I've done is number one is I've always been curious about new things and I've always wanted to learn new things. So I never wanted any one of my jobs even within the same industry. No two were the same. On the media side, every time you change titles or audiences or media forms, it all changed. It was always different.

14:40

Paul Caine

People on print said, oh, it's print, it's not digital. People on digital say it's not. It's not television, it's not television, it's not radio. It's like everyone's, everyone loves to like say their world is so different. Yeah. Reality is, it's not so different. What is different is you have to be curious. You have to surround yourself with great people all around you. Your peers, the people you work for, people who work for your whole team. Everybody has to operate at a high level. So surrounding yourself with people, all 360 matters. Secondly is know what you don't know. Walking into this business. I never sold tickets at scale before. I never even sold tickets at a small level. I mean, we did some like experimenting with tickets in the media side, but it was nothing like what goes on here.

15:25

Dave Almy

Right.

15:25

Paul Caine

So I didn't understand that spaces very much. I certainly. We delivered a lot of products, but we didn't do delivery at this scale. Third is I didn't really understand the commercial side of delivery the same way because were. Used it more as a vendor relationship, not necessarily a commercial relationship. I mean, there were elements of this business that was technically foreign to me, but it. But being curious and also knowing the people in the team that were the experts. I mean, I have great experts. One of my favorite people in our company who I do a lot of work with every single day. His name is Brian Wilder. Brian is one of the core founders of this business from when he was Back in high school and early college almost. And he is one of the most innovative and creative people.

16:13

Paul Caine

He understands every aspect of this business. He's a great business leader. He's a great business executive. And he also is very generous in teaching. And I've learned a ton from him, and I love working with him every day. And then we've got people on the ticketing side like Micah Payton, who runs our ticketing teams. Brilliant ticketer, brilliant business person, brilliant supply demand curve analyst and commercial strategy person. And what he can do, I can never do, but I just love learning from him and working alongside him. Those are examples, right?

16:50

Dave Almy

I think it's one of the core fundamental imperatives of leadership, isn't it? Is that ability to recognize, you said it. The things you don't know. I think where a lot of people getting into. Get into trouble is, oh, heck, I'm the leader now. I have to make sure that I am in a position where people think I know everything. And that nips at your heels pretty quickly, right? Because it becomes transparent. You lose the faith and trust of the people that you're working with, and that's not a pathway to success. So that ability to, again, be curious, we talk a ton about that, particularly in the sales environment. You have to be curious in these kinds of things because otherwise you reach stagnation in your own job growth and opportunities.

17:33

Paul Caine

That's right. The other part is you have to know what you have to know. You have to be humble enough to know that you need to sit as a student of those people and really almost go to school with them as your teacher. Because in order to really lead them effectively and to be partnered with them effectively, you have to have the respect for them, but they also want you contribute to them. So the more curious and the more you take the time to learn, you may not ever be the expert they are, but at least you can operate effectively with it. I mean, one of the best examples, and I share this a lot, is, you know, an old reference, but I'll give it to you anyway, which is the movie Saving Private Ryan. You ever see it?

18:16

Dave Almy

All right, that's not an old reference for this guy Paul. Maybe for some other people who are listening, but that's kind of in my wheelhouse, to be honest.

18:24

Paul Caine

All right, well, Tom Hanks's character, to me, is the right level of leadership that I think I would always want to aspire to. Now, you don't know this till the end, but he was a schoolteacher.

18:37

Dave Almy

We should say, spoiler alert.

18:39

Paul Caine

Spoiler.

18:39

Dave Almy

Spoiler.

18:41

Paul Caine

He was a school teacher, but he commanded this platoon. He led them. He wasn't the expert in anything they did. He also wasn't as good at anything that they could do, but he was willing to do anything they were doing. And he was willing to support them and be out front to make them more successful.

19:00

Dave Almy

And they humanize him in the film with the shaking hand. Right. It shows that he's not some sort of superhuman leader that just sort of sprung from the head of Zeus. Right. It is. That's. We all have the fears of leadership and the. And feel the weight of leadership on it. So you're right. They do. It is. It's a great leadership movie for anybody who can make it through the first 30 minutes of some of the most intense filmmaking that you've ever seen in your entire life. Now, speaking of intent. No, go ahead. Sorry.

