September 11, 2025 • 32 mins
Women’s hoops is where it’s at.
Yes, the WNBA regular season ends today, but this episode of The GIST of It is all about the offseason plans for the best hoopers in the game. Unrivaled, the 3v3 league founded by Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, will be bigger and better than ever for its second season, boasting new investments and even more teams. And we’re digging into all of it, including how the league continues to lean into its player-first ethos. Buckets, indeed.
Thanks to Fan Duel for their support of this podcast. We partnered with FanDuel to bring back our free-to-play Women's Pro Basketball Bracket Challenge. Visit thegistsports.com to register and make your picks.
Show notes:
https://unsportsmanlikeconduct.org/
More on The GIST:
☎️ Leave us a voicemail! Call us at 1-437-564-5579 or hold down on this link🎧 Subscribe: thegistsports.com/subscribepod
✉️ Email: pod@thegistsports.com
📷 Instagram: @thegistca @thegistusa
🐦 X: @thegistpod
Yes, the WNBA regular season ends today, but this episode of The GIST of It is all about the offseason plans for the best hoopers in the game. Unrivaled, the 3v3 league founded by Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, will be bigger and better than ever for its second season, boasting new investments and even more teams. And we’re digging into all of it, including how the league continues to lean into its player-first ethos. Buckets, indeed.
Thanks to Fan Duel for their support of this podcast. We partnered with FanDuel to bring back our free-to-play Women's Pro Basketball Bracket Challenge. Visit thegistsports.com to register and make your picks.
Show notes:
https://unsportsmanlikeconduct.org/
More on The GIST:
☎️ Leave us a voicemail! Call us at 1-437-564-5579 or hold down on this link🎧 Subscribe: thegistsports.com/subscribepod
✉️ Email: pod@thegistsports.com
📷 Instagram: @thegistca @thegistusa
🐦 X: @thegistpod
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Today's Thursday, September eleventh, and you are listening to the
gist of it as per usual.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
We're your co hosts.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
I'm Ellen Hyslop and I'm Se Frotz.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
And today's the final day of the WNBA regular season.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Steph, can you believe that we are here?
Speaker 3 (00:24):
No, this summer flew by, don't you agree? No? Oh?
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Okay, yeah? Sorry? You work harder than me.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
I feel like this summer has not flown by, maybe
because I feel like I have taken advantage of it,
or to your point, maybe been working hard. There's definitely
been less travel for me this year, so it feels
less broken up, perhaps, but I feel like.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
It's been a long, hot summer.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
You know who's that?
Speaker 1 (00:58):
I don't know who actually sings it. It is a kind
of song. I do go country in the summer, not
in the winter. No, country music's only for the summer.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
But the country music is so sad, and people get
sad in the winter.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Not us though, But you know me, I don't really
listen to sad music unless it's Adele, and then we're
listening to it for the music and the tone and
her voice. But otherwise I don't listen to sad music.
So I'm listening to fun country.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Fun country because it's a fun type of love.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yes, so we're not going to get into a WNBA
playoff preview just yet because we want to see where
the chips fall on the WNBA side in today's last
day of the regular season. So we want to talk
about unrivaled. And the reason why we want to talk
about Unrivaled is that after the inaugural season, season two
(01:51):
is coming back in January and there has been some
serious investment news dropping a couple of teams are joining
and for con Texas is the three on three off
season league that was founded by Nafisa Collier and Brianna Stewart.
Collier plays for the Minnesota Lynx. Stewie plays for the
New York Liberty and it is just taking off.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
It's so fun to see.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
And so this is what we like to call a
little one two punch and that we get to talk
about women's sports, but we also get to talk about
the business side of women's sports, which we also have
a newsletter for. So we're very well up to speed
on this on this topic and intersection, you.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Do both, we do got both you got both newsletters,
the news get a girl who.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Can do both. That's us, baby.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
I am really excited to talk about Unrivaled. I do
think it is so interesting to see it all unfold
with the season two because I we got so much
to talk about.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
It's business, it's entertainment, it's culture, it's women's basketball. It's
literally perfect. There are some important things though that we
want to discuss.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
First.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Yeah, we need to call an audible here. Okay, I
think everyone who's listening would be familiar and or should
be followed or subscribed to Coach Jackie Jay on Instagram
or TikTok and Ellen, you shared a video to your
Instagram stories and then that's how I saw it in
Coach Jackie Jay, thank you for covering Canadian news. I
(03:16):
do appreciate that because that's not something that happens all
that often. But it's not for good reasons, and that's
why we're calling an audible. So Coach Jackie Jay reported
on this new amusing air quotes Fairness and Safety in
Sport Act that came into effect in Alberta, which is
a province in Canada where parents of girls age twelve
(03:40):
or older who want to now play sports in school,
will need to fill out a governmental form declaring their
recorded sex at birth, and if written complaints are made
against these children, the minister needs to be notified in
the parents slash guardian and would need to provide a
(04:01):
copy of the child's birth certificate or birth registration documents.
So at the time of feeling the form, you're just saying,
I legally swear that my child was born female at
birth or assigned female at birth, but you don't have
to provide documentation, and people can challenge that, and then
you would have to provide documentation.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
I literally don't know what to say.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
It feels like we are living in a twilight zone.
I think that there's a lot of context to this,
and I think, to start, we've talked so much about
the transphobia and anti trans rhetoric in the US, but
I think that sometimes we think that Canada isn't a
part of that all the time, and that it's this
perfect country, And the fact of the matter is it's not.
(04:47):
For those Americans who are listening to the gist of it,
we're so happy that you're here. Alberta is a little
bit of a different province. I would say, you could
potentially compare it to maybe the and South in some
of the ways that it operates, it's not necessarily reflective
of the entire country. However, when we get into those conversations,
(05:09):
I feel like we're separating Alberta from the rest of
the diaspora of Canada. And I think that's really hard
because there are trickle down effects from Alberta, and there's
definitely people who live in all facets of Canada, in
all areas in the US who might also agree with
a province like Alberta or with some of these states
(05:30):
that are enacting similar things.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Yeah, different provinces in Canada have very different cultures, very
similar to the states. So every province kind of has
their own identity, and that identity varies depending on which
province it is, like Alberta and Quebec, I would say,
are quite unique. You could maybe even lump in the
Maritimes together as a culture. So there is differences across
(05:53):
the country. But of course it does matter regardless of
whether or not you're in Alberta, because you know, the
leader of a political party can run in Alberta and
get a lot of support in Alberta because there's a
lot of population and that's how they get voted in.
