UFL 2025 Schedule Released, What You Need to Know Before Kickoff!!!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
No, it wasn't. Hang on, it wasn't going on. Hang on.
Oh we're on. I think we're on YouTube. All right,
let's bring in John, John, we're on. I was trying
to get it going live on YouTube. I had a
whole thing here. Let me there, all right, we're live
on Twitter. Let me play the engine. Well, there we go, John,

(00:33):
we're here. Sorry, I get on here a stream yard.
It's been the holidays, they've moved everything around. It wasn't
going on Twitter. I think we're good now. Welcome everybody.
Apologize for that. That's why you know it's always hot microphone. John,
You never wanted to say anything but welcome. We are here.
We finally have the UFL twenty twenty five schedule January second.

(00:55):
This was exciting had it you know, they teased it out.
That was nice. I appreciate at that because you know,
in the years past, now, John, I did get up
at five am today Pacific time, just in case because
we never know right and now, but hey, maybe the
UFL is learning now we have new media people in charge.
Maybe they've decided aight am Easter and you know, a

(01:15):
day after the holiday isn't the best time to do it,
so here we go. It was like eleven Easter or
eleven am Pacific. Today we got everything out. We'll go
through all that today. Welcome everyone, Please like and subscribe.
Coming off our CFL coverage, this is the Marcust. John
Lewis has his own YouTube channel. John Lewis Sports a
little bit more bite size things, so like subscribe to

(01:38):
both join the channel membership. I think we've even added
some members. But getting ready for the UFL season. Here
will go week by week everything through here, give you
all the facts and figures, all that stuff. John, How
the heck are you? Last time we talked, we were
potentially expanding in the UFL, but now we you know,
I think we already have some hot takes on the schedule,
so that should be good. But how are you doing?

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah, I'm doing good.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
Holidays great and uh yeah it's you can tell us
like post holidays because my microphone's all buzzy. I thought
I had a great setup going here. I hope everyone
can hear me, but uh, you know, it's going great.
It was exciting, you know, we we kept hearing we
got all these releases that said the uh, the schedule is.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
In the coming weeks.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yeah, the coming weeks, well, the coming weeks, I think
from October to now. That's been a few weeks. But
it is exciting to have this now and I thought,
this what a good time. I was really hoping it
would happen New Year's Eve kind of since that's when
I think the UFL, you know, dropped all that that
we news we already knew but last year. But it's cool.
I'm I'm looking forward to talking about this schedule. There's

(02:39):
some there's some quirks in there that we can talk
about and some surprises.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
I thought, yeah, so leave your gripes in here, because
this is you know, if you're new to the channel,
we tend to get a little bit gripier on here.
I already see Marcus is complaining about Mother's Day kickoff.
We have a complain about, you know, the battle Hawks
playing too early. So leave your gripes and comments in here.
We'll get to all that, some interesting stuff with the
press release. We'll get through all of that and then yeah,

(03:03):
any questions comments. I just saw Keem Butler is signing back.
I just got tagged in that from MLF football on here.
Can I share that? Am I able to share that
and said, you know, that's exciting here, so all sorts
of breaking news. He's re signing with the BattleHawks. We
have new quarterbacks. So if we want to do in
the actual football stub, will do it at the end.
But this will get you ready for the UFL season,

(03:25):
which is kicking off of March twenty eighth, right, which
is a Friday, and then is concluding on is included
on June fourteenth, So that should be excited. Yet March
twenty eighth Friday, we'll get through all that and then
going all the way through June fourteenth through twenty twenty five.
I obviously we knew the kickoff date before. We are

(03:45):
learning more about the home, the network that we'll be
hosting the championship game, and all of that stuff. So
let's get into it here, John, earlier than last year, right,
we got the UFL schedule. I think it was into
February last year before we how all that? Do you
feel good here? We've gotten through the holidays. I like
them giving a couple of day heads up to try

(04:06):
to kind of do this as opposed to dropping around
in Pressley's how do you feel just about the roll out?
Of this and then we'll get into the specifics.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
I would love to give the right person credit because
I read something earlier and I sold the comment later.
It's like, I love spring football because spring football as
always in UFL, and all of them says, we're gonna
we're announcing that we're gonna have an announcement. But I
do they built something. They built something to this, and
you know, we can't complain because how many times have

(04:33):
we said, like they're not telling us anything or we
don't know. But they really kind of teas this out.
It didn't come to fruition like we thought it would.
You know, Mike Mitchell had said it was. It was
a fluid situation. It was kind of a fluid plan
that they would do like one one day in one
the other. It didn't happen. But I thought this was fine,
and I thought, you know too, it afternoon Eastern time,

(04:54):
eleven Pacific. I thought I thought it was fine, and
I did like there was some hype and and if
you noticed on a lot of those social media posts,
I thought it had some good reaction, it got some engagement.
So yeah, it's pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
Yeah, so let's get into it here. One thing to
keep in mind that we already have a question here.
Why wait so long to release the schedule? You know,
there's a lot of moving pieces here, and we've already
had questions about schedule availability for the different stadiums. I've
seen comments about that, you know, the Brahmas playing on
the road for a while and the six games in
Saint Louis. So we'll get through all that stuff. But

(05:25):
you know, sometimes their hands are tied here and we're
kind of having to roll through. You know, you kind
of got to take the leftovers that you have right
Outy Field has availability issues with soccer, and I know
the ALM Dome hosting at March Madness and all of that.
So there's a lot of stuff to get into. But yeah,
let's get you set up here. So this came out today.
New Comms people in place Jeff Altstauder. It was with

(05:48):
the UFL. He's now with the Arena Football one. Right,
I'm getting press releases from that. I get him still
in the space. But like I said, I appreciate this
press release coming out. I know Mike Mitchell had the
scoop on this. Miller. They have their article up. I
have it linked in the comments for you know, the
whole breakdown of that as well. The anthety Mike did
over at Sports Illustrated, you know, came out today Complete

(06:10):
twenty five. Oh. I was gonna say. What I like too,
is we got the broadcast partnerships.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (06:14):
I'm sometimes like we've already knew the home and away
and all that stuff, But I like knowing, Okay, Fox
or ESPN all that because I was kind of afraid
that we would just get maybe the dates and times
and not the network. So we have everything. This is
your complete broadcast window on here. They're going to complete
forty you know, all forty three games ESPN, ESPN, two
F this one, Fox and ABC. They're kicking off March

(06:36):
twenty eight. Is who said eight pm on Fox. It's
gonna debut their Fox UFL Friday and Unite dedicated to
the UFL action that is taking the place of college
football and also SmackDown that's leaving Fox so looking to
kind of keep their ratings momentum that that they've built.
I'll be curious to see and I've even seen questions
like are they all Friday games? No, but we'll get

(06:58):
through all that. You know, a Friday game each week
week and we have comments here from rest Brandon. That's
all it's excited to see. In addition to games will
be on ESPN, Deportes the beyond, you know, the Fox
Sports app, and the ones on ABC and ESPN will
be on ESPN Plus. During the opening weekend, Fox will
present a matchup between the Brahmas and the Renegades at

(07:19):
four pm, so the whole weekends late and all that.
I hear some breakdowns and then we'll go kind of
week by week. I was kind of glancing through this earlier.
Forty three games being on there, twenty two on ESPN.
Fox will have twenty one. The UFL will feature ten
weeks for regular season, ten live regular season matchups on Friday,
eight teams. There'll be five double headers. We had mixed

(07:40):
feelings about that last year. ABC, ESPN and Fox will
broadcast those. The top two conferences with the two best records.
The excuse me with the you know, the top two
and then the record holders. There was confusion last year
with the playoffs, and you know, Anthony backed about all
that stuff. Seventy four of all UFL games air on
either ABC or Fox, not regularly relegating a lot of

(08:03):
those to FS one and all of that, and then
obviously you can get group tickets. We'll do all the
week by week here, but just the general thoughts on
the facts and figures here, John, what do you make
of all that?

Speaker 2 (08:12):
Well, what I really liked was you could see that
right there on Fox. There's only one game on FS one,
and I think it might be like a Sunday night.
I don't We'll look at it and see. I did
like that, And there's only one game on ESPN two,
So they're really hitting it hard on you know, the
main outlets, ABC, Fox and ESPN. I think that is
a very very good sign. And I love that they're

(08:34):
making the Fox ufl Friday a thing. I think this
can be a thing, and it can be kind of
a you know, we're all living in a niche, but
I think this is pretty cool that on a Friday night,
you know, in the spring that this could that this
really could be a thing, especially if Fox puts a
lot of promotion behind it.

Speaker 1 (08:51):
Ethan, you want to post that comment, You want to
post that in the your link in the comment, we
can pull that up if I can get all that. Uh. Yeah,
I think it's good to have, you know, not have
them on the you know, the the f S onees,
f S two's of the world. Remember back with the
USFL being on the Peacock and all that. The Friday
thing is interesting. We've talked about that because you know,

(09:13):
it was really built into a destination for Fox and
SmackDown and their viewership there for a lot of that
with the WW and I'll be curious because that's that's
not something that that's not just a destination time slot,
you know, just because right that's because WW and Fox
really built that into a lot of their marketing and
promotions over there. I think they were on a five

(09:33):
year deal with them. But that's not like people are
just going to show up on Fridays. You know, you
really have to promote that and work that. But if
they're already trying to brand it as that, I think
that could be really cool and you know, maybe gets
you out of some of the other competition windows you
would normally face otherwise there, And I think you get
a different demo at home on a Friday versus midday

(09:53):
on the Saturday or Sunday.

Speaker 2 (09:54):
Yeah, that's a good point. I mean, your your younger
demo might not see a lot of those Friday games,
Sol Eyes, We'll probably see We'll see all those Friday games.
You're right, but I think it does kind of it
spreads the wealth a little bit. And you know, but
you also look at Fox, did you know sink money
into SmackDown on Friday nights and it was I think

(10:16):
the ratings were really good on there. I think they
took the money and went somewhere else. But if they
put the kind of promotion that they put to me
that they put for SmackDown into the UFL on a
Friday night, I think he can be a thing.

Speaker 1 (10:31):
I would love. And obviously this is you know, pipe
dream down the way, and Fox has so much invested
in this anyway now to kind of keep this lie.
But seeing what the WWE is doing with Netflix I
think is really cool and seeing kind of the promotions
they have and just the added reach of that ride
just talking the worldwide audience of like we're instantly available
to over two hundred and sixty million, I think is

(10:52):
that you it's a Netflix subscriber account right now right
two hundred and sixty, two hundred and eighty million, whatever,
Like even just having the possibility of that and they're
promoting that on the front page when people signed up.
Is pretty cool that, you know, we saw, I was joking,
we saw Bankerchif Football kind of leverage that with Twitch
years ago, like hey, we're going to put this on
the front page, you know, so a we can count

(11:13):
our impressions more, but hey, maybe we're getting people on.
I just think that would be cool. Obviously Fox is
locked into the linear programming right now and that's where
we're focused on. But I always saw the spring football
on the streaming platform that really got behind it would
be really cool.

Speaker 2 (11:27):
Yeah, and you know the AAF tried that somewhat, but
it you know, those deals were different though though that
was pretty much paid time I think. You know, and
you try to find the Bleacher Report app and in
twenty nineteen that wasn't really a thing that was easy
to find, and it was certainly I think I downloaded
it somehow on my smart TV to watch some of
those games. But you know, it's a different world now,

(11:49):
just you know, six years later. So yeah, I think
that's spring football can find an audience. I think you
get the casuals. We talk about that a lot on Network,
but you know, a lot of US hardcore fans, and
I think there's there's more now than there might have
ever been. We can find those streaming apps. I've watched
a lot through streaming. I mean, I'm old, I watched

(12:09):
a lot through streaming. I was able to find those
pretty easily.

