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Speaker 1: Hello, I'm Scott So, I'm Evan, Noby Williams and Michael Barr.

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Speaker 1: This is the Moonberg Business of Sports podcast where we

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Speaker 1: and we are all here, all four of us. That's right,

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Speaker 1: exploring the big all four of us. Fine, you're right right,

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Speaker 1: Evan rocking. Then you have to put a picture of

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Speaker 1: it on your Twitter feed. Now you look like you

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Speaker 1: belong on the nickel ex throwing. Yes, it's awful because

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Speaker 1: he doesn't really have enough hair, and he knows that

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Speaker 1: he's cognizant of this, yet he's still pulling it back

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Speaker 1: into this little pink tail man. Michael Barr like, so

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Speaker 1: that's all I need. That's really all I need. No offense, Bar,

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Speaker 1: but your hairstyle is not like I mean, like if

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Speaker 1: Medina was like, I love it, I love it fine,

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Speaker 1: but she's like, what's all with Barrs hair? No, No,

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Speaker 1: I'm saying, not his hair. I'm saying his take on

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Speaker 1: you know. I wouldn't say to Bar, how do you

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Speaker 1: think I should style my hair, my clothes, my shirt?

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Speaker 1: I might say you, Mr Lavender. You For the record,

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Speaker 1: I've always complimented Evan's hair. I always says about the

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Speaker 1: style the hair. Yeah, I just think that this is

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Speaker 1: it's like a weird side thing. He's not even bunning it, right.

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Speaker 1: I mean, there's a lot going on here, and I'm

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Speaker 1: staring at it right now, like you got a nice

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Speaker 1: side from just behind the glass. It's awful. It's got

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Speaker 1: stuff on the side. Yeah, he doesn't know whether he

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Speaker 1: wants to be like a samurai or an NHL hockey

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Speaker 1: player or something a little whispy. Yes, yes, it's just

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Speaker 1: stuff going everywhere. Happy Monday morning. Everybody to hold up

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Speaker 1: the rest of it. So we all the five of us,

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Speaker 1: we should name it. Let's name it. What would you

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Speaker 1: name it? Maurice, Maurice. There you go, man, I wouldn't

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Speaker 1: name it. I wouldn't name it, Evan. I am going

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Speaker 1: to be so impressed. Is how many people get through

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Speaker 1: this part and actually listen to the rest of the line.

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Speaker 1: Let's we're really testing our audience. Well, you know, I

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Speaker 1: I gotta we were talking about what we do over

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Speaker 1: the weekend and all the other stuff, and I got

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Speaker 1: to give a shout out and and you will see

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Speaker 1: why I'm bringing this up in a second. By the way, uh,

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Speaker 1: I have a cousin and he is putting on a

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Speaker 1: comic in Art Expo. It's in uh run Kakama, New

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Speaker 1: York this Saturday. Yeah, are you like you're actively promoting

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Speaker 1: a family. There's a reason for it, though. There's a

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Speaker 1: reason because you asked me what I did for the weekend,

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Speaker 1: and you know, I am totally ignorant when it comes

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Speaker 1: to right there, you didn't You don't need any finished

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Speaker 1: the sentence. You can stop right there, buddy. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I don't know about these action adventures. My thirteen year

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Speaker 1: old son and we were talking about, Hey, you know

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Speaker 1: you remember you know what is it? Avengers Infinity War,

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Speaker 1: whatever the heck it was? That movie? Well, I don't know.

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Speaker 1: I don't want to give anything away, but I didn't

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Speaker 1: know what the heck was going on. You know, unless

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Speaker 1: it's like a movie that's fifty years old, like Bullet,

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Speaker 1: I don't know what the heck is going on. Chris Christofferson,

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Speaker 1: is your idea of an action See how I brought

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Speaker 1: him back right with with what's out in the movie theater.

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Speaker 1: Now my wife is mad at me because what's this

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Speaker 1: thing of agent shields. That's another thing that's out there.

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Speaker 1: I have no idea what you're talking That's why Hey,

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Speaker 1: I'm with you. I don't, but I guess this is

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Speaker 1: all part of the you know, superhero thing. How does

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Speaker 1: he get back to the cousin? Because this is this

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Speaker 1: is how it started, when we're talking about this and

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Speaker 1: then we started talking about the superheroes and all the

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Speaker 1: other stuff. And I don't. I mean, I don't know

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Speaker 1: a dog on thing. You know, the only superhero I

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Speaker 1: know is Tom Brady. You don't think he was a superhero.