So there are real consequences that, as Ellen mentioned from
a political party and political aspect, that this could really
(06:16):
spread if we don't get serious about it. And yeah,
the premiere of that province is just a she's not
very bright.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
And premiere would be like our governor. Our governor, sorry,
oh I got beef with her name them. The other
thing that I feel like we need to talk about
here as well is that twelve and older who want
to play sports, and Coach Jackie again did such a
fantastic job of reporting this, and the clips that she
(06:46):
was pulling though, made my heart sink. They were young
girls who were already feeling violated by doing this, and
there were young girls that were saying, I just might
not play sports, and that is because they're feeling violated,
and they're smart young women that are recognizing what's happening
to them. We know that girls drop out at double
(07:06):
the rate of boys by the age of fourteen from sports,
and we know that that significantly impacts their self esteem.
We also know that girls who play.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Sports become women who lead.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
We know that ninety percent of C suite executives played
sports at some point in their life and generally at
a competitive level.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
When we don't let.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Girls play sports, we are missing out not only on
them having incredibly fulfilling lives, there's also a huge socioeconomic
impact of girls playing sports, and it's very negative if
they're feeling any type of way that they can't be
playing sports.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
So there's so much impact here, and I think, Steph.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
You always put it so nice here. There's they're attacking
trans people in this, but so so many people are
impacted by horribly thought out what do we call this acts?
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Horribly thought out acts like this.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
I would also like to take the space here to
really call out and push everybody to be critical thinkers
when consuming media and news about this, because when it
comes to culture wars, things like whether that's trans writes,
what have you to stop quote unquote reporting from both
(08:26):
sides and to always think about this from a logical
perspective and think how is this going to actually impact people?
And do not really necessarily see both sides because there's
not a lot of reason on the other side.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Their kids, let the kids play, Let their children.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Seriously shout out to our friends at FanDuel for teaming
up with us on today's episode. I can speak for
both of us when I say I live for that
edge of your scene intensity that comes when every single
bucket matters. It's almost here, and that means it's almost
time to fill out your bracket for our free to
play Women's Pro Basketball Bracket Challenge powered by Fantule. All
(09:10):
you have to do is make your picks round by
round to crown your champ. I've been thinking about my
bragget for weeks. I'm so stoked what this challenge is
truly for everyone, whether you're a hoop super fan or
you're still learning what a travel is. We want everybody.
If you pre registered or reminder, email will hit your
inbox once the field is finalized. And if you didn't,
(09:31):
no worries. Just head to the show notes for the link,
or go to the Just sports dot com to make
your picks and to join in on the fun one
more time. And that's the Sports dot Com and you
know what. Happy Hoopin'.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
As we mentioned, today is the final day of the
WNBA regular season and playoffs start in just three days.
So exciting, but it's one of the other women's basketball
leagues that has everyone buzzing right now in case you
missed it, on the heels of announcing a whopping three
hundred and forty million dollar valuation with new investments in
(10:13):
the league's Unrivaled, which is an innovative three on three
league founded by Collier and Dewey who we mentioned beforehand,
added two new teams as well as a dedicated player
development pool ahead of its twenty twenty sixth season. So
there's they said, Oh, don't worry, we raise some money
at this three hundred and forty million valuation, and we
(10:34):
have X, and we have Y, and we have Z coming.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Out of that, and with that, we need to discuss
how the league will accommodate these new players with The
plan is for that when an expanded schedule could look
like given the array of injuries that have happened in
the WNBA this season and then also happened in Unrivaled
last year, and how the league is really leaning in
and growing by using player feedback, and that's how they're
(11:00):
proving their league is by listening to the players. It
is a player first league, and it is brand new,
and they do have the luxury of a lot of
flexibility because they are new and they are smaller that
all other other leagues just don't have the same luxuries.
But they're really capitalizing on it and elevating the players
and really doing the most when it comes to being flexible,
(11:22):
and how that's going to help the overall league and
help the players that play in the league.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
I love that you bring that out stuff. We talked
about that in Wednesday Sports Business newsletter. If you're not
subscribed yet, go to the Just sports dot com and
you can check it out totally for free.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Comes out three times a week.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
But we really talked about how because Unrivaled is a
new league, they could do whatever the hell they want.
They could change things. They have the they're empowered to
change things, and they also don't have all of the
traditions and decades of traditions that they feel like they
have to live up to, which I think is part
of the reason why it's been such an attractive asset,
not only for viewers but also for brands and investors alike.
(11:59):
So we're going to get into all of that. Let's
first talk about this three hundred and forty million valuation
and why that is such a big deal.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
So just to mention a third time, because why not.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
The league is valued at three hundred and forty million
dollars after closing its oversubscribed Series B investment round. To
break that down a little bit, when we look online
and we check at the history of Unrivaled in May
twenty twenty four, head of its first season, the league
raised a seven million dollar seed round, followed by a
twenty eight million dollars Series A round in December twenty
(12:32):
twenty four, bringing its total capital to thirty five million.
When you look at retroactives of the valuation of the business,
basically before it launched, the valuation was around thirty five million.
So now that it's three hundred and forty million, we
are seeing a ten x in increase in their valuation,
(12:57):
literally in less than eighteen months.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
That is almost unheard of.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
You said it was an over subscribe Series B investment round.
You are the business owner. Can you break down what
that means for me?
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Yes, So we don't know exactly how much was raised
this time around, but let's say I would I would
expect for Series B, especially if they raised twenty eight
million before. Let's say that they were hoping to raise
forty million. Oversubscribed basically means that they raise let's call
it forty million and one dollar or for or forty
(13:28):
two million or forty three million.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
It just means that they surpassed their goal.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Okay, okay, yeah, and Series B just means like round two.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
So it depends.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
So generally it would go something like Friends and Family
Round pre seed, Seed Series A, Series B, Series C,
Series D, DA Da Da Da Da, and then ultimately
you end up ipoing at some point, so having an
initial initial public offering, and then you would go trade
off stock it exactly. Yeah, but I think that On
(14:00):
for a while will stay private.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
And the fact that it's oversubscribed definitely would speak to
the peel I am assuming, and that's why we're really
trying to nail that down here.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
I think that it's a signal to the market that
essentially so many investors wanted in and everything. Valuations in
startup world are totally made up. It's all supply and demand,
and so this three hundred and forty million dollar valuation
when you're at such an early stage is really based on, yes,
how well they've done and their projections and everything like that.
