It's time for coffee and company, fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven nine
day. Now here's Nick coffee, all right, and welcome back, Not
exactly Nick coffee, as we'd like to say, your substitute teacher. Welcome
to the five o'clock Hour're taking you home down the home stretch, as Joe
Knucksaw used to say, round and third and heading for home. Man,
it's for sure. And I'm Scott Fitzgeril John Alden running and playing those tunes
for you. We'll keep you company on the way home. Just some of
the big stories we're following this afternoon. Of course, college baseball tournaments starting
all over the area. As we were talking with Jeff Milby, who calls
games for the ACC Network on their feed, the Louisville Cardinals fall to Miami
eight to five in their initial game in Charlotte. One game going on at
the ACC tournament right now. On top of the seventh it is eight to
five. Florida State has the lead over Georgia Tech at the SEC Tournament.
During the top of the ninth it is ten seeds South Carolina working on an
upset. They're up ten to five. Top of the ninth over seven seed
Alabama. We will have Kentucky for you tomorrow ten fifteen right here on Sports
Talk seven to ninety, Darren Headrick will have the call. They're going to
take on LSU, and then Darren Headrick is going to join us tomorrow.
He'll be back with us around four thirty. Other games going on in college
baseball tournaments today. It is three seed Indiana taking on six seed Perdue at
the Big Ten Tournament. That one just getting underway about five minutes ago.
Western Kentucky is in action tomorrow at the Conference USA Tournament taking on six seed
Florida International. At the OVC Tournament, three seed Morehead State will get underway
tomorrow against either Eastern Illinois or SIU Webwardsville and over to Evansville. It is
the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament. The second seeded Murray State Racers will take on
six seed Southern Illinois or seven seed Belmont. Het did want to bring you
up to speed on a little college softball action. Unfortunately, Kentucky and Indiana
both bounced out of the NCAA tournament, but there is some local actions still
going on. That would be former Assumption Rocket Braxton Downs. Remember She was
the Louisville Catholic Sports Athlete of the Year when she played for the Rockets.
She notched an RBI single in the top of the third. That's all Indianapolis
the University of Indianapolis would need as they move on at the D one Softball
or excuse me, the D two Softball World Series in Orlando yesterday, they
beat Leonora Ryan one to nothing. They are the only unbeaten team left in
the top half of the bracket. They are awaiting the loser's bracket survivor.
They will meet them tomorrow at eleven am. So congratulations. Quickly, let
me update you on some of the high schools softball district action going on.
Some were going to crown a champion tonight at the seventeenth district in Etown.
John Harden and Central Harden are going to get going here in about twenty five
minutes time Etown in North Harden at seven thirty to Washington County is the nineteenth
district championship. Nelson County and Bethlehem will go at six o'clock and the twenty
first district being played over at holy Cross High School Long Dixie Highway. Holy
Cross and Fardale will go at six Already underway at Bullet Central it is the
twenty third district championship game North Bullet and Bullet Central playing in that one.
Then over to Manuel where in about twenty minutes time it will be Manual and
Portland Christian playing for that championship. And at Sacred Heart underway, Sacred Heart
in Atherton will play for the twenty seventh district and finally, certainly last but
not least, coming up tomorrow at six point thirty at North Oldham it will
be South Oldham taking on Oldham County and getting that high school softball championships.
And we'll have updated scores for you tomorrow morning on news radio eight forty whs
starting with yours truly and of course Tony Cruz all right, won't be long,
John, and we are gonna be talking college football. It's hard,
right, I already got in my inboxes. Tell my wife this. Last
night, I the University of Kentucky sent out an email to all the media
folks going, if you need SEC media football credentials, you need to let
us know. Now. It's just got done with Derby, I know,
and it's three months away. We'll be kicking off college football. And that
sounds like a long time, right, But when you think about it,
three months ago, it was February. I know. I mean, that
really wasn't that long ago. So it's gonna it's gonna creep up on us
quickly. College football, a new era of college football, the twelve team
college football playoff. Oh my god, dude, dude, let me tell
you something. That is the hardest thing. And as I was mentioning before,
that's the hardest thing for me to get used to because as college football
starts to look more and more like the NFL, and maybe because I really
I got it. I'm a I'm a daily fantasy player, so meeting on
Sunday morning, I will wake up and turn on NFL Network and I will
pick two teams for fantasy. I don't do the beginning of the year thing.
