Softy and Dick 6-11 H3: Jon Wilner, Revenue Streams, Brian Schmetzer.

Jon Wilner joins the show to talk about the board of regents meeting and the financial situation with UW athletics.  Possible ways for athletic departments to create revenue streams.  Sounders FC coach Brian Schmetzer joins the show to talk about the loss to SKC, Pedro De La Vega's status, and much more.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Now from the star Renolds Sports TestsJordan ninety three point three kJ RFM sports
headlines. Alright it, boys andgirls, there we go headlines on Sofian
Dick with Anders and for Jackson feltso andders headlines. Of course, that
brought to you by our friends atVenue Kings dot com. Of stupidity,
you're looking for tickets for any Seahawkgame this year, homean road, Husky's

(00:21):
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Kaitlin Clarkin Town in a couple ofweeks with a fiva Benu Kings dot com
can set you up. Be sureand use coach Sofia checkout for a discount.
All right. The big news ofthe day comes from the Mariners.
Jonathan Diaz, who was signed asa free agent starting pitcher in twenty twenty
four back in February, will starttonight's game against the White Sox because Brian

(00:44):
Wu has been scratched. The Marinershave ordered an MRI for him. No
word yet on the injury or howlong he may or may not be out
for, but Brian Wu will notstart tonight for Seattle. The sec is
announced the remainder of their schedule.Labor Day weekend is going to be awesome.
How about this? Clemson Georgia,Miami versus Florida, Notre Dame versus

(01:06):
Texas A, and m and USCagainst LSU all on Labor Day weekend?
Pretty good. We got Weaver State, by the way. So how about
it? NBA Finals Boston up twogames to none, Game three at Dallas
Tomorrow. Sanley Cup Finals, Floridaleading two games to none, Game three
at Edmonton Thursday at four thirty.Right here on ninety three three KJRFM Huskies
have landed their first defensive recruit inthe class of twenty twenty five, edge

(01:29):
rusher Devin Hide from Menlo Park,California, and the Hawks reworking the contract
on Jaron Reid, saving about ahalf million dollars. Speaking of the Huskies,
Mike Hopkins, former Husky basketball coach, at a new job. He's
an assistant now for the Phoenix Suns. And a couple of scores from baseball
Orioles lead the Braves three to nothingat the top of the six Nationals blanket
the Tigers three zip bottom five.Guardians up on the Reds three to one,

(01:51):
Top three from Cincinnati and the Arrangersby the way today are on the
road, at the Dodgers, theAstros by the way on the road as
well at the Giants. All right, here we go, John Wilner joining
us right now. It's time forour weekly PAC twelve conversation with Senjose Mercury
News reporter John Wilner, brought toyou by Simply Setle. Our friends at
simply Seattle dot com have the mostamazing collection of all things Seattle Seahawks gear.

(02:15):
UW had some of the largest selectionof Sunnix gear anywhere in the world.
Learn more at simply Seattle dot com. All right, big thanks to
our friends at simply Sattle dot com. By the way, you got your
eye on anything on the website.Always use code KJR fifteen for fifteen percent
of whatever at simply Seattle dot com. Here he is the Pope of the

(02:37):
pack, the incoming big ten baronour friend Johnny Wilner. John, how
are you, man, I'm good? Thanks, Hell you guys, we're
good, Man, good good.Thanks for asking. It means a lot
that you can lot going on.There's always a lot going on, dude.
It's amazing how much stuff is happeningin college sports these days, But
why don't we start off with thisthis big regents meeting happening at you dub

(02:59):
on Thursday day? You and Iwere reacting about that little bit off the
year today, and you know,my biggest question is, Dick knows,
is how much financial relief will UpperCampus provide for Pat Chun's athletic department or
will they make them just kind ofgo at it by themselves? So what
are we kind of hoping to hearas Husky fans? What are we expecting

(03:19):
to hear as Husky fans on Thursday? Well, I mean if they make
them go at it by themselves,it's self defeating because you know, the
athletic department as a whole, andespecially the football program, that's a huge
marketing arm for the University of Washington, and financial support is critical for the
athletic department to succeed in the bigten. I look at it, there's

(03:44):
a couple of things that I thinkare key. One is the restructuring of
the debt on the Husky Stadium renovation, which I believe right now they're in
an interest only period. They startpaying principle as well. I want to
say it's a FY twenty five ortwenty six, and at that point,
the annual payment is scheduled to gofrom like nine point five million to eighteen