(14:35):
But It's also really based on what is an investor
willing to pay to get a certain amount of equity, right,
and so they're willing to invest xyz amount at that
three hundred and forty million valuation, and so Unrivaled is
going to take every single dollar that they can so
that the shares are are valued in a certain way.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
And the investors good good company. The names on this
list are incredible Srina Williams, NBA players like Trey Young,
sports execs, Sam Rappaport, University of Maryland president and their wife.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Like, it's a huge list.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Yeah, and the list initially in that series A round
was also incredibly impressive.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Warner Bros.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Discovery also increased their investment in unrival So normally, what
happens when you're raising in a startup, your initial investors
or you're round from before investors also have an opportunity
to come in. So I'm sure a lot of their
initial investors said yeah, yeah, yeah, I want to level
up to make sure that I can keep as close
to the same amount of percent as I had beforehand,
(15:41):
which is really exciting. Is it?
Speaker 3 (15:44):
What's that show? It's Dragons and in Canada, What's is it?
Shark Tank, Shark Tank.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
I love Shark Tank. What'd you say?
Speaker 3 (15:51):
I almost said shark don Shark Don?
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Hey, why not? Don't you love those shows? It's this
is kind of this is it? I did some pieces
together for me. I've been Shark Tank and COVID.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
That's why you said you pitched Shark Tank.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
No, no, no, I've had some friends go on the
go on Dragon's Den, but no Shark Tank.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
I binge it in COVID. That's how low.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Well no, it's a great show, but binging it like
that's how Losory I was feeling in COVID. No sports,
but also I was like business, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
What's cool in all this two stuff?
Speaker 2 (16:24):
We have been talking a lot about rising valuations and
women's sports on the team side for a very long time.
Most recently, we have the Golden State Valkyries, who've been
valued at five hundred million, and the New York Liberty,
who are valued at four hundred and twenty million. When
you look at Sportico's rough valuation of the teams, this
(16:44):
three hundred and forty million dollar valuation is just shy.
Of those two, it's more than every other WNBA team. Obviously,
you can't This is not apples to apples to me,
this is apples to oranges. We're comparing a completely new
league that's entering at a completely different time than THEBA,
with a completely different parent company slash no parent company,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
But I think that this is saying.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Something in terms of what this means for basketball in
the US, and that Unrivaled is here to stay and
Unrivaled is here to become the destination for off season hoops.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
The next part of this chapter that we want to
talk about is how they are expanding in simply season two.
The league was originally going to stay at six teams
for their second season, but because they outperformed financially with
those projections that Ellen laid out for us so wonderfully,
and viewership numbers increase like they're just growing, and they're
growing at a pace faster than I think they would
(17:42):
have anticipated. So they announced on Wednesday morning two new teams,
Breeze Basketball Club and Hive BC for the twenty twenty
six season.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
I love everything about Unrivals branding. They have hit the
nail on the head. I think that every single team
is named so well. I love every single team's logo,
and I kind of love the QTc factor and a
lot of the teams too. I don't know if that's
the right way to phrase it, but there's something here
that just feels like they know their audience and they
(18:12):
know their players.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
And let's remind folks of the previous existing team. So
Rose missed Laces, Vinyl, Lunar, and Phantom. So those are
the name l Owls, Lunar Owls, Oops, sorry, folks, and
Phantom those are the names Allen's obsessed with.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Yes, So that dedicated player development pool basically means that
they're adding six more spots to the league.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
This is very important. Last year, I would say that they.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Were having a tough time with the amount of roster
spots that they had. I think that it's so tough
when it's a three on three league, but these it's you.
It's hard, you get gas, you get injured in the
same way. And so this will really help. This player
development pool, I think is genius because it's only going
to be made up of w NBA players on their
rookie contracts, and we know that those players on their
(19:02):
rookie contracts only get paid I think up to eighty
thousand dollars a year. So when we're thinking of some
of the biggest names like a Page Beckers or an
Angel Rees or Caitlin Clark, this is a really good
opportunity for them to make some great money with unrivaled
because they make really good player money over two hundred
K for the most part. When these players are not
(19:24):
signed with a team. These players will follow a training
and practice schedule and have access to all of the
amenities roster players have access to, and then teams can
pull down These development players will also have a six
figure salary and a minimum at minima, so so that
means one hundred K for playing as a developmental player
in a three month league in comparison to the WNBA
(19:45):
that runs May to September, getting paid eighty thousand dollars
for forty plus games.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
In six spots, like you're going to get less, Like
obviously all rookies are big names in the WNBA, but
you could get totally. It' a really good development opportunity
for rookies.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Yes, it's really exciting. And this brings the league's total
number of players stuff to fifty four from thirty six.
And I think when we think about playing in Europe
or playing in Australia and things like that. This gives
an opportunity for these women to stay home because the
majority of WNBA players are American.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
That's really really appealing, especially with the rules now with
the WNBA about making sure you're back in time for
the league to start, because that's been a problem in
the past with people who played overseas. There's so many
layers to this, so let's talk about unrivals. Next steps.
To be able to accommodate these additional teams and the
new players, the league is going to update its facilities.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
This is just wild to me.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
They're moving so fast. They will still use the same
arena that they played in last year in Florida, but
they're adding a fifteen k square feed facility for players,
including a second practice court and an additional one hundred
and fifty seats to the game arena. So a capacity
to actually watch will now be a thousand.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Which is really small for professional sports, especially for professional basketball,
where we're seeing tens of thousands of people watching a
WNBA game. Steph, you and I didn't have the opportunity
to go to Miami last year, but several people on
the Just team had the opportunity to go, and they
love the atmosphere being really small, and I think that
(21:26):
there's something you know in luxury goods on purpose don't
mark it to everyone, and they try not to make
it available to everyone. I think that's kind of what
we're experiencing here with Unrivaled, and that they want it
to almost feel like a high school.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
You have to be in the know, you have to
be in the.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Mix to be their type thing, and then you can
watch from home and there's this thing where you're like, oh,
I just really want it in the same way you want,
I don't know, a Hermes bag, but you can't necessarily
have the hermez BG.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
But you can love it from afar and still be
a massive fan of it.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
And how they're marketing this league is that they want
to be the spot for all stars and it's going
to be an intimate environment, or it is an intimate environment.
