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Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio.

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Speaker 1: This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports Show. We explore

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Speaker 1: the big money issues in the world and sports on

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Speaker 1: Michael barn and I'm Mike Lynch. Scarlet Fu is off today,

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Speaker 1: but she'll be back in a couple of days. Don't worry.

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Speaker 1: We we love scar We love you. Scar got a

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Speaker 1: lot to talk about though, and some serious topics, and

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Speaker 1: one involves w n B a All Star Britney Griner.

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Speaker 1: She was arrested in Russia for having vague cartridges containing

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Speaker 1: oil derived from cannabis. Now, this is probably the worst time. Now,

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Speaker 1: this happened last month. We're just learning about this now.

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Speaker 1: First of all, you know, the first thing I thought

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Speaker 1: of was that movie Midnight Express. Yeah, I went right

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Speaker 1: through my mind in a theme song from its been

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Speaker 1: pounding through my head all night long. Um, there are

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Speaker 1: a lot of players. When the w NBA season ended,

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Speaker 1: a lot of players play overseas, and Grinder has been

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Speaker 1: playing overseas in Russia for a number of years, so

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Speaker 1: it's not unusual for her to be over there playing basketball.

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Speaker 1: What is unusual is that she was unable to leave

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Speaker 1: the country when all other w NBA players they were

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Speaker 1: playing in Ukraine and Russia have been allowed to leave.

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Speaker 1: In Grinder, as at this moment on Monday morning, is

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Speaker 1: still a detainee. This is it's the worst time for

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Speaker 1: this to happen. Obviously, anytime you get arrested, it's not

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Speaker 1: a good time, but especially now when you have Russia

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Speaker 1: invading Ukraine. This is a big mess. Now. Her agent

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Speaker 1: says that she is working with Grinder, her attorney's family,

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Speaker 1: and the w n b A and the NBA to

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Speaker 1: get her back home Lynching and of course the Secretary

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Speaker 1: of State Antony B. Lincoln has said that he will

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Speaker 1: do everything, but there are other Americans who are being

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Speaker 1: detained over there, and if he gets Briner out, Grinder out,

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Speaker 1: I should say, um, what kind of message is that?

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Speaker 1: Sense you're getting special treatment? And also the other side

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Speaker 1: of the coin is could she be a high profile

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Speaker 1: hostage for Russia? I was thinking that is she if

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Speaker 1: we're lack of a better term, it could be a

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Speaker 1: bargaining chip. And and that I worry about because for

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Speaker 1: so many reasons is this is it's just awful all

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Speaker 1: the way around. Well, players have been warned. In fact,

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Speaker 1: the entire American population had been warned on January not

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Speaker 1: to travel to Russia, and there was another warning that

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Speaker 1: went out last Saturday. But she was already over there,

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Speaker 1: and all the other players have been over they've been

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Speaker 1: playing in their games. Um, she's uh, she's a great athlete,

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Speaker 1: she's a great player. Um. And literally and figuratively, she's

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Speaker 1: a high profile. She's six ft nine inches tall. It's

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Speaker 1: not easy to miss her when she is in a crowd.

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Speaker 1: The problem which which disturbs me is that we have

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Speaker 1: not heard from her. We have not seen her since

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Speaker 1: she was going through security. That video footage, that pre

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Speaker 1: video footage that everybody has seen. And that's what bothers

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Speaker 1: me a lot. We have not even had a statement

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Speaker 1: from her and heard anything from her. That's true. And

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Speaker 1: people who all like you said earlier, you know, well

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Speaker 1: why was she in Russia? And you mentioned why and

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Speaker 1: put it in a perspective, she can make four times

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Speaker 1: her pro salary here in the US. In other words,

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Speaker 1: she'll make a billion dollars in Russia playing ball then

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Speaker 1: the money that she would make here in the US.

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Speaker 1: So anybody wondering why was she in Russia, that's why.

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Speaker 1: And she was there before all of this happened, Lyncha. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: And the other disturbing thing here when we hear around

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Speaker 1: this country, well, the maximum punishable fine will be five

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Speaker 1: years or fifty dollars. It's never the five years. It's

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Speaker 1: always some type of fine. But the maximum penalty for

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Speaker 1: having vape cartridges with Hashi's soil ten years in prison.

