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Speaker 1: This is the business of sports where in the situation

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Speaker 1: that we haven't dealt with in modern times, pandemic here

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Speaker 1: has really accelerated the investments that we've been advocating for

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Speaker 1: for years. Almost everyone else there is hoping that there's

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Speaker 1: some kind of return to normal by August September. In

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Speaker 1: depth conversations with the leaders in the sports industry, who

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Speaker 1: wants to be the sacrificial lambs that shows up at

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Speaker 1: the first big major sporting events were part of something

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Speaker 1: much bigger than the sports right now, and the health

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Speaker 1: and safety of our stakeholders is both more important every

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Speaker 1: moment I think we're all in business respective thinking about

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Speaker 1: the impact that the virus is having a across the country.

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio. Hi, I'm Jason Kelly,

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Speaker 1: and I'm Mike Clinch and I'm Michael Barr And this

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Speaker 1: is the Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast where we explore

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Speaker 1: the big money issues in the world of sports. And

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Speaker 1: today we begin with the NHL saying, Yeah, we're gonna

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Speaker 1: play hockey. It's gonna be team return. Jason, Yeah, I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's fascinating that they've able to pull this all together

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Speaker 1: or almost pull it all together. I mean, there's still

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Speaker 1: some big open questions about where this is all gonna

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Speaker 1: take place, but to some extent amid all the serman

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Speaker 1: drang with the other leagues, and I know we'll talk

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Speaker 1: about baseball a little bit later on. I mean, the

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Speaker 1: NHL kind of pulling it all together, which I don't

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Speaker 1: know if it's a tribute to Bettman, if it's a

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Speaker 1: tribute to the players, I don't know who gets credit

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Speaker 1: for this relatively early win. Mike Lynch Well, Donald Fair

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Speaker 1: represents the players, and of course he used to represent

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Speaker 1: Major League Baseball players and so he knows how to

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Speaker 1: get things done. But I've dealt with all four professional

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Speaker 1: leagues in my career, and heads and shoulders the most

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Speaker 1: common sense and nicest, easiest to deal with guys or

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Speaker 1: hockey players. They're so good there's no other sport that

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Speaker 1: comes in second place to them, so they want to

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Speaker 1: get back. They're reasonable, they're not contentious, they love their game,

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Speaker 1: and I give the credit to the players and the

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Speaker 1: players Association. Interesting, yeah, I mean, how do you think

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Speaker 1: this ultimately plays out? Because as I understand it, they're

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Speaker 1: gonna play this season obviously shortened, but then they're talking

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Speaker 1: about a full one season, And the comment I saw

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Speaker 1: from Batman this morning was essentially like, yeah, it sort

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Speaker 1: of doesn't matter if we start in November, December, even

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Speaker 1: in January. We're gonna play a full season. All the

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Speaker 1: cities are on board. It's a surprising lack of drama.

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Speaker 1: It is. He says that the Stanley Cup is probably

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Speaker 1: gonna be played in late September early October, and then

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Speaker 1: would give the teams a break. But I don't know

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Speaker 1: how you slam in a team season that starts in January,

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Speaker 1: that normally starts in the first week in October. This

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Speaker 1: whole playoff thing has got me a little bit confused.

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Speaker 1: I wouldn't be happy if I were the Boston Bruins.

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Speaker 1: So the St. Louis Blues, who had the most points

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Speaker 1: in each conference and probably should be awarded that the

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Speaker 1: number one seed. When those other teams play their bed,

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Speaker 1: the other sixteen teams play their best of five. Now

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Speaker 1: they're gonna play a little round robins, sort of like

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Speaker 1: the Olympics, and then they'll get into the medal round.

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Speaker 1: But you know, the Bruins in St. Louis could go

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Speaker 1: oh and three and all of a sudden now that

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Speaker 1: the number four seed instead of that, I'm one seat.

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Speaker 1: But the only thing that they won't be giving up

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Speaker 1: here is home misadvantage because we're going to be playing

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Speaker 1: in some neutral sites, some hub as they call it. Right,

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Speaker 1: Michael Barr is a fan. What what do you make

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Speaker 1: of this? Is this just like you're happy for any

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Speaker 1: sports at this point or what does it say to

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Speaker 1: you about the state of things overall? I am extremely happy.

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Speaker 1: As a native detroitter. We have a history of the

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Speaker 1: Detroit Red Wings, so I am happy to see hockey.