They want to be the home for the best players
in the world and to really be up close and personal,
and that environment is a huge sell.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Yeah, it's really great.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
They're listening to the players, they're figuring out how to
set themselves up for success. They're also making changes to
their scheduling. In twenty twenty six, there's going to be
four game nights per week.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
There were three.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Last season, but the new schedule will also eliminate back
to back games. And I think that that's really important,
especially when we look at quote unquote load management in
basketball period on the men's side, on the women's side,
and really trying to reduce injuries, and.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
It's really important. Three on three is that's hard on
the body. Obviously basketball period is hard on the body,
but three on three style of play is like they're
playing on a smaller court, but they still have to
cover so much more space with fewer players on the hardwood.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
So can only imagine, yeah, I can only imagine.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
So to wrap everything up and to make this kind
of full circle back to our main takeaway, Unrivaled has
so much more flexibility, as we said, than any other league,
including the WNBA, because they are so new, they are
a startup, their scale up, they have a lot of
people able to work for them. Now with that, you know,
(23:25):
probably forty plus million dollar investment, but they're still able
to adjust on the fly based off of their learnings
and because they aren't beholden to anyone yet, and I
think they've done such a good job. Steff, Yes, their
player first, but I would also argue that they are
fan first, and they also really understand their community and
their branding and what they stand for is their asset
(23:48):
to how they're bringing in more people into the game
and more fans into the game, and also how their
cultural currency brings in brands right. And so I think
that they've really been so intentional and so smart at
what is it that makes them different, what are they
going to keep on leaning into and why is that.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Also attractive to brands to be associated with them. A
big thanks for.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Our pals up FanDuel for sponsoring today's episode and for
powering our second annual women's pro basketball bracket challenge, the
eighteen bracket Alamarch Madness drops tonight and that's your cue
to lock in your picks and if you're looking for
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(24:32):
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(24:55):
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and have some fun getting some skin in the game.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
Now it's time for our Personal Training Sash. This is
where we would love to answer your heart ending questions
about anything, and we mean anything in the sports world.
And if you don't have a question, your comment, your
hot take, we want you to be involved in the
content creation of this podcast.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Yes, and in today's personal training Sash too.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
This is also us highlighting someone doing amazing work. And
so I say this to our team sometimes I don't
know what I don't know, and I don't know until
you tell me, right, And.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
So I think you just sounded like a dad. I'm
so sorry. Call me Alan, call me Alan. That's my
alter ego.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
But we love hearing all these amazing things that our
audience is doing and that our gisters are doing. And
you guys are so fucking cool, like it's incredible, and
so also Breg literally email us, call us and Breg
and if you want to promote something like let's be reasonable,
but if you.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Want to promote something, also email us.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
And if we really enjoyed it and if we think
it's cool, we're going to share it with gisters too,
And I think that's what we're gonna do today.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
So you can email us at podthjisports dot com, or
you can dm ellen at the gist on Instagram or
at Stephanie Rots on Instagram. Yeah, or call um or
call us yeah. One four three seven five six four
five five seven nine. That's all in the show notes.
If you also have something that you want to share
with us.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
So to be clear, we're talking about Tally again today,
who we got apecially misnamed Tally Holly. Wait, you know,
but we are here to talk about Tally's Passion Project,
which is a website called Unsportsmanlike Conduct and you all
are going to love it because listen here. It is
dedicated to raising awareness about the prevalence of gender based
(26:57):
violence within men's sports, and they are starting with the NFL.
And I just think that this is so cool, especially
step coming off of making my fantasy team and being like,
who is a consummate good guy and who has maybe
done some things that I don't want to be associated
with with them on my fantasy team. And we need
(27:19):
this desperately across men's sports and then into women's sports
likely at some point too. But I just love how
much Tolley as Auster has taken on this initiative and
created something like Unsportsmanlike Conduct.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
So we're linking that into the show notes.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
It's Unsportsmanlike Conduct dot org. And if you go onto
the website, they have team standings of the NFL, but
instead of saying how many wins, losses, et cetera, the
team's standings are based on how that team has scored
from an ethical perspective. So the goal is to really
hold these teams accountable for things that they've handled with
(27:56):
known player allegations, whether they keep the players on the roster,
if they've acquired them through trades, free agency, etc. So
they're really ranking how these NFL teams respond to gender
based violence allegations, and they score things differently depending on
how if the allegation came up while someone was already
rostered or if it came while they were going to
(28:18):
trade them or something like that.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
It's so important. It's really cool.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
So right now, the Miami Dolphins unfortunately have the worst score,
not the Cleveland Browns right now with DeShawn Watson, he
is not playing. But that's the big thing that we're
talking about a lot on the podcast. But in case
y'all missed it, wide receiver Tyreek Hill, who was previously
accused of assaulting his then girlfriend, has most recently been
(28:43):
accused of domestic violence again by his now wife and
the mother of his child throughout those divorce proceedings. I
wouldn't say by any stretch this is new news in
the NFL.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
We chat about Tyreek Hill, Steff.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
When we started the podcast, I want to say, twenty twenty,
twenty twenty one, and so that is why my enemy
Dolphins right now are at the top of the list.
