This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services Ensure your most prized possessions.
Hey, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. In with me today is Blake Eager. He's not here yet, but we got Juan with us in this booth and we have Ray working the mic so here on the other side. The contraption, whatever the hell it is, That's why I don't do it, contraction. Welcome to Wednesday's show. Should be fun. It should be fun. We're gonna have ELK Tour director Executive director TJ. Jesskowitz in with some
news about tomorrow and the ride. And then we're gonna have one of our great guests, that mattmil Buck, former U of A football, football, former basketball player, attorney. I want to talk to him about your guy that we just talked about before, is the Tennessee Tenessee quarterback.
Yeah.
I can't even say his name. We all NKO collectively, we call him Nico.
What's his lasting? It's just that I Nico. Okay, we'll call him that guy.
Yeah, So I sent him a video with with some thoughts from j Billis you guess he had a show with UH with coach k about all this. Eventually, the kids, maybe the student athletes starting to maybe thoughts, will becoming employees. I think that'd be the worst thing for them.
Oh yeah, because at that point you're taking away the student park in student.
Athlete, and they won't have as many rights as they do as a free, free guy exactly.
You know, it's just it's a crazy time right now. And it's not just college football. We had to see to this magnitude in college basketball, but maybe that's just because college football is a little bit more drama esque.
Yeah, I bet you that we will see it in basketball.
We didn't see it this year at least right right, people threatening not to play in the playoffs.
And we're waiting.
We're kind of waiting on that high recruit goes to school one year, tries to leave for more money the next and UH, in my opinion, probably settles. This is kind of what happening with this situation with Miko, because I don't believe UCLA would pay the four million that he's asking the ransom.
No, no, I think and that's part of the charm because no one else really wants him, so he might be that might be the last resort for him.
And all honestly, I followed very loosely, and then all of a sudden, you get these reports, Oh, tou Lane's pulling out North Carolina's I didn't know they had were in contention, right right.
They don't want to pay the guy, which of course is every right to not to pay the guy, even though you have this high price price tag. Uh So we'll see what happens with that. But that's kind of like the president, the president of the whole situation with football.
And it's just interesting.
You read things here and there on X or wherever you find joy in your life? Uh yeah, with not an X Yeah exactly, you.
Ever did a hot chick? Don't let me start here. But either way, you know, you get these stories.
I would guess that you call him where Nico almost sat out of that first college football playoff game out of Ohio State, And you just kind of wonder if maybe that went into all credit to Ohio State. You know, they obviously won it all, but that game really wasn't that competitive.
Maybe that's the reason.
Why you know, you have your starter quarterback, thinking about other things. Yeah, thinking about four million dollars. If you would have payed better, maybe they would have paid him exactly exactly.
And he was getting crushed that whole game.
I mean, everybody there was those famous pictures of him cracking two helmets because when it was so cold and two he was getting hit so hard.
But I mean.
Exactly, that's why I went and got Wendel moy from right here in Tucson.
Yeah.
Yeah, it was it's gonna be interesting dynamic. I think, you know, it was a van going to come anyways with somebody. And now what I see, like on a lot of sports shows is that people are like, do you start contracts?
What do you what do you put in those contracts? And how do you do that?
Kind of like what you guys were talking about already. But I mean, it was a bound to happen eventually. It it's it kind of sucks that it happened this way, just because you know, you don't want like, you know, he's only twenty.
You know, he's like just exact starting his life two years ago.
He was going to problem.
Exactly right, And so yeah, I think that's the only thing that like kind.
Of makes you feel a little bad for him.
But yeah, so you guys are older than the eighteen obviously, how smart were you at eighteen?
Smart?
You think you think I was smart? You know, I think I'm giving you some credit. I think both of you guys, But you know I'm asking for a reason because at eighteen, you think you know it all. You have all these answers out your hands right right, and you're not going to die and nothing bad will ever happen exactly, And then you wake up in the morning and says, what the hell I gotta go to school?
What do I exactly? You know what I'm saying.
So, and then I think he's not alone in this decision, because I think his.
Dad was part of it. Right, I didn't hear anything about that.
There's conflicting reports about it.
For report how much influence he had, Yeah, right, right? So uh but if you think your stuff doesn't stink, uh, and you like the Vegas like the Vegas kids. Vin Seasons married two three slua some of that.
Yes, like that.
So he he demanded more money and they were undefeated, and they says, okay, don't let the door hit you in the ass, and they stayed pretty solid.
They went bowling and they won their bawl.
Right, undefeated, undefeated for a long time until they didn't feel undefeated.
Uh.
But you know everyone thinks their stuff doesn't stink until it does.