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Speaker 1: I a door hockey and one of the things and

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Speaker 1: and Mike Lynch said it earlier, it's going to be

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Speaker 1: a neutral sign and it looks like at least Vegas

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Speaker 1: is going to be a near lock to be one

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Speaker 1: of the hub cities. Uh. And that's important for two reasons. One, yes,

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Speaker 1: is a neutral site and too you're talking about the

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Speaker 1: city of gambling, so there's gonna be a business there

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Speaker 1: of making bets on the ice. Jason Well, and I

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Speaker 1: mean there has to be some economics to this all around.

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Speaker 1: No fans obviously, I mean we are dealing with a

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Speaker 1: fanless world or a spectator less world at least on site.

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Speaker 1: You know, I've been reading so much about it, I

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Speaker 1: don't think we have a full appreciation other than some

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Speaker 1: you know, South Korean baseball, as to what that actually

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Speaker 1: looks and feels like. I mean, Michael Barr, I know

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Speaker 1: we keep coming back to this idea in part because

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Speaker 1: I'm obsessed with it. What does no fans feel like

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Speaker 1: to you? And obviously we're all going to experience it,

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Speaker 1: but how much do you worry that it's going to

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Speaker 1: take something away from the game. I wonder if they're

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Speaker 1: going to do what I think what they're doing in

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Speaker 1: Japan where they're kind of piping in the fans coming in,

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Speaker 1: so everything is on remote, so it's you know, so

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Speaker 1: the fans can't have a way to cheer through the

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Speaker 1: brilliance of technology. And I'm wondering as time goes along

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Speaker 1: if that will be something that we'll see not only

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Speaker 1: in hockey, but we'll see it in all sports. I hope.

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Speaker 1: So does that work for you? Mike Lynch piped in,

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Speaker 1: well typed in Fano a little bit. You know, teams

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Speaker 1: have been fine for your in the Falcons. I think

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Speaker 1: of Tisson Tisson, but as a Boston guy, you're never

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Speaker 1: allowed to say the word falcons. Okay, can we just

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Speaker 1: stickulate that there's two numbers. I can never say either

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Speaker 1: exactly exactly any combination of three. But you know what,

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Speaker 1: you know what will remind me of is, you know,

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Speaker 1: up here we go to a lot of Bruins practices

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Speaker 1: and there's scrimmages going on, and there's no fans there,

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Speaker 1: there's just reporters, and all of a sudden there's a goal.

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Speaker 1: It's like, oh, a goal was scored. So but when

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Speaker 1: you're at a live event and there's eighteen thousand people

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Speaker 1: there and a goal is scored, the place goes bananas.

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Speaker 1: So other than the red light going on behind the

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Speaker 1: goaltender up above the glass, I mean, you really got

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Speaker 1: to kind of pay attention to the game. I do

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Speaker 1: wonder Michael barr If And this sort of moves us

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Speaker 1: a little bit into the next topic, which we have

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Speaker 1: many segues here. We could talk about that three when

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Speaker 1: and talk about Mr Brady, but also the idea that

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Speaker 1: with the match which we saw over the weekend, one

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Speaker 1: of the great innovations in many ways was you know,

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Speaker 1: everybody being miked up and being able to hear everything

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Speaker 1: that was going on. I mean, one of the things

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Speaker 1: we may get to hear with fan lists or spectator

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Speaker 1: list games is a lot more of what's going on

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Speaker 1: among the players, which you know could cut both ways. Michael,

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Speaker 1: they better have a seven second to lay. It's just

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Speaker 1: gonna be quiet on the ice. And if someone gets

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Speaker 1: cross check that they don't really appreciate. Oh yeah, I

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Speaker 1: want to I want to hear that audio. That's gonna

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Speaker 1: be good. And you talk about the audio is a

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Speaker 1: good segue to move into the match. And it was

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Speaker 1: one of the most watched golf telecast in the history

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Speaker 1: of cable television. And come on, guys, let's admit it.

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna say it. Tiger Woods has some cute legs.

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Speaker 1: They were wearing those shorts. Man, I was. I was

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Speaker 1: kind of taking the back. It's like, Okay, this is

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Speaker 1: the way we're gonna do it here. And it was

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Speaker 1: a lot of fun to watch a little bit of

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Speaker 1: jall jacking. It looked like four guy was having fun

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Speaker 1: playing on the golf course. I loved it. Mike Clinch,

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Speaker 1: I mean you, you and I were talking before we

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Speaker 1: came on air, and it was appointment television in a

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Speaker 1: way that we have not had other than like last

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Speaker 1: dance or something like that. I think you not to

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Speaker 1: sell you out, but like you rushed in from your

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Speaker 1: garden to make sure you saw it right, I was.