Speaker 1 (12:12):
One last thing on this, because the isra all hypothetical,
is just because Lighting says, you know, locking games into
streaming is no good the UFL. I agree, right, obviously
we want to hit that white Just the idea in
this this is someone that lives with the CFL right
now in America with no real easy way to stay like, okay,
some of the games are on the website and some
of the games are in here, and something is just

(12:33):
being able to tell, like if you watch a WWE,
you know, in twenty twenty five, like everything's on Netflix,
you're on Netflix. I just think that has Obviously UFL
has a long way to go to get to that
brand recognition, but I just think that that being able
to simplify it that way is very you know, is
very helpful for that. So let's get into here the
UFL schedule. I know, the teams put out whatever. We'll

(12:55):
just kind of go through their pressure release here, John
said he saw some kind of weirdness opening game. This
is so we already have comments about this right week one,
Saint Louis going into Houston again. A lot of the
the matchups for UFL decisions right the venues might not
always be. But what do you think of opening with

(13:16):
the BattleHawks at Roughnecks. I mean, if there was anyone
in the world the at BattleHawks EO Stallion's in there
or some sort of betther SEXI your master, what do
you make of that?

Speaker 2 (13:25):
That one was a weird one right off the bat.
The first the first thing I saw was because I wondered, like,
I wonder, what, you know what this first Friday night
game is going to look like? What's it gonna be?
This is gonna be the launching point for this fox
UFL Friday or whatever they're calling it. And it was
Saint Louis at Houston enough it was the other way around.
I would kind of get that, because you know it
would I mean, can you imagine what if.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
You can get in You can put anything in Saint
Louis except the championship game that the Vallahawks.

Speaker 2 (13:52):
Rn N and they'll draw, and you know, and what
was surprising was I looked, you know, was the dome taken?
And I started I try. I researched it this afternoon,
trying to find, you know, why maybe they didn't play
in Saint Louis. I did not see anything schedule for
the dome. Now, people out there that in Saint Louis
and may know, I didn't see anything. I was just

(14:15):
kind of perplexed on I know the Roughnecks are pretty
excited to be back, you know, at TDECU Stadium, but
I mean the general audience on a Friday night, I
don't know that they care that much. I just hope
that the turnout is a lot better. I know, you know,
playing at Rice, Houston fans didn't like that very much.
But I mean, were they really packing td e c U.
I don't know. I hope they do Friday.

Speaker 1 (14:36):
Night comment here, I'm not really were at Sincia. Max
dug In, the former TCU go quarterback coming back to
Texas against Houston. I can promise you that was not
and that like that's a wonderful happenstance. I will promise
you that that is not. They did not flex that
into Week one because of that I think that that's
cool and that's a great storyline, and the UFL needs

(14:58):
more storylines like that and not oh my god, the
league is going bankrupt or the league is going the way.
So I think that that's awesome. That's that. That's a
great poll there. But I guarantee they did not go, oh,
we got to flex that in here now because of that.

Speaker 2 (15:10):
Right, I mean, how many people showed up in Birmingham, Uh,
you know when AJ returned. I mean it wasn't that many.
I mean they had a good crowd, but it was
not So I get it. You know, you're right. I
think that might be a that's a good ad and
it might work. It might work out that way. I
can tell you this. It would st it's it's if
they want to promote it. That's one way to promote it.

(15:30):
I think that is a good idea.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
Just right. Matt comments here. The other comment on here
Mike has and I think someone else had this. Well,
but you know, Friday nights having the games on at
the bar, I think that that's cool. I remember the
first season when we did the you know, we did
the whole Sea Dragons kickoff and all that kind of stuff.
But then I think it was week two. We were
down to Portland, CE and I think it was a

(15:54):
wrestling show. We were seeing something Michael and I and yeah,
having the games on, like at the bar, you know
that we were out of Prosted venue. Oh what is that?
What's going on? Or you know if we're watching and
the way their waitress like, what is that? Like? Football?
Are like? Oh yeah, you know? Yeah, So I like
that being on more And obviously a lot of these
games on you know that's on Fox. Fox has to
kick off. Are you surprised with anything of that?

Speaker 2 (16:15):
Uh? No, not really. I think it felt like Fox
is kind of running this thing. To me, that's the
way I I've failed anyway, So uh that does not
a surprise. But I like Mike's comment that that's one
way to get the thirty in undercrowd to watch the
UFL on a Friday night. I never thought about that.
I think that could get some interest of anybody who's
sitting there, and you're right, they look up there, and

(16:36):
you know, any sports bar, you would think it might
turn on Fox and say, you know, here's this game.
So that's that's great.

Speaker 1 (16:43):
The only thing my question is, and I maintain you know,
we've talked about this before. I don't think you know,
timeslots matter far more any timeslots and dates matter far
more than you know the matchups, right, And I think
this is cool to kind of go through this. And
I'm just more curious to timing and networks and all
that stuff. I mean, this one, of course, because you're marketing,

(17:03):
is the first game. But I don't like the casual
audience isn't going to care. My question is like, are
the rough Necks going to be any good to be
in this game? Like would you want? And not that
you can guarantee this far out like a better or
worse team, right, And we see the NFL try that
all the time. But you're surprised, like the Roughnecks, Yeah,
have had issues through the rebrand and all that other stuff.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
They've had a lot of issues. You're right read, Yeah,
that one was just surprising. It's like, we don't know
what Saint Louis is going to be this year. You
just mentioned, you know, King Butler re signing that that's
huge quarterback situation is going to be interesting to watch.
I mean, I think think for us in this niche,
it would be interesting if you know aj was the

(17:46):
was the Houston Roughnecks quarterback. But but yeah, I just
don't know how competitive this one would be. There were
just a lot of question marks when I saw that.
When I saw that that this is going to be
the Friday night. Hey, here we are, We're on Friday
night and it's Saint Louis at Houston. That was just
a little bit perplexing to me. What and we didn't
get to see you know, the us the USFL Conference

(18:07):
versus the XFL Conference champions play each other. I thought
that might have been cool as as maybe a promotional point,
uh for everyone else. But you know, we'll see what
it is. I I was just kind of scratched my
head at this one.

Speaker 1 (18:20):
Yeah, you know, and I mean it's technically USFL here right,
a conference with the with the Roughnecks. But yeah, we've
gotten the gutten through all that stuff. Yeah, I agree,
I think, you know, championship rematch any other stuff. So
we got to hear Bramas renegades back on Fox Saturday four.
You know, one o'clock Eastern, that tends to do pretty
well right that early afternoon, that kind of the prime time.

(18:42):
If you want to look at it that way and
then yeah, we go Sunday here. But you know, Bramas
Renegades as I do anything for you and back of
Choctaw Fox and everything else.

Speaker 2 (18:54):
I mean that that's fine. Yeah, I mean the Bramas,
I just feel so bad for them. Was it week five?
I think we'll look and see. I think that might
be their first uh yeah, their first home game. Uh yeah,
I mean that that it could be a good matchup.
I mean, you know, we see what san Antonio is
going to bring in. Uh, Louis Perez. Is he going
to be the starting quarterback? Those are some questions I

(19:14):
think that we that'll get answered. But I mean yeah,
to me, that's it's an interesting matchup. Could be an
interesting matchup, you know for the four o'clock Fox audience.

Speaker 1 (19:24):
I will see, yeah, Pat and a couple of people
have said Pres announced he's returning. Is that I don't
know if that's a new thing today or I asked
for a link, but apparently Pres will be back playing,
you know, playing with the Renegades.

Speaker 2 (19:37):
That's I will when the When the Renegades on Instagram
posted their schedule, they had Louis Perez that was it
was the picture so that I cut. So I assume, yeah,
that was going to be the thing.

Speaker 1 (19:46):
Yeah, uh yeah. The other thing to point out, Yeah,
a lot of questions about the Brahmas playing on the
road here. I believe it's the first four or five weeks. Uh,
March Madness and everything they're dealing with. You not only
are we now competing with March Madness in the ratiings,
but now or commuting with March Madness, you know, in
the physical locations of the building. I you know, I
I love the San Antonio market. I love the outmodme,

(20:08):
but like it's I don't know, I don't know if
it's And that's been tough and troublesome here to try
to get that fan base going. And I don't think
that this is gonna help.

Speaker 2 (20:18):
Right, it's you know, how excited are they gonna be
after five or six weeks? You know, maybe they will,
maybe the anticipation is building up. There's gonna be gonna
be a lot to do in San Antonio, but uh yeah, uh,
that's just that's just really tough for them, and you know,
and not even get a full allotment of home games
that everyone else is get.

Speaker 1 (20:35):
That's that's rough. Well, and like imagine you're one and
four and you play, then you come home for the
first time or whether like you know, then you're trying
to get these stands behind. And I'm spoiler alert we're
living through this right now with the Washington Commanders, like
you can you know, nothing puts in Sea. It's like winning, right,
and there's been all this oh in the name and
all this kind of stuff like team wins, it's packed, right,

(20:58):
it's the easiest way. And getting some of these market's going,
like the memphiss of the World and whatever, like if
the team stinks, look at the Edmonton Elks, like, it's
really hard to get fans in there if your team
is garbage. Speaking of a Memphis hosting Sunday.

Speaker 2 (21:14):
There, I'm assuming you don't mean that that team is garbage.

Speaker 1 (21:18):
Come on, Panthers going in there, ESPN hosting their first
game and then the double header there leading into the
Stallions ad defenders. I think that should be a really
cool week one you kind of and the week on that,
you know, the Stallion's going in. We'll see Zach Potter
Wright moving on to Sacramento State doing scouting for them.

(21:38):
I saw so he blocks me on Twitter. So I
don't think I've ever interacted with the gentleman in my life,
but cheers on that. But that's a cool double header
ESPN Sunday Week one and like I said, a big
primetime match for their Sunday night. I feel really good
about that week one Sunday. Do you agree?

Speaker 2 (21:56):
I think that's a great double header to start it,
no question, I'm really interested to see what Memphis is
gonna look like. Uh with you know, hopefully the home
crowd gets there. There's a lot of construction apparently happening.
I don't know that it's all finished yet, so uh,
I'm so hopefully that you know, it's gonna look good anyway.

(22:16):
And you know, with I think you know Memphis in
this rebuild, uh with wizen Hunt that that's gonna be
interesting for you know, the people who follow the storylines.
And then with Birmingham and d C, those two, to me,
I think those two teams could again be like maybe
the cream of the crop this year. D C, I know,
hit a road bump last year and we don't know

(22:36):
exactly what the personnel is going to look like. But uh,
I do I think that is a great Sunday doubleheader,
and there's also something and we can talk about it too.
It's like there's some weird Sunday game times. Uh it
was I thought those are that was kind of odd.

Speaker 1 (22:51):
Yeah, it's a three Eastern. I mean Dan miraclus Is
said yeah to me, and even with the with the
falloff last year, d C still carries that, like that
sexy vibe kind of a team. Does that make sense.
We're like, sorry, the showboats don't yet obviously, like you said,
they're going to go through a rebuild and figure all
that out. We got Jamanos in there as the GM.
You know, we'll work through that. But you know, yeah,

(23:15):
to me, that still speaks prestige right now that you
can kind of count on that being again, I think
that's exciting. That Sunday night game signs of dependents? Anything
else week one here?

