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Speaker 1: This is the business of sports. Let's talk Super Bowl

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Speaker 1: and Fox Sports, every single thing that occurs. I want

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Speaker 1: people to remember, this is a business. Guaranteed money isn't

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Speaker 1: necessarily guaranteed. Michael Ball, how high can these valuations go? Scott,

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Speaker 1: everybody loves rooting against him, right, Evan, nobody Williams. Off

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Speaker 1: the field, the NBA has never been buzzier. And the

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Speaker 1: leaders in the sports industry Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfredd,

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Speaker 1: Micha Riscoe, He's the commissioner of the American Athletic Conference.

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Speaker 1: Here At Smith, president of Ticketmasters, and the race card driver,

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Speaker 1: Elio Castro, and Evs Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio. Hello,

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Speaker 1: I'm Scott, I'm Evan, Novie Williams, and I'm Michael Barr.

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Speaker 1: And this is the Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast where

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

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Speaker 1: And today we begin with Tom Brady. He is saying

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Speaker 1: cyanaa to the New England Patriots. Now there's talk that

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Speaker 1: he is going to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But for

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Speaker 1: the business of sports, all these people that spend all

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Speaker 1: the money for the jersey, for the Brady jerseys in

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Speaker 1: New England. I feel sorry for you, but good news

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Speaker 1: for Tampa Bay. Wait, you're kidding me, Bar, You're telling

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Speaker 1: me you feel sorry for all those New England number

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Speaker 1: twelve jersey. You know he was there for like twenty years, right,

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Speaker 1: and you know for the next you know, for the

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Speaker 1: next twenty years, he will still be the most popular

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Speaker 1: jersey number worn around Foxborough. And you feel bad for

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Speaker 1: these people. Bar. This isn't like a guy who joined

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Speaker 1: and then six months later something happened and now he's

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Speaker 1: with another team. He spent two decades in New England

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Speaker 1: selling guy forever feel bad. Reason to feel bad, But

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Speaker 1: it will be a boon. It will be a boon

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Speaker 1: in the retail world because Tom is consistently one of

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Speaker 1: the top sellers. And whether it's jerseys, bobble heads, you know,

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Speaker 1: all the things that are out there on the NFL

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Speaker 1: p A S sales list. When you go when a

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Speaker 1: megastar like this goes to a new team, you know,

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Speaker 1: all those folks who had know what what kind of jersey?

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Speaker 1: Mike all stop jersey's, uh, whether they wear in Tampa

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Speaker 1: Jameis Winston's like, what what did you wear in Tampa.

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Speaker 1: I'm not your run day barber, but whatever it is,

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Speaker 1: it's going to be twelve. By the way, has anybody

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Speaker 1: looked up who wears number twelve? Now? Yeah, I wonder

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Speaker 1: if somebody whoever has the twelve has got to give

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Speaker 1: it up, Well, it would it be great? Like you know,

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Speaker 1: I've I've had this jersey forever. It's not gonna happen.

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Speaker 1: We've talked here about, you know, the enduring power of

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Speaker 1: the Tom Brady twelve Patriots jersey that that every year

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Speaker 1: it was essentially top of the charts, even though what

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Speaker 1: Patriots fan didn't have one already? Well, there's no Buccaneers

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Speaker 1: fan that have have Tom Brady twelve jersey or shirt

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Speaker 1: right now. So again, as you said, Scott, you know

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Speaker 1: that's gonna that money is gonna start pouring in at

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Speaker 1: some point soon. Um, and it's not just those you know.

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Speaker 1: I'm sure you guys saw the season ticket line last

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Speaker 1: night on on on Tuesday night, as as fans realized

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Speaker 1: this might be happening. You know, thousands of people queuing

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Speaker 1: up for season tickets. So it's gonna affect that it

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Speaker 1: swung betting lines. Of course, you know, people still looking

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Speaker 1: for things to bet on. Uh. NFL futures are still up.

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Speaker 1: Um it might even you know, as we've seen with

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Speaker 1: Lebron James when he changed teams, you know there was

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Speaker 1: a rating shift. UH. Time slots maybe not as effective

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Speaker 1: when you go from from New England down to Tampa Bay.

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Speaker 1: But you know people are gonna want to watch Tom

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Speaker 1: Brady in his in his new location as well. So

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Speaker 1: I think you'll see maybe the Buccaneers more on primetime television.

