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Get off our show, idiot.
The kids are playing or tail off. The countries are screwing it up.
Gold Play Inner Murals, Brother, gold Play Inner Murals.
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Who's the kid here?
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Here's Nick? Coffee?
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Coffee and Company fueled by Thornton's here on Sports Talk seven ninety. You guys know I'm a Thornton's guys. It's been well documented, and I talked to you earlier about if you are somebody that has an unhealthy addiction to monster energy drinks. I mean, I say, I don't feel like that I'm in poor health by any means. I don't drink them, you know, Like I don't drink five a day. I usually have one a day, and I don't feel bad about it. But it's just one of
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Now.
I'm overdoing it, aren't I? They probably would if they were listening, they'd probably like, aretona down? Like you're going a little bit overboard here, which maybe that's the case, but it's just the truth. That's how I feel. I'm a Thornton's man, and we are feel about Thornton's. Here Coffee and Company Nick Coffee. That's me Austin Montgomery, alongside one hour and some change in the books. I cannot believe how fast this show has gone by, and I'm not really sure what we've accomplished, if.
I'm being honest with you.
We talked about the college basketball stupid early rankings, and look, I'm going to continue to reference them for this reason. It's been a while since we've been here, Right, Louisville basketball is coming off of a humongous bounce back season, and there's expectation out there, not just from the fans, not just from Pat Kelce, those who cover the sport objectively think Louisville is going to be, for the most part,
a preseason top ten team. Now there's gonna be some more like there's a lot of guys in the portal, and I'm glad somebody pointed this out on the text line. Yeah, there's a ton of really good players in the portal that have yet to make a commitment. There's guys that haven't entered the portal that are going to So whenever all the dust settles and all players have found a home,
these rankings will fluctuate. But I have a hard time seeing where you are now, knowing that it's based off the three big transfers that you've added, the five and four star freshmen that you have coming in and oh, by the way, you're getting back some really good players like Javon Hadley, CANi Russ, James Scott's going to be back, and then we'll see what happens with Case and Pryor.
So again they're going to fluctuate, and they're really stupid because again we're talking about all these outlets that have put out rankings when no team seemingly knows their roster yet it's all happening as we speak, coaches scrambling in the portal and try to put it all together. But again, as stupid as they are, I bring it up because it's just nice to be reminded that there's expectation around here once again. In fact, we'll get to this a little bit later on the percentage of attendance.
The increased attendance this year, it.
Was notable, and it really it really jumped up as the season went on, and that really probably should have been an expectation, right because had the team stunked, who knows what would have happened as far as attendance. But it was a gradual build when it comes to fans coming back to the Young Center this year, and I mean as they kept playing. I mean, it's almost like you had to kind of fall in love with this team,
like a lot of people did. I mean, there's so many people out there that never thought they would ever get back into Louisville basketball the way they did.
With this team.
And it is one because you just it had been so long, you maybe distance yourself as far as being like a fanatic because the program was lifeless for a few years, just being so bad, and then of course the scandals and all that kind of stuff. But you also probably thought, look, I don't even know who these guys are. They're here one year. I mean, but then you watch them, you see how hard they play, you see how hard Pat Kelsey coaches them. It's almost impossible not.
To like that guy.
And then slowly and surely people started showing back up, which again I want to get to the average attendance later, because again Louisville made a big jump, as you could expect, I mean, they're jump usually. I mean the jump is mostly due to the fact that they just didn't have anybody showing up for games for a couple of years. Also, Kentucky, they topped the list, which I'll say this when it comes to Kentucky, there was a different energy about their program as well.
They got a three seed this year. I believe that's the.
Same exact seed they had a year ago, right with Calipari in his last year, different energy, right, that marriage had soured. We all know that, and Pope he didn't. I mean, yeah he did, though, Pope he got in the same seed, and he probably had more losses than maybe they had last year. I don't know that for certain, I don't have the records in front of me, but like Pope along the way of putting together a three seed, like he won the games that Kentucky fans really really care about.
He beat Louisville, beat Duke.