Speaker 2 (23:22):
John h No, I mean I again, interesting Friday night matchup,
you know, Saturday could be good and then yeah Sunday.
I like how they're wrapping this up, you know, a
noon and a three easter or I think that's pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (23:36):
We'll see. I'm gonna try to time code all these
we can go week by week. We'll see if that
works as supposed to putting out eighteen videos doing all
the week by week. We'll see if we can do that,
because you could do that, you could crazily like make
a whole video and then have ones for each week.
But we'll see if that all the worktime goes. Week
two here, Friday night going into forward Field, you know,
back there, I think there was it wasn't there some

(23:56):
debate like were they still going to be back? I mean,
we've resolved this all. I think that was one of
the offseason storylines going with I'm trying to remember this
like fog dream that is the holiday weeks here right
now and kind of everything blowing together. Uh, Fox again
Friday night, you know, five pacific, eight eastern rolling in.
You know we're doing that with the Fox. I think
that's pretty set right that eight eastern for that ANBC

(24:19):
hosting Memphis at d C. So they're getting back to
back home games Saturday, five eastern and then the doubleheader
Sunday ESPN and then FS one Roughnecks at Renegades on
the ESPN. Because boy boy, then you put the Brahmas
at the BattleHawks there, you certainly maybe like to flip
those I don't know, maybe just fever dreams of last

(24:39):
year with the Roughnecks and Renegades on that. But twelve
at nine am East Pacific there in Arlington, you know,
for me here watching on ESPN, and then the six
thirty at Saint Louis they get their first home game,
because last year, right it was like week three till
they got to the Ballahawks got their first home game.
So that's it's certainly encouraging.

Speaker 2 (24:58):
I mean, that's really rolling the dice on your your
spotlight Fox UFL game. And we know the Michigan Panthers
attendance has been absolutely brutal. I was surprised, you know,
I don't know all, you know, I don't know all
the behind the scenes stuff about what happened with for
Field and why that contract got signed or even re signed.

(25:21):
But man, if you're gonna be on a Friday, you
know they're making these it feels like this is this
These are the Friday night spotlight games are making it
a thing. And you got the Stallions in there, you know,
playing the Panthers, and if it's gonna be six thousand people,
I just think that is going to be a really
bad look and I'm put obviously, and you know, I
wore my Michigan Panther shirt because I know everybody who's

(25:41):
gonna say I was gonna hate on them. We can
talk about attendance again, but I mean, it's it's just
the fact it's the optics of it. And we talked
about optics a lot, no matter if it's a Saturday
afternoon game or a Sunday afternoon game or whatever it is.
But when this is the Friday night game on a
national network, I hope the miss Chigan fans don't find
more excuses to not come to these games, because you know,

(26:04):
it's Week two. That was a really good team last year,
and I just I hope that this one looks good
for Fox and for the whole national audience.

Speaker 1 (26:13):
In Week two, well, and that's what I was looking at.
I have a separate one, so I cannot distract the
audience by scrolling here. But because you know rough next
hosting Week one, Panthers Week two, that's two questionable fan
base sizes leading out the gate, and you know I
track a lot of just tangentially, however, I say that
word that you know, the WWE versus AW stuff, and

(26:34):
like the TV ratings and deependance and all that, and
like AW is still being competitive with WWE in the ratings,
but then you look at their stands, there's no one there.
At least with wrestling, you can film the wrestling show,
so you can kind of minimize or hide a lot
of that lack of attendance where there's I mean, we've
learned there's just no way. And Fox has no interest
in trying to do any sort of shots to minimize

(26:55):
any of that at all. So you know, it's just, yeah,
it'll be interesting. You got these two prime time if
we want to call these the spotlight uh time slots
here fill in the I mean, you know, and then
like do they move some of these games later if
they're not performing? Like, I'm gonna be curious how long
this this experiment goes on because Fox has put a
lot of time into building this uh you know rundown

(27:17):
here on their time slots the last few years.

Speaker 2 (27:20):
Yeah, it's it's it'll be interesting to see and I
hope again that there's enough you know, juice with uh
you know, with Michigan and with this being a Fox game,
that the fans do turn out. I mean, it's again
you're really rolling the dice on this to me?

Speaker 1 (27:37):
So the week two Sunday, April sixth, uh, that that
will be a spotlight right with Batlehawk's first home game
on there? We have that on FS one, I don't know,
and obviously ESPN and all that, but like, could we
have could we have flip flopped those and could we
have had the first Ballahawks game on the ESPN window?
That would have been my vote? Any other thoughts on uh?

(27:57):
This here says twenty five thousand and four a Field
Friday night. All right, you bookmark this. I'll send you
one hundred dollars on vemo if there are twenty five
thousand at ford Field on Friday April for it, So god, I.

Speaker 2 (28:09):
Mean, I'll double it up. I'll double if there's twenty
five thousand, two hundred coming his way.

Speaker 1 (28:14):
There you go. Anyway, I thought it's anything else from
the week two slate there, because I would flip that.
I would try to get the BattleHawks into the into
the better time slot there at least the network window.

Speaker 2 (28:25):
Oh one hundred percent. And also the same the Battlehawk's
home opener being on FS one. That's that's the one.
It's like that's the one f S one game you're
gonna put on. And I mean, I just I didn't
understand it.

Speaker 1 (28:36):
And it's and I'll say this again, if we have
new you know again, please subscribe like and all that stuff,
and we have new people checking this out. We've done
more interviews with TV analysts over the last few years
talking about all this stuff. At the end of the day,
it's time slot and you know, the time of day
and the network it's on. I mean, we can picky
choose all of this and what matchups and venues and
attendance like, that's what drives the radians. And yeah, being

(28:58):
on FS one, you're always going to hit a fraction
of you know, kind of what you're going to get otherwise.

Speaker 2 (29:05):
Yeah, and it even you know, you compare the FS
one game maybe to what there'll be at least one
regional split. I still think that the regional splits might
might get a higher rating than an FS one game
on a Sunday night.

Speaker 1 (29:17):
Yeah. Yeah, Van, here, did you realize where I guess
the sins now de Trenton. I didn't. I don't randomly
track the right the people that I interacted with four
years ago. Anything else weak to you here here I
should be you know, I pick and choosy things on here,
but I don't know. I'll get behind this Friday thing
if they can get it going. I like having the

(29:37):
consistency of that that, you know, like, Okay, this is
what we're doing every Friday. I think that that is
incredibly important. I like the Monday experiments we tried before.
I like all that, but it needs to be consistent.
No one's going to go out of their way to
find a random Thursday or Monday game. You I mean, obviously,
even with like Amazon and everything with the NFL, it's
to try to get people to convert over to that,
let alone the UFL and Fox agreed.

Speaker 2 (29:59):
I like the it's Friday at eight every week, you know,
and we'll see, like we've already got, you know, these
weird Sunday games five o'clock six thirty. The next week
it's just to me, is weird. But I'm with you
on that. I'm kind of all in on this Friday
night football.

Speaker 1 (30:15):
Yeah, all right, Week three here we got so now
Stallions hosting right first game here Protective Stadium Friday A.
We have Memphis hosting Saturday to thirty and then the
double So we like this seemingly kind of double header
on Sunday at least that's bar Brahmas at Panthers Back
and Forward Field on ABC and then the battle Hawks

(30:36):
hosting on ABC after that. I like the Sunday night
prime of that giving giving kind of a spotlight to
the battle Hawks here. Presumably that's gonna be one of
your best attended with that Stallions, right, we get to
see Protective on a Friday, you know, I mean we
hear a lot of that kind of stuff and attendance,
We've gone through all that, but you like to think
they kind of show up there on a Friday. I

(30:57):
think that's kind of a cool college atmosphere. Feel there
thoughts on this, And I'm trying to check his WrestleMania
weekend is the week of the nineteenth, so that would
be the next week. We'll talk about that, Okay, go ahead.

Speaker 2 (31:11):
Yeah, yeah, I like you know again, Fox rolls and
rolls the dice a little bit because you know, Birmingham
I mean had okay crowds, uh, but not what I
felt like they should have had for the team that
they've had. I think I don't know that anyone would
disagree with that, you know, and be serious about it,
But I do like that because you're right. I think,
on a Friday night in April and Birmingham, what a

(31:33):
perfect time for people to come out, and how good
that would look at Protective Stadium, which is awesome. I mean,
that's like to me, the perfect UFL venue.

Speaker 1 (31:41):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (31:41):
I think that that that's uh, that's really cool. And
then and then yeah, and then you got just the
single game Saturday and the Sunday doubleheader. I mean, to me,
this might be one of the best weeks. I know
it's early on and only three weeks in, but it's
only ten weeks. But it's still three weeks in. This
could be like one of the premier weekends to me.

Speaker 1 (32:03):
Something to kind of talk about here. And I'm just
reading through the comments. I'm starring guys if I see
and like fill up and Mike left questions, I'll star
all the questions, make sure we get to them here
at the end. I just want to make sure we
kind of keep the week by week things a little
bit clean, but we'll get we have good questions about
the pre UFL pre show. We're talking about attendance and
viewership and all that. If, like if Detroit, right the

(32:24):
best team in the NFL right now, one of the
best teams in the NFL goes wins the Super Bowl,
deep run whatever. I just think that's another storyline to track.
I think the Michigan market was far better suited for
the UFL a couple of seasons ago before Detroit's kind
of gone on this meteoric rise. But I don't I
don't live in Michigan or Detroit or anywhere around there, Like,

(32:44):
I don't see. I think it's a hard sell to
go from my jer Goff and this like superstar team
that they put together to like let's go to you know,
Ford Field on the on the Sunday. And that's just
me I kind of thoughts on that because it's you know,
it's a thing I think we got to look into.

Speaker 2 (33:02):
There is that and and maybe there's a contingent of
fans who said, well, we can't get Lions tickets, but
we'd love to go to Ford Fields. So this is
probably be a little better opportunity or a little a
better chance for us, I mean taking a trying to
take a positive out of that, you know that would
you know, to me, could be something. But but you're right,
and when you're seeing your team play at such a

(33:24):
high level, you know, your NFL team, are you going
to buy in to your your UFL team? You know,
I'd love to see it, but the numbers have not
really didn't really bear out in the last couple of years.

Speaker 1 (33:38):
Uh, you turn the negative to do a positive. That's
a pitbull does.

Speaker 2 (33:43):
Mister Worldwide real? Why?

Speaker 1 (33:45):
But no? And I will say, and that's a great
point though, like if you are priced out of the Lions,
if you're priced out, like I know with the Seahawks,
that was a lot of the questions we you know
now questions, a lot of conversations we had with former
you know, Sea Dragons fans or Pagans fans or kind
of whatever. It was, Man, I can bring my whole
family here and do all this stuff, you know, and
it would cost you know, eight times this to be

(34:07):
going to bring my family and kids and everything to that.
We went to the Kraken on Monday, and it was
like a weird game where it was an earlier start
and everyone's off for the holidays, So there was like
you could tell so many people that had like never
been to a hockey game or never gone to a
cracking game. You're like, Okay, let's get out of the way,
let's move on, like let's let but it is, you know,
they have some of those games, and it gives that opportunity.

(34:29):
And so that is a great point. I shouldn't poo
poo that, like if I yeah, if I'm living in
Detroit and I've got three kids, and like, well, I
could never bring them to a Lion scams. So that
is a good point. That is a good point.

Speaker 2 (34:39):
Yeah, I mean I have won every once in a while,
but yeah, I think that's uh yeah, I mean I
can imagine that Lion's tickets, especially right now, are just
out of control. I mean, Chris is right. I you know,
I tried. I was looking at some uh when not
too long ago, when the Seahawks were at the Bengals,
you know, which Cincinnati is pretty close here to Louisville,
and I mean the upper corner of the stadium. Those

(35:02):
are like one hundred and fifty dollars tickets. It's like,
I you know, you just hear about the game when
you're that far up.