I just picked. It makes it fun. I went into fantasy sports
kicking and screaming. I did. I was a guy who's like, how
do you people do this? And I've never I've never dabbled. Yeah,
but I know people and I guess you're one of them now that once they
get into it, like they do it every single year. Yeah, exactly,
and it really makes it fun kind of throughout the year because you do
watch the games in a different way and and you know, I played for
beer money. You know, I bet five ten dollars, you know,
on a team and I make it. But it's fun in the morning because
you wake up, you have your coffee, You're watching them break it down.
You're kind of picking your team, and then and then you go through
throughout the day and you get to watch it long. But as the NFL,
as college football started looking more and more like the NFL, I come
I kind of find myself migrating more towards the NFL. And as we've seen
them. We were talking about all these nil deals earlier and what's going on
with all the there Georgia and Florida. It's kind of like, wow,
I mean, this is bizarre. It's a bizarre place to be so,
but there are plenty of college football fans out there, and college football games
are not cheap to go to anymore. You can't just walk it. That
used to be the beauty of college football. You know, you can walk
up as a little bit cheaper tickets warning so much. But the good folks
at was his Odds Pedia came out with the cost of some of these football
games. For example, they've gotten no this is last year because and come
out with a new list before the season starts. The average cost to go
to a Louisville Cardinal football game one hundred and eighty dollars. Wow, I
can bet that's probably gonna be a little bit more. That surprises me.
That's gonna be a little bit more this year, because well, and what
they factor in this is how they do it. They break it down two
tickets, parking, two beers, two hot dogs, and yeah it's two
beers. No, that makes sense. Two ticket price. No, no,
no, this is just what it would cost. Let's just say you
go out there and get a couple of beers and you want to go to
the game. So right now, they got the Louisville Cardinals at about one
hundred and eighty dollars. I had Kentucky dollars up here. Oh here's Kentucky.
Kentucky's at one fifty four, which that surprised me. I thought Kentucky
be a little higher. Alabama only one fifty eight. This is one fifty
eight. Now these are face value stuff. Okay, most because they're saying
right now, two tickets to an Alabama Crimson Tide game. They're saying seventy
eight dollars. That's face value. Now, that might be you're going to
see them against say north Way Central Baptist Texas. Yeah, that kind of
stuff. You know, you go to see them. The most expensive ticket
on the item, they're pointing the Wisconsin Badgers one hundred and sixty dollars for
two tickets. And so I'd have to go in and take a look and
see what would all their I like to do this with studies. I like
to go in and see. Oh, I stand correct that that wasn't the
most expensive. The most expensive ticket out there is the Oklahoma Sooners two hundred
and six dollars. And this will be the first year with Oklahoma and the
SEC. So there's that added intrigue. That's right, And dude, can
I cannot get used to and I was. I grew up a big ten
guy. I cannot get used to USC and UCLA making that trip. And
then you also have Oregon and Washington part of that group too, like the
conferences, and I know that they've talked about there was at least rumors a
few months ago that the Big Ten and the SEC are kind of under the
table discussing eventually becoming their own league and just kind of being two super conferences.
Yeah, everybody else will get left behind if that ever becomes a reality.
I don't really know what college football is gonna look like. That's my
point. Yeah, you kind of validate my point, and that is if
college football is. But but that said, there's a whole new generation coming
through that that's all they're gonna know when it comes to college football. Yes,
for example, I came in. My dad used to brag on the
Big Eight. Here, you aren't played football they do in the Big Eight.
I'm like, Dad, what is the Big Eight? I don't get
that. And so, so you know, there's a whole generation. This
is all they know. And as I try to tell Tony Cruz in the
morning, there's a whole group of people who get paid a lot more money
and are a lot more educated to make this business decision than we are.
It's real easy for us to kind of sit back and go, like me,
I had the same thing. I'm like when I first heard USC was
going to be in the Big Ten, and they're gonna make that trip back
and forth and oh in two. For those of you who think whether kids
from southern California playing in the Midwest cold, Oh that's that's gonna suck.
No, these guys know how to they can ball out. They can ball
out in any weather. It's got nothing to do with it. It's got
nothing to do with it. That's West USC's played Notre Dame every single year.