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Speaker 1: Ten years in prison. And again, I keep going back

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Speaker 1: to Midnight Express, the movie. There's another serious topic and

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Speaker 1: it involves Major League Baseball. Lynch. I'm I am really

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Speaker 1: starting to worry now if we're even going to have

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Speaker 1: a season now. They met Sunday for about nine minutes,

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Speaker 1: major League Baseball and the Players Union and Major League

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Speaker 1: Baseball was was pretty dog on mad because they thought

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Speaker 1: that the latest proposal that they got from the union

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Speaker 1: was worse than what they got before. Yeah, there's uh,

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Speaker 1: this is really getting to be frustrating. We had John

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Speaker 1: Morossy on last Friday. I thought he broke it down

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Speaker 1: brilliantly for us. Lay always does, and I was kind

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Speaker 1: of hopeful when he brought up the anniversary of Jackie

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Speaker 1: Robinson on April fift which means if they get onto

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Speaker 1: the practice field in the training camps by March fifteen.

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Speaker 1: Then April fifteen is certainly a reasonable target to open

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Speaker 1: the regular season. So we're a week away right now

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Speaker 1: from March fifteen, and with no further talks scheduled, the

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Speaker 1: chances of being in on on the baseball field the

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Speaker 1: major league players for Jackie Robinson Anniversary appeared to be

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Speaker 1: slim at best right now, which I think is an

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Speaker 1: absolute disgrace, uh to both sides and utterly will just

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Speaker 1: get this will grab the attention of the American public quickly.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah this, Lynchy, I'm I'm angry and I am sorry.

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Speaker 1: I have to have to put it that way. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And a lot of owners are not budging. And yeah,

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Speaker 1: I gotta bring up my Detroit Tigers Chris Hill. He's

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Speaker 1: not moving at all. In fact, he didn't offer anything.

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Speaker 1: And I remember back in the day, Lynji, when you

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Speaker 1: had a George Steinbrenner owning the team for the Yankees,

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Speaker 1: they wanted to win at any cost. The money didn't

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Speaker 1: make a difference. And now I get it, it's a business.

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Speaker 1: But they didn't have any problems spending the money. And

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Speaker 1: I'm sure the Steinbrenners did fine when they spent the

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Speaker 1: money for the Yankees. Uh but I but I don't

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Speaker 1: know what's going on now, and I'm really worried that

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Speaker 1: they're gonna wreck a great product and it's just gonna

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Speaker 1: it's just gonna blow up and then in everybody's face.

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Speaker 1: Now what will probably happen is that we're gonna lose

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Speaker 1: a lot of games and now baseball will come back,

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Speaker 1: and then they'll try to get the PR machine going.

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Speaker 1: The question is where people buy it. I don't know.

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Speaker 1: I think right now there isn't any empathy a sympathy

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Speaker 1: for either side with the American public, certainly what's going

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Speaker 1: on in Ukraine right now and also what's going on

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Speaker 1: with our economy, and people were still coming on the

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Speaker 1: bottom half of the of the COVID wave and people

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Speaker 1: don't really care whose side is right and which side

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Speaker 1: is wrong. The owners don't really have a great deal

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Speaker 1: of motivation in the month of April to settle. As

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Speaker 1: we've mentioned the numerous times, ticket sales are not very

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Speaker 1: brisk because students are still in school, college and high

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Speaker 1: school and elementary school students, they're on a lot of

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Speaker 1: eyeballs on TV sets, so the local TV packages, uh

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Speaker 1: don't get hurt financially. It doesn't hurt the teams that

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Speaker 1: much until you get into May. That's when it starts

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Speaker 1: to hurts. It hurts the players. They're losing an aggregate

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Speaker 1: of twenty million dollars for every single regular season game

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Speaker 1: that has been canceled. Now two series have been canceled.

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Speaker 1: We're taping this show on Monday morning between ten thirty

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Speaker 1: and eleven o'clock. I wouldn't be surprised by the end

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Speaker 1: of business today if Major League Baseball is not canceling

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Speaker 1: another set of series in the regular season. Some of

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Speaker 1: the issues that they are still far apart involves the

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Speaker 1: luxury tax and minimum salaries, and I I can't understand

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Speaker 1: why they can't get it together. Lindy. Yeah, you know,

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Speaker 1: if you're working at Walmart bag and groceries, at that

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Speaker 1: the public supermarket, you don't have any type of sympathy

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Speaker 1: for any of these people at all. And saying, look, mom,

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Speaker 1: showing up for work every day, I'd like to be

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Speaker 1: making more money. You're playing a game that I would

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Speaker 1: love to play, and I've played for nothing. I know

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Speaker 1: it's a business, and I respect both sides and part

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Speaker 1: of the labor negotiation as part of the American way.

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Speaker 1: It's been that way for a long long time. But

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Speaker 1: the optics are just not good right now. And there's

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Speaker 1: another serious story, and this happened in Mexico. Uh they're

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Speaker 1: considering whether to stop selling alcohol at soccer matches after

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Speaker 1: a huge fight over the weekend left over twenty people injured.

