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Speaker 1: My ol has gone on overland.

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Speaker 2: I don't know.

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Speaker 3: Ninth Planet, Audiot com we're overlanding, you're over.

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Speaker 4: Is there any other areas we should hit up your

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Speaker 4: old neighborhood?

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Speaker 5: Let me think we could go this kind of back

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Speaker 5: near the mall again, but we could go to the

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Speaker 5: stadium for the Listener. It's been a heavy couple of episodes.

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Speaker 5: We've delved into some difficult histories, spoken some hard truths.

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Speaker 5: We've met a lot of people in our quest to

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Speaker 5: change my high school team name from the Rebels to

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Speaker 5: the Biscuits or whatever, and so far we haven't changed anything.

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Speaker 5: I think it's time to maybe take a little break

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Speaker 5: and to learn what it's like to really actually change

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Speaker 5: a team name from blah to amazing. And thankfully we

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Speaker 5: don't have to go very far.

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Speaker 4: Are down there at the kid Zone, and then I'll

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Speaker 4: look you around and then we'll go upstairs.

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Speaker 5: Just off I seventy five. Right here in Florence lies

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Speaker 5: the home of a small baseball team called the Florence

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Speaker 5: Yawls and Listener, everything about their stadium is a delay.

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Speaker 4: We have two huge inflatable slides that also go up,

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Speaker 4: but they're away for.

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Speaker 5: Anile and you have like these nice like sort of

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Speaker 5: patio lights. We got a tour of Thomas Moore Stadium,

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Speaker 5: home to the Florence Yawls and the Thomas Moore University

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Speaker 5: Saints formerly the Rebels. Remember, Yeah, they have the big

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Speaker 5: Florence y'all like the waters Tower, the very cool kind

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Speaker 5: of like Andy Warhol style.

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Speaker 4: So that is all BLDG. They painted that. They painted

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Speaker 4: our spread your wings and fry very KFC. That's why

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Speaker 4: it's the press bucket and not a press boxes bucket

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Speaker 4: of chicken. We really wanted to be as Kentucky themed

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Speaker 4: as possible.

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Speaker 5: Today, let's take a break from our quest to change

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Speaker 5: the Boone County Rebels to something better and instead talk

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Speaker 5: about how the Florence Freedom became the Florence y'alls, and

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Speaker 5: how something as small as changing the name of a

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Speaker 5: baseball team can drive change that reaches far beyond the

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Speaker 5: stadium walls. Y'all are nothing.

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Speaker 4: I love that. And then this one on the other

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Speaker 4: side says to my old Kentucky home. So it's pointing

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Speaker 4: towards home, Blake.

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Speaker 5: Oh, that's really nice. Am I going to get chucked up? Hey,

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Speaker 5: let's go out to the ballgame. I was a lady rebel, Like,

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Speaker 5: what does.

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Speaker 3: That even need? The Boone County Rebels will stay the

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Speaker 3: Boone County Rebels with the image of.

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Speaker 5: Right here in black and white and.

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Speaker 3: Friends, Biggers is a flag or mascot.

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Speaker 6: Anytime you're trying to mess with tradition, you get to

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Speaker 6: be ready for a serious backlash.

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Speaker 5: From Ninth Planet audio. I'm Akuila Hughes and this is

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Speaker 5: Rebel Spirit Episode four. Y'all are nothing. In the previous episode,

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Speaker 5: I mentioned that Thomas Moore University here in northern Kentucky

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Speaker 5: changed from the Rebels to the Saints around that same time.

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Speaker 5: In two thousand and four, before I graduated and left home,

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Speaker 5: it was announced that my hometown was getting a new

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Speaker 5: Frontier League baseball team. They were called the Florence Freedom.

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Speaker 5: It was in the shadow of nine to eleven, and

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Speaker 5: a lot of people in the area had served in Iraq.

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Speaker 5: Freedom made a certain amount of sense, I guess, but

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Speaker 5: there was never a lot of excitement around the team.

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Speaker 3: I don't think he had a purpose to naming it

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Speaker 3: the Freedom. Yeah, honestly, I think it was just somebody

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Speaker 3: said that and it was like, Okay, yeah, that works.

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Speaker 5: This is j Becker the president and founder of BLDG,

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Speaker 5: a design firm located just a few minutes north of

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Speaker 5: Florence in Covington, Kentucky.

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Speaker 3: Somebody said what about the Florence Freedom, and he was like,

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Speaker 3: we need something, Yeah, that's it, let's go with it.

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Speaker 5: For years they went with it, and the Freedom was fine.

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Speaker 5: The logo looked like it was chosen from a book

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Speaker 5: of generic sports logos. The whole thing felt so phoned

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Speaker 5: in that I'm literally making myself bored talking about it.

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Speaker 5: For a design expert like Jay, who also loved sports

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Speaker 5: as much as he loves northern Kentucky, the generic feel

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Speaker 5: of the Freedom drove him nuts.

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Speaker 3: So I reached out to Clint that owned the team.

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Speaker 3: If I reached out to him three times, I reached

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Speaker 3: out to him twenty three times, and he would always say,

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Speaker 3: we don't need brand, we don't need design. I don't

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Speaker 3: get it, we don't need it.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, like freedom is enough.

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Speaker 3: Well then they were sold. Yeah, and we had a

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Speaker 3: new new sheriff in talent.

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Speaker 5: On the surface, there's nothing wrong with Freedom. People came

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Speaker 5: to the games, they played fine. There was no urgency

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Speaker 5: to change the name. The logo and team may not

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Speaker 5: have changed, but ownership changed hands a few times over

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Speaker 5: the last twenty years. The original owner sold the team

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Speaker 5: due to a white collar crime scandal, to a new

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Speaker 5: ownership group led by Clint Brown, who passed away in

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Speaker 5: twenty eighteen. His widow, Kim Brown, then sold the team

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Speaker 5: to a new ownership group led by four local businessmen,

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Speaker 5: and they wanted change.

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Speaker 2: The team was doing well, not in the you know,

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Speaker 2: ticket sales were doing great, but they were stagnant over

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Speaker 2: a couple of years.

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Speaker 5: This is Max Johnson, the y'all's general manager. He's been

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Speaker 5: with the team for ten years.

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Speaker 2: We put it out on Facebook and we just said, hey,

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Speaker 2: what do you think the new name of the Florence

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Speaker 2: baseball team should be? And we had hundreds and hundreds

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Speaker 2: and hundreds of submissions.

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Speaker 7: So Florence's Freedom will be no more. No, they're not

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Speaker 7: leaving town, but the new ownership group wants to give

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Speaker 7: the team a new look and they're asking for your

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Speaker 7: help to do this. There's a contest happening right now

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Speaker 7: to pick the new name of the team. The one

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Speaker 7: thing that is necessary, Florence still needs to be a

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Speaker 7: part of it. So these are some of the ideas

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Speaker 7: that you came up with on our Facebook page. One

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Speaker 7: suggestion the yellow belly catfish.

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Speaker 6: I love it.

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Speaker 7: I don't know about that one. Another is the Florence Frontiersman,

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Speaker 7: and the newsroom's favorite, the Florence Yawlers. But you got

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Speaker 7: to say it like that, y'allers, so.

