September 5, 2025 • 8 mins
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Okay, should the Fever do the right thing and refund
those ticket purchases for all the people who didn't get
see Kaylin Tark.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Oh, that's a good question.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
A lot of people will be very disappointed because they
bought those tickets hoping to see her play.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
And now she's out. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
I think I told the story on air. This was
several weeks ago, a month ago now, maybe more. My
old pal Ben Verbannik, the most beautiful man in all
of Terere Hate Television, was up here and we were
downtown at a well known watering hole and it was
post a Fever game. It was after the Caitlin Clark injury,
(00:44):
and we were talking to one of the bartenders about
the reaction to her lack of playing. Now, obviously at
the time they thought she was going to come back,
blah blah blah.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
But this person told they said, there is.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
A certain level of unhappiness from people not who bought
out of the gate, from whoever ticket master, whoever it
is that sells the tickets now, but from the people
who bought on the secondary market, because those are the
people that really paid out the nose to go see
(01:27):
these games. And let's face it. They're not getting anything
they paid for.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
She announced yesterday that she hoped to share better update,
but she won't be returning to play this season. She
went on to thank everybody, and she said she was
proud of how the team had only gotten stronger through
adversity this year and now it's time to close out
the season and claim our spot in the playoffs. And
I saw many people, you know, saying it's not her fault.
(01:54):
They're not blaming her for being injured. But many people
were commenting, oh the fever still play, Like.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Well, could you okay, really, could you tell me the
score of the last fevere game?
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Nope, Nor couldn't mind.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
I couldn't tell you when it was, who they played,
what the score was. Nothing. Yeah, And this is coming
from a household that is.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
A fan, right.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
And so by the way, I texted you, I texted
your husband last night and I said, hey, you still
got all those Kalen Clarks magazines or you get rid
of those already.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
He can't stop collecting magazines.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
He has issues. Casey's house is the most he has issues.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Yeah, I get it, Okay, Casey's house is great. Like
the bathroom you walk into the bathroom and you just
got to walk around just stacks of magazines to use the.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Kid his office.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah yeah, But but we talked about this from the
moment she came into the league. We said, the w
n b A is a niche sport, and I can
say this is someone who is a fan of a
niche sport. I love golf, but I also recogniz eyes
that golf had a a peak level of popularity between
(03:06):
the years of nineteen ninety seven and two thousand and
eight in which Tiger Woods was the dominant force, not
just in the game of golf, but in all of sports.
Golf will never see again the ratings and the fans
and the intensity and the corporate sponsorship and all that
other stuff. Now there may be, you know, more money
because of Inflation Center, but I'm saying golf will never
(03:27):
We'll never see that again because it'll never be another
Tiger Woods. And that was a prolonged thing because he
was so good for so long and he was such
a world figure. But you look at hockey, which is
a knit sport. With Gretzky, it was about a five
year window when he came to Los Angeles from eighty
eight to ninety three. The Mighty Ducks movie kept that
going for a little bit. Boxing with Mike Tyson. It
(03:48):
was basically what like eighty six to ninety one until
he went to prison. There's just a window for these
niche sports when they have these transcendent athletes, transformational athletes,
and you better get the most out of it, because
people just get bored with it. They've seen it, they
move on. They're not a fan of the sport, they're
a fan of the person or the thing they're doing.
(04:09):
And with Caitlin Clark, it was the fact that she
couldn't even and I'm not blaming her. She's injured, fine,
but she couldn't even give two seasons of it. You're
already seeing just a lack of interest because she is
the league, she is the thing, and she's not playing.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
So data shows that Fever games without her average fifty
three percent lower ratings, down to eight hundred and fifty
thousand viewers from their peak at one.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Point eight million.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
The league averages are still up overall, but there's been
a whole lot of money that has been poured into
the league to get them to that numbers. Now, my
question is this happened yesterday, on the same day that
they broke ground for a seventy eight million dollar performance
facility for the Indiana Fever.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Well, so let's come back to what you just said,
because you made a good point. Yes, the ratings are
up because there has been an onslaught of coverage by
the media, and the one thing that this league will.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Have going for it is the media now is.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Wholly invested in its quote unquote success, like it will
never be outside of Caitlin Clark successful, just like the
other niche sports struggled when the phenom or the you
know this once in a lifetime person was at their peak.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
But the media will not let it go.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Like whether she comes back next year and is a
world beater, the media won't let it go. Now doesn't
mean the public's going to be interested in it.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
It doesn't mean the.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Public's going to buy it anymore. I think from a
just a no matter, take the media manipulation out of it.