They go out to South Bend. Yeah, they dude, I've watched
you know, when I lived down the West Coast, I was kind of
I liked watching the pac twelve. I liked I enjoyed watching man USC would
go to stadiums like el go up and they play Washington State, and it
is just brutal up there. I mean, at least in the Pacific Northwest,
if it's cold and it's rainy, it's it's Seattle kind of cold and
rainy. It's got a cool vibe to it. Man, you go to
you go to like Pullman and you play Washington State. This is a nasty
cold. I mean it's a nasty cold and nasty rain. These guys know
how to ball out, them them going to cold weather clients. That's why
I never bought the argument where well, the SEC can't win when they come
north. No, they can win when they come north. It's it's kind
of undo with it, guys. I will say, though, it's gonna
be really cool when it comes to the college football Playoff next year because the
opening round games will be on campuses. That's right. So you do have
the chance that a team like in Alabama or an Auburn may go up and
travel play to Michigan or Wisconsin. Yeah, and in December when you're playing
these playoff games, the weather can be unpredictable. I guarantee you none of
these schools have ever played in the snow in you know, in this kind
of environment because they don't play that late in the season like that. Now,
I will tell you college hockey in their conference tournaments made that transition to
your point. They used to play their conference tournaments and venues for example,
where like a Michigan and Minnesota would play, they'd either play it at the
time Joe Louis Arena in Detroit or they play at the Excel Center in Minnesota.
Well, what was nice was they they figured it out and they go,
you know what, let's play these on campus. Because one they're more,
they're they're better attended. You play them on campus, you're gonna sell
them out. And like you said, when you do the college playoff,
because who's got the money to I mean, let's say your team gets into
the playoff, can you do you travel there? That's what people were faced.
I was listening to that with the when Michigan was playing. Everybody's like,
well we do do we go watch the first game? You know we
want to? Or do we go? And we watched the second game?
Can we afford to make these trips like we did before? And at least
and two from what I saw this we were talking while we were talking about
the finances of sport. One thing I did notice that I took away when
I was at the PGA is that money is no object for a lot of
people. And maybe it was just it was the PGA, but I'm looking
at In fact, I was talking with Ian Vercheres. He was telling me
what he bought tickets themselves. He just bought. They bought their own tickets,
a couple of tickets where they had the all inclusive food and he was
telling me what he paid for him and I was like, holy cow,
it was crazy what they paid for him. So people have the money to
spend when they want to spend, and I think, you know, people
will make that trip. So I don't know, dude, you know you
look at I'm looking at some of these other stadiums, like Nebraska for example.
Yeah, some of the stadiums, the ticket prices are more than the
beer. Some of the beers are pretty expensive. But like in Nebraska,
you'll pay one hundred ninety dollars for two tickets and your parking is twenty five
dollars. At Georgia Tech, you'll pay one hundred and seventy four dollars for
tickets and your parking is only ten dollars. So and these are these are
rough gest demates. But let's be honest, you'll spend a pretty penny no
matter where you go, no matter where you go to see a game,
because chances are you're not buying the tickets at face value. You're probably buying
them off a resale site. And you know, it's just a matter of
how bad you want to see that event, and people will pay it.
And you and I talked about this. I believe on Oaks Day, Scott,
when people make these kind of trips. It's not necessarily about the game
anymore, right, It's about the experience that they're going to have while they're
there. And that's why you see so many of these newer stadiums and even
older stadiums that are being refurbished. They're adding all these extra bells and whistles
to kind of make it a more unique experience for people who or maybe they're
seeing these teams play for the first time in these stadiums. Yeah, yeah,
right, And when you watch I was watching some of the debates that
came out of Michigan Stadium, for example, for the last couple of years,
they now are putting a DJ in and as opposed to the band that
would always play you still hear the band. Yeah, okay, but it's
not like it was before. And you can kind of see almost this this
culture clash in sports going on right now, much like we saw in real
life. And there's some sports fans that are like, you know, people
are having a hard time AT's say, for example, Wrigley. They're saying
it looks like it's just a billboard. It's a giant billboard. But then
again, there's a generation of people that are coming up through that, that's
all they're going to know. And what we found out in sports now it's
all about marketing. In fact, it's interesting because my son is doing the
sports sports business program at Xavier and when we picked up his books last year,
there's this big, old, thick book on sports marketing and one of
the well I was picked it up and I started thumbing through it and was
reading it and one of the case studies was the New Zealand All Blacks,
the rugby team, and how they've really just become a marketing machine. They
went through a stretch where they were really, really good and they talked at
length about it's not about the fan anymore. It's about making the money.
