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Speaker 1: Hello. This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports show, where

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

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Speaker 1: Michael larn And I'm Mike Lynch and I'm Scarlett fou

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Speaker 1: And today we have Tyler to Menia. She is the

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Speaker 1: commissioner of the Premiere Hockey Federation, but you might know

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Speaker 1: it better as the National Women's Hockey League. But the

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Speaker 1: league has rebranded into PHF Premier Hockey Federation, which is

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Speaker 1: the leading source of professional women's hockey in North America.

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Speaker 1: So we want to talk a little bit more about

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Speaker 1: what's going on here, the thinking behind this rebranding, and

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Speaker 1: the outlook for women's hockey in North America. Tyler is

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Speaker 1: joining us right now. Tyler, it's great to speak with you. Um. So,

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Speaker 1: the n w h L had a pretty successful season

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Speaker 1: last year. The COVID disrupted things, but you brought in

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Speaker 1: a lot of money and now before the new season begins,

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Speaker 1: you are rebranding as the Premiere Hockey Federation. What's the

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Speaker 1: thinking behind this change? Sure, thank you all for having

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Speaker 1: me on. I appreciate it. Um. The thinking really stems

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Speaker 1: from the fact that you just said it. We really

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Speaker 1: had a really great season six with which is only

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Speaker 1: two weeks UM, a two weeks season. But with that,

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Speaker 1: since I started back in October, comes UM comes with

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Speaker 1: a lot of change. How we restructured ourselves internally. We've

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Speaker 1: created a board of the governors, UM, we have private

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Speaker 1: ownership at all within all six of our teams. Now

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Speaker 1: we look different internally, and so the read we redefined

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Speaker 1: who we were as as a brand, what we looked

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Speaker 1: like the PHF in particular, you know, Professional Women Hockey

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Speaker 1: League with a new name that's inclusive and respects differences

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Speaker 1: in gender identity and the composition of our rosters, how

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Speaker 1: they look today and how they look in the future. UM.

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Speaker 1: And so we really felt that this opportunity was was

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Speaker 1: now for the new brand and UM it we believe

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Speaker 1: it will create a blad of repeal UM down the road. Tyler,

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Speaker 1: I'm one of those guys, say it loud, say it proud,

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Speaker 1: equality you forever because and sometimes I say it too

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Speaker 1: loud and I get into little trouble here. But yeah,

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Speaker 1: I you know, I just get sick and tired of

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Speaker 1: the pay, inequality and all of this. What is it

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Speaker 1: going to take to get something on an even keel

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Speaker 1: for everybody involved? Yeah? I mean there's it's going to

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Speaker 1: take a lot, right UM. So from a business standpoint, UH,

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Speaker 1: you know, it's really for us and women's sport in particular,

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Speaker 1: we really have to align ourselves with partners UM that

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Speaker 1: really understand what we're trying to do here. UM. It

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Speaker 1: takes a true partner that come in on top of

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Speaker 1: our ownerships that really float us on the operational level.

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Speaker 1: But to grow this to the next level to get

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Speaker 1: the viewership up that we need. UM to understand that

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Speaker 1: the partners that come in of our sponsors UM in

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Speaker 1: order to grow revenue that will have a direct impact,

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Speaker 1: in particular with our federation has a has a major

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Speaker 1: impact on that salary cap. UM. We have somebody like

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Speaker 1: to Discover and duncan come in UM for season six

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Speaker 1: Landmark deal with Discover. We saw firsthand what that does. UM.

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Speaker 1: Our salary cap was was able to double immediately. UM.