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Speaker 1: I do think he's a superhero. But I'm talking Tom

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Speaker 1: Brady at forty one and he beat the Kansas City

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Speaker 1: Chief and touched Hi. I'm ready with the legs. You

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Speaker 1: don't hear that. I'm ready with the legs. That's what

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Speaker 1: I'm saying. It's like there aren't many forty plus quarterbacks

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Speaker 1: in the league that did serious name how the Jaguars

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Speaker 1: do because Evan and his Jaguar fan buddies got together

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Speaker 1: to watch that game. How the Jaguars do it? It

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Speaker 1: was not a win and it was not a tie.

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Speaker 1: There was bigger question, is Shout about to take a

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Speaker 1: big loss on Wembley? Yeah, now this is we're back

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Speaker 1: to the sports business portion. That was good. Yeah, So

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Speaker 1: the owner of the Jaguars. Chad Con appeared last week

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Speaker 1: to be closing in on, you know, finally buying Wembley Stadium.

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Speaker 1: It's a big stadium in London. It's where the NFL

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Speaker 1: plays plays a majority of its games. For what, why

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Speaker 1: wouldn want Wembley Stadium. There's a number of reasons. The

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Speaker 1: Jaguars are are one of those teams, the team that

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Speaker 1: plays the most in London right now, and it does

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Speaker 1: appear as though there's at least some thinking in the

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Speaker 1: works about maybe playing more games there, maybe doing of

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Speaker 1: four games in Jacksonville four games in London. As we

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Speaker 1: look towards the long term future of the NFL. UH

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Speaker 1: no secret that they envision a league at some point

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Speaker 1: that involves franchises beyond just the United States. Uh, London

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Speaker 1: would be a logical place for that, and Shad Con

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Speaker 1: maybe gearing himself up uh to have a team that

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Speaker 1: makes that jump when the league is ready. I thought

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Speaker 1: you would have said, of course he Ownsham Soccer. He

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Speaker 1: also owns Fulham the soccer team. UM yeah, I mean

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Speaker 1: it's the Wembley deal. According to reports this week, maybe

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Speaker 1: kind of falling apart. I think it was a six

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Speaker 1: hundred million dollar offer six million pound offer, which is

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Speaker 1: about eight hundred million dollars right now. That may be

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Speaker 1: falling apart because of the FA and some concerns there. Um,

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Speaker 1: but I don't think the Jaguars future in London is

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Speaker 1: contingent on him owning Wembley. But it's certainly as as

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Speaker 1: we've talked about many times, if you own the stadium

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Speaker 1: and the team that plays in the stadium, that's much

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Speaker 1: better than owning just one of those and the network.

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Speaker 1: But we know that's not gonna happened. But you know

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Speaker 1: he does get that network too. You said it nicely

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Speaker 1: though you said possibly falling. I've I've heard the phrase

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Speaker 1: grave danger, right, so I you know it's so what

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Speaker 1: happens here if this just goes for plunk? I mean, yes,

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Speaker 1: somebody is gonna buy Wimbley, But what happens if this

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Speaker 1: deal goes cop What was this about, like the f

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Speaker 1: A not being able to control enough of the money

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Speaker 1: it goes elsewhere? If? Yeah, I think there was concerns

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Speaker 1: about what, yeah, where the revenue would go. I mean,

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Speaker 1: he owns a huge asset in in America, right, and

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Speaker 1: that that asset is significantly bigger than the sportsesset that

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Speaker 1: he owns in London right now being being full, But

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Speaker 1: the NFL almost love the fact that somebody's putting their

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Speaker 1: hand up. We'll go, We'll be there. We love to

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Speaker 1: do it. It's synergistic with my other Certainly we can

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Speaker 1: make this happen. And if no secret that the Jaguars

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Speaker 1: in Jacksonville have struggled to draw people. You know, there's

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Speaker 1: an argument that if you spend a couple of games

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Speaker 1: in London every year and then your home game slate

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Speaker 1: in Florida's six games, let's say instead of eight. You know,

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Speaker 1: that's a smaller ask of your fans if they want

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Speaker 1: to buy season tickets. Uh. It usually goes the other way,

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Speaker 1: as the fans are being ripped off, they're they're losing

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Speaker 1: home games. But in Jacksonville that actually we yeah, that

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Speaker 1: might actually work out as a as a business positive.

