Bottom Line on Sports
Long-time friends Jean-Jacques Taylor and Jeremy Pink, who met as undergrads at Ohio State, talk the top issues at the intersection of sports and money. Taylor is a former Dallas Morning News sports columnist and author of the book Coach Prime, an insider's account of a year with Deion Sanders. Pink is a television commercial and programming executive, having worked as CEO of Broadcast Sports International, Senior Vice President of News of CNBC and CEO of CNBC Asia.
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Bottom Line on Sports
Pimento Cheese Sandwiches, The Masters Makes Cheddar & NBA Ticket Prices Are Getting Extra Sharp
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00-03: Pimento Cheese Sandwiches at The Masters
03-12: The Unique Business Strategy of the Masters
12-28: Dynamic Ticket Pricing in the NBA
28-40: Ohio State Football
#masters #pimentocheese #nba #golf #dynamicpricing #nbaplayoffs #spurs #okcthunder #ohiostate #ohiostatefootball
What's up everybody? Welcome to another episode of the bottom line on sports. Our little show about the intersection of sports and money. He's Jeremy Peak, Duke graduate, Ohio State graduate. I'm Jean-Jacques Taylor. And we, my friends, have a number for the day.
SPEAKER_01Are you ready?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01A buck fifty, a dollar fifty.
SPEAKER_00Okay, I'm gonna tell you this. I spent two dollars and thirty-three cents on a 16.8 ounce bottle of water today.
SPEAKER_01So but if you were yeah, but if you were at the masters, you could get a pimento cheese sandwich for a dollar fifty.
SPEAKER_00I don't know if I want a pimento cheese sandwich for free. But now I will say this.
SPEAKER_01Okay, you can get you can get an egg salad sandwich for a buck fifty.
SPEAKER_00Okay, I have storage on both of those.
SPEAKER_01Oh, good lord. All right.
SPEAKER_00So I come from a family where both my parents have PhDs. There's some bouginess that runs through my veins.
SPEAKER_01All right. I come from now, I didn't I come from a family where one of my parents has a PhD. So we're we're 75% PhD. I didn't realize that. Okay, that's good. Anyway, go ahead.
SPEAKER_00Um, and so my mother used to like pimento cheese sandwiches. She used to have pimento cheese in the refrigerator. I never ate it.
SPEAKER_01Sounds like a fine a woman with fine taste.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, see, I was a fat kid, but I never ate that pimento cheese.
SPEAKER_01Now, now my other thing is now have you never eaten pimento cheese?
SPEAKER_00Oh, I tried it, I didn't like it.
SPEAKER_01You didn't like it?
SPEAKER_00She could buy as much of that as she wanted to, and it was always going to be there every time she opened up the fridge. Okay, maybe that's why she bought it. My mother made a great egg salad sandwich. But when I went to the New York, I spent a summer at the New York Times interning, and I got a hold of those New York City delis. And some one of those delis had the best egg salad sandwich with bacon on it I'd ever had. And I probably gained 20 pounds over the summer eating those uh you know three times a day, three times a week.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00So those are my two sandwich stores.
SPEAKER_01Okay, okay. Those are those are good.
SPEAKER_00I will pay a buck fifty for egg salad sandwich. I ain't paying a buck fifty for pimento cheese sandwich.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, but it's it's it's interesting because the the masters is kind of like this is what really one of the things we want to talk about since the mat we're taping this on a Wednesday night. Uh, first round of the Masters is Thursday morning when we're we're tomorrow morning when we're likely to release. Yeah. Which uh so but the Masters is kind of unlike other sporting events uh because it really doesn't rely on television money uh as a way to really fund it. It actually takes greater control over its brand and doesn't rely on media rights in order to to really to really fund it. It uh relies on merchandise, tickets, uh sponsorship. It controls who the sponsors are, it controls the number of ad minutes per hour. It's it's very uh it's very judicious in terms of how it parses out its uh when did the uh when did the masters become such a big behemoth it could it could do like this?
SPEAKER_00It could operate.