(04:09):
million, right, and so theyneed to the regions need to approve the
restructuring of that debt. It's aninternal lending program that has basically given the
athletic department the money for this renovation. So Washington controls that completely. It's
not a state issue at all.So we'll see about that. We'll see

(04:30):
if they are willing to approve loans, either internal loans or loans from the
Big Ten, loans from Fox.You know, Washington is projecting a thirty
million dollar deficit for what FY twentyfive, first year in the Big Ten.
That's a lot of money. Andthat is in addition to the fact

(04:54):
that Washington is only getting half ashare of the Big Ten's revenue, which
is a thirty million dollar deficit comparedto everybody else. So they got a
thirty million dollar budget hole and they'regetting thirty million dollars less than everyone So
they need some help from from campus. So how does that compare, John,
is you unique in this or howdoes that compare to the other schools

(05:16):
going to the Big Ten, theschools going to the Big twelve, or
even Wazoo and Oregon State. Asfar as that twenty nine point seven million
dollar cash flow deficit, well,I guess compared to the how many schools
are in the Big ten eighteen,I lose. I really do lose tracks
still yeh. So to me,the most relevant comparison for Washington is UCLA.

(05:38):
The Bruins annually are carrying a thirtyor forty million dollar operating deficit.
They get almost no help from campus. Now the difference is UCLA's going into
the Big Ten as a full sharemember. The only other school that is
not getting a full share is Oregon, and Oregon for for many reasons including

(06:00):
Uncle Phil, does not have aoperating deficit in the twenty thirty million dollar
range. The Ducks are profitable.They're operating surplus is a couple million a
year with no help from campus.So in a way, Washington is alone
relative to the other seventeen teams.Doesn't mean that they can't overcome this,

(06:26):
but they do need to have help. Are they still better off after all
of that? Are they still betteroff short and long term as opposed to
if they had stayed in the PACten and agreed to the Apple deal.
Boy, I still think that youcan make the case that all the schools

(06:47):
would have been better off because someof the things that have happened in college
sports that have tilted the scale towardthe Big ten in the SEC, like
the CFP payouts. Right those twoleagues are getting the vast majority of the
CFP pass But those things would nothave necessarily happened if the PAC twelve had

(07:08):
survived, because there would have beenfive power conferences and there would have been
much more balance. Now that said, you know, the Apple deal,
there's some details that I still amunclear on. For instance, how easy
would it have been to make thoserevenue thresholds of thirty million, thirty five

(07:28):
million, fifty million. We stilldon't know how successful Apple would have been
at sub licensing some of the gamesto a linear TV network. So there's
a lot of murky stuff on theyou know, should they have stayed page
But clearly there are some challenges,a lot of challenges for the Huskies in
their new existence. Well, anotherway to raise revenue was approved recently,

(07:53):
the on field logos. Now wehad an on field logo for each Apple
Cup the last few years. Butwe're talking about every game now, potentially,
what are we looking at as faras you know, revenue raised there
and then our jersey's next. Arewe gonna see you know, a dix
Berger's logo on the Husky jersey herein the next five years? Taco time?
Oh, I don't think there's anydoubt about that, No doubt.

(08:13):
I mean, they've got to paythis. They got this twenty million dollar
revenue sharing agreement that they got todeal with. They've got ten million dollars
more in additional scholarship payments coming,They've got the money lean withheld from the
NCAA tournament. There are a lotof huge expenses for Washington and all the
other schools. My understanding is thata low a midfield logo for a major

(08:41):
football school like the Huskies could catchfour or five million dollars a year.
I don't know what the smaller logoslike. It's a twenty five yard line,
I don't know what they would catcha fraction of that, but you
know that's five million bucks. Yeah, and again, they got a twenty
million dollar budget item coming with thisrevenue sharing. I think it's only a
matter of time before we see athleticdepartments basically sell themselves to major corporations,

(09:07):
right, the University of Washington athleticdepartment sponsored by Amazon, the the Microsoft
Huskies. We're gonna get to thatpoint. Well, I think you just
gotta be smart and just creative andjust think of everything as a potential revenue
stream. You know, sponsor,the goalpost sponsor, the upright sponsor,
the crossbar sponsor, the sideline havea video stream Dick and John at halftime

