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Speaker 1: This is the business of sports. Should Major League Baseball

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Speaker 1: shorten up the season? How do we present football to

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Speaker 1: the audience of the future. I don't think that most

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Speaker 1: players understand the power that they have. The future of

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Speaker 1: IndyCar racing is looking bright. Scott Sash very basic math here.

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Speaker 1: More bidders means more money. Evan Nobody Williams. The team

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Speaker 1: value has essentially quadruples. And the leaders in the sports

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Speaker 1: industry time to bring in our guest, Al Stimbrunner, National

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Speaker 1: Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman, Atlanta Braves president Derek Schiller,

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Speaker 1: Patriots President Jonathan Kraft. Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio. Hello,

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Speaker 1: I'm Scott Sah, 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 we do not discuss Game of Thrones. We do

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Speaker 1: not discuss Avengers. I don't want to discuss any of that.

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Speaker 1: I have seen Avengers in game, and I'm going to

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Speaker 1: say a word. Okay, okay. By the way, we have

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Speaker 1: to bring my son on again. He wants to do

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Speaker 1: more Fortnite discussion, he said. Dad asked me a question,

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Speaker 1: So I gave him. I said, why is this so

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Speaker 1: popular for kids? He talked for like twenty minutes. I

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Speaker 1: wasn't even I stopped listening. We gotta get Jackson back on,

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Speaker 1: That's what I said. So he's looking forward lots to

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Speaker 1: talk about, especially with Dabo who got paid out. It

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Speaker 1: came back doubling down on double Well, look, when you

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Speaker 1: are now the highest paid coach in college football, you

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Speaker 1: deserve your own nickname. And what's his nickname going to be?

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Speaker 1: It's gonna be paid double pay. Do oh all right?

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Speaker 1: I did. I just thought that was Clemson has decided

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Speaker 1: to pay him what is an average annual salary of

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Speaker 1: nine point three million dollars over ten years. I do.

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Speaker 1: I just hope he gets a nice bonus if he

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Speaker 1: if he wins the conference, I hope he gets another

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Speaker 1: you've seen in the A C C. I just hope

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Speaker 1: he gets even more money. But the part that I

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Speaker 1: shake my head at is when the contract was announced, Buddy,

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Speaker 1: who remembered some Dabo of the past, came out and

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Speaker 1: said he was against players being paid. That would be

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Speaker 1: too much for him, that would push it too far. Evan.

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Speaker 1: We try to teach our guys use football to create opportunities,

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Speaker 1: take advantage of the platform and the brand and the

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Speaker 1: marketing you have available to you. But as far as

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Speaker 1: paying players professionalizing college athletics, that's where you lose me.

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Speaker 1: I'll go do something else because there's enough entitlement in

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Speaker 1: this world as it is well, so that's where you

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Speaker 1: lose me. To be fair, that was a few years ago.

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Speaker 1: I'm not sure how much he's commented on his thoughts recently,

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Speaker 1: but assuming they haven't changed, UM, professionalized in college athletics professional,

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Speaker 1: it's already professional, professional, was already and with this contract

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Speaker 1: even more so. Being paid more than I would think

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Speaker 1: almost any NFL coach on a yearly basis right now.

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Speaker 1: There may be a few NFL coaches that are making

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Speaker 1: more than the nine point three average that dabos when

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Speaker 1: he is now getting UM. But yeah, it's it's hard

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Speaker 1: to argue, as a guy who's being paid nine million

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Speaker 1: dollars that your endeavor is in professional. But it's also

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Speaker 1: hard to argue that he isn't worth it. And you

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Speaker 1: and I were chatting about what he brings to the institution.

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Speaker 1: I agree. I mean, there's no question, you know, if

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Speaker 1: Alabama is one a dynasty in college football. Clemson is

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Speaker 1: one beat right. They've won two of the last three

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Speaker 1: national championships, both against Alabama. Syracuse was very close to them.

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Speaker 1: That nine point three million on average, because I would

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Speaker 1: love to make the point three every year. The point

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Speaker 1: three is nice, yeah, Lemon on the point three is he.