SPEAKER_01You know, the masters have been doing this for years, you know. Uh the right the rights are signed. There's no real contract. The the rights are signed kind of renewed every year. Um it's changed a little bit this year because I think one of the I think Amazon, one of the streamers has is running some of this. Um in but but it's it's it's really controlling the event to try to control the brand itself, uh which I think is it's just a very different model than than everything that happens. And you know, the the there's a whole lore about keeping the prices of concessions really low, like pimento cheese, the egg salad sandwich, whatever it is. Like a beer is six dollars, you know, which for for it for a sporting event, that's that's very, very low.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I was gonna say most of the time, and not a beer drinker, but most beers are like at least 10 bucks, and uh 12, 14 bucks.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so so I think it's so so it's it's fascinating to see the masters right now, uh, and how it's kind of it's kind of held on its to its traditions as as the kind of the sporting world has kind of blown up and evolved dramatically around it. It's kind of this very sacrosanct entity, and I think you kind of feel that when you watch it on TV and you hear people talk about it.
SPEAKER_00No, it's um I was laughing because I saw something earlier this week. Uh I kind of knew this, but it's always funny when I look at it. You know, the monsters are so haughty that the uh they're not fans, they're patrons. And uh that's not the rough, it's the second cut. Which is funny to me because it's US Open. It's like, oh no, it's in the rough, let's make it like 10 feet tall.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, you know, the uh, you know, you got bunkers, not sand traps, the second nine, not the back nine, and the tournament practice area as opposed to the driving range. Right. I can't remember the answer to this. You play enough golf to be invited to tournaments, but you don't really play?
SPEAKER_01Me, yeah. I I played a lot when I was living overseas, and I just got sick. I mean, again, I just got sick of it. I'll I'll tell you what what I used to do, I was so into it for a while. I'll tell you a quick, quick golf story. And again, this is gonna make me sound fancy, but I used to live in Asia for a long time, and I lived in, I was based in Singapore, and what I would do is we would go to Bali, which is you know, you can go to Bali easily from Singapore, and I would go to Bali for the weekend with my family, and what I would do is because I was so into golf at the time, we'd stay somewhere that was right near a golf course, and I would wake up at 5 a.m., play a round of golf on my own, meet meet my family for lunch at nine, I meet my family for breakfast at 9 a.m. And I used to do that all the time, you know, really, and yeah, whenever I traveled, I would I would I would find places, wake up early, play before anybody else did to play alone. But then people started wanting to play with me. And as you know, even even before COVID, I was socially distancing, you know, and so so then I was forced to like play golf with other people, and that's where my interest in golf started to wane, you know. When I didn't when I started playing for work, even though it was nice, I played all over the world, I could play for work. Um, you know, I was just playing so much, and then after a while, it was like it takes so long that I I kind of I kind of gave up on it when I moved back to the United States.
SPEAKER_00Well, how good did you get?
SPEAKER_01Uh sadly, I wasn't very good. Um, but I could I could play, you know, it wasn't like I could play with pretty much anybody, but I wasn't one of the good players, but I I would I wouldn't slow anybody down.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I don't deal in handicaps. So you shooting par, you shooting. No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01I could shoot mid eighties, yeah. I could shoot mid eighties to low 90s, depending on the course. I mean the courses, especially in Asia, were a lot shorter, so I could I I I was I was a little bit better, but uh um, you know, but that that's that's my that's my thing. And we used to when I was at uh when I was overseas, I was also running a television network where we ran golf on the weekends. And uh we yeah, and I inadvertently picked up a we were we ran golf tournaments over the weekend, and I inadvertently picked up a feed of the masters on one of the networks I worked on and ran that one one one year, which was became a big problem. So, but anyway, uh turn turns out that it was we we we did it a week delayed and it was a it was just an error that our our team made, but but again, I I I took the hit for it, and it was one of those as as you do. So anyway. So have you been to the Masters? I have, yeah. Beautiful. Oh when'd you go? I went probably about 10 years ago, something like that. Yeah, recently. Yeah, so it's but it's beautiful. But the thing about the Masters is they don't let anybody in. You gotta kind of get a ticket in. How do you get this? How do you get in? Uh we're glad you gotta know somebody, but well, I was working in an organization that provided at the time I was running a sports broadcasting business, and we did all the we did the entire tournament, uh, you know, and worked together with the with the broadcaster. So we had a uh TV truck and they let a couple people in, but it was still very, very difficult to get in. Wow.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's the masters. Yeah, that's the masters.
SPEAKER_01So it's it stayed it. Listen, I think it's a great product, it's a great TV product. Uh, the CBS does a phenomenal job, they've always done a phenomenal job covering it, and it is a huge moneymaker, and it attracts high-end sponsors, and they their business model does not include relying on TV rights. Fascinating.