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Speaker 1: And so we do. We rely on UM the partners

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Speaker 1: that come in and want to grow and have an

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Speaker 1: impact on their social change and equality and UM. It's

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Speaker 1: the lifeblood to any of our hour leagues UM going forward. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And it's necessary. Hey, Tyler, it's Mike lynch up in Boston. Um,

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Speaker 1: every league in North to survived needs some type of

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Speaker 1: of TV deal. What type of streaming or TV deal

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Speaker 1: have have you put together for the league? Um? You

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Speaker 1: know what, I really wish I could say this. I

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Speaker 1: even asked permission because we have a we have a

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Speaker 1: historical deal. It's it's so exciting. UM. I'm I'm so

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Speaker 1: beyond thrilled about what these seven is going to look

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Speaker 1: like for these athletes. UM. I'm dying to tell them.

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Speaker 1: I'm trying to tell the world. We won't tell anybody.

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Speaker 1: It's just really um. And again a testament to you know,

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Speaker 1: the the flirting of our media exposure deal out of

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Speaker 1: season six, right, those those opportunities and y MBCSM was

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Speaker 1: so important to us last year was not only did

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Speaker 1: bring in more sponsors UM for the federation, but it

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Speaker 1: also was able to give these proof points that we need, UM,

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Speaker 1: so that we can say, yes, you know we're North

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Speaker 1: American's women's hockey league. This is what we're able to

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Speaker 1: do with six markets. We don't have thirty markets, right,

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Speaker 1: we have six markets, so to scale, we're still quite small. Um,

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Speaker 1: but you can see going up into an Olympic year,

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Speaker 1: there's there's excitement for it, there's movement for it, and

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Speaker 1: I'm really excited to to get your hat on season

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Speaker 1: seven because I think this is going to be the

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Speaker 1: year UM that will launch this in the next two

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Speaker 1: to three years on growth UM and and revenue UM.

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Speaker 1: What we're trying to do with our media exposure deals

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Speaker 1: and where you can see it, whether it's domestic, great

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Speaker 1: or national, and that is what's so important to women's sport.

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Speaker 1: It definitely feels like you're at an inflection point. But

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Speaker 1: even with the rebranding, even with UM you being on

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Speaker 1: the precipice of these major broadcast deals, it doesn't change

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Speaker 1: the fact that many of the top female players in

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Speaker 1: the world did not suit up for the n w

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Speaker 1: h L UM after the Canadian Women's Hockey League folded in. Instead,

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Speaker 1: they banded together as the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association,

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Speaker 1: and they continue to sit out. From from where you sit,

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Speaker 1: why are these players holding out? What's what's their concern? Well,

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Speaker 1: I think UM again that that predates me that boycott,

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Speaker 1: But I think what happens now is that there's a

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Speaker 1: building a trust, right, there's relationship buildings, there's been discussions,

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Speaker 1: there's been more discussions now than there ever has been

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Speaker 1: UM and there's an education um of things that they

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Speaker 1: have required and asked for which they should ums. Are

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Speaker 1: things that we have changed in the last ten eleven

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Speaker 1: months um and well they're we've enhanced our player benefits,

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Speaker 1: We've made our our player benefits transparent, We've doubled our

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Speaker 1: salary cap um, We've we've we've um the ranks in

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Speaker 1: the locker rooms. We've got brand new locker rooms. We've

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Speaker 1: invested in the locker rooms. They really made them state

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Speaker 1: of the art. Um. Travel and bussing that wasn't happening

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Speaker 1: before either. Um So now the travel accommodations, the flights,

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Speaker 1: the bus, the equipments, equipment deals are there. Um So Again, well,

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Speaker 1: I think it's important to understand that WILL always want

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Speaker 1: them to come back because I truly believe that the

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Speaker 1: sport grows together um and and not have this divide um.

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Speaker 1: But again, like any relationship, professional or personal, you've got

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Speaker 1: to build that to us since it was broken. I

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Speaker 1: just on that salary cap you mentioned, um, it's now

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Speaker 1: double to three hundred thousand per team, but you've got

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Speaker 1: about what players rostered so at best averages out to

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Speaker 1: about fifteen dollars per player. That's still not a livable

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Speaker 1: wage for these players, No it is not. And then um,

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Speaker 1: but again that should be viewed as just the starting point.