Swept Tennessee until, of course they ended their season in the sweet sixteen.
You hated to see it, You hated to see it, but you know what happened.
So again, Kentucky being at the top of the list probably doesn't stand out as like a big surprise because it's Kentucky. But you could tell their energy with their program, despite the results being similar, was very noticeable. Because again I think, not only do both programs have coaches that should be able to succeed at a high level where they are, but like they get it and they're really easy to you know, coaches that win at a high level, they can be like, look, let's think about who we
used to support around here. And I don't mean to act like these guys are awful human beings because I don't know them. I think there's some things that have happened with these two that might make you question just how great they are as humans, or or you could be somebody like me that covered them for a long time that questions if they are actually human beings. Bobby Petrino robot, not a real human. Not sure he could
show any emotion. Say that sarcastically, but like if you found out he was a robot, would you be surprised? Rick Pittino not a robot, but like maybe the most unrelatable human being on the planet. But you know what those guys did. They want at a really high level, and we love them for that. These guys, if they went at a really high level, they have they have a component to them. That's just it's needed this day and age in college sports, and it's just gonna make
it different. Although anytime I talk about the relatability and whatnot, It always reminds me of always reminds me of the Sadderfield mac Era because remember when those guys got the town and they were you know, they were you know, this is a story. I don't know if Paul rodgers uh is the one who told me this.
It might have been.
It might have been Paul. It might have been one of the engineers who who works with worked with the Coaches shows. But they ended up doing a a the Coaches show for Patino at the Tumbleweed on outer Loop and Rick Patino was there, and like Rick, just think about Rick Patino being on outer Loop and just like.
Being at tumble try to visualize it. I mean he was.
He did tumble Weed Love, but it was the one on the river before they closed it down. But they were at the outer Loop one and he asked, I think it might have been Paul, what planet are we on? It wasn't on the air, But like that tells you, like Rick is so not like relatable at all, And that's okay because he wanted a high level and he also you know, I mean.
It it is Let me back up a second.
Can he be the guy like that is that is talking down on outer Loop Tumbleweed when he's you know, he's having an intercourse on a table at an Italian restaurant after they closed the doors, like come on, come on, Rick might have.
Been that was the only Versace suit that's ever been in that tumble.
They might might have might have been before that all happened. But anyways, Like, but Chris Mack's the guy that quite literally you go to Tumblewell, you go to Rooster specifically, you might see him sitting in a booth with his family, drinking a course light, eating wings like just like anybody, he was normal, he was relatable. Mac was way too normal for this job. And I told him that, and
he knows that. He's just you know, not to say he wasn't a good coach here at times, but like he was too normal for.
This job, so kind of got to be sighted. So you love Mac when.
He's just one of the boys, right, you see him on the lake, right, he's you know, he remember when he threw toilet paper all over Scott Saderfield's house because they were neighbors and he won Coach of the Year and it, I mean that video went viral, like it was crazy. All these guys may look at him. They're normal, they're like us, and then they start to stink. And I don't know if Mac ever really stunk, but like obviously missing out on the tournament the COVID year, that
really put things in a bad way. And then of course we know what happened with Dino and all that.
But I remember.
Instead of like, oh, yeah, he's on the lake, it went from that to like, he better get his ass off the lake and get recruiting, you know better, he better get his ass out of that rooster's booth and get us some five stars.
I don't know where he thinks he is. This is Louisville.
Same thing with Field, right, like, oh, he's loving up these players. Man, he's got him, he's got him playing hard, he's coaching them up.
Man.
He just loves his guys.
Man love Legue, got a big he got that Carolina twang. He's a good old boy.
And then you know, he meets he meets Mark.
Mark stoops at midfield with a full diaper and cries about El's down. And then you're like, yeah, this guy's soft. Get him out of here. He ain't built for us. Give us Bobby Patrino back. He wants foot on the throat against Kentucky every game. He's not crying at midfield about El's down, So we want him relatable. But that's that's really the after part, right, Like, they got to win. If they win in the relatable, it's the best of both worlds. They win in the relatable, likable, that's what
I mean. But if they're winning at a high level and they show nothing, we'll probably still be happy because we want to win, all right, Five out two, five seven to one, seventy nine hundred is the number. If you guys want to give us a call, you can text in on the Ellen and Federal Credit Union text line five oh two four three eight ninety seventy three, and we'll go to the throne lines now when we will welcome in.