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Speaker 2: We'll get We took the time to condense the list

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Speaker 2: down to the you know, the five most common submitted

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Speaker 2: names from our Facebook and Twitter polls. I don't remember

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Speaker 2: all five names.

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Speaker 5: Quick fun sidebar. The other names considered were the go Getters,

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Speaker 5: the Fossil Jockeys, the pop Flies, and the no Socks.

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Speaker 2: The yaws was obviously one of them that was on there.

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Speaker 2: The Yawls was the most popular because of the water tower.

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Speaker 5: Just to jog your memory, Florence has that giant, red

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Speaker 5: and white striped water tower that they changed from Florence

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Speaker 5: Mall to Florence y'all. It's been that way since the

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Speaker 5: seventies and is definitely the most, possibly the only iconic

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Speaker 5: thing about Florence, Kentucky. When you look back on history,

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Speaker 5: something seemed completely obvious, but at the time, renaming the

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Speaker 5: Florence Freedom to the Florence Yawls was anything but.

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Speaker 3: I mean, one of the managing partners looked me square

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Speaker 3: in the eye and said, just don't tell me you're

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Speaker 3: going to name my baseball team after a gd I

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Speaker 3: don't know how sensitive we have to be. Just tell

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Speaker 3: me you're not going to name my baseball team after

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Speaker 3: a goddamn water tower. And I said, I'm more than

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Speaker 3: happy to tell you that, in fact, we're not going

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Speaker 3: to name your goddamn baseball team after a water tower.

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Speaker 3: We're going to name it after your Hollywood sign. And

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Speaker 3: the narrative was flipped.

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Speaker 5: It was Jay's insistence on naming the baseball team after

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Speaker 5: a water tower that changed everything. For a baseball team

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Speaker 5: so small it's likely you haven't even heard of the

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Speaker 5: league that they play in, the Frontier League. Even for

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Speaker 5: new owners excited to bring fresh eyes and excitement to

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Speaker 5: a team, there's a little incentive from a business standpoint

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Speaker 5: to change. Rebranding is a huge financial investment, altering signs, merchandise,

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Speaker 5: marketing materials, as well as the revenue loss from a

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Speaker 5: diminished brand recognition, and in a small town like Florence,

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Speaker 5: people have to like it. Rebranding a team is a gamble, absolutely,

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Speaker 5: but sometimes the gamble is worth it.

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Speaker 2: The water Tower is such a staple within our community.

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Speaker 2: If you google just water tower, it's the first one

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Speaker 2: that comes up.

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Speaker 8: Yeah, so the iconic it is.

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Speaker 2: It is the water Tower, And that's kind of the

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Speaker 2: running joke that we have going on social media. We

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Speaker 2: throw up other towns water towers and we grade them.

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Speaker 2: You know, the Freedom name works in Milwaukee, it works

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Speaker 2: in New York, it works in Chicago, it works in Nebraska,

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Speaker 2: it works in California. But you couldn't do that with y'alls, right,

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Speaker 2: you know. It's it's synonymous to the South and us

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Speaker 2: being the gateway to the South and having you know,

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Speaker 2: something like the water Tower to you know, back our brand.

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Speaker 2: It's not our brand, you know, we don't you know,

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Speaker 2: We're not the water Tower. You know, we're y'all's culture,

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Speaker 2: and the water Tower just embodies, you know, a certain

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Speaker 2: percentage of you know what we you know, like to

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Speaker 2: project because it's Florence, y'all.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, the Florence y'alls. To me, it is the freshest,

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Speaker 5: most authentic, energetic, inclusive baseball team name ever. It's the South,

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Speaker 5: It's Florence. It's the water Tower, but also bigger than

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Speaker 5: the water Tower.

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Speaker 3: Cincinnati doesn't want us, they call it Kentucky, and Kentucky

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Speaker 3: doesn't want us, they call it Cincinnati. And so with

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Speaker 3: the end of the day, that's what y'all's came from.

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Speaker 3: It's this indigenous culture of northern Kentucky.

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Speaker 5: Minor league sports have been going through a renaissance these

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Speaker 5: last few years. That renaissance has been driven by making

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Speaker 5: ballparks a fun place to be and rebranding teams into memorable,

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Speaker 5: often hilarious names. There's the Rocket City trash Pandas in Madison, Alabama,

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Speaker 5: the Yard Goats with a logo of a goat chewing

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Speaker 5: a baseball bat from Hartford, Connecticut, or the Savannah Bananas

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Speaker 5: in Savannah, Georgia, whose slogan is we make baseball Fun.

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Speaker 5: There are dozens and dozens of minor league teams like

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Speaker 5: this now, often sporting similar, thick line, cartoonish logos. They're

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Speaker 5: both unique and cookie cutter at the same time. The

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Speaker 5: Florence y'alls embraces the irreverence, but the feel is entirely different.

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Speaker 5: It's a hard balancing act that they pull off flawlessly.

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Speaker 3: It's not just a feeling.

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Speaker 7: I e.

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Speaker 3: Bananas, Yeah, you know, what I mean, we can go

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Speaker 3: bananas like, there's more to it. And I'm not dissing

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Speaker 3: on minor league baseball design. It all is very flat.

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Speaker 3: It all looks the same. It's cartoony. Call it quasi

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Speaker 3: nineteen ninety four, you know what I mean. And what

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Speaker 3: we really sold them was it's a heightened brand.

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Speaker 5: But change is hard, and even if the brand isn't

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Speaker 5: all that beloved, like the Freedom, there are still going

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Speaker 5: to be people that push back against it.

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Speaker 3: We still have a few people that walk around the

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Speaker 3: park in Freedom jerseys. No, I mean, we're cool with this. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: I've always said I want to do like a Komiskey

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Speaker 3: Park disco demolition, where we like gather up all the

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Speaker 3: old freedom merchant, we blow it up in the.

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Speaker 5: Outfield where there's change, there's haters. We'll be right back

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Speaker 5: after a short ad break.

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Speaker 3: Literally five hundred negative comments about the word y'all, like

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Speaker 3: we're not Hillbilities, We're not this, we're not that, And

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Speaker 3: it was all on Facebook, Go figure. And the interesting

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Speaker 3: thing was is that we started to look at the

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Speaker 3: characters that were commenting on y'all and whatnot, and we

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Speaker 3: realized they weren't from here. They were like just minor

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Speaker 3: league trolls. We released at like three o'clock. At three

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Speaker 3: oh five, Barstool came out and said, this is the

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Speaker 3: greatest name in minor league baseball history, you know, and

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Speaker 3: it just went from there. You know, I can't remember

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Speaker 3: the there's a female reporter on ESPN she called. She

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Speaker 3: was like, I want any and I'll merch you get

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Speaker 3: or whatever you make. I want it. MLB called. You know,

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Speaker 3: there was just there was kind of a waterfall of

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Speaker 3: people that wanted to understand it better. And you know,

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Speaker 3: you know, thank you Barstool Sports. We'd love to work

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Speaker 3: with you guys. But there was just so much, so

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Speaker 3: much driver around the story itself, and then all of

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Speaker 3: a sudden we started leaking out those secondary marks in

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Speaker 3: those you know, y'all are nothing, and then it took

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Speaker 3: a life of its own. But that was the goal,

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Speaker 3: that was the purpose of the brand, and you know,

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Speaker 3: to those of you that aren't familiar with branding, it's

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Speaker 3: the greatest single way of telling stories for business to services, products, whatever.