And not just in New Zealand, mind you, it's about making the money
worldwide. It's about the TV rights. And a perfect example of that is
Churchill Downs. I've been here now for twenty a little over twenty six,
twenty seven years. When I moved here, it was still the two dollar
window Better that was running the show out there. So I've watched Churchill Downs
go through this transformation, and believe me, I heard everybody calling the media
and complain and they're funneling out the two dollars winter or two dollars better.
But you look at what they've built and look what it's come to now.
And you have a facility out there, as we mentioned on Oaks Day,
that is built strictly for just two days out of the year. Who does
that? Who builds a venue? And that venue probably rivals some of the
best college football stadiums in the world. So it's all about marketing. Sports
is a business now unless you can get yourself down to some of the lower
levels of college like I can guarantee you. Let's say you want to take
in a football game at Center College here in Kentucky, down there near Danville,
You're gonna get the full on Saturday college football experience down there, as
opposed to if you want to go to say I've been to I've been to
a game, a UCLA game at the Rose Bowl. Okay, I've always
wanted to go to the Rose Bowl game itself. I've never been able to
go, but when we lived in San Diego, we'd make the drive up
by five. I saw UCLA play Miami. I've seen them play Michigan there.
It's just a different vibe and you look at the business and the corporate
suites. Think about that, there's an entity stands to gain more money from
somebody who's buying a massive corporate box as opposed to you and I walking up
buying a couple of seats and we can have a couple of hot dogs.
And in fact, when we go to break I'm gonna look up Crypto dot
Com Arena just had a new stadium experience that day, and just this ungodly
amount of money that you had to pay to get this experience for what you
got. But if you're a big company and you can afford it, that's
who these businesses are going to cater to. And you can see us kind
of strain into that territory. Take, for example, Levi Stadium out in
San Francisco. If you look at one side of it, there's all the
seats, of course, but if you look at the other side, it
looks like the front end of a beachfront hotel because it's nothing but suitets and
you know, luxury suites and boxes in media area, so that you can
kind of sat Ford Field. I noticed that same way we watched the draft
from ford Field. One side of ford Field is nothing but boxes and then
they of course had the stadium seating. You're seeing some stadiums come down and
shrink their stadium seating a little bit because the average person is going to walk
up and buy a ticket like you and I, they're not making as much
money. In fact, my buddy, who's the season ticket holder for the
Detroit Lions, told me he was telling me all the things they had to
go through, how they marked up their prices and anymore. Now, I
said, can anybody literally walk up to Ford Field game day and just buy
a ticket to get in? He said, probably not, Probably not,
because everybody they're selling all the packages. That's crazy. Yeah, And then
you start getting into the you start getting into the whole resale market. Like
he was telling me how he negotiated price. He actually sold his tickets for
the Rams Lions playoff game just he said, There's no way I could have
turned down the money I got for these. There's no way. My wife
would kill me and I would kill myself, he said. I started thinking
what people were paying, so there's always going to be somebody out there who's
paying is I was watching people drinking high fisting high noons at the PGA.
Those things were like fifteen bucks a pop, fifteen seventeen bucks a pop,
and I'm thinking this is a can of Seltzer at five percent five percent alcohol,
and people are just double fisting. And then we went into the Pro
Shop, of course, at the PGA Tour Shop, which don't get me
wrong, they had some awesome stuff in there. I mean, I'm a
big fan of like the forty seven gear all that stuff. They make.
The stuff inside the Pro Shop like expensive, but it was selling because my
son's birthday is coming up and he wanted one of the polos, and that
to dude, I just do not have one hundred and twenty bucks on me
right now to buy you a Polo. But yet you go online and you
can get him. But you go back and you look at the prices that
are there, and then they put everything fifty percent off. The next day,
my wife said she went out there, there was nothing left and that
was when they started today, so they sold everything out there. So anyway,
sports is the experience. If you can afford it, it's great.
If you can't, somehow you'll find a way to afford it. If you
really want to see your team. I'm Scott Fitzgeraldie is John Alden, we're
back after this in a five o'clock hour on Sports Talk seven ninety. Well,
not exactly coffee, maybe, I don't know how to say. Maybe
a light tea, maybe a the Fitzgerald with a spritz, right sprits,
Scott fitzdrol John Alden over there working hard for us, a for siate,
y'all. John's hard work getting me relegated here is we try to keep you
entertained on your way home. Appreciate that. By the way, to get
a text from mister Tony Cruise, John, we gotta be careful what we
say. He says he's listening and bumping. Oh he probably heard us,
didn't he. Oh, I know. He was very complimentary. He was
very thank you, mister Cruz. Ton We do love Tony Cruz Tony.