Yeah, mine, and mine never does. I'll tell you that. No, no, your stuff. Yeah, that's why. That's why in a month, exactly a month and start to sea, I'll be graduating.
Yeah, my stuff never stink.
Yeah yeah.
And then guess what happens? Oh, I guess I do smell a little. No one wants to hire me, Blake, set the door, kid, you want to get to go?
Yeah? Okay.
Well, so the whole thing about this Nico situation is supposedly it was never about the money. It was supposedly about the offense, the Tennessee offense. And there's no sense. And you're just hearing that now, exactly. Why didn't you hear it then or mid season? Or they had a good season, right, they went to the college football playoffs. It was obviously a good enough offense to make the playoffs, right, and he's good enough to handle it too, right exactly?
Yeah?
Well, well, well, look who's here do we have to have the trumpets.
I was expecting more of like a red carpet treatment if I was going to be this late, But no, it was just nice. Thanks for thanks for being paid. You must have come from somewhere important. You look halfway decent, yeah, with no hat.
Yes.
So we're trying to work on an expansion for the Mexican Baseball Fiesta. So we've had a couple of meetings with different communities surrounding southern Arizona.
Okay, we won't ask you how that goes because it's still way early.
Probably, yeah, I mean every all good conversations, right, Good to see.
You without a hat.
Yeah, you have the.
One side of my head. Don't laugh, Kwan's laughing, don't laugh. List admit it's grown out enough to where I did I tell you about this last week I had. I had to go to a breakfast club and somebody came over and was like, this is two weeks ago.
Yeah.
Yeah.
A gentleman came over.
And said, hey, there's an older German here that would like you to remove your hat, and I was like, I would too, but have you seen this haircut? I pulled my hat off and he goes, oh, no, keep the hat on who exploit it to the older gentleman, how's everybody? The older gentleman was the priest? Yea father, father, good reference. Hey, welcome, welcome, mister Premadada.
We're talking.
We're talking about another prima donna, the Tennessee quarterback who you know, maybe pulled a few too many strings and now will end up where he ends up.
And what's a ripple effect from that through college football?
I think it might be a.
Good thing that guys will say, we better not pull this off because we might get one a label of being a pain in the ass. I'm just throwing stuff out here. Pain of the ass maybe tough to deal with. And who's gonna want to coach me if I act like this? Does that make sense?
Oh?
Yeah, one hundred percent. I think there's coaches, and we talked about a lot about on the show, But like Tommy Lloyd, I think coaches or recruits on a couple of different levels. But I think character is always one of his, if not the most important.
It's up there, right, And he does say this publicly that he's hoping for whatever, hope that he doesn't have to deal with the nil all that much because he's hoping the kids that come here want to be coached up and developed. Notwithstanding they're getting paid too, right, they're getting paid maybe hopefully maybe at a discount price because we're coming here to get developed.
I think when you're looking at and what he's able to do on and off the court from a development standpoint, if I'm a player that wants to go to a program that I see longevity or a career path, you've's got to be in the top five, I would say, just from a development standpoint, from where they started. I mean, you're looking at guys like they are. You're looking at a wakas of the world, especially big men that you're
seeing step on the court the first time. You're going, I don't know if they can play at this level to the point where they're going. These guys are, I mean, Vassar is a draft pick at some point.
So let me ask you, because you played for a cup of coffee or two in your baseball career, what level double Yeah, So I'm sure you ran into a number if you weren't one of them. Because I've heard stories already with you in the building the college coming from inside the half and I'll say this because I was a former baseball player. I've dealt with them in
my professional life. They're paid in the assets A lot of them have are Premia Donnas, and you have to be a Premiam Dona to a certain degree to be good, right, to be good. But I'm sure you've saw many of them who thought they were better than they were and probably one and more than they got.
Yeah, I'll tell you a perfect story we had, So I think it differs. Right, college guys are a little bit different than high school christ. Right, you've got that maturity, You've been knocked down a couple of pegs. A high school guys coming in as a high draft pick, he's seventeen, eighteen years old, he's already a millionaire, close to it, good example, doesn't really understand how the world works, which
they shouldn't, right to a degree. Yeah, but we had a guy that wore a Yankees jersey in the clubhouse hold held. He was eighteen, high school draft pick, first year, gets drafted. Right, we show up, he's wearing a Yankees jersey and a Mets clubhouse. Mets just paid him six hundred thousand dollars to play for the New York Mets, and they were like, go home, go home, and that I mean, he didn't last more than two years. There was already there was already a problem there, but that
thought process. Nobody stepped into his life and said, hey, what are you doing right?
Right?
And that's wild to me because I would never That's like going working at PEPSI and all you do is wear coke stuff like it doesn't Yeah, that your employer is paying you money to show up, why would you wear something else?
