This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jagon Zalez on Fox Sports
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kat z R two Sad and I Heeart Radio Station. Good afternoon, everybody,
Welcome to While on the Ball. You know, Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
I'm Steve Rivera, he's Jagon's OZ. Got a boy Devon in today,
so he shouldn't have a good show. Uh, I guess a lot
of review to talk about, right football? Yeah, some basketball hasn't really
broken any news yet, although uh balls Clara, good for him, yep,
I'm sure he'll get some good chances there. Yeah, you know,
and again you know, some somebody said, you know, one of our
one of our Facebook friends said something like, uh like he he he didn't
get a good enough shot in Arizona. I'm like, if he would have
been any good at Arizona, he would have played at Airs, he would
have played. Yeah, and Tommy shortened his bet, short his bench a
bench. Um why because those guys, Because those guys weren't playing to a
level he needed. Sure. Sure the year before he was great in some
fill in roles, right, Yeah, the guy could play, he could
play somewhere, right. He can't play Arizona, right, and there's no,
no, nothing wrong with that. He's a good kid, uh,
you know, and and he can play somewhere, but he's not he's not
what we call Arizona good. It wasn't good enough to play here. If
he had been good enough to play here, he would have played. Tommy
would have played, tom would have played, I think, Yeah, Tommy.
Tommy's life depends on the number of wins he has, right, and
he's gone ball could get him some wins, he would have played. He's
gonna do whatever he can to get, you know, with the guys he's
got here. And why would he Why would if he was good enough to
play, why would he not have played him? Right? Right? So
now we're just kind of winning word on the Uh the transfer transfer ors of
from Creton. I guess one of them made a visit here this weekend,
and uh, he could be announcing any time. He went to Gonzaga on
Friday, So we'll see what happens there. Yeah, I'm excited for our
guest today, very much, so Adam Lazaris. Right, we've been wanting
to have this conversation for a while. Uh with with with somebody you know
inside on the n I L there we had, we had, we talked
about nil right before it was gonna start right with the now senator against what
didn't he Vegas? What? Oh yeah, oh yeah he's uh no,
no, no, all you're talking about um, um the Vegas guy.
Yeah. Um, he's secretary of state in in in Nevada. Um,
I can't before he was not that before we talked to he was, well,
he was running for that when we talked to him, Um, why
can't I think of his name? If my brother can tell you why remember,
brothers can say he's gonna send that year any second, Um, Cisco
Aguilar. So um, he's uh, you know, he was running for
secretary of state in Nevada and he won. He was sending on some ni
els. Yeah, but he's he's some in a stuff with with with Arizona
assist and so now um he's out of that and Adam Lazarus is now the
he's the CEO of it. So he'll be on and we'll we'll ask him
spannal questions. I don't know what what he's at liberty to. I think
he's just speaking to h Yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll ask him.
We'll ask him. You get answers, we get answer. I spoke to
him briefly this morning, just to kind of heads up on what we're going
to talk about. And I just don't you know I'm talking about And you
know there's only two. There's only two, right, this one and Wilbur
and then and then well and that I think Cisco was with the Wilburn Wilmo
one. Oh maybe you okay, yeah, yeah, yeah kay, that
makes sense. And then there's a third one, and it's you're on your
own pretty much. Yeah, if you're gonna go find something, we'll find
something on your own. Right. That should be the way it should,
Arizona assist. I believe think that's the one where Wilburn Wilma is the one
where you come to the U of A or if you want to if you
want to get a deal with a U of A player, you know,
that's more like through the U of A. But you you get you know,
they'll hook you up with a player or whatever, an athlete and a
different sports. Not not basketball, right because this is basketball with that,
this is just basketball. Oh okay, I didn't that. I didn't know.
Yeah, I didn't know either until he told me this morning. So
we'll talk more. We'll talk more. I could be wrong, but I
think that's the case. So that'll be fun. Because everyone thinks it's gonna
be the end of college athletics. Well it's not gonna be the end.
It's just gonna be way different. But it's it's it's And I was with
somebody this morning, another booster who's uh says it's not good. It's just
not good. No, the rich get richer pretty much, and the are
the road or are they really? I mean, what we know about it
right now because those you know, kids are leaving big school you know,
those those big schools. You know, there's people transferring from USC and football,
you know USC football players and Oregon football players and Kentucky basketball players and
Duke basketball players and North Carolina basketball players. I don't know that you automatically
assume that the rich are gonna get richer in this because they're you know,
guys are guys are leaving for a lot of reason, right, No,
I get that, I get that, But the but the guys with the
most money, the organizations or schools are going to get some of the elite
of the elite, And I don't disagree with you them leaving, right,
But some people are leaving for playing time, right, But that's some cash,
we'll see. That's the thing is people players are still leaving for playing
time, and so I think that, yes, it's you know, money
is a big deal of it. But you know, still, if a
kid goes and he's getting two hundred thousand dollars a year and he's not playing,
he's gonna go find a place where he can get two hundred thousand dollars
years and play. No question. I won't disagree with you who you're there.