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Speaker 1: You might see them flexed into slots. I think this

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Speaker 1: is gonna have pretty wide ranging implications for the NFL,

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Speaker 1: and you know who the big winner is. By the way,

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Speaker 1: any company just signed on as a Buccaneers sponsor before

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Speaker 1: knowing this was happening, because you know the price of

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Speaker 1: that sponsorship. If you're calling now and you're a local

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Speaker 1: whatever or even a national and you want to affiliate

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Speaker 1: yourselves with the Buccaneers, you know the price just went up.

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Speaker 1: By the way, I gotta jump in right quick. Chris

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Speaker 1: Godwin wears number twelve for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Right now,

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Speaker 1: I don't know who that is. Do you know who

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Speaker 1: that is? Bar Okay, he's the I think that he's

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Speaker 1: the fast guy. Right, he's like the Olympic sprinter. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think you're right. But the only thing happen faster

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Speaker 1: than his running is his saying yes, I agree to

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Speaker 1: change that number. Moving around along this, I have to

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Speaker 1: tell you, it's like I'm just getting wind of this.

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Speaker 1: The NBA credit line. The NBA is getting TV money

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Speaker 1: during the stoppage, But what is it is because of credit?

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Speaker 1: What is going on? Well that this is just a

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Speaker 1: just in case. The NBA had a credit line of

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Speaker 1: about six d and fifty million dollars with several banks,

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Speaker 1: as they have for years, and occasionally they do raise

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Speaker 1: that credit limit. Now, however, because of all the uncertainty

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Speaker 1: and and by the way, barrowing is pretty cheap. But

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Speaker 1: because of all that uncertainty, they're raising their credit line

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Speaker 1: to one point to billion dollars. And what this says

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Speaker 1: to me, bar is they just don't know what's going

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Speaker 1: to happen. Um. From what we understand J. B. Lockhard,

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Speaker 1: who's the CFO over at the league, he is modeling

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Speaker 1: several different scenarios. One is the absolute cancelation of the

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Speaker 1: season and it just doesn't happen. One is the resumption

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Speaker 1: of the season and they have to play before no fans,

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Speaker 1: and the other is we play the playoffs with fans,

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Speaker 1: so that would kind of be a best case scenario.

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Speaker 1: And he's going to deliver those financial projections to the

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Speaker 1: owners because right now you just don't know. There's just

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Speaker 1: too much uncertainty. And in a time like that, even

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Speaker 1: though you have some of the richest people in the

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Speaker 1: world uh as your owners, like Steve Ballmer uh still,

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Speaker 1: these guys want to be prepared as a collective, so

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Speaker 1: that's why they took this action. I think this gives

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Speaker 1: you a good sense of how seriously the NBA is

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Speaker 1: taking this in and kind of behind closed doors, all

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Speaker 1: the options that you just laid out, Scott, that that

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Speaker 1: are on the table. You know, when they made this

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Speaker 1: announcement to suspend their season, it was originally, you know,

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Speaker 1: the plan was thirty days. Seems pretty clear, you know,

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Speaker 1: given what's happening right now, that that is going to

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Speaker 1: be a longer period of time. Um and expanding this

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Speaker 1: credit line allows the NBA a little more wiggle room

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Speaker 1: to make that happen. We should also discuss you know,

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Speaker 1: Metea RTEs. You know, Scott, you wrote a story earlier, earlier,

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Speaker 1: this week. You know, there was maybe some some some

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Speaker 1: uncertainty about when NBA games are not happening, whether they're

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Speaker 1: they're monster you know, multi billion dollar TV rights, whether

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Speaker 1: those payments happen, And it sounds like they are going

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Speaker 1: to happen at least for now, right, So there's also

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Speaker 1: some money that the NBA gets in that regard, and

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Speaker 1: that they're getting paid their TV contracts. That's that's essentially

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Speaker 1: lost ratings they have to make up in the future.

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Speaker 1: But these are long term deals and they have a

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Speaker 1: chance to make those up years down the line. So

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Speaker 1: there's also some kind of financial restitution coming in that regard.