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Speaker 1: I was putting to get a little tomato garden, and

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Speaker 1: I had it on the TV. And so I go

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Speaker 1: in and so I could stand outside with my muddy

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Speaker 1: shoes and looked through the screen and watched the start

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Speaker 1: of it. And one of my daughter's thirty year old

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Speaker 1: daughters is watching like the Real Housewives of some place,

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Speaker 1: and I said, what are you through? Put it back

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Speaker 1: on t NT. I want to watch. So I took

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Speaker 1: my muddy shoes off and I was horizontal for about

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Speaker 1: five hours. And it was good television in many ways.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I think we were all pleasantly surprised, you know,

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Speaker 1: watching it. It felt like there were so many times

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Speaker 1: that it sort of could have taken a left turn,

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Speaker 1: and even you know, the weather didn't really cooperate. They

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Speaker 1: literally burned the last ounce of daylight, it felt like

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Speaker 1: as it went along. But the rapport among the four

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Speaker 1: of them was good, I think. And as has been stipulated,

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Speaker 1: I'm not a huge Tom Brady fan. For for the

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Speaker 1: obvious reasons, having gritted for the Atlanta Falcons for a

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Speaker 1: long time, but Brady not completely losing his mind given

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Speaker 1: how poorly he was playing to start, was actually sort

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Speaker 1: of impressive. I don't know if there was some meditating

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Speaker 1: or something going on there, but it was a blast.

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Speaker 1: I think they should do it every weekend. Michael. It

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Speaker 1: was an average of five point a million viewers were

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Speaker 1: watching this event, and between five and six pm it

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Speaker 1: peaked at six point three million viewers. And then at

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Speaker 1: seven pm we all watching The Real Housewives are somewhere.

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Speaker 1: That was very funny. The Daughters of the World finally

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Speaker 1: took the remotes back, were like, enough enough, go finish

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Speaker 1: your garden. Good. I loved it. I thought it was

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Speaker 1: great entertainment. Um, your Star Wars side of Phil Mickelson

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Speaker 1: and Tiger that you've never seen before. You know, Tiger

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Speaker 1: says this what I have to put up with every

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Speaker 1: single week on the tour, and I thought it was

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Speaker 1: a little bit of a poor sport with his erratic

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Speaker 1: play until he you know, Asta, I'm not asta nut

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Speaker 1: that shot in from bird from yeah, and and then

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Speaker 1: all of a sudden he his his whole attitude change

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Speaker 1: and he split his pants, you know, which is I

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Speaker 1: keep thinking about to Zion Williamson when his Nike sneaker

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Speaker 1: fell apart, you know. And so now is this a

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Speaker 1: good thing or a bad thing from under Armer that

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Speaker 1: Tom Brady's pants split when he made the shot of

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Speaker 1: the day. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Yeah, No, there was

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Speaker 1: definitely a lot, Mike to your point about Phil Mickelson.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I I think we did see a side

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Speaker 1: of him, you know, sort of the coaching that that

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Speaker 1: he was doing. I thought was really actually interesting to watch.

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Speaker 1: And I do going back to something we were saying earlier,

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Speaker 1: I do wonder if some of that carries over, especially

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Speaker 1: as we deal with spectator less sports, if we do

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Speaker 1: sort of get in side the proverbial helmet. As we've

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Speaker 1: been doing more and more, we've been inching towards this,

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Speaker 1: it feels like, over the past few years, and we've

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Speaker 1: got to find a way to make these broadcasts new

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Speaker 1: and different. I thought they also did a very good

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Speaker 1: job from a production perspective with the different cameras. You know,

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Speaker 1: those golf cart cameras were great. Uh. It was very

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Speaker 1: intimate in a way, and if you're not going to have,

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Speaker 1: you know, people in the case of golf walking along

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Speaker 1: the course, if you're not gonna have spectators in the stands,

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Speaker 1: you're going to have to do something for the at

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Speaker 1: home audience to to really engage them. And I thought

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Speaker 1: they did. I thought they did a nice job. And

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Speaker 1: you have to think other sports we're watching that very closely. Well,

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Speaker 1: speaking of other sports, major League Baseball is trying to

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Speaker 1: come back. Well, let me put it this way. The

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Speaker 1: league put some offers on the table to the players union,