She better have the greatest year in the history of
the league next year or people are going to just
completely lose interest.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Okay, Now, this is on the heels of her revealing
her new logo right in her new sponsorship deal but
a lot of people are pointing out Michael Jordan missed
eighty percent of his second year as well. So will
she come back next year and be bigger and better
than ever?
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Wait? Wait wait wait wait, yeah, yes I did. I
just compared her to Michael Jordan.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
There were a couple guys named Bird and Magic that
I think had the NBA rolling in a pretty good
fashion when Jordan showed up on the scene. And this
is what we come back to. Jordan became the face
of the league, and he's arguing he's the greatest basketball
player of all time, arguably the greatest athlete of all time.
He's certainly on the Mount Rushmore and part of that conversation.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
But he inherited.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
He became that figure on a league that was a
financial juggernaut because of the emergents and surgeons of Bird
and Magic in the eighties, and they lifted that league right.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
It wasn't a niche league. Just like in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
If Pat Mahomes, Patrick Mahomes goes down in his game tonight,
Week one, he's the best player in the league, but
the league is going to roll because the NFL, the
National Football League, is a financial freight train right, it's
everywhere people love football. There's the league itself is bigger
than any individual player. In the case of Clark, she's
(07:13):
far bigger than the league itself, and people are gonna
they are clearly have lost interest in the league despite
all this mass media promotion. And unless she comes back
next year, even if she's just pretty good, which it's
hard to recover from these injuries, that league is in massive,
massive trouble unless she can figure out a way to get.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
It together next.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Do you think that the Sigmons are now regretting their
seventy eight million dollar investment one hundred and eight they
lose the couch cushion, so no big deal for them.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
You know what they should do? Give that money to us.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
By the way, the center is scheduled to open before
the twenty seven WNBA season. Will people still be interested
by that?
Speaker 1 (07:56):
A lot of stuff and this stuff is political correctness,
and they're doing it to check a box. And look
at how we treat the WNBA team. That league was
a financial dumpster fire before Caitlin Clark showed up, and
people will lose interest and no matter how much the
media tries to save it.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
They do this stuff all the time. We're just gonna
be like, it's a niche sport.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
If you like it, great, but it's not something the
public in mass is going to consume.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
And I can say all this because I'm a huge
fan of a niche sport.
Okay, should the Fever do the right thing and refund
those ticket purchases for all the people who didn't get
see Kaylin Tark.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Oh, that's a good question.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
A lot of people will be very disappointed because they
bought those tickets hoping to see her play.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
And now she's out. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
I think I told the story on air. This was
several weeks ago, a month ago now, maybe more. My
old pal Ben Verbannik, the most beautiful man in all
of Terere Hate Television, was up here and we were
downtown at a well known watering hole and it was
post a Fever game. It was after the Caitlin Clark injury,
(00:44):
and we were talking to one of the bartenders about
the reaction to her lack of playing. Now, obviously at
the time they thought she was going to come back,
blah blah blah.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
But this person told they said, there is.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
A certain level of unhappiness from people not who bought
out of the gate, from whoever ticket master, whoever it
is that sells the tickets now, but from the people
who bought on the secondary market, because those are the
people that really paid out the nose to go see
(01:27):
these games. And let's face it. They're not getting anything
they paid for.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
She announced yesterday that she hoped to share better update,
but she won't be returning to play this season. She
went on to thank everybody, and she said she was
proud of how the team had only gotten stronger through
adversity this year and now it's time to close out
the season and claim our spot in the playoffs. And
I saw many people, you know, saying it's not her fault.
(01:54):
They're not blaming her for being injured. But many people
were commenting, oh the fever still play, Like.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Well, could you okay, really, could you tell me the
score of the last fevere game?
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Nope, Nor couldn't mind.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
I couldn't tell you when it was, who they played,
what the score was. Nothing. Yeah, And this is coming
from a household that is.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
A fan, right.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
And so by the way, I texted you, I texted
your husband last night and I said, hey, you still
got all those Kalen Clarks magazines or you get rid
of those already.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
He can't stop collecting magazines.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
He has issues. Casey's house is the most he has issues.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Yeah, I get it, Okay, Casey's house is great. Like
the bathroom you walk into the bathroom and you just
got to walk around just stacks of magazines to use the.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Kid his office.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah yeah, But but we talked about this from the
moment she came into the league. We said, the w
n b A is a niche sport, and I can
say this is someone who is a fan of a
niche sport. I love golf, but I also recogniz eyes
that golf had a a peak level of popularity between
(03:06):
the years of nineteen ninety seven and two thousand and
eight in which Tiger Woods was the dominant force, not
just in the game of golf, but in all of sports.