And so I'm I think this is really interesting. It
will be really cool to see how this potentially blows
out for leagues for specific players and just showed out
(29:21):
like this is so cool to be able to do
something like this, And we want to hear more of
what you all are up to and what you're interested in.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
I've always wanted something like this, especially if you are
a new fan. I'm much newer to the NFL than
Ellen would be. She grew up watching the NFL from birth,
and so it is really something I've always wanted to
know and to see something so plainly kind of lay
out the institutional failures that come with not taking into
(29:51):
consideration these allegations. It's so so interesting, especially if you
are a newer fan, if you are looking for a
team to pick, this could help inform your decision terms
of where you want to put your money, your time,
your effort.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
What a great way to phrase that.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
I love that, Seph, and I think that's the best
way to end today's episode. Thank y'all so much for
tuning in. We had so much fun. We hope that
you had as much fun as us.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
We'll be back in your feed with the new podcast
on Tuesday. In the meantime, you've enjoyed today's episode, we
would love if you could rate, review, subscribe, and join
us in sending in a personal training slash.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Yes call us please. We love hearing your voices.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
This episode was edited vice Savannah Held and produced by
Lisa Minotillo.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
And Alexandra Puccio again.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
I'm Ellan Hisslap and I'm Steph Rots and we'll be
back in your feet on Tuesday.
Hello everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Today's Thursday, September eleventh, and you are listening to the
gist of it as per usual.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
We're your co hosts.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
I'm Ellen Hyslop and I'm Se Frotz.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
And today's the final day of the WNBA regular season.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Steph, can you believe that we are here?
Speaker 3 (00:24):
No, this summer flew by, don't you agree? No? Oh?
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Okay, yeah? Sorry? You work harder than me.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
I feel like this summer has not flown by, maybe
because I feel like I have taken advantage of it,
or to your point, maybe been working hard. There's definitely
been less travel for me this year, so it feels
less broken up, perhaps, but I feel like.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
It's been a long, hot summer.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
You know who's that?
Speaker 1 (00:58):
I don't know who actually sings it. It is a kind
of song. I do go country in the summer, not
in the winter. No, country music's only for the summer.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
But the country music is so sad, and people get
sad in the winter.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Not us though, But you know me, I don't really
listen to sad music unless it's Adele, and then we're
listening to it for the music and the tone and
her voice. But otherwise I don't listen to sad music.
So I'm listening to fun country.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Fun country because it's a fun type of love.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yes, so we're not going to get into a WNBA
playoff preview just yet because we want to see where
the chips fall on the WNBA side in today's last
day of the regular season. So we want to talk
about unrivaled. And the reason why we want to talk
about Unrivaled is that after the inaugural season, season two
(01:51):
is coming back in January and there has been some
serious investment news dropping a couple of teams are joining
and for con Texas is the three on three off
season league that was founded by Nafisa Collier and Brianna Stewart.
Collier plays for the Minnesota Lynx. Stewie plays for the
New York Liberty and it is just taking off.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
It's so fun to see.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
And so this is what we like to call a
little one two punch and that we get to talk
about women's sports, but we also get to talk about
the business side of women's sports, which we also have
a newsletter for. So we're very well up to speed
on this on this topic and intersection, you.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Do both, we do got both you got both newsletters,
the news get a girl who.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Can do both. That's us, baby.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
I am really excited to talk about Unrivaled. I do
think it is so interesting to see it all unfold
with the season two because I we got so much
to talk about.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
It's business, it's entertainment, it's culture, it's women's basketball. It's
literally perfect. There are some important things though that we
want to discuss.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
First.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Yeah, we need to call an audible here. Okay, I
think everyone who's listening would be familiar and or should
be followed or subscribed to Coach Jackie Jay on Instagram
or TikTok and Ellen, you shared a video to your
Instagram stories and then that's how I saw it in
Coach Jackie Jay, thank you for covering Canadian news. I
(03:16):
do appreciate that because that's not something that happens all
that often. But it's not for good reasons, and that's
why we're calling an audible. So Coach Jackie Jay reported
on this new amusing air quotes Fairness and Safety in
Sport Act that came into effect in Alberta, which is
a province in Canada where parents of girls age twelve
(03:40):
or older who want to now play sports in school,
will need to fill out a governmental form declaring their
recorded sex at birth, and if written complaints are made
against these children, the minister needs to be notified in
the parents slash guardian and would need to provide a
(04:01):
copy of the child's birth certificate or birth registration documents.
So at the time of feeling the form, you're just saying,
I legally swear that my child was born female at
birth or assigned female at birth, but you don't have
to provide documentation, and people can challenge that, and then
you would have to provide documentation.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
I literally don't know what to say.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
It feels like we are living in a twilight zone.
I think that there's a lot of context to this,
and I think, to start, we've talked so much about
the transphobia and anti trans rhetoric in the US, but
I think that sometimes we think that Canada isn't a
part of that all the time, and that it's this
perfect country, And the fact of the matter is it's not.
(04:47):
For those Americans who are listening to the gist of it,
we're so happy that you're here. Alberta is a little
bit of a different province. I would say, you could
potentially compare it to maybe the and South in some
of the ways that it operates, it's not necessarily reflective
of the entire country. However, when we get into those conversations,
(05:09):
I feel like we're separating Alberta from the rest of
the diaspora of Canada. And I think that's really hard
because there are trickle down effects from Alberta, and there's
definitely people who live in all facets of Canada, in
all areas in the US who might also agree with
a province like Alberta or with some of these states
(05:30):
that are enacting similar things.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Yeah, different provinces in Canada have very different cultures, very
similar to the states. So every province kind of has
their own identity, and that identity varies depending on which
province it is, like Alberta and Quebec, I would say,
are quite unique. You could maybe even lump in the
Maritimes together as a culture. So there is differences across
(05:53):
the country. But of course it does matter regardless of
whether or not you're in Alberta, because you know, the
leader of a political party can run in Alberta and
get a lot of support in Alberta because there's a
lot of population and that's how they get voted in.
So there are real consequences that, as Ellen mentioned from
a political party and political aspect, that this could really
(06:16):
spread if we don't get serious about it. And yeah,
the premiere of that province is just a she's not
very bright.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
And premiere would be like our governor. Our governor, sorry,
oh I got beef with her name them. The other
thing that I feel like we need to talk about
here as well is that twelve and older who want
to play sports, and Coach Jackie again did such a
fantastic job of reporting this, and the clips that she
(06:46):
was pulling though, made my heart sink. They were young
girls who were already feeling violated by doing this, and
there were young girls that were saying, I just might
not play sports, and that is because they're feeling violated,
and they're smart young women that are recognizing what's happening
to them. We know that girls drop out at double
(07:06):
the rate of boys by the age of fourteen from sports,
and we know that that significantly impacts their self esteem.