SPEAKER_00Now, how come uh how come everybody else relies on TV rights? Because they're not big enough to make any money by it without it?
SPEAKER_01No, I mean, I think you can because that's the bigger, that's the big money, you know, and also the masters is its own turn, is its own entity as opposed to you know the PGA tour will negotiate with the network, uh yeah, TV. Yeah, the NFL will negotiate with networks. That's a little bit it's a little bit different. Uh the U, I I believe if I recall correctly, the US Open is it's all is part of the US GA and not the PGA, so they have a slightly different arrangement as well. But the Masters is its own thing. And uh, you know, it's like uh it's like Wimbledon or uh Roland Garros, things like that.
SPEAKER_00So if you're at the Masters this weekend, enjoy yourself a pimento cheese sandwich and its green wrapper.
SPEAKER_01Are you gonna watch are you gonna watch any of it or absolutely none of it?
SPEAKER_00I was contemplating before Tiger had his problem. Uh I'm working on a big project I'll tell y'all about sometime soon. And so I'll be stuck in my in my office uh working this weekend. So uh there's a chance I have it on. Uh hopefully it's compelling. Who's supposed to win it? Scheffler?
SPEAKER_01Uh Scheffler is, I think he's the favorite right now. You've got John Rom as the favorite. I think a lot of the a lot of the you know insiders are saying this is a year Bryson DeChambeau might win it. Um but the but the thing is the Masters has all the big names in it, so it's one of the few tournaments of the year where you actually have some star power and some big names uh that are that are in it. But uh uh they're they're uh outside of DeChambeau, there really isn't a breakout.
SPEAKER_00Uh I just wanna know if Tigers on the show for the champions dinner.
SPEAKER_01I think Tiger is uh I Tiger's got other things going on. I think Tiger might I don't even think Tiger's in the country right now, but uh but but again, I may have him confused with somebody else. But I I think Tiger's got uh Tiger's got other Tiger's got other issues. Yeah. Anyway, anyway, bottom line for you on the Masters.
SPEAKER_00Hey, get a pimento cheese sandwich. Just because I like it doesn't mean you shouldn't like it.
SPEAKER_01Bottom line for you on the Masters, one of the great sporting events of the year, very iconic. Uh, and love how they do, I love how they do business to keep it that keep it uh as iconic as I have.
SPEAKER_00Um living as you do in New York, uh near New York City, are you an Uber? Are you a regular Uber person?
SPEAKER_01Uh only when I travel. I I have uh, you know, I can I can I'm like a 15-20 minute drive into New York City. I generally either drive into New York or I'll take a uh you know, I'll take a ferry into New York. A ferry? Wow. Yeah, that's um I said f F-E-R-R-Y. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I was gonna say you're winged first.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I figured.
SPEAKER_00Um, I said that because you know, when we got an Uber, and my son found this out because my son is normally pretty good about checking with me before things, but he came up with this bright idea. Uh, him and his boys were going somewhere, some event, and they were gonna catch somebody was dropping them off, and they were just gonna catch an Uber back.
SPEAKER_02Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00And they got hit with those surge prices.
SPEAKER_02Oh.
SPEAKER_00And uh they were very upset and very sad and very broke for a couple weeks. And so that that's a that's a segue to get into when we look at these uh these sporting event tickets, man. They're going a surge route these days.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, we it was uh the the NBA playoffs are right around the corner. And not in Dallas. Yeah, well, that they they they will be, they will be next year at this time. You know, you might get a good draft pick. Maybe you'll get maybe you'll get uh I don't know, maybe we'll get ACUF. I don't know. But uh but but what happens with with some of the some of the teams now, um they have essentially you know dynamic pricing around playoff games. They have dynamic pricing in general, but they have dynamic pricing around playoff games, and it's kind of like surge pricing. So you see, you know, the relative demand for a playoff ticket uh on a market-by-market basis is different, you know. And so we were just looking at a couple of those, and like the market demand where in the cities that have dynamic pricing um in a place like San Antonio is pretty high this year because they're excited about about the team. Uh that this is the first time they've really been in the playoffs in a while. They they seem to be maybe one of three or four teams that can win me an NBA title this year. So their surge pricing is high, or their dynamic pricing is high relative to something like OKC, which is a defending champion, and it's sort of well, the the demand is still high and the prices are still high relative to something like San Antonio, they're lower because it's not sort of as exciting this year since they won the title last year.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I hadn't thought about that, but um, I guess it makes sense if you've if you've especially a place where you've won it, okay, because they banged down the door for three or four years, but they won it. And now it's like uh the thriller's gone.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You know, I mean I was still cool, but it's not nearly like it was when you're trying to win it. And so I think sometimes what happens is people also say, you know, I'll catch up in the in the in the next round, or I'm I'm waiting to the final.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think that's I think that's right. I think that's right. Do you who do you think who do you think who do you think is gonna win if you had a had to rank your top three teams that could could win the NBA title this year? Who do you who do you think?