Speaker 1 (35:07):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (35:08):
But that's been to me the great thing about UFL tickets,
even though there's been a bit of a price hike.
Is you get a lot for your money as far
as where when you pay a little extra. I mean,
the the couple of times that I've been to Saint Louis.
You know, my wife and I we get like tickets
and you're on the few rows up from the twenty.
It's I mean, it's a good price point for what

(35:30):
you get, and.

Speaker 1 (35:31):
If you're lucky, you even get like a Marquette King
halftime show or post scams. You know you have contents
of that.

Speaker 2 (35:37):
You've seen it.

Speaker 1 (35:38):
Now, this is a good This is just said, well,
we'll move on from week three after this, but it
Mike brings out, this is a good point. You know
what f Lions fans know Jake Bates and say, hey
came from the UFL's go check it out. It's a
great point. I just I I've always this is not
just a Jake Bates or Brandon Aubrey thing or anything.
I've never thought the entire you know, which it's clearly
the league disagrees with, like building our entire identity are

(36:00):
round these three special teams players or five special teams.
Like I think that that is one element of that
and that I think is successful. But like this, I mean,
God bless the people that run in the Panther social
media right now, but like it's like the official Jake
Bates Stan Love account and everything. Okay, I get it.

(36:21):
It's a little much, but I get it. I mean,
I'm also probably not in the age demo that they're
trying to kind of hit with that probably aging out
of that thoughts on that John, I mean, because Jake
Mats is really doing good this year.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
Oh there's no question. And I think that Mike might
be onto something too that a lot of people who
are paying attention to who might be like really hardcore
NFL fans are starting to see that there are some
UFL players who might not be the Jake Bates and
getting that kind of notoriety. But there are guys who

(36:52):
are in the league right now who came from the UFL. Now,
they might be linemen that are you know, that aren't
as popular, but if you're a football fan, you know
who they are. And so I think there's something to that.
It's a lot like I don't want and I'm reluctant
to always reluctant to call the UFL a minor League.

(37:13):
Some people might want to do that, and that's fine,
but it's almost to me like going to a minor
league baseball game. The diehards like to go. A lot
of them like to go because they want to see
some guys who they think are going to play up
a level. And I think there's something to that. So yeah,
I mean, will it be the majority of fans, Probably not,
but I think it could be, especially as you know

(37:36):
pointed out there in Michigan. People know who Jake Bates is,
so maybe they say, well, let's go check this out.
I mean, anything to get a few butts in the seats,
especially in Detroit, there's nothing wrong with that.

Speaker 1 (37:46):
We had six more people in counterass and when no,
it is. But I will say, though, just and we'll
move on after this because now we're just rambling. But
like having kind of this, you know that the football
world's kind of sectioning now. Obviously it's really cool for
fans like us right of all these leagues and you know,
the Spring leagues and CFL and Europe and ELF and Arena.

(38:08):
But like, it was so cool. We were over at
my brother in law's on it was either Thanksgiving or
his his kids birthday. We have them kind of a
week apart, and we were watching the game and I go, hey,
you know that kickoff, like I know the guy that
invented that? Really, I go, oh yeah, Like I just
you know, I just I didn't throw Sam at text
where he's like, wow, that's red. So I just said

(38:28):
that was just kind of cool to be like, hey,
you know this thing. Everyone's been talking about anything else
with that, anything else with Threek three.

Speaker 2 (38:34):
No, I like it. I think this could be one
of the best of the season.

Speaker 1 (38:38):
I agree. Abdul also says, yeah, season tickets have doubled
in like the last two years for the Lions, So yeah,
I mean that's success, right, you do all that all right?
Week four here, so the Friday night again the Panthers.
We love the Panthers, right, but like because probably for
Ford Fields probably empty on a lot of you know,
I mean in theory trying to get these standium of veils.
We like these early Saturday games at chalk time, no

(39:00):
out on ABC. That's kind of similar to the kickoffs
we have before in previous years. Stallions at rough next
year on Fox Saturday Night and then the San Antonio
a standalone game Sunday at Ford Field on Fox. One
other thing to keep in mind is, yeah, this is
WrestleMania weekend, so that'll be going through Friday Saturday. I mean,

(39:20):
this could be could be a rough weekend viewership wise
for that because they'll have the Friday Night SmackDown opposite that,
and then WrestleMania now goes Saturday and Sunday, so it'll
be all the way through and then through Monday. But
it could be interesting that because I think there's a
very similar cross section even though the Vince and all
that isn't still involved. I think the demo you're trying
to get any thoughts on week four here, John.

Speaker 2 (39:43):
This is not my favorite. I don't like that noon
start and then the other ones at seven o'clock. I mean,
I just don't think you're gonna get a lot of
people who are, you know, other than us, you know,
freaks and people who are diseased that are gonna probably
watch every game that are gonna watch both of these
games on Saturday, especially in April, that's when you know,
the weather starts to get a little nicer in a

(40:06):
lot of the areas. So yeah, I don't I'm not
crazy about that one, and again, you know, good for
the Michigan Panthers number one. That's like three straight home
games that they get. So there again no excuse for
the Panthers fans not to show up, but you know,
God bless Fox for rolling the dice here on another
one and hoping that you know that it's a good

(40:26):
turnout on on their what I feel like as their
spotlight game.

Speaker 1 (40:31):
Yeah, we have the I'm Panthers on the road week one, yeah,
and then week two, three, four all at home, so yeah,
I mean you and we hear this a lot in
San Antonio as well, with the terrible scheduling and all that.
It is a lot to ask, you know, to go
to multiple and we saw this in Birmingham with even
with the Stallions, with the non US down with the

(40:52):
other USFL teams a year one, they're like, it's a
lot to go, like even cracking and playing tonight. They
played Monday and they're like, hey, do you want to go?
I'm like, I think I'll just watch it home tonight,
Like I was just there Monday. Like it's you know,
and even hockey is more expensive, but you know, like
even if you're saving cash, you sold you know, it's
still your evening going down, you know, Defenders here again
Sunday night there. Getting the Fox window there at five,

(41:14):
that's seven Eastern always does feel late to me. But
I mean I'm not a I'm not an East Coast person, right,
but I've always feels like, uh, I don't know, you're
starting to get into the later hours there. But I
guess that's not yea late.

Speaker 2 (41:26):
No, I mean seven o'clock is not bad when these
games go pretty quickly. I just think that you're you're
gonna have a split audience today. I mean, you're not
going to how many people are going to watch the
noon game and then they're gonna watch the seven o'clock game.
I just don't outside of the people watching this video
that's that's made it this far, they probably at forty
one minutes in, they're probably gonna be the ones, including
me if my wife will let me.

Speaker 1 (41:48):
Yeah, I'm curious what's going on in between there between
the noon and seven what's on that? What's well, I
guess it's the ABC and then the Fox. You wish
that there was, Yeah, and then you're switching networks, channels
all that stuff. Yeah, all right, we four are we good.

Speaker 2 (42:00):
With that looks good to me, I mean as good
as it can look.

Speaker 1 (42:05):
As good as they can look here. All right, So
back to Birmingham again Friday night, showing out that way,
we have the Ballahawks on ESPN Saturday at seven, so
nothing the early Saturday window Sunday noon and then three,
so you kind of get a little double header that
way on ESPN. I like that, like when you can
get these nuggets kind of going, that's great, it's just
get Could we get that every Sunday? And I understand

(42:26):
at this point not possible, but I think that would
be cool because you just roll one to the other
Almo Dome. Right. So that's the first promise home game
this week five, so they're finally at home and hopefully
they're not not in the It was oh and four
a hole at that point.

Speaker 2 (42:40):
Right now, this one I love the time of all these.
On week five, you've got your eight o'clock game, it's
at and it's at Birmingham, so hopefully you know, people
show out again and then you've got that I like it,
the seven pm game at Saint Louis. So if you
only had one game on that Saturday, uh, you know,

(43:01):
Saint Louis is pretty good for a prime time Saturday
game and then the noon and the three. Uh to me,
I mean, if I had my drothers, this would be
the schedule. This would be the like every week if
you could do it.

Speaker 1 (43:12):
Now.

Speaker 2 (43:12):
I know it's again we've talked about it. It's hard
to do that with when you're talking venues and you're
talking slots for networks and everything. But I I love
how this is laid out, and I think these could
all be really good games. Uh, you know, assuming that
we that you're right, you know, San Antonio might might
just be worn out there, you know, playing away from

(43:33):
the fan base.

Speaker 1 (43:35):
Yeah, and well, I guess I'll have to look at
the end kind of the mouth because the Saint Louis
is getting out of there. So did that happen already? Right?
Where is the other Saint Louis at because they're they're
doubling that, right, it's like both so the week two
Bramas game and then there's another game, but like those
both count as you know, it's a Bramas are home
even though they're away. Mike here has a great comment.

(43:57):
Week five is the NFL Draft weekends already game on
ESPN will follow the end of the NFL draft.

Speaker 2 (44:02):
Car that's good call THATWM there you go, well, I mean,
how how great? That wouldn't that be nice? I mean,
wouldn't that be what a great lead in? You got
people sticking around and then you will say, like, oh
what is this if they don't know? Uh yeah, I'm
glad he pointed that out because I think that's uh,
that'd be That's what a great uh Saturday that could be?

(44:25):
That So that makes sense why that's the one game
and it's at seven o'clock at night.

Speaker 1 (44:29):
Yes, And so you're gonna have You're gonna have a
red hot Michigan Panthers. He just like it's surging. They're
surging Detroit, Detroit. You know, fandom is just at a
frenzy where they have the you know, the Lions are
doing well and maybe maybe the Tigers has started out
really hot the first week and a half of the
MBA season. And you're gonna have the red hot Michigan

(44:49):
Panthers coming in and playing the battle Hawks. But that
is cool. I like that.

Speaker 2 (44:52):
So thank you.

Speaker 1 (44:53):
If anyone else has anything, I back because I just
do the deep dive while this. But that's great. I
think that that's awesome. At the Saturday there seven o'clock
and again, you know we're getting off of these are
all ESPN and Fox, ABC, you know, like you pointed
out before, kind of you know, few fs one whatever,
but really kind of this is this is the leverage
that they got from doing this merger. Was we can

(45:14):
you know, proposition kind of the best time slots we
have on our various network stand to get this going.
Anything else out of this one.

Speaker 2 (45:22):
No, But I think you bring up a good point
when you have uh, you know, Fox and ABC slash
ESPN together on these and they're not not trying to
compete against each other, you know, they're they're trying to
make this league success. And I think that that that
is nothing but positive for all of this.

Speaker 1 (45:39):
You know how often I'm not anymore, but I used
to think often like just a different world we would
have had if they Fox had just waited in the
USFL with well, you know, if they had just kind
of all and this is when it should have been,
and we kind of farted around for a couple of years,
and I just.

Speaker 2 (45:54):
Think about that one.

Speaker 1 (45:54):
You know, if a Fox had just been like we're
going ahead right now, Like, I mean, we would have
missed out on the the lawsuits and the USFL and
the Steve you know, Steve Earhart's of the World and
kind of all that stuff really would have been different
moving to week six here, you know, so now still
Friday night battle Hawks, Now this could be cool. Yeah,
see what the Rene games look like, but battle Hawks
hosting Fridays, Like, I know it's the availability, but if

(46:17):
you could do anything to get some of these hot,
because you know, even wrestling does like that, you know,
the cold open riderer. I think they do the the
industry term where they show the crowd like the last
commercial break right before like if you go to the rescue rides,
they're like, hey, we're going to be live here in
thirty seconds, and everyone cheers and then they start, you know,
and then they start to show and like if you're

(46:38):
watching whatever it's not before, it's so cool because you're like, God,
I gotta I gotta be a part of this, right
because look at this hot crowd and what's coming up next.
You would like them to be able to maybe do
something like that where you would have a ravenous kind
of battle Hawks fan base and go, hey man, look,
we got thirty thousand people standing by for this game,
like stay tuned next. I think that's hot. I would
like that, and I wish that you could get some

(46:58):
more of those on there. Roughnecks hosting that Saturday at
noon and then the double header at noon and four
on ESPN two. We have the Panthers on that early
Sunday that will not be good ratings vies that will
hurt that, and then the Stallions on Fox Sunday May fourth.