(09:31):
that shows you what's happening in thelocker room during a game, and you
can sell that. You know,Stanford for years has basically allowed donors to
purchase their their their their coaches.I mean, Troy Taylor is not the
football coach, He's the Bradford M. Freeman Director of football at Stanford.
Yeah, and there's no reason whyWashington cannot do that as well, and

(09:52):
start letting donors sponsor defensive coordinators,offensive coordinators, head coaches, things like
that and every sport. So Ifeel like there are hundreds and I literally
mean that, guys, hundreds ofuntapped revenue streams that places like you dub
can tap. I would say thatWashington if they can make it work is
as well prepared for that existence asanybody, because look, you've got all

(10:16):
the the cock options from Amazon,Microsoft and Starbucks over the last few decades.
So absolutely there are people in theSeattle area who could you know,
the the so and so Uh PatSean is the so and so director of
athletics. Correct, there's no,there's zero doubt about that. They could
also, you know, they couldalso try to sell off the Apple Cup.

(10:39):
If the two schools are committed todoing it, why wouldn't you have
the Apple Cup sponsored by so andso? They do? They do now.
It's browing Microsoft. Yeah, it'sBoeing now, my John, they
do it now. But I mean, Dick, you mentioned the logo.
Don't they have the Alaska Airlines fieldon the on the on the field the
entire year at at u ub oram I crazy? I think on the
twenty five Yeah, I think that'sthere. The Boeing thing comes for the

(11:01):
Apple Cup, but the Alaska Airlineslogos right there every game, right right?
I think, John, are youyou're talking about for five million dollars,
you're talking about literally replacing the wat midfield with a Microsoft logo?
Wow? Yes, absolutely, orthe Amazon whatever. That that swoosh thing
is their smile. It's a smile. Oh okay, whatever it is.

(11:26):
Uh, that is what schools aregoing to sell. There is no doubt
about that, right smack in themiddle of midfield. Well, how do
I mean? This? To me? Just continues to be a pointing down
the road of group of five teamsjust not being allowed to compete for a
championship sooner rather than later. Imean, how are they ever going to

(11:48):
compete with what you're talking about here? And how long will it be until
the college football powers just say forgetabout it. If you're not in the
Big Ten, you're not in theSEC, You're not going to participate because
by that point, you know,the Clemsons of Florida States will probably be
in the SEC. Right. Well, the thing is, the group of
five haven't really competed for a titlein the playoff era, right Cincinnati is

(12:09):
the only one to get in andthey got They got smoked. So in
some ways the competitive balance isn't gonnachange. But there is one piece that
I think will be helpful for thegroup of five, which is in this
settlement from this billion dollar anti trustlawsuit. Right, they are gonna put
a roster. They're gonna basically liftthe cap on scholarships. Right now,

(12:31):
major college football programs have eighty fivescholarships, but they have like one hundred
and twenty guys, right because there'sall these walk ons up. Washington's probably
got one hundred and ten hundred andtwenty guys on their roster. What they're
gonna do with this settlement is theyare gonna make unlimited scholarships, but they're
gonna cap the roster. So there'sgonna be ninety roster spots. You can
have all those guys on scholarship ifyou want, but there's only gonna be

(12:54):
ninety roster spots, which means alot of these really good walk Ons are
now not gonna be to sit atWashington. They're gonna have to go to
a group of five places, thoughin some ways it might help. Yeah,
Yeah, I gotta tell you,I'm actually fired up for these revenue
stream ideas. I think we getsome great ideas from our audience on ways
that places like U dub can makemoney. So hit us up four nine

(13:15):
four five one. A couple thoughtsthat you think, you know, maybe
some untapped revenue streams that places likeU DUB can go after. Hey,
John, I saw you write aboutMike Leach, and every now and then
some story comes across your desk andall of us can agree this is just
dumb and the fact that Mike Leachis not in the Hall of Fame because
the Hall of Fame requires for coachesa minimum of ten years check for Mike

(13:39):
Leach and coached at least one hundredgames with a six hundred winning percentage.
Well, Mike Leach died with awinning percentage of point five nine six.
Now the Hall of Fame does notround up for some dumb ass reason.
So can you tell me please thatthere is something in the works to get
these imbeciles to change their minds?Done this? Well, there's nothing in

(14:03):
the works this minute, because technicallyLeech is not eligible until three years after
his last game, So the twentytwenty six nominating cycle would be the first
time Washington State, Mississippi State,or Texas Tech could nominate him. He
does, he misses by one win. If he's I think he's one hundred

