Bill Chaves Pod_EP 193

This week, Bill and Alex welcome Tim Keener, the president of Las Vegas Events, to discuss how the 2026 Frozen Four landed in Vegas as well as what traveling fans can expect in and around the big event at T-Mobile Arena (1:33). The guys then discuss NoDak’s standout weekend at the Sioux Falls Regional before talking weather postponements for softball, a push to the finish for tennis, and Fighting Hawks Sports Partnerships’ first step toward potential commercial branding on uniforms and apparel (17:56). On the B-Side (39:17), Spurs put their faith in De Zerbi, while the Red Sox stumble out of the gates.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to the Bill Shaves Podcast, presented by Mid
Coast Sports. Come along with Mid Coast Sports to Las
Vegas to go behind the scenes all next week at
the Frozen Four with UNB Hockey for interviews, features, and
access you can't get anywhere else. Stay up to date
with Mid Coast Sports coverage on x, Instagram, and Facebook
as nodak bids for banner No. Nine. That's Mid Coast Sports.

(00:21):
This is how we do sports, and this is the
Bill Shafes Podcast. Welcome to a special Friday edition of
the Bill Shafes Podcast. We are saving this on a
Friday morning. Good Friday, April third, twenty twenty six. Alex
Henderfild Shaves a special guest that will introduce in just
two moments Bill exciting times in the University of North

(00:42):
Dakota Athletics. Happy Easter weekends here.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Same to you, Alex. Yeah, you know what. The pot
is nimble. The pot is very nimble. We're going to
record on a Friday, which we normally do on Monday
or Tuesday. But there's good reason why we're doing this
for sure. And the other thing we'll say is let
me get out there, Alex do is some of our
tenants in the pod is someone's undefeated, and that would
be Mother Nature. So mother Nature is very undefeated, and

(01:08):
it's good to make sure that we know she's undefeated.
This weekend here in grand.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Forth, Yeah, we will discuss some of the issues that
Mother Nature has caused, specifically to our softball team coming
up this weekends. And just a little bit good luck
everybody as you power through this early April storm that's
coming our way. It's gonna be fine. It'll be over
in a minute. Everybody's going to Vegas anyway. We're right here.
It's going to be beautiful all week long. So on

(01:33):
that note, Yes, the big news burying the lead North
Dakota going on to the Frozen Four, their first trip
to the Frozen Four since twenty sixteen. That will be
in Las Vegas. The University of North Dakota is one
of the co hosts of that event along with Las
Vegas Events and the NCAA. To talk about that one
of the biggest weekends of the year from a sports perspective,
we have the president of Las Vegas Events, Tim Keener,

(01:56):
joining us on the podcast this morning. Tim, thanks so
much for being with us on what I'm sure is
going to be a pretty busy week in your life
for the Las Vegas Events crew.

Speaker 3 (02:03):
Well, thank you very much for having me today. Yeah,
we're so excited. We can't wait to get the teams
into town next week. We've been communicating NCAA und Eric
Martinson and his crew, so we're excited. We can't wait
to get next week going.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
Now, this is something sim that you and your staff
have been waiting for for a long time, and we
talked to us a little bit prepot about this process.
But how did Las Vegas Events first of all, win
the rights to host? What is that process like as
you're going through the bidding process to host an event
like this.

Speaker 3 (02:37):
Yeah, it's been it's been a long time coming. We
put we put our bids and we were working on
the quad at the time. The NCAA was bidding out
four year cycles back in twenty seventeen eighteen nineteen, so
we were bidding onto years twenty three through twenty six,
frozen fours. So we've been on each and every one

(02:59):
of those, worked with T Mobile and the local group
here and we finished our bid late in nineteen twenty nineteen,
and part of the process that we found out, being
new to it was we needed a host institution and
obviously local you know, UNLV had a club team and

(03:20):
that really didn't qualify. And I think Arizona State they
moved up to D one level sixteen seventeen something like that,
so they're relatively new to the game and they're a
great conference member with you guys now, but with us,
we had a special connectivity to North Dakota Athletics with
the Engelstat family and all that. So we finished our

(03:44):
bid in nineteen early twenty, we signed a host agreement
with Bill, got his name on a piece of paper
right here, and fortunately a few months later in the
summer of twenty we rewarded the twenty twenty six event.
And again we're talking twenty at the time, and this

(04:04):
event could never get here fast enough, and so you know,
I've talked to Eric Martinson so many times about this.
It's like we can't believe it's finally here. But the
whole bid process was a great experience for us, working
with DNCAA, linking up with the host institution, and working
with NCAA. So it's been fun. It's been a learning experience,

(04:28):
but it's funny here and we can't wait to get started.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
Hey Tim, so and thank you thanks for us spending
some time with us today. So help me with this one.
You all do amazing events in Las Vegas. So I
mean that there's you know, no question you're you've seen
a lot of them to some degree. Anything unique about
the Frozen four per se.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
Well, i'll tell you what. The fact that you know,
we've had some collegiate hockey in town. You guys have
been in a Hockey Hall of Fame game before, I
think at the New Orleans Arena. But when the Golden
Knights came, people kind of question whether hockey in the
desert would work. And you know what the impact the
Golden Knights have come and had here in town. But

(05:15):
this is probably one of the major hockey events in
town since the Knights have come, and the Knights have
really bought into this whole experience and all that. So
we're proud to really host what's probably one of the
bigger hockey events since the gold Knights have come to town.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
So in terms of hosting Las Vegas events, is overseeing
the twenty twenty six Frozen four again, as you mentioned
in partnership with you, Indy in the n CULA. How
does that partnership work in terms of just who oversees what?
How do you share responsibilities among three distinct groups. Could
you talk about that breakdown?

Speaker 3 (05:48):
Sim sure, Yeah, well, I'll tell you what. The NCAA
runs the show. I'll tell you that day. It's their championship.
It's their championship, and as they should, they are on
in the ship there. They collaborate with the host institution,
which is u n D and the host here in

(06:09):
town Las Vegas says, but Team Mobile plays such a
big part too, the venue. So there's really a three
or four headed monster here that works on this event.
And we've had meetings for a good part of a
year now, so it's it's a collaborative effort. We're kind
of helping locally with you know, the host hotels and

(06:32):
a lot of the socials and the connectivity between what
the NCAA needs in town. But really the Team Mobile,
between Team Mobile and NCAA, they're kind of handling hockey
operations because that's what they're good at, you know.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
So what do you think, Tim, If I can only
imagine there's just going to be a few people making
their way to Las Vegas from from the state of
North Dakota. And beyond, what can they expect beside the hockey.
We know when the hockey games are I mean, knock
on wood. We of course everyone wants to win on

(07:07):
Thursday to get to Saturday. But we know the game times.
We know that. What about anything else.