SPEAKER_00Oh, you know, an NBA is built for dynasties. I think Oklahoma City is gonna be tough to beat. Um, but you know, playoff basketball is also about matchups. So I say Oklahoma City is going to be tough to beat, but who's the one team that kicks their butt every time they play?
SPEAKER_01San Antonio, but but it's the regular season, which is a totally different brand of basketball.
SPEAKER_00This is true, but they're going if they meet up in the playoffs, San Antonio will have no fear of Oklahoma. That's true.
SPEAKER_01That's true.
SPEAKER_00And so that makes anytime you're playing an opponent that doesn't really fear you, it makes for a tricky situation. Um, so but now somebody knocks off San Antonio before they get to Oklahoma City, then I think Oklahoma City's by far the best team. They're the most versatile team, a defensive team. They've already been there and won it, so now they know what the process is like. Uh, you know, Celtics can be dangerous as uh Jason Tatum comes back. Uh he doesn't have the wear and tear from the season on it. Uh I don't know why we don't believe in Detroit, even though they've got like one of the best records in the East.
SPEAKER_01Detroit can't score. The Detroit's not gonna be able to score in the playoffs. I I think you've got four teams that can win it. Uh OKC. Yes. In this order: OKC, Denver, Boston, and San Antonio. I think those are the teams that can win it.
SPEAKER_00Denver, I haven't really even I mean, I know Yoke's just great, but I haven't really even paid attention to them.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Aaron Gordon just came back in the last maybe month or two. Uh, you know, they got Peyton Watson back, they've got Christian Brown back. You know, they had a lot of injuries this year. It's a good team. I think that's a team. I I think the West is so far superior to the East. Yeah. Um, and I I don't even know. I mean, I think the other team that might be able to come out of the East is is Detroit. But I mean, if but but Detroit can't score. They have no offense.
SPEAKER_00And they haven't, you know, the NBA is also it's a stepping stone league in a lot of ways. You gotta you gotta you gotta spend a little time in the playoffs, get used to playoff basketball. Yeah, and Detroit hadn't done anything in so long. This is everything about this would be a first time around for the yeah, and that's hard to do.
SPEAKER_01You could say the same for San Antonio, also, which makes them, I think that that's why I would put Denver more likely to win than San Antonio.
SPEAKER_00But San Antonio got the seven Hierotolly, is Wimby. When you got Wimby, it's you got a whole different uh different deal. Like they can come in with Wimby and just win just because they have that guy.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's true.
SPEAKER_00You know, who's a game changer all by himself in terms of not just points and rebounds, but alternate shots and defensive presence.
SPEAKER_01Um he's no, he'll be he'll be defensive player of the year for sure. But but uh you know, when you go back to this you know, sort of the dynamic pricing in and around uh uh playoff basketball, do you think that's a do you think that's a good thing? Do you think it's a bad it's a bad thing for the secondary market guys because all of a sudden they can't really get that arbitrage that they they were able to get before?
SPEAKER_00I don't give two dead flies about secondary market people. Uh because I get it. I get it. That markup is ridiculous anyway, although I used to be a secondary market person, so I understand.
SPEAKER_01But but what do you think? But I is this is this good for the fans, is it bad for the fans? I mean, what what do you think?
SPEAKER_00I think it's um, you know what, man? I just think it is what it is. It meaning this is it. I just talked about Uber. Airlines have dynamic pricing. Hotels have dynamic pricing. You show up in this city for the Super Bowl in your hotel room is $1,700 a night. You show up two weeks later, same exact room is $300. And you're like, are the sheets different? Is the company different?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. So this is this is just sort of the inevitable creep of dynamic pricing in our life.
SPEAKER_00I think we had it good. They just now started doing it.