Well, before we you came into the room, we were talking about with Swan and Ray. It's a point where those kids, the high school kids were even older. I think their stuff doesn't stink. And then I am this guy, So don't tell me what to do because I already know what to do.
Yeah, I mean I went through that my junior year of college. Like I definitely had that mindset. Yeah. I had a really good summer, made the All Star team in the Northwoods League, came in as a preseason All American, and I pretty much pooped the bed the whole time.
So okay, So because of your attitude, you think.
And my work ethic, my attitude, I was already talking to multiple scouts I thought I had the but it was a it was a reality check that I needed in my life at that point. How long did it take you to reset when I got injured? When I had my arm, I had an elbow injury that year that was really from a maintenance on my body, not being prepared for the season. I realized that my career path could have could have gone away from what I wanted it to be.
Was there a point.
Was there a point or or two, or player or two where you said I don't want this guy on my team.
Maybe you were that guy that was Yeah.
I mean, I'm not going to get into two specifics plode no, but yeah, I mean I got in a fistfighting clubhouse in low A one time with an outfielder's name.
He screwed.
He screwed up a player or something. No, No, No, I would never do that, and I never blamed. I mean, I'm like, it's the rest on my should No, it's just the attitude that he carried in the clubhouse, the way he dealt with things all we just became the head.
Yeah.
And we'll look at this guy from Tennessee and it happens everywhere too. We're guys, newcomers or whatever show up on campus and you're thinking, well, this guy thinks a lot of himself and and he's either really good or he's not as good as he thinks he is. And then how does that mix with the current chemistry locker room.
I mean it's a killer.
You know.
I don't like to use the term cancer. That's just not something, but uh, it's a it's deflating the balloon that you're trying to inflate going to the season, right. It's just a piece that takes away from the whole, the whole side of the team.
And that's it's uh, and that's kind of what we talked about this maybe a day or so ago. Uh, sons, you know, your sons.
If the coach can't fix this, it the coach can't fix it, it's becomes you.
You lose the locker room. Rayre, you a Suns fan.
I weren't a Warriors.
Yeah it was these from the Bay Area, okay, but but you're highly on the.
I'm not.
But I just thought that I try to cover Arizona stuff when it comes to breaking news, and the you know, they were on the cusps.
I was putting you with Howard and having lunch together because remember that day you saw, Well, I'm thinking, what are you guys talking.
About, They're going to tank.
He's not a Suns fan now if they make the playoffs, and he's going to be one of the worst fan bases for being fair weather fans.
I really had to go find that shut because they were.
Yeah.
But to your point, Steve, when you're talking about professional teams and you're looking at culture and building a culture, NBA's NBA is difficult, especially we talked about the coaching carousel at this point, right, I think there's and I
hate to say this is a player. I think there's too much control right now with the players at the NBA level, where once they're unhappy, they take that and kind of go with it, right, instead of saying, and I'm not saying this goes for everybody, it's there's specific examples. But the Suns, I mean, how how are you that bad with your roster? How are you not you can have a losing record in the NBA make the playoffs? Right, it's ten teams. How are you not a playoff team?
Yeah?
When you have a lot of Prima donnas on the team, you know apples, spoil the Apple card or whatever that damn phrases. I think it was pretty close. Yes, Hey, let's take a break now and get ahold of TJ. Juskowitch your buddy, my buddy, talk about el tour Now.
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This is I on the with Steve Ravera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
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Hey, welcome back to Wining the Ball here of Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. I'm Steve Rivera and with me today's Blake Eager.
From Southern Arizona Sports tourism in film.
With and now we have TJ. Jeskowitz from the ELK toor to Tucson.
TJ. How you doing?
Hey?
Doing good?
Guys.
I know you have a friendship with my boy Blake. He's a kind of a good guy. That's to bring him on. Hey, big news, big news coming soon.
Yeah. We open up registration for the forty second ELK Toor to Tucson starting tomorrow at noon, and we expect about ten thousand plus people to come join us in November, So pretty excited around.
Here, TJ. How long does it take for that registration?
Because you guys do you do a phenomenal job, and we are so lucky to have you come in and kind of take over that event, change it the way you did. I don't think our community fully understands the economic impact of that event and everything you do behind the scenes. How long does it take for that registration to kind of sell out because it's a it's such a premium event.
Sure, well, it takes probably about six months to seven months. So we're opening it up now in April, you know, pretty much seven months from now. When we roll into November, people are going to be, you know, bringing their bikes in the town. We get people from literally all over the world. So what those people need to know is
that they're registered. They can go to start booking hotel rooms, booking flights, you know, coming from you know, pretty much from you know, if they're coming from Europe or or you know, some other far away place. It takes a little bit of planning. So we open up that registration, let them know that they're in and then they start getting ready, training and making their travel arrangements.