And now I'll be on the air at five o'clock tomorrow morning and we'll take
you home with sports. We have a lot to talk about a lot of
college baseball, kind of bring you up to speed as conference tournaments get underway
today again. Unfortunately, the Louisville Cardinals pretty much they're gonna need a lot
of help if they're gonna make the NCAA Tournament this year, they fall to
Miami eight to five. Action elsewhere at the ACC Tournament in Charlotte, it
is Florida State tenth right, Florida State the five seed up now on nine
seed Georgia Tech top of the eight through up eight to six. Taking you
over the SEC tournament, it was ten seeds South Carolina upsetting seven seed Alabama
ten to five. And the other game that's gonna get going in just a
little bit that is going to be Vanderbilt and Florida. So long story short,
we're gonna have the Kentucky Wildcats for you tomorrow ten fifteen. Darren Edwick
will hit the airway here on Sports Talk seven ninety. They're gonna take on
LSU in that one. As Kentucky moves on with their magical season, boy
have they been on a tear again. Takes me back to as John you
mentioned back in February. That's when the college baseball season started, and I
remember talking about Kentucky beating USC Upstate and here they are lo and behold the
second ranked team in the nation. The SEC Baseball Tournament is going to get
very very interesting down the stretch. The big question is is Jeff Melby and
I were talking about can the Kentucky Wildcats hold serve? Can they be as
consistent as they were throughout the year. There is a lot of good talent
right now in the SEC, to include the nation's number one team, the
Tennessee Volunteers. Then of course you have Arkansas, you have South Carolina.
So a lot of moving parts going on right now at the SEC tournament,
and we'll continue to follow that storyline again. We'll do it at five o'clock
in the morning. I'll have all the scores of the recap coming up at
the ACC Tournament. After Georgia Tech and Florida State, seven o'clock tonight is
going to be Virginia Tech and Duke, and then coming up tomorrow it will
be Virginia taking on Georgia Tech, Pitt and wake Forest, NC State in
Virginia Tech, and then that's all. This is all pool play. Of
course, Louisville will play again Thursday three o'clock against Clemson again. They're going
to need some help if they're going to make some noise, that's for sure.
But we got a lot of other sports to talk about. The Reds
are back at it tonight boy, they find themselves in a predicament. They're
eight games out, dead last in the National League Central After there was so
much promise for the Reds coming into the season. A lot of people thought
the Reds were going to capitalize on their great run. They're taking on the
San Diego Padres not to be along the banks of the Ohio. Another stadium
I love to go to is Great American Ballpark. And you know, a
couple of years ago, my son was he was looking at UC and Xavier,
and I took him to a Reds game. And the nice thing,
John, we were talking about ticket prices. When your team is horrible,
you can get good tickets. Oh yeah, you can sit probably anywhere you
want. I had never sat behind the dugout, and we were able to
sit behind the dugout because they were so bad. But you know, if
it's your team, you love it well. And I've noticed this too,
specifically with baseball. With teams that aren't doing well, those stadiums are empty.
I remember seeing a photo of Bush Stadium for Saint Louis earlier this year,
and they're not having the best of seasons in that place looks like a
ghost town. It does it does. And in Saint Louis is a place
where and I mentioned this with Tony when we were on the air before,
I love going to sports towns where the fans are sports smart. You don't
have to be good, but you just have to be sports smart. And
it's for example, Saint Louis is one of those towns. Like baseball fans
in Saint Louis know that game and even when they are teams down, when
the chips are down, they know the game. Some of the non sports
smart towns I've been to, I hate to say it, but Nashville I
believe. Oh dude, as a hockey fan, you get down there for
a hockey game, it's that vibe. I talked to a good buddy of
mine. He's a Flyers fan, he grew up in Philadelphia. We talk
a lot about hockey together. He says the same thing. I go down
there when the Flyers play. Those fans don't know anything about hockey, but
yet they kind of act like we're and we're both annoyed by their goal.
Song it's the I like it. I love it by tim Ercall and it's
like every time they turn that thing, I say, oh my god,
I said, if I heard that damn thing one more time. But you
know, you look at some of the other sports smart fans that are out
there. For example, my bucket list, I want to go to a
Steelers game. I think Steeler fans are They're everywhere, They're everywhere. You're
right, John, you can go to one of their games and if they
complain. There's some fans that complain And I'm kind of like, seriously,
but I mean Steeler fans, I get it. I totally get it.