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Speaker 1: and the MLB Players Association kind of gave it the

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Speaker 1: at all. Yeah. I mean, I've been talking to so

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Speaker 1: many people about this, and I think about it as

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Speaker 1: a longtime baseball fan, and I think we've talked about

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Speaker 1: this on this program before as someone who you know,

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Speaker 1: even at the ripe old age of forty how old

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Speaker 1: my forty six, Like, I feel much older than my

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Speaker 1: years because I talked to my teenage kids and they

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Speaker 1: couldn't care less about baseball. I feel like I failed

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Speaker 1: as a father to some extent. But at the same time,

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Speaker 1: I know that they're fairly representative, and I feel pretty

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Speaker 1: strongly that if Baseball blows this like, if they can't

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Speaker 1: figure out a way to get together and get this

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Speaker 1: game on the field, this could this could mark the

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Speaker 1: death knelt to some extent of this sport. And it

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Speaker 1: is not a good look right now. And I think

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Speaker 1: it's only exacerbated when you have the NHL getting back

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Speaker 1: to business. I think by the time some people listen

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Speaker 1: to this, if they're you know, behind in their podcast,

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Speaker 1: we could have a deal for the n b A.

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Speaker 1: You got NASCAR back up and running. You're going to

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Speaker 1: see golf next month, and baseball will be conspicuously absent.

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Speaker 1: Mike Lynch and I just don't know what it's going

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Speaker 1: to take. Well, they picked a bad time to get

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Speaker 1: into a fight over money. It's just it's just it

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Speaker 1: does not resonate well with anybody in this country for

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Speaker 1: all the obvious reasons. And you made a great point

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Speaker 1: about there will be so many other choices between the NBA, NHL, NFL, golf,

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Speaker 1: and NASCAR, and people say, you know what, let's just

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Speaker 1: to get the whole season. I really don't care about baseball.

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Speaker 1: I don't care that the owners are gonna lose their revenue.

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Speaker 1: I don't care that a guy that's making ten million

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Speaker 1: is only going to make two point nine million. I

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Speaker 1: get my own problems stopped whinding to me. So I

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Speaker 1: talked to someone yesterday who was good friends with someone

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Speaker 1: in the Players Association. He said, they're so far apart

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Speaker 1: on this money thing, and they're very far apart on

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Speaker 1: the health and safety issue, and that some owners, he

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Speaker 1: was told by Players Association, some owners just as soon

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Speaker 1: fold the tent and called a year. Wow. What do

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Speaker 1: you think of the long term implications of that, Michael Well?

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Speaker 1: I remember the strike about something years ago when it

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Speaker 1: like out the World Series and and all of that,

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Speaker 1: and it took baseball a long time to get back

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Speaker 1: on its feet. Now, obviously the pandemic is something nobody

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Speaker 1: could have foreseen right away, canceling on all sports. But

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Speaker 1: it's one thing. If you want to argue about the

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Speaker 1: health and safety of the players. I get that. But

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Speaker 1: like Mike Lynch, like we were saying, we talk about money,

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Speaker 1: and forget the high end. The low end is making

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Speaker 1: what about a million dollars maybe a high six digit figure. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: And and and meanwhile, the minor league players, the Oakland A's,

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Speaker 1: they just said, hey, we're not gonna pay the minor

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Speaker 1: league players after June one. So you tell somebody like

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Speaker 1: in the minor leagues or anything like that, it's like, really,

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Speaker 1: you're you're mad about you know, because gonna get less

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Speaker 1: million dollars and people can't eat. I don't want to hear. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: And I also worry about the ecosystem and the and

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Speaker 1: the knock on effective this of you know, a game,

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Speaker 1: a game or a series of games not going off.

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Speaker 1: And we've talked about this before, but I think it's

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Speaker 1: a real thing. I mean, ultimately, this is the business

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Speaker 1: of sports, and the business of sports. You know, the

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Speaker 1: ecosystem around these teams is massive, and it's not just

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Speaker 1: the players. It's the trainers, and it's the ushers, and

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Speaker 1: it's the concessionaires, and it's all these places around these

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Speaker 1: stadiums around the country that that are really going to suffer.