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Speaker 1: Uh the team is good now, which and who knows

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Speaker 1: how how that changes things? Calculation still saying that right now,

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Speaker 1: we'll see. Hey, since Wimbley is known for soccer, here's

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Speaker 1: another segway. Let's go to the Haslum family. Uh, they

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Speaker 1: have big time interest in purchasing MLS team Columbus Crew. Well,

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Speaker 1: somebody needed to purchase somewhere else. That team was off

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Speaker 1: to Austin. And you don't you don't need the musical

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Speaker 1: chairs of cities in the MLS right now. And here's

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Speaker 1: a guy who owns an NFL team. Here we go again.

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Speaker 1: It's the soccer and football and these empires of sports assets,

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Speaker 1: and how do you put them together? And how do

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Speaker 1: they drive each other close to each other? Now? And

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Speaker 1: you got you got Browns and Columbus. So good for him,

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Speaker 1: good for the franchise, good for the fancy. Yeah, it's funny.

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Speaker 1: I can you think of other save the franchise movements

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Speaker 1: that have succeeded. I mean, maybe I'm jaded, but it

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Speaker 1: felt a zone in the past couple of years. All

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Speaker 1: these people that wanted the Raiders to stay in Oakland

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Speaker 1: lost out. Everyone who wanted the Rams to stay in St.

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Speaker 1: Louis money. I mean that that was one of the

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Speaker 1: Chargers to move to stay in San Diego lost out

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Speaker 1: the Columbus Crew. They didn't pay for a stadium, sure,

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Speaker 1: And I mean that's part of the deal here. I

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Speaker 1: mean not not entirely, but it's part of the deal here.

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Speaker 1: It just seems as though, I mean, when when everybody

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Speaker 1: started to save the crew movement, which was almost exactly

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Speaker 1: a year ago, it just felt like a feudal effort.

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Speaker 1: It's actually kind of nice to see that it appears

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Speaker 1: as though the team maybe worked out. Yeah, but see,

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Speaker 1: here's my problem with the Rams moving from St. Louis

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Speaker 1: to l A. It's not the l A part, it's

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Speaker 1: the St. Louis part, because it's conveniently forgotten that St.

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Speaker 1: Louis got the team from l A in the first place.

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Speaker 1: And so it's they're just going back to their roots.

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Speaker 1: And it was a lot like Oakland when Oakland and

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Speaker 1: there was that brief moment they were the l A

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Speaker 1: Raiders and they moved back to Oakland, and now they're

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Speaker 1: going to We're gonna dispel the ready bar. We're gonna

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Speaker 1: dispel the myth once again that these franchises, and I

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Speaker 1: know this is sacrilegious, are somehow as owners say all

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Speaker 1: the time, these are civic trusts. I when they, you know,

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Speaker 1: get a new owner. I don't own the team. I'm

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Speaker 1: just the caretaker. This belongs to the fans. This these

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Speaker 1: teams are nothing more than any other business in town.

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Speaker 1: Business ain't good. Guess what, you close the shop, you

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Speaker 1: go somewhere else. Perhaps that's what they are. These are businesses.

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Speaker 1: They are not civic trusts. They do not belong to

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Speaker 1: the fans. No matter how many times you're going to

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Speaker 1: hear an owners say it, owners will do in most

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Speaker 1: cases what is best for themselves, and if that means

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Speaker 1: picking them up, packing the moving truck at night, Hello Mayflower, Hello,

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Speaker 1: Jim off we go. That's what they do. Yeah, that

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Speaker 1: was But that moved though, from the Baltimore Coats to

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Speaker 1: the Indianapolis. That was that was just meat. I mean

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Speaker 1: because it did it in the middle of the night, snowy.

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Speaker 1: You see the sleeping I mean, it's one of those

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Speaker 1: indelible images. You can see the snow, you can see

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Speaker 1: the mayflower. Yeah, you always wonder if, like, boy, that

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Speaker 1: was really bad pr for them to be to be

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Speaker 1: the picture of this team moving. Um, but that's the

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Speaker 1: way nowadays. They wouldn't even do it under the cover

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Speaker 1: of night and snow whatever. Backing up at nine am,

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Speaker 1: you know we're leaving. Well, they were just saying is done.