You know, you start looking at some of the other football fans around.
The one team that I struggle with because I'm being a Lions fan. You
grow up and you're like, they just they've sucked your whole life, and
so you know, you find another team to get in their camp. Well,
it was the it was the nineteen eighty one season, nineteen eighty ninety
eighty one season where I got to know Lester Hayes for the Oakland Raiders and
he was the one that wore that stick them on his hands and he'd be
there picking off that stick of them. And I think it was it was
the year they went when the Hostages came home, they went to the Super
Bowl against the Eagles, and I just fell in love with the Raiders.
I fell in love with the mistake. I fell in love with, you
know, just everything about the team, and so I kind of Quase followed
me and then we lived on the West Coast. We would see him play
the Chargers when they came to town, and I mean it was it was
fun. But Raider fans in Oakland are sports smart. Raider fans in LA
not so much. Raider fans in Las Vegas. They're just everybody flying in
from Oakland on Southwest. When it comes to the NBA sports smart fans.
I will tell you this having witnessed it, and we had people who lived
in an apartment next to us. LA Laker fans, hands down, hands
down. People talk about the West Coast all the time. All those fans,
they don't care. They don't care. True, it is a different
vibe on the West Coast because you can get up and watch NFL games at
ten in the morning and then watch the late game at one o'clock and you
get the whole afternoon back to yourself. But when it comes to LA Laker
basketball and you want to talk NBA, I'll take a Laker fan up over.
Maybe maybe not so much a Celtics fan, because I think Boston Celtics
fans know it. But I think when it comes to the NBA, there's
no fan base that's more smorts, sports smart than Laker fans. And it's
just it's how it is. And you know, and for a while,
you start looking at some of the different venues. When when it came to
college basketball, for example, you know Kentucky you can't. I mean,
it's blue blag Kentucky fans no college basketball, and you talk to them and
Robal Reaside, I get it, Rober Reeaside. I'm just telling you from
an outsider's perspective looking in and for what I've seen over the last twenty something
years, Kentucky fans no basketball, Duke fans no basketball. You can hate
Duke fans slowly, come home. North Carolina fans no basketball. You just
you get that in different venues. And what I like to do is I
go to a ballpark and I don't open I'm not like my stepdad. I
just I don't start talking to people at random. But once in a while,
you'll get into conversations with somebody at a ballpark like that, or a
stadium or a venue, and you'll start talking to him and I kind of
enjoy that to some degree. They'll see that you're wearing the opposing gear and
they'll be like, oh, you guys did this, you guys did that,
and then you started exchanging stories and it's kind of fun. I mean,
so you know, you take it for what it is and you watch
it when it comes out and you go to the games. But you're gonna
pay. Now, as we were talking about John, You're gonna pay and
ye, people just can't afford it like they used to. And let me
tell you, while you're still on fan base, is one franchise or team
I've never ever met a fan from is the Jacksonville Jaguars. Oh I got
a story, Yes, let me tell you about that. My son's girlfriend
went to She lived just outside Jacksonville. He flew down there last year a
couple of years ago and spent some time down there with her, and he
had a chance to look around. He said the same thing. He's like,
I can see why they wanted to move the football team to London.
It's just super weird. I mean, they don't have any other professional teams
that I'm aware of. No, No, And the biggest news coverage they
got over the past four or five years is when Urban Meyer was their coach
for like three seconds. And it was horrible. It was a horrible experience.
And that's why it's very interesting. We we're talking about all the games
they are gonna play in, and the NFL is going to play in Europe
this year, and the Jaguars are back to London and there's serious talk about
moving that team to London because the fan base appreciates him. My question,
and I brought this up in the morning before, My question is how long
would that sugar rush last? We've all seen because they their football is not
our football. No, No, we've all seen it. We've all seen
teams. We've all seen teams come in. We've all seen you know,
and everybody has a sugar rush over it. I was elated when the Louisville
Panthers were here. They're basically the Triple A affiliate for the Florida Panthers,
who are in the Eastern Conference finals in the NHL. That was big time
hockey. Everybody geeked it for a while, and then after a while and
in two you have to win. We saw that with lou City. And
when lou City came in and hit the ground running and started winning from the
get go. Fortunately, their wins lasted them long enough that they kind it's
kind of like planting a tree that you plant that base and then you continue
to go out so you can sustain. Like this last season they had where
they weren't they weren't winning all that. Well, Racing Louisville comes in,
they get they have some moderate success. What helped them was all the players
playing in the World Cup at the same time, where women's sports popularity is
growing at a fever pitch, and you've got a recipe for a good following,
and that's what you're seeing with Racing Louisville. And as we were talking
with Jeff Milby, going up against the best in the NWUSL the past weekend
and having a draw, that's going to solidify what you do. Now,
nobody expects anybody to come in and be winners instantly and all of a sudden
pack of stadium full of people. That's just not gonna happen. You just
have to build it. Then two, I had an interview with Kyle Petty.