Let's go to Mike. Mike, how are you doing this afternoon?
Sir?
Hey man, what's going on?
How you doing?
Just a couple of things here. I'm really happy with Kentucky's transfer portal and their actual freshman recruiting piece. I think they got pieces that are going to fit together. I do think they need one more shooting guard, and then I think Louisville's class is really, really good. And I've just got one question about Louisville's class. Okay, Tyron Stokes.
Is he a possibility for a late ad since he's not doing AAU this summer, is he trying to get enough credits where he can reclass and join that class.
Yeah, I wanted to save that for a little bit later because I'm trying to get a little more info myself. But yes, for those who missed it, Tyron Stokes, the number one player in the country. He is from Louisville, has not lived here for a while. He's been playing a different prep schools across the country, also playing for the OCEE League. He announced he's not going to play AAU and that has led a lot of people to think that maybe he's trying to see if he can
reclass and join a team this year. To give you just the honest answer, I don't know. I would say if he did decide to do that, Louisville would be in a good spot. But I think there's also another side of this that nobody's realizing is that Tyron Stokes is now well aware of what he's worth and guy, he doesn't need to play AU. He doesn't so I think Tyron Stokes, there's a scenario and I'm not saying this is what's happening, but this is the side of
the coin that I'm not sure people have considered. He might be the first.
Guy to say, look, I don't need AAU.
I'm if I'm going to be playing the game, I'm gonna get paid to do it. So I don't know if it's a college thing or if it's him realizing he doesn't need to do it. Clearly he's gonna need to stay in shape and play, but like he doesn't like him playing AAU wouldn't really benefit him, right, Like he could get more repetition he play against good players because obviously he would play in the highest level circuit.
But I know that Louisville fans Mike are hoping that this news means he's trying to reclass and would consider Louisville. But he's he's one of those guys that has been a known name for a year now since Chris Mack was here. I mean he was this is when he
was I guess middle school, entering entering high school. Like he's he's been believed to be one of the best players in the world for his age for a while now, but there is not a lot like whoever whoever, I guess is like running his recruitment or who he who he's who his mentor is like they they keep everything really really tight lipt.
The only other possibility I'm wonder is could he join the Abance at the BYU? I saw that toody Yep, that's.
A good point, and that's BYU.
You know, it's wild because Mark Pope had success there, But I don't know where all this money's coming from. Now that wasn't there prior. Now we are still I mean, we're now getting to it's it's still brand new when you think about it in the grand scheme of college sports that like you need deep pockets to go buy players.
But yeah, BYU, it still.
Seems crazy that the number one player in the country is going there. But it's because they have those deep pockets. And it sounds like they want everybody to know we got plenty more where that came from.
Well, I mean like, if you're a Catholic and you got money, you're giving money the Notre Dame. And if you're a Mormon, you got money must be given it to.
B YU, you're damn right.
A.
Thanks Mike, appreciate the phone call.
Yeah, I hadn't brought up Tyron Stokes yet because I just, you know, it's such an unknown and I try not to. I try not to to to give a whole lot of time to to topics and things that really it's just you know, I was gonna say pre speculation, but some could say that's really what this whole industry is. Sports talk radio is just speculation, hypotheticals, that kind of stuff.
But yes, we've talked about Tyron Stokes on this show many times over the years, and I mean years, because he's been a notable name, just because Louisville, the city has a guy that is from here that you know, you never know how anybody's going to turn out. Some guys are hyped to an insane level and it doesn't
work out. But when you talk about a guy who from the earliest age of like sixth seventh grade, that has been known nationally, not like you know, he wasn't appearing on Sports Illustrated as a middle schooler.
But you know, those who this is their world, this is what they do.