19:29

Paul Caine

No, I was just gonna say. And if you go back in history to what happens before that movie when the decision to actually pull that mission off, that was another lesson on leadership. Because it wasn't. It ended up being a single person's decision with the input of a cabinet. Right. If we all know the history of it. But it was one where leadership prevailed because it took the input of all to create the decision of one. And then the responsibility held in a way that empowered the team and that all. Like, I love history. I love reading history. And that's where you get a lot of this. But back to the allocation world of what we're trying to accomplish. We're certainly not fighting wars. We're doing fun things. It is a team effort.

20:19

Paul Caine

We have great employees and we have a lot of different rights partners who do over 120 rights partners with over 700 events a year. So we have a lot of work to do and you can't do it. There's no one person who can carry it on their shoulders. It's got to be a team effort.

20:34

Dave Almy

of On Location in January of: 2020

21:23

Paul Caine

Oh, yeah. I mean, I'll never forget the circumstances that ran into what ultimately was our global shutdown and what our own. We all had different witnesses of experiences that led to those days that brought us to that point. But when we first shut down, I mean, frankly, all of our. We were all in person in an office five days a week leading into it. Our communication tool was either in person or a phone conference. We didn't really understand video the way we do now. Third is were moving a million miles an hour, you know, so we had to pivot pretty quick. So even within a couple of. I would say, two weeks in. This is also the vision of Mark. He called me. Never forget the call. And he said. He said, you know, don't take. Don't forget to. What did he say exactly?

22:13

Paul Caine

He said, don't let a good crisis go on.

22:17

Dave Almy

Go to waste.

22:19

Paul Caine

Go to waste. Right. He said, think about what you can do with the company. Use the time well. And so we did a couple of things. First is we did launch a virtual platform in order to keep part of our teams working by creating virtual experiences. So we did that. Our technology team actually pulled together pretty quickly. It was really ahead of the vast proliferation use of Zoom or teams. It was our own platform, but it was a paid platform so that we could get people working by doing immersive experiences like we did. Melissa Etheridge took a tour of her home. We had different acoustic moments. We had Q. And as with football legends, it was really kind of a cool portfolio concept. Second to that, while that was happening, we pulled the creative teams.

23:09

Paul Caine

This is where my partnership with Brian Wilder really forged is we spent every week. Well, first, we laid out what the vision of Allocation wanted to be. This is what we started with, how we wanted to be an experienced company. And we defined the experience even before the COVID as a feeling of, I'm going to do more than just sit in a seat. So that feeling, that experience started from the moment you decide you're going to go to the moment you go home to tell someone you went. And there's a whole journey in that drive. And the journey is different based on every event. But there's a journey. It's anticipatory journey. There's a discovery journey, a learning, a planning journey, and then an inspirit journey. And Then a post journey.

23:55

Paul Caine

And then even within that, there's elements of it of who am I going to meet, what am I going to do, what kind of products do I get? How do I experience different things? Like there's a whole experience journey. So what we did in Covid was we pulled the teams together and every week we asked them to creatively explore what the right and most absolute wonderful experiences could be built for each and every rights partner. And then by doing so, went from being a ticket and hospitality company to an experience company by creating what we call our elite product or a platinum product. And that product is more than just a ticket and food. It is what am I going to do, how am I going to do it? And who am I going to do with?

24:43

Paul Caine

And it then transformed our business because those experiences 1 have high renewal, high consumer connection. People want them because who wouldn't want to watch the men's swimming finals with Michael Phelps? Who wouldn't want to meet the new hall of Fame class of the NFL? Who wouldn't want to walk behind the fighters in the UFC fight walk? Who wouldn't want us in the promoter table next to Dana White, you know.

25:11

Dave Almy

And who wouldn't want a podcast with Dave Elmy? I mean, these are the experiences.

25:19

Paul Caine

Wow. And I was actually, there was one moment, I'll tell you a funny story is I, I remember I was in a meeting trying to explain to the NFL this platinum and elite product. And were talking through it and then a couple of that next Super Bowl, I was actually at the gym working out the morning in the super bowl and in walks the commissioner at, because he was at the same, were all the same hotel. He walked in and he started working out next to me. And, and about 15, 20 minutes in, I turned to him and I said, commissioner, this is an on location experience. So the morning of the super bowl to be able to work out next.

25:57

Dave Almy

To the commission, did you get competitive with him? Were you guys on like the treadmill? Did you like start bumping up the speed a little?