He was in for that charity ride he did. Here we were talking
about racing and motor racing, motorsports, and see everybody I've noticed from NASCAR
fans that's another thing. Fans expect. Everybody wants every game to be three
and two, two outs, bottom of the ninth. That's just not going
to happen. And NASCAR fans can sometimes be the worst for that. And
when NASCAR was going through that sort of dry spell, remember they were getting
like three hundred thousand fans at a race and then they went through that dry
spell. And as we saw Kentucky a couple of times, everybody's like,
oh, these stands are empty, nobody's there. Well, I mean it's
because everybody wants that perfect ending to a game. And you almost have to
wonder has that somehow been ingrained into us in this I want it now society.
We have look at our stats. You know you got to get up.
You want your stats right away. I'm guilty of it. There's been
times because I can't stay up Lake because I have to get up so early,
but the Wings will be playing a late game and I want to know
the score when I get up. It's the first thing I do is go
to Google and I just type in Detroit Red Wings. I can't even wait.
I gotta have it now. And then I don't even go into well,
how the game go. It's just I looked at the score and they
won. So the question is, you know, if you're going to why
do we have fans our fans attention span shorter when they're losing. Now,
you look at the Louisville Bats, for example. They came in last year,
they made a nice run at the iOS title. They were getting crowds.
I was talking to a couple of season ticket holders that were there.
But if you've been to a Bats game and they're not winning, especially in
the middle of the week, there's nobody there. But we all want that
mentality. We all want that. We want it now. So the question
is, and you ask yourself as a sports fan, how long is your
sports mentality? I was taught a hard lesson with the Lions recent success.
You know, when I'm one, you jump off that bandwagon, you can't
get back on right away. Some people do. I'm not built like that,
you know. And when Michigan made a run at the National Championship,
everybody's like, oh, you're happy. I said, guys know, because
I spent a whole year time you high migrated towards the NFL and my grade
off college football. I can't be run around putting the Michigan gear on and
say the only Michigan gear I put on now is probably hockey. Year.
You look at other sports that they do that, and oh, I know
what it was. When louisvillelay Michigan in the NCAA Tournament, I was like,
who who are you rooting for? I was not a room for Louisville
fan. A Louisville fan by proxy. My wife's a Louisville fan, my
son's a Louisville fan. It's Michigan ban no. Because and this goes back
to my high school days. I could show you pictures of Chrysler Arena when
Michigan was horrible. Michigan fans are the worst when it comes to basketball.
That's why it was almost comical watching them during that twenty thirteen run against Louisville.
They're all out there and they're Michigan gear and they're rooting and they're cheering.
And don't get me wrong, there are some devoted Michigan basketball fans,
but that's a football school that is also you saw it first hand this year.
Juwan Howard had a horrendous season, obviously end up with him getting fired
in the end. But yeah, Michigan fans coming off of football national championship,
Yeah, the last thing they're going to care about is a terrible basketball
seat. You're right, you're right. And you know what brought that point
home, John was when Duke wasn't as good as well. I mean they
were good, but they weren't like dominating like Duke. But boy, Cameron
was packed. Cameron was packed every time Duke fans followed. So you know,
you look at these sports and they're just USC. This is the same
way when I lived on the West Coast, USC football is king supreme across
the board. USC had a couple of runs at basketball. Well, when
Bronny was playing out there, everybody come out and see Bronny. But boy,
when us any other time, there's nobody out there. So you know,
you have to wonder, and that's where you're blessed. Little I know,
Louisville's had a rocky road to go over the last few years. I
get it. I don't wish that on anybody because dude, there's nothing more
that you can say. It's only sports, and you can say to yourself,
you know, it's just a game. No, it's not. Let's
be honest. There are times where your team loses you're just not in a
good mood and it's a totally different vibe than when your team wins and and
you can't help it. Now, I'm not saying you're kicking the dog or
anything like that. I'm just saying it's a different vibe. I've seen people
come in to work in this building after a heartbreak game on a Monday,
if the game was on Sunday or a game was on weekend. They're not
pleasant to be around, and they're not screaming, and they're not you know,
they're not being overly mean to you, outright mean to you, but
you can tell that their team lost, and it's just a different vibe.