But the rumors of for Sker and we didn't notice at the time that
we had him on the showers, he's gonna make a lot of money at
West Virginia, like a lot of money. Yeah, more money than I
will make in the next ten years maybe or maybe eight years for play one
year at West Virginia. Wow, you know what, And look, if
that's where you want to spend your money, then more power to You've got
it to throw good point, go ahead, he guess why you know,
we as fans maybe that maybe Arizonly gets better players and we we we get
we get the benefit of that. So so some again, some guy I
was talking to, he says, he's not worth that much. I'm thinking,
it's like one of those cards that we had with George. Right,
if you're willing to pay it, it's worth that's what it's worth. Right.
If he if he is worth that much, if somebody's gonna be willing
to give him that one, that's what he's worth. That's that's the market.
So that's the world we live in. I was born. I'm going
to talk to my my dad when I get to heaven and say, Dad,
how come you couldn't have better genes? I could have been a ball
player. No, yeah, you know, I think my son says that,
but he's hoping that, you know, each generation gets better. So
we're hoping that my son, my grandson, who was not four months old
today, that he's gonna have that you know, that he's gonna be six
feet tall and you know, and be able to were you know, we
see if we can make him into a left handed relief pitcher. Yeah,
yeah, two innings of game, Yeah, go out of there and throw
two, two, three, four or five innings a week left hand or
get a couple of guys out face your three batters and make two hundred million
dollars. Yeah in a career. Good enough for me. It's a bad
deal. Yeah, Devin, you were playing the wrong You're in the journalism
department. What the hell are you thinking? Long spot for money? Exactly
exactly exactly what you're having fun? But you're having fun. Okay, what
else women's softball you played? Do you? You were covering them this shoe
weekend? We oh, well, luck at you. I'm that alternate intern
to p J. Brown, So okay gets the priority on stuff. Lucky
you missed it. They wow, how how much did it sting to lose
a game on a three run home by the you know point of the players
who transferred from Arizona teams? I mean, she wins the game. You
go, it couldn't that couldn't be any worse. Caitlin Low couldn't have had
anything worse happened to her this weekend than that. Uh, like your thoughts
and we get into arguments about blue blogs and all that. I think Arizone's
a blue blood softball team, right, and it's it hasn't been that good
in a long time. Um, and they're talking about Pitchet, how that
it is or not as good as it used to be. Obviously that's obvious.
But will they ever get and not will you ever get back? But
it's been it's been a brutal stretch and it's been a bad stretcher. And
I mean when you think about those, there's only been a handful of schools,
you know, two to three schools that have those. You know,
those dominating pictures aren't around anymore. And partly, I think partly is that
because the hitters have gotten so much better. So, you know, to
be a dominating picture, you have to be you know, we think about
the the the uh um you know cat Osterman and and the Arizona pictures,
you know, Michelle, you know so Gringer and all those, all those
that that were incredible pictures. Well, the hitters maybe weren't as good.
It was a different ball as they are now. Right So now you've got
you've got better hitters around, you know, I mean, I mean Arizona
you can still hit the crap out of the ball, but they you know,
they can't pitch to save their lives right now. So um, you
know, to be a Monica Abbott was the other one I was trying to
think of, you know, to be Monica Abbott today would probably get hit
a whole bunch more than she used to then she did back then. We'll
just look at the evans of those Yeah, those you know, those those
pictures aren't gonna aren't gonna getting the ball by as many players as they could
back then, you know what you say. And not to downplay how good
they were they were. I mean they were, they were incredibly dominating,
but there's more better players in college softball all over the count Sure, sure,
you know what. I blame his fault. Things totally created a monster.
He did, he did. It was all on It's all on him.
I hope he knows that he does. I hope he has a hard
time putting his head on his on his pillow at night because of that,
when he's thinking of when he's thinking of Kaitlin Lowe out there, struckle.
You know, I'm sorry, man, how do you mean to do this
to everybody? Yeah? You know, yeah, it's all his, all
his fault. We'll we'll blame him for all of that, every single bit
of it. He created a monster and you can't even feed the monster anymore.