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Speaker 5: It was so reassuring to hear that even when you

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Speaker 5: have an idea that's as good as y'all, Facebook is

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Speaker 5: going to light up with naysayers. I don't really know

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Speaker 5: if the Freedom meant much to the community, but the

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Speaker 5: fact is that changing it was hard, regardless even if

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Speaker 5: it was changing to something that spoke directly to Florence's

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Speaker 5: unique identity and celebrated its local culture. Also, I hate

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Speaker 5: to say it, but HP death Ridge also helped bring

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Speaker 5: the Florence Freedom to the area. I don't want to

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Speaker 5: play armchair psychologists, but I bet it's hard to see

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Speaker 5: one mascot go much less too. Speaking of mascots, the

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Speaker 5: Florence Freedom started with Liberty the Eagle and then just

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Speaker 5: kept going that it's a move I'm learning from Cebrity.

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Speaker 5: He did, And we've got the Diva of the Diamond Bell,

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Speaker 5: and then we have Wally the water Tower.

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Speaker 3: All three of the mascots here at Florence Freedom, which

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Speaker 3: is awesome.

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Speaker 5: Yes, the Florence Freedom had three mascots. There was Liberty

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Speaker 5: the Eagle, who was an eagle obviously, and Bell, who

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Speaker 5: was pink and looked sort of like a duck cross

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Speaker 5: with a cow but people insisted was a lady eagle.

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Speaker 5: And Wally the water Tower, yes a water tower, who

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Speaker 5: was big and bulbous and I think must have been

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Speaker 5: inflated around the poor person inside him. But listener. While

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Speaker 5: most everything about the Freedom was forgettable, one thing was not,

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Speaker 5: because Wally the water Tower walked slowly and carefully in

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Speaker 5: his big inflated suit so that y'all star could run.

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Speaker 8: This year marks the transition of a good friend. We've

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Speaker 8: grown the love over the past eight years. Our diva,

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Speaker 8: the Diamond Bell, is retiring. This transition into retirement and

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Speaker 8: senior care could be one of stress and worry, unless

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Speaker 8: that transition involves Florence Park Nursing and Rehab Center. But

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Speaker 8: Florence Park Nursing and Rehab Center, along with their friendly staff,

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Speaker 8: welcome your loved one in this time of transition, and

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Speaker 8: who knows, you just may run into our friend Bell

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Speaker 8: while you're there. Florence Park Nursing and Rehab Center, the

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Speaker 8: full service nursing home of Bell and the Florence Freedom.

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Speaker 5: That, in credit Strange Cross Promotion was to announce in

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Speaker 5: twenty sixteen. The retirement of Bell an usher in the

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Speaker 5: new era of y'all Star, a more streamlined, more athletic

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Speaker 5: water Tower. This is a podcast, so you have to

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Speaker 5: google to see what he looks like. Stop driving or

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Speaker 5: pelotoning or folding laundry, which is my preferred podcast activity,

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Speaker 5: and look up y'all star do it.

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Speaker 2: Actually, we introduced y'all Star while we're still the Freedom,

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Speaker 2: and y'all Star, if you don't know, is our mascot.

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Speaker 2: He's a baseball player that's you know, his head's the

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Speaker 2: water Tower and he's our all star on the team.

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Speaker 2: So you know, y'all Star was actually, you know, a

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Speaker 2: part of that that Freedom brand originally and then we

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Speaker 2: just you know, moved him over to the y'all side

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Speaker 2: of thing. I think I feel like he's he's caught

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Speaker 2: on a lot more since we've been the y'alls. When

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Speaker 2: we were the Freedom again, we weren't nationally known. He

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Speaker 2: wasn't a national independent you know, mascot in a sense,

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Speaker 2: and you know, you'd walk down the street or you

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Speaker 2: go to a festival, or you go to a school

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Speaker 2: and that everyone would be like, hey, peppermintthead, Hey Peppermint

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Speaker 2: heead and so he was you know his nick I

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Speaker 2: mean like his you know, his he was Peppermintthead to

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Speaker 2: you know, ninety percent of the kids because they didn't

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Speaker 2: know who he was or you know that he was

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Speaker 2: tied to a baseball team. You know, he had the

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Speaker 2: jersey on it said Freedom, but you know, you know,

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Speaker 2: or hay Water Tower Guy, yeah, or you know. So

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Speaker 2: now I think he's been out in the community more.

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Speaker 2: You know, we're involved with other mascots. That's something that

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Speaker 2: we could easily transition over. That was, you know, the

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Speaker 2: old with the new.

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Speaker 5: The old with the new. There were so many strategies

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Speaker 5: here that we can implement for our Rebel to Biscuits

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Speaker 5: or whatever journey crowdsourcing to get the community involved the

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Speaker 5: continuity with y'all Star, But the change wasn't easy for

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Speaker 5: the franchise itself. The Freedom changed to the Y'alls in

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Speaker 5: twenty twenty, the year that brought about a little too

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Speaker 5: much change for most of us and began the cascade

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Speaker 5: of unprecedented times.

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Speaker 2: So we had kind of more of a slower rollout

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Speaker 2: with the Y'all's brand because of what we had to

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Speaker 2: do to adapt to play baseball in twenty twenty.

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Speaker 5: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: So the first year that the y'alls, you know, the

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Speaker 2: y'alls were on the field, they were playing against the Freedom.

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Speaker 2: So we hosted two teams and Lexington hosted two teams

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Speaker 2: and we played home and homes, so there was that

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Speaker 2: transition of, you know, the freedom out and the Y'all's in.

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Speaker 2: And then in twenty twenty one, there was still some

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Speaker 2: COVID restrictions until about the middle of June where we

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Speaker 2: had our inaugural season, but we had to completely phased

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Speaker 2: the freedom out phase. The y'alls one hundred percent in,

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Speaker 2: changed our team shop around to y'all's one hundred percent,

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Speaker 2: and then it was just go, go go. As unlucky

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Speaker 2: as we were, we were lucky at the same time,

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Speaker 2: and I think that helped us kind of find our footing. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: you know, a lot of teams when they rebrand, it's

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Speaker 2: you know, it's boom boom. For us, it was kind

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Speaker 2: of like, Okay, we got some time to figure this out,

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Speaker 2: you know, able to figure out our own voice and everything.

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Speaker 5: Y'all I bought so much Florence. Y'all merged during that

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Speaker 5: coalition trip back to Florence. It's a perfect mix of

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Speaker 5: local pride and baseball culture. They go all in on

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Speaker 5: the y'all theme shirts that say y'all are nothing or

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Speaker 5: we ball for y'all. They have the mascot y'all Star

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Speaker 5: riding a Kentucky Derby style horse Interstate seventy five on

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Speaker 5: a fleece blanket. I've never felt so spoken to and

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Speaker 5: proud to be spoken to take my money, Spirit shop.