They evaluate basketball players from middle school on and NBA Draft prospects. It sounds kind of silly if you're sitting here listening right now and you have a you have a six or seventh grader, I mean, it's probably not relatable to you.
But like there are guys who by that age, guys.
And girls, to be honest, that that absolutely have shown to have an unbelievable upside. And like, for example, there was a tweet that went viral again the other day
because Paige Bukers won a national championship with Yukon on Sunday. Well, somebody dug up a tweet I believe it was from like two thousand and might have been like two thousand and seventeen, and it basically said it was a picture of her when she was really young, playing I think six or seventh grade, and it said, Paige Bukers, remember the name. She's the best player that I've ever seen at this age, even better than Diana Tarassi was.
And how about that guy?
He had like eight hundred followers and he's been covering you know, youth basketball and whatnot for that long, but he put it out there long before anybody else. And sure enough, like she's she's not Caitlin Clark, but she's really special.
So Stokes is.
I mean, he's visited Louisville before, and he has some level of relationship I believe with the staff. But again, they've kept everything really really tight as far as his recruitment. And you know, he's one of those guys that college now will just be a chance for him to make a lot of money before it becomes a pro because he's gonna be one and done.
There's just no way around that now.
I say that, which who had ever thought Cooper Flagg would be a guy that would stick around for more than a year. I still don't think he will, but it's at least more so a possibility than it ever has been, and certainly more than and I think than I think we ever thought it would be.
So I mean, let me give you an example.
The last guy and this isn't a great example, but I mean it is a good example, but it's not a good ending. The last player that had this kind of hype as far as like from such an early age as the clear cut best player you know in his class was Amani bits. I don't know if you guys remember, because it's been a long time he was the national player of the Year in high school as a sophomore.
I mean he was. I mean he was.
I feel like he had more hype than Flag did. I feel like he had more hype than Zion did. Now in the end of his recruitment, it all became like a mess, and he since I think I think I saw something the other day where he did an interview where he talked about how you know, he really like he's he and I guess probably the more so the people around him really screwed up his future by like the way they handled it, like he was just baggage.
I mean, the fact that he ended his college career at Eastern Michigan and Yipsilante his hometown, really just tells you a couple of things. One, it fell apart for him to whar he was damage goods and people didn't think he was anywhere near worthy of bringing on because of all that comes with it as far as baggage. But also like he was really good early and never got better.
I mean he didn't. He wasn't. He was never an above the rim guy. He was just tall, he had a good shot, but he didn't really do a whole lot to get it. He was just a guy.
Who, you know, people wanted to claim could be the next Kevin Durant because he was tall, lanky, had a good handle.
Could flat out shoot it.
But he got his shots because you know, he's playing against kids a lot younger than him, or i'm sorry, a lot smaller than him. He is still in the NBA, but he's in the He's not a contract with the Cavs, but I believe he's a two way guy and he's in their G League. So you know, Stokes, you never know how any of these guys turn out. But I remember leaving here. It was it was mid days. It was when I was doing Middays the Red Zone on this station when it was Cards Radio, and I remember
finishing up my show at three o'clock. Tony and Dave were going on, and I went back to my cubicle, and I remember this first time I read about this kid, because i'd heard his name and seen highlights, because he was like a sixth grader, just looking like he should be in the NBA. I mean, clearly he looked young, but you know, he was phenomenal. But I never knew
the story. It might have been Jeff Career at the time, who was working on the Louisville beat for the CJ, who wrote a column about how most people don't realize it, but he's from Louisville, like he grew he lived here as a kid, grew up here until you know, I hate even saying growing up, because this guy, he's grown up as a penom, traveling across the country to different schools because he's that good.
So but his.
