WHEN: Today, Tuesday, September 3, 2024
WHERE: CNBC’s “Halftime Report”
Following is the unofficial transcript of a CNBC interview with Cleveland Browns Owner Jimmy Haslam & Huntington Bancshares CEO Stephen Steinour on CNBC’s “Halftime Report” (M-F, 12PM-1PM ET) today, Tuesday, September 3. This interview is also part of CNBC Sport, a new vertical the company announced last week that focuses on the intersection between business and sports. Video will be available on CNBC.com.
All references must be sourced to CNBC.
SCOTT WAPNER: Well, the NFL season, as you know, kicks off this week on NBC and Peacock when the Chiefs and Ravens play on Thursday night in Kansas City. We’re excited to announce that CNBC will unveil its inaugural NFL team valuations list that morning as well. Where the Cleveland Browns place will be of interest to our next guest. Brown’s owner, Jimmy Haslam, he joins us now with Stephen Steinour. He’s the CEO of Huntington Bank, as they announce a new stadium rights deal. Gentlemen, welcome. It’s good to have you on “Halftime” today.
STEPHEN STEINOUR: Thank you very much.
JIMMY HASLAM: Yes, thanks for having us on.
WAPNER: Jimmy, my first question, I guess, to be to you. Huntington Bank Field has a nice ring to it. How did this deal come about?
HASLAM: We think it has a great ring to it. Ironically, we own the soccer team in Columbus. And when we — quote — “helped saved that team from leaving,” the private sector and the public sector came together in a very efficient manner. And Steve was one of the leaders of the private sector, and that was five or six years ago. So we established a positive relationship. And when we started working on naming rights, they were brought to us as a leading candidate. And we spent an afternoon together during the Major League Soccer All-Star Game. It was long — it was not long ago, on July 24. And I think Steve would echo this. Our teams worked hard and made this deal come together very quickly, and we’re very excited about it.
STEINOUR: Absolutely.
WAPNER: Wow, that is quickly. We’re talking just a few weeks, a couple, few weeks. Steve, it’s nice to welcome you as well. I think people always wonder, how do you realize the return on the kind of investment you are making? By the way, can you give me the terms on this deal?
STEINOUR: Well, this is — terms are not disclosed. So I’m going to have to stay away from that part of the question. But the economics for us come in on multiple levels. First, the Browns are iconic in football. NFL is dominant in terms of viewership. And for us, this will help propel our name and our brand nationally, which is very, very important to us in terms of the next stage of growth. But, locally, the Browns fans are tremendous, and they’re some of the best in the country. And so this naming rights deal will help us further grow here in Northeast Ohio, where we always — already have a very sizable presence, so I think multiple levels. And the partnership extends into the community, and we will do things together that neither of us do today. It’s a win-win-win. It’s a win for us, the Browns, and for the community here in Northeast Ohio and Cleveland.
WAPNER: Stephen, speaking about the community, we have obviously spent a long time now, the better part of 18 months or so, since the Fed started raising interest rates, on what the state of the regional banks actually is, and how you’re doing commercial real estate exposure-wise. It’s been tough with interest rates high, we know. Can you give us an on-the-ground update from your perspective about how we should be thinking about regional banks like yours today?
STEINOUR: I think the regional banks have performed in a very strong way generally. So, if you look at us and some others, the performance during the last couple of years has been exceptional. We have grown, for example — grown deposits every quarter over the last two years. We have grown loans. We’re healthy. We’re growing. We have tremendous liquidity, probably the strongest of any bank $50 billion or more. And that includes the G-SIFIs. Our capital is strong. Credit is great. Liquidity, as I said, just outstanding, so, very solid, very, very solid footing. And we have invested over last year. We have expanded into the Carolinas, into Texas. We have put new specialty groups together. And this investment with the Browns is another extension of that. We’re with a great organization, great partners. And our brand, as I said, will extend nationally off the viewership that the NFL gets, and the Browns, in particular.