SPEAKER_01Well, I I actually I actually think the dynamic pricing was happening in the secondary market, you know?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And I think that now, you know, it's now it is to the point where people who are buying in theory, people who are buying the tickets probably actually want to go as opposed to trying to buy the tickets and then resell them. So maybe yeah.
SPEAKER_00You just made me think of something. Um you know, Texas, I'm sure other I'm sure other teams would do this because Texas Rangers are not an innovative ball club.
SPEAKER_01Um didn't they get swept by the Reds this week?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they just swept the Mariners today. So swept by the Reds?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, my old Reds logo.
SPEAKER_00My yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Front runner.
SPEAKER_01Um this is this is from the big red machine from me growing up, you know.
SPEAKER_00I think the I think the Rangers have dynamic pricing themselves. Meaning the same seat for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Oh, right, is not the same seat for the Yankees and the Red Sox or the Dodgers.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, they probably have a variation of it, but this is like a real time, this is real-time dynamic pricing that a lot of these places have now.
SPEAKER_00And I think it's I think it's real time. Yeah, meaning it could be different at various times, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Oh, so so it's like, you know, it you know, it's depending depending on the demand. Um, but it's uh so let me ask you this.
SPEAKER_00Now, based off of that, would you be a person who goes and gets your ticket in advance, or would you go and get it at the gate and just be like, let me see how it's rocking?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's a good that's a that's a that's a good question. Um, I would probably get it. Well, I'll give you my example here, right? So I'm going to US, I'm going uh it's family weekend at USC, and it's my daughter's senior year in college this year, right?
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01So I was saying, okay, it's in it purely by chance in coincidence, it happens to be the Ohio State Game weekend too. Right. It also happens to be Halloween. Oh wow. Which makes yeah, which which makes which makes the tick it which makes the hotel rooms in LA, particularly in the down, particularly in certain parts of LA, like obnoxiously more expensive than they used to be. So already. Yeah, so I I actually booked our hotel room a few months ago already. So that probably that answers your question. I would probably do it in advance if I knew. How about you? How about you?
SPEAKER_00I'm usually an advanced guy because I don't want to I don't want the hassle of haggling. Um some people enjoy the haggle hassle, and some people are going to like me. I don't even want to talk to you.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00And so uh I would probably get it in advance, but um, I don't know, this is all very interesting. The whole dynamic pricing thing is cool. You know, the world is going to that, so I don't really have a problem with it. And um, you know, if you want to go to the game, go to the game. And I believe in experiences, so like you know, you've uh I'm not quite there yet, but you're you know, I'm leaning toward it. I uh you know, I haven't been to the Coliseum before. That would be cool.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah, you gotta you gotta come out. We'll get we'll get you that that I can get decent tickets because we can get tickets at a a special price, you know. So that I can get decent tickets, but we'll we'll buy a couple of extra. You make sure, you know, we'll we'll make sure you're out there. Um but uh but yeah, I I think it's I actually think that dynamic pricing. long term is probably good because you know one of the tricks one of the tricks in the New York particularly for if you ever want to go to a Brooklyn Nets game. Eh yeah not not many people but one of the tricks when they were good and when like KD was here and and Harden was here they were good it was it was tough to get you know tickets were were a little bit pricier but one of the tricks about the Brooklyn Nets and I and I have talked to other people in in different markets and it's the same thing is if you go it it brooklyn the Brooklyn Nets are in a in a really nice part of Brooklyn there's like a lot to do around there. If you go there let's say the game starts at seven if you go there at around six o'clock and go in the secondary markets the ticket prices start to plunge because they don't think they can sell them. So that's the trick. So if you go if you can go in an area that has like a lot going on and if you don't get the tickets you're still in a in a good area uh it's one of the best ways to get cheap tickets is that you wait until like a half an hour before the game and these ticket prices plunge.
SPEAKER_00Yeah no that makes sense to me yeah um I've got a good friend of mine who uh who runs a secondary market business like that's what he that's his job he owns yeah yeah and um you know sometimes just talking to him about how prices fluctuate and you know it's uh it's interesting because the the thing can also happen in reverse sure like when Luca Doncic got hurt and missed you know a bunch of games before the Mavericks traded him uh all those tickets that that in your mind when when you purchased them as the as the owner you're like oh I got a 50% markup on this and 40 on that and a 30 on that and just 20 across the board man you couldn't get them tickets away because the team wasn't any good and then I had everybody to watch.