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Speaker 5: Everything about the y'all's from the merch, the jerseys the

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Speaker 5: team wears onto the field, the way they've painted the stadium,

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Speaker 5: toned down colors of red, white, and blue. It all

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Speaker 5: has a vintage Americana field. But it doesn't give cracker

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Speaker 5: barrel racism. It manages to look to the future while

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Speaker 5: honoring the past.

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Speaker 3: If you look at like the uniform system that we built,

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Speaker 3: you know it was really built off the eighties. Pittsburgh Pirates, Yeah,

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Speaker 3: very understood, throwback y you know that, you know, Kansas

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Speaker 3: City Royals, expos baby blues, you know, but things that

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Speaker 3: were quintessential baseball. We leveraged that past familiarity to bring

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Speaker 3: it forward. In merch is the second largest piece of

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Speaker 3: the revenue model. Your business models not just about putting

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Speaker 3: butts in seats. It's about creating a brand that's so

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Speaker 3: alluring that we can put it on a T shirt

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Speaker 3: and everybody wants to buy it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, kind of one of the cool things

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Speaker 2: to go back and see is you know, through our

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Speaker 2: online shop, we see you know, we see where we're

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Speaker 2: shipping everything. You know, we've shipped to New Zealand, we

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Speaker 2: shipped to Australia, we've shipped to Europe. The reaches that

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Speaker 2: we have with the new brand that we weren't getting

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Speaker 2: the traction with. Yeah, when we were the Freedom, people

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Speaker 2: locally knew who the Freedom were, but not nationally. Now

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Speaker 2: we've been voted number one by a couple of different organizations.

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Speaker 2: You know, I'm gonna you know, toot our own hoard

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Speaker 2: a little bit there. We made the right decision, yeah,

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Speaker 2: from a business standpoint and from a brand.

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Speaker 5: Since the rebrand, the area around the stadium has changed dramatically,

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Speaker 5: especially with the mall losing appeal amid the general decline

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Speaker 5: of malls. However, we all know the water Tower has

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Speaker 5: always been the real focal point of Florence.

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Speaker 3: It had actually just been built when I was a kid.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, you remember when it said mall. Jay grew up

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Speaker 5: in Erlinger and now bldg's headquarters are in a three

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Speaker 5: story walk up storefront in downtown Covington, Kentucky, about twenty

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Speaker 5: minutes north of Florence.

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Speaker 3: So we've been here eleven years, returned twelve in September.

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Speaker 3: The first floor was at actual gallery in the day.

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Speaker 5: Covington is where I lived as a child before we

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Speaker 5: moved to Florence, and where my mom worked in the

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Speaker 5: public schools for thirty years. It's much blacker than Florence,

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Speaker 5: much poorer than Florence, and much much cooler than Florence.

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Speaker 3: We have four full time artists on staff, and they

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Speaker 3: just took it upon themselves too.

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Speaker 5: Decorate that that was even true. Back when I was

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Speaker 5: in high school, friends and I would drive from Florence

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Speaker 5: to hit the Anger Grill or to watch our cars

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Speaker 5: roll uphill, no really, at the local landmark called Gravity Hill. Nowadays,

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Speaker 5: Covington is going through something of a renaissance itself, driven

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Speaker 5: in part by its riverside location just across the street

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Speaker 5: from Cincinnati, its beautiful turn of the century architecture, and

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Speaker 5: its embracive street art and murals which are painted everywhere.

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Speaker 5: BLDG and Jay have played a part in the revitalization

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Speaker 5: of Covington and their studio, which feels more like a

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Speaker 5: chaotic art space than any other creative agency I've ever visited.

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Speaker 3: The vintage Sin Sinnat beer brands were bringing back to

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Speaker 3: life with partnership. You'll see upstairs we do a ton

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Speaker 3: of screen brings.

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Speaker 5: BLDG Studio Space shares a wall with City Hall, which

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Speaker 5: moved into an abandoned jcpenny listener. The vibe of Covington

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Speaker 5: is impeccable. The vibe of Florence.

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Speaker 3: The vibe of Florence was it was a mall. Like

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Speaker 3: to a high school kid, it's like what was in Florence.

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Speaker 3: It was a mall? Yeah, you know, and that was

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Speaker 3: the catch and the more country yeah, oh totally. The

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Speaker 3: whole backside of Turfay Park were farms and it was

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Speaker 3: all It was very rural and the airport had one building,

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Speaker 3: one building.

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Speaker 5: Growing up surrounded by great sports teams, Jay has loved

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Speaker 5: sports in sports uniforms his whole life.

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Speaker 3: You didn't have kids sports team merch. So like my brother,

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Speaker 3: we take white kids T shirts with markers and make

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Speaker 3: T shirts because you couldn't buy them, like you couldn't

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Speaker 3: buy a Red's T shirt for kids in those days.

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Speaker 3: What really got me excited about sports and everything else

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Speaker 3: was I loved the Marquette basketball uniforms, the al m

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Speaker 3: maguire years, and I have every one of the actual

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Speaker 3: old seventies Marquette uniforms except seventy seventh, the year they

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Speaker 3: won the championship. And I've looked high and low and

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Speaker 3: actually found somebody that had one, and we just can't

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Speaker 3: agree on price. But I will get it. I will

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Speaker 3: get it.

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Speaker 5: You will get it.

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Speaker 3: But I was a kid that loved uniforms had we

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Speaker 3: had UK basketball, we had Louisville basketball, and then when

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Speaker 3: I was a boy, we had the Kentucky Colonels. They'd

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Speaker 3: play half their games in Cincinnati.

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Speaker 5: Jay is a died in the wool uniform sports geek

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Speaker 5: and the y'alls isn't the only team they've done branding for.

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Speaker 5: In fact, and we didn't know this when we walked

432
00:21:46,880 --> 00:21:49,480
Speaker 5: in the door. He has been working with the university

433
00:21:49,600 --> 00:21:52,720
Speaker 5: that has recently shed its Native American mascot. He can't

434
00:21:52,760 --> 00:21:56,520
Speaker 5: name names, and so everything here is intentionally vague, But listener,

435
00:21:56,960 --> 00:21:57,760
Speaker 5: what are the odds?

436
00:21:57,960 --> 00:22:02,720
Speaker 3: The school we're working with is very sent to the tribe,

437
00:22:02,840 --> 00:22:06,680
Speaker 3: and they're they're they're they're wonderfully brilliant about it. They've

438
00:22:06,680 --> 00:22:10,680
Speaker 3: gotten the buy in from the actual tribe. They have

439
00:22:10,880 --> 00:22:15,879
Speaker 3: a ongoing relationship on campus. I think they have a

440
00:22:15,920 --> 00:22:18,240
Speaker 3: little less than one hundred people that are on scholarship

441
00:22:18,240 --> 00:22:21,320
Speaker 3: from there. And what we just saw was an opportunity

442
00:22:21,359 --> 00:22:23,600
Speaker 3: to say, hey, you're doing it right. You know, how

443
00:22:23,640 --> 00:22:26,520
Speaker 3: can we help you leverage this? And it'll be interesting

444
00:22:26,560 --> 00:22:28,959
Speaker 3: to see where it lands in the long run because

445
00:22:29,160 --> 00:22:31,359
Speaker 3: there are other factors that we don't control, you know

446
00:22:31,400 --> 00:22:33,959
Speaker 3: what I mean. But at the end of the day,

447
00:22:34,080 --> 00:22:36,240
Speaker 3: the stuff that makes me really excited is when people

448
00:22:36,320 --> 00:22:38,720
Speaker 3: are doing it right, you know, and they're honest and

449
00:22:38,720 --> 00:22:39,200
Speaker 3: they're fair.