Speaker 3 (07:12):
Well, no snow, okay, but great weather. It's going to
be low to mid eighties Thursday through Saturday. And you know,
but when you come to town, there are so many things
that it's twenty four hour town. So the hockey games
are two and five thirty on North Dakota's got the

(07:35):
early game at two o'clock, so they even if they
stayed for the second game, see who their opponent is
for Saturday. Then they've got the evening hours. You got
Friday off in between games. But Vegas has got so
many options and and you know that's why the events
that come to town here. Super Bowl was just awarded

(07:55):
again in twenty nine, so the NFL saw the success
of that event. Here, we've got CFP coming in January
of next year and Final Four coming in twenty twenty eight,
so you know, it's a championship city, and we're proud
to host the Frozen Four for the first time and
we hope it certainly not to be the last.

Speaker 2 (08:16):
So to follow up, I think you had mentioned this
pre pod as well. There'll be a fan fest right
and right outside of t Mobile Is that correct?

Speaker 3 (08:25):
Yeah, that is Tashiba Plaza is the entertainment area just
outside the gates. And I've been to the last two
Frozen fours in Saint Paul and Saint Louis, and their
FanFest were really great events. Weren't really connected to the venue.
They were won in a convention center and the other

(08:47):
a few blocks away from the arena. This one, when
you walk up to the arena, you literally go through
FanFest in order to enter the gate, So fans without tickets,
you can't find a better place to be. There's a
a row of bars leading up from the strip. If
you make it past the bars to chief A Plaza,
then you're going to have a great experience there with

(09:08):
or without a ticket. But team Obi want to chieve
a plaza set up ideal to have a fan fest
just adjacent to the front doors, so it's going to
be a great experience for fans.

Speaker 1 (09:22):
I think North Dakota fans have fond memories of being
in that area. Just a couple of years ago when
you and he was playing in the Hockey Hall of
Fame game against Arizona State. That was just again the
way it was set up. If you went out there,
of course and you're listening, you just have to experience it.
It's just you couldn't ask for a better venue or
a better place to do something like this. And as
you said, perfect weather, You're it's too in the afternoon

(09:42):
in Las Vegas outside watching hockey, and if you don't
have tickets, it's come for the experience. It's going to
be fantastic. We should mention you could not have gotten
the better quartet of teams. You've got the four winning
his teams in the history of NCAA Men's hockey No.
Thirty three combined national championships. It is going to be
a tremendous frozen for it in terms of the product
on the ice team.

Speaker 3 (10:02):
You're right, we got so lucky. I looked at the
top teams going into the round of sixteen and again, yeah,
to get lucky and get these four blue bloods, including
our host school, which is so exciting and you know,
we can't wait to get it, And you said thirty
three titles. It's every the tickets are. I'm getting calls

(10:26):
left and right, and I've got a handful of tickets
left and I'm just kind of hold them off on
a request until early next week before we start divving
them out. And I'm divving out Thursday only because you know,
usually we give out tickets for the whole event, but
now it's like, if your team wins on Thursday, you
got tickets Saturday. But you know that type of thing.

(10:47):
That way, my tickets are going to go a little
further if I rationing them a little bit during early rounds.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
You know, this is not simms first rodeo for someone
who used to oversee the NFRU. Know that well, so
I love that, right well, Tim Keener, It's going to
be a phenomenal weekends in Las Vegas for college hockey
fans again. The semi finals April ninth, the Championship on
April the eleventh. Best of luck to you and your
team as you host this tremendous event.

Speaker 3 (11:12):
Thank you, look forward to seeing you. Thanks for having
me today.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
Appreciate it, Tim, See you next week.

Speaker 1 (11:18):
Wonderful to have Tim Keener on from Las Vegas events,
and he's been a part of that group for over
twenty years. He's been the president for the last handful
of years, a huge part of the push for Las
Vegas to get this Frozen four in the first place.
And like you said, it's been a long wait, like
you've known about this for a while, and you have
to get through pandemic and then everything gets pushed back,
and now finally twenty twenty six, we're here and you

(11:39):
and d is participating. You couldn't have drawn it up better.

Speaker 2 (11:41):
Bill, Yeah, no doubt, Alex, And I think you know
he touched on it. When the NCAA makes a call
out for these types of events, they're all in four
year blocks and we just happen to be at the
end of the salad bar and so kind of like
you know, so therefore it was that certainly await And

(12:04):
then you're right, the pandemic played a part in there
as well. So here we are finally right and you know,
good good for us to be there as the host
as well. And he mentioned Eric and Jarrett Mesher, which
is part of a Jody's staff. I know Jared's going
to be kind of attached at Eric's hip to some

(12:25):
degree and from a hosting standpoint, so kind of like
two different hats there to some degree. And Eric has
done a fantastic job anytime we've had regionals, and this
is just you know, obviously on another level, if you will,
but some of the same stuff that you're dealing with
with four teams coming in and the practice times in

(12:47):
the locker rooms and where does the pressers happen and
how do the pressers happen? Just that UND has their
fingerprints now all over the operations of it to some degree,
not that the Golden Knights folks couldn't do it to
some degree, but there is some you know, aspects of
college hockey that differs from professional hockey. And so so

(13:07):
that's the reason why you have connectivity with either a
conference or an institution, and in this case an institution.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
There are some benefits of having been in that building before,
not that long ago, and hosting an event, certainly from
a un D perspective, again, it was just three years
ago you were there at Timobile Arena. I always go
back to when North Dakota played it at the Orleans
the first time against Minnesota, but was twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen,
and you were fielding calls about what color should the

(13:36):
paint be on the crease? Yes, this is that ad
Net hockey there for so long. This is this is
a little bit different. This is a well eled machine.
But obviously it's still a lot of work to get
everything together and make sure that this goes off without
a hit where I think everybody feels like it certainly
is going to and the product in the ice couldn't
be better, Yeah, no doubt.

Speaker 2 (13:53):
And I think I think it's good to differentiate some
things as well. Obviously that came a Hall of Fame
game that Jody Hodson and his group kind of took
the reins on, if you will. Was in the driver's
seat and we were in the van, maybe just not
in the driving the van, and so so Jody kind

(14:15):
of took control of that and that was ended up
becoming a un D event. Of course, this is not
an und event. This is an NCAA event, no different
Alex than when in a couple of years we end
up going to Belfast to play the play across the Pond,
and that is not a un D event. And so

(14:35):
there's limitations on certain things. So I can understand. Sometimes
our fan base will be like, well, how come there's
such a restriction on certain things and in this case
tickets if you will, Well, we're just participating in the
NCAA event. Here. We happen to be a host, which
I think helps us to some degree to know maybe
where some of the moving parts are. But at the

(14:55):
end of the day, we're just one of four teams
that's going there.