Golf will never see again the ratings and the fans
and the intensity and the corporate sponsorship and all that
other stuff. Now there may be, you know, more money
because of Inflation Center, but I'm saying golf will never
(03:27):
We'll never see that again because it'll never be another
Tiger Woods. And that was a prolonged thing because he
was so good for so long and he was such
a world figure. But you look at hockey, which is
a knit sport. With Gretzky, it was about a five
year window when he came to Los Angeles from eighty
eight to ninety three. The Mighty Ducks movie kept that
going for a little bit. Boxing with Mike Tyson. It
(03:48):
was basically what like eighty six to ninety one until
he went to prison. There's just a window for these
niche sports when they have these transcendent athletes, transformational athletes,
and you better get the most out of it, because
people just get bored with it. They've seen it, they
move on. They're not a fan of the sport, they're
a fan of the person or the thing they're doing.
(04:09):
And with Caitlin Clark, it was the fact that she
couldn't even and I'm not blaming her. She's injured, fine,
but she couldn't even give two seasons of it. You're
already seeing just a lack of interest because she is
the league, she is the thing, and she's not playing.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
So data shows that Fever games without her average fifty
three percent lower ratings, down to eight hundred and fifty
thousand viewers from their peak at one.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Point eight million.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
The league averages are still up overall, but there's been
a whole lot of money that has been poured into
the league to get them to that numbers. Now, my
question is this happened yesterday, on the same day that
they broke ground for a seventy eight million dollar performance
facility for the Indiana Fever.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Well, so let's come back to what you just said,
because you made a good point. Yes, the ratings are
up because there has been an onslaught of coverage by
the media, and the one thing that this league will.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Have going for it is the media now is.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Wholly invested in its quote unquote success, like it will
never be outside of Caitlin Clark successful, just like the
other niche sports struggled when the phenom or the you
know this once in a lifetime person was at their peak.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
But the media will not let it go.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Like whether she comes back next year and is a
world beater, the media won't let it go. Now doesn't
mean the public's going to be interested in it.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
It doesn't mean the.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Public's going to buy it anymore. I think from a
just a no matter, take the media manipulation out of it.
She better have the greatest year in the history of
the league next year or people are going to just
completely lose interest.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Okay, Now, this is on the heels of her revealing
her new logo right in her new sponsorship deal but
a lot of people are pointing out Michael Jordan missed
eighty percent of his second year as well. So will
she come back next year and be bigger and better
than ever?
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Wait? Wait wait wait wait, yeah, yes I did. I
just compared her to Michael Jordan.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
There were a couple guys named Bird and Magic that
I think had the NBA rolling in a pretty good
fashion when Jordan showed up on the scene. And this
is what we come back to. Jordan became the face
of the league, and he's arguing he's the greatest basketball
player of all time, arguably the greatest athlete of all time.
He's certainly on the Mount Rushmore and part of that conversation.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
But he inherited.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
He became that figure on a league that was a
financial juggernaut because of the emergents and surgeons of Bird
and Magic in the eighties, and they lifted that league right.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
It wasn't a niche league. Just like in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
If Pat Mahomes, Patrick Mahomes goes down in his game tonight,
Week one, he's the best player in the league, but
the league is going to roll because the NFL, the
National Football League, is a financial freight train right, it's
everywhere people love football. There's the league itself is bigger
than any individual player. In the case of Clark, she's
(07:13):
far bigger than the league itself, and people are gonna
they are clearly have lost interest in the league despite
all this mass media promotion. And unless she comes back
next year, even if she's just pretty good, which it's
hard to recover from these injuries, that league is in massive,
massive trouble unless she can figure out a way to get.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
It together next.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Do you think that the Sigmons are now regretting their
seventy eight million dollar investment one hundred and eight they
lose the couch cushion, so no big deal for them.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
You know what they should do? Give that money to us.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
By the way, the center is scheduled to open before
the twenty seven WNBA season. Will people still be interested
by that?
Speaker 1 (07:56):
A lot of stuff and this stuff is political correctness,
and they're doing it to check a box. And look
at how we treat the WNBA team. That league was
a financial dumpster fire before Caitlin Clark showed up, and
people will lose interest and no matter how much the
media tries to save it.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
They do this stuff all the time. We're just gonna
be like, it's a niche sport.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
If you like it, great, but it's not something the
public in mass is going to consume.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
And I can say all this because I'm a huge
fan of a niche sport.
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