We also know that girls who play.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Sports become women who lead.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
We know that ninety percent of C suite executives played
sports at some point in their life and generally at
a competitive level.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
When we don't let.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Girls play sports, we are missing out not only on
them having incredibly fulfilling lives, there's also a huge socioeconomic
impact of girls playing sports, and it's very negative if
they're feeling any type of way that they can't be
playing sports.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
So there's so much impact here, and I think, Steph.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
You always put it so nice here. There's they're attacking
trans people in this, but so so many people are
impacted by horribly thought out what do we call this acts?
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Horribly thought out acts like this.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
I would also like to take the space here to
really call out and push everybody to be critical thinkers
when consuming media and news about this, because when it
comes to culture wars, things like whether that's trans writes,
what have you to stop quote unquote reporting from both
(08:26):
sides and to always think about this from a logical
perspective and think how is this going to actually impact people?
And do not really necessarily see both sides because there's
not a lot of reason on the other side.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Their kids, let the kids play, Let their children.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Seriously shout out to our friends at FanDuel for teaming
up with us on today's episode. I can speak for
both of us when I say I live for that
edge of your scene intensity that comes when every single
bucket matters. It's almost here, and that means it's almost
time to fill out your bracket for our free to
play Women's Pro Basketball Bracket Challenge powered by Fantule. All
(09:10):
you have to do is make your picks round by
round to crown your champ. I've been thinking about my
bragget for weeks. I'm so stoked what this challenge is
truly for everyone, whether you're a hoop super fan or
you're still learning what a travel is. We want everybody.
If you pre registered or reminder, email will hit your
inbox once the field is finalized. And if you didn't,
(09:31):
no worries. Just head to the show notes for the link,
or go to the Just sports dot com to make
your picks and to join in on the fun one
more time. And that's the Sports dot Com and you
know what. Happy Hoopin'.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
As we mentioned, today is the final day of the
WNBA regular season and playoffs start in just three days.
So exciting, but it's one of the other women's basketball
leagues that has everyone buzzing right now in case you
missed it, on the heels of announcing a whopping three
hundred and forty million dollar valuation with new investments in
(10:13):
the league's Unrivaled, which is an innovative three on three
league founded by Collier and Dewey who we mentioned beforehand,
added two new teams as well as a dedicated player
development pool ahead of its twenty twenty sixth season. So
there's they said, Oh, don't worry, we raise some money
at this three hundred and forty million valuation, and we
(10:34):
have X, and we have Y, and we have Z coming.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Out of that, and with that, we need to discuss
how the league will accommodate these new players with The
plan is for that when an expanded schedule could look
like given the array of injuries that have happened in
the WNBA this season and then also happened in Unrivaled
last year, and how the league is really leaning in
and growing by using player feedback, and that's how they're
(11:00):
proving their league is by listening to the players. It
is a player first league, and it is brand new,
and they do have the luxury of a lot of
flexibility because they are new and they are smaller that
all other other leagues just don't have the same luxuries.
But they're really capitalizing on it and elevating the players
and really doing the most when it comes to being flexible,
(11:22):
and how that's going to help the overall league and
help the players that play in the league.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
I love that you bring that out stuff. We talked
about that in Wednesday Sports Business newsletter. If you're not
subscribed yet, go to the Just sports dot com and
you can check it out totally for free.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Comes out three times a week.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
But we really talked about how because Unrivaled is a
new league, they could do whatever the hell they want.
They could change things. They have the they're empowered to
change things, and they also don't have all of the
traditions and decades of traditions that they feel like they
have to live up to, which I think is part
of the reason why it's been such an attractive asset,
not only for viewers but also for brands and investors alike.
(11:59):
So we're going to get into all of that. Let's
first talk about this three hundred and forty million valuation
and why that is such a big deal.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
So just to mention a third time, because why not.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
The league is valued at three hundred and forty million
dollars after closing its oversubscribed Series B investment round. To
break that down a little bit, when we look online
and we check at the history of Unrivaled in May
twenty twenty four, head of its first season, the league
raised a seven million dollar seed round, followed by a
twenty eight million dollars Series A round in December twenty
(12:32):
twenty four, bringing its total capital to thirty five million.
When you look at retroactives of the valuation of the business,
basically before it launched, the valuation was around thirty five million.
So now that it's three hundred and forty million, we
are seeing a ten x in increase in their valuation,
(12:57):
literally in less than eighteen months.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
That is almost unheard of.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
You said it was an over subscribe Series B investment round.
You are the business owner. Can you break down what
that means for me?
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Yes, So we don't know exactly how much was raised
this time around, but let's say I would I would
expect for Series B, especially if they raised twenty eight
million before. Let's say that they were hoping to raise
forty million. Oversubscribed basically means that they raise let's call
it forty million and one dollar or for or forty
(13:28):
two million or forty three million.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
It just means that they surpassed their goal.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Okay, okay, yeah, and Series B just means like round two.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
So it depends.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
So generally it would go something like Friends and Family
Round pre seed, Seed Series A, Series B, Series C,
Series D, DA Da Da Da Da, and then ultimately
you end up ipoing at some point, so having an
initial initial public offering, and then you would go trade
off stock it exactly. Yeah, but I think that On
(14:00):
for a while will stay private.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
And the fact that it's oversubscribed definitely would speak to
the peel I am assuming, and that's why we're really
trying to nail that down here.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
I think that it's a signal to the market that
essentially so many investors wanted in and everything. Valuations in
startup world are totally made up. It's all supply and demand,
and so this three hundred and forty million dollar valuation
when you're at such an early stage is really based on, yes,
how well they've done and their projections and everything like that.
(14:35):
But It's also really based on what is an investor
willing to pay to get a certain amount of equity, right,
and so they're willing to invest xyz amount at that
three hundred and forty million valuation, and so Unrivaled is
going to take every single dollar that they can so
that the shares are are valued in a certain way.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
And the investors good good company. The names on this
list are incredible Srina Williams, NBA players like Trey Young,
sports execs, Sam Rappaport, University of Maryland president and their wife.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Like, it's a huge list.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Yeah, and the list initially in that series A round
was also incredibly impressive.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Warner Bros.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Discovery also increased their investment in unrival So normally, what
happens when you're raising in a startup, your initial investors
or you're round from before investors also have an opportunity
to come in. So I'm sure a lot of their
initial investors said yeah, yeah, yeah, I want to level
up to make sure that I can keep as close
to the same amount of percent as I had beforehand,
(15:41):
which is really exciting. Is it?