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Speaker 1: And as we grow and that revenue model grows, um,

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Speaker 1: hopefully it becomes a yearly thing where we increase it.

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Speaker 1: But you're right, um, you know they're playing. We we

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Speaker 1: did double the salary crap cap. We didn't expand the

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Speaker 1: roster minimum twenty on the roster, and we didn't increase

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Speaker 1: our games. So what you see sometimes with a salary

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Speaker 1: cap increase the schedule and the practices increased as well.

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Speaker 1: But we didn't do that. We kept schedule the same,

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Speaker 1: kept practices same, We kept the roster composition the same,

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Speaker 1: the size um. And again like we're here to really

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Speaker 1: just grow it, and we can only do that again

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Speaker 1: with with that cycle of the confusion of the business

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Speaker 1: model and really getting all parts of revenue coming handed

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Speaker 1: larder to grow it. I am from the land of

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Speaker 1: if you can bet on it, they will come. And

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Speaker 1: and that's is that's with anything you put the odds up.

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Speaker 1: And I'm right there trying to do my homework, trying

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Speaker 1: to see to get an advantage to make a bet.

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Speaker 1: What do you think of as a commissioner of online

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Speaker 1: betting for your league? I'm hot for it. I feel

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Speaker 1: like I saw I've been talking about for the last

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Speaker 1: six months and we've had some really good conversations as well. UM.

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Speaker 1: I'm hoping that we get to a point where I

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Speaker 1: come back on your program here and now it's some

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Speaker 1: kind of deal. UM. But I think it's important. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I mean, you see it in across all sports, UH

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Speaker 1: and I and I think it's uh, you know again

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Speaker 1: another revenue stream for UM, this league in particular that

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Speaker 1: it's you know, all aids in that growth model going

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Speaker 1: forward and creating some sustainability where were I if I

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Speaker 1: could do once tomorrow, I would have Hey, Tyler, UM,

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Speaker 1: you know the w n B a U is partners

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Speaker 1: with the NBA, UM marketing a little bit of financial support.

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Speaker 1: Do you ever see that relationship developing with the National

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Speaker 1: Hockey League for your league? Yeah, So we actually have

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Speaker 1: a really good relationship with them. We cross market. They're

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Speaker 1: very supportive of us. I value UM being able to

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Speaker 1: come in UM a short time ago and building that

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Speaker 1: relationship up as well. UM. They helped us with our draft.

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Speaker 1: A lot of the NHL teams help us as well.

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Speaker 1: UM where we actually you know, the Bruins are very

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Speaker 1: um good with us with the we um play out

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Speaker 1: of the Warrior Arena, the practice futility for the Bruins. Um. Again,

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Speaker 1: we we are our outlook and how our owners come

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Speaker 1: in is it's really standalone. They're very dedicated to growing

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Speaker 1: the game itself for very hands on. UM. We roll

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Speaker 1: up their sleeves and and give a lot dollars and

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Speaker 1: energy and into making this grow on its own. UM.

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Speaker 1: I think we've always said that we would just continue

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Speaker 1: to do that, right, UM. I don't think we would

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Speaker 1: want to put the NHL in any position to say, okay,

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Speaker 1: now you need to absorb us. I don't think, um,

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Speaker 1: the way the landscape is postcode COVID as well, that

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Speaker 1: that's a reality. They've said it's not a reality. So

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Speaker 1: we just continue to grow the game, um with our

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Speaker 1: investors that we have now and and hope to see

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Speaker 1: some success. And we're still young. Seven years is like

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Speaker 1: seven seconds in the sports landscape. Softly, Uh, we still

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Speaker 1: have to prove what kind of support from the NHL

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Speaker 1: would be most meaningful to uh your league, right, now.