(14:24):
and fifty eight and one oh seven. If he were one fifty nine and
one of six, he would qualify. So there are two paths. One
is he could get in as acontributor to the game, which is not
the same not doesn't have the samestature as coach. The other one,
the other avenue for him to getin, is they basically use the fact

(14:45):
that he died while he was anactive coach as a way to wiggles out
of their own policy. And Imean, you can argue that Leech has
had more impact on football at alllevel than any other coach in the last
fifty years because the air raid iseverywhere. Any one big at two schools

(15:07):
that never win big. So we'llsee what happens. But right now we're
in a holding pattern because he's noteven eligible until that three year window ends.
He's the Roberto Clemente of coaches.He's dead. Put him in the
Hall of Fame. Roberto Clemeny diedin the plane crash, and he went
in the next year. You knowwhy, because he was dead. There
was no need to wait, becausethe guy was dead. I mean,
what are we doing here? Mygod? This stuff drives me nuts.

(15:30):
Well, I mean, but thecontributor thing I think of Mike Leach's he
was a contributor to the game.I mean he should be a lock Hall
of Fame contributor because if let's justtake out let's just say Mike leach didn't
have the air raid and he justran a regular old offense like everybody else,
and he won fifty nine percent ofhis games, He's probably not in

(15:52):
the Hall of Fame. So he'sa Hall of Famer based upon him being
a contributor anyway, So that's wherehe should go in, right, you
could sure you can make that casehe should be in as both. I
mean here's the other piece. Though, they changed the rule on the sixty
percent winning percentage. Yeah, likeeighteen years ago, Hayden Fry, the

(16:12):
legendary Iowa coach, he's in theHall of Fame as a coach, and
he was under six hundred. Sothey have only they changed it at Leachs
doesn't qualify under the new rule.But our coaches in there with less than
Chris Toner winning percentage. So theother thing is they don't take a no
account where you coach, right,I mean, it's harder to win fifty

(16:33):
five percent of your games at WashingtonState than it is to win sixty five
percent of your games at Oregon orUSC or Washington, no question about that.
He belongs in. I think allHusky fans and Cougar fans can agree
on that age, John, onemore from me. Your preseason top twenty
five is out. Are our belovedHusky basketball team with all their new star
players in your top twenty five likethey should be? They are not not

(16:57):
yet. It's too many, toomany unknowns, too many unknowns. John.
We'll see how things go. I'myou know, I think there's a
lot of reasons to be encouraged ifyou're a Husky fan, But it took
too much of a leap of faithfor me to go ahead and put him
in. John, you have anopportunity to be a forward thinker. We

(17:21):
are giving We are giving you sixmonths before the season starts, five months
before the season starts, an opportunityto say I told you so in March
when you rank them like third inthe Big ten going into this year and
they go to the Sweet sixteen,and you are passing up that opportunity that
Softie and I are just graciously givingyou. I can't understand. Yeah,

(17:41):
it's living it for free, andyou're saying no. Sometimes I'm like the
college Football Hall of Fame. I'mmy own worst center. All right,
man, we'll see John great stuffand we're talking a week buddy. Thanks
guys. All right, John Wilnerwith us on the radio. Man,
he's missing the boat. He refusesto be a pioneer. He can be.

(18:03):
You know what, if he doesn'twant it, then we'll take it.
We'll take the I told you so. Card I will play at big
Time. We're gonna break Brian Schmetzer. By the way. I'm gonna join
us around five forty five tonight,and then Tyler Lockett will join us from
the Virginia Mason Athletics Center. SeahawkDay one Mini Camp in the Books coming
up about six' ten. Righthere on ninety three three KJRFM Live from

(18:26):
the R and R Foundation Specialist BroadcastStudio. Now back to Softie and Dick
on your home for the Huskies andthe Kraken Sports Radio ninety three point three
kJ R FM. I'm telling you, man, you get a thought in
your head when you're fifty years old, you better grab that suger. It

(18:48):
is gone within a seconds. Oh, you had an idea, And now
I had an idea. And Ihave no idea what it was zero zero
clip And you know what, Ifelt really good about it. I had
a tingle in my my tummy,well knowing you felt good about But I
think it out something to do withthe millions of ways we can advertise to
raise money for the University of Washington. No, that wasn't it correct because