And and league kind of ran from the monster. No, he got
you know that the meme with Homer Simpson, he goes back into them,
back into the bushes. It's like I did this. I'm just gonna step
away. I'm just gonna step away. And that's uh yeah, and where
we make fun of mine. He's a good sport about it. I'm sure.
No, but when you're the kind of captain of the ship. Yeah,
he was the guy. He was so Okay, okay, anybody else
want to call later? We have a full show. We have Adam Bizzars
at the three fifteen seventeen. That's gonna be a fun, fun, fun
conversation. And then in the next hour we don't have a guest, but
but we got a whole, a whole bunch of dead fish clips from his
uh post game press conference as the spring game had some interesting things to say.
He seemed incredibly excited. He did, I got he's almost giddy.
Did you read my college? Yeah? And what did you think? I
already know what you think. But first of all, I mean, I'm
shocked that you said anything nice and that exactly what happened to you did you
because because it's obvious they're going to be better than they've been, right,
I haven't listened to you enough and I agree with you, but it's just
everyone else else too. But if they look talented, what did what did
you think? Or did it? I lost my breath when Justin Flow walked
in the room. Oh oh oh yes, the dude, the dude I
used to look like that before I got married. I'm just stop it.
No, dude, the dude's abs. He like had like twenty twenty abs.
Right, he looks at disimpressive. You you want to talk about a
washboard, you know, crashboard, And I'm like, who who is that?
Right? You know, I'm like who who? Because I see him,
I'm like, how does somebody get like that? Right? So then
he talks and have you seen him? Time the conversation and you heard stuff?
He talks like Jamie Fox. He kind of talks, kind of looks
you, kind of like you know, like you know how you doing?
You know that kind of seduces you with the mic and kind of yeah,
that's a perfect way to put it. Yeah, And I'm thinking, this
is smooth, man, this is smooth. And then he looks like that.
Holy crap. I'm like, if that guy's running at me, okay,
I'm throwing myself on the ground and getting into a fetal position. I
mean, I couldn't believe that that that that was who that was? Right?
I mean, first of all, he looks like he's probably really fast
because he's so sleek, so sleek, but he's got like shot puts on
his shoulders, right, shot put a ball that looks like a shot put
on his shoulder. Then he said the abs the pecks. I'm like,
you know, who, how does the twenty year old kid get like that
or twenty one year old kid get like that? Right? Right? And
then he gets up with the bike. How are you doing? Yo key?
Yeah he was. He was like that midnight to six am DJ you
know, on on the on the on the uh you know, on the
slow Jams radio station. Were never listened to Love Life the very impressive,
very impressive. So I think that I didn't see, you know, I
didn't pay touching enough to hold spring. But that's why I asked him,
who are your big takeaways from the whole thing? He gave a great answer,
fantastic answer, because I think that one of the one of the keys
and you'll have it. I guess about about Dolora, right, yeah,
where where that's a start. That's if your main guy, If your main
guy, the guy that you're counting on the most, yeah, shows up
and is ready to go. Do you have some hope? Right? You
know what I'm saying. Um, So that's there's that and we'll talk more
about all that. But he he jed seemed almost giddy. He seemed very
excited about what he what he's got in front of him. You know,
it just looked like that. And you know it's funny because it's like,
you know, I go because you know, I wasn't able to go to
practice and things, so I go with these long, large gaps between times
that I see, right, and this is gonna sound weird. He looks
more and more like a college football coach all the time, you know,
because he looked like, well, yeah, or he looked like a door
to door salesman when he got here, right, I mean, he just
looked like a guy's trying to sell you a car or something. And now
you know he walks in, he's got an air of confidence about him,
and he looks he looks. He looks like he's in in his in his
right place. Yeah, it does look like a football to win some games.
Now, I think you will. We'll see. Yeah, I'm not
there yet, but no, you're closer though. I'll have a lot closer
than I thought you were. Yes, it's all gonna depend on the defense.
Right, Okay, let's take our break. We're gonna come back with
Adam Lazarus from Arizona assist one of the n I l H whatever called co
ops or Zona based whatever coop so anil group. So we'll be back.
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Brought to you by the Southern Arizona Business Coalition. This is I Am the
Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Subscribe now
to the podcast on the iHeart Radio while just Surgeony, I'm the bar to
welcome back to our On the Ball hero Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve
Rivera, He's Jakin's also now on the phone, we have Adam Lazarus,
the CEO of Arizona assist. Adam, how are you? I'm great,
Thanks for having me on. Guys great, We're excited to talk to you
about a olt. We were kind of just two dudes on the sidewalk here.
I want to know what the heck is going on with the l uh.