Family's from here, and I know there's some relative I believe there's some relatives of his still here in town that that are close with some folks that are really big in the basketball community around here that train players and athletes, and they have somewhat of a a I guess they would probably know more than a lot of us. So, yeah, that is news that I think is we're talking about
at least mentioning. But I don't really have any more to add other than that he is a number one player in the country who did announce he's not playing AU this year, which has everybody thinking that it means he's going to reclassify and start college, which he might, or it could be him basically saying, look, I'm a Nike Kid on the Nike circuit UBL. I'm already being taken well care of because you know, nike'sdropping bags. They've
been doing it long before. I mean, they do it in a strategic way, other than the idiot Adidas guys who got in trouble. But if he said, look, if you want me to play aau Nike, you pay me, you know you got to cut the check. Like that's where we are now. And he has the power to do that, and they probably would to be honest with you because they want to get in early with these kind of guys. All right, quick break, keep it locked. Coffee and company, feel but Thornton's right here on sports Talk.
Secing now back to coffee and company fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven nine day.
That's right, it's coffee and Company fueled by Thornton's here on Sports Talk seven ninety. Appreciate you hanging out with us as we take you up until six o'clock. So I mentioned this earlier, and I guess I feel like it's one of those things that I don't get to it now. I'll probably just forget about it or run out of time because I'm not great at managing the clock here on this show. And I feel like if I was ever going to get better out of would
have done it by now. But anyways, uh, here is here are the updated numbers when it comes to attendance for this college basketball season that just concluded a couple.
Of days ago.
So Pat Kelsey, Uh he directed a two hundred and thirty seven point five percent increase in total wins for U of L. And by the way, I'm referencing this, this this info from Rick Bosyg, which isn't it wild? Rick bosicg you know he's he now he now factors that in and like emphasizes winning whenever he was didn't think winning was was possible with Kenny Payne, anybody thinking that Louisville should win, you're just you know, you're you're picking on Kenny. I'm not sure I'll ever be able
to let that go totally. It'd be different if like Rick didn't acknowledge like that Pat was doing a great job, then it would be hard. But like, you know, like it's just hard to forget that it's and I'll move on, I promise. But with Rick, I've always felt like Rick Bosa is great at what he does, and he's really objective. I would really enjoy like his work. I really enjoyed his work and I still do. That's why I'm reading an article from WDRB right now that he put together.
But he's always he just was so insanely biased, and it was just it made me sad to be honest with you, not like I was at home crying myself asleep, but like I couldn't understand what it is that he you know, most people who tried to advocate that Kenny was doing a good job and that the results were on you know, basically right on time, like this is what you everybody should have expected because of what he inherited. Most people who did that, I don't even think they
believed it. They just, you know, like they they just, for some reason, were Kenny Payne fans more than Lowell fans. With Rick, I think he believed it, which was just puzzling to me and embarrassing for him for being honest.
But anyways, Louisville, they jumped from number twenty eight to number fifteen in average attendance in Division one basketball and allowed me to allow me to emphasize here that they were still top thirty in the country when nobody was going to games other than you know, a few thousand. I always say this the one reel like, Okay, damn, this is where we are because we were kind of numb to it for a while, and you knew why
people weren't going to games. But being at the UM Center for the few games that I was there for the last year that Kenny was here, it really did kind of take you back, like you almost stopping your tracks, like this is insane, Like I never thought I would ever go to a Louisville game at home when they're playing a conference opponent and there's ten people. I mean there were more than that, but still, like it was crazy. But even with again, that shows you that we care
about basketball a lot more than most. In fact, like the women's team Jeff Walls, he averages way more fans for his games than the vast majority of college basketball programs on the men's side. So again, the attendants jumped twenty nine point two percent from eleven thousand, five hundred and four and twenty twenty four not aur all number, to fourteen thousand and eight and sixty four this season.
I actually think the the you know, the numbers that they would give you for the Louisville games are usually never super accurate just because they give you like what was I don't know, there's it's not worth getting into the conversation now, But I actually think that even if let's say the average that they gave us this year was fourteen thousand and eight and sixty four, which is what we have, like, let's say that's a little bit inflated, Well,
the number that you're that you're jumping from also insanely inflated. In fact, I think more so inflated. So the increase was there really every game? I mean two of the says here at WDRB dot com. Louisville ended at season within attendance. Buzz drawn two of the program's three largest crowds in the final eight days of the regular season eighteen four and fifty nine against Pittsburgh and then eighteen thousand, seven hundred and seven against Stanford that was the senior day.