Speaker 3 (15:44):
What's that show? It's Dragons and in Canada, What's is it?
Shark Tank, Shark Tank.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
I love Shark Tank. What'd you say?
Speaker 3 (15:51):
I almost said shark don Shark Don?
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Hey, why not? Don't you love those shows? It's this
is kind of this is it? I did some pieces
together for me. I've been Shark Tank and COVID.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
That's why you said you pitched Shark Tank.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
No, no, no, I've had some friends go on the
go on Dragon's Den, but no Shark Tank.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
I binge it in COVID. That's how low.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Well no, it's a great show, but binging it like
that's how Losory I was feeling in COVID. No sports,
but also I was like business, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
What's cool in all this two stuff?
Speaker 2 (16:24):
We have been talking a lot about rising valuations and
women's sports on the team side for a very long time.
Most recently, we have the Golden State Valkyries, who've been
valued at five hundred million, and the New York Liberty,
who are valued at four hundred and twenty million. When
you look at Sportico's rough valuation of the teams, this
(16:44):
three hundred and forty million dollar valuation is just shy.
Of those two, it's more than every other WNBA team. Obviously,
you can't This is not apples to apples to me,
this is apples to oranges. We're comparing a completely new
league that's entering at a completely different time than THEBA,
with a completely different parent company slash no parent company,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
But I think that this is saying.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Something in terms of what this means for basketball in
the US, and that Unrivaled is here to stay and
Unrivaled is here to become the destination for off season hoops.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
The next part of this chapter that we want to
talk about is how they are expanding in simply season two.
The league was originally going to stay at six teams
for their second season, but because they outperformed financially with
those projections that Ellen laid out for us so wonderfully,
and viewership numbers increase like they're just growing, and they're
growing at a pace faster than I think they would
(17:42):
have anticipated. So they announced on Wednesday morning two new teams,
Breeze Basketball Club and Hive BC for the twenty twenty
six season.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
I love everything about Unrivals branding. They have hit the
nail on the head. I think that every single team
is named so well. I love every single team's logo,
and I kind of love the QTc factor and a
lot of the teams too. I don't know if that's
the right way to phrase it, but there's something here
that just feels like they know their audience and they
(18:12):
know their players.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
And let's remind folks of the previous existing team. So
Rose missed Laces, Vinyl, Lunar, and Phantom. So those are
the name l Owls, Lunar Owls, Oops, sorry, folks, and
Phantom those are the names Allen's obsessed with.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Yes, So that dedicated player development pool basically means that
they're adding six more spots to the league.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
This is very important. Last year, I would say that they.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Were having a tough time with the amount of roster
spots that they had. I think that it's so tough
when it's a three on three league, but these it's you.
It's hard, you get gas, you get injured in the
same way. And so this will really help. This player
development pool, I think is genius because it's only going
to be made up of w NBA players on their
rookie contracts, and we know that those players on their
(19:02):
rookie contracts only get paid I think up to eighty
thousand dollars a year. So when we're thinking of some
of the biggest names like a Page Beckers or an
Angel Rees or Caitlin Clark, this is a really good
opportunity for them to make some great money with unrivaled
because they make really good player money over two hundred
K for the most part. When these players are not
(19:24):
signed with a team. These players will follow a training
and practice schedule and have access to all of the
amenities roster players have access to, and then teams can
pull down These development players will also have a six
figure salary and a minimum at minima, so so that
means one hundred K for playing as a developmental player
in a three month league in comparison to the WNBA
(19:45):
that runs May to September, getting paid eighty thousand dollars
for forty plus games.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
In six spots, like you're going to get less, Like
obviously all rookies are big names in the WNBA, but
you could get totally. It' a really good development opportunity
for rookies.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Yes, it's really exciting. And this brings the league's total
number of players stuff to fifty four from thirty six.
And I think when we think about playing in Europe
or playing in Australia and things like that. This gives
an opportunity for these women to stay home because the
majority of WNBA players are American.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
That's really really appealing, especially with the rules now with
the WNBA about making sure you're back in time for
the league to start, because that's been a problem in
the past with people who played overseas. There's so many
layers to this, so let's talk about unrivals. Next steps.
To be able to accommodate these additional teams and the
new players, the league is going to update its facilities.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
This is just wild to me.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
They're moving so fast. They will still use the same
arena that they played in last year in Florida, but
they're adding a fifteen k square feed facility for players,
including a second practice court and an additional one hundred
and fifty seats to the game arena. So a capacity
to actually watch will now be a thousand.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Which is really small for professional sports, especially for professional basketball,
where we're seeing tens of thousands of people watching a
WNBA game. Steph, you and I didn't have the opportunity
to go to Miami last year, but several people on
the Just team had the opportunity to go, and they
love the atmosphere being really small, and I think that
(21:26):
there's something you know in luxury goods on purpose don't
mark it to everyone, and they try not to make
it available to everyone. I think that's kind of what
we're experiencing here with Unrivaled, and that they want it
to almost feel like a high school.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
You have to be in the know, you have to
be in the.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Mix to be their type thing, and then you can
watch from home and there's this thing where you're like, oh,
I just really want it in the same way you want,
I don't know, a Hermes bag, but you can't necessarily
have the hermez BG.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
But you can love it from afar and still be
a massive fan of it.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
And how they're marketing this league is that they want
to be the spot for all stars and it's going
to be an intimate environment, or it is an intimate environment.