First of all, tell us what it all means, because you're kind
of new to helping them out, aren't you? Or have you been here
for a while? No, I actually uh own a marketing agency. That's
my uh, my passion what we're good at, and we through mutual friends
of the of the program. Um met Tommy Lloyd's a team and the program
and are working together to create the the nil arm for U for the Arizona
men's basketball team. So it's new to everybody. It's only been around for
a little while, so we're learning as we go. But we established Arizona
Assists to help support the Arizona men's basketball team. Specifical. Okay, So
so this is specific to basketball, um, but you know, I mean
the whole program needs needs this. So you've got the you know, the
other the other group friends of Wilbur and Wilma that I assume helps you know,
all the programs. But you know why basketball why Why was it felt
the basketball needed a program like this on its own or yeah, great question,
um. And while we work alongside any of these and ilanities for the
betterment of the entire program, Arizona men's basketball being sort of the flagship,
uh you know program at the school, it's the main uh you know,
it's what we're known for, I mean, jetfish and the football team is
doing a phenomenal job as well, and every program has their needs, but
we were contacted specifically buy basketball, um, just to help them and allow
as the college collegiate sports change. It allows these student athletes to help profit
on their personas, on their talent and personal brands in order to to monetize
to monetize that. So that's what we're here for, just specifics to basketball.
So you've been on board how long with them? We launched in the
middle of the tournament last season, so we are just one year old.
Of all the tricks and trades and things you've learned, would have been maybe
two or three of them because it's you know, you still in the first
year. So I'm sure you have to kind of navigate a few things.
Yeah. Absolutely, we have to be very sensitive to the international players.
That's something we're very focused on. International players and our basketball team has a
large number of them are held to a different standard and have different things that
the federal government is placed on them in terms of working. So we have
to navigate that very smartly. And also we want to be very sensitive to
the student athletes and to the coaching staff in their time. You know,
they're there to learn, they're there to win, and we didn't want to
ever be a distraction. So just navigating everybody's uh, you know, everybody's
day to day and the calendar and just working in lock step alongside the program
has been the biggest learning curve so far. So yeah, I mean really,
you guys really had to dig in and find out how some of the
stuff works and how did you manage through some of the stuff, because it
just seems like there's more questions than answers about NIL over all. You know,
it's it's you know, they keep hounding at the wild Wild West,
and there's just so much going on and so many different things. There are
some rules, but then the rules are getting fudged all the time, is
what you hear? How did you go about first of all learning what you
can and can't do? And then how how are you, as Steve says,
navigating through that watching what some other schools are doing and not knowing is
that good? Is that bad? Is that right? Is that wrong?
You see where I'm trying to come from on that. Absolutely so NIL,
you know, obviously for those that don't know, stands for name, image,
and likeness. And then we were learning as we went. We talked
to dozens of lawyers, to player representatives. We're not play a player representative.
We spoke with the athletics department and everybody close to the program to make
sure that we are everything we're doing is in compliance the There's a lot to
learn and dozens and dozens of conversations to have, but essentially, we wanted
to make sure that our bottle that we built can be adaptive and nimble enough
as the world of NIL changes. So we built a platform. It's a
brand called Arizona Sifts that allows the average fan or significant boosters, any level
of involvement to participate through membership levels, merchandise sales, memorabilia sales, events,
experiences, and other ways to have access to the team, and at
any level you're comfortble. So if you want to give ten dollars or ten
thousand dollars, knowing that the overwhelming majority of those dollars go to the student
athletes once we pay our bills, we that's what we had to learn was
just talking to every possible person, learn as much as you can, and
build a very nimble technology program because this NIL world will change one hundred more
times. So let me you use the word sensitive to the international players,
you might have to kind of define that word and let me say using curves.
Okay, so the rumors are you know, he's decided to go to
West Virginia, that's not the rumor where he went, and they're going to
give him a lot of money. I won't see a figure, but a
lot of money. Maybe because Arizona didn't have it. Maybe he just wanted
to start. Like he said on you West Virginia. He liked the figure.