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Speaker 1: Even you you know as well as anybody that the

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Speaker 1: salary cat is simply a reflection of revenue. I mean,

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Speaker 1: the team spending limits to derived from how much money

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Speaker 1: is brought in. Man, you're putting all of this, by

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Speaker 1: the way, on top of the previous four million dollar

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Speaker 1: hit out of China when those games were not shown. Um,

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Speaker 1: you would think that Adam Silver and Michelle Roberts, whenever

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Speaker 1: this gets going again, may have to negotiate something special

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Speaker 1: for next season or else there could be a pretty

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Speaker 1: precipitous drop in revenue. There by the salary cap, and

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Speaker 1: gms just won't know what to do with their rosters.

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Speaker 1: They just won't have the numbers that they thought they

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Speaker 1: would have nowhere close. That could really hit the players

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Speaker 1: in the wallets. Gentlemen, two questions for you, and I

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Speaker 1: have to ask, can they extend the NBA When I

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Speaker 1: say extended in in terms of just pick it up

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Speaker 1: from where it was and play the remainder of the games.

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Speaker 1: But the games may go into like August or September

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Speaker 1: one of the things being considered. Yeah, you'd probably look

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Speaker 1: at July August. Now, you'd obviously like to avoid having

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Speaker 1: to compete compete against the NFL, but Mark Cuban has

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Speaker 1: said it, if we have to play out into the summer,

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Speaker 1: then that's what they'll do. Yeah. I think that's the

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Speaker 1: big thing what Scott just said. There's not a hard

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Speaker 1: stop in September. If you're the NBA, you do not

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Speaker 1: want your playoffs happening amid the NFL season kicking off.

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Speaker 1: And my guests would be that if if the timeline

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Speaker 1: gets crunched that much, that they would probably suspend regular

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Speaker 1: season games to try to get their playoffs in before September.

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Speaker 1: Um and one other one, Scott, As you mentioned salary

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Speaker 1: cap implications for players. Um, we talked on this podcast

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Speaker 1: last week and this week about you know, the clause

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Speaker 1: in the NBA c b A that essentially says if

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Speaker 1: players are not playing games, they don't have to be

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Speaker 1: paid the n n B A n B p A.

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Speaker 1: So the Players Association has told players it does not

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Speaker 1: think that the NBA, even if games get canceled, is

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Speaker 1: going to activate that clause. Is that kind of stunting?

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Speaker 1: Is that is that kind of part of the union

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Speaker 1: versus league kind of back and forth? Do you think

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Speaker 1: that in the in the event that games get canceled,

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Speaker 1: the NBA would choose not to activate that clause and

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Speaker 1: would instead choose to pay players for the full eight

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Speaker 1: two game season even if it doesn't happen. Boy like

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Speaker 1: get anything else. And then when we deal with the

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Speaker 1: disparate groups here, I think you'll have some owners who say,

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Speaker 1: let's take care of them, this is long term play. Uh.

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Speaker 1: Then you'll have some owners who perhaps a bit more miserly,

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Speaker 1: who may say, no, no games, we don't have to

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Speaker 1: pay them. I'm not going to pay them. You're certainly

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Speaker 1: not going to force everybody to do the to act

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Speaker 1: in concert on this. Uh if if some do and

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Speaker 1: some don't, something tells me that these players will have

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Speaker 1: long memories as to which owners data to die speaking

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Speaker 1: of games being canceled or the drumbeat of the game

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Speaker 1: should be canceled. It continues now that the Tokyo Olympics.

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Speaker 1: It is still on as planned for the summer games,

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Speaker 1: but more people are saying, look, this is irresponsible. You've

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Speaker 1: got to cancel the games, or at least postponent. President

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Speaker 1: Trump said last week they should postpon it for a year. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I think we we saw earlier this week Hailey Wickenheiser,

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Speaker 1: who's an IOC member and one of the most prolific

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Speaker 1: Olympic athlete of all time. She was the first IOC

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Speaker 1: member to come out and say, look that this might

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Speaker 1: be irresponsible to hold these games. And I think there's

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Speaker 1: kind of an interesting distinction that's that's kind of being

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Speaker 1: drawn right now. A lot of the people, the drumbeat

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Speaker 1: to cancel the games from people within the Olympic movement

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Speaker 1: is coming because they understand and I think a lot

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Speaker 1: of the public doesn't understand yet. They understand how much

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Speaker 1: this is already disrupting things for athletes. There are qualifiers

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Speaker 1: all over the country and all over the globe that