And tomorrow is the first day. You start wearing bike shorts every day right to promote the event.
Absolutely.
You know, it does get to be about one hundred degrees here real quick, and I think we already hit one hundred. So you know, Wilf Coate's not going to work the same.
Year, less is more.
So I'm wondering just curiosity because I don't know the answer. So we had about ninety five ninety eight one hundred last year. Of those how many get ready right away? You know, they finish the ride, they take a little break, and then you give them this opportunity for a card, and how many of them are saying, Okay, I'm coming back no matter what.
Yeah, there's there's a good chunk of people that no matter what, you know, this is their annual pilgrimage. They're going to be here and be ready. There's other people that just kind of discover the sport. You know, there's people that made say a new Year's resolution, Hey, I'm gonna get in shape and I'm going to ride out tour, kind of like your old counterpart j that have that, Hey, I just got to have that, you know, goal to get shape and to ride something or do a marathon
or something like that. So it's a really it's a goal setting opportunity for people around here that might not have ever done anything of this kind of magnitude. So we'll take the people that have been doing it for probably thirty years, and we'll take the ones that are the first time up, and they all kind of blend together when it comes.
To November and there's different there's different stretches people can sign up for, right, twenty five miles, fifty miles. What can you explain that a little bit?
Sure?
Yeah, we've got the long assistance one hundred and two miles, which, believe it or not, the winning times were people averaging twenty nine miles an hour, So there's people that are ride just unbelievably fast. I mean, these are pro level folks.
Then we have the sixty three miles where one hundred kilometers which is a metric century, and then we have kind of that that, you know, really shorter ride for people that still want to get out there thirty two miles, and then we have some ones for more families five mile you know, in a one mile, just just stuff that's just getting people involved in an event.
Yeah, no question, we're going to sign up for the one mile, right, Steve, Yes, I'll walk it. No, I'm too busy.
I can't. I don't have time for that, mister Blake.
So you know in fact that you're out there, Blake, Yeah, I listen almost every morning I'm on the peloton.
That's a complete lie, like once a month.
So no, in fact that when they get out for one hundred and two, it takes about realistic a little bit more than ten minutes for all those people.
To get through the start. It's that impressive.
Yeah, that our lineup very unusual for massive start events like we have. Most of them don't have the bulk of their people riding the big ride. Most of them would be, and they're the shorter rides.
Different here.
You know, in Tucson, we're probably probably looking about four thousand people that take off for the Century rides. So it does take ten minutes for them to roll through that start over on Cushion Street, and so yeah, it's pretty spectacular. If you want to enjoy, you know, a cup of coffee or maybe a coffee and a half, you can just kind of watch watch the writers roll out early Saturday morning.
Yeah, and they come from out, like you said, from all over the country. And one of the joys of this of this event, which I think I helped to promote it, are these stories involved, right, people with cancer or illnesses that they're doing this because they have a goal to just do it before or they're writing for someone like that. I mean, they're all over the place.
We had one of this last year that got pressed all over he had pancreat I think this prank curated cancer or prostate cancer pretty severe and he wrote this weekend in Scottsdale.
They make this a routine.
Yeah, I mean there are some amazing story I mean, if you know us older guys who would remember, like Roy Fireson would always have those types of stories, you know, that would just touch your heart. You can you can listen to some of these people of why they're riding and it is just, you know, bringing tears to your eyes. They're riding for their late grandfather or you know this their high school coach that just passed away and that
that taught them how to be successful life. I mean, you just hear these stories that you know why, you know, different people are motivated to ride, and it truly is just just really tugs in your heartstrings, right.
And if you're just a general like general population you want to there's a chance you can go out there and see a pretty high a lister writing in that ride. You've had what Patrick Dempsey and you've had Barry Bonds. Who else have you had riding that Will Walton? Yeah, So if you're just a general pop guy that you want to go out there and see maybe catch a glimpse of somebody, there's always somebody out there.
Well, just this.
Weekend, for example, at Tortoise, Scottsdale, we had you know, two of the most famous cyclists in the world that Bradley Wagans, Sir Bradley Wigans that won the Tour de France just about twelve years ago. We had Lance Armstrong that was that was with us. So we've been known to attract some of the best cyclists in the world. We are also known to attract some of the worst cyclists in the world, so and then everything in between. So so yeah, we're we're definitely gonna have a handful
of pros that will be riding. We do a little thing kind of like a fantasy camp that people ride with the pros for a couple of days, do some challenging rides leading up to eltor to Tucson. We call it our prologue and we probably have about ten different cyclists that that are, you know, pretty pretty much well known in those fields of being, you know, a former great professional.