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Speaker 1: And it's just a bad look. I mean, Mike Lynch,

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Speaker 1: you know you alluded earlier to you know, covering the

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Speaker 1: four major sports and knowing them as intimately as you do,

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Speaker 1: how much of this do you think falls on Manfred

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Speaker 1: And especially in contrast to a betman or a silver

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Speaker 1: will set Goodella side, because he's not really in the

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Speaker 1: hot seat quite yet. But those other two guys, they've

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Speaker 1: been knee deep in it in the same way that

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Speaker 1: Manfred has. It just doesn't look good for him, No,

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Speaker 1: it doesn't. And I don't think Manford has the respect

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Speaker 1: of the public that Silver does, and Bettman didn't have

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Speaker 1: a lot of respect for a long time anyway. But again,

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Speaker 1: the success or the ability to get back on the ice,

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Speaker 1: I give to the players and hockey. And I alluded

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Speaker 1: earlier that the hockey players ranked number one and no

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Speaker 1: one else is number two. I can tell you who's

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Speaker 1: dead last in terms of dealing with professional athletes, the

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Speaker 1: baseball players. They're the most selfish, the most the most arrogant,

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Speaker 1: the hardest to deal with, the rudest, could care less

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Speaker 1: about anybody but themselves. They just uh, they really signed autographs,

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Speaker 1: they really interact with the fans. It's tough to deal

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Speaker 1: with in the media, and that they have the most

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Speaker 1: powerful union, but they are the most obstinate group of

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Speaker 1: the four major sports. See this is why we can't

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Speaker 1: have nice things. Yeah, and I do just think, you know,

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Speaker 1: I keep going back to to the NBA and how

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Speaker 1: and and hockey. Obviously, I think very rightly pointed out

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Speaker 1: Mike is is the pinnacle here and zero drama there,

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Speaker 1: but very little drama in the n b A at

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Speaker 1: least so far, or or what we've heard in terms

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Speaker 1: of you know, Silver being able by some published reports

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Speaker 1: to get a key group of players together a few

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Speaker 1: weeks ago to sort of hammer out these issues, sort

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Speaker 1: of bring them into the tent as it where I

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Speaker 1: saw one writer refer to that, and by all accounts,

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Speaker 1: we will have a deal coming up for the NBA

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Speaker 1: to get back to business. Baseball, we know is complicated.

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Speaker 1: The economics are very different, and they rely heavily on

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Speaker 1: the gate for their revenues. But man, it is it's

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Speaker 1: hard to it's hard to defend this situation in many ways.

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Speaker 1: It's hard to be understanding, even knowing. I think the

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Speaker 1: three of us certainly combined no enough to be dangerous

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Speaker 1: about this. And it's hard for us understanding this to

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Speaker 1: really say, well, you know, you gotta cut them some slack.

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Speaker 1: It's hard to cut them some slack here. Well, I mean,

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Speaker 1: I gotta admit I don't see how they're gonna get

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Speaker 1: eighty two games in as far apart as they are

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Speaker 1: right now. I don't see now. Having said that, I'm

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Speaker 1: a huge baseball fantasy fan, so and I love playing

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Speaker 1: the game. In fact, we just sent out a note

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Speaker 1: it's like, hey, what we're gonna do about the league, fellas,

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Speaker 1: and and I'm all in, and it's like whatever they

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Speaker 1: decided was like, let's go. But I just don't see it. Well.

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Speaker 1: They need to. They need to kick it into gear

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Speaker 1: for sure, because they are going to get as we've

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Speaker 1: been talking about, They're going to get passed by to

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Speaker 1: a large extent. And I think fans will only wait

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Speaker 1: around for so long. And I think the population of

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Speaker 1: die hard baseball fans is dwindling, and people are fickle,

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Speaker 1: and especially right now, they're gravitating towards whatever they can watch.

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Speaker 1: And if baseball is the fourth, for fifth or sixth

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Speaker 1: depending on your definition, to get back, they may find

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Speaker 1: that people are distracted doing other things. We will keep

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Speaker 1: an eye on this and much more. You've been listening

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Speaker 1: to the Bloomberg This of sports podcasts. I'm Jason Kelly.

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Speaker 1: Find me on Twitter at Jason Kelly News. And remember

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Speaker 1: there's no crying in baseball. On Mike Lynch, you can

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Speaker 1: find me at Lynch Eat at w CVB and I'm

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Speaker 1: Michael Barr at Big Bar Sports at Real Housewives somewhere

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Speaker 1: and were each and every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday exploring

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Speaker 1: the world money and sports. You're listening to Bloomberg Businesses

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Speaker 1: Sports on Bloomberg Radio around the world and online wherever

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Speaker 1: you get your podcast. This is Bloomberg