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Speaker 1: I believe the way I read the contract, the next

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Speaker 1: couple of years, he won't be paid as much as

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Speaker 1: Nick Saban annually, but will eventually jump at You don't

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Speaker 1: want to anger Nick, and you I can promise you

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Speaker 1: that Nick Saban is going back to the people who

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Speaker 1: are most unhappy about this are the Alabama Board of

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Speaker 1: Trustees because they know that, yeah, it's coach Saban would

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Speaker 1: like to see. I don't understand why he doesn't just

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Speaker 1: have the kicker in his contract that automatically makes him

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Speaker 1: the highest paid if somebody goes higher. You automatic. Now,

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Speaker 1: he got nine point four million, but that was over

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Speaker 1: seven years. Yeah, his contract is no, no, nowhere near

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Speaker 1: as big as as dabos is um And again, as

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Speaker 1: soon as Nick Saban signs is next one, I assume

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Speaker 1: he'll be the next highest paid one. One other interesting

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Speaker 1: note in Dabo's contract up for you, I was going

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Speaker 1: to even crazy saying leave it to underscore to comb

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Speaker 1: through the deal to find a very interesting point which

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Speaker 1: he wrote about. Yeah, they're talking about their relationship between

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Speaker 1: Clemson in Alabama. All these deals. You know, every time

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Speaker 1: a coach signs a deal, there's usually a buy out

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Speaker 1: for what happens if he decides to leave before the

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Speaker 1: contract is over, should he go pursue something that is

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Speaker 1: less commercial than you know, less professional dabos when he

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Speaker 1: has that buy out, and he also has an Alabama

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Speaker 1: buy out, So in addition to the price he's gonna

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Speaker 1: pay if he leaves, there's an added cost if he

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Speaker 1: leaves to take the job at Alabama. And for folks

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Speaker 1: who don't know, Dabo grew up in Alabama, went to

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Speaker 1: the University of Alabama. I believe he won a national

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Speaker 1: championship on their football team and then started his coaching

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Speaker 1: career there. So there's definitely a relationship there. But for example,

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Speaker 1: if Dabbo were to leave, you know, in November season,

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Speaker 1: he owes the school six four million dollars. If he

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Speaker 1: leaves to take the job at Alabama, he owes the

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Speaker 1: school six million dollars, So there's an Alabama premium in

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Speaker 1: the contract, and you know clearly Clems in his worried

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Speaker 1: about the prospect of him leaving for his alma monitor.

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Speaker 1: I think he should go to be the Alabama like

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Speaker 1: towel boy, but less pressure and only make three millions.

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Speaker 1: Those are going to be some of the most expensive

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Speaker 1: towels in the history of the college. It was a

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Speaker 1: commentary to let's move on. NFL draft. Is in the

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Speaker 1: books Mr Roger Goodell the first pick and the two

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Speaker 1: thousand nine NFL Draft the Arizona Cardinals Kyler Murray Colaba.

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Speaker 1: So it is the assumed is really happening. Kyler Murray,

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Speaker 1: the Heisman Trophy winner out of Oklahoma at five ft

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Speaker 1: ten and just became the first overall pick in this draft. Now, yes,

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Speaker 1: Kyler Murray. Really that's no surprise. In fact, I shouldn't

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Speaker 1: say that I was, I mean a bet that he

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Speaker 1: was going to be number one, and that it did.

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Speaker 1: Actually know that that is something that that's why I

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Speaker 1: brought it up. When it's when it came up, uh

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Speaker 1: the odds at one point we're like, oh plus, I'm sorry,

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Speaker 1: uh minus. Then it went it went but it went no,

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Speaker 1: but then it went down to minus four hundred and

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Speaker 1: that's like, you know what, maybe I should get on

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Speaker 1: that and you have extra how much? Now I have

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Speaker 1: an for one half tank of fuel for your commute?

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Speaker 1: But what But one thing about it that good for

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Speaker 1: Nashville because boy, this put a lot of money in

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Speaker 1: their call for a lot of businesses benefited from this.

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Speaker 1: By the way, did you hear about it was gonna say,

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Speaker 1: he's gonna say what you were gonna say. Ever, keep

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Speaker 1: doing this to each other. I know Evan want don't

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Speaker 1: do it. Don't do it. Everyt do it. You're talking

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Speaker 1: bachelorette parties. Yeah, amazing. Yeah, this is my my favorite

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Speaker 1: news story of the year. The the amount of bachelorette

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Speaker 1: parties in Nashville over the weekend who were upset and

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Speaker 1: didn't realize that the NFL Draft was going on and

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Speaker 1: folks haven't listened to it. The local Fox station in

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Speaker 1: Nashville did a fantastic video news story interviewing some of

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Speaker 1: these women and it's it's it's top rate. I don't

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Speaker 1: want to get the calls from the NFL, but I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna say it anyway. I don't understand the appeal of

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Speaker 1: the draft. I just don't understand. Clearly, I'm in the minority.

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Speaker 1: But and Evan, you have you know, we've all been

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Speaker 1: to the draft, and you and the one in New York.

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Speaker 1: The only way for me to follow the draft is

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Speaker 1: to let it happen and then when you have a

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Speaker 1: few free seconds, go to your whatever favorite internet page.

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Speaker 1: Oh look, my team selected these players. Oh that's who. Okay,

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Speaker 1: now I see what everybody did. Thank you, move on.