Right.
So over the weekend TJ mentioned this, Uh, Lance Armstrong was there and Sir Braddie Wiggins. So they've finished midpack. I think I think it was, but it's not. Some people attack it as a ride or a race, and some of the people attack it as a ride. So imagine you're ahead of Lance Armstrong, right, and you're this you're the seventy year old guy. Eventually, you know, in five years and years whatever yours and you're sitting down with your ground. Son says, yeah, back in twenty twenty five,
I beat this guy named LEAs Armstrong. You may know who he is, but I beat him in that ride. And that'll be the story. You know, you want to tell the complete story. Yeah, yeah, but that'll be the story.
Well, but that's the cool thing about cycling, because you know, if you say you went to a fantasy camp. Do you think Michael Jordan's gonna let him dunk on you?
Probably not.
I think I think Jordan would probably relish, you know, swat in your ball away. So that's the cool thing about cycling. You can go out there, you know, you can line up with some of the best that ever, you know, put the helmet on and and ride, and you know, you look down at your score or your time afterwards, and hey, sure enough, you know I was two or three places better than this person that that you know, was one of the people in sort of France. So it's a it's a cool feeling.
You know.
The nice thing about the pros that we get they want to just visit with people. You know, they've had their glory. They don't need to be you know, winning any more. But you know, then again they're still competitive people. Last year we had Kobe Deigert, who won a gold medal in the Olympics, who won you know, towards Tucson. So there's still some people that'll occasionally get that bug to say, hey, you know what, I'm feeling good. I think I'm just going to go out and crush it today.
So what's the what's the the payment? For tomorrow.
What's the first to encourage people to do it if they already know they're going to be in it, to get in early.
Yeah, So we open it up at one hundred and twenty five dollars. That that's you know, basically gives you that ride for the for the weekend you come to the expo beforehand, gives you all the eight stations. It takes. It takes a few dollars to just make sure that we're lining up these roads with plenty officers, barricades, et
cetera to ride this event throughout the city. So it's one hundred and twenty five dollars by the time you get closer into the event, and it more than doubles, so you know, better get in early, don't worry about it, you know, put to put the money down and just say, hey, start training and have that peace of mind that you're real shirt for the event.
Yeah.
And TJ, can you speak to that because when we first met, I was still pretty wet, not that I'm not still pretty wet behind the ears, but the barricades and sheriff. Can you speak to that point of how many people it takes to put on this event and the size of it is. I blew me away when we had our first our first conversation a couple of years ago.
Yeah, a ballpark, probably about a thousand safety officials throughout, and that includes people that are you know, putting out safety signs, cones, barricades, blocking traffic, you know, stuff like that. There's also hundreds of law books and officers throughout. There's engineers just checking to make sure all those things are correct.
We have we have doctors out there, we have you know, paramedics, we have you know, just just a slew of different people, people cutting up fruit and handing out water and giving you electrolite, all that good stuff. So you know, if you total up all the people that are out there that are trying to make this thing safe for you, it's it's a good thousand people.
Yeah, of course, how do you benefit from something like this, Blake?
Of course?
Yeah, I mean tell me, tell me how. Well, there's a couple of different reasons. I mean what El Tour is doing in Tucson. But I mean you also have TJ's got his race in Coaches County as well. So it's it's the six counties that we look at and beneficiing, but it's it's growing the support the cycling sport, it's economic impact. We I mean, we don't benefit it from a financial standpoint, but we benefit from it just from
an overall six counties and regional standpoint. I mean, I don't think you know, sometimes we we and just having going through this with the World Baseball Classic. The load that TJ carries on a yearly basis is substantial and what he had to take over and what he's able to change and do. But that's why I want him to speak that the barricades, a shriffs, the safety officers, it's not just fifteen to twenty people, I mean a thousand people. That's an extremely high number for what he's putting on.
Can you talk about I don't know if you want to say the public cost you because it ain't cheap right when it gets When it gets the guys are starting to pay a hundred seventy five hundred eighty and they have to ask why is it so expensive?
Well, it ain't cheap.