What do you mean by sensitive and is trying to find the money to
give them because a year ago we didn't think they could get anything. Yeah,
I mean that's exactly right. You know this all change July one,
twenty twenty one, when college players at any level could earn compensation, endorsements,
sponsorships for using their name, image, and likeness. The only difference
between the international players and this is not an n AL rule or a collegiate
rule, it's a federal law that student it is they cannot do work without
jeopardizing their student visa. So what is beautiful about what we've built is they
could still make revenue off of off of T shirts and other ways that we
can be that they can earn pass him income, but they can't do work
for that money. So that is where we are very sensitive to building a
platform that allows the international players and the American players to boast benefit from partnering
with local businesses being part of our program. Uh, selling shirts, hats,
things that they want, maybe building their own brand. That's how we
That's how we did it. So I have no idea what Steve Kerr or
excuse me, what Kurt Cresa got, what would promised to him? That
is not what we're you know, But I just know that there are some
rules to how how they're allowed to work for that money. Okay, So
here's this again, We're sitting here, a couple of guys with Steve said
on the sidewalk, we're just kind of you know, we read, we
hear, we hear rumors, all kinds of stuff. So when when somebody
says, Kurt Cresa went to West Virginia because he's going to get X,
I mean, isn't there supposed to be something that he's got to do to
get X other than be a basketball player at West Virginia? Right, So,
if you're if you're gonna, if you're going to provide an athlete at
Arizona with some you know, with some compensation of some sort, there's something
that they got to do. They got to put their name on a T
shirt, they got to go to an appearance at a card shop. I
mean, isn't it the rule that you can't just hand the money for coming
to your school? Yeah? I mean, I don't know again, what
you know the other schools are doing. There's dozens and dozens and dozens of
various NIL models out there, collective models and others. We are not a
collective at all. We are a brand and we built that brand to do
that exact thing where per CRESO or any player international or otherwise signs of agreement
with us. We have the ability to use cursed name, image likeness in
our advertising at our events as part of our merch and knowing that every time
we do one of those things, those players can earn significant revenue streams from
them. But yet, in essence, the players aren't supposed to do something
or lend their name, image and likeness to UH to an entity in order
to earn those dollars. At the same time, Adam, I would assume
that you probably have to know your competition, right usil A, what they're
doing, what what Asus doing, what New Mexico is doing, Because you're
in competition with other schools. So I'm sure you have one eye on your
on your prize and then kind of thinking, Oh, I wonder what they're
gonna do. What can it solve a chess game? Absolutely, and we
we Before we built what we did, we did a lot of research on
what other programs were doing. Some were just uh, you know, coming
up with a way to donate into you know, every all these dollars go
into a bucket, so to speak, and the program could use it as
they see fit. Um, there's constantly evolving models and changes and lots of
quote nil entities out there. Um. Once we did that our model,
we built it in order for it to be nimble and for allow it to
be a membership based platform, so fans, because Arizona has such a strong
fan base just outside of Tucson too internationally even we built it in a way
that fans and boosters and alumni and anyone interested could participate at any level.
So we definitely keep our eye on what everyone else is doing, but we're
pretty focused on just making sure it's a program that benefits Arizona basketball more than
anything. Okay said something a second ago, you said, you're not a
collective. Oh, Okay, what's the difference between what you do and what
does a collective do? My understanding of what a collective does would be a
it's a bunch of people who put a bunch of money into a into a
pot and they can use it as they see fit to incentivize players, you
know, to pay players. That's sort of the traditional collective and we are
not that. We are a brand. We are not a five O one
C three, We are not built that way. But we did was build
a brand that allowed these players to participate in events that we do. We
try to connect them to businesses, connect them to maybe Passion project, and
certainly have them ability to sell their T shirts or their concepts or their brand.
So a collective in the true way would just be money, if you
will, sort of in the you know, waiting there for the team to
use as a t fit. And we are not doing that. So it's
like Jay and I'm sorry, also like Jane, I given twenty five bucks
each and given it to you and then you guys just decide where it shouldn't
go spend it and you're almost like an advertising agency, aren't change in a
way that is sort of we are I mean, our parent business beyond Arizona
Sifts is Good Juju Marketing agency, which we definitely are an ad marketing agency.
We design this as a membership platform, so we build technology behind it
that would allow memberships, memorabilia, sales, events, experiences. We do
a golf tournament, We're going to try to plan a big pickleball event with
Tommy. There's lots of exciting opportunities in the town that allow the players to
participate, fans to engage, and then to monetize those efforts, and the
players. The more they participate, the more they can see in return.
Versus a collective, which is you know, there might not be a minimum
requirement. I don't really speak too much to the collectives because we aren't one,
and I don't really know what they're doing, but every every college is
doing it a little differently. Yeah. Is the friends of Wilbur and Wilma
the same as you? Or are they a collective? UM? I don't
know exactly their model. I don't think they're entirely a collective. They're similar
in us in some ways and they're doing a phenomenal job of helping in similar
ways that we are. But they're handling, football, and some of the
other sports at Arizona. Well, we are focused solely on Arizona's basketball at
the moment. Okay, So let me just u in its simplest form,
the way this would work is, let's say I'm Joe Schmo. I'm a
I'm having a golf tournament. It's a fundraising tournament, but I feel like
I can get more more people to get involved in this golf tournament. If
I have three basketball players that are going to be there signing stuff or whatever,
they come to you. You set up a thing where or I would
come to you and say, okay, I want to have pretty basketball players
at my event. What does it cost me? And what will they do?