450
00:22:39,520 --> 00:22:41,000
Speaker 5: I don't know how much you can reveal, but like,

451
00:22:41,040 --> 00:22:43,280
Speaker 5: are they changing, are they bringing a mask?

452
00:22:43,400 --> 00:22:46,800
Speaker 3: Ut? We're not there yet, So we're kind of pushing

453
00:22:46,880 --> 00:22:50,320
Speaker 3: towards the opportunity to kind of refresh what they have.

454
00:22:50,680 --> 00:22:53,640
Speaker 3: Like they did they rebranded and brought a different maskot

455
00:22:53,680 --> 00:22:57,040
Speaker 3: forward that didn't really have a past life to it,

456
00:22:57,880 --> 00:23:00,800
Speaker 3: and it wasn't introduced in a way that the student

457
00:23:00,840 --> 00:23:03,359
Speaker 3: body and the people really understood it. So how do

458
00:23:03,440 --> 00:23:06,520
Speaker 3: we create a look and a feel a culture similar

459
00:23:06,520 --> 00:23:08,880
Speaker 3: to the alls, but that's not familiar And.

460
00:23:08,800 --> 00:23:10,800
Speaker 5: So you know, you mentioned like the school is doing

461
00:23:10,840 --> 00:23:13,440
Speaker 5: a good job. They're being very cooperative too, Like they're

462
00:23:13,480 --> 00:23:16,600
Speaker 5: they're invested in doing something good and right. Have you

463
00:23:16,760 --> 00:23:20,919
Speaker 5: ever worked with or pitched somewhere where like there was

464
00:23:21,359 --> 00:23:25,879
Speaker 5: a denial about it being wrong or reluctance to change

465
00:23:25,880 --> 00:23:29,200
Speaker 5: it even as you know the truth of it is revealed,

466
00:23:29,400 --> 00:23:31,960
Speaker 5: as you know, receipts are pulled, and they're just saying

467
00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:35,320
Speaker 5: it's not offensive. It doesn't matter, like you have experienced,

468
00:23:35,359 --> 00:23:43,200
Speaker 5: yes and yes and yes, oh good, it's not just us.

469
00:23:43,720 --> 00:23:46,080
Speaker 5: We'll be right back with that drama after a short

470
00:23:46,080 --> 00:23:46,639
Speaker 5: ad break.

471
00:23:48,440 --> 00:23:51,600
Speaker 3: It was just it was an old line business that

472
00:23:51,680 --> 00:23:54,760
Speaker 3: was reaching for relevance, yeah, you know, and they didn't

473
00:23:54,800 --> 00:23:56,960
Speaker 3: want to see the world that they knew that existed

474
00:23:57,080 --> 00:23:59,919
Speaker 3: change and I you know, we had to say to

475
00:24:00,080 --> 00:24:02,080
Speaker 3: them at the start of the project, why are you here?

476
00:24:02,520 --> 00:24:05,000
Speaker 3: Like we're change agents. That's what we do really well.

477
00:24:05,480 --> 00:24:07,800
Speaker 3: And if if this isn't what you want, then that's fine.

478
00:24:07,960 --> 00:24:09,800
Speaker 3: You you know, we'll give you whatever money you've given

479
00:24:09,880 --> 00:24:12,280
Speaker 3: us back and then we can go our separate ways,

480
00:24:12,400 --> 00:24:14,119
Speaker 3: you know, in high five when we see each other

481
00:24:14,200 --> 00:24:17,600
Speaker 3: at the bars or whatever. And it you know, for us,

482
00:24:17,760 --> 00:24:21,440
Speaker 3: the problem kept deepening, and the more we looked at

483
00:24:21,560 --> 00:24:23,919
Speaker 3: and said, this is where you change for value, and

484
00:24:23,960 --> 00:24:26,400
Speaker 3: this is where you change for a better future relevance.

485
00:24:27,520 --> 00:24:29,400
Speaker 3: They had no interest in it, and so I think

486
00:24:29,520 --> 00:24:31,240
Speaker 3: we just we had kind of a meeting of the

487
00:24:31,280 --> 00:24:34,320
Speaker 3: minds internally here and everybody just agreed that, like, we

488
00:24:34,359 --> 00:24:36,119
Speaker 3: can't help them. So there's some people you're not going

489
00:24:36,160 --> 00:24:37,960
Speaker 3: to change their minds. And I don't think anything ever

490
00:24:38,000 --> 00:24:40,680
Speaker 3: happened with it, Honestly, I think they shut They went

491
00:24:40,680 --> 00:24:45,399
Speaker 3: in a shutdown mode almost like.

492
00:24:43,840 --> 00:24:47,159
Speaker 5: This is no exactly all they're saying that we are

493
00:24:47,160 --> 00:24:49,760
Speaker 5: bad and our culture is bad and offensive and and

494
00:24:49,800 --> 00:24:51,760
Speaker 5: like even if you point to all the other parts

495
00:24:51,800 --> 00:24:53,840
Speaker 5: of the culture that they could be proud of, they

496
00:24:53,880 --> 00:24:58,800
Speaker 5: didn't care. I'm going to stop things for a minute here.

497
00:24:59,280 --> 00:25:01,200
Speaker 5: Remember at the time with the episode where I said

498
00:25:01,320 --> 00:25:03,080
Speaker 5: maybe it was time to take a little break from

499
00:25:03,080 --> 00:25:06,359
Speaker 5: our pursuit of changing the Boone County Rebels name. I

500
00:25:06,480 --> 00:25:09,800
Speaker 5: meant it. This episode has been labeled y'all's episode on

501
00:25:09,840 --> 00:25:12,679
Speaker 5: our production sheet since day one. When we showed up

502
00:25:12,680 --> 00:25:15,120
Speaker 5: at Jaybecker's door, we had not said a single word

503
00:25:15,200 --> 00:25:17,640
Speaker 5: to him about the Boone County Rebels. We were here

504
00:25:17,640 --> 00:25:19,280
Speaker 5: to talk about the design work he did for the

505
00:25:19,320 --> 00:25:22,520
Speaker 5: y'alls for the episode. You're listening to right now about

506
00:25:22,560 --> 00:25:25,239
Speaker 5: the very fun minor league team in my hometown. That

507
00:25:25,440 --> 00:25:30,200
Speaker 5: was the entire expectation. Hell in the spirit of radical transparency,

508
00:25:30,240 --> 00:25:32,159
Speaker 5: this is the email our producer Dan sent to.