Speaker 2 (47:17):
I like it. You're right about that. You know, if
the Renegades are good, and let you know, let if
the King of Spring, Luis Perez is playing at his level,
Saint Louis is hopefully you know, good at that time.
And the good thing is, remember that's seven o'clock Central
time on a Friday night, so you know, and we
all know call is indeed the laws. So uh that

(47:37):
that could be like that's the kind of spotlight game
that we that I think we're looking for, h you
know from Fox. Uh yet uh the DC Defenders in
Michigan Panthers on ESPN two. There will only be rumors
of that game because no one's probably gonna watch that
outside of the people watching here. And then uh yeah,
you know the Roughnecks a Saturday noon game you know

(47:59):
in May there. I hope that that is one of
those where if the Roughnecks fans are serious about wanting
to come back, you know, to TDECU Stadium, that that
would be one of the games that they really show
out for. And then uh yeah Braminson Stallions at four
o'clock at Protective Stadium. Hopefully those are you know, they're
both performing at the level that we think they'll perform at.
So yeah, I mean that that this could be a

(48:20):
really good week.

Speaker 1 (48:22):
Well you're probably gonna get and we need to get
Brett or someone to give us kind of the weather
forecast of temperature index for all of these the Birmingham games,
because we started to get here now where it's like
the guys, it's a little hot here. It's a little hot.
But you know, that's a night game. I mean four
o'clock isn't necessarily a night game, but you know, I
mean that's that's the latest game in that. But you
you know, you start looking at that like are we

(48:44):
do we have noon kick austin Birmingham or whatever. You know,
you start getting some of these markets now where you
can't be Yeah, they're the eight o'clock I'm on Friday
of the week before. Yeah, I'm just trying to kind
of sco back through here. Yeah. Anyway, you got to
keep the Birmingham fans cool. I don't want the weather
to be kind of kind of behold of that.

Speaker 2 (49:02):
I can tell you that first year of the USFL
where they you know, went everything was in Birmingham. I
went down there for a Saturday and Sunday and it
was I want to say, like late May or June,
and I can tell you that, uh my, my sunburn.
I'm almost over the sunburn that from three plus years
ago because there were what it there was no rain,

(49:24):
it was sunny, and it was about one thousand percent humidity.
So people still showed up for the Birmingham game. I
will say that I was one of about fifty for
the rest of the game.

Speaker 1 (49:33):
It's hard like we you know, when we got we
got a lot of Mariner games and I very much
like pick my tickets on where uh you know, like
where the sun is going to be or where this
is trying to be like, because I do I'm like
if it's if it's a Sunday day game. Okay, we
got to sit on this side of the field because
and we went to the Coliseum for the last Mariners
game there we you know, we did the night game

(49:53):
and they were like, all right, we gotta sit like
right behind you know, not right behind home play, but
we're gonna sit right there for the last game. Oh,
I'm this is the worst thing in the world. Like
this isn't even like you're just dripping, Like this isn't
even enjoyable, Like I'm just sitting in the bottle of
funk here. But yeah, I think that's interesting. Ron here,
Mark Cass and Bleacher Brothers got a beer snake draft

(50:14):
to fulfill when we do I don't know what that is,
let me know, I'll do it. I'll do a beer
I'll do a beer draft. And then we had a question.
This is when Chris Chris is Time was saying we're
selling out for a field here. This will be Yeah,
the red hot Panthers hosting. No one will be watching
the game because they will all be in attendance. Riggs.

Speaker 2 (50:35):
That's that's why the ratings will be so low. It's
going to be on ESPN and all the Panthers fans
who exist will be a four field.

Speaker 1 (50:43):
Yeah, Ron's asking me to get beers. Now, this might
be an off air conversation.

Speaker 2 (50:47):
Ron.

Speaker 1 (50:48):
Chris and I got two free beer snake tickets for
you to give away. Can't can't do you ticket giveaways anymore.
Chris got a Chris can Facilita to take about. I'm
not even allowed in the beer snake section, so I
got on. Even if I can give tickets a way
into the beers next section, I can't even attend the
beers next section. But yeah, anyway, Chris is got you know,
we'll start pumping up. Remember like a subscribe. We get

(51:09):
to four thousand, Dustin with Royal Retro's is going to
do a couple of free jerseys, custom jerseys wherever you want,
like I have a C Dragons one or I know
it was a Dragons like away one from twenty twenty.
He'll do all sorts of cool stuff. He's got all
the USFL and CFL and all of that, so make sure.
But yeah, get us up to four thousand subscribers like it,
subscribe so we can kind of get that gone.

Speaker 2 (51:32):
Royal Retros does some awesome stuff. I mean it, it
is incredible I mean, and it's not just like, oh
it's you know twenty twenty XFL, which they did just
put a bunch of new stuff on there, but I
mean it goes back. They've got I mean, they literally
have teams that don't that never existed, and they have
jerseys and many helmets for them. So it's pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (51:50):
They side note the I popped on this, John, this
is a real thing. But it came. I got a
zach Ertz commander's practice jersey right coming from from it.
I think it was from last year because it's the before.
I think they kind of rebranded this stuff right with
the well, no, maybe he's in the NHL. Anyways, zach
Aritz practice one got a super deal, I mean nothing.

(52:11):
And then who caught the game when he touched down
on Sunday when I was wearing a jersey.

Speaker 2 (52:16):
John, listen, you broke a lot of hearts with that win.
By the way, Hawks kill You killed Atlanta's chances there.
I mean it was, yeah, that was tough, but good.
You know what, good for you guys? You need to
not watch that and wear it every Sunday.

Speaker 1 (52:35):
There you go. I gotta hanging right here anyway. Week six,
anything else with us down as we've talked through all that.
All right, Week seven, here we go, we get the albums.
I'm hosting the Friday night one. Could be interesting here
the DC Defenders going in Renigates. They love this mid
afternoon in chalk Taw like they love nothing more than

(52:55):
noon one. Nothing is going on at chalk Taw. Now
you start need to you need to start talking to
the Rangers people about cross promoting that, like, hey, come
see the neon Arlington or the one o'clock Arlington Retigade's
game and then go across the street. We're gonna be
playing baseball at five or whatever. Like to me, that's
a no brainer. And I don't understand whether there's not
more synergy there. Stallions hostings. Now this is when we

(53:17):
get in tricky church Sunday noon hot could be, could
be whatever on ABC and then the Showboats hosting the
prime time here three Easter n the ESPN.

Speaker 2 (53:29):
Yeah that and that's eleven o'clock in Birmingham, so yeah,
that's Sunday school time, the preachers hitting the pulpit at
that time. But yeah, you know, I think I've used
the term roll the dice a few times here on
these Friday games. Yeah yeah, I mean you gotta wonder
if if san Antonio is, you know, having a tough time,
that could I don't know about that, but you know,

(53:50):
it's it's good to see that they finally you don't
get to play at home on a Friday night. Uh yeah,
these are these these could be some interesting matchups that
Hawks show boats game feels like one that I might
try to actually be there for. I'm trying. I'm wanting
to go to Memphis this year, so that might be
the one. Uh yeah, these are some interesting matchups. Uh

(54:11):
and again those Friday games. I'm I can't wait to
see what these look like. And I really hope they
they blow it out like uh, you know the open
of Last Boy Scout when it was a Friday night's
a good night for football and it was like explosions
and helmets blowing up and stuff. I think I hope
that they do something to that effect.

Speaker 1 (54:30):
John, if you go to Memphis, I want you to
record the video of you walking in Memphis and playing
that song that I want if you are going to
be in Memphis. I went to Nashville and then I
I was like, I could live in Nashville. I could
be a Preds fan. I could be a Titans fan
like I kind of like that, and I could we
live in Smashville and all that. But you know, yeah

(54:53):
Memphis and yeah play that song with that one quick thing.
Chris became a new member I think came back. But
just remember ninety nine said a month you know, just
support the channel. It's like it just makes me feel
good to be like I got a new member here.
Like anyway, it's little. It's that eight seventy five of
passive income a month, John, that's really going to sink
I retire my hits.

Speaker 2 (55:14):
It'll buy something eight seventy five. That's a that's almost
a beer at a Krakens game. Probably not about half
of one.

Speaker 1 (55:20):
Maybe yeah we get uh yeah, it's about twenty dollars
for a triple cheek other Uh. Anyway, this was gonna
be my this is my bold hot take here. So
this is Mines August, uh the Brahmas on Friday Night here.
If the if Fox is to flex the UFL games,

(55:40):
like we are canceling this, uh, this experiment early this year,
Like it's either going to be for this game or
because of this game. That they're like, yeah, so like
we gotta get because they'll have the battle Hawks a
week before, right week six, Okay, we got it. We'll
keep it through that. We got to get through the
battle Hawks and then but this will either be like
we gotta flex this or afterward like okay, we can't

(56:01):
do that again because it we week seven. I guess
the dolls of the season here. That's my hot take. No,
I don't think that's that hot of a take at all.

Speaker 2 (56:09):
I think there's there could be a point where, yeah,
Fox is like, nobody's gonna show up for this game,
like what are our better options? And you you know,
maybe give them some time to Readjust yeah, I know,
I don't think that's a hot take at all. I
think that's probably that might be a good idea because
you know, we always always talk about optics. You want

(56:30):
good optics for spotlight games could happen.

Speaker 1 (56:33):
I'm just saying right now, I would go to this
game if anyone wants to go. I was just because
Chris is talking here trying to figure out you trying
to figure out logistics for travel, like San Antonio is
San Antonio, DC are two of the best places to
see games. Just because of the proximity of the stadium
to what's going on. Birmingham only has a couple of
those bars there, right, chalk Tok's really good you have

(56:56):
Texas live there, but you really kind of got to
stay out in Arlington to really benefit all that. San
Antonio is one of the best you can stay on
the river walk. I have a million suggestions of anything.
If anyone ever wants to do the San Antonio stuff,
I would go. This would be fun on the Friday.
You know, you could fly in even that day and
then just head to the Alamodome and then fly You know,

(57:16):
that's a very doable trip for Reid here in early
May if I don't have a wedding, but I would
do anything in the world to if I would recommend
that and the DC for that for a home team
and hopefully the Brahmas aren't aren't around this year at
week seven, right.

Speaker 2 (57:29):
Yeah, I mean that's again, that's the gamble you take
on that.

Speaker 1 (57:33):
Yeah, rolling the dice, John, rolling the dice.

Speaker 2 (57:35):
I think it's called rolling the dice.

Speaker 1 (57:38):
Do we have we gone to any of our our
double headers yet or another double headers? Are I Simon?

Speaker 2 (57:44):
I don't think so I think that I think week eight.
I think it's week eight.

Speaker 1 (57:47):
All right, so here let's get to week eight here partly, yeah,
here we go. I just always, yeah, I see that
we have the askers. I was like, it's hard sometimes
trying to process all this. So we got uh, but
we have Brahmas hosting again back to back. Yeah, this
is definitely gonna be this now because spoiler alert, I
hadn't really looked at it. I like doing my I
like being fresh on here. I like John and I

(58:09):
like kind of coming in with a little whatever. But
this is absolutely my hot take going back at week
seven and week eight or both home and now they're
gonna be like, we we saw what this looks like
a week seven, Like we can't go back and do
this again, like we've already seen that. And then the
simulcast on Fox, so that will be region locked. I

(58:29):
wouldn't put the battle Hawks in the region locked game,
but there you go.