Speaker 1 (14:59):
That is sometimes hard thing I think for our fan
base to sort of wrap their head around, like, well,
the logo is on the ice, and like our staff
is helping run this thing. But also we're participating and
we have we're on the same footing as Wisconsin or
Michigan or Denver when it comes to ticket allocation or
priority for those sorts of things.

Speaker 2 (15:19):
It's just.

Speaker 1 (15:20):
It's interesting when you're the host, yes, but you're not
really there are no extra benefits and we're assisting.

Speaker 2 (15:28):
We're assisting in this NCAA Championship event. That's really what's happening,
and really what ends up happening is when you go
to either a regional and or now a frozen four,
everything happens based on seed, and so so let's just
say practice times, so they'll ask Michigan first, which one

(15:51):
do they want, Whereas this past weekend they asked us first,
So they'll ask us second, and so everything is coordinated
based on the seeds, and it makes sense, makes total sense.
So there's no confusion in that regard. If you know
you're the top seed, you know you're going to have
your first choice on X, Y or Z. If that
makes sense.

Speaker 1 (16:11):
Yeah, So Michigan again being the number one overall seed,
they will get last change throughout the tournament YEP semi finals, championship.
If they lose and you and the DOES win, U
and D would then become the high seat. It would
be the home team on the ice on stray. So
just things to keep in mind as we roll through
this weekend before we talk about the hockey itself, anything else.
You want our fans to know about what's coming up

(16:33):
this week things from a und perspective, you want to
get out there, No, not at all.

Speaker 2 (16:36):
I just felt like, knowing that many of our fans
were gonna be leaving early next week, we figured, you
know what, we would push back this pod a little
bit so that we could get it out on a Friday,
so that so folks had it for a weekend. But
I don't think so. I think it's going to be
an awesome, awesome environment, awesome time and hearing a lot

(16:58):
of you know, talking to Tim off camera, you know
it just he said, it's just a lot of buzz
out there and a lot of excitement. So it should
be great.

Speaker 1 (17:09):
Yeah, it should be. Again, when you think about first
of all, this event just in general, you're playing for
a championship, that's right, you know, this is a national
championship that's on the line. This is the best four
teams in the country right now who have earned their
way here to this point, and obviously for North Dakota
to be a part of it now for the first
time in ten years with banner number nine potentially out there,

(17:30):
but going up against a team that's going for banner
number eleven, and one that's going for banner number ten,
and one that's going for banner number seven, and these
are great rivalries. I think that's what makes this again
so much fun. You've got three old WCCHA teams that
really don't love each other all that much, and then
who Michigan is very much in that same boat of
a team that these these squads have seen in big

(17:52):
games over the course of time, and it's gonna set
up for a tremendous weekend. And I should say for
North Dakota to get here in the style that they
did Szoo Falls was phenomenal, Like, what two great games
to shut out Merrimack and then to really dominate Quinnipiac
and shut that team out in the regional final in
front of a great crowd. What an awesome weekend last
week at the Premiere Center for you and you to

(18:13):
punch their ticket.

Speaker 3 (18:14):
Yeah, you know, I.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
Thought that, you know, the Merrimack game was your prototypical hard,
sort of grinded out tournament game, and you're playing conceivably
the hottest team in the country going into the tournament,
and obviously their goalie was playing phenomenal, and so you

(18:37):
know that you kind of had an idea that it
was going to be a trip to the dentist office
for sure. I mean, it was going to be you know,
it just had a feeling of a root canal, and
it just it kind of was a little bit and
then and then I thought, you know, Quinnipiac looked awesome
on Thursday, and I thought they really took it to Providence.
But interestingly, I thought Providence sort of tipped the title

(19:00):
little bit in the third period and started to play
their game, and I thought, you know, to myself, if
we could maybe come out the way Providence sort of
finished that game, maybe maybe we'd have some early success
against them. And luckily, some you know, pucks went in
and then you know, you're kind of off to the races, and.

Speaker 1 (19:19):
That's what happened. We spoke on Friday in between the
two games, and that was kind of your assessment, like
this maybe is a good blueprint if you can get
after because Squinnepia could get a little slighter in terms
of physicality, very skilled team, not quite as big, as old,
as rugged as they have been in years pass when
North Dakota would have seen this side. And you, Indy,
really took advantage of that. And as you said, sometimes
the early goal can make a big difference. You, Indy

(19:40):
got the early one against Merrimac and then couldn't get
the second, and Merrimack was able to hang in for
a long time. You, Indy got the first and then
the second and then the third and then the fourth,
really and quick and pretty quick succession over the first
twenty five minutes or so of that game, and the
game was over. And that's for this team, though, I
think to do again, keep Quinnipiac at arm's length and

(20:01):
preserve the shutout in back to back games like this,
like this is for them to do this. You shout
out two teams in the INCI DOMLA tournament in a
regional that just doesn't happen that. I think that was
such a what an awesome statement. Again, when you and
DS defense and goaltending had just been you know, it
had been good enough to win games over the last
two months or so, but had just, you know, instead

(20:22):
of having one or two goals a lot, it was
more like in the three or four range.

Speaker 2 (20:25):
Yeah, you know, I trying to liken it to maybe
some other things that we watch Alex at times, and
it just felt like our guys ramped up a little bit.
And uh, and I think we've we've seen that before.
You know, it's a long season, and I don't I
don't think you can just go full throttle every single game.
It just doesn't work that way. And and many times,

(20:48):
you know, behind the scenes. You may not know everything
that a team's going through at that point in time,
you know, and you know it's so you know, I
thought that we did a pretty good job of, you know,
shutting down both Merrimack and Quinnipiac and then Yon. Ultimately.
We always see this too, Alex, is that eventually your
goal is gonna have to make some key saves. And

(21:10):
he made some key saves, and you know, there were
some there were some point blank great eight chances that
he stoned both Quinnipiac and Merrimack on and so that
that obviously makes a big difference ultimately in a game seven, right,
I mean, you got to win four game sevens.

Speaker 1 (21:27):
It wasn't just the puck hitting Yon as he likes,
I know he was. He was making some things happen.

Speaker 3 (21:33):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:35):
I loved his reaction when he found out he was
the most outstanding player of the regional in the postgame
pres conference, he said, thank you. I just love that,
Like this is the best. So pretty good week for Yan.
Checkie goes to the World Cup most outstanding player in
the regional. Back to back shutouts, not a bad week, yeah,
I mean, you know, his his reaction was.