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Speaker 1: It's like we're just saying it. We gotta go. Seven

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Speaker 1: hundred plus million dollars of public money new facility. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: darn right, we're going to Las Vegas. So so. Anthony

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Speaker 1: pre Court, who owned the Crew, who still owns the

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Speaker 1: Crew right now, had been entertaining Austin. As you said,

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Speaker 1: Uh secured got approval down in Austin for a two

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Speaker 1: million dollar stadium. They released some marketing about Austin FC.

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Speaker 1: I think they even named the team. If the Crew stay,

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Speaker 1: it does at least seem like there is growing momentum

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Speaker 1: for an MLS team in Austin. Do you think we

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Speaker 1: end up with an expansion situation and another huge expansion

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Speaker 1: check that gets divvied up among all the other owners

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Speaker 1: in MLS. Certainly seems that the goal is to add

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Speaker 1: more teams. Still, yeah, I would say then, yes, they've

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Speaker 1: put their hand up as a where next, or we'd

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Speaker 1: like to be next and look at what we've already done,

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Speaker 1: sort of what Montreal we never discussed. You know, Montreal

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Speaker 1: putting their hand up to get an NBA expansion team.

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Speaker 1: You know they've got an ownership group, a guy willing

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Speaker 1: to put down ten per cent. You've got the tickets,

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Speaker 1: the ticket list waiting to go. Yeah, that's the way

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Speaker 1: it's done these days, It's almost like you have to

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Speaker 1: prove yourself before you consider. Here we are, we're ready

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Speaker 1: to look at what we've got. We've got the group,

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Speaker 1: we've got the fans were ready to roll. In which

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Speaker 1: case this is. This seems like a great result for

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Speaker 1: MLS as an overall one in the You make your

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Speaker 1: home fans feel like they you know, they matter in

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Speaker 1: the league. They keep the team in Columbus, You've already

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Speaker 1: set up a really easy landing spot for a new team,

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Speaker 1: one that will pay an expansion fee in which the

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Speaker 1: Columbus crew wouldn't have if they moved just from from

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Speaker 1: Ohio down to Texas. It seems like an all the distance.

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Speaker 1: Who's got the quickly? What's the distance from Columbus to Cleveland?

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Speaker 1: But I know, I don't know. My guess is that's

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Speaker 1: a four or five hours too much? Like sort of

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Speaker 1: I'm just what sort of synergies again are the franchises.

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Speaker 1: I mean, you could obviously use the ticketing, the marketing,

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Speaker 1: the tech, you can use all that for both franchises

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Speaker 1: and say, I'm just curious what overlap there will be

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Speaker 1: in the fan basis. Speaking of Columbus. Yeah, all right,

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Speaker 1: that's doable. Yea, yeah, yeah you can. I mean again,

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Speaker 1: and the advantage of the NFL only got eight games

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Speaker 1: the only eight times a year. So let's see all

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Speaker 1: that turns out another story and this is really Evan

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Speaker 1: is all over this uh concerned in the college sports

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Speaker 1: trial take it away. Yeah, it's what a mess for

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Speaker 1: the n c A overall. You know, the last October

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Speaker 1: when the FBI announced all these bribery problems that they

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Speaker 1: had uncovered in college basketball. The first trials from those

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Speaker 1: from that investigation is going on right now in New York,

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Speaker 1: and it has not disappointed. If you were looking for

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Speaker 1: a lot of big names, a lot of players, you know,

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Speaker 1: including you know number one overall picked DeAndre Ayton from

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Speaker 1: the NBA draft. If you wanted coaches the names that

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Speaker 1: you know, you know, Jim Larenega, Sean Miller, Bill self.

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Speaker 1: A lot of dirty laundries being aired right now that

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Speaker 1: I thought they were educated young men. Nobody Williams, Well,

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Speaker 1: what do you mean this this happens? There has not

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Speaker 1: been no kind of huge bomb of news there there's

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Speaker 1: no at least evidence that's been revealed yet that those

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Speaker 1: coaches were directly involved. But it seems abundantly clear that

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Speaker 1: you know that what a lot of us knew, as

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Speaker 1: we've talked about before, Uh, that that the under you know,

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Speaker 1: the darker economy and college basketball is alive. And well,

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Speaker 1: there are people employed at universities, be they assistant coaches

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Speaker 1: or managers, that are very much involved in this economy.