509
00:25:32,240 --> 00:25:35,600
Speaker 1: J Hi Jay. I'm a producer on a new podcast

510
00:25:35,600 --> 00:25:38,280
Speaker 1: from Mikhila Hughes and iHeartMedia that deals in part with

511
00:25:38,280 --> 00:25:41,840
Speaker 1: sports branding. Aquila is from Florence, and we'd love to

512
00:25:41,880 --> 00:25:44,119
Speaker 1: talk with you about the work BLDG has done on

513
00:25:44,160 --> 00:25:48,399
Speaker 1: the Florence y'alls, which is just spectacular work. We'll actually

514
00:25:48,440 --> 00:25:50,920
Speaker 1: be in Florence and Cincinnati all next week and would

515
00:25:50,960 --> 00:25:52,840
Speaker 1: love a chance to maybe come by the office and

516
00:25:52,880 --> 00:25:56,040
Speaker 1: talk about the yalls. Thanks so much, Dan.

517
00:25:58,040 --> 00:26:00,960
Speaker 5: That's it. That was the whole pit. And when we

518
00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:03,000
Speaker 5: sat down to talk with Jay after the tour of

519
00:26:03,040 --> 00:26:06,000
Speaker 5: their space, creaky floors and all, that was what we

520
00:26:06,040 --> 00:26:08,879
Speaker 5: expected to talk about. But over the course of the conversation,

521
00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:11,400
Speaker 5: it was clear that there was something more here than

522
00:26:11,560 --> 00:26:14,960
Speaker 5: just a discussion about a baseball team, and so I

523
00:26:15,040 --> 00:26:17,119
Speaker 5: decided to come clean. So I'm going to show our

524
00:26:17,119 --> 00:26:18,960
Speaker 5: hand a little bit more. I am a graduate of

525
00:26:19,000 --> 00:26:23,440
Speaker 5: Boone County High School class two thousand and five. Go Rebels, but.

526
00:26:23,400 --> 00:26:26,080
Speaker 3: You want to change the rebels. Yeah, I will hope

527
00:26:26,080 --> 00:26:27,800
Speaker 3: to change the rebels if you would like that.

528
00:26:27,920 --> 00:26:28,679
Speaker 5: I would love that.

529
00:26:33,560 --> 00:26:34,119
Speaker 3: I love this.

530
00:26:34,480 --> 00:26:36,200
Speaker 5: I don't know if you know the cliff notes about

531
00:26:36,520 --> 00:26:38,280
Speaker 5: what they tell about the rebels, but I'll give you

532
00:26:38,320 --> 00:26:38,560
Speaker 5: a right.

533
00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:40,679
Speaker 3: I could never figure out how they got away with

534
00:26:40,760 --> 00:26:41,439
Speaker 3: still using it.

535
00:26:41,640 --> 00:26:45,680
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's that's my throwout, same same, And so what's

536
00:26:45,680 --> 00:26:47,440
Speaker 5: strange is when I was there, there was a sort

537
00:26:47,480 --> 00:26:51,400
Speaker 5: of persistent lie that this I told the Rebel without

538
00:26:51,440 --> 00:26:54,280
Speaker 5: a Cause story to Jay, including the new findings we have,

539
00:26:54,440 --> 00:26:57,240
Speaker 5: of course that this was not possible, but it was

540
00:26:57,280 --> 00:26:59,600
Speaker 5: fun to tell another local native this lore and have

541
00:26:59,680 --> 00:27:01,480
Speaker 5: him say that I've never.

542
00:27:01,320 --> 00:27:02,760
Speaker 3: Heard that, by the way, and I had a lot of.

543
00:27:02,760 --> 00:27:05,840
Speaker 5: Friends that went right and I only heard it I think.

544
00:27:06,080 --> 00:27:07,960
Speaker 5: I mean, it's funny. I'm trying to think back now,

545
00:27:08,080 --> 00:27:10,359
Speaker 5: especially since we're here and we're talking to people, But

546
00:27:10,400 --> 00:27:12,560
Speaker 5: I'm like, did I hear that in high school? Or

547
00:27:12,600 --> 00:27:15,159
Speaker 5: did I hear that from Facebook years later? But I'm like,

548
00:27:15,160 --> 00:27:16,480
Speaker 5: I'm pretty sure in high school I was.

549
00:27:16,440 --> 00:27:19,800
Speaker 3: Like Facebook years later to me, right, But it's justification.

550
00:27:19,440 --> 00:27:22,920
Speaker 5: Yeah, totally. There's already so much pushback. We're talking about

551
00:27:22,960 --> 00:27:25,720
Speaker 5: people who are a lot older, who are mad because

552
00:27:25,800 --> 00:27:26,400
Speaker 5: you're trying.

553
00:27:26,240 --> 00:27:28,879
Speaker 3: To change my childhood belief system.

554
00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:34,439
Speaker 5: Yes exactly, and yeah, like absolutely, so we're invested in

555
00:27:34,480 --> 00:27:36,320
Speaker 5: trying to change the mascot to the Biscuits.

556
00:27:37,760 --> 00:27:40,119
Speaker 3: What are your thoughts? Tell me? Why?

557
00:27:40,480 --> 00:27:40,640
Speaker 7: Well?

558
00:27:40,680 --> 00:27:43,800
Speaker 5: I think because why the Biscuits? Why the Biscuits? Of course,

559
00:27:44,560 --> 00:27:46,720
Speaker 5: it's very hard to pitch someone on a sports team

560
00:27:46,760 --> 00:27:50,440
Speaker 5: rebrand when their literal actual job is doing sports team rebrands.

561
00:27:51,040 --> 00:27:54,679
Speaker 5: But I tried. I think because the refrain that I

562
00:27:54,680 --> 00:27:57,199
Speaker 5: always hear is this is about our southern heritance. It

563
00:27:57,240 --> 00:27:59,320
Speaker 5: was never in the competracive person as a black person.

564
00:27:59,400 --> 00:28:02,359
Speaker 5: Bourbon Can Tucky, Oh Biscuits. I know they are like

565
00:28:02,359 --> 00:28:04,800
Speaker 5: they identify with It also has the same number of syllables.

566
00:28:04,880 --> 00:28:07,800
Speaker 5: Seems like they don't have to change. The cheers very iconic,

567
00:28:08,480 --> 00:28:11,920
Speaker 5: and so going with something that's vegetarian. Obviously we would

568
00:28:11,960 --> 00:28:14,680
Speaker 5: have some other things. But when you hear Boone County Biscuits,

569
00:28:14,920 --> 00:28:15,680
Speaker 5: how does it hit you?

570
00:28:15,680 --> 00:28:15,840
Speaker 7: You know?

571
00:28:17,200 --> 00:28:18,080
Speaker 5: Well, I tried.

572
00:28:18,560 --> 00:28:20,560
Speaker 3: I think if we're a minor league baseball team, it'd

573
00:28:20,600 --> 00:28:24,280
Speaker 3: fly fast. Yeah. I think it's probably challenging because I

574
00:28:24,280 --> 00:28:27,040
Speaker 3: feel like high schools always want to like wrap their

575
00:28:27,160 --> 00:28:31,280
Speaker 3: arms around something that they feel it gives them substance.