Yeah, yeah, I mean we could. We could roll it out in the middle of nowhere and you know, go out in the middle of the desert and put a bike race on and and you know, we'd have no economic impact and they wouldn't be singing hotels, they wouldn't be sitting on a margarita when they get done. They wouldn't be you know, going into El Charro for dinner afterwards. They'd be you know, getting back you know, wherever they came from. So the nice part about this, we give
them the entire experience. So just like if you go you know, if you went to the Final Four, you're gonna you know, you're gonna spend you know, three or four days over in that city. Check out all the sights and sounds and all that. Well, this is there. This is their final four for these people that that ride the bike. So they're gonna come over here. They're gonna you know, they're gonna ask for us things on the top shelf. It's a it's a group that's got
disposable income. It's a good traveler. There's people that come in RVs that take up Airbnb's hotels, et cetera. So they're spending money here. We want to, you know, provide that opportunity. It is one of the reasons we do it in downtown. You know, that time of year usually on the weekend. It's a really good time to do an event in downtown because you know, the businesses aren't you know, there's no court in session or anything like that.
So so when we have it there, you know, it fills up hotels, it fills up restaurants, it fills up bars. The airport has has people flying in from all over. There's rent of cars going out. So all that stuff is economic impact at its finest.
So so real quick again, one hundred and twenty five dollars. Where to go on the website? One and two? When's the next bump so they can get in now?
Sure, sure it's a elk toward tuson dot org gets you signed up. That'll give you all the information you need to know. That next MOMP is at the let's see here, the end of May would be the one where it bumps up again. So they got about forty days to get that that one. Five after that it starts gowing up, probably about ten dollars a month all the way up until till November.
And maybe lastly, the impact it has nonprofits and the organization organization has raised how.
Much so over time forty two years, one hundred and thirty million dollars right in that ballpark. You know, a lot of a lot of funds, a lot of little ten dollars twenty dollars donations that have added up. You know, some people will do a Hey, I'll give you a dollar a mile for all you ride. That will go to that charity. We don't take any of that. It all goes to those nonprofits. We had about ninety six nonprofits I believe last year that rode for their cause.
Not only are they out there promoting their cause, but they're raising funds for their cause. So it's a beautiful thing. Instead of putting on another car wash or a bake sale, you know, they could ride ol tour, raise some funds and raise awareness.
Yeah.
Yeah, is official slogan going to be get off the peloton, get on the street. Is that what we're going with for you?
Way to do that? Yeah, get in, get into real peloton, not that thing.
I'm verbal trademark here right now. So if you want to use it, you're gonna have to give me some money.
Yeah, yeah, go for it.
Yeah, it's better than get off your fant acids, get on the bunch.
That's what I've got a t shirt that says that, So I look at the mirror, it's backwards. But when I look at the mirror, that's what it says.
TJ. Thanks a bunch of man.
Hey, sure anytime guys, All right.
Thanks, We'll take a break here to come back and talk more stuff. If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's been successful for newly forty year. Now take a look back at the Ludolsen era in my new book, Lessons from Lut It was a labor of love through the eyes of twenty five former players, coaches, and friends to give insight to the coach and the man who led them, competed against them, and inspired them. Twenty five chapters for his twenty five years as Arizona's
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Steve Rivera he's got his eye on the ball on Tucson sports station Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
Hey, welcome back to the ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. In today is Blake Eager. Got one with us? Ray with us. If you guys like to call, please do five two zero four one six seventy four forty. We'll take your call. You know that we got Matt Milbach coming on the other side. We were talking about the Tennessee Coach Tour Tennessee quarterback or he'll land.
We still don't know one things.
Maybe you still that's kind of like the front runner, right front runner.
Yeah, that's the consensus right now.
Again, he's probably settling as far as NAL money goes, but at least.
Someone wants him at this point. Yeah.
So how much do you think in your example with the kids signing for six hundred thousand blah blah blah eighteen nineteen years old, right, that has the same type of impact with the kids in college.
Getting that money.
Yeah, I think it's I think it's pretty much the same thing, right. I mean, I don't know how this day and age works anymore. Right, I think at some point in NIL has to become a contract contractual where it's it's a multi year contract.
We've talked about this.
Another school can you can transfer, but another school has to buy out or you have to pay for that buyout. But from a coaching standpoint, I mean, how much longer can you have these elite coaches doing what they're doing if they have to continually re recruit their own bills.
It's every year.
In fact, we I played something for the guys, send something to Matt bill Buck for his discussion because us an attorney, but to exactly. Your point was j Bill is talking about signing contracts three year minimum.
If you want to buy out, you can.
Buy out or the other school has to buy you out to get out, you know, to get out of the thing. I don't know if there's a good solution, but that's a good one, I mean, a decent one.
Let me ask you, guys this question, and you want to ray you guys might know this more from pole standpoint because you're on campus. At what point do the money generating programs football, basketball, potentially baseball and softball to a degree start collapsing other programs and you start losing swimming, you start using the Olympic gymnastics, like lower end volleyball programs, Like where are we going? What's the end goal here?
Like where are we going in the future? Like how many colleges are going to lose those programs to now reallocate funding for the for the for the profit programs?