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Speaker 1: They're aware of it. Uh. The money is not flowing

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Speaker 1: just from the sneaker companies like Adidas two players without

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Speaker 1: you know, without schools being aware of it. It's gonna

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Speaker 1: put the n c A in a very weird position.

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Speaker 1: This trial puts the schools as victims. Um. And when

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Speaker 1: this trial is over, the n c A is going

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Speaker 1: to have to look at all the evidence and decide

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Speaker 1: how it wants to punish the schools where violations took place.

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Speaker 1: And we're talking about some of the biggest programs in

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Speaker 1: college basketball. We're talking about Miami, We're talking about Arizona,

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Speaker 1: We're talking about Kansas. You know that there is a

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Speaker 1: there is a lot going on here. Louisville, which you know,

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Speaker 1: has been probably the most public school involved in the

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Speaker 1: in the whole thing. Um, it's a weird place for

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Speaker 1: how it's going to shake out. There's a fun legal

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Speaker 1: standard called willful blindness that sometimes gets applied for folks

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Speaker 1: who say I didn't know well that yeah. I mean

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Speaker 1: PT peers and the coaches. Uh, you still hear about

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Speaker 1: these coaches talked about with reverence, which amazes me. Then

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Speaker 1: then I watched Nick Saban have the goal to criticize

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Speaker 1: the Alabama students who are choosing not to go to games,

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Speaker 1: like maybe it's not special but being Alabama football anymore.

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Speaker 1: But you know what, dude too, are shut up? I

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Speaker 1: I you know what. When I read that, I'm like,

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Speaker 1: come on man, it's like listen, maybe they have to study, maybe,

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Speaker 1: but I don't care what they have to do. This

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Speaker 1: is this is the point. Sports in general is a meritocracy.

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Speaker 1: If you can play, you can play, you get picked,

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Speaker 1: you get the guys you want on your team. Guess what.

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Speaker 1: And entertainment dollars also a meritocracy. If these people felt

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Speaker 1: compelled to go and see whatever it is you're selling,

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Speaker 1: they'd fork over the money. They have decided that the

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Speaker 1: value proposition for them, whether it be money, whether it

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Speaker 1: be fun, whether it be time away from their studies,

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Speaker 1: whatever it is, they have decided they would rather do

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Speaker 1: something else. And maybe it's the fact that you're crushing

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Speaker 1: teams by seventy five points every week. And in sports,

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Speaker 1: if you know the outcome, why go? Why bother? And

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Speaker 1: maybe you shouldn't schedule cupcakes central and those who knows,

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Speaker 1: whatever the whatever the reason is, the fact remains is

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Speaker 1: it's a meritocracy and they've decided to do something else.

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Speaker 1: Respect the decision. See and and I'm gonna clear if

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Speaker 1: I like nick statement, I like Alabama, I like their

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Speaker 1: football program, I like all of that, but don't criticize

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Speaker 1: the students who are there for an education in the

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Speaker 1: first place why they're not going to a football game.

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Speaker 1: Because again, first of all, it does cost some money.

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Speaker 1: And if you're a college student, a normal college student,

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Speaker 1: you might not have the money to go. You might

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Speaker 1: have to worry about buying rama noodles, you might have

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Speaker 1: to worry about buying books. It's it's like, come on,

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Speaker 1: it's let's let's take a step back here. For and

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Speaker 1: this is a huge concern for athletic directors. It's not

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Speaker 1: not in the way that Nick Saban was complaining about it.

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Speaker 1: But college football attendance is down significantly. People aren't going

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Speaker 1: to games as much as they used to. And and

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Speaker 1: because they're not going to games, they don't have the

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Speaker 1: affinity or the equity they feel like they that other

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Speaker 1: people universal Later on, they might watch less on TV,

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Speaker 1: they might donate less. That that terrifies administrators, That terrifies

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Speaker 1: athletic directors. I don't think Nick Saban is complaining in

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Speaker 1: that Alabama's hurting for cash, but outside of the Alabama world, uh,

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Speaker 1: empty seats in college football stadiums is a huge concern.