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Speaker 1: Really it's the cross promotion and allowing um that marketing

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Speaker 1: aspect of their arm to help us. Brand awareness is

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Speaker 1: very instrumental in our exact success. Um. They're they're helping

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Speaker 1: us do that currently. Um and uh, that to us

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Speaker 1: is what we need. We need, we need eyeball, we

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Speaker 1: need the attention, we need the interest. We're still in

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Speaker 1: that stage where people are saying, oh my gosh, I

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Speaker 1: didn't even know that there was a pro women's league

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Speaker 1: out there in North America. Um. And and they've been

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Speaker 1: very good with that. So, UM, I need that continued

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Speaker 1: support in order to to help us. You have a

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Speaker 1: lot of experience in business, and you also have a

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Speaker 1: lot of experience in minor league baseball. How did all

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Speaker 1: of that help you and carry over into the job

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Speaker 1: that you're in right now? Yeah, I'm like the baseball

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Speaker 1: check hockey check. I know, I asked myself that every day,

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Speaker 1: so I game a hockey. But it was the sixteen

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Speaker 1: years of being in baseball and I have, you know,

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Speaker 1: oversight of six minor league teams different, you know, I

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Speaker 1: guess it's both sides of defense now, right, UM, I

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Speaker 1: see the men's sport and what I was able to

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Speaker 1: do there much larger scale, believe it or not, UM

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Speaker 1: operating budget was a lot larger than when I'm dealing

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Speaker 1: with now. UM. The sports entertainment model in the minor

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Speaker 1: league baseball is really UM probably a test of my character.

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Speaker 1: I really like that autonomy to be able to kind

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Speaker 1: of go in and out and be creative and tongue

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Speaker 1: antique sometimes and some of our promotional while UM items

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Speaker 1: and giveaways and thoughts UM, so not just similar to

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Speaker 1: what when tice in me year was sixteens and you know,

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Speaker 1: the ability to kind of go in and UM gut

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Speaker 1: and then UM try to get process and protocols in place,

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Speaker 1: and UM be able to have the autonomy and freedom

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Speaker 1: to do some things that will be different here that

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Speaker 1: UM will create a unique factor UM to the women's

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Speaker 1: game UM over time. And so yeah, I think UM,

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Speaker 1: going from that world to this world there there wasn't

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Speaker 1: UM that much change other than again establishing some process

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Speaker 1: and protocol that that needed to get in places. Where

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Speaker 1: do you see this league in five years hopefully UM

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Speaker 1: in different markets. You know what I would love and

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Speaker 1: maybe this is probably but this is we all have

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Speaker 1: we all have dream and UH, but I would love

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Speaker 1: in East Coast, the West Coast Division and really grow

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Speaker 1: this UM the teams on expansion UM across North America

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Speaker 1: and then have some international infusion to whether it's expedition

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Speaker 1: games or more of a world cut mentality UM on Canada. Essentially, yeah,

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Speaker 1: beyond Canada. But that's where I see it and hopefully

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Speaker 1: five years that's strong, sustainable and growing. I gotta ask

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Speaker 1: you about your thoughts as a female commissioner UM of

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Speaker 1: a women's league. What what you thought when you saw

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Speaker 1: the stories surrounding the National Women's Soccer League and how

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Speaker 1: that league handled all those reports of coaches sexually coercing players.

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Speaker 1: Three coaches let go inside of three months. That's of

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Speaker 1: the league's coaches. It's no longer about individuals behaving badly.

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Speaker 1: There's something more systemic going on there. Yeah, it seemed

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Speaker 1: to me. Again, I don't usually like to comment on

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Speaker 1: what goes on in another league because I don't have

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Speaker 1: an intimate feat of what has happened. I can say

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Speaker 1: that it's unfortunate and I'm disgusting UM, and uh, you

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Speaker 1: know it's I could say that what we're trying to

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Speaker 1: do and have been doing here is prevent any of that. UM.

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Speaker 1: We have policies in place and communication lines open. UM.