So hold that, guys, will take a call real quick. Hello, you're on the air and on the ball.
Who's this Brian?
How's it gone?
Hey? Brian? What's the word?
Just about that quarterback? Still? Like you know that I'm going.
Well, UCLA recruited him out of.
High school, so you've found that area.
Yeah, and now they got a problem because they got.
A kid from Appalachian State who came in.
Did the portal to come play with this coming season, and now he's looking at going somewhere else because he's not too sure what's going to happen that they do sign his kid. But the one thing too is UCLA can't afford four million dollars right right there.
There's no possible way they can afford that.
Right yeah, no question. Now you have to pick your spots. The funny thing about it, Brian, and you're old enough, like like all of a sudden, we'll talk about this.
Would like the competition.
They don't want to stay anywhere where you're gonna have to face competition because you want to play it right away.
Right well, you know with all them me being thrown around, why should you.
You know, I mean lot me.
Okay, there are kids who are.
Gonna have a shot at playing professional football.
Besides college is professional football now, but I mean the NFL.
But some of these kids have no shot at all playing.
So what they're doing is I'm gonna collect the money now and then worry about life later. Oh yeah, no question, it's it's you know, it's just you know, it's it's just real difficult, you know to should watch and stuff, you know, because like you said, we're older and we're not used.
To this, you know, and we this is like a.
Slap in the face for the slap in the face of the fans. Do you know, the people who put up the.
Money, you know, go to the games and everything.
Do you think, both of you guys, all three of you guys, uh, that this will sour sports watching sports caring when you have your teams out there or other teams just casual you see. God, this is kind of like it's great entertainment or entertainment. But you have this thought in back in your mind. These guys are getting paid. They're getting paid a ton of money. Does it salary?
You know, it may bring more people into watching professional sports because they figure, I'm getting the same thing at college, but it's much better talent wise, and you know, and uh, and watching the NFL then is college and all getting paid. So why not watch the better of the people getting paid?
Yeah?
Yeah, I mean from my standpoint, I think it's just the drastic change that you're going to see is it's gonna it's just going to continue to become more regional from a university standpoint, where they started losing the national appeal because of that, and you you hit the buy in from the fan base in their hometown, but probably not the excitement that you would create on a national level because of that. Yeah, but you're seeing droppings right now and NBA level. I mean you're seeing you know,
everything you're seeing in Major League Baseball. I mean, like the viewership numbers are down across the board. And I think this plays into it because it's all just kind of a convoluted pool of a mass right now. I mean, there's so much payment on all these levels.
You have to figure out where where am I going to put my money? If I if I have enough money or entertainment, where am I going to put it? Am I going to put it in college? Am I going to put it in pros? Yeah?
And this is before I need to ask you.
Has anybody heard about Carter Bryant's doing.
No, we don't know yet.
He hasn't til the twenty sixth, I think we said yesterday, no, no hint of anything. People are going to speculate whether it takes him longer that he'll stay if it takes him sooner, and it's already passed the sooner part, you know, a month and two.
I've noticed that more of these people who do do come out.
We're predicted to go ahead of him. He may look at us.
If I stay one more year, I could be one of.
Those top ten guys.
Yeah, because right now, all these other guys coming out, everybody says, well, he's a top ten guy, he's the top fifteen guy. Does that push Parter Bryant back down the list? Maybe being a twenty five to thirty.
Guy and making a nice chunk to change here whatever that Trump to change is right, and probably making more money here than he would as a rookie his first.
Year, right, right, I know what he's gonna do, but I'm not gonna tell you guys till at twenty six.
Okay, Knights, have someone in the know on your show.
Yeah, he's just used to hearing the know. Okay, thanks Brian.
Yeah, okay, we'll talk to you.
You heard of John Matier, John Mattier one m a t e R.
Oklahoma paid quarterback John Mytteer three million just got reported. Okay, well these quarterbacks making a ton of money. All these guys are making a ton of money. Well, what's the kid from BYU the number one overall prospective?
Eight million? Yeah, something like that.
Here's the here's the catch though, So Phoenix is looking for a quarterback, I mean a coach, right of Phoenix, the Suns. Guess who might be on the top of that list. M the b YU the b YU coach. I could see that. Who just came from the NBA. Yeah, he came from Phoenix. Right. So if this kid who got eight million to go play at BYU, probably because of the coach. Now the coach may not be there.
Yeah, I don't know that's that. I mean, you're running that situation. And if you're a coach, which one do you prefer to go? I mean, the NBA, any professional level sports has to be more appealing at this point.
You'd think that.
Yeah, I would assume that just from the current landscape.