26:03

Paul Caine

There's no competing with him. I, I pale in comparison by far. But it was to me that was like, oh my God, this is really happening right here. Yeah, but this is what we do. It's that feeling, it's the dream, it's the anticipation. And we've done such extraordinary experiences along that line. But remember, like at an Olympics, for example, we'll have hundreds of thousands to, you know, literally like 6, the LA28 will have close to maybe a Million guests. I mean it's an enormous amount of guests. How do you create experiences like that at scale? That's what the teams do an extraordinary job.

26:34

Dave Almy

So you do work and on location, you've mentioned some of the rights holders that you currently work with. Olympics, FIFA, NFL, nca, ufc. How does the process unfold to define or design experiences that are going to speak to the unique audiences associated with each one of those? Right. Because a FIFA audience is I'm assuming, going to be fairly different from a UFC audience. So there's going to be aspects of those that you really have to tailor to make sure that you're going to get the fan excitement and enthusiasm that is your bread and butter. So how does that process unfold internally to make sure that the. That's happening in the way that's going to be advantageous for all involved.

27:19

Paul Caine

So first of all, when you develop these experiences, you got to remember like who the audience is. So it's different for every rights holder and every event. But our best events are ones that are. We don't do regular season. Typically it's the biggest events, the world's largest events. And they generally have to have an enormous demand.

27:41

Dave Almy

They.

27:41

Paul Caine

Our best examples are ones that, where they could sell up out three times over without fail. Yeah, like serious demand.

27:49

Dave Almy

That's still a litmus.

27:50

Paul Caine

Okay. That's our best events. Secondly is there's so much demand in there that it's a unique customer. So generally half the business for us is a B2B customer who want to entertain their clients at these events. Another portion of the remainder are ultra high net worth people who just want to go at a, like at a super high touch, premium way. And then the last piece of it are either fans of whoever is on this stage screen, you know, stage, field, court, whatever they're doing, or just looking at a bucket list type situation. Yeah, okay. I've always wanted to go to the World cup finals. That's my bucket list. Or I'm a fan of Team USA playing in the World Cup Finals. Hope and dream there. That's, that's that.

28:42

Paul Caine

Or I have a business that I want to entertain my best customers at the World Cup Finals. Right. That, that's the construct. So understand the customer base. Each one of those lends itself to a different type of experience. So on the B2B side, not only do we can create them a more magical way to entertain their guests so that it's more than just they saw it that they experience something different which differentiates that business immediately. So I own a law firm. I'm taking my four best clients to the super bowl, but I'm bringing them on the field during the trophy ceremony. I'm getting them to meet some legends. I'm getting them to have breakfast with like, Drew Brees before, you know, that kind. And I'm getting signed for helmets and, and personally signed because they're there jerseys.

29:32

Paul Caine

And that's an experience that se differentiates a business.

29:36

Dave Almy

It really helps define what you talked about previously, this ability to take that kernel of the event and really start burning it out from just the three hours of the game. But how does this become the long weekend that somebody has aspired to or been interested in for their whole. Their whole lives?

29:52

Paul Caine

Exactly. And you said early on, you asked how I pivoted. Okay. But that's what we did with advertisers. So when we took people, when we took advertisers to an event, we did that because we wanted them to experience that event with us in order to build a relationship with our business and ultimately spend more money in advertising. That's. That is on location.

30:13

Dave Almy

Yeah.

30:14

Paul Caine

And so that's what I'm saying. Like, I did this for decades one way. Now we're selling it in a different way. So then measured success was advertising. Now measured success is his ultimate, you know, revenue.

30:28

Dave Almy

Do you find yourself when you're working with the rights holders, do they explain what the expectations of their fans are to you, or do you come back to them and say, this is what we know from all the other kinds of experiences that we've put together. How does that conversation work out?

30:46

Paul Caine

So the best rights holder is one that works as a partner with us, not thinking of us as a vendor. And they, we do a lot of work. We. We walk into the conversation curious and ask them what they think and what's exciting to them. But, you know, it's a lot of rights holders get a little bit too close to it where they don't necessarily see that. That for themselves. So we do a lot of going back and forth where we share with them opportunities. For example, you know, with the NCAA is were telling them, like, you know, if you give us the day before, the day between the Final Four and the.