(19:10):
A fired up But I was firedup for that. I mean, well,
and let's talk about that because nowplaces like Washington have to get creative.
I mean everybody has to get creative. And there's gonna be a lot
of schools that, like you mentioned, John Wilner could be the first one
to jump on the Husky basketball wagonfor next year and say, I told
you so, I'm put them inhis top twenty five right now. So
somebody will be the first school tohave a live stream of everything happening in

(19:36):
the locker room at halftime, andit'll be part of a bigger package that
you'll pay ten dollars a month forand you'll get all kinds of behind the
scenes access thing you never got before. How about we have different corporations sponsoring
different players. Okay, so youhave the under armor logo or the Adidas
logo or the Nike logo over herelike they do in the NBA, right,

(19:57):
and then over here every player theycan sell a sponsorship to sponsor that
kid for the year. Maybe halfthe money goes to the kid, half
the money goes to the school.We mentioned sponsoring the sidelines, right,
the Northern sideline sponsored by Northern QuestCasino, the Southern sideline sponsored by A's
Hardware, whatever I mean about.At some point it gets a little bit

(20:19):
obnoxious. I totally get that.But I think if your Pat Shunn and
people like that, and really andMcCoy over at Wazoo, you've got to
start getting creative like this man,how much do you think somebody would pay
to be an assistant coach for agame? Now, all that means is
you get to stand on the sidelines. Yeah, you get a headset,

(20:41):
so you get to hear everything that'sgoing on. You can't participate, obviously,
but you get to hear everything isgoing on. Your name is in
for that day. They've got thecoaches listed. Your name is on that
list, and you just get theWould somebody pay fifty grand to do that?
Maybe it depends on the school.I'm not sure if you dug could
get that for Weaber State. Butthey do that at charity auctions, right,

(21:03):
I've heard of things like that happeningat charity auctions. But you know,
like, are there are there areasof the field can you sponsor?
Like we talked about how Stanford hasdonors that give money and they get the
sponsor a position coach, right likethe the I don't know the Dick and
Jana Fame linebacker position currently manned byDave Hoffman or whatever, right I mean?

(21:26):
And then you have to ask yourselfhow far do you want to go
with this? Like do we wantcorporate logos on helmets? For example?
Do we want corporate logos in theend zone? Wilner mentioned a corporate logo
at the fifty yard line, maybeeither A in place of the W or
B next to the W. Ithink there is a great opportunity. And
I don't know how much of thisthey can do. There might be an

(21:48):
agreement with the Montlake people, butthe south side of Husky Stadium, for
example. So just imagine Dick inyour mind's eye, You're getting on five
twenty heading east m about to getoff at Montlake, and you look to
your left and you see the southernfacade of Husky Stadium. There's nothing there.
It's brown. Okay, there couldbe advertising there. How about the
big, the big green smoke stack. Okay, absolutely, that you see

(22:11):
sitting in your seats, by theway, that needs to have a sponsor.
What about bad? But what aboutthe roof of the stadiums fly over
every single day? And what doeseverybody do? Hey, look there's Husky
Stadium. Oh does it saying?Oh? Microsoft? There are billboard opportunities
all over that place? All right? And then again you get creative with
players, You get creative with videostreams and things like that. There's you

(22:36):
know, advertisements on the football forexample, and maybe it's like put together
in a way where you only seeit appear when the ball is spinning,
right, one of those kind ofwhatever. I just think that there are
there are hundreds of revenue stream possibilitiesthat people haven't even thought about tapping that
now they have to think about.They have to think about it now or

(22:56):
else they're gonna go broke. Andthe teams that need the most money are
the teams they are gonna have toget the most creative. But there'll also
probably be the ones that are thetrend setters, right. I don't think
the trend setters in this are gonnabe Ohio State and Texas right right.
The trend setters on these things aregonna be like Marshall, you know,
teams that are like, we havegot to raise these moneys rls, we

(23:17):
might not have a football program anymore. And then the rest of the schools
are gonna see it like, youknow what, that two inch by two
inch logo on the back of thatdude's helmet ain't so bad and they're getting
what five hundred grand this year forit? Okay, Well, I think
you're gonna have schools that will goout and sell things like this. They
I mean, schools already have salespeople per se that work for them.
A lot of them work for placeslike lear Field when the rights get farmed

(23:40):
out to third party companies like IMGlear Field. Action Sports back in the
day used to be ISP as well. So there's a lot of things you
can do face masks, for example, you know, advertisements that only show
up on the outside, not theinside of a face guard for example,
like the Oakley thing that they haveright now. There's a lot of possibilities
out there. But I still andI really believe this, and I don't