576
00:28:31,920 --> 00:28:35,320
Speaker 3: Not that I don't think biscuits could. It's just it's well,

577
00:28:35,480 --> 00:28:38,120
Speaker 3: it's I would just worry about that. Is it a

578
00:28:38,160 --> 00:28:41,080
Speaker 3: little bit too irreverent for it's just a irregular old

579
00:28:41,120 --> 00:28:42,880
Speaker 3: high school right, you know what I mean? And it's like,

580
00:28:43,040 --> 00:28:45,840
Speaker 3: is it fun and happy and enjoyable and you get

581
00:28:45,880 --> 00:28:47,200
Speaker 3: a kick out of saying you're a biscuit?

582
00:28:47,360 --> 00:28:53,000
Speaker 5: Yeah, they're not. The fighting biscuits doesn't really sound same. Okay, Okay,

583
00:28:53,080 --> 00:28:56,080
Speaker 5: I get it. Biscuits may be delicious, but maybe they're

584
00:28:56,120 --> 00:28:58,080
Speaker 5: a hard cell for a high school sports team.

585
00:28:58,280 --> 00:28:59,600
Speaker 3: What do you put on the side of the football

586
00:28:59,600 --> 00:29:01,840
Speaker 3: home it's like just a static biscuit? Or is it

587
00:29:01,880 --> 00:29:05,040
Speaker 3: like a biscuit around a bowl of sausage gravy? You know,

588
00:29:05,160 --> 00:29:06,160
Speaker 3: it's like, you know, you.

589
00:29:06,120 --> 00:29:09,920
Speaker 5: Know, I always saw a mascot kind of similar to

590
00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:14,040
Speaker 5: y'all star, honestly, but a biscuit head and everybody.

591
00:29:13,600 --> 00:29:15,560
Speaker 3: You're going through that, like we would go through it

592
00:29:15,720 --> 00:29:18,680
Speaker 3: just so you know. So that's that's that's perfect process format.

593
00:29:18,800 --> 00:29:21,120
Speaker 5: It didn't take long before we weren't just talking about

594
00:29:21,120 --> 00:29:24,080
Speaker 5: the pros and cons of biscuits, but talking about organizing

595
00:29:24,120 --> 00:29:27,120
Speaker 5: strategies and how to enact real change even in the

596
00:29:27,120 --> 00:29:29,080
Speaker 5: face of resistance in our mind, like we would have

597
00:29:29,120 --> 00:29:30,520
Speaker 5: to like do focus groups.

598
00:29:30,600 --> 00:29:33,600
Speaker 3: Yes, maybe you don't exactly, but we wouldn't and we

599
00:29:33,640 --> 00:29:35,280
Speaker 3: wouldn't even look at it as a focus group. We

600
00:29:35,320 --> 00:29:37,560
Speaker 3: look at mors just community engagement, like how do you

601
00:29:37,600 --> 00:29:40,120
Speaker 3: engage the community of the school. You know you're going

602
00:29:40,160 --> 00:29:41,680
Speaker 3: to get I'll be honest with you on this, You're

603
00:29:41,680 --> 00:29:43,640
Speaker 3: going to get a different engagement from the students than

604
00:29:43,640 --> 00:29:47,040
Speaker 3: you are from residents of the community planets. There's great opportunity.

605
00:29:47,360 --> 00:29:50,120
Speaker 3: You know, even if you got anything like if you

606
00:29:50,120 --> 00:29:52,160
Speaker 3: came up with five concepts and said this is our

607
00:29:52,200 --> 00:29:54,080
Speaker 3: three or whatever it is, this is what it could

608
00:29:54,080 --> 00:29:56,400
Speaker 3: be in biscuits, is one of them, then let them choose.

609
00:29:56,600 --> 00:29:58,720
Speaker 5: It's you know, not lost on me that next year

610
00:29:58,880 --> 00:30:02,120
Speaker 5: is I guess there's seven anniversary, Like it's a big

611
00:30:02,160 --> 00:30:04,360
Speaker 5: deal for the school. It seems like it could be

612
00:30:04,400 --> 00:30:06,640
Speaker 5: a moment of change and moving forward, and like there

613
00:30:06,680 --> 00:30:08,960
Speaker 5: are glimmers of it, but we don't have a champion

614
00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:12,040
Speaker 5: in the school for this, and I don't know necessarily

615
00:30:12,040 --> 00:30:14,920
Speaker 5: that the Board of Education is anti but I know

616
00:30:14,960 --> 00:30:15,640
Speaker 5: that they're scared.

617
00:30:15,720 --> 00:30:18,880
Speaker 3: Anytime you start to bring up design, people get really nervous. Yeah, like,

618
00:30:19,040 --> 00:30:20,440
Speaker 3: is it going to change us for the worse?

619
00:30:20,720 --> 00:30:23,440
Speaker 5: Right, what I'm hoping to present to the community and

620
00:30:23,520 --> 00:30:26,040
Speaker 5: the school board is that we can't be worse than nothing,

621
00:30:26,280 --> 00:30:29,160
Speaker 5: which is what we have. The students have a letter

622
00:30:29,240 --> 00:30:31,840
Speaker 5: B with the word rebel in it. What I love

623
00:30:31,880 --> 00:30:35,000
Speaker 5: about going from freedom, which means something different to liberals

624
00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:38,760
Speaker 5: and conservatives to y'all is that y'all is a deliberately

625
00:30:38,800 --> 00:30:42,920
Speaker 5: inclusive word. Y'all means all. It's like everyone is welcome.

626
00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:46,600
Speaker 5: It spans every sort of demographic and it's used equally

627
00:30:46,640 --> 00:30:49,040
Speaker 5: by black and white folks in the South. I hope

628
00:30:49,040 --> 00:30:51,800
Speaker 5: for something equally as empowering and forward thinking for my

629
00:30:51,880 --> 00:30:52,400
Speaker 5: high school.

630
00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:56,040
Speaker 3: I go get them, Go get them. I think it's

631
00:30:56,120 --> 00:30:59,239
Speaker 3: awesome because, like I said, I could never understand how

632
00:30:59,280 --> 00:31:01,400
Speaker 3: they've pulled that off. Yeah, and they pulled it off

633
00:31:01,400 --> 00:31:04,080
Speaker 3: by apathy, you know, just like way we got rid

634
00:31:04,080 --> 00:31:05,720
Speaker 3: of that, and we got rid of the people running

635
00:31:05,720 --> 00:31:08,920
Speaker 3: around with those flags and exactly so right.

636
00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:12,680
Speaker 5: And it's like it inherently must be like and you know,

637
00:31:12,880 --> 00:31:14,160
Speaker 5: half steps just aren't enough.

638
00:31:14,240 --> 00:31:17,640
Speaker 3: We threw biscuits out as a conversation starter, and now

639
00:31:17,680 --> 00:31:22,080
Speaker 3: we can look at this within a continuum of where

640
00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:24,680
Speaker 3: do we want to land to tell our story? You

641
00:31:24,720 --> 00:31:26,640
Speaker 3: know it because Florence needs a new story.