And then you figure out some sort of a package deal or whatever for
them to come and be at the event. Is that how that works?
Basically? That'd be one way. Well, we are now players representative.
We're not lawyer, if we're not agents, we don't speak for the players.
We are a connection, though we are handshake as best we can be
between corporate entities and town or associations organizations that maybe want to have players appear
or be a part of events and experiences that Arizona Assists is doing. So,
yes, they could contact us and say I have this is what I'm
hoping to get, this is my budget, and then we'll certainly put it
in front of the player. But if the player doesn't want to do that,
if they don't want to show up, we can't force that. We
are just a handshake in that way. But that is one of the things
that we do Arizona Assists if we're doing an event though, for examp our
golf tournament. We had a golf tournament last year a La Paloma, had
one hundred players from around the town. All the revenue we raised at that
at that event went to help the directly support the student athletes. All the
team. The entire team was there at different holes, you know, hanging
out. Um. So we do things like that, Um for sure.
But then would they get paid for doing that, I guess is my question.
Then do they get paid for the appearance? Yeah, the the the
American player can definitely get paid for the appearance. Yeah. Oh okay,
So let me ask you, Adam, did you are you you a grad?
I am not? Okay, I think you're twenty years though. Okay,
so I kind of wanted to put things in perspective. Okay, I'm
gonna get on my old man soapbox here. Okay, So the one thing,
and I do this with Jay all the time and he agrees with me.
So the best way to know these players because frankly, we don't really
know these players football, basketball and otherwise because we see them. I'm teching
the media and then we were both sports writers by trade, that you get
to sit down with these guys. When Luke was here, we talked to
them all the time, We became friends. We rewrote stories, blowing stories,
and the people, the community and the Luves got to know these guys.
Right. So over the last fifteen years or so that hasn't been the
case. But the best way to know the players is through the media.
And I could be wrong, but this is my profession, so I think
I'm right. And now that's gone away. So the best way to know
these players is to have more access to these players because now they're a business.
They're their own business. Do you think that could change? Because it's
if I knew occurred more, I think the city would have loved him more.
If that makes any sense. All of that makes sense, and I
do agree with you. The traditional ways that have always been the way to
intro to the players and get to know them has been the media, and
that should stay the same and keep growing. But the media is now they
have their own college social media, you know, and their own influencer network.
They have thousands and thousands of followers directly, so they're their own biggest
megaphone. And there's lots of other ways to get a hold of these guys
now, and so this is just another way where you can definitely interact and
get to know the student athletes at our events or at at you know,
at events and experiences we do, or having them come. But certainly it's
a wait, it's another way to help these players build their own brands,
keep their tie to Tuson. One of the big things we're trying to do
is connect them with local businesses, entities, organizations that matter to them and
and really expand their footprint here so once they graduate or go to the league
or whatever it is, they come back to Tuson for more than just you
know, an autographs or you know, things like that. So I agree
with you that it is the media, but they are their own media engines
now. And we do try to help them navigate that invest we can.
Yeah, no, no question. I also would like to say that most
of the people our age are the ones with the money, because you know,
if if Kurr and I just use an example, right, these young
kids have a lot of followers, of course, but they're all the same
age. They have yet to make the money. So people who have the
businesses are older, They're not on social they're not on Twitter, they're not
a tick doctor. They're making they're making money. Does that make sense?
Absolutely? And that's why what what you tried to do is we offer various
membership and participation levels and ways of being involved with arizonassists that allow you know,
a young fan or a college student who's on a budget to still buy
T shirts and wear cool gear and and you know, meets the players at
general bands or at a golf tournament or something cool that they might be a
part of. And then also have levels that are one hundred dollars, a
thousand dollars, even ten thousand dollars, or a corporate sponsorship that allows some
of the fans that do have those resources to meet them in smaller settings.
We get an event, a culinary dropout up in Phoenix before the AFU game,
only a hundred stamps paying a little more heavyc got to spend the evenings
playing uh, you know, cornhole with the cats and ping pong and getting
to know them in a different way. So we do have various levels of
participation that allow the student athletes and the fans to interact in different ways that
might be more suited to their budget or for their you know, their their
participation level. One last thing I know you have something going on tomorrow tomorrow
is just the University of Arizona is putting on an NIL panel because lots of
people have you know, a thought on NIL or don't really know where to
start. What is NIL? How does this work? What are my options?
