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Speaker 1: Hello, I'm Michael Barnes, I'm Evan Nobie Williams. This is

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Speaker 1: the Bloomberg Business of Forts podcast. We explore all the

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

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Speaker 1: the day off today, he won't be joining us in

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Speaker 1: the conversation, so I want payback. Yeah, I'd see when

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Speaker 1: I was off, you guys did this secret word thing.

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Speaker 1: So now I think we need to put in a

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Speaker 1: secret word to see if Scott is actually listening to

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Speaker 1: the podcast. Got harassed you for not listening while you

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Speaker 1: were out. Let's see if he's listening when he's out

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Speaker 1: and see I missed. No, I missed the secret word

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Speaker 1: part because I was only in for, like, you know,

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Speaker 1: a few minutes of it. But we need to get

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Speaker 1: him to listen to the entire thing. So the secret

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Speaker 1: word should be fortnite, fortnite, love it fortnite or he

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Speaker 1: doesn't understand anyway. But Scott, knowing you, he may just

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Speaker 1: take a wild guess and pick something like fortnite. I'm

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Speaker 1: willing to concede that if he just guesses right, that

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Speaker 1: we should give it to him. He's got NASCAR anyway.

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Speaker 1: So by the way, that handsome guys, you don't know

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Speaker 1: it's seven. Nophie Williams and I remember the time when

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Speaker 1: Evan we would talk about me being an old man

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Speaker 1: and not knowing about video games. All of a sudden,

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Speaker 1: my thirteen year old son is hooking me up there.

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Speaker 1: So which brings me to later the Asian Games, which

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Speaker 1: is I'll get to why I'm laughing in a second,

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Speaker 1: but the Asian Games, on top of the regular competition,

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Speaker 1: they are also going to have a computer games competition alongside,

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Speaker 1: and people like ten Cent they got to be loving

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Speaker 1: this absolutely. E sports, as competitive video gaming is known,

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Speaker 1: has grown balloon mushroomed and popularity recently. Uh It is

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Speaker 1: being included as a demonstration sport in the Asian Games

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Speaker 1: in Jakarta later this month, which means that aar they

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Speaker 1: won't be winning medals, but it is kind of the

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Speaker 1: test run for possibly including this in the Games two.

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Speaker 1: As we've talked about on the show, the IOC, which

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Speaker 1: runs the Olympics, also considering an e sports to the Olympics.

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Speaker 1: It seems like a natural progression. It's a tremendously popular

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Speaker 1: event with younger people, the kind of people that aren't

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Speaker 1: turning into the Olympics as much. But it's caused this

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Speaker 1: huge debate raging both within traditional sports and within the

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Speaker 1: sports about whether this is a good idea, whether whether

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Speaker 1: the sports needs the Olympics, or whether the Olympics needs

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Speaker 1: the sports. By the way, and this is a metal event, now,

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Speaker 1: this is this is not you know and a little

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Speaker 1: on the side type of game. Now, this is a

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Speaker 1: metal sport supposed to be games. Yeah, and so this

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Speaker 1: this year, as I said, they won't be winning medals,

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Speaker 1: but they're competing in six games. They have not said

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Speaker 1: which how they pick those six games. You know, three

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Speaker 1: of them, as you mentioned, are are ten cent UH

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Speaker 1: made and produced games. The other three kind of vary

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Speaker 1: between Activision, Blizzard and and Konami, I think. And this

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Speaker 1: is the big problem that these big events are going

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Speaker 1: to have. The Asian Games are the second biggest multi

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Speaker 1: sport event behind the Olympics. UH and the Olympic Charter

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Speaker 1: says that you have to work with sporting nonprofits. You know,

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Speaker 1: all the governing bodies for almost every sport is a nonprofit.

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Speaker 1: In e sports, the underlying i P is owned by

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Speaker 1: by by the firms and the shops that create these games.

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Speaker 1: UH and the developers have to have a say in that,

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Speaker 1: and that's going to be a new kind of territory

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Speaker 1: for both the Asian Games and the Olympics. Is how

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Speaker 1: do you put on an event where you are where

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Speaker 1: the sport and the underlying I p under the sport

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Speaker 1: is owned by a for profit private company. By the way,

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Speaker 1: the cold medal cyclist McCrory, he's not very happy about this.

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Speaker 1: He too in a sense, and I'm paraphrasing here, he said,

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Speaker 1: this is like a competition between accountants. Yeah, that is.

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Speaker 1: That was from a Bloomberg story that that a colleague

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Speaker 1: of ours I believe in Japan did earlier this week. Um, yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's a hot take. But you're gonna hear a lot

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Speaker 1: of that. You know when when ESPN broadcasts League of

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Speaker 1: Legends matches, you know, which they've done in the past.