So overall attendance, when you just consider the overall number, two hundred and seven thousand and some change was the number last year. This year was up to two hundred and fifty two thousand, so a pump of twenty two percent, and you did play one fewer home game this past season, so again I think the number that is eighteen ish like eight the last two games, and of course those were as mentioned, those were two of the bigger crowds.
I don't know if we're ever gonna get to that being like the average, because Pakkelsea could keep this thing rolling and get even better. But expecting eighteen thousand people to show up on a Tuesday in November at nine o'clock when you play Winthrop or something, I mean, it's just not sustainable. It's just not that's just it's it's not anybody's fault. That's just I mean, if there's if it's anybody's fault, it's just it's it's you for scheduling it.
But I also understand why you have those games on the schedule, and that's not going away. This is what I talked about during the season as I tried my best to avoid the attendance talk because it really is a no win situation because I don't really I mean, I want people to go to games. I want these players and the staff to realize that they are appreciated
and there's a good support. But man, the lower Bowl I don't even know how many it holds total, but if the lower bowls full and rocking, that's good enough to give you a great home court advantage. And this is another thing that really just hit me. All these players and coaches and coaches. They didn't look up in the nosebleeds and c empty seats and think where's everybody at?
They were.
They were energized because they even the Lower Bowl only when it was rocking and rowdy. They've never played consistently in front of crowds like that where they were prior, and there was an appreciation for it, even though it was still not where we used to be. So I think that night in and night out, and like acc play and if you have a good opponent come in in the non conference like you did Tennessee. I think
those games I think you can get between sixteen and nineteen. Now, if you have a bum coming in like a Boston College on a Tuesday in January and it's an eight o'clock tip and they sink, you probably are gonna have fewer people. But games that matter, like the games that are big games, and they don't even have to be like conference deciding games, right, Like if Duke comes to town and the winner is the regular season champion the ACC, that's a different situation. But like just good games against
good teams. I think you can be in that in that range. I think there's gonna be big games like a Duke or Carolina coming to town if they're good Kentucky obviously, then I think you get close to you know, selling out or actually selling it out. And you know, we'll look back at the time when Rick was here and the average attendance was, you know, in twenty fifteen, twenty one, three hundred and eighty.
Six was your average? Was your average crowd?
I just think ten years removed from that, society is in a different place to where that's not realistic at all. Rick could still be here, Tom could still be here running the city. And I just don't think this day and age twenty one point three thousand is a realistic average just because you know, I shouldn't say it's a chore, but like the and they'll always be a good crowd there when things are going well and the team is good. But can we just be real with ourselves? I clearly
am obsessed with Louisville basketball. I'm a diehard fan. I've been fortunate enough to you know, my let my passion and my obsession, my insanity.
It's it's it's given me a career.
But like, I have no problem in saying, I mean, I got a wife, I got two kids that I want to spend time with.
I don't want to go.
I mean, I watched a game at home with my family, But like I don't want to be out and make you know, and I don't want to make it about me. But I'm just telling you, like I have no problem in admitting even myself as a super fan and a fanatic, that yeah, I'd rather watch a lot of these games at home because when it's convenient, and it's it's but it's like I'm also you know, I don't want to I can't take my family at every game one I wouldn't be able to afford it. I'm fortunate enough to
get a credential. But you know, I just I wish there was more noise about it being okay to not go to every single game, and it being okay for a program to have some dud opponents on the schedule and attendance not be full it and look, I think the majority is the understands that, and I guess more than anything, I'm just triggered by the noise of Like I've never understood people who go to a game and they look around and see empty seats and they get pissed.