And so they are doing a panel, an independent panel that we're going
to sit on. Arizona SIS will be on that panel alongside some of the
other NIL related entity. Is just to learn more if you're a local business
or you want to learn more about the nil uh. It starts at six
pm tomorrow down at the University of Arizona. It's a great way to learn
a little bit more. You can also go to Arizona sif dot com and
learn about NIL how we're trying to to make our market in that world.
And uh and if you do want to be a part of that, that's
tomorrow and then we're gonna have some fun events, play your engagement events to
start once the season kind of gets ramp back up again. Okay, you
of it is a big place. Where at the University of Arizona is this
event? Um, I don't know off hand. I apologize I should know
that, but I don't know the room. But if you google, if
you can google the Arizona or NIL event at the University of Arizona, it's
alongside the Arizona Edge program and so um you can learn all about Okay,
cool, okay, adam, thanks in the whole new world, right,
thank you. It is a whole new world, but it is important.
It's the way. Um. The last closing work here, if you will,
is the game has definitely changed, and I think what we're trying to
do is whether you agree with it or not, learning more about it.
But it's a way to help ensure the players get rewarded and the play the
program remains competitive in this new world. That's really what we're here about.
Yeah, perfect. Okay, Adam, We'll keep in touch. Thanks who,
thank you gentlemen. Great job, Thank you, Adam. We're running
a little late, but there was good information. That was good. I
think we little know I know a little more, not a lot more,
though, because it's still such a massive, such a massive. Thanks spadime,
let's go break like a tag at five racing. If you're an Arizona
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Hey, Steve Raba and Jacob Solids. They have their eye on the ball.
Two sons Sports station Fox Sports fourteen fifty, Hey, welcome back to
iron the Ball at your own Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Young Steve Vera.
You're Jay Gonzalez. If you want to give us a call, we have
about nine minutes. Please do are you are you an n L guy?
Do they give you you know, are you giving money to the human?
Not yet, but that's that's you know, that's the thing. You go
on to the Arizona Assists website, you go on to do the will you
know friends of Wilbur and Wilma. Yeah, it's like being it's like joining
your wildcat club. You become a member. You give money on a monthly
basis. You can do ten dollars a month, one hundred dollars a month,
you know, ten thousand dollars a year or whatever. This money goes
into their fund and they use it for well, doc, you're an alum
guy, right, and I don't. I can't do this because we have
to do it for our advertising for ourselves. Right. But now you have
to chase money for the school, for the athletic department, right, for
Wilbur or Wilma for this assist strictly basketbasket right? How many others are where
you have Tucson, right, and you have a lums all over the world,
like you said, still there's there's a short list of people who have
money. Like just you just wonder how how this is thinning out the available
money for the various entities that are doing this stuff, and not just one
time. It's like constant Yeah, it's constant um. Yeah, you know.
And that's why peple, That's why you get you know those uh you
know, scary you. This is all gonna you know, it's all gonna
come crumbling down and the school you know, college athletics is gonna die and
stuff. No, it's not. People are gonna have money and they're gonna
give the money. It's just a matter of Okay, where am I giving
them money? Um? You know, do I give the money to the
athletic departments so they can do so they can do whatever they want with it.
Do I give my money to basketball? Because I'm just a basketball fan
And there's all. That's all I give a crap about. I go to
friends of Wilbur and Wilma because I want my nim. I want to give
an ail money and I wanted to go to football. You know, people
are just gonna where their money is going to go. Um. And and
the thing is, Steve, I do I do believe that, you know,
I'm not. I'm not gonna say the money is unlimited it's because it's
not. But I am going to say that people have all have always been
willing to give their money to sports because because they're fans, and you know,
I am. I imagine there's people out there giving money to the Wildcat
Club and giving money to Arizona Assist and giving money to friends of Wilbur and
Wilma and having events to pay and paying players to do stuff because they love
the stuff. Now, are there as many people who love Arizona football as
love USC football? Maybe maybe not, you know, because there's so many
other things going on in LA where people are spending their money. Now,
are there people more people giving money at Alabama than an Arizona? Of course
they are. Because Alabama's winning a national championship. Everybody wants to be a
part of that, and there lives. There's my thought of the rich kidding
rich, right, because you can pay a big Jimbo guy on the longing
front line a lot more. The rich were already rich beyond Arizona's uh reach
anyway, So that's not changing. How rich can you be? Right,
that's not gonna change. It's like, okay, so you're you're uh your
phil nine, You've got you know, one hundred billion dollars, right,
and I'm a millionaire. I'm never catching up with you, right, and
and so why try? Well, the Arizona's just gotta be who they are.