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Speaker 1: Twitter is, you know, a wash with people who are

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Speaker 1: upset that they that they turned on a channel that

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Speaker 1: they're expecting to see traditional sticking ball sports on and

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Speaker 1: they're seeing video games instead. Well, see I bring this

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Speaker 1: up again, and here I go. I'm gonna go off

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Speaker 1: on a limb here is we tuned in to watch poker,

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Speaker 1: We tuned in to watch the World Series of Poker,

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Speaker 1: and the most physical thing you have to do is

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Speaker 1: pick up the dog on card. So what's the difference

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Speaker 1: of that than watching this. It's a good question. And

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Speaker 1: you know, what is a metal event at this year's

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Speaker 1: Asia Games. Bridge can't you can't make the argument that

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Speaker 1: the sports is not an athletic competition if bridge, if

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Speaker 1: you are accepting the bridge can be a part of

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Speaker 1: of the ag game. So that will be a fascinating

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Speaker 1: thing to watch. Bridge obviously is not an Olympic sport,

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Speaker 1: and I believe that the Olympic, the the underlying Olympic

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Speaker 1: Charter also has kind of details about what is considered

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Speaker 1: a sport in the Olympic world, you know, and that

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Speaker 1: is mental activities are not, which is probably why bridge

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Speaker 1: and poker are will may never be in the Olympics.

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Speaker 1: And the other thing is you know, up your alley

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Speaker 1: mechanically driven sports or not, which is why I know,

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Speaker 1: much to your sugrin, we're not going to see uh

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Speaker 1: Dale or in hard junior winning Olympic medal anytime. I'm

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Speaker 1: not happy, But let's move on. Alabama's new stadium. Ten years,

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Speaker 1: six hundred million dollar initiatives that is a lot of money.

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Speaker 1: That's a lot, that's more than the GDP of of

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Speaker 1: like a dozen countries in the world right there. Uh,

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Speaker 1: this is a six hundred million dollar project to upgrade

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Speaker 1: both Alabama's football stadium and it's it's basketball facility and

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Speaker 1: obviously the Bells and Whistles training sports science center. That

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Speaker 1: that is happening across the country right now a perfect

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Speaker 1: example of the arms race that in college sports is

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Speaker 1: getting out of control. Schools like Alabama, which is a

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Speaker 1: dynasty in football in in the SEC, they make so

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Speaker 1: much money, and as we've talked about, players are not

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Speaker 1: compensated beyond the full value of their scholarship. And the

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Speaker 1: way to reinvest that money into players without paying them

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Speaker 1: is to do it by paying Nick Saban nine million

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Speaker 1: dollars a year by building a you know, practice facility

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Speaker 1: that is enormous and has everything a player could could imagine. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And this is just the latest iteration of that. But

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Speaker 1: six million dollars is a new level above what we've seen.

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Speaker 1: It shows you how big college in case people forgot

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Speaker 1: how big college sports has become. Absolutely Yeah, and you're

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Speaker 1: wearing the Crimson Tide colors right now. I can see here. Um, yeah,

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Speaker 1: and and and if I was a fan of of

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Speaker 1: a mid tier college football school, you know, this kind

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Speaker 1: of thing would worry me that there is this huge

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Speaker 1: gap between the haves and have nots in college sports,

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Speaker 1: and schools like Alabama, and you can't blame them are

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Speaker 1: continually pushing the envelope. You know, there are there are

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Speaker 1: plenty of schools out there that would like to compete

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Speaker 1: with Alabama on the field that will never be able

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Speaker 1: to tap their alumni or their school for a six

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Speaker 1: hundred million dollar facility upgrade. Exactly by the way, and

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Speaker 1: take a guess, Bryant Denny Stadium is where Alabama plays.

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Speaker 1: When do you think was the last time they had

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Speaker 1: major renovations on Bryant Denny Stadium? We got to go

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Speaker 1: back to Bear Bryant probably really, I thought we're gonna

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Speaker 1: remove cement exactly what what? So then I gotta I

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Speaker 1: gotta ask why it's only been eight years, because they

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Speaker 1: can you know, in that span they've won what four

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Speaker 1: or five national titles. I wouldn't say that the stadium is,

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Speaker 1: you know, a state of the art, but know they

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Speaker 1: went through this process less than a decade ago. They

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Speaker 1: made major renovations to the football stadium. This is where

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Speaker 1: we are in college sports right now. You know the

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Speaker 1: building that and it's an old building, but the building

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Speaker 1: that was you know, refurbished and made bigger and better

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Speaker 1: in two thousand ten needs a much bigger renovation starting

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Speaker 1: in two thousand uh And the money's there. You know

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Speaker 1: that there's ten Founders suites in this building. They've already

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Speaker 1: have commitments to eight of them. You know, they cost

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Speaker 1: five million dollars. So if you can put in more

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Speaker 1: more luxury seating, and the money is already there to

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Speaker 1: to pay for a lot of them, why not do it.