Speaker 2 (21:56):
Great, And you know, it's funny the way it all
played out on the ice. You would think, well, how
come that's not the case. It does become a little
chaotic on the ice a little bit after the game,
and so and again, I think, obviously the announcement's going
on and he just may not have really kind of
heard it at that point. That's really the truth. And
so at the end of the day it was kind

(22:18):
of actually a chuckle.

Speaker 1 (22:20):
So North Dakota beats Merrimac, beats Quinnipiac, now moves on
to take on Wisconsin again. That's this Thursday. It's four
o'clock Central, two o'clock local time in Vegas. The games
will be on ESPN two this weekend. The championship at
North Dakota wins would be on Saturday. So we go
from a twenty sixteen National title game rematch to a
nineteen eighty two national title game rematch. I loved some

(22:42):
of the stats going around that that North Dakota Wisconsin
title game in eighty two had produced more NHL games
played than any other college hockey game or any other
national title game. I mean, that's just I think that's
the legacy of that, Like just incredible. What is that
like over north of a thousand games or it's something
something crazy, something crazy.

Speaker 2 (23:02):
Yeah, yeah, I mean these obviously you mentioned it with
the teams that are in the top four of national
titles all there. And you know, Wisconsin had a great
weekend too. Obviously they had to wait on that last
night to see whether they were going to be in,
and because Dartmouth ends up beating Princeton, they get in

(23:25):
and then they return the favor straight to Dartmouth, they
said thank you very much, and then knock them out
of the tournament, and then played a full sixty right
sixty plus against Michigan State. And you know, those are
the things that can happen, right, I mean, Michigan State's
kind of cruising at three to one to some degree,
and but boy, another goal goes in and you just
don't know, and then what an odd goal in overtime,

(23:48):
And those are kind of sometimes the bounces that happened.

Speaker 1 (23:52):
That was one where I had I had not turned
it off, but I kind of just you just sort
of rible this. Michigan State's moving on. Check that one
off the list. Let's go do something else. And for
Wisconsin to scored two late goals in the third really close,
what twenty something seconds in part, it was within a
minute of the two goals going in to tie to three,
and then they score less than a minute into overtime,

(24:14):
thirty six seconds into ot whatever. It was just a stunner, really,
But we shouldn't have been surprised this Wisconsin team, even
though they were the three seed in their region and
they were essentially the last at large team in for
a long time, it was in position to be a
one seed. I mean, this team was very much leading
the big ten up at the front of the race
going into January, and then a little bit like Denver,

(24:37):
Denver had that little streak where they had five or
six where they didn't win, Wisconsin kind of had the
same thing, but instead of like where Denver had a
lot of ties in there, Wisconsin had a handful of
losses and lost to some really good teams over the
month of January and saw them go from like three
in the pairwise to fourteen in the pairwise just like that.
And they have rallied since, and they've had injuries to overcome,

(24:59):
as some of their best d have been out, They've
had to shuffle different people in different spots. It just
feels like they are starting to find themselves and find
that form that saw them have so much success in
the first half. So that'll be a dangerous team.

Speaker 2 (25:11):
I think that's right. And I think, you know, I
think I was listening to Schloss the other day and
I think Denver might have had something, you know, on
their back line as well, you know, And so you
just don't know what teams are going through, Alex, you
know what I mean. And then then all of a sudden,
the schedule's not kind to you, and then all of
a sudden you find yourself, you know, losing a couple two, three, four,

(25:33):
and then you're kind of having to hit regroup a
little bit. So you know what what my eyes told
me over the weekend is is we're getting the number
one seed Wisconsin that probably played the majority of the
year as a one, and so you know, they might
be dressed up as a three.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
But you know, I know better those in the no
no that this will be a tough game coming up,
as they should be. All these games are tough this
time of year. If you've made it through the Frozen four,
you're good. You're very capable of winning knockout hockey games.
So this, of course is a team that North Dakota
knows fairly well. I know some of the personnel has changed,
but they just just played Wisconsin in the Ralph a
couple of years ago. That was a great game too.

(26:10):
That was a two to nothing, just a It was
the second game of the season and North Dakota had
beaten Army seven nothing or whatever seven to two I'm
sorry the night before and it was just this free
flowing offense. And then they play Wisconsin and man, things
just ground to a halt. And they'll be They'll be
like Simon Tassi was on that team. There are some
familiar names that fans will see and think back to

(26:32):
two years ago. I'm like, oh, yeah, we remember these
guys so lit alone of course, the long history between
North Dakota and Wisconsin. So it's going to be a
tremendous frozen four at Temobile Arena and it all starts
Thursday at four o'clock Central against the Badgers. Can't wait. Though.

Speaker 2 (26:46):
It's going to be awesome, it really is, should be
should be a lot of fun for sure.

Speaker 1 (26:50):
So good luck again to Dan Jackson, who, by the way,
was a finalist for Spencer Penrose Coach of the Year
that was just announced, the top ten finalists for Dane.
Good luck to the boys as well coming up this week,
and then safe travels everybody heading out to Vegas. Just
enjoy that experience. Always really special when your team makes
it this far. So hockey knows they've gotten the opponent
coming up on Thursday. Softball unfortunately, was planning on playing

(27:12):
this weekends, but as we teased at the beginning, the
weather had other ideas. The snow that is moving through
the region and the temperatures are going to make the
Omaha series that was scheduled for this weekends not a possibility,
So we're going to scoot things back. I saw TBA
was the plan on the website for the moment. So
as an athletics director, as you're going through this, obviously

(27:33):
you have to make the call early. What is that
like when you know we've got these games outdoors and
they're just not going to happen when this weekend is
when they're scheduled to take place.

Speaker 2 (27:43):
Yeah, so what ends up happening is truly you don't
make the call until you have to make the call.
So I think we can all anticipate ahead of time.
To some degree, Hey, it's not looking great. So you're
in constant communication. So Liz jarn again, who oversees softball
f RRIS, is in contact with the Summit League and
Omaha and their administration and our coaches are in contact

(28:08):
as well. And so at the end of the day,
I think what you're kind of looking at. To some degree,
Alex says, Hey, Omaha doesn't need to get on a
bus and get up here and waste time and money,
so to speak. And so we ended up, you know,
waiting till yesterday and then kind of pulled the shoot,

(28:29):
so to speak. And I don't know, we'll see what happens.
I think there's a thought process that Omaha does go
to Saint Thomas on the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth, then
maybe there's a chance maybe they can make the swing
up to some degree. So more to come on that.
That's why we're in TBA land at this stage.