It's impacted their experience, and I just I don't understand it. All right, So let's see more numbers here, because I do want to reference Kentucky. So first season of Mark Pope, their average attendance improved wasn't by a big number, because again they still were having big They weren't coming off of an eight win in a four win season. They were a good team that had a great season, a three seed, and oh by the way, they had a really entertaining team and a Kentucky boy, Reed Shepherd, who
was one of the best players on that squad. So they still had good attendance. But still this year's team, they improved by an average of four hundred and six fans per game. So their average this year was twenty three and thirty four for their eighteen home games. And they finished, Sorry, they finished second to Kentucky. I'm sorry, Kentucky finished second to Carolina, and an average home attendance,
but they led the country in total attendance. Indiana finished seventh nationally in average home attendance, but they were first in the big ten. Let's see, is there any other notable Yes, so top ten in no, never mind, So Carolina has won it the last three years. As far as the average attendance, Syracuse got it in twenty twenty two and twenty twenty twenty nineteen, so Syracuse had it for four years running. Kentucky had the average between twenty
sixteen and twenty eighteen. So really in the last ten seasons, there's only been four schools that have that have led in average attendance, and that's Carolina, Syracuse, Kentucky.
Yeah, so I guess three. Yeah, just those three.
I don't know why I was thinking that there was there was four. All Right, we need to get to a quick break. We'll come back on the other side and we will wrap up the four o'clock hour. One thing I want to get to a little later on. We could certainly talk more about Cooper Flag potentially staying in college, which I don't think is as crazy as people think it is.
Also, when you look around at the portal, I want to look at the ACC.
It's still early in the portal, I think for a lot of teams, but you now have all the coaches hired. Some should have been fired, they weren't. But the ACC taking a big step forward is crucial in my opinion, and how these rosters are being put together across the league and the coaches that were hired like that, like because you can flip things pretty quickly. I'm not ready to say that the league's going to make a massive jump,
but it's certainly on the table. Stick around right here in Sports Talk seven.
Ninety Now back to coffee and Company, fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven nine day.
We were wrapping up the four o'clock hour here on a Wednesday afternoon. I lose track of what days it is whenever I'm a little bit off routine, which the flooding has led to Bullet County where I reside. Proudly, they have no school all week so NTI, which has led to me having really the first part of my day with my little one, my daughter, which is great, you know, any town with her is great, but it just you know, it's not my normal like workday routine.
So it's kind of all over the place. But it is Wednesday, right, I believe it is. It is right, it is, It is all right. I just needed you to confirm. But real quick, speaking of of of raising children, there is a a Good Morning America story here where they they they referenced I guess it's a it's a study from a company called smart Asset, and they've given us, I guess, an updated cost of raising a child here
in the United States. So, according to this smart Asset study, in Massachusetts, the most expensive state to raise a child, it costs nearly thirty six thousand a year, while in Mississippi, the cheapest state, it's less than half that much. So the study breaks down the biggest expenses families face today, from housing to education to food.
And I've never.
Once and I mean I'm a I'm I'm a father of two, and I've never once considered I was about to walk into like, you know, something that made me look really stupid and look bad that I've talked about before. But like, I don't really deal with a lot of our finances. My wife is great at dealing with that,
at least I think she is. It's a big blessing for me that she handles that burden and doesn't like you know, she's she's she works in finance anyway, so therefore, like you know, it's it's kind of her lane.
But you know, I believe we're in good shape. Again.
I got this plastic card. I swipe it when I need to survive, when it comes to gasoline for my vehicle and food to eat, beer, and usually pretty good. Like I don't spend much money. I mean, I'm buy things when I need it. But I mean we could be we could be worth a million and I wouldn't know. I think I wouldn't know, but we could be, you know, bankrupt. I think I would know too. So I think we're good.
But I've never once you know, despite not necessarily being responsible for bill paying that kind of stuff, like when I realized, oh wow, that's really expensive, like we shouldn't do that, or hey, that's a good deal. I'm at least aware of like what things cost, and I guess relatively what our budget to spend is, right, I know our lifestyle that kind of thing. But I've never once thought about a kid and what it costs. And I think most parents are probably like that because regardless of cost.
What are you gonna do right, just oh yeah, I'm out go find for yourself. I can't afford you, like I mean, so it's always gonna it's always been a cost associated thing. But I've never won. Like they say, twenty nine percent of the expense for a child is housing. So it's twenty nine percent of total costs, but of course it can be much higher in some states like California and Hawaii. Well, like, I don't, I don't look at well, there goes, I got moose in his own bedroom.