SPEAKER_01Yeah but it's it's not it you know it's not dissimilar to what happens in in the you know in the in the betting markets you know yeah the the odds the odds shift depending on demand everything it it just becomes a di dynamic based on the supply and demand of whatever that particular item is you know so I don't think yeah I don't think it's I don't think it's a bad thing. I think ticket prices are so outrageous for the average you know consumer but for those who for those who can afford it it's probably you're probably gonna end up paying you know not not a dissimilar amount that you would have paid in the secondary market at the end of the day. I would agree uh tickets are expensive I forgot how expensive they were because not only as a reporter was I going to games free but because I worked at the newspaper I had access oh believe me yeah yeah yeah through the through the team or through the newspaper you know you could get tickets if you wanted tickets and then man when you start paying for them you're like wow I know I know it is it is it is a shock when I I've had I've had the access to tickets for years and years and years up until a few years ago.
SPEAKER_00Yeah and and you kind of and I it is they're expensive now yeah I feel the pain when people talk about a family of four like you could easily spend $750 on a game night easy easy without even working and thousands not out of the question.
SPEAKER_01Not at not at all for and I'm not talking even I'm talking for solid seats not spectacular seats um just solid I mean even baseb baseball tickets you baseball you used to think like oh I can get into a baseball game for 10 bucks man I tried to get again good seats not great seats they're like $8590 a ticket uh for for the Rangers yeah wow I mean they gotta pay for this new stadium so you know so it's not a uh it's not a complaint it's just that's the cost of doing business yeah I mean because uh uh my wife and I were looking at oh let's let's uh we had like an afternoon free on the weekend and we saw and we the Knicks were the Knicks were playing so we went in and we said oh let's let's try to get tickets to the Knicks game and we looked on the secondary market and I think the cheapest ticket that I found and I think it was maybe because they were playing the Spurs but I think the cheapest ticket was like four to five hundred dollars in the nosebleeds and it's like I'm not I'm not paying that you know um I just I can't yeah no I have to be able to see the court I don't like sitting in the nosebleeds yeah yeah it's not I like I like if I'm going to pay I don't mind paying but I want to I want to see the I want to see the game. Of course of course yeah no no I I I totally agree but but I I just think it's uh I do think it's really it seems like oh my gosh dynamic pricing is happening and as you start to think about it more and more it's like it's inevitable and ultimately you know the market dictates the price of tickets at the at the end you know that you know whatever people are going to pay for it. And you see that with I mean I remember when I was based in Atlanta and the Braves were having one of their really bad seasons this is sort of your your thing about the reverse trend yeah and they were running they were running an ad called one more time go to the Braves games you know for August and September tickets go to the Braves games for one more time and it was like you know five dollars and you got like a hot dog. They just wanted people to show up in the stands you know so it works it works both directions. But but it doesn't it doesn't obviate the inherent issue with the pat fact that ticket prices in general are so unbelievably expensive and so out of the reach for almost uh you know for the vast majority of uh of the public.
SPEAKER_00Bottom line for me is dynamic pricing is on anything I can't believe it took this long to hit sporting tickets markets.