Speaker 1 (28:49):
Yeah, No, it makes sense a lot of moving parts
and when you're at the mercy of mother nature. So
North Dakota had that series postponed. Same thing with the
game against Mount Marty, which is supposed to take place
right after as well, you and he does travel to
Kansas City, which hopefully does not have eight inches of
snow coming up next weekend, and then it's more home
games on the way after that. So you hope, again
this team, and we've talked about this a lot, snow

(29:11):
you can move, so if there is snow, you can
get it off the field and be able to play.
Thanks to all breck Field and the new turf does
a matter of seeing those temperatures rise, and you hope
that'd be the case over the course of eight I.

Speaker 2 (29:21):
Think that's it. I think at the end, you know,
for sure. I think the question is contempts start rising
a little bit so it cooperates so that we can
move the snow and you're not dealing with like ice
particles to some degree. So there's there's just some pieces
to it. Our facility staff does an awesome job with it,
and so but you know, there's only so much you

(29:41):
can do in real time. So we've got to let
this storm kind of go through and then see where
we're at. Let's just say on Sunday Monday, good.

Speaker 1 (29:50):
Luck to softball as they try and dig out, and
then see if travels to them. Go into Kansas City
next week. Track and field does not have the issue
of snow because they are all in California, so that
that makes it a little bit simpler. The outdoor season
going well again. Everybody who was peaking for indoor and
the championships getting a little bit of a break and
getting back into the outdoor swing of things. Some of

(30:10):
the kids that red shirted now are getting some opportunities
to get their legs back under them. So no big
news to report on that side. But are tracksers again
just taking some time at in California, Long Beach invite,
AZUSA invite coming up. They've just been at Stanford as well.
Some really big needs that they're able to take a
part and it's great for them to get that experience.

Speaker 2 (30:28):
They have no doubt about it. And you're right, the
calendar's wild to me. We have a lot of track
athletes and each one is probably on it in a
sense a different academic year calendar as far as when
they're peaking and all of those types of things. Fascinating.

Speaker 1 (30:45):
Well, best of luck again to that group, is they compete.
Same thing for tennis, by the way, who has been
both the men and the women playing fantastic tennis. The
men have won five in a row. They're two and
oh one conference. The women have won nine straight, now
three and zero in the Summit League. Things are winding down.
We talked about this on the last pod. Both picked
up big wins at the weekends in conference play, and

(31:06):
now today as you listen to this, the result probably
has already done. But the men are playing Omaha a choice.
The women play Omaha tomorrow. Mavericks are good on both
the men's and women's side. Those are big, big duels
coming up for these two teams as you jockey for
position for the so of League championships are now later
this month, the twenty fourth and twenty fifth down in Telsa.

Speaker 2 (31:25):
Yeah, you know what's interesting, and the way tennis has
played it is fascinating how crucial that doubles point is.
It's a you know, it was a really good The
coaches did a fantastic job kind of putting that in
play some years ago. But I do remember when it
used to be nine points and each doubles was a

(31:46):
point too, and so you had to play out all
the doubles and it was best two out of three,
and so it really became you know, a potential. Imagine
if all these matches to Sundry or a good chunk
of them went three sets, And so I thought, you know,
the coaches, for the for the good of the game,
if you will kind of condense things down a little bit.

(32:09):
But that first point that you play is absolutely crucial.

Speaker 1 (32:14):
We saw that with the men. I think that was
a four to three win over Drake which last week
and just point just got to get that makes a
big differences.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
It's a little bit different knowing that. You you know,
it's no different when we talk when we flip on
the B side sometimes do you need to tie or
do you need to get all three points right like
on a win And it's like on this one, hey,
if you can kind of split the singles at that point,
well you know what, you're going to win the match.

Speaker 1 (32:39):
A couple of big matches coming up four Tom Boysen
and company again this weekend at home. The women just
have three matches left, three duels to go versus Omaha
at dou against Saint Thomas. Tough competition coming up, but
that'll get them ready for the championships. And the men
just have three more as well. After this weekend, So
crunch time on the tennis courts, yeah, for sure for
the Fighting Hawks. Quickly, other news golf, spring football, lots

(33:01):
of competitions taking place again. The spring wrap up is
coming up in two weeks. Two weeks time now is
when we'll wrap things up at the Pollard Center for football.
So lots of good things happen.

Speaker 2 (33:10):
On the eighteenth. I think it's scheduled for the eighteenth
at twelve thirty, so a little spring wrap up. And
in fact I was over here with it being good Friday.
University is closed today in air quotes, but the university
has never closed. So just that's my own little inside
baseball joke to myself. So I went over saw football

(33:32):
practice today and they kind of had a little scrimmage
going on alex and as coach Schmidt likes to say,
what makes a good football player playing football? And so
so I think, you know, he schedules some of the
a couple of these during two three during the spring period.
I think we're finishing up today practice seven of fifteen,

(33:54):
and then we'll finish up on the eighteenth of April.

Speaker 1 (33:57):
As a experience coach myself now coaching my daughters. You
eight soccer teams. Nice. I can confirm it's going well,
you know, and we're doing okay, we're making strides. I
can confirm that the kids just want to play. Like
you can set up drills and you can be doing
some things that will simulate a game. But I don't
know how many times during a practice someone will say,
can we just play? Can we just play a game?

(34:20):
So we always just half of the practice typically is
just scrimmage. Let's just play. That's all you want to do.
This will make you better, Let's do that. Let's focus
on that. Yes, so yes, I concur yes, me and
Schmitty right right there, right there.

Speaker 2 (34:32):
Pieces. You got a set piece coach.

Speaker 1 (34:35):
You've got My four year old son is our set
piece coach.

Speaker 2 (34:38):
There you go.

Speaker 1 (34:39):
I love it.

Speaker 3 (34:40):
I love it perfect.

Speaker 1 (34:42):
We're working on some things. Let's just say that they're
very sweet. They're sweet kids. It's been a ton of fun.
But yes, sorry, sorry for the sidetrack and the diversion
through the U eight soccer World. One last thing before
we flip over some news. Earlier this week, Fighting Hawk
Sports Partnerships distributed a request for information or if I.
As you start to explore uniform and apparel branding partnerships

(35:04):
across und athletics. Could you talk a little bit about
kind of the mindset and the thinking and the incidably
has a rule change that's going to take into effect
on August the first, allowing you to put essentially yeah,
sponsorship patches, et cetera. Ya talk about this.