My daughter's got her bedroom, maya.
I mean, these guys are or they freeloaders, And I've never once looked at it that way. I mean, clearly it does cost a lot for child care. Like that the one thing that is always like, the one thing that's really really stood out about an added expense that you just aren't used to before you have kids, as childcare, because that's not cheap at all, and it's really important.
So I don't consider housing as part of it because we have purchased I mean, when I say this, I don't want people to think we have a bunch of homes, but we are in our third house as a family, my wife and I. My daughter was born and was a baby at our first house many years ago, and then we lived briefly at a different house and my son was born there. I mean not like in the home. We didn't do it old school like in house birth.
We were meaning we brought him home to that house after he was born in hospital, and we lived there for a little while. And we've been where we are now for I guess going on abou about two and a half years. So when we purchased these houses, yes, in mind, we knew we were going to have children, but I've never once thought, well, you know, man, I'd like to get this house that doesn't have this extra bedroom, but that damn kid now we got to get the other one because we need a bedroom for him.
So I don't know, but.
Childcare sixteen percent of the total calls child care and education, and look, it's important, and with with Moose starting school this fall, I mean again, because I'm not necessarily like responsible for bills and whatnot. I mean, I am, like I pay, but like I don't, I don't actually my money pays for it. I don't actually you know, manage
it and all that kind of stuff. But like my wife has told me a few times here and there of the last I don't know, six eight months, and she's getting excited because she realizes once he starts school, we don't have to pay for daycare anymore. And that's an expensive thing that we've paid for for eight years now nine years, and in the last four and a half we've paid for for two. So I mean we're gonna mean we might as well. I mean we're gonna be living like millionaire as.
Well, go back to Florida.
Not really that's but in a weird way, like it is one of those things where we're not gonna be like, we're not getting rap.
I mean, I don't think I am.
If I'm open to raised, if my bosses are listening, but like I'm not getting a raise, and I don't believe she is. It's not like we've added any kind of real big income, but a lot of our income will now not go to paying for, you know, childcare. And look it's not like I mean, yeah, it's gonna be great, but I don't know if you can overpay for it, Like you want to be mindful of of what you're spending. But we had moose in the same in the same daycare really almost since birth, and he
grew up there. Like there's pictures of him as a baby baby with the kid that he's now best friends with that you know, is on his baseball team. So you know, even though I have my complaints about their clothing on snow days and whatnot, like they could charge more and we'd probably still just pay it because he's in a good place and he's taken care of and
like that's a super important thing. Although I will say he did started a daycare for like five days and Mama Mama pulled him out because it was he was born in June, June first of twenty twenty.
Therefore, he was born in the height of the pandemic. Like I was.
I was allowed to be in there, but you know, I had to wear a mask and like nobody could come see us at the hospital, like it was the.
Height of the pandemic.
So with that, you know, daycares they were one of the first to be able to be opened back up, right, and they had these crazy protocols and I remember I couldn't I couldn't take his baby car seat in like an infant car seat. I had to get him out of his car seat. We're talking about an infant, you know, weeks old, and I had to carry him to some lady at the back door of this daycare and hand off. I felt like I was baby smuggling, like it was a it was a weird you know, it's a weird time.
But just the visual of like me getting him out, I have to wear a mask. This lady who comes to the door to take the baby, she's got like this shield on, and it just felt really really awful.
And they weren't like real.
I don't know, it's funny because he's been a good kid his whole life for the most part. But like there was this one woman who she you know, she she wanted mama to know that he cried a lot during the day. And that was that with having to do the whole you know, weird side door drop off. My wife was like, yeah, now we're done. We're not bringing him back here a whole other way. And then we randomly found a place that was just opening up and he's been there ever since, and you know, life's
been good. So all right, we'll take a break, we'll come back. We got an hour left, so let's make it count. Let's finish strong, we'll try, let's maybe speak it into existence. So hang out. We'll do our best right here on Sports Talk seven ninety