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Speaker 1: I don't see making a weekend of The NFL has

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Speaker 1: done a tremendous job commercializing this entire endeavor, not just

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Speaker 1: on the ground. There were six thousand people in Nashville

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Speaker 1: for the NFL Draft specifically, UM, when they used to

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Speaker 1: do it in New York every year, they decided a

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Speaker 1: couple of years ago, hey we can take this on

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Speaker 1: the road. Teams can host it. They've done Chicago, they've

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Speaker 1: done Philadelphia, Nashville this year, Vegas next year. It's becoming

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Speaker 1: an even bigger in person now, UM, I think he

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Speaker 1: had a game at some point in there. Has to

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Speaker 1: get him. Um. But they've also you know, as a

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Speaker 1: TV property, it bridges the gap. But Queen Network millions

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Speaker 1: of people that love college football and the millions of

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Speaker 1: people that love the NFL, which isn't always an overlap. Um.

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Speaker 1: And yeah, it comes at a time when you know,

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Speaker 1: football fans have been starved of professional football outside of

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Speaker 1: the a F jokes not included for the past couple

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Speaker 1: of months. Right. It is this this kind of perfect nexus.

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Speaker 1: And you know the numbers are nuts, six point average

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Speaker 1: six point one million viewers over the three days. As

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Speaker 1: you said, Scott, it was on broadcast TV all seven rounds,

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Speaker 1: um also on ESPNS networks, also on NFL network. It's

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Speaker 1: a tremendously huge television by the way, using the NFL

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Speaker 1: network feed. Disney might want to be very nice to

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Speaker 1: the NFL, should just say there'll be some rights deals

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Speaker 1: coming to totally, some underlying underlying happiness in there. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I I just still for me as an event, I mean,

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Speaker 1: you want to go to Nashville, have a good time,

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Speaker 1: good weekend, Okay, I get that. But the number of

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Speaker 1: people who sit there and watch on TV, especially past

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Speaker 1: round one, yeah, I think I think that's good point.

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Speaker 1: I certainly understand the early round. I mean, if you

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Speaker 1: watch the first round, if you're a college football fan

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Speaker 1: as I am, I I recognize almost all the names

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Speaker 1: you know, I've I've watched a lot of these guys play.

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Speaker 1: If you're a team, you know for whom one you know,

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Speaker 1: stud rookie could could be the difference between a playoff

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Speaker 1: team and a non playoff team. I can see there

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Speaker 1: being interested in this, But I mean once you get

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Speaker 1: down to, you know, the fourth through seventh round on Saturday,

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Speaker 1: there's nobody in in the actual thing anymore. There's no

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Speaker 1: like real announcements. They just kind of happened on TV.

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Speaker 1: And of course, by the way they've made that those moments,

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Speaker 1: they've made great for social media and disbursement via digital

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Speaker 1: Every single player who got a phone call from a

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Speaker 1: coach is being recorded. It seems, you know, they're the

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Speaker 1: hugs with Grandma. Totally. Yeah, And I think it just

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Speaker 1: kind of underscores just the hold and the dominance that

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Speaker 1: the NFL has on one of ours, one of our listeners,

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Speaker 1: tried to use that against us with the West Seaton's

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Speaker 1: commentary that the NBA would overtake the NFL and popularity. Oh,

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Speaker 1: I guess they didn't see the six and it was

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Speaker 1: very simple spots. Now, West is well aware of the

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Speaker 1: popularity of the NFL, and here's the important part in

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Speaker 1: the United States. Nobody's arguing the dominance, the utter dominance

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Speaker 1: in the US West is looking forward to a time where,

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Speaker 1: because of scale, media scale, and audience worldwide, that the

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Speaker 1: NBA will ultimately be able to reap more revenue. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: the framing is interesting there because you know, the NFL

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Speaker 1: Draft went went up against an NBA playoff games, right

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Speaker 1: and NHL playoff games, and it blew both of them

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Speaker 1: out of the water. Right, Um, no surprise. But I

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Speaker 1: would imagine if you could look at global audience right

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Speaker 1: outside of the US, how many people were watching those

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Speaker 1: NBA playoff games versus watching the NFL Draft. I would

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Speaker 1: imagine it was not a big not a big name

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Speaker 1: in China. But see, you act surprised and we have

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Speaker 1: to move on. But I mean, you act surprised, but

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Speaker 1: we're televising the combine now exactly. I think that's a

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Speaker 1: that's a perfect point, right. People are so starved for

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Speaker 1: football in in the in the late winter and early

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Speaker 1: spring that the events like this can become huge mercial

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Speaker 1: opportunities for the NFL. The last topic serious uh Rick

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Speaker 1: Fox used to be with the Los Angeles Lakers. Uh