(24:02):
really have a hard time thinking otherwisethat Washington Is is going to be in
a much better spot long term bymaking this jump to the Big ten,
because keep in mind, this initialdeal they have with the Big ten is
going to be over in four years. Yeah, and they'll be a part
of this new media rights deal thatsome people say may get them one hundred
million dollars a year. Yeah.I mean, if you just want to

(24:22):
look bottom line at the next twoor three seasons, then yeah, maybe
they'd be better off being with theApple deal. But they jumped ship right
when they needed to jump ship,right, absolutely, no, no question,
man. I just it's kind ofa scary time, but it's also
kind of an exciting time for allthe new things that you can do.

(24:45):
And I just want to again,there is overkill, right, I mean,
you could get to a point wherethis just gets so dumb. Stadiums
look like Nascars, right, theylook like, you know, you know,
a Daytona five hundred race with justcorporate sponsors over the place. There's
absolutely a chance that this just getsstupid and out of control. But I
think you're right. I think schoolslike Washington State, schools like Oregon State,

(25:08):
those are the schools that should beleading the charge and getting really creative
with the stuff. Hey, thebig news of the day if you're tuning
in right now, Brian Wu isnot going to pitch tonight for the Mariners.
He's gonna have an MRI. Youknow, he missed the first month
of the year with the elbow problemand then he had the forearm problem.
Scott Service saying today that an ilstint for him as possible, but they

(25:30):
don't want to do anything yet untilthey find out the results of the MRI.
So Jonathan Diaz is going to starttonight for the Mariners. And obviously,
if Brian Wu was banged up,we were afraid this was gonna happen,
that at some point in time youwere going to potentially lose one of
your big five starters for potentially anextended amount of time. And we'll see

(25:52):
and hope that's not the case withBrian Wu. But how many times do
we sit here over the offseason andsay, man, are we sure you
don't want to go ahead and getone more starting pitching because this depth Dick
is not what it was the lastcouple years. Yeah, And I wouldn't
have a problem with that. Itworked so well a couple of years ago
with Tyler Anderson. I mean youtalk about a nothing trade, given up
not much for a guy that wasa fifth starter and came in and just

(26:12):
did exactly what you needed him todo and just and that's just gets you
to the sixth inning in the ballgameand hand it off to a bullpen.
And so I wouldn't be no,especially if he got rid of Emerson Hancock.
I mean, if you were totrade Emerson Hancock for a bat,
he's part of a package for abig bat, then I would really want
you to go out and get unlessyou think Dallas Kikele's that guy. And
I don't know. I haven't seendiet Dallas Kikele pitch for two years or

(26:36):
whatever, right, So, butget a guy that can just eat up
some innings, particularly if he's gota bunch of starts in this ballpark.
Imagine what he could do in ateam Mobile park if he had maybe four
of his five starts happened to beat home in August and September. Yeah,
I just I just think again.Like we said earlier, this is
the least excitable five and a halfgame lead eight games over five hundred baseball

(26:59):
team I've ever seen in Seattle.And uh, the last time they were
this far up on first place thisdeep in the year, we said,
was what two thousand and two,two thousand and one, whatever year,
And so you're talking about seeing somethingfor the first time in twenty three,
twenty four years, and it justfeels like the entire fan base is just
waiting for dread. They're just waitingfor bad news. They're waiting for this

(27:19):
thing to kind of fall apart becausethey don't trust the offense. But what's
different about this year is they're waitingfor dread. In the prior years are
this team's not making the playoffs?That was the dread. I think even
the most fatalistic Mariner fans this yearrealized that they're probably going to make the
playoffs. What was it today,seventy three percent, seventy four percent something

(27:40):
like that? Is there is thereupdated updated percentage of making the playoffs.
So I think even six seventy sixpercent, they're like fifth or six in
baseball as far as highest percentage tomake the playoffs. So I think even
the most negative Nelly Marinder fans andI'm you know, I'm skeptical of how
good this team can be. ButI still think it's a playoff baseball team.
I still still think they're going towin enough games to be a playoff
baseball team. I just don't thinkthey're going to be able to beat the

(28:03):
elites of either this league or theother league if they were to get through
this as currently constructs currently constructor,So, the Mariners have a sixty nine
haha percentage chance of winning the West. That is the best percentage to win
any division in the American League.That's amazing. At sixty nine percent,
their playoff chances are seventy six percent. Their odds of reaching the Alcs are