Speaker 2 (58:32):
Especially against Birmingham. That's why that one that would surprise me.
I will say I might take it back because my
Saturday May seventeenth is uh, my anniversary, and my wife
said we can go to the BattleHawks game. But I
better get a good dinner that night. And I was like, well,

(58:54):
we can make that happen, so it might be going
to that one. But yeah, I agree to me, and
good the BrahMos, who I think get this finish the
season with four straight home games or something like that,
and one of being Friday night. Maybe I was surprised
to see this or being a regional split with the
Birmingham Stallions being in a regional split with Saint Louis.

(59:18):
I didn't, you know. And then you've got Panthers and
Roughnecks with that. That's fine, but to me, that should
have been like maybe the Sunday noon game would have
been Saint Louis or the Friday night game that week.

Speaker 1 (59:29):
Sorry my cameras, I'll out of control. I keep talking
with my hands and then things that I want to like,
have it track me. See that was like, I gotta
turn that off, let me get back over here, and
then I'll re sell it DC again with another Sunday
night game. I mean, this is a lot. This is
the thing. Sunday's light. It's not Sunday night but noon,
but like the Sundays at Aldi. But I like that,

(59:49):
and obviously that's probably working through their their soccer schedule
and all of that. You know, however, all of that
goes but Back says a funny comment here we'll get
to you, but Sundays at Aldi is awesome, Like I
just think that that is having done the twenty twenty kickoff,
we did the Sea Dragon's playoff game there against the Defenders,
Like it's just a really cool atmosphere for that. So

(01:00:10):
I'm a big fan. Max says a. Fox likes the
regional splits so they don't have to give away as
many spots you see, like you're protecting to go because
and I will say, and I said, but this is
I honestly a good point. I got to turn off
this track in there we go. Maybe that won't follow me.
Now when they break about how many games are on Fox,
four of the games really are two, so it is

(01:00:31):
it does that's true numbers where they go, oh we
have you know, we have whatever it was I read
in the faction figures like, oh we have eighteen games
on Fox, Like well it's it's really you know, sixteen
games and they're they're counting too. Is you know that
you wouldn't normally get But I don't know I don't
love the simulcast thing. I get why they do it
because of Max pointing that what do you what do
you make of that?

Speaker 2 (01:00:49):
Yeah? Max is a phrase it's gonna be too many
PSAs and these because they can't sell the spots. I don't. Yeah,
I again, you know I They're doing it one week
and I'm sure there's probably a reason for that. I
don't know what it is, but I the Birmingham Stallions
in Saint Louis BattleHawks being one of the regional games.
I didn't. I didn't get that one.

Speaker 1 (01:01:10):
Yeah, I didn't like that. It was funny. We were
talking Chris is talking about the Rock and the comments
like it was an article. Rock came out with something
like for New Year's where it's you know, don't do
you don't have to do anything, you get to do it.
So I go into, you know, approach the New Year
like I get to do. I go, do you think
he has to talk about the UFL? And do you
think he gets to talk about the UFL at this point? Well,

(01:01:32):
do you think the Rocks welfare check is season three? Here?
Of the XFL and his involvement, I don't know, you know,
he read.

Speaker 2 (01:01:41):
One he's got that going on.

Speaker 1 (01:01:44):
Hey, if anyone hasn't seen Red One, have a couple
of beers, have a Jay whatever. It's a really, it's
totally fine. I watched that and I watched that carry
On movie.

Speaker 2 (01:01:57):
With Jason Datem watched that one the other night. Yeah,
that was It's.

Speaker 1 (01:02:02):
They're like, these movies are getting such great reviews. Like
it's like, it's just a knockoff Diehard. It's just interesting
to see Jason Bateman. It's like a bad guy. That's really.

Speaker 2 (01:02:11):
That was the hook on that movie.

Speaker 1 (01:02:12):
There's no question that Eric Egertanner whatever has no charisma.
I never underst he's in these movies. I don't under
he was good and Rocketman, but yeah, oh that was him,
Yeah he was. He was all his acting in that.
And then he said Norman's checking in here. Norman is
so excited. I haven't seen Norman comment like and subscribe,

(01:02:32):
become a member, and then sends them up They like
and subscribe us up to four thousand subscribers. He's open
for an Ohio team in the expansion.

Speaker 2 (01:02:40):
Expansion, let's go.

Speaker 1 (01:02:43):
Anyway, anything else with this week A We've talked to
region lock and all that stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:02:48):
Looks good to me.

Speaker 1 (01:02:49):
Week nine, Oh my gosh, so we're back. We're we're
hosting again on Friday. Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (01:02:57):
I knew they had those home games, but I did
I realized they were Friday.

Speaker 1 (01:03:01):
No, I didn't really say, yeah, this is this is
gonna kill the Thank god Jay Well, I wish day
was still with the Brahma of social media, but this
would kill the Bramas, might single handedly kill the Friday
night on Fox experiment here with. I cannot believe that
this is why I like going through this real time,
because otherwise I would have been yelling about that at

(01:03:22):
the beginning.

Speaker 2 (01:03:23):
Well, I you know, I looked and I had, like,
you know, one of my notes was like, you know,
the Bramas kind of you know, got hosed this year,
but at least they finish like with four straight home games.
But I didn't realize. Also, now I'm just now saying
that these are Friday night games. There's got to be
a flex option, don't you think.

Speaker 1 (01:03:41):
I don't. I don't know if you can because it
will a so you already have that issue with the
NFL right where we can you can swap within day,
right or you can't or it's got to be so
far in advance because people are buying tickets. I mean,
it is true. A number one, obviously the players have
to be safe in the amount of time between games.
But like, yeah, if I'm a fan and I'm flying
into Santa or not, it's in the NFL, I'm fine,

(01:04:04):
fine to Detroit to go watch the game, and then
you flex it to Monday night football or you flex
it to You're like, well, now I pissed because I
paid so I I don't know what that And then
with the team logistics would travel. I mean it's just
a you know, you got all these dual planes, and
you know, you got AJ mccarren yelling and like.

Speaker 2 (01:04:21):
Got a ride with A. I got it.

Speaker 1 (01:04:23):
They're on the same play with what is this going
on with this? But yeah, that is that is brutal
with it. I don't know what they do and that
that would be a question. I would put a poll
out after this, like do they flex the Bramas out
of it? Is there any way we can play? That's
insane to me.

Speaker 2 (01:04:34):
You put this Wait a second though, this says at
the Dome at America Center.

Speaker 1 (01:04:40):
Oh so it's this is the reverse one this is
the reverse.

Speaker 2 (01:04:43):
Okay, Okay, so maybe so yeah, because I just saw
I saw versus San Antonio, but then I just saw this.
It said don't so maybe they don't finish with four
straight home games.

Speaker 1 (01:04:54):
So yeah, so this is a home game, and thank god,
thank god John FARREDI no one in the comments corrected
me at all with any of this, like this is
the home game in Saint Louis, which.

Speaker 2 (01:05:06):
Why, I mean why, Like this is this is a
Houston Roughnecks, Houston Gamblers kind of thing.

Speaker 1 (01:05:12):
Like, well, but you got it. Obviously the album are Yeah,
obviously the album that was busy, so they had to
do it this way, and they yeah, you can't have
the promise not play the same number of home games.

Speaker 2 (01:05:21):
I mean, I get it, but like it's still not
a home game, Like are the San Antonio fans gonna
fly in there? But I do? Okay, So again, this
could be a good Friday night spotlight game because it
is going to be at the Dome on a Friday
night seven seven pm Central. Uh, you know, well lubricated fans.
If the BattleHawks are still going strong, that's another question

(01:05:43):
that we've never seen. What the fan base is going
to be like if the BattleHawks were mediocre or bad,
because they've always been you know, in contention, they've been good.
They've been fun to watch. I'm not wishing that on
anybody because that when the BattleHawks to me are kind
of like the New York Yankees to Major League Baseball. Yeah,

(01:06:03):
when they're good, the league is good and everyone benefits
from it. So but yeah, this is like, this is good,
this is at Saint Louis on that front end.

Speaker 1 (01:06:12):
Yeah, yeah, No, as as a BattleHawks go, so does
the UFL. Thanks yes, And I'm so glad we pointed
this out because I was about to have a connection
with that. But it is. But it is an interesting
point because you talk about, you know, the fervent fan
base there and the work that they've done, and they've
always been like good, too great, right, They've always been
on the upper echelon. It still kills me. And we

(01:06:33):
talked with Dave Naylor about it, who's a big CFL
reporter for people if you have, you know, following we're
doing our Great Cup show, and he is just adamant
that the CFL could put a team in Saint Louis
and they would just adopt them like they have the
Ballahawks like they've been working to build Saint Louis since
twenty eighteen now, like through Vince All like it. To me,
that is a hearty laugh that you think that you

(01:06:55):
could just like supplant another team in there and have
them support that. But you know, maybe I'm wrong, but
I think that. Yeah, Saint Louis is very happy. Uh
and when they're healthy, so we'll see what they look
like here hosting the problems again.

Speaker 2 (01:07:07):
Yeah, I don't know about about a CFL team trying
to now if if you know, the battle Hawks moved
to l A in the middle of the night, which
that really can't happen. I would think with the UFL
they would relocate. They wouldn't do that to to Saint Louis.
I mean maybe, but no, I can't see that this
This is an interesting interesting week though, with the Brahmas

(01:07:28):
home game in Saint Louis and then what could be
a good one, you know that Saturday with the Panthers
and Stallions if they're both playing up to par.

Speaker 1 (01:07:36):
Yeah, so that's on ABC, A couple of ABC doublehead
there the noon three, the Memphis and noon game, and then.

Speaker 2 (01:07:43):
At d C.

Speaker 1 (01:07:44):
Still they d C like is always that Sunday team.
It seems like that they're already they have a lot
of their right Week eight Sunday. I mean, now I
go back through their Week six Sunday, I mean they're
you know, and that affects things too when you're traveling
up their Week five Sunday. I mean, DC is is
a Sunday favorite team there, and that is odd because
obviously that's not depending on AUDI at that point. But

(01:08:07):
with the rough next there, I'll just speak curious because,
like you said, there was so much with Rice Stadium
and everything and the Roughnecks and we don't want to
support this in the name brand like you're two now,
but if the team still garbage, like I don't know, Yeah,
Chris says, they only played Sunday last year, so obviously
that part of that is the AUDI field thing.

Speaker 2 (01:08:24):
That makes sense.

Speaker 1 (01:08:25):
Yeah, And I don't know what the Rough Necks are
going to be this year, so it's hard for me
to kind of prognosticate what those games are going to
look like. But they need to get some fan base
up in there because people hollered for them to get
back to the other stadium.

Speaker 2 (01:08:36):
Yeah, they've got to be a better team. I was
surprised they didn't make some wholesale changes in Houston this year.
I read I remember you and I talking before the
season on here before last season, We're like which coaches
are going to stay in, which which ones are going
to go? And like Houston to me was a no brainer.
So but but I mean, I hope it works out,

(01:08:57):
and I hope that they are improved because uh that
just that really really makes me think that that they
feel like they have something there that they can build on,
although I don't know that a lot of us could
see it from last year.