SPEAKER_01Yeah uh bottom bottom line for me is it's inevitable dynamic pricing is is essentially happening everywhere and uh ultimately it's not going to impact the consumer one way or another. But what is going to impact the consumer are these incredibly high price tickets no matter where you where you buy them. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And that takes us to our favorite topic of the week Ohio State football. There's big news about Ohio State football in Texas this week. Oh I didn't know that what what is that um Bryce Boyd lost his black stripe now okay okay that that that sounds like code for something I don't know what yeah okay here's the deal this is an all this is an Ohio State tradition when you are a freshman or a transfer they put a black stripe oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah sorry sorry yeah yeah and when when they feel like you have assimilated into the program then and you are now ready to be a Buckeye they take the black stripe off and say welcome to the team it's a big ceremony but who's but who's right who is Rice Boyd I don't even know that name I'm gonna tell you man okay all right so they they they they do it after practice your position coach comes up to the front hey Bryce Boyd take your blacks come up here in front and then they have like he's a receiver they have somebody else in the position group say Bryce has been killing it in practice we love his effort welcome him to the team so that's a nice little ceremony um Bryce Boyd is a receiver from okay this is an interesting thing because we had a talk we had a conversation about him in the gym this week he's a receiver from South Lake Texas which is uh probably about 25 miles west of downtown Dallas it's a very affluent neighborhood so not not too not not too far from you then yeah well not relatively speaking no um because you're you know no anyway yeah go ahead um it's probably from the second most affluent community in Dallas in the Dallas Fort Worth area what's what's the first most I'm curious Highland Park which is right that's where Jerry Jones lives okay right in is two minutes from SMU okay oh right right right right right that's the uh most affluent uh uh part of Dallas uh South Lake is probably the second uh could be the third but it it's you get up there it's up there rich rich folks live out there uh uh mostly white folks uh uh but but it's a place where a lot of athletes live so you have a sprinkling of black kids who are Mavericks or Cowboys kids who you know probably retired 10 years ago now their kids are going to high school so he was a three-star wide receiver this is my opinion I think he's a three-star wide receiver because he was a white guy you know I mean because he's he's like 6'1 uh he weighs about 190 uh but his brother who's uh like his brother's I think his brother just went to the combine and ran 438 oh wow oh my gosh wow so that's what I mean when I say people saw white receiver yeah and he could and it comes from a very they're very successful program like they go deep in they go four or five rounds into the state tournament every year. Uh-huh what what division what are they are they uh they're at the highest division right they're like what six six A is that what it is I can't even remember anywhere yeah I think uh you know my son played against him a couple years ago when they were in the playoffs so you know um but anyway he's a technician at receiver like he's legit uh and check this out he wasn't even the best receiver on their team that's scary yeah uh but here's the deal they're a classic Texas high school football hour meaning it's a one high school town it's probably about 35,000 people in the city and this this was the case a few years ago in their little league programs they're all running the dragon offense so by the time you get to middle school and high school you've been you can run 23 blasts with your eyes closed because you've been doing it yeah since you were seven years old yeah and so um but anyway he got his black stripe off um and so that was big news in Dallas because he was the first one and he's from Dallas is he gonna is he gonna play is he gonna play this year at Ohio State do you think uh no get on the field uh I would think so Ryan gay said he's quite a technician uh now he's also been in Dallas this is far more than you wanted to know about Brock Boyd but he's been um he's been working out with this guy named David Robinson who is like he worked out with uh Jackson Smith and Jigba and all these guys when they were in high school so he's he's already put several dudes in the NFL and uh Brock I mean boyd has apparently been working out with him since he was like in the seventh grade wow which is one reason he's such a really good route runner. So Ryan Day had very several very good things to say about him uh last week and uh like I said that's more than you wanted to know about him and I was using that as a segue to get into Jeremiah Smith said he turned down eight digits.
SPEAKER_01Yeah apparently he was he was apparently he was interviewed and he said that one school he said could he said something to the effect of I could have easily gotten 10 million dollars to go to another school which large I mean that would have probably he's probably talking about Miami since he's from Miami that would be what I would guess you know because I think yeah I think he was pretty close to going to Miami anyway instead of Ohio State which brings up the point which is he went to Ohio State largely because he knew he could be developed there as a receiver. You know he knew he was going to get the great coaching there. The question is that's that's that's going to be the question starting this year since uh Heartline is in South Florida.
SPEAKER_00Well they hired they on paper they did what they were supposed to do. They hired the wide receivers coach from LSU and if you said who's the Little Program producing as many wide receivers as Ohio State you'd say LSU yeah LSU and Ohio State are the two yeah so they did on paper what they were supposed to do. Now the question will be can that dude replicate the same success he had at LSU at Ohio State and then if he can it'll continue.
SPEAKER_01You know Ryan Day's got to develop the quarterbacks this guy's got to develop the receivers um but you know my whole thing is this is all wonderful this is all great you still need that dude toting the rock to set everything else up yeah yeah yeah because our inability to run on third and short and fourth and short is uh you know that cost us that that cost us a national championship last year oh for sure and it's uh but it's it's also the it's also the offensive line they they haven't had a good yeah it it's they haven't had a great offensive line that's a good way to say it they've had good they haven't they haven't had that those road graders where there's just nothing you could do about it. Yeah yeah and also uh you also look when I look back on it you know this is to your point the more I look back on their national title run a couple of years ago uh judkins was such a key piece to that because he could get he could get a yard he could get in the end zone anytime also will howard's just a monster and he could also was very underrated runner I thought not underrated but he was he was a good runner and uh he could also get a couple of yards if he needed it you didn't they didn't have that last year at all.