(28:26):
twenty percent, which is tied forfifth best in Baseball. Baseball Reference says
the Guardians, Kansas City, Yankees, Orioles all have a better shot to
win or excuse me, make theAlcs than Seattle. So you're right.
They give them the best chance towin a division, but they also give
them, among the playoff teams,the worst chance to play in the league

(28:48):
championship series. In just a sixpoint seven percent chance to win a Pennant.
So, I mean, at thispoint, I don't know what would
constitute a great year. If theymade the ALCS and lost. I think
we walk away from that feeling goodabout this year. I think so.
I think we've talked about that inother sports as well. If you make
the final four, man, Imean, you are one of the elite

(29:08):
teams in your sport if you makethe final four, and I guess you
want to step on something encouraging isjust if you can get that offense to
the point where they're scoring four runsor more and that might just be one
bat. Addition, that might bethe guy that might be just adding the
dude that hit it the freaking Jimmy'son first last night because Logan Gilbert decided
with two strikes and a runner onsecond and two outs to throw him a

(29:32):
fastball in the strike zone, whichI have no idea why he would choose
to do that, but he did, and he hit it out Lewis Robert.
If you can score four runs ormore, you are winning at an
eighty five point three percent clip.That is second all time in Mariner history
to the two thousand and one Marinersthey're to the Gilbert thing for a second

(29:52):
last yees, because I saw thatlike you did. Everybody saw that last
night. I just wonder and Idon't know. I mean, I do
know Pete Woodworth Andrews I much chuckhim back this morning. I don't know
if he was addressed or not lastnight. It's certainly possible he missed with
that pitch, no question. It'salso possible that's what was called and that's
what the Mariner's pitching staff coaches wantedhim to do. So I guess I

(30:14):
just look at a guy like Gilbertand I just wonder how much criticism should
there be on the pitching coach andthe coaching staff when something like that happens,
or is that all on Logan Gilbertbecause at the time it made no
sense whatsoever. Well, and alsothe other thing you have to put it.
I know he was the hero lastnight, but cal Rawley is the
one calling those pitches. Yeah,absolutely, yes, he definitely has a
lot to do with and that.We've talked about the pitchers before where they're

(30:37):
like, yeah, I just off. Would you want to shake that guy
off? You want to shake offwith Big Dupper? I don't want to
either, We're gonna break. BrianSchmetzer will join us. Tither Lockett coming
up in a half an hour righthere on ninety three three KJRFM, My
from the R and R Foundation Specialistbroadcast studio. Now back to soft Dick

(31:00):
Gone your home for the Huskies andthe crick in Sports Radio ninety three point
three kJ R FM. You knowwhen you go to sounders FC dot com,
Dick, you have two options.You can a accept all cookies.
Oh yeah, would be reject allnon essential cookies. I trust the sounders
FC web team so much that Ihave accepted every cookie they have. Well,

(31:23):
I would like to know what typeof cookies I'm gonna get the like?
Are we talking just Grandma's chocolate chip? Here? We're talking oreos?
What are we talking about? Doublestuff? Oreos? My favorite? Here.
He is the head coach of yourSounders FC, coming off a tough
loss to Kansas City over the weekend. Brian Schmittzer, coach, how are
you man? I'm really good.Look John Elson Blath who's one of our

(31:48):
video analysts. He's a mean baker, and I'll have you bake you some
cookies when you stop over. Finally, one time to visit me. Absolutely,
I'm still waiting for the address.But by the way, shoot it
over and we're gonna come man,we are, we are. We're gonna
come over for cookies and tequila.Yes, yes, yes, that sounds
wonderful. Done. Well, let'stalk about what happened over the weekend in

(32:10):
Kansas City. Not the result youwere looking for. Talk to us about
what you saw on tape and whatyou saw in the and the aftermath.
Yeah, I'm softie. We're inventingnew ways to shoot ourselves in the foot.
This time it was another young playerwith tremendous talent that you know,
got a red card, you know, on the sixty first minute, and

(32:32):
then you know, look, tobe fair to the kid, I was
thinking about pulling him. I shouldhave pulled him. I should have helped
the kid. But the guy hewas marking, you know, wasn't really
getting past him. And I trustRead. I think he's a good kid
and it's super talent. But youknow, they made a sub and a
fast guy came on, and itwas literally a minute after they subbed this