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Speaker 1: By the way, one of my favorite things about this

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Speaker 1: the basketball coach. You know, basketball is not a huge

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Speaker 1: sport at Alabama. He apparently did a victory lap around

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Speaker 1: his office when they told him that they were going

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Speaker 1: to do these renovations. I think that's fantastic. Well, you

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Speaker 1: know why I like Alabama, by the way, their football

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Speaker 1: program because it's very similar to when these young men

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Speaker 1: get out of Alabama and they go into the National

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Speaker 1: Football League. You don't have to unlearn a lot. It's

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Speaker 1: pretty much basic from Alabama to the NFL. The NFL way, true,

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Speaker 1: you could go from Alabama to some football teams and

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Speaker 1: be playing in a worst stadium couple of years. You know,

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Speaker 1: you know, you're used to l C D screen at

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Speaker 1: your locker room, in your own flat screen TV in

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Speaker 1: your locker, and you know, a lazy boy recliner for

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Speaker 1: you and next to your teammates, lazy way reclinner. And

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Speaker 1: you get to to the NFL and suddenly you're you're

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Speaker 1: you know, you're in the bill Stadium and you know,

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Speaker 1: wait a second, why is there a bench in a

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Speaker 1: metal locker Cleveland Browns speaking of teams, and uh, with

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Speaker 1: the Red Sox and and all of this and teams

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Speaker 1: moving this and that whatever, how big has become. The

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Speaker 1: Red Sox minor league team is moving to Worcester from

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Speaker 1: Rhode Island. Yeah, this is uh, this has caused another

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Speaker 1: kind of a set of uproars. There's a lot you know,

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Speaker 1: we've talked in the past about how professional sports teams

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Speaker 1: are often you know, asking local municipalities or the state

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Speaker 1: to pitch in a lot of public money for their stadiums,

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Speaker 1: and it happens at the minor league level as well.

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Speaker 1: And sometimes it's even it can be more damaging because

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Speaker 1: you know, the cities that have minor league teams are Pawtucket,

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Speaker 1: Rhode Island. They're not you know, they're not New York City,

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Speaker 1: you know. Um. But yeah, the team that's played in Pawtuck.

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Speaker 1: I'm curious, Actually, do you Pawtucket Red Sox the past Sox.

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Speaker 1: Is that's something that you knew? Is that a name

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Speaker 1: you were familiar? Yeah? Actually, I would say they're one

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Speaker 1: of the more famous minor league teams in the country.

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Speaker 1: You know, I think that even casual baseball fans have

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Speaker 1: some idea of who the past socks are. And the

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Speaker 1: past socks are no longer. You know, they're leaving Pawtucket,

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Speaker 1: Rhode Island. They're moving to Worcester, Massachusetts, which is I

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Speaker 1: believe the second biggest city in New England behind Boston. Um.

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Speaker 1: But the Pawtucket government and at the state and local

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Speaker 1: level didn't put up enough money to to keep the

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Speaker 1: team there. Um. And you can say, that's fantastic for

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Speaker 1: Pawtucket to, you know, to stand up to to to

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Speaker 1: a group of owners, you know, the Red Sox owners

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Speaker 1: who might not need that money right there, and there

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Speaker 1: are other people who are saying, listen, it's this is

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Speaker 1: dangerous for Pawtucket, uh to lose what is obviously a

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Speaker 1: huge staple in the community. Um, we'll see, um. But

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Speaker 1: but there is certainly an underlying trend here of professional

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Speaker 1: and minor league teams that are consistently trying to get

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Speaker 1: the maximum dollar out of their home towns and home states,

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Speaker 1: and if they don't get it, they're willing to move forward.

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Speaker 1: Here once was a team from paul Tucket Fish. You

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Speaker 1: know who's upset about this really is Pat Carroll because

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Speaker 1: she who is also a host here on Bloomberg, she

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Speaker 1: is from the Rhode Island area, and she in factually

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Speaker 1: sent out a tweet that, I mean, she was sad

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Speaker 1: to see this come about because I guess the team

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Speaker 1: has been there for rights in the nineteen Yeah, so

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Speaker 1: it's been a while. And for people who live in

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Speaker 1: minor league towns, especially Red Sox, which are you know,

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Speaker 1: the team for an entire region, uh countless red Sox

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Speaker 1: have both come up through the minor league system and

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Speaker 1: played there, or as Dustin Petroia did this year, when

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Speaker 1: they get injured and need to you know, get back

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Speaker 1: into playing shape, they'll play a couple of games there

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Speaker 1: those are a huge draw. Um. Yeah, I would imagine

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Speaker 1: that if you're a baseball fan in Pawtucket, this news

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Speaker 1: is a is a rough one for you. And if

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Speaker 1: you're a baseball fan in Worcester, you might be excited.