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Speaker 1: We spoke to our athletes directly after hearing that, and

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Speaker 1: they reassured them that if that UM, if ever they

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Speaker 1: felt uncomfortable in the environment, that they UM come to

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Speaker 1: us immediately. We do have a zero tolerance policy for

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Speaker 1: that is a coaching staff mostly male or female. Indeed,

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Speaker 1: at the six teams that we have, I have five

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Speaker 1: male coaching staff, have five head coaches that are male.

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Speaker 1: And what about their their staff? Same like UM process

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Speaker 1: and is all in place. And again there's zero tolerance

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Speaker 1: here at this league for if any time an athlete

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Speaker 1: where anyone front office staff comes to us and and

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Speaker 1: UM has any kind of feeling of not being safe UM.

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Speaker 1: And so that's all we could do here is protect

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Speaker 1: our our environment as best as we can UM. And

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Speaker 1: again that was quite unfortunate what happened there to the nself.

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Speaker 1: So let's say, for instance, a young woman wants to

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Speaker 1: come to you and wants to find management in this league.

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Speaker 1: What do you tell her? What if this this young

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Speaker 1: woman wants to say, look, hold my beer, I want

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Speaker 1: to make a name in this What tips would you

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Speaker 1: give here? Hold my beer? UM? I'm not sure I

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Speaker 1: would do that. If they if they want to, Um,

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Speaker 1: you're saying, if they want to play in this league, anything,

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Speaker 1: if they want to play in the league, if they

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Speaker 1: want to get into management, if they if they want

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Speaker 1: to make a mark in this league and and just

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Speaker 1: take it to brand new heights, what would what would

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Speaker 1: you tell them? And what tips would would you give

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Speaker 1: this person to make a name for yourself. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: think it all comes back down to like perseverance and great. Um.

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Speaker 1: It's not easy to to make a name for yourself. UM,

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Speaker 1: whether that's an athlete or front office or coaching staff. Uh,

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Speaker 1: there's a lot of hurdles that you know have to

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Speaker 1: go into it. But you know, with with being confident

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Speaker 1: about who you are and your skill set, not cocky,

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Speaker 1: but confident and UM and really just being um, you know,

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Speaker 1: having some perseverance to to what you're what you want

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Speaker 1: out of life, and what you would like to see yourself,

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Speaker 1: whether that's the athlete or the front office. I mean,

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Speaker 1: that's what it really comes down to, um, you know,

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Speaker 1: really trying to take advice. Especially if I look back

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Speaker 1: at my own career, it was quite difficult to get

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Speaker 1: into baseball and I grew up in it, right. My

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Speaker 1: father just retired last year from Chicago White Sox. I

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Speaker 1: know a lot of people in baseball. I grew up

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Speaker 1: baseball or at uh still very very hard um to

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Speaker 1: get in. It took me a bunch of years. Um,

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Speaker 1: but just believing in myself and but believing what I

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Speaker 1: brought to the table. Um. Again, that doesn't mean that

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Speaker 1: you're not going to get kicked in the gut um

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Speaker 1: every now and then. Um, But how you recover from

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Speaker 1: that is really how I think people shine and succeed

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Speaker 1: in life. Tyler, as a commissioner, your job, obviously at

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Speaker 1: the PHF is to create a successful business model, grow

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Speaker 1: the business. You talked about how you wanted to expand

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Speaker 1: the number of teams. What I find notable is that

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Speaker 1: the business model here has changed because when it was

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Speaker 1: the National Women's Hockey League, the league used to own

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Speaker 1: the teams. It's now shifted towards independent ownership of each franchise,

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Speaker 1: and increasingly there's a view that it may now be

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Speaker 1: the time now to invest profitably in professional women's sports. Um,

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Speaker 1: if you have a real long term horizon, I'm curious

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Speaker 1: what kind of interest you've fielded for investment from outsiders

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Speaker 1: in women's professional hockey now that each franchise is UM

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Speaker 1: moving towards independent ownership. Yeah, I feel like the last