SPEAKER_00No and you know and then if you put Judkins and Henderson together you always had a bad dude on the field.
SPEAKER_01That's true.
SPEAKER_00You never went without a guy like okay well let's make sure we get the running back straight because if not he's about to go 60. Yeah and that alone opens up everything else and Bo Jackson is really really good. Yeah but he ain't at that he ain't that level he's bo Jackson still be this year but he wasn't last year he was good he was really good he's he was a B he was a B plus last year which is which is amazing but he was not an A.
SPEAKER_01No way. Right and there is a there is a and this only matters when you're talking about trying to win national championships that's the difference between you know your offense with a B running back even a B plus and an A minus and you know they had they had CJ Donaldson which looked like he was going to be the guy at the beginning of the year but but he never for whatever reason he either fell out of favor or that never worked out. But yeah so that'll be that'll be tricky for Ohio State this year.
SPEAKER_00Do you think Jeremiah Smith will have a uh uh huge year this year or not he's gonna do what he does a lot of it depends on the quarterback um you know they have uh and they have a much more difficult schedule on paper um so you know the competition will be difficult but I mean that's why you go to Ohio State. Yeah so um he's going to do what he does if Chris Henry is who he's supposed to be then Jeremiah Smith will still do his thing because Chris Henry will bust it behind on the other side right I mean it'll be kind of like Tate and Jeremiah where as soon as you turn your head because Tate's killing you that's when he'll show up and and get it and you know they may because Chris Henry's a freshman they make it they may make an even more concerted effort to get him the ball and some hitches and such interesting yeah early yeah yeah to get him yeah it'll it'll be uh yeah I I have no feel for what's gonna happen this season at all no that makes I really don't I mean they're always gonna be good um you know and they're uh you know it's uh they're a problem for everybody their schedule's more difficult but ain't nobody's like oh goody we get to play Ohio State you know it's gonna be a all day thing yeah yeah I I uh but again I think it's gonna be the Big Ten is gonna be so much better than every conference uh this year without any yeah you know and uh with that you know comes more losses or you know more tenuous gains yeah and you know it's uh you know it's fun to beat people 50 to nothing but it's also fun to win 28 24 and have some teams yeah this is this is the new this is the new conference yeah well it's new yeah the SEC doesn't is uh and you by the way you saw it with the NCAA tournament too I mean the Big Ten was so dominant in the NCAA tournament too you know and you had two you had two big ten teams win the women's and men's titles this year as well and then in NCAA yeah so it's it's become a world of the big schools and the biggest schools are in the Big Ten.
SPEAKER_01And uh that's uh which by the way in hindsight when you look when you look at it how smart was it for USC UCLA Oregon and Washington to join the Big Ten and people thought it was crazy right unbelievably smart move in hindsight.
SPEAKER_00Yeah it don't make no sense geographically no doesn't and they're not reaping all the rewards well I guess UCLA just won a championship so yeah they're good yeah you know now see that's why the men's coach Nick Cronin needs to shut up you know while he's bitching and moaning and whining after every game the women just go and took care of business. Um no it ended up being a good move for them and you know if they ever get back to what they should be in football um you know it's I mean it make the conference even more difficult oh my god look the conference has you know uh Ohio State uh the Wolverine's uh sort of but I guess they'll probably come back this year uh Penn State sort of but I guess they'll probably come back Oregon's got uh you know a top program uh Indiana possibly sustainable you don't know um see um Washington you so you got you're looking at seven or eight uh you know Iowa pops up every now and then Wisconsin uh Michigan State you know you get it's it's a good you know there aren't that many Purdue's or Northwesterns in that conference and even even even Northwestern sometimes can field a pretty good team so yeah um I don't know anyway so Jeremiah Smith could have gotten 10 million is gonna get about four million at Ohio State I bet he's gonna get more than I I take the four million yeah I would too uh that goes a long way in Columbus that does that does so all right all right well I think that wraps this one up for uh for the week yeah don't sus don't forget to subscribe rate and review uh five stars only otherwise we think you're being mean and we don't like we don't like when people are mean to us uh no but so he's he's Jeremy Pink I'm Jean Jacques Taylor we'll check with you uh next week on another edition of the bottom line on sports all right everybody we'll see you next week