WAPNER: Jimmy, you obviously have a good view of the consumer relative to football and the other sports teams that you own. That’s well-documented. But you are the chairman of the truck stop empire Pilot Flying J, which your father founded. So you — you have a really good perspective on the highways and byways of what’s going on in this economy. How do things look to you?
HASLAM: Well, actually, we used to have a great viewpoint into it. We sold our remaining interest to Berkshire Hathaway in January of last year. So I just — I always, like, associate with people like Steve for a lot of reasons. One is, how is business? And he said, how is business? And I can tell you a little bit about sports, but we do not have a big consumer-facing business like we used to.
WAPNER: Let me ask you about the private equity vote that happened last week for the NFL. Were you a voter in favor of that?
HASLAM: We were. We were. We believe very strongly in it. And, as you know, there’s five major sports leagues in the United States, and four of them had already allowed institutional investing. And the NFL fell tends to move a little bit slower. And I think that’s been smart on their behalf, but big supporters of it. And I think it gives current NFL owners, particularly with these big valuations, a chance to diversify, to manage family issues, if you’re coming in to raise equity, etc. So we think it’s a very positive move for the league and for the owners.
WAPNER: It’s pretty limited, obviously, in size and scope in terms of the number of firms that are going to be allowed to invest and the dollar amount in which they’re — and the percentage in which they’re able to do that. Do you see both of those issues, Jimmy, evolving over time? Is this just the toe in the water before we put both of our feet in?
HASLAM: Well, I don’t — we have 31 partners, and I don’t want to speak for them. I think the NFL, as we said earlier, tends to crawl, walk, run. And I think this was a crawl. And this is my behalf — my behalf. I’m not speaking on behalf of the league or our fellow owners, but that we will expand that percentage ownership and expand the availability to other private equity groups. But you got to start somewhere. And it’s — in some ways, it’s small, but, in some ways, it’s four firms, total available capital of $12 billion, with a 10 percent cap on how much each team could sell. So, I think it’s a reasonable first step.
WAPNER: I thought it was interesting as well, Jimmy, our Alex Sherman on the day that all this was going down broke the news that the NFL actually wanted a cut of the private equity profits. Can you confirm that? And can you also expand on whether that — why that would make sense? I think that raised a lot of eyebrows as people were assessing what this really was going to mean over the long term.
HASLAM: Yes, those details are being finalized. But I think private equity probably understands carry as well as anybody. And we felt like a minimal — and it’s very minimal — the number hasn’t been finalized — sharing of those profits was equitable, and the private equity groups agreed.
WAPNER: OK, sounds like that — that’s coming. Stephen, I will end it with you. How many times is the Fed going to cut rates this year, do you think? And how much do you think they will go in just a couple of weeks from now?
STEINOUR: Yes, we think they will cut in a couple of weeks from now. And our best estimate is 25 BPS, and that they will take a gradual approach to it. I think the forward curve is a bit overdone, and the last thing we need is the Fed to have to double-dip here. And so they have acted very, very wisely so far, and we expect they will continue with a gradual approach.
WAPNER: Gentlemen, we will leave it there. Stephen, thank you. Jimmy, good luck this year. You guys got a good roster.
HASLAM: Yes, thank you. Thanks for having us.
WAPNER: We will see — see how it all sorts out. Alright, you guys, be well.
HASLAM: Appreciate it.
STEINOUR: Thank you.
WAPNER: Alright. A reminder, you can catch the big reveal of CNBC Sports’ official NFL team valuations list this Thursday. That’s starting in “Squawk Box.” Plus, we’re exactly one week away now from CNBC and Boardroom’s Game Plan conference. That’s out in L.A. I will be there with a great lineup. You can sign up at CNBCevents.com/gameplan. We’re looking very much forward to that.
For more information contact:
Jennifer Dauble
CNBC
t: 201.735.4721
m: 201.615.2787
Stephanie Hirlemann
CNBC
m: 201.397.2838