So it's it's an interesting dynamic, I guess in sports psychology, and I've
talked with doctor Pemberton about this a few times on the Saturday Show. What
gets us so emotionally wrapped up in our teams? I mean, John,
you when you went to Western, did you spend a lot of time on
the hill. Yeah, did you go to the basketball the football game?
I covered a little bit of football and basketball, and even even if you're
supposed to be neutral when you're covering it, right, And I'm good at
being quiet whenever I'm down on press row and that kind of stuff. But
it's one of those things like I remember seeing I was down in or Friskelms
at Fresno for the CUSA Tournament whenever they had Tavian Hollingsworth and that. Yeah,
and they lost. I believe it was to Old Dominion, who was
having a really nice run WKU I believe was the favorite at least in that
game for the c USA title. And just seeing them lose and being their
first hand to see the other team punch their ticket to the NAA Tournament.
That's a bit of a gut wrenching thing to see when you're up that close
and personal to it, right, and it it hangs with you. Yeah,
let's be honest, it hangs with you. And you're saying to yourself,
Okay, there's bigger fish to fry, first world problems. My team,
this, this and this, yeah, And on the flip side,
I've been on the flip side of that. You know I've been I've been
on the time where your team wasn't supposed to win. I'll give you an
example. This this run the Detroit Lions, mate, I mean, this
was unbelievable, and you you get excited, you get hyped in man,
when they lost that, I wholeheartedly thought they were gonna get blown out by
the forty nine ers, and I was part of me wish they would have
as supposed to hanging in the way they did. I mean, indeed,
if the Lions ever do make it to the Super Bowl, I'm I don't
know what I'm gonna do with my hands. I just I don't. I
don't know what life is going to be like. And but because you've been
down for so long, and you know there's there is I say, there's
some benefits being down for so long. But you know, I'm used to
turn on the TV. Okay, the Lions are up, or I'll go
out outside and put him on the radio and I'll listen, and they're up.
They'll lose it, they'll do this, this and this, and then
then you kind of go on. You feel dejected. But then you when
they win like this, and you're like God, don't let this go.
This can't be you know. But what gets us so consumed with sports?
Now we've seen the videos on social media. You've seen it where people have
lost it. Ohkay, Well, I think some of these busted TV video
stage, Yeah, and I think those are stage. Nobody's gonna break a
TV like that. Nobody's gonna break on. But I have seen some angry
people afterwards as well. All Right, we're gonna take our final break.
This has been a lot of fun, folks. When we come back,
we'll wrap things up. Gonna be back with you one more day tomorrow.
Coming up tomorrow, we're gonna talk some horses racing. Dudes are gonna be
with us. I'm looking forward to that conversation. Really looking forward to Darren
Heddrick because I love talking baseball, and we're gonna talk to him about the
success behind the Kentucky Wildcats after they open play at the SEC Tournament. So
maybe Darren'll either be truly elated or maybe he'll be a little dejected during out
that the Cats do. But he is John Olden, I'm Scott Fitzgroel.
We appreciate you riding with us on your way home and we'll be back after
this on Sports Talk seven ninety and welcome back. We're wrapping things up here.
I'm Scott Fitzgerald, he's John All in the big Thank you too,
of course, Will Clark and Jeff Milby for joining us today. I'm back
one more day tomorrow. This has been a lot of fun. Thank you
all for having me here. John, Thank you you made this so easy
for you. It has been a pleasure. And we'll have you on here
in the afternoon slot anytime. This is fun. This is fun. We're
gonna have Darren Headrick with us tomorrow, and we're gonna have the racing dudes
with us tomorrow, and then we're gonna have a little fun with John.
We're gonna play a little fun because it's a big motorsports weekend. Next weekend
is coming up weekend too. So hey for John Olden, I'm Scott Fitzgerald.
Thank you all for letting me spend some time with you. We'll talk
to you tomorrow afternoon and I'll be on the air with Tony Cruz at five
tomorrow. Have a great evening, everybody. Talk to you tomorrow.