31:23

Paul Caine

And the finals, that Sunday, if we had the ability to walk people through the locker rooms, let them walk on the court and get their photo in center court, some, in some cases be able to take some foul shots or not, you know, to sit in the seats on the bench and like to have that experience that is valuable to people. And I remember the first invaluable. Yeah. When the first conversation we had around that, remember the NCAA was like, really? And were like, they, they, that's just where they work, you know, and they. But I'll tell you that the, the team at the NCAA has been incredible innovation partners that way. The other one was similar to like ufc.

32:04

Paul Caine

When we pitch them the idea of like, hey, we could, there's real value if somebody walking behind the main card on the fight walk and there's a whole entourage behind them, you have no idea who these people are anyway. But if you just put two of our people behind them, what an incredible experience for them. And it's so easy for, you know, for the fighter to be involved because it's no obligation. They're doing it anyway.

32:27

Dave Almy

They're just doing the same thing.

32:28

Paul Caine

Let him walk behind them. And that experience is one of the more valuable ones we have. And there's no cost to it, but the value is huge. And the UFC was like, wow. Yeah, they liked it. So there's a balance, right? Sometimes they pitch us, sometimes they say, hey, we have this opportunity, what do you guys think? We have a weigh in. What if we put a couple of people on the stage of the weigh in? You know who's the most innovative on this? The wwe. The WWE are incredible storytellers. This is an organization that understands innovation and understands storytelling and understands creativity. And they're a perfect example where we bring ideas to them all the time. They bring a lot of ideas to us. For example, they had this idea at WrestleMania to create seats on top of the stage, those viewing seats.

33:21

Paul Caine

What an innovative thing to put seats on the stage. And that became really valuable. The talent on WWE is so willing to work and wants to get to know the fans. We've had great talent experiences. We had a one one experience recently with Cody Rhodes where he took two of our guests on a tour of his private museum and warehouse to show the artifacts from him and his dad. And that experience was extraordinary. And he built such a strong relationship with that guest that he had in his belt the name of the guest written in it, like a stitched in it. And then he wore that onto, into the ring and his walk in and then handed it to the guests and then walked into the ring. I mean, that is an incredible experience.

34:14

Dave Almy

A guy much smarter than me named Ray deweese who's been in particularly in the NCAA side of the business For a long time. He's a great extra expression. He says, never let the place you work become wallpaper. And the NCAA fell prey to that. Right. What do you mean? Walking on the court's gonna be a big deal to people, but that ability to maintain that outside perspective and look through a fan's eyes is not just critical to the business as a whole, but for your business, it has to be absolutely central to it.

34:48

Paul Caine

Yeah, that's right. And you need the right partner. Back to the ncaa, Chris Termini was that right partner. You know, he. He got. He understands ncaa. He wants to innovate. It's. It's been a tremendously positive relationship as a result. You know, look, I mean, these are what. What differentiates any leader of any of these leagues or teams or relationships is how they look at it, how they innovate, that they just want to do more. They understand the payoff of the fan experience and the relationship with the fans. They understand the value that brings back to them as a business, as an entity. The more. The stronger we build those experiences. A lot of people say, oh, you know, that experience is really just about money. Like, no, we do our job well. If two things happen, if there's a stronger affinity of the.

35:43

Paul Caine

Of the consumer, the attendee with the actual product that's being performed, that relationship, the stronger that relationship, the more valuable, because it translates to everything. Viewership, merchandising, sponsorship, everything. So we play a pivotal role in that. The second part of it is that when we. We build it right and build that relationship, then we have a ongoing dialogue with that customer that's renewable and forever. You never lose that. It's the first rule. Why we all have logos, why brands matter. ADC is your partner. They have a brand that matters. And that brand relationship. We wouldn't have logos if that didn't matter. It stands for something. That's why all the company has missions and values. That's why we have, you know, we. We believe in our cultures because it matters.

36:42

Dave Almy

om the opening ceremonies for: 2026

37:20

Paul Caine

Well, we've been planning it for years now and, but an Olympics is very complicated because it's, you know, many events, many venues over basically a two week period. And so when you know, think about a winter game, it's a much smaller version than a summer game. But we still have 26 venues and the Milan Games is broken into three, basically three core cities. Milan itself and then Cortina and then Lavinia.

37:48

Dave Almy

Oh boy.