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Speaker 1: time or eleven months, I feel it a lot of

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Speaker 1: interest to believe it or not. UM Again, it's interesting

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Speaker 1: like even when I owned Tea, right, I know I'm

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Speaker 1: going into that knowing that the next three to four

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Speaker 1: years I'm going to eat it. UM. When I when

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Speaker 1: I invest in something, it's you know, you really don't

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Speaker 1: start making any kind of any anything back UM within

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Speaker 1: three or four or five years. UM. Here, I think

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Speaker 1: there is a little bit of um an interest. It's

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Speaker 1: actually initially how I got involved was I was thinking

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Speaker 1: about buying a team myself, which is the Bye Toronto. UM.

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Speaker 1: The buy in is not as as as big because

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Speaker 1: of you know, going to back to scale UM operating

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Speaker 1: budgets and all that U are doable UM within to

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Speaker 1: see some kind of turnaround in some fine financial reward

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Speaker 1: coming back within less than three years, I would say

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Speaker 1: maybe the second year and you can start to see

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Speaker 1: maybe some kind of return. But UM, I think their

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Speaker 1: interest is that when you start seeing publicly UM where

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Speaker 1: the partners and the infusions and new partners coming in.

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Speaker 1: I think that's also important to like, we were able

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Speaker 1: to grow our sponsorship for the first time and in

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Speaker 1: five years UM. And then with UM for me, when

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Speaker 1: I look at investments, because that's really where I like

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Speaker 1: to live. UM. When I started seeing media exposure deals,

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Speaker 1: that's another time where it starts speaking my interest or

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Speaker 1: when I started hearing from people or hey, we should

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Speaker 1: buy it, and so that that will be UM. I

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Speaker 1: I still see this coming the next maybe five to

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Speaker 1: six months, like I'll start to see even more people

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Speaker 1: inquiring about clubs. Hey, Tyler, how do you stuck your

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Speaker 1: your rosters? Do you have a draft? Is it regional signings? Uh?

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Speaker 1: Is there a minimum age limit? Our high school players

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Speaker 1: allowed to sign college players, et cetera. Yeah, and you

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Speaker 1: have to graduate college. Our composition looks uh. We have

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Speaker 1: our amateur draft every year that the teams have their picks.

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Speaker 1: We just started international draft this year, which is only

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Speaker 1: a one round international draft. But um, and then what

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Speaker 1: holds the uh the teams have after that? UM, the

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Speaker 1: cap is at they can they can give out twenty spots. UM.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, then at that point if they still need

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Speaker 1: like for example, Toronto, after the draft, in international drafts.

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Speaker 1: Don't need a tune where roster spots. At that point,

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Speaker 1: the head coach or team leadership can go out and

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Speaker 1: inside free agents. By the way, when I add to that,

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Speaker 1: the PHF season begins Saturday, November six, So checking out

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Speaker 1: everybody because I will definitely be doing that for my

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Speaker 1: homework when I'm able to ben on it. Tyler, Commissioner

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Speaker 1: of the of the PHF, thank you so much for

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Speaker 1: joining us. We appreciate it. Hey, thank you again for

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Speaker 1: the attention. I will come on any time you guys ask,

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Speaker 1: so enjoy it. I really enjoy it. Thank thank you, Tyler.

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Speaker 1: We've been Styler. This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports show,

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Speaker 1: and we're here each and every week at the same time,

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Speaker 1: plus online wherever you get your podcast, you can catch

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Speaker 1: those Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. I'm Michael Barr on Twitter

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Speaker 1: at Big Bar Sports, and I'm Mike Lynch. You can

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Speaker 1: follow me at Lynch e w CVB. And I'm Scarlet Flu.

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Speaker 1: I'm on Twitter at Scarlet Flu and I have plenty

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Speaker 1: of hockey content on my Twitter feed. Thanks for joining us.

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Speaker 1: Listen to the Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio

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