They want to be the home for the best players
in the world and to really be up close and personal,
and that environment is a huge sell.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Yeah, it's really great.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
They're listening to the players, they're figuring out how to
set themselves up for success. They're also making changes to
their scheduling. In twenty twenty six, there's going to be
four game nights per week.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
There were three.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Last season, but the new schedule will also eliminate back
to back games. And I think that that's really important,
especially when we look at quote unquote load management in
basketball period on the men's side, on the women's side,
and really trying to reduce injuries, and.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
It's really important. Three on three is that's hard on
the body. Obviously basketball period is hard on the body,
but three on three style of play is like they're
playing on a smaller court, but they still have to
cover so much more space with fewer players on the hardwood.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
So can only imagine, yeah, I can only imagine.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
So to wrap everything up and to make this kind
of full circle back to our main takeaway, Unrivaled has
so much more flexibility, as we said, than any other league,
including the WNBA, because they are so new, they are
a startup, their scale up, they have a lot of
people able to work for them. Now with that, you know,
(23:25):
probably forty plus million dollar investment, but they're still able
to adjust on the fly based off of their learnings
and because they aren't beholden to anyone yet, and I
think they've done such a good job. Steff, Yes, their
player first, but I would also argue that they are
fan first, and they also really understand their community and
their branding and what they stand for is their asset
(23:48):
to how they're bringing in more people into the game
and more fans into the game, and also how their
cultural currency brings in brands right. And so I think
that they've really been so intentional and so smart at
what is it that makes them different, what are they
going to keep on leaning into and why is that.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Also attractive to brands to be associated with them. A
big thanks for.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Our pals up FanDuel for sponsoring today's episode and for
powering our second annual women's pro basketball bracket challenge, the
eighteen bracket Alamarch Madness drops tonight and that's your cue
to lock in your picks and if you're looking for
even more ways again, the game FanDuel has you covered.
With FanDuel, you can stay in the action all postseason long,
(24:32):
from single game player props like how many points Las
Vegas aces Aja Wilson my score tonight to futures picks
like who will win the championship. They don't call them
best in class. WNBA bets for nothing. Plus, having fun
doesn't mean that you have to bet big. Simply download
the FanDuel app today and you can put a little
skin in the game, all for less than the price
(24:55):
of your daily oat milk latte. That's how much I
bet again, Go ahead, download the fan Duel app today
and have some fun getting some skin in the game.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
Now it's time for our Personal Training Sash. This is
where we would love to answer your heart ending questions
about anything, and we mean anything in the sports world.
And if you don't have a question, your comment, your
hot take, we want you to be involved in the
content creation of this podcast.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Yes, and in today's personal training Sash too.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
This is also us highlighting someone doing amazing work. And
so I say this to our team sometimes I don't
know what I don't know, and I don't know until
you tell me, right, And.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
So I think you just sounded like a dad. I'm
so sorry. Call me Alan, call me Alan. That's my
alter ego.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
But we love hearing all these amazing things that our
audience is doing and that our gisters are doing. And
you guys are so fucking cool, like it's incredible, and
so also Breg literally email us, call us and Breg
and if you want to promote something like let's be reasonable,
but if you.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Want to promote something, also email us.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
And if we really enjoyed it and if we think
it's cool, we're going to share it with gisters too,
And I think that's what we're gonna do today.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
So you can email us at podthjisports dot com, or
you can dm ellen at the gist on Instagram or
at Stephanie Rots on Instagram. Yeah, or call um or
call us yeah. One four three seven five six four
five five seven nine. That's all in the show notes.
If you also have something that you want to share
with us.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
So to be clear, we're talking about Tally again today,
who we got apecially misnamed Tally Holly. Wait, you know,
but we are here to talk about Tally's Passion Project,
which is a website called Unsportsmanlike Conduct and you all
are going to love it because listen here. It is
dedicated to raising awareness about the prevalence of gender based
(26:57):
violence within men's sports, and they are starting with the NFL.
And I just think that this is so cool, especially
step coming off of making my fantasy team and being like,
who is a consummate good guy and who has maybe
done some things that I don't want to be associated
with with them on my fantasy team. And we need
(27:19):
this desperately across men's sports and then into women's sports
likely at some point too. But I just love how
much Tolley as Auster has taken on this initiative and
created something like Unsportsmanlike Conduct.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
So we're linking that into the show notes.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
It's Unsportsmanlike Conduct dot org. And if you go onto
the website, they have team standings of the NFL, but
instead of saying how many wins, losses, et cetera, the
team's standings are based on how that team has scored
from an ethical perspective. So the goal is to really
hold these teams accountable for things that they've handled with
(27:56):
known player allegations, whether they keep the players on the roster,
if they've acquired them through trades, free agency, etc. So
they're really ranking how these NFL teams respond to gender
based violence allegations, and they score things differently depending on
how if the allegation came up while someone was already
rostered or if it came while they were going to
(28:18):
trade them or something like that.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
It's so important. It's really cool.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
So right now, the Miami Dolphins unfortunately have the worst score,
not the Cleveland Browns right now with DeShawn Watson, he
is not playing. But that's the big thing that we're
talking about a lot on the podcast. But in case
y'all missed it, wide receiver Tyreek Hill, who was previously
accused of assaulting his then girlfriend, has most recently been
(28:43):
accused of domestic violence again by his now wife and
the mother of his child throughout those divorce proceedings. I
wouldn't say by any stretch this is new news in
the NFL.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
We chat about Tyreek Hill, Steff.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
When we started the podcast, I want to say, twenty twenty,
twenty twenty one, and so that is why my enemy
Dolphins right now are at the top of the list.
And so I'm I think this is really interesting. It
will be really cool to see how this potentially blows
out for leagues for specific players and just showed out
(29:21):
like this is so cool to be able to do
something like this, And we want to hear more of
what you all are up to and what you're interested in.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
I've always wanted something like this, especially if you are
a new fan. I'm much newer to the NFL than
Ellen would be. She grew up watching the NFL from birth,
and so it is really something I've always wanted to
know and to see something so plainly kind of lay
out the institutional failures that come with not taking into
(29:51):
consideration these allegations. It's so so interesting, especially if you
are a newer fan, if you are looking for a
team to pick, this could help inform your decision terms
of where you want to put your money, your time,
your effort.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
What a great way to phrase that.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
I love that, Seph, and I think that's the best
way to end today's episode. Thank y'all so much for
tuning in. We had so much fun. We hope that
you had as much fun as us.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
We'll be back in your feed with the new podcast
on Tuesday. In the meantime, you've enjoyed today's episode, we
would love if you could rate, review, subscribe, and join
us in sending in a personal training slash.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Yes call us please. We love hearing your voices.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
This episode was edited vice Savannah Held and produced by
Lisa Minotillo.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
And Alexandra Puccio again.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
I'm Ellan Hisslap and I'm Steph Rots and we'll be
back in your feet on Tuesday.
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