(32:53):
guy on Read pulled him down andsecond yellow and red card change. The
outcome of the game, not pinningthen on Reid because when I watched the
tape, we should have done morewhen we scored early, scored in a
twelve minute, should have found thesecond goal, shouldn't have given up their
first goal. So, you know, just a disappointing results against a team

(33:15):
that I thought, you know,we can handle. Oh well, it's
it's six red cards now and that'snot normally a staple for the Sounders to
be number one in red cards inthe in the MLS. So what's what
do you think is causing the changethis year? Well, again, it's
different games, had different things.I mean, look the ones that were
egregious, that were maybe preventable.Look Alex Rolldom's card against Vancouver. You

(33:38):
know we had knew who's second yellowon the handball? You know, the
other game against Vancouver trying to blocka shot. I mean, Dick,
We've we've done it all. Imean, it's crazy how many red cards
we've had. We're trying to solveit, but I don't think any of
them have been well minus alex Is, they haven't been for egregious, real

(34:00):
bad behavior. Yeah. Yeah,Well, Brian Schmetzer is with us,
said you guys obviously hold yourselves toa super high standard, as does Stephan
Fry, and he would tell youthat both of those goals you know by
Kansas City should have been saved.But that being said, is there any
goalkeeper competition even being discussed right nowbehind closed doors? Great question. I

(34:23):
know a lot of people were certainlydisappointed, but I would tell people,
look back, go do a Googlesearch, go do something, figure out
how many games Stephan Fry has savedour butt. He is human, so
just remind yourself of that. Thenask the question again, is it time

(34:45):
for him to move on? Andis it time to pass the torch to
Andrew Thomas. There's certainly, youknow, maybe the start of the conversation,
Steph has earned the right to haveanother spell of games where he he
can play up to his potential.But he was pretty dejected after the game.
Softy, he knew he let histeammates down. And you know he's

(35:07):
gonna tone himself. I'm sure ofit. Well, I'm gonna ask you
the weekly Pedro de la Vega update, coach. So where do we stand.
He's running around on the grass,Dick. I need him to train
in full for two weeks. Thiswould be his first week. I'm not
going to rule him out of youknow, the next week's game against Houston

(35:30):
already, but you know, itmight be a little soon for the weekend's
game, just because I have tomake sure he's training. But he asked
to train in full before I puthim back out there. I can't afford
another slip up. He needs tobe good for the remainder of the year.
Yeah. Well, and how muchof an impact do you think he

(35:50):
can make when he comes back.I mean, what kind of expectations do
you have for him whenever that returnhappens. My expectations will be in line
with a kid who you know,doesn't have a lot of experience in MLS.
But Softy, what I would sayis the kid wants to be back
on the field. He is infectious, you know, the way he runs
around and his energy levels are infectious. So I'm not going to tell you

(36:15):
that he's going to be a worldbeater right away, but what he is
going to bring is energy and that'sgoing to hopefully rub off on his teammates.
You see Jordan Morris turning a cornera little bit, another goal,
another goal, But you know,he would also be one of the guys
that said, you know what,I can do more because he had a
couple of opportunities. He had areally good ball the start of the second

(36:37):
half, Dick that would have putus back to two to one. You
know, just missed on that play. Had a couple other half chances that
he created. So you know,yes, I think he's rounding into form,
but I know that he thinks hecan do better as well. All
Right, real quick, Minnesota,you got a good squad coming to town
this weekend on Saturday night, sevenpoint thirty seven o'clock pregame show obviously on

(37:01):
the radio station, but give usa thought on Minnesota third in the Western
Conference and a real tough matchup foryou guys. Yeah, surprise, maybe
a little bit some people. Theyhave a young coach come in, you
know, a month into their seasonalready they've done well. Their defensive team
like to get out on the counterattack, so you know, that's kind

(37:22):
of been one of our achilles heels. So again in training all this week,
we're gonna talk about how to breakdown a back line of five and
you know, make sure that youknow we don't catch on any get caught
on any counter attacks. I loveit. Go get him Saturday. We're
talking a week. I appreciate thisman, all right, take care,
guys, see it all right,Bud, Brian Schmetzer with us on the

(37:43):
radio show We're Gonna Break. StevenSuz is gonna pop on for a quick
couple of minutes, Dick and giveus his thoughts on the Brian wu situation.
You haven't heard. He's been scratchedfrom tonight's game, waiting the results
of an MRI and then Tyler Lockettgonna stop buying about fifteen right here on
ninety three three KJRFM