Speaker 1 (01:09:10):
Yeah, you know, and you always wonder for them to
show in a couple of comments like just you know,
like there might just not be better options for a
lot of these teams. And we talked on the expansion
episode about you Okay. Now they're they're wanting cities to
like court the UFL for okay, well please come here,
and we want all that. Like I think if you
could be anywhere then Houston, you'd be there already, or

(01:09:31):
if you could be anywhere from some of these you'd
be there already. So to me, I don't know, like
it's like dating somewhere one and you're like, well, like
this best, Like like I don't know if I'm going
to be able to do any other here or whatever.
I don't know, Like, but I think some of these
you know, and we've talked in Greg Parks and I
LENGTHD with ufl board and everything else about, like you

(01:09:52):
would never put any of these teams in these markets,
like you know, if you went back and rebuilt this
map from the beginning. But obviously this is where we're
at now.

Speaker 2 (01:09:59):
Yeah. No, I think that's a good point. If you started,
if you started from zero again, is this what it
would look like? I don't think it would.

Speaker 1 (01:10:06):
No, No, I hope not.

Speaker 2 (01:10:08):
I hope not.

Speaker 1 (01:10:09):
Week ten here rounded it out. I see now Chris
is already saying d C Friday night, that's gonna be
popping here at Ballahawks going in. You know, if those
teams are really in contention, that could be really atmosphere
of the season. It seems wait until week ten for that,
and then Panthers hosting against Saturday and then the doubleheader

(01:10:29):
Sunday noon three, so there's only the one simulcast game,
So that's good. Fox on Friday, ESPN Saturday and then
the ABC Fox is split on Sunday.

Speaker 2 (01:10:40):
Yeah, this is yeah, I think Friday is obviously kind
of the spot that that's going to be the one,
as you said, if they're both in contention and what
we think they might be this year. I mean, and
you know that could that could be with something on
the line. Uh, so that that would that could be
an interesting game and the resk you got to think

(01:11:01):
like will Memphis be playing for you know, will there
be something there for them to play for? And then
they're playing to Birmingham Stallions. Uh, you know saying Renegades
and Bramas you know, who knows. There are a lot
of question marks here. So you wonder how you know
in this week ten what's going to be on the line? Uh?
And to me just you know, trying to prognosticate here

(01:11:23):
in January on what's gonna happen May thirtieth, it feels
like that BattleHawks defenders you know very well could be
like something on the line.

Speaker 1 (01:11:32):
So you mean, because we need to have our Poot
Bowl this year? So what is what is the Poot
Bowl game of where they play for where they play
for the what is it? You know, where they play
for the number one pick or whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:11:44):
Oh yeah, I don't know if it's in week ten
unless the Renegades are just you know, and I know
they struggled last year, but the Bramas were good. But
we don't know what you know, they're not. We don't
know what they're going to look like this year, hope. Well,
I wouldn't think it would be the rough necks in
Panthers because of what we saw last year out of

(01:12:05):
the Panthers. Uh, that's that's a good question. Well, what
maybe that's gonna happen in week nine?

Speaker 1 (01:12:12):
Let me interesting, So I'll be curious to check that out.
But Chris here saying to come out, I'll get you
give us tickets there. Week ten, we tend out of
the I don't even know. Is that amoralthy weekend? That
might be a tough kind of flex anyway. Oh yeah,
it could be its Memorial Day. I got a wedding
show that Sunday. That's a tough that's a tough ass
for but anyway, and then ending in Memphis, I don't know,

(01:12:32):
that could be I mean the Stallions. Yes, you're hoping
that Memphis has something to play for at that point,
but that that is you know, the week ten kind
of rides like this in the wave sorry ending and
if that makes sense.

Speaker 2 (01:12:44):
Right, No, no, it does that that could be that
might be the one that might be the Friday night game.
Too bad it's week ten.

Speaker 1 (01:12:51):
But yeah, uh so then let's go here just a
couple of playstar of things and if anyone has any
comments here, we can get to all that stuff. So
we know, you know, we know the player dates a
double header on Sunday, June eighth, three pm and then
six pm, So that would be cool. One on ABC,
one on Fox and then ABC holding the championship game
on Saturday, June fourteenth at eight pm on ABC. Fox

(01:13:16):
hosted last year, right, they bounced back and forth in
the kickoff is on ABC. Right, so we'll flip out
of round. Do you like the the Sunday conference championships
and then leading into the Saturday playoff game or excuse me,
championship game. Would you prefer a Sunday championship game? Would
you prefer any difference if we had any options of
changing any of this.

Speaker 2 (01:13:37):
If you're going to play at eight o'clock, I think
it's better to do that on a Saturday night rather
than a Sunday the championship game. No, I'm fine with
these and I like that. You know, you get you get,
you get a double you get a double header of
Although it might be good to start a little earlier,
I'm not going to nitpick this. I mean three and
six Eastern to me is fine. Yeah, I mean I

(01:13:59):
like this postseason and set up very much.

Speaker 1 (01:14:02):
Yeah, and there you go, Saturday, June fourteenth. I got
that marked down. We'll see how it goes. I know
I have a wedding on June seventh, I believe, so
I can't do it that day. You know, I wouldn't
travel for the conference games most likely, but a good
chance there on the fourteenth, and we'll see where that's
going to be. We haven't announced, you know, right, they
don't have an official right we're are we assuming Saint Louis.

(01:14:25):
I've heard protective in there, but they haven't officially announced
anything from where it's going to be, right because they
likely be neutral to site.

Speaker 2 (01:14:31):
Yeah, you know, there were there was some talk that
it something one of the what was was it Audi
that was out? Something? Something was I want to know
this out?

Speaker 1 (01:14:39):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:14:40):
Yeah, so yeah, I mean could be Saint Louis could be,
but I'd also heard too. I mean, these are all rumors,
like Birmingham might be in the mix for it be interesting.

Speaker 1 (01:14:49):
It'd be you know. I I like that Birmingham setup
with those bars in the hotel there. It's just hard
like it's it's an expensive weekend. Like I paid a
lot to stay there because we were doing the show
and we used all that. But like I was going
as a fan, I would never pay the stay, right,
it's just too you know, it's too expensive for kind
of what it is. But it could be cool. I
mean they could, they could pack it. It was packed

(01:15:10):
that kickoff game. I mean it hasn't hasn't reached those
heights again, but I think with enough marketing behind it. Yeah,
Mike says Audi was the rumor. But FIFA World has
a game that weekend that was at Okay, so we're
all with that stuff. So let's let's do some questions here.
I have some star we'll probably you get for fifteen
minutes and we'll get out of here at the bottom

(01:15:31):
of the hour. I got some star questions here. Does
that work for you John?

Speaker 2 (01:15:33):
That works for me?

Speaker 1 (01:15:35):
All right? So, and if you guys have any questions
about the games, any questions about you know, anything, UFL
will get to all that on here. Abdul says. Over
under one point five expansion teams announced for the twenty
twenty six season during the twenty twenty five championship.

Speaker 2 (01:15:51):
That's a lot. I think that's probably too much to
ask for, because the expansion process has just really been
announced and I don't know how much it's really started,
and I think there's going to be so many moving pieces.
But if they do announce it, I mean there's going
to be so much work going on behind the scenes

(01:16:11):
while the season is going on for that to happen
in the next you know, in June. So but I
think when the expansion is announced, I think it will
be two teams.

Speaker 1 (01:16:23):
I think, yeah, so it has to be two teams.
I'll be really curious how this, how this looks or goes,
because you know, the UFL and they were the people
that put this out right, and we kind of talk that, Okay,
we want to do this to kind of get some
free promotion here we're getting ready to build all this.
But it's kind of like and obviously I'm happily Mary,
but it's kind of like being like, hey, I'm open
to Dayton Sidney Sweeney, like I'm open, like I'm here,

(01:16:45):
you know, like where it's you know, you could say
we're we're ready to do anything and we're looking. But
you know, if they don't get any reciprocation there, does
that is an egg on their face? If they announced
this and no one comes forward, do we try to
fit something work because we've put this out do we
just kind of ignore it if we don't get in
that bit? Like I'm just curious how this goes, because
now you've actually put this out in the ether at

(01:17:07):
something that you know, people can like Google and the
UFL expansion. This like it puts it in the ether
more than just us talking about it for you know,
forever online.

Speaker 2 (01:17:17):
And and I'll say that, you know, there was some
talk this might be breaking news here on your on
your show read so maybe I might need to get
the uh should I like go with the red lights back?
But there was some talk about Louisville being in the

(01:17:38):
mix here. I talked to the Louisville Sports Commission. This
was back in mid December, when you know, a little
bit after all this had been announced. They say that
they've not had any talks with the UFL. Uh And
then a couple of weeks later, I talked to the
executive director of the Mayor's Cabinet for Economic Development here
in Louisville. He says they've not been contacted by the

(01:17:59):
uf for a possible expansion team, but they're going to
continue to work with Louisville Sports Commission. So, and I'd
asked the Louislle Sports Commission, did you guys like give
an RFP to maybe try to get this team. They
have not done that. So, I mean, I'm not losing
hope here on a in my adopted hometown that will
get a UFL team. But uh so if the expansions are,

(01:18:21):
if they're moving, they're moving elsewhere other than Louisville.

Speaker 1 (01:18:25):
It's yeah, I mean we talked about this before. I
think it's a hard sell. I think it's hard to
get the city's involved and Okay, what is the cost
of benefit? And you know, like if you're looking in
San Antonio now and you're like, okay, we're doing and
God bless all these people, and you know, got the
horns for a podcast like all these you know, like
San Antonio has a good like hardcore, damn base right

(01:18:48):
that that shows up online and and god bless that.
But yeah, you got four home games. You know they
don't come to halfway through the season. One of your
home games is not even in in San Antonio. So
like if I you know, like if I'm a San
Antonio sick of like rep, how do you even sell that?
Like here, get involved in the four games and then
we can give you an option if you want to

(01:19:09):
go to Saint Louis. Like to me, it's just it's
it's really hard to sell any of these teams as
five standalone home games anyway that you want these people
to get invested at, like oh yeah, then they'll be back,
you know, ten months from now, like you can you know,
come and come back and see him again later, like
no off season push really hard to track anything and
the out Like I just it's really hard. I don't
envy the people and I see them post all the time,

(01:19:31):
these people trying to sell tickets. I don't envy that
at all because I just think any of it to
get people in, you get the cities involved. I think
it's really hard. It's very it's easy to throw out
any of these random cities, but to actually get them involved,
I think it's pretty hard.

Speaker 2 (01:19:43):
Right and you know you've said this before, uh read
that you're selling a product and it's like so but
you know this is and this kind of spoke to
like the whole franchising thing, like if you really wanted
to franchise this, what what would people? What are people
buying right now? And I think that the UFL has
an opportunity to put that on the stage for franchising

(01:20:05):
this year. But as far as like for cities, like
what do the cities think that you know, what are
they going to buy? Like what what what are they
going to? Where are they in for? How is this
gonna help improve their community? How is this going to
help put them on a on a bigger stage.

Speaker 1 (01:20:21):
Like and we don't do a lot of like advertising
their sponsorships on here this because this isn't like in
any way my you know, primary anything. But like, uh,
at a time when Paul and I were involved, and
we were very okay, like how did we like reach
out to people like what do we do? And you know,
we kind of put together a little deck, right like Okay,
this is kind of you know, this is kind of

(01:20:41):
our demo and how many people and where they live
and we get all this, you know, and I have
to do that anyway when I like apply to you
the CFL for credentials and like, okay, this is our platforms,
I don't know, like what is this? Like what is
the deck of a UFL team When they're like here Louisville,
Like you know, I just I know we've talked about
this before kind of like regards to like I just
don't know what that sell is. I don't know what

(01:21:01):
you bring and what you print out and bring to
that median of like here come invest in the UFL team.
Like we just watched that uh and that Step Brothers
where they're showing you know where were doing the boats
and hosts and they just showed the boat and they're
like but Dad, like are you going to invest in?
Like I feel like that's that's kind of like like
what does that meeting look like when like rusting them

(01:21:21):
go in like here right here is our presentation like
corporate synergy. I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:21:26):
Uh yeah, I think I think it might be more
appealing to cities like Louisville who want a little bit
of a bigger name. But if the UFL. You know,
and I think there's room here. I mean I've said
it before. I and I even made a video like
this is why I think. You know, here are five
reasons I think you the UFL should come to Louisville.
But you know, I think it's a harder sell for uh,

(01:21:49):
you know, some some larger cities, especially when they're we've
you know, heard that they could be cities that you
know already have an NFL presence and and the UFL
has that already. Uh So you're right, you know, we
like the UFL. We enjoy it, but when you start
looking at it from a level of I'm a city official,
I'm a mayor, I'm a governor. What am I? How

(01:22:13):
is this going to help my state? How's this going
to help my community? Yeah? I don't know. I hope
they've got I hope that there's an opportunity here.