Speaker 2 (35:17):
Yes, So we have a we have a partnership with
Ralph engelstat Arena and we have which is called Fighting
Hawk Sports Partnership, so housed out of the Ralph, but
it is both of us combined. It's a fifty to
fifty endeavor. So I would say it's really how do

(35:38):
you have corporate partners I mean really, that's it in
a nutshell. So if you think of Dasher ads, if
you think of advertising on our website, I mean a
number of things. It could be event related. I mean
there's a whole number of things that could occur. So
this is just another add on, a tool in the
toolbox for a potential company to advertise. You know what

(36:02):
I'll say, Alex, It's very similar if folks are ever
flipping around like the NBA, they've got it kind of
right on the kind of the shoulder right and like
kind of where the tank top is. Think in terms,
that's what we're talking about right now. So what we're
trying to do is we're just trying to and again
this is emanating from the Ralph the Ria, but really

(36:26):
Tony Goldenstein, who's our GM of Fighting Hawk Sports Partnership,
we're really just trying to see, hey, who might be
interested in this, because without just kind of getting something
out there into the public domain, it would be hard
for us to know who might be interested. And so
we see it across the pond. Right when we flip
to the B side, we see all of our teams,

(36:48):
probably not as dramatic as what they do over in Europe,
say with soccer teams, where their logo really is prominent
in the center of the jersey. Then they have other
other spots as well. But so we're working through it
right now. We don't know whether or not it potentially
could be one company for all sports, it could be

(37:08):
maybe multiple companies for multiple teams. We just don't know yet.
So we're trying to get hey, are you interested? That's
pretty much what it amounts to. No, nothing binding per se.

Speaker 1 (37:19):
It's a new landscape. And again and you're trying to
think of creative ways to generate revenue. And we've already
seen I think was it Wisconsin just the other day
kind of announced yeah, they're going to have a jersey
patch this year from a company. And so I don't
foresee this being like European hockey where you've got logos
on the face mask. This isn't Nascar. It's not going
to be like that. It'll be a subtle patch or

(37:41):
a subtle logo something like that. Tasteful, it'll be tastefully done.

Speaker 2 (37:46):
Yeah, oh no, one hundred percent it will. And then
the other thing we've got to think through too is,
you know, we want to partner in this visible domain
with probably someone that shares the values of the University
of North Dakota. So there's there's that piece. The other
thing to think about as well is what would it

(38:07):
look like if it's Company X and Company X has
a red logo. Let's say it's very red and and
they're probably not going to go off of red based
on their branding. And I would understand that those are
things we got to think about. We got to think
would they would a company be willing to possibly do

(38:31):
it in a theme of our Jersey colors, and so
you know, would they say go to black if you will,
you know what I mean, just to make it if
they're already Kelly Green, awesome, But I mean, who knows.
Those are the things we got to think about. You
know what it's like is when we get conference logos,
they kind of give you the opportunity to put it

(38:53):
into your color scheme. And so so when you put
it on the fields, it doesn't kind of stick out.
I mean, it feels like it blends in a little bit.
So we just have to be really thoughtful. But the
first part of it is, Hey, who's interested. That's number one,
and then we can kind of go from there.

Speaker 1 (39:12):
Yeah, I love that. Well, keep if you are a
business owner and you're interested in being a part of this,
deadlines may first, so reach out? Shall we flip over
to the B side? Bill? Let's do it. Let's do it.
We have I think two big things to discuss. I
think first, you have a new manager at Sattenham Hotspur
for the third time this season. It's Desserby time on

(39:36):
Whiteheart Lane. You need this to work. Let's say that
you need this to work with Roberto Desserbie now taking
charge here.

Speaker 3 (39:43):
Yeah, so.

Speaker 2 (39:45):
My first gut is what could go wrong?

Speaker 1 (39:48):
You know, I mean what or what could go What
could go worse? Maybe is maybe the better way to
phrase that, could it be any worse? This is about
as bad as it get. You haven't won this year.

Speaker 2 (39:57):
It goes through in the league, the league get but yeah,
it really hasn't gone well, has it. It's April, Yeah,
it's April. Probably probably want to win a match or
two that would be helpful. So, yeah, seven matches left,
and I thought his comments were exactly spot on. Hey,

(40:19):
I've got to manage these seven, these seven matches, and
then we can figure out to some degree how I
want this club to play. And I think that's right.
I think that's probably the way to approach it. And honestly, Alex,
I think they had to do it right. I Mean,
there's such a differential between staying up in the Premier
League and getting relegated that it's hard financially. You you

(40:45):
cannot miss on this one.

Speaker 1 (40:48):
No, you cannot. It is a wide gulf between the
money that you get from the Championship and the revenue
you would get from the Premier League, and especially when
you're Spurs. If you're a big club that can set
you back, you don't set your budget to be a
championship side, Like that's just not even a thought. I don't,
I cannot. I mean, I'm assuming maybe last year when

(41:10):
Spurs finished seventeenth, maybe there was an inkling like maybe
we should just have a Plan B just in case.
But Liverpool, Chelsea, Man City, they are not thinking of
that contingency. So for Spurs to even be in this
and they are very much in a relegation fight right now,
it is almost we say unthinkable a lot of times,
and you sort of use that term flippantly, but it

(41:33):
is unthinkable really for this scene to go down to
be one of the three worst teams in this division,
and they are, and they are very much on the
doorstep of that.

Speaker 2 (41:40):
You know, you know, I would say this having really
kind of thought about this a little bit, and you
know you can say, well, how did this happen? And
it was It happened over time. It happened over time,
and the teams that generally, so again for thank you

(42:00):
for the listeners that are hanging in here. There's twenty
teams in the Premier League, twenty each year. Three go down,
three go up. Last year Spurs finished seventeenth, but there
was a wide gulf between seventeen and eighteen, so there
was no real real relegation battle. That's why they were

(42:21):
so all in on playing their European Cup run this year.
They really hadn't gotten any better in a sense of
how they play, and then they've had injuries, lots of them.
And I know teams have injuries. It feels like they
have more, but I could be wrong. It feels that way.

(42:43):
And then the other part of it is the teams
above them, Alex, let's call it from say six to fourteen.
Many of those teams know their identity, they know who
they are, they know how to play matches each and
every week in the Premier League. I don't think Tottenham

(43:06):
knows who they are. They've had so many managers that
have swung back and forth between trying to play aggressive
soccer and absorbing soccer, and I'm not sure they know
which way to go at this point in time.