37:48

Paul Caine

And the two, the two mountain towns, if you will. They're harder to get to, they're very small roads to get up there and there are very few accommodations. And it's a very different experience than Milan. You know, easier to get to, much more of a city atmosphere, but lots of different venues and logistics and, you know, very challenging experience. And all that happens over a little bit more than two weeks. So it's a very complex one where there is no like one way to experience that. The multiple, the factors associated with that are pretty extraordinary and you need, you have to do a lot of planning, but even more so you have to be flexible enough to pivot on site. We'll have so many different changes all the way up until the end.

38:38

Paul Caine

So I remember standing at the Open, the closing ceremony of the Summer Games in Paris, thinking, oh my gosh, you know, it's like what just happened? It was just an amazing complex arrangement. But then you look at the World cup, now that's 16 cities with 104 matches. But it's 104 Super bowl sized events.

39:01

Dave Almy

Oh yeah.

39:02

Paul Caine

Over a four week period. So it's maybe one brand, 16 cities. You know, people, you know, say, oh, it's easier. It's just like you put them in the stadium, you're done. Like, no, because let's say you're Team England and you want to follow them. That's complex because you don't know where they're going to play next. You don't know where that's going to go. And there's a lot of like that goes into that and the excitement with any of these events, especially these longer events, it starts with the beginning of their season, which is their first game, and it ends with the finals. It compresses so it's like the soup. The world. The super bowl is the super bowl because of what Happens from kickoff in late August all the way to the super bowl in February. That is a buildup of a storyline. Right.

39:51

Paul Caine

That all happens in the Olympics. It happens in 14 days. And in the World cup, it happens in four weeks. So you're having a compression of that excitement that you control, that you don't control, you participate in for the entire way. So the planning takes years. The execution is in real time.

40:11

Dave Almy

What's your experience going to be like there? Are you on the phone troubleshooting all day long? Are you just going and checking in? What's your personal experience going to be like after the opening ceremonies in Cortina begin?

40:25

Paul Caine

Yeah, well, this is where I feel like my job. I love my job because I feel like I have the greatest privilege in the world where I get to experience these things. But there's in it. But there's an element of what I get to experience, and maybe I should sell this as an. As an experience is to just be with me all the time.

40:42

Dave Almy

Just follow you around.

40:44

Paul Caine

But the. It's. It really. If I go through a typical day, especially at an Olympics, it starts in the morning, I wake up and I get briefed on what happened the day before. From a security standpoint, from a logistics standpoint, staff, personnel, all those things, where we are from, what needs to be accomplished that day. There's always more to be done. There's potentially more tickets to be sold, more logistics to be solved. You know, we've had situations where we've had vendors not deliver cars or buses or food. Food or whatever. So you have to troubleshoot. Secondly is, I do spend a lot of time at the venues to talk to guests. I'm a big believer in you do anything. I clean tables, I'll get people drinks. I'll help people get into things. I want everybody to have a great experience.

41:33

Paul Caine

You can't do that for every. You know, you can't do that for everybody. But I want to know and feel it. Third is, I always want to be supportive of the team. If they need my help with customer service or. Or with. With a difficult situation, I want to be there to support them, and I'm there. I like to be around and be partnered with them from the start to the end. I'm not known to be able to watch things. I really. I can't even count. My kids tease me all the time. I don't think I've seen the end of anything because I generally can't sit still and I don't stay in one place because I need to Just keep moving. Yeah.

42:11

Dave Almy

And you got to count your. You got to get your steps in. Probably not a problem over the course of a day.

42:15

Paul Caine

Now, if you want to watch an event beginning to end, don't go with me.

42:19

Dave Almy

So when we share that on location experience, follow Paul Caine around. Don't expect to actually see the game, but you're going to clean a lot of tables.

42:27

Paul Caine

You could. You could. Which is very exciting, but you'd be surprised whose tables you get to clean.

42:32

Dave Almy

Be kind of fun in that regard. I'm with Paul Caine. He's the president of On Location. Paul, I want to appreciate the time that you spent with us today and good luck over the next hundred days as you head out to the Winter Olympics in Italy. I know it's going to be a monumental event. Before I let you go though, I'm going to dump you into the lightning round. I've got a series of questions for you. These are going to come out of nowhere. I just want the first thing that comes up into your head. Okay, Are you ready?

42:58

Paul Caine

Okay, yeah, I'm ready.