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Speaker 1: They have a new gonna be a new ballpark. The

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Speaker 1: state is I think financing a hundred million dollars of it.

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Speaker 1: Polar Beverages, which is a Wooster based company, is going

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Speaker 1: to be the naming rights partner on the deal. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And who knows in in another twenty years when when

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Speaker 1: Worcester decides it doesn't want to pay for the next

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Speaker 1: luxury suites, Uh, maybe they'll be moving somewhere else. Minor

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Speaker 1: league teams are fun to watch, by the way, I

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Speaker 1: love going to a minor league baseball game because they

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Speaker 1: have so many of those. The promotions that there was

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Speaker 1: one promotion where you would through orow a baseball. It

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Speaker 1: was wasn't a hard baseball, it was a kind of

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Speaker 1: a soft baseball into a moving car with the sunroof open,

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Speaker 1: and if you got it in there, then your name

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Speaker 1: is your name is on the ball, and then your

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Speaker 1: name is in the drawing that try to win this car.

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Speaker 1: They should do more. Every team should do that. Why

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Speaker 1: why do we have the standard get on the ice

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Speaker 1: and try to shoot the hockey puck into the hole

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Speaker 1: that's just barely bigger than the hockey puck. We should

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Speaker 1: do We should be shooting hockey pucks into moving cars.

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Speaker 1: Do do Jeopardy or something? You did you go to

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Speaker 1: Jersey Cardinals games when they were out on Western Jersey. No,

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Speaker 1: I went to mud Hands the game mud Hands for

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Speaker 1: the Tigers. But I love that stuff. But by the way,

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Speaker 1: a shout out. My home track is the Pocono Raceway

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Speaker 1: and they had just had an indie car race there

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Speaker 1: uh Sunday, and shout out to indie driver Robert Wickens.

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Speaker 1: He's being treated to UH injuries to his lower extremities,

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Speaker 1: his right arm, his spine. And it was just a

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Speaker 1: with kit accident at the Pocono Raceway Sunday off of

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Speaker 1: turn to there. Now they're only three turns. For people

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Speaker 1: not familiar with it, they call it the tricky triangle

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Speaker 1: and out of turn too. All of a sudden they

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Speaker 1: got together, Ryan Hunter, Ray and Uh Wickens got together,

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Speaker 1: and what happened. Wickens car rose up, caught the catch

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Speaker 1: fencing and twirled like a top, like a vicious top.

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Speaker 1: And I mean it just took cars out all over

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Speaker 1: the place. If you haven't seen the video, it is.

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Speaker 1: I mean the only thing left of the car when

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Speaker 1: it's done is the little encasing where the driving nothing.

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Speaker 1: It was nothing left. And the irony of this, which

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Speaker 1: is sad, is that three years ago it's the same

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Speaker 1: spot where Justin Wilson lost his life off of turn

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Speaker 1: to it's the it's the exact same same turn. I mean,

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Speaker 1: they God bless him, they're they're working hard out there,

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Speaker 1: and so shout out to uh Mr Wickens, please get

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Speaker 1: well soon, and uh, I hope we can cut back

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Speaker 1: on seeing accidents like that. So hey, by the way,

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Speaker 1: we do, miss Scott, we do, we do. We have

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Speaker 1: two sas Nicks on the show last last week, zero

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Speaker 1: Sas on the show today. You know what, that's not

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Speaker 1: a good trend. I don't know where to go from there.

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Speaker 1: Just just to mess with Scott, just to see if

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Speaker 1: he's listening to the entire show. Let's change the word. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's stevious. I want to change the words. Yes, it

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Speaker 1: is no longer Fortnite. It's not Fortnite, it's Plato, Plato, yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's nothing. He could get Medina approved. Yeah, Plato, that's it.

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Speaker 1: It's done. Let's see if he's listening and see we

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Speaker 1: can catch him. And he says, yeah, it was a

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Speaker 1: Fortnite It's like you listen to the entire show. Yeah, no,

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Speaker 1: you did. Uh, let's see, and I promise I won't

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Speaker 1: be in his ear this time. All right. I was

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Speaker 1: not in anyone's here last time either, but just saying

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Speaker 1: maybe if I was, I won't do that again. This okay,

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Speaker 1: thank you, folks. This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm Michael Barr, along with Ebban Noby Williams, Scott Sasnek

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Speaker 1: who is off today. We missed him. And we're here

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

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

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Speaker 1: of the week when we speak with the man who

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Speaker 1: makes all the revenue for the U S. T A

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Speaker 1: and the U S Open Blue Share. You're listening to

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio around the world

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Speaker 1: and online as an Apple podcast. All Nighttude