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Speaker 1: Some critically this was bad. Yeah. I when I saw

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Speaker 1: the footage of that, I'm like, what happened? What you know?

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Speaker 1: Did everybody get souced up? And this is what we've got,

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Speaker 1: Lynchy that the video was absolutely disturbing. You're absolutely right, Michael.

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Speaker 1: And the safest place for anybody to flee was on

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Speaker 1: the field, on the pitch where the players were because

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Speaker 1: this was going on in the stands. They were all

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Speaker 1: kinds of reports, some do because many of them unsubstantiated,

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Speaker 1: but they have some fatality he's listed in there. There

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Speaker 1: certainly are a number of wounded and very critically injured

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Speaker 1: people down there. Um, the next time they play a

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Speaker 1: soccer match down there, they're not only gonna be no alcohol,

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Speaker 1: there's not gonna be any fans because they're not gonna

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Speaker 1: sell any tickets. Yeah, by the way, they canceled. This

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Speaker 1: horrific fight happened on Saturday Sunday. UH Mexico UH canceled

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Speaker 1: the Mexico Federation, they canceled the Sunday games because like,

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Speaker 1: what are we gonna do here? So they're looking at

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Speaker 1: the protocols at soccer stadiums to prevent future incidents. But

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Speaker 1: this says something about it doesn't make a difference whether

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Speaker 1: it's Mexico, whether it's here in the United States. Anytime

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Speaker 1: you get two tanked up and you're at a sporting event,

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Speaker 1: nine times out of ten it doesn't end. Well, no,

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Speaker 1: it doesn't. And you know a lot of baltparks have

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Speaker 1: stadiums have times of the game at no alcohol after

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Speaker 1: the third quarter, no bear alcohol sold after the seventh inning.

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Speaker 1: I don't know what the policy is down here and

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Speaker 1: UH and I want to probably get the pronunciations cartreroraro

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Speaker 1: UH down in Mexico. But there's been a history of

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Speaker 1: violence at these these games in this league, going back

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Speaker 1: over the years, to go all the way back to

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Speaker 1: the year and there are at least three incidents in

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Speaker 1: which there was gigantic writing going on in the stands.

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Speaker 1: Well say a prayer, everybody, UM, I wish we had

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Speaker 1: something better than talk about do we have anything happy

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Speaker 1: to talk about? It's you know, well let's let's look

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Speaker 1: at it this way. Um hey, we got marg madness

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Speaker 1: coming coming up. And by the way, uh, duke, Uh,

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Speaker 1: it's a salute to you, coach Susevski, Huseevski Ville. I'm

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Speaker 1: you know, I'm sorry you lost the last game. Uh

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Speaker 1: you played North Carolina last home game. But Mike Susevski,

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Speaker 1: you are at it to the sport, and that's a

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Speaker 1: very big understatement. You're a good man and I had

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Speaker 1: the pleasure to meet you one time, and I have

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Speaker 1: nothing but a big salute to you, sir. So good

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Speaker 1: luck to you. It wasn't it wasn't that great when

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Speaker 1: about a hundred of his former players came and they

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Speaker 1: just formed a gauntlet when he walked out, and you know,

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Speaker 1: I'm sure Mike could have stopped at every single one

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Speaker 1: of them and just told the story about every one

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Speaker 1: of those players there. And that was a great, great scene.

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Speaker 1: It was a very emotional scene, and there was great

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Speaker 1: shots of his wife up in the stands bawling her

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Speaker 1: eyes out, and it was hard to uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: I got a little MISTI eyed myself watching it there.

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Speaker 1: That was something else. I remember they were I was

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Speaker 1: looking online, you know some of the stories about Sewski

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Speaker 1: and when he first came on the scene, I think

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Speaker 1: the headline was Mike Sevski. No, that's not a typo,

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Speaker 1: and they had his name down at the bottom, and

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Speaker 1: and I'm like, wow, okay, uh, but you know his

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Speaker 1: name now and you will never forget it. And it's

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Speaker 1: he's up there with Wooden and and all those guys.

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Speaker 1: I salute him. Good company, great company, and coach k

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Speaker 1: the best of all time. You've been listening to The

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business of Sports, and you can catch our podcast

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Speaker 1: of this show every Monday, Wednesday and Thursdays. I'm Michael Barr.

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Speaker 1: You can follow me on Twitter at Big Bar Sports.

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Speaker 1: And I'm Mike Lynch. You can follow me at Lynch

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Speaker 1: e W CDB. And by the way, if you want

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Speaker 1: to catch this on your podcast, you can download it

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Speaker 1: anywhere you want. You know why, because that's the way

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Speaker 1: we wrote. This is Bloomberg rating