42:59

Dave Almy

Here we go. That was not confidence instilling. Here we go. Like we talked about. The Winter Olympics are coming up. What sport would you be competing in?

43:08

Paul Caine

Oh, curling. What sport would better than you can have a beer in your hand at the same time as doing it?

43:15

Dave Almy

My favorite Olympic interview holding all time was with the pro, the captain of the U.S. it was like 20 years ago, captain of the U.S. women's curling team. And she was smoking a cigarette in the middle of the interview.

43:24

Paul Caine

I was like, that's gotta be the best chef's kiss.

43:27

Dave Almy

Okay, you're a proud graduate of Indiana University. Which is the best Indiana based sports movie? Breaking Away or Hoosiers?

43:38

Paul Caine

Well, I would have to. I love them both very much. But if. If you know a little bit about my history, I would tell you Breaking Away has to be it because that's actually how I chose Indiana University. Is it really being a fan of Breaking Away? Yeah.

43:51

Dave Almy

Really? Wow. Okay.

43:54

Paul Caine

That is the truth.

43:55

Dave Almy

Admissions department of Indiana University. Well done. Time to start thinking about a remake, potentially. You were, like we talked about, involved with People magazine. Was there ever a moment when you thought to yourself, I can't believe that story got greenlit?

44:09

Paul Caine

I would tell you the most complicated story we ever did, which was the coverage of 9 11.

44:16

Dave Almy

Oh, yeah. Gosh, I can't believe.

44:18

Paul Caine

Because that was. We were the only magazine to be able to print that day. We printed on a Tuesday night and it was a Tuesday morning when the event happened and we scrapped the entire issue. To be able to cover that event, that was probably the hardest and most outside of the traditional storytelling that people did.

44:40

Dave Almy

No, not what they expect from People magazine. But like you said, in that kind of moment, those are where opportunities are born. You have to get. Be able to do those kinds of things. You and I both grew up as middle brothers to two sisters. What psychological quirks do you think we both share as a result of that?

44:58

Paul Caine

You have to call my, you have to call my therapist, I guess to understand that completely. But I would say the one thing I've learned how to be is I think by being in that not only a middle child, but also the child of. At the middle of two different genders, women on the both sides of me. One is I, I've definitely learned how to lead, be a peacemaker, to basically be the person most reliable and most consistently there for everybody. You know, it's unique. My, my wife is also a middle child.

45:37

Dave Almy

Oh boy.

45:38

Paul Caine

And my, and my middle one, I have three as well. My middle one, he. We. We all joke about the, what it's like to be a middle child, which Dave will have to invite you to that dinner party. But you know, that's the way I, that's how I would characterize it.

45:53

Dave Almy

We're just going to start a new on location group just for middle kids. It's just, that's what it'd be. And we're all going to be there making peace with one another. No, it's okay, you take it first. No, it's okay, you take it first.

46:03

Paul Caine

Right. And then. But you know, everything will get done. It'll be the most, It'll be the best dinner party and obviously the most efficient one you've ever seen.

46:10

Dave Almy

So many clean tables before. It's places.

46:12

Paul Caine

Unbelievable.

46:13

Dave Almy

Okay, last one. Like we said, Olympics coming up. It's an Olympic question and I think we already know what the answer is going to be to this and what some of the things we talked about. What's your favorite sport to watch and why?

46:24

Paul Caine

My favorite sport is college football. I love football.

46:27

Dave Almy

Olympics. It's got to be Olympics coming up. Yes.

46:30

Paul Caine

And it's Winter.

46:31

Dave Almy

Winter Olympics. What's your favorite winter Olympic sport to watch?

46:33

Paul Caine

And I would say in this particular case, I'm really excited about men's hockey. Yeah, it's hard not to.

46:40

Dave Almy

It's so great. Although I have to admit I'm a big fan of ski cross only because it's like rollerball, but on skis.

46:47

Paul Caine

I appreciate that.

46:48

Dave Almy

Yeah. Paul Caine, Appreciate the time.

46:50

Paul Caine

All right, Great to see you.

46:52

Dave Almy

Thanks for listening to this episode of the One one Sports Business Conversations podcast. If you enjoyed it, we always appreciate a subscribe, share, comment or like. And don't forget, you can always find past episodes at a ABC partners.com podcast. This podcast is written, produced, edited and hosted by Dave Almy and theme music was composed by Scott Holmes.