Speaker 1 (01:22:21):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:22:21):
I think there is an opportunity for expansion. But you're right,
like I would love to know what the seal is
for this. You know, we enjoyed its entertainment, but how
does this really improve communities?

Speaker 1 (01:22:32):
Yeah, it's when they when they originally announced the USFL,
like Hub and all of that, And I think it
was roy S. Johnson with the al dot Com but
like really detailed like kind of the year long process
of getting that, and it was right with Eric Shanks
and I think they were in a truck for a
different doing some other sports thing and then they're like,

(01:22:54):
well what about like we put them all and what
about Birmingham Like they kind of you know, and they
were working with the b JCC like their convention whatever
there they're complex there in the community. Like, but it
was like months and then like, okay, we got to
sell them on this, so we're gonna have all the teams.
Like to me, it's almost easier to sell that of hey,
we're gonna have eight teams play forty games here, like

(01:23:15):
like to me, the USFL year one was an easier
sell than like, well here and now you're gonna do
all the same work for us to be in your
city and it's five home games or four and like
now we got to do all this stuff with the stadiums,
like we have a question to hear about just marketing
before we get out. But I just think it's a
name of the harder sell now of like when now
you're like you're trying to sell a fraction. The CFL

(01:23:35):
gets this a lot where they all the games used
to be on ESPN and now they have half the
games locked up with CBS Sports Networks, and then they
just stream the rest of them for free because there's
no market for that other half of the games, Like
CBS Sports pays for what they want, and then all
the other ones are like, we don't care, like just
stream them. Like I think it was almost an easier
sell to sell all the teams and you know, dates

(01:23:56):
and everything versus like, well here, here's just a handful.
Can you can You got to be a part of
this web.

Speaker 2 (01:24:01):
And I think that was probably I think at the
USFL was thinking that and Fox was thinking, this is
a proof of concept. Now let's now the next step
is to franchise these teams out and to actually play
in the cities that they're named after. But but I think,
you know, this year, as we said, I mean, I
think there's an opportunity for the UFL to show what
it's about and maybe make that sell where they look,

(01:24:24):
they're watching TV and they see these big crowds on
a Friday night. Hopefully we'll see that. So you know,
it's something for the community to do, but it could
be a harder sell for some larger cities, and maybe
a little easier sell in places like Louisville, which is,
you know, a top fifty market, but does it you know,
doesn't have a pro football team.

Speaker 1 (01:24:44):
The other thing here, I had one, Oh, Mike, let's
see here, just I just had a couple more. I
wanted to see, Oh, Darren, are they doing boosts like Houston, Detroit, DC,
any on the ground promotions. I know they're hiring for
you know, they were always hiring for this, and I
even saw that they were looking for like a new
comms person to help kind of facilitate that. I just

(01:25:04):
it's such a hard it's a hard sell for any
of this. Like it's okay, I'm going to be a
seasonal employee, like I'm going to come work. Yeah, they
need to have you need to have two three people
on full staff and all these you know we were
talking Ryan Gusts in earlier. Seattle is a great example
of that and really being and doing community events and
giveaways and being prevalent like I don't I haven't seen
a lot of that. I know they're trying to hire

(01:25:26):
that and it's when you lay off everyone you gotta hire,
it's hard to get people to come back on. Do
you have any thoughts on that?

Speaker 2 (01:25:31):
Uh? Yeah, I mean, as you said, how many people
want to be seasonal employees. Uh, you know, if you're
looking for a full time job, or you have the
opportunity or you're going to be a seasonal employee for
you know you have, you're gonna have to obviously be
in the Arlington area. I just think that the talent
pool for what they're looking for or what they're maybe

(01:25:51):
hoping for that job, talent pool might not be what
they It won't it won't be available or at the
scale that it should be. To me, if that makes sense,
I just think you're right. You need people year round
who are out in the community, who are like you know,
like Darren saying here, you know, do booths be a
public presence, get your name out. We were seeing that

(01:26:14):
wasn't even happening in Birmingham, and you know, Birmingham is
the heart of spring football, so you need that year
round and to be a brand.

Speaker 1 (01:26:23):
Anything else here. I know. I have one more thing.
Oh Mike was talking, he had this question about them
doing the pregame shows, doing that trying to roll in
on Fridays. I assume that's going to be more of
an internet thing, right the UFL, can you. I don't
think Fox has the programming space to give it away
ahead of that, but I do know that Mike had

(01:26:45):
some talks about that. I think it was online stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:26:48):
You know, if they are you know, they did show
on the schedule. I'll say this, like the Friday night
games on Fox are at eight o'clock. But I do
wonder usually, you know, seven thirty Eastern time is going
to be you know, that's gonna be local time. That's
gonna be your local programming stuff, that's your you know,
family feuds and Judge Dudy's and things like that where
the local stations make the money. So if they do

(01:27:11):
have a pregame show, I can't imagine, you know, if
it's a Fox pregame show, I can't imagine it would
be more than maybe fifteen minutes and the kickoff would
actually be eight to fifteen, which you know, we see
this a lot. If anytime you notice a time, like
for instance, you know it's gonna be Friday at eight o'clock. Well,
the kickoff might.

Speaker 1 (01:27:29):
Actually be younger than that for a ten. Yeah, you
could do.

Speaker 2 (01:27:32):
That, and sometimes even later with like college football, then
you know something, Oh it kicks off is at eight. Well,
we've got a twenty seven minute pregame show, so maybe
there's something like that I would like to see. Rather
than just go cold into the game, let's you know,
have a little bit of a pregame.

Speaker 1 (01:27:46):
Yeah. It's like when we go to the crack and
if it's a local game, they usually puck drop. Yeah,
if it's at seven, they might puck drop at seven
of five, But if it's on the t N TN
T or ESPN broadcast, it's always like seven to twenty
five eight, And then we never know. And then you know,
I'm not looking at what channel the game's are. In
the game, I'm going to right, You're like, oh, shoot,
this game is the whatever. Well, there we go. I

(01:28:08):
think we did good. You know, we'll come back in.
I know, as Zach was asking more regular programming, I mean,
it's a holidays, there's not a lot to talk about.
Obviously we touched on the Zach News here, leaving the
Stallions and the Key Butler and all that, but like
I think we do our best right now. I think
we pop on when it is and you know, we've
been waiting for this. We have all the broadcast windows.

(01:28:28):
Like I said, I really thought we were going to
get just the schedule, so we have. This is kind
of the full drop of this now through and they're
kind of hope that this I guess carries some interest
going in here. But they got a lot of to me,
they got a lot of work between now and in
March twenty eighth to kind of get this interest peaked.

Speaker 2 (01:28:47):
And let's think about it. It's not that far away.
I mean, it's really not. And yeah, let's go XFL project.
You're right, I'm with you. I can't wait for the season.
People think we get on here and we're too negative,
and we say it all the time. It's like, well,
we want to succeed and we're excited about it. Yeah.
I it that. That's a good point. There's a lot

(01:29:07):
of promotion opportunity out there and it's you get you.
But here's the thing. You have to have people in
on the ground right there to do all the things
in these markets to say oh, yeah, by the way,
you know we're gonna we're starting up here, and the
good thing is that the super Bowl is on Fox,
So I think that there's a really good opportunity for

(01:29:27):
a lot of promotion right there.

Speaker 1 (01:29:29):
One quick thing, I I hate these ufl commercials right now,
these ones right I'm like the wild Roughneck runs through
that thing. I don't I yeah, I don't like it.
I I thought the ones they did last year, and
I would have preferred. I preferred the Hollywood football or
whatever that they called. You know, real folk like I
prefer that over this because to me, it's like it

(01:29:51):
almost takes too long to figure out what's going on,
and then it's like spring football returns. You have like
tiny little UFL ago you like these, am I in
the minority. The everyone of those life is It's.

Speaker 2 (01:30:01):
Okay to be wrong. Read there's nothing wrong with it. No,
I really like, I thought they were creative and and
their eye catching. I mean it's not you know, it's
not fireworks and you know, car explosions or anything. But
I thought they were creative and it got my attention.
I mean I was you know a lot of times
you're watching a game and you know, su as the
commercial comes on, you know, there's about three or four

(01:30:22):
other things you're gonna do during that commercial and it's
like but then I see it, Like the first time
I saw one, I'm like, what is this? Like, Oh,
it's a spring football commercial?

Speaker 1 (01:30:30):
Well they had yeah this one. Yeah, so Mike and
and Abdullah bro the Jake Bates one was fine. Yeah,
where it is I'm talking to the wild wild Stallion
runs it sounds like David Attenborough and like and like
one of them is it turnover and then the other.
I don't like that. I don't like seeing the turnover
and because like he knocks it out of the fumble or something.

(01:30:52):
I don't. I'm the same thing when I'm watching football.
I'm on my phone, you know, I'm on a million
different things, but I don't. I don't. Yeah, I just
think they're really weird.

Speaker 2 (01:31:03):
Read noted ufl hater got it.

Speaker 1 (01:31:06):
Well, I have a Phillips asking me how he how
he can join guys? Yeah, click join, right, isn't that
what it says there? John? Click joins and subscribe to
the you know, don't subscribe, click join the channel join
and then the last thing here? Oh Chris Chris said, Yeah,
I couldn't get through one episode of having a complaint.
So there you go, I have to complain about them whatever.

(01:31:27):
So anything else, I think we're.

Speaker 2 (01:31:30):
Good, John, I'm sorry, sorry read Yeah, I think it's exciting.
As someone said, happy schedule release day, I mean it
got here. I think the UFL did it right. They
built a little anticipation and then they released the schedule.
I think the destroying appearance might have gotten canceled today
because you know, all the Sugar Bowl stuff that was
going on. But but I but I do like that.

(01:31:54):
I like where it's going. I like I'm optimistic even
more this year than I was this time last year
because we we didn't know what was gonna happen. We've
got a second season of the UFL, We've got what
a fourth or fifth straight season now of spring football.
I mean these are good times right now.

Speaker 1 (01:32:11):
Yeah, And like I said, we'll do our bet. This
is kind of the investment that I'm into this, Like
I'll pop in, we'll do I appreciate. But like, yeah,
I think we're I think we're doing good. I appreciate.
I said, like subscribe, Phillip, click you know, click join.
It's it's ninety nine cents a month. You wouldn't even
think of it coming out, and thanks everyone for dealing
with that weird like start where it didn't it didn't like,
it didn't trigger on Twitter, and so like, I don't

(01:32:34):
think I'm live. I'm like, oh, I am live.

Speaker 2 (01:32:36):
I just I saw the stream live up. I'm like,
what is that?

Speaker 1 (01:32:41):
Yeah? So uh here Phillips, Phillips really working through that. Well,
I can't, I can't. I was gonna screen share Philip. Well, well,
I'll hit you up in the DMS. We'll see everyone
next time. Thanks everyone, and then we'll check you out

(01:33:01):
at NAS

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