Yeah, and if you get fired in one year, you're still gonna get paid ten to.
Twelve Yeah, I'm signing a five year contract, right, maybe more?
Yeah, So we'll see. What did you say a couple of days ago? That the Phoenix is paying the assistant coaches seventy five million. Oh no, no, that must have been yesterday with Kobe that although for Vogel, Williams, this guy Budenhaalzer are getting paid seventy five million dollars to go away.
The whole staff.
Well, no, all the three recently fired coaches. Oh you mean as a collective as the head coach is going away?
Yeah, well I think Budenholser only had like I think like a three year seventy.
Five million dollars.
Well whatever, Yeah, because they're staying paying, they're paying the locals.
They were paying him twenty five million year.
They were paying him a lot. Maybe not that much, but.
Yeah, that seems like, yeah, you you have a lot more. Say, if you're paying a coach twenty five million, I want him to Yeah, you probably want him to get on the court and play.
True. Yeah, we'll see anybody else want to call it? Here's a question, right, here's a question.
Do you think you'll ever see and this is our this is probably more our day and age, you'll ever see a player coach in any sport?
Again?
Question?
Good question, Probably not, because the only guy that would do it now would be Lebron, Right, Yeah, he's kind of doing it now anyway, or has had KD KD. Yeah, yeah, I mean I feel like those guys could do it on a like a like a mid market team where they bring fans to the stadium, but there's still is a collective training to control. I just use did a little bit. And I don't think I know Pete Rose did it. Who was the last player coach?
I don't know.
Ray's going to google it, He's going to ask Jeeves Jeeves. He's gonna get on his my Space account and see what comes up. Maybe a chatted. You don't even know what my space is?
What about? What about ask Jeeves? That was that was pre Google? R Google? Yeah?
Goodness, gracious, Yeah, yeah, you're just being a couple of supercomputers on this side of the table. Over here, I've got another call. Are we hanging ten surfing?
Hello?
You're on there nine on the ball.
Who's this?
Yeah?
This is Frank. Hey, Frank, you were asking to Brian whether this is just an I L and all this stuff going on the transfer portal is going to sour people.
Yeah, well I think it is.
I'm feeling it myself. I'm still one hundred percent, said Arizona Wildcat fan, but I'm not inclined to buy season tickets as I used to do, And so I'll catch a game here and there and I'll watch them on TV.
So let me let me ask you.
Let me ask you, Frank, is that because of the price you did this? Because they put extra fifty dollars dollars on the above and beyond the price ticket.
Is that because of that? Or you just soured on the whole thing.
Well, it's a combination, I think mostly that, you know, I mean, we grew up when players were loyal to the school. I mean I was expected and that would be you know, three four years and now there's no loyalty at all, and uh and yeah, and the prices are growing up also, you know. And also like eight pm games don't really work for me, especially football, long football game.
So yeah, right right now, I agree with you.
And guess what the audience is most of many of the audience members are guys like Frank and guys like me who are older and want to get home in a good hour. Right yeah, right right, thanks Frank, Thanks, thanks Frank, thank you for Yeah, I'm.
Sure of course, Frank, we got about a minute or so. Yeah, real quick on that though.
I mean I think at some point people are choosing where to spend their money, right, Yeah, So I mean, like for me, we talked about it, like, I'm yeah, the season ticket piece. You brought it to the attention that we're going to get charged extra fifty dollars. That's one thing. But then I go on and have to pay for ESPN Plus because I don't want to miss any of the away games. Like at some point, it's not it's no longer free to watch games, even if you're not going to the game.
So let me ask you, and you.
Don't have to answer this because it's kind of a personal question, but in a game, you I think you how many ever ticket you have, you get parking, you get food.
What's what's the daily game cost you?
Oh?
I haven't broken it down. I mean I could.
I would say two hundred ticket, parking, food. It's probably a little lower than that because every things in the package. But let's call it one hundred dollars per person and more. That's that's not a cheap ticket, no, I mean it's I mean, there's only so much and it's going away drastically as we start to progress, especially for these young guys like Ray and One, the discretion discretionary income. It's no longer like who's got enough money to pay for
rent to rent a house? Who's got enough money? And I'm not trying to get on a box here, No, you're right. But then when you do have a little extra money left over, or you're gonna go spend that on a on a game that is going to completely wipe you out, or are you going to watch that game somewhere and.
It could possibly disappoint you, or spend that money out of dinner with your significant other and enjoy the game on a big screen.
You know what I'm saying, Yeah, with your hot shake one day?
Why I always settled out walking in with a with a mink coat on and a cane and you have four bays both arms.
This is your story telling, man, This is your story Empidelic over here. We gotta go with that.
We'll go