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Speaker 1: have been either outright canceled or have been postponed. And

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Speaker 1: you can't hold an Olympic Games and if you don't

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Speaker 1: know who has the right to compete in them. And

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Speaker 1: right now, all the way across the globe, there are

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Speaker 1: federations right now who just don't know who has qualified,

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Speaker 1: who hasn't, who should they give slots too, And that

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Speaker 1: is a pretty big hurdle, even if even if in

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Speaker 1: Tokyo on the ground the situation is good enough to

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Speaker 1: host the Games this summer. I mean, ed Ben, we've

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Speaker 1: already had one of those people, the Spanish Olympic Committee chief,

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Speaker 1: also calling for the Games to be postponed. You wonder

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Speaker 1: what's going through the mind the leadership Thomas Pocket the

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Speaker 1: i o C. When clearly they see what's happening around

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Speaker 1: the world. They have to know that the qualification processes

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Speaker 1: have been interrupted. They have to hear people starting to

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Speaker 1: say that it's a difficult chore to get prepared for.

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Speaker 1: And yet like the most recent pronouncements were full steam ahead.

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Speaker 1: I know there's billions at stake. We know the broadcast

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Speaker 1: contracts with NBC are are gargantuan. We know the sponsorship

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Speaker 1: money is gargantuan. That said, just from a logistical standpoint,

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Speaker 1: are we not at a place where the I o

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Speaker 1: C must recognize this is going to be really difficult

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Speaker 1: to pull off? I think we'll Yeah, I think we're

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Speaker 1: definitely in that place. And let's not forget that. You know,

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Speaker 1: when we talk about the NBA suspending its season, the

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Speaker 1: NHL suspending its season, and they didn't just do that willingly, right,

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Speaker 1: they were kind of dragged, kicking and screaming. By the

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Speaker 1: time those decisions got made. There were governors, senators, mayors

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Speaker 1: around the country who were essentially barring or outlying events

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Speaker 1: of a certain size. So even the cancelations that we've

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Speaker 1: seen here in the US have been precipitated by some

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Speaker 1: kind of government mandate. Van what do we do in

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Speaker 1: the nightmare scenario of what Adam silver faced? The season

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Speaker 1: was canceled shortly after a player tested positive, with the

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Speaker 1: single athlete in the Olympic village or on the competition

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Speaker 1: floor tests positive or does get sick, then what do

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Speaker 1: you do? And that's the argument for canceling it, right,

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Speaker 1: You can't have eleven thousand people coming from two hundred

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Speaker 1: different countries around the world when if one of them

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Speaker 1: test positive, you end up having kind of this royaling

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Speaker 1: effect that you you you probably cannot host the games

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Speaker 1: in the aftermath. Um. So you're right. And again, the

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Speaker 1: the IOC and the in the local Tokyo host committee

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Speaker 1: have been adamant that these things are happening, that they're

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Speaker 1: not planning for other things. I promise you they are

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Speaker 1: definitely planning for other things at this point. Um. But

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Speaker 1: I think I think we are seeing the truth, maybe

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Speaker 1: before they're ready or willing to announce it, but that

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Speaker 1: the game's happening this summer are becoming less and less likely,

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Speaker 1: both from a just an operational standpoint and also probably

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Speaker 1: from a health standpoint. And by the way, I should

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Speaker 1: add you mentioned about Rudy Gilbert, the Utah jazz player

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Speaker 1: who was round zero for testing positive for the coronavirus.

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Speaker 1: Then another jazz player, and now four more players from

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Speaker 1: the Brooklyn Nets have tested positive, and that includes star

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Speaker 1: Kevin Durant So and this is after the postponement, so

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Speaker 1: you can imagine what's going to happen. Like you said, Evan,

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Speaker 1: if you have eleven thousand people together in one area,

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Speaker 1: there's no telling what's going to happen. This is the

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast. I'm Michael Barr, along with

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Speaker 1: Scott Sasnik and Evan nol w Williams. Well, you are

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Speaker 1: here each and every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday exploring the

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Speaker 1: world with money and sports. Join us again at the

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Speaker 1: end of the week. We'll express more sympathy for Patriots

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Speaker 1: fans all over the country. We'll be speaking with and

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Speaker 1: brightest in the sports business world. You're listening to Bloomberg

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

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