Speaker 1 (43:21):
It does make it difficult when you were a changing
course like that. Nottingham Forest has discovered that this year
when you go from an attack first, mindset possession football
back to being pragmatic, then back to it like it's
just it's hard, I think for the set of players
to make those sorts of adjustments. So Roberto Deservey comes
from a very possession based, attack minded frame of mind,

(43:44):
and we saw that when he coached Brighton a couple
of years ago and had great success. He's a very
fiery guy. He's a little bit in some ways like
the guy who just let go, sort of egor tutor
who's also a very bit of a firebrand, but very
different mindset of how he wants to play football. Did
you hear Lewis Dunk's comments former Breton captain Lewis Dunk's
comments about Deserbey as a maaser.

Speaker 2 (44:05):
You know, I'll be honest with you, I have not
listened nor I probably will go back and listen to
his press or to some degree. But what did Dunk say?

Speaker 1 (44:18):
So, Louis, this was before Deserbe got the Spurs job,
but they were asking him about what it was like
when he came in as manager, and he said it
was chaos. It was I think carnage was I think
the word that he used, like we had no idea
what he wanted us to do for the first, like
three weeks, because I think at that time too, this
is earlier in Deserbe's career, so I don't think he
spoke English that well. I guess an Italian man had

(44:40):
coached in Syria and in Ukraine and things like that,
so so you're working with a translator. And he said
trying to figure out what he was even asking of
us was so difficult and we were all lost for
the first two three weeks month. But like to your point,
if if Deserbe does come in with a different mind
mindset of saying, I'm not going to be able to

(45:02):
implement everything I want to do. I'm not going to
attempt to do that. We just have to find a
way to get results of that we've got that will
give you a much better chance. But I think that
that interview was circulating, and I think it caused a
lot is first people to be like, oh my gosh,
we don't have we don't have a month.

Speaker 2 (45:18):
For the yeah, And I think that's you know, and
I think that was his his thought process. I think
if he can accomplish two things, honestly, just too one
is for whatever reason, I don't think Tudor played the
guys positionally maybe to their strength. And so if he

(45:40):
could do that and then truly just have them play
as hard as you can play. I mean, I mean,
at this point in time, it doesn't need to be pretty.
I mean, they just need to find a few threes
on the board and I think they probably will avoid
this mess and then he can go implement whatever he
wants at that point. But it's kind of like the

(46:01):
guys that are in the locker room right now, who knows.
I mean, there's always transition and changes, but at least
he's going to be able to start establishing relationships with
them to some degree. But I think it needs to
be really clear, Hey, I got to play that. I
got to play the guys that are fit in the
right spots, and we need to play harder than the
other teams.

Speaker 1 (46:21):
He's got seven games to save the season and a
five year contract. Shoot negotiator deserve so best of luck
to you. If I could give him any advice, I
would tell him the same thing that i'd tell him
my you eight girls, be a good teammate, have fun
and bring your best every day, every day every day.

Speaker 2 (46:40):
That's right, and don't have bad body language. As Gino
Oriamo would say, no bad body language. That's that's a killer.
That's a killer.

Speaker 3 (46:48):
But I did.

Speaker 2 (46:49):
I did read this though, and this is a chuckle,
and you'll get a chuckle out of this, is that
Spurs have already kind of infiltrated deserve because on the
day he was named was the day Italy did not
make the World Cup. So they've already kind of provided him.
Maybe what's to come.

Speaker 1 (47:12):
The sadness and the disappointment. He'll be used to it
at the end of May. Well, I hope for your
sake they stay up. Obviously it would be it would
be sad if Spurs are not in the Premier hgue.

Speaker 2 (47:21):
Yeah, I mean the one thing the Spurs are there.
They're kind of sort of a fun watch for the Neutrals.

Speaker 1 (47:30):
It's never dull, I'll say that. It's not. It's not
quite like watching a car crash. I mean it's it's
but you don't know what's going to happen next, no idea,
and I'm fascinated to see how it goes. So again,
you still have another week before you play. It's an
FA Cup weekend coming up this weekend, so the league
is off. So even just a little more time. It
was a good time to again during the international break

(47:51):
with an FA Cup weekend at the back end. What
a really good time to install a new manager, little
extra time to get Deservey ball into effect. The other
topic I wanted to touch on, so we texted, I
believe the Boston Red Sox opened the season on the
day of the regional first round Thursday to twenty sixth.
They won three to nothing. Crochet with the shutout six

(48:15):
scoreless innings. I texted, you, like, Crochet, Yeah, here we go,
Red Sox. They have not won since Bill. Are we concerned?
Should we be concerned?

Speaker 2 (48:27):
I thought the guys handled it pretty well. I thought
they just said, you know, the next five were pretty embarrassing,
and what was tough about? You know, baseball so long
of the season, and obviously I've got the home opener
today as we're recording on a Friday. Yeah, some of
the things that they were trying to clean up, they

(48:48):
just had some difficulties with They had some untimely errors,
and they just they couldn't hit with runners in scoring position.
I mean, it just wasn't possible. So and then I think,
so you kind of clean up the road trip and
you figure if you lose two out of three in
two spots and you go two and four because you
had crochet on the back end, you felt pretty good

(49:10):
about it. But then he gives up a big three
run homer after he hits you know, after he hits
one of the Astros players.

Speaker 3 (49:21):
Not a good road trip. Not great.

Speaker 2 (49:23):
Yeah, the Red Sox one in five, not how you
drew it up. It's a tough division. They got to
start winning some games.

Speaker 1 (49:31):
Hopefully being at home will help you. So return to
the family, as you said, home opener today, Hopefully that
can make a little bit of a difference. As you said,
long season, Oh, you're only just scratching the surface on
this one hundred and sixty two game behemoth. So but
at the same time, you don't want to dig yourself
to big of a hole. No, this is, as you said,
a very good division. And I always I always look
at spring training and just want to see a couple

(49:52):
of wins mixed in, Like the results don't really matter.
You want to just get a couple of wins. I
would love to see a couple of wins in the
regular season. Now, yeah, things really matter. You need to
see a couple of wee hopefully they.

Speaker 2 (50:02):
Can get I'll leave you with this is I don't
know if there's a correlation, because I know other teams
have had it two. But we had sixteen guys in
the WBC. I don't think that this team really spent
that much time in a sense in spring training. So
in some ways we're actually extended spring training right now
and and but now the games really count, and so

(50:24):
you've got to kind of go down that path a
little bit and you know, hey, you can play five
hundred ball for three months of the season still make
the playoffs go on a run, so but you know,
be nice to win a few games.

Speaker 1 (50:38):
This is basically the Club World Cup, right, World Baseball
Classic is doing to menjor league teams what the Club
World Cup did to some of these European teams that
had to play deep into July and then didn't get
a preseason really and then start games in August. So
and that's not worked out great for a lot of
those teams. They had deep runs.