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Speaker 1: But he could have said it differently. Could have said, listen,

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Speaker 1: students come on out, and it's like, you know, we

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Speaker 1: want you to come out, not like, well, hey, maybe

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Speaker 1: we just need to give these tickets. Did the first

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Speaker 1: come first service? Like no, no, no, no, no no no

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Speaker 1: no no, no no no. The students are going to

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Speaker 1: get an education. Number one. Let me tell you about

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Speaker 1: fun story one time. So I'm I'm walking down the

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Speaker 1: main drag at Syracuse University of my alma mater, and

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Speaker 1: I just happened to be at the tail end of

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Speaker 1: a pack getting a tour, and the chancellor at the

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Speaker 1: time was leading this group. I didn't join it on purpose,

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Speaker 1: I was and needs dropping. I just happened to be

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Speaker 1: within earshot. And somebody said to the chancellor at the time,

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Speaker 1: I love this. At Melvin Ackers, he said, how many

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Speaker 1: students go to Syracuse? And you know the best, the

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Speaker 1: best answer I ever heard, bar said about one in

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Speaker 1: a thousand, so about that they're going there for an education.

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Speaker 1: I'm not so. I don't know why they're going there.

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Speaker 1: But I lucked that one away because it was such

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Speaker 1: a great line, like he really needed to say. Nothing

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Speaker 1: else about one in a thousand has a mic drop.

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Speaker 1: So in essence, I don't know what's I don't know

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Speaker 1: how many of the even there now. But did you

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Speaker 1: go to Syricus? I said, my alma mater. But did

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Speaker 1: you go? Did I go as a studio? I will

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Speaker 1: say from my major, I would say in the in

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Speaker 1: the graph of students who were there just to party,

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Speaker 1: and then at the high end here all the way

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Speaker 1: to the right the graph, it would just to spend

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Speaker 1: time in the lab and learn as much as they could,

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Speaker 1: I would say I was three quarters of the way

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Speaker 1: to the learners, because most of mine is a broadcast

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Speaker 1: journalism student major. My final two years were all practical stuff.

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Speaker 1: It was like my class was to show up in

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Speaker 1: the morning, you get a job. You're the producer to that,

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Speaker 1: you're the director, you're running the teleprompter, you're the anchor,

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Speaker 1: you're the weather man, you're the sports guy. My class

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Speaker 1: was that. So we'd show up and then at five

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Speaker 1: o'clock in the afternoon, a four whatever it was, we

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Speaker 1: put on an actual newscast, and then you would sort

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Speaker 1: of get greaded. So it wasn't let me read this

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Speaker 1: book and take a test, it was it was practical.

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Speaker 1: And remember this. Remember when people say, I remember where

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Speaker 1: I was when Magic Johnson announced he was HIV positive.

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Speaker 1: I was covering that. You know where I was, bar

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Speaker 1: I was in my practical broadcast journalism class as the

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Speaker 1: sports anchor that night. So ye, yep, oh I remember.

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Speaker 1: So it was like boom, go to the athlete, you

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Speaker 1: go here I had to do. I led the newscast

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Speaker 1: because obviously that was the biggest news of the day.

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Speaker 1: So I was seventy of the way. But not to

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Speaker 1: say I didn't have I don't know it's close same

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Speaker 1: sixty six two thirds. I was closer to that, but

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Speaker 1: I did enjoy some time off when perhaps, like I

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Speaker 1: could have had another internship or something. And looking where

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Speaker 1: you are now take that, Melvin ackers that note. This

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Speaker 1: is the Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast. I'm Michael Barr

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Speaker 1: along with Scott Sasnick you were old just like I

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Speaker 1: am you are, and Evan O Wi Williams with the

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Speaker 1: cool man bun. We're here, got the underscore and the man.

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Speaker 1: We're here each and every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Good thing,

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Speaker 1: You're a really good guy exploring the world of money

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Speaker 1: in sports. Join us again at the end of the

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Speaker 1: week when Scott and Michael speak with five time IndyCar

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Speaker 1: champion Scott Dixon. Are so excited. I'm sorry, so excited,

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Speaker 1: that's all that's so excited. You're listening to Bloomberg Business

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

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Speaker 1: as a podcast. Where are they