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Speaker 1: now with Echo Fox is now leaving Echo Fox, and

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Speaker 1: the reason why he is reportedly leaving is over a

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Speaker 1: shareholder's use of racist language. Yeah. Rick, one of the

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Speaker 1: owners of the team big into Eco Fox that he's

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Speaker 1: the Fox, part of the Echo Fox. Maybe Fox should

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Speaker 1: have been first. Um. Apparently one of the shareholders use

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Speaker 1: some racist language and that was it for Rick. He's like,

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Speaker 1: my shares are available, if you want them, you can

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Speaker 1: have them. Amount. Yeah, as you said, Michael, you know,

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Speaker 1: thirteen year NBA career. He was one of the first

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Speaker 1: kind of traditional sports investors to to dive into e sports.

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Speaker 1: He's been I would say, a pretty darn goood ambassador

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Speaker 1: for for e sports for large over the past few years. Um.

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Speaker 1: But yes, the according to report from Dick sto Te

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Speaker 1: Serto um I, one of their investors used an epithet

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Speaker 1: not only once, but but a number of times, both

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Speaker 1: in writing and verbally about their former CEO, J's Hall.

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Speaker 1: Rick obviously did not take take kindly to that. The

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Speaker 1: The investor, who has not been named to my knowledge,

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Speaker 1: is part of Vision Venture Partners, which has a star

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Speaker 1: studded traditional sports investment grad. I believe the Yankees are involved. Uh.

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Speaker 1: The st lost Cardinals are involved, Kevin Durant, Odell Beckham.

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Speaker 1: There's a lot of big names in there. Um. But yes,

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Speaker 1: it certainly seems as though Rick has has had enough

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Speaker 1: and and there's a larger I think interesting to see

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Speaker 1: what Kevin Durant Odell Beckham. To my knowledge yet, I

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Speaker 1: I don't know how how big a steak that they

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Speaker 1: have in the whole thing even easier to say get out. Sure, yeah,

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Speaker 1: but but this is I think underlie for for folks

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Speaker 1: out there who are gamers or fans of e sports,

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Speaker 1: you know, there's there's a big issue you know, within

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Speaker 1: that within that culture right now, that that they're going

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Speaker 1: to have to kind of suss out. And if and

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Speaker 1: if Rick calling attention to this is kind of starts

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Speaker 1: to have that conversation, I think that's a that's a positive.

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Speaker 1: I will tell you somebody who spent more than his

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Speaker 1: fair share of time in the Los Angeles Lakers locker

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Speaker 1: room in and around when the star studded Laker teams.

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Speaker 1: You went to Shack for Shack, you went to Kobe

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Speaker 1: for Kobe, You went to Robert Ory for sort of

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Speaker 1: your fun stuff, and but you had Derek Fisher there

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Speaker 1: as well. But when when you wanted something kind of

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Speaker 1: the the temperature take, you went to Rick Fox. He

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Speaker 1: he was the guys it was always around. You could

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Speaker 1: have sort of the temperature take conversation with Rick Fox.

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Speaker 1: So he's a measured guy. Um. I I'm very curious

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Speaker 1: to see how this turns out. Who steps up and

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Speaker 1: says I'll take those shares and what the full out

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Speaker 1: is with the other owners. Yeah, the follower will be

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Speaker 1: especially interesting. Echo Fox owned one of the ten slots

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Speaker 1: in the in the North American League of Legends league

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Speaker 1: and all that just to say that this is one

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Speaker 1: of those sports leagues that is trying to model itself

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Speaker 1: after traditional sports leagues like the NFL and the NBA.

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Speaker 1: UM And we saw a number of years ago how

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Speaker 1: the NBA handled, you know, an owner of of its team,

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Speaker 1: you know, tossing uh, some of some racist thoughts around.

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Speaker 1: So you know, the league has said they're looking into it.

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Speaker 1: But this will be an interesting litmus test for where

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Speaker 1: professional e sports are right now, depending on how how

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Speaker 1: this investigation goes and what the actual ramifications are said.

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Speaker 1: This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast Michael Barr

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Speaker 1: along with Scott Sashnik and Evan Nobody Williams. We are

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

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

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Speaker 1: end of the week when we speak with the president

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Speaker 1: of the San Francisco forty Niners and CEO of Elevate Sports,

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Speaker 1: al Guido. Yeah, buddy, my wife go from the Progress.

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Speaker 1: That's right. I'll tell you more about his cars later.

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Speaker 1: He has great cars. Al Guido has great cars. Yes

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Speaker 1: he does. Yes, he's like he's a car enthusiast. You're

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Speaker 1: listening to Bloomberg Business of Sports on Bloomberg Radio around

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Speaker 1: the world and online where you get your parts