642
00:31:27,880 --> 00:31:31,480
Speaker 5: Florence needs a new story. When Jay said that, it

643
00:31:31,560 --> 00:31:34,600
Speaker 5: put a lot into perspective. In many ways, the story

644
00:31:34,640 --> 00:31:37,680
Speaker 5: of Florence is the story of change. I'm not just

645
00:31:37,760 --> 00:31:40,400
Speaker 5: talking about now where the demographics of the town have

646
00:31:40,440 --> 00:31:43,600
Speaker 5: shifted significantly in the last decade. And I'm not just

647
00:31:43,640 --> 00:31:46,160
Speaker 5: talking about changing a word on a water tower from

648
00:31:46,200 --> 00:31:49,240
Speaker 5: all to y'all or a baseball team from Freedom to

649
00:31:49,280 --> 00:31:53,600
Speaker 5: the Y'all's. Florence, Kentucky has always been changing. Hell, It's

650
00:31:53,600 --> 00:31:58,480
Speaker 5: had four different names Crossroads, Madden Toown, Connersville, and Stringtown

651
00:31:58,560 --> 00:32:01,720
Speaker 5: before settling on Florence. So why not a new team

652
00:32:01,800 --> 00:32:04,480
Speaker 5: name for Boone County High School? Why not a new

653
00:32:04,520 --> 00:32:07,240
Speaker 5: story for the kids there today, kids who look so

654
00:32:07,320 --> 00:32:09,600
Speaker 5: different than the ones that chose the name Rebels in

655
00:32:09,680 --> 00:32:12,400
Speaker 5: nineteen fifty four. I would have loved as a teenager

656
00:32:12,640 --> 00:32:13,880
Speaker 5: to be able to have what is.

657
00:32:13,840 --> 00:32:16,160
Speaker 3: Here now, Oh View and me both it was.

658
00:32:16,240 --> 00:32:18,440
Speaker 5: Just nothing, so like, if we could just get a

659
00:32:18,440 --> 00:32:19,560
Speaker 5: little bit more of that energy just.

660
00:32:19,520 --> 00:32:21,880
Speaker 3: A little further out. There was something that you wanted

661
00:32:21,920 --> 00:32:23,800
Speaker 3: more from this city. You couldn't get it, so you

662
00:32:23,800 --> 00:32:26,280
Speaker 3: went to la You know, I first moved to Chicago

663
00:32:26,400 --> 00:32:29,560
Speaker 3: because of the same thing. This is a different town now,

664
00:32:29,920 --> 00:32:33,680
Speaker 3: it really is. And I'm so excited that you're here

665
00:32:34,080 --> 00:32:37,160
Speaker 3: because you're a homie, you know, And it's like, but

666
00:32:37,280 --> 00:32:40,520
Speaker 3: you get it, and you understand what the hard mood

667
00:32:40,680 --> 00:32:42,560
Speaker 3: to get to where we are is. It's also a

668
00:32:42,680 --> 00:32:45,560
Speaker 3: very interesting time in northern Kentucky, to be honest with you,

669
00:32:45,600 --> 00:32:51,720
Speaker 3: where more of the fresh new thought is coming to

670
00:32:51,760 --> 00:32:55,560
Speaker 3: light versus the old bad habits. Your good luck. And

671
00:32:55,760 --> 00:32:58,040
Speaker 3: like I said, I'm happy to help anyway we can help.

672
00:32:58,160 --> 00:33:00,840
Speaker 3: We'll definitely be hitting you back to make this ground

673
00:33:00,880 --> 00:33:03,040
Speaker 3: central if you want to. I mean, I'd love to

674
00:33:03,040 --> 00:33:05,040
Speaker 3: have a lading. Yeah you got it. Well, now you

675
00:33:05,120 --> 00:33:08,800
Speaker 3: got it, Yeah, you got it. So I think the

676
00:33:08,920 --> 00:33:15,040
Speaker 3: journey of engaging the students in the community get ready. Yeah,

677
00:33:15,200 --> 00:33:18,200
Speaker 3: it's a fun ride, you know, not always the easiest,

678
00:33:18,600 --> 00:33:20,920
Speaker 3: but it's a fun ride. You'll see that passion start

679
00:33:20,960 --> 00:33:22,640
Speaker 3: to come out. Yeah, and that's when you know you're

680
00:33:22,640 --> 00:33:23,560
Speaker 3: going in the right direction.

681
00:33:26,760 --> 00:33:29,920
Speaker 5: All right, We're finding our allies. Now we're finding people

682
00:33:29,960 --> 00:33:33,440
Speaker 5: willing to speak up, willing to lend a hand. Florence

683
00:33:33,520 --> 00:33:37,400
Speaker 5: needs a new story. Boone County High School students need

684
00:33:37,520 --> 00:33:41,160
Speaker 5: a new story, and together all of us, we're going

685
00:33:41,240 --> 00:33:49,960
Speaker 5: to tell it. Rebel Spirit is a production of Ninth

686
00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:54,200
Speaker 5: Planet Audio and association with iHeart Podcasts. Reporting and writing

687
00:33:54,240 --> 00:33:57,400
Speaker 5: by me Akila Hughes. I'm also an executive producer and

688
00:33:57,480 --> 00:34:02,640
Speaker 5: the host. Produced by Dan Sinker, edited by Josie zahm Our.

689
00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:06,880
Speaker 5: Assistant editor is Jennifer Dean. Music composed by Charlie Sun,

690
00:34:07,520 --> 00:34:10,759
Speaker 5: Sound design and mixing by Josia zahm Our. Theme song

691
00:34:10,880 --> 00:34:13,320
Speaker 5: is All the Things I Couldn't Say, performed by Bussy

692
00:34:13,360 --> 00:34:16,160
Speaker 5: and the Bass, courtesy of Arts and Crafts Productions, Inc.

693
00:34:16,719 --> 00:34:20,719
Speaker 5: Our production coordinator is Kyle Hinton. Our clearance coordinator is

694
00:34:20,719 --> 00:34:25,240
Speaker 5: Anna Sun Andshine. Production accounting by Dilfrid Singh. Additional research

695
00:34:25,280 --> 00:34:29,040
Speaker 5: support from Janice Dillard. Executive producers from Ninth Planet Audio

696
00:34:29,160 --> 00:34:32,919
Speaker 5: are Elizabeth Bakoot and Jimmy Miller. Special thanks to Jay

697
00:34:32,920 --> 00:34:36,120
Speaker 5: Becker and the whole team at BLDG. The Florence y'alls,

698
00:34:36,360 --> 00:34:40,040
Speaker 5: Amber Hoffmann, Hillary Delaney and Leslie Chambers. If you have

699
00:34:40,080 --> 00:34:42,440
Speaker 5: a racist mascot at your high school, or are an

700
00:34:42,440 --> 00:34:45,160
Speaker 5: alumni of a high school with a racist mascot and

701
00:34:45,239 --> 00:34:47,960
Speaker 5: want to share your own experience, please email us at

702
00:34:47,960 --> 00:34:51,239
Speaker 5: Rebel Spirit podcast at gmail dot com. We would love

703
00:34:51,320 --> 00:35:00,000
Speaker 5: to hear from you