That's the problem. That's it, right there. They gotta be who
they are to just be better at other things, right. You know,
I always say it's always bring this with the with the with the loot thing,
maybe the dictomy thing. You get your million dollar guy and coaching to
play like two million dollars right, right, yeah, I mean you know,
with with or without ni l Arizona is not catching up with Alabama,
just not not happening. So so what you do is you just you play,
as they say, you stay in your lane, right, You try
and recruit guys that can play at Arizona and who are willing to come to
Arizona and play here. And then you just try, as you always have.
You just try, and you know, hit the jackpot every few years.
That's what that's all you can do. And I don't see how that
really changes with Niam. I really don't. Well, I'm sure I don't
even know if I should say this, because I'm not I can stop positive,
but that they're that's why you asked him. You have to probably have
an eye on other schools well, work in their magic because other schools are
paying X amount of money for women's basketball, don't even go there. Right,
So every sport has its issues, right, But look, did Kirk
Creasalte leave Arizona because of nil? Maybe? All right? Okay, so
what's the deal? Okay, Arizona goes to the next guy, And that's
what you have to do. And you got you got a guy like kyl
and Boswell. You gotta try and figure out a way to keep him here.
But if Colin Boswell leaves after next year because he has such a great
year and he goes to the NBA, how is that different from him leaving
to go to another school because somebody offered him some nil. It's not,
it's not, It's really not. It's like the girl from LSU Reece.
Yeah, right, what does she say, I'm staying in school because I
can make more money here and and in some instances that will happen here,
particularly in sports like that where a professional doesn't make you know, they don't
make that much money in the w NBA. Right now, I think a
top salary there, it's like two hundred and fifty grand. It's not it's
not inconceivable to think that that that uh, that the LSU basketball player,
I think it's a list of reas or whatever last first name is, her
last name is, is making more than that at LSU. And if she
is, then more power to LSU to be able to do that. It's
funny because you know, me, me dummy watches or reads the Facebook and
they're talking about the kid from creating all these other players blah blah blah,
and they're saying, well, our ni l has to step up party from
a guy who doesn't contribute to the NFL. Right, so if you're gonna
be talking to talk, you might want to put some money. Yeah,
and like you said, two bucks, ten bucks, twenty bucks whatever.
Yeah. I guess enough people do that, especially especially to the Facebook people.
Yeah, go it and throw some bucks, right, yeah, don't
yea, yeah, don't you know. Don't don't be talking crap unless you're
doing something to help to help. There's plenty of that. I'll see enough
comments that if they put twenty five bucks each, that be happy. I
mean, the screw right if everybody who commented about one of your columns or
something you know, or one of our shows. Uh, you know,
throw twenty five bucks in the pot. It builds up, Sure, it
absolutely does. You know. So I mean it's the same. It's the
same as you know, if you don't vote, don't pitch. I was
just exactly say, it's the exact same thing, the exact same thing.
So that ain't get tough. They're down there in the basement of their mom's
house, your grandmother's in their boxer shorts, bagg of Cheetos. This sounds
familiar somewhere, you know, a diet coke whatever. Yeah, you gotta
keep the diet coke there foote Okay, hands are dirty with Cheeto, with
Cheeto does exactly with Cheeto wanta on their fingers. Yeah, So we have
about a minute or sold up. We have Devin with some breaking news.
A lot of stuff going on right Devin, NBA. A lot of crazy
stuff in the NBA happen over the week. It was fantastic. It's like
it's like the college basketball season, yeah, all over again. A lot
stuff and then uh, and then we'll then we'll we'll cover Jetfish's uh post
spring game press conference, though I had a lot to say. Um,
I didn't cut any of the clips from the players, but Jet had plenty
of stuff to say. And you know, now they settle in and get
into their summer and you'll you'll hear what he has to say about what they
got to do from here to get ready for the fall. And of course
if you want to talk to us, give us a call. Well,
Deva is doing the breaking news stuff, and then we'll have you at the
end of the end of the show. Yeah, we'll have another secment at
the end of the show, right, okay, all right, let's uh,
okay, well, let's get here to take our break once again.
Breaking news the top of the hour, a lot of most of the NBA
stuff, probably Devin and then uh and then uh, you know, a
little bit of you of a stuff, and then we'll be back and we'll
uh and we'll cover the spring game, so we'll stick around for all of
that. We'll be right back