Speaker 2 (50:56):
Last one, Last one, Alex Seiner, as you will be
calling hope or you're at least in and around the
whole World Cup scene, probably not two great friendlies for
the US.

Speaker 1 (51:07):
Oh no, no, five to two against Belgium, to nil
against Portugal. Uh yeah, not great, not great. They had
some The first half against Belgium was pretty good and
then the second half was abysmal. And then Portugal there
were just they were just outclassed. I mean just the

(51:30):
two goals were just like the creativity of some of
these top players in the world to think the game
at a different level and to basically just outfox our defense.
Just it exposes you like, oh yeah, we're not there yet.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
You know.

Speaker 1 (51:46):
The Uruguay win last year was great, Like they beat Uruguay,
who's a World Cup team five to one, they had
five unbeaten, a lot of good feeling, good vibe, and
now this these two games, you could not feel more
opposite of like, oh yeah, no, we're not very good,
are we? But some things to figure out. It is
tough when those are the last real auditions before you

(52:06):
got to name your squad. So Patch has got some
things to sort between now and when the squad gets released,
and certainly before the first games are played on June
the twelfth. Hopefully he can do it. I don't know, hope,
So yeah, I don't know I I and.

Speaker 2 (52:21):
Again much ado about nothing. If we come out on
the twelfth and play.

Speaker 1 (52:26):
Well, and they certainly could. I mean, they get Paraguay
to start, they'll get Australia seconds we learned that they
will play Turkey. Turkey now third Turkey won their qualification playoff.
When a couple of one nil games, Turkey's good, like
that will not be an easy game.

Speaker 2 (52:43):
What's just the one where you would say, hey, you better,
you better put that one in the bank. Which one
is it?

Speaker 1 (52:51):
I mean, probably one of the first two. I think.
I think you would go into this saying we got
to have four points through our first two matches. I
feel like you got to get a win and you
at least you just have to get another results against
Paraguay and Australia, because I don't think you can go
into that Turkey game feeling like, yeah, we're gonna get
three points, because that's not going to be easy against
that team. So it feels like if you can get

(53:14):
a win, you will advance. Because again, with a forty
eight team World Cup, more teams are going to qualify,
so pretty much other than I think, is it two
or four third place teams of the twelve groups won advance.
I mean a majority of the third place. I think
eight of the third place teams of the twelve groups
will advance. So really four points a win had drawing
a loss, that should get you through to the next round.

(53:37):
But all these teams, I think the joke has been.
When the US saw the draw, everybody was excited, like, yes,
that's a winnable group. Unfortunately, Paraguay saw that draw and said, yes,
that's a winnable group, and so did Australia, and certainly
now so does Turkey. So Turkey, by the way, would
have qualified directly for the World Cup. But Spain was

(53:58):
in there group, so they finish seconds. They crushed everybody else,
lost to Spain, who is essentially the World Cup favorites. Really,
I mean it's Spain and a handful of other teams France, Argentina,
But I mean there is this is the best team
in the world. These are the reigning European champions, and
they had a tough time with Turkey, and that's why
Turkey had to go through the playoffs. So it's not
like we're getting with all due respect to Bosnia, this

(54:20):
isn't Bosnia. That is a wonderful story and came out
of nowhere to win their playoff qualifier. This is a
good team, So more to come, more to come when
the summer arrive.

Speaker 2 (54:29):
I just I said to Paul Ralston, we were talking
about it the other day, I just don't know where
our goals come from. To some degree, I just did.
It'll be interesting to see how that all plays out.

Speaker 1 (54:39):
I'm with you, Bill, I'm with you. I may have
spent some time this week watching every World Cup goal
for the US from like nineteen ninety not a long video,
wasn't a lot, wasn't a long video. From nineteen ninety
until twenty fourteen, not a long video. So it's precious.
It's hard to score in a World Cup, in any
of these games, and it does make you you look

(55:02):
back and you see we had some great teams. Brian
McBride and Landon Donovan at like some top world class
players de Marcus Beasley and those teams. Those teams, you know,
it wasn't automatic. You have to grind out someone nills.
That's I'm sure what's going to be the case again
this summer. But again, at least we're in the thing.
Poor Italy, Poor Ireland's Bill Ireland's There are a lot

(55:23):
of good teams that fell at either the final hurdle
or the second to last one and aren't going to
be coming. So even in an expanded World Cup, it
was hard to get in. So at least at least
we'll be playing this summer. How long we'll be playing
this summer? All right?

Speaker 2 (55:38):
Last question on the B side, we went probably further
than we have been and that's okay. Last question for
you on this one is if we had to qualify,
do you feel like we would have qualified?

Speaker 1 (55:51):
Yeah, I think we would have. I think we would
have qualified. I think just the it's just so different,
you know, the cycle just takes on a completely different
feel when the games matter and when you have to
play these games that make Friendlies are one thing, and
the US has had some positive friendlies and some really
negative friendlies against good teams and some not so good teams.

(56:12):
But I think the talent level is there, and I
think if Pachettino is the coach, I think the the
pool that he could have called on to get results
against the likes of Costa Rica or against Jamaica or
against El Salvador, I think they would have been able
to get through. Now. I don't know how it would
have looked. I mean, it might have been a little

(56:32):
bit scrappy. They might have finished third maybe in conca
caff but I think they would have qualified.

Speaker 2 (56:36):
I got you, Okay, fantastic. Well, this has been a
great pot I really appreciate that Tim was able to
come on because he'll you know, I think our folks
will really enjoy listening to him.

Speaker 1 (56:48):
Yeah, I think so too. That was awesome to have
the presidents of Las Vegas events on to discuss which
should be a tremendous weekends. This is going to be
a tremendous weekend. Happy Easter to you and yours this weekend.
We hope that if the snow doesn't affect people's plans
too much, but we hope you can get through that
and then hopefully have maybe a little trip to warmer
climbs coming up in just a couple of days to
watch this North Dakota hockey team go for a national title.

(57:10):
So Bill, best of look to you and the group
with hosting duties and everything that goes with this. Enjoy
some time with your family this weekend. We'll talk to
you soon.

Speaker 2 (57:17):
Thanks.

Speaker 1 (57:19):
Awesome. He's Bill shaves again. Big thanks to Tim Keener,
President of Las Vegas Events. Thanks to Paul Ralson and
Alex docker Johnson on the back end for so and
things together. I'm Alex Synder. Thank you for listening. Yes,
have a blessed hees through this weekends, Enjoy the Frozen
four next week and everything else going on with the
University of North Dakota Athletics.