Latest / Set 6: The Official MLV Podcast / Episode 025 | Big Moves & Burning Questions: LA Thunder, Marquee Players & More

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Episode 025 | Big Moves & Burning Questions: LA Thunder, Marquee Players & More · Set 6: The Official MLV Podcast

• Mike Moline: In this episode, you've got questions and we've got answers. We're talking Los Angeles Thunder, the marquee player exception, and we open up the mailbag to address your latest burning questions. So lock in. This is the Set Six Podcast. What's going on? Hello everyone. Welcome back to the Set 6 Podcast. This is the official podcast of Major League Volleyball. I'm your host, Sever Lavinstein, alongside Jenna Rosenthal, and we are so happy you're here. Please like, comment, share, subscribe. We're on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and really any way that you get your podcasts. This is episode 25. And before you listen to this one, go listen to episode 24, where we're talking MLV draft lottery results. And this episode we have some pretty special stuff for you as well. We're gonna talk about the reveal of the Los Angeles Thunder, and then we're gonna get into what we call maybe some of the minutiae, some of the details, some of the things you might have seen from the MLV marquee player exception, which is ⁓ you know, full of language, full of things that maybe you're like, wait a minute, what does that mean? Well, I mean, that's why we're here. We're gonna tell you what it means. So stick around for that. That is the format of the show where we're gonna talk the news first, we're gonna launch into all that. And then ⁓ Jenna and I are gonna just chat about some fun stuff before we end the show. So we're gonna bring it back up towards the end after we get out of the weeds through the jungle and back on the other side. So with that, Jenna, welcome to the show. Hi, nice to see you again. Nice to see you again as well. It was great to be in person last week and we're back into the ⁓ the virtual virtual category here. But you know, we we got plenty of things to talk about, plenty of screens to look at as we check our notes here and our, you know, notes that even go on to like official ⁓ s you know, ⁓ powerpoints. So we we've got we've got all of everything there as well. But let's start with the news and let's start with some what I think is fun stuff, which is we're heading over to Indy, and then Indy, I guess by way of Switzerland or or vice versa. And and what I'm talking about there is ⁓ we're talking about head coach Lauren Bertolacci, ⁓ of course the head coach of the Indy Ignite. First bit of news, the Swiss n the Swiss national team of which she coaches earned a twenty twenty seven FIVB World Cup bid. It's Switzerland's first berth in World Cup play. They narrowly made it based on the performance points, but honestly that's kind of a cool thing because every match they basically had to win. Every point mattered most. I mean Lauren explained at one point, it came down to basically every point and that was pretty, ⁓ pretty cool to see them make it. ⁓ but yeah, the significance of this as well for for Lauren and what she does over there, pretty big. Yeah, that's absolutely huge. ⁓ the Swiss national team is not typically one of the teams you think of when you think of the big European juggernauts. ⁓ for example, qualifying for the World Cup through the European route is incredibly difficult. You've got your Serbias, you've got your Netherlands, you've got Italy, you've got a ton of traditionally powerhouse teams that you really expect to take a lot of those top spots. So the rest of the teams that look to qualify really have to be, again, like you said, in the margins of those points. Now, for example, like you alluded to, A win in a three two setting is very different than a loss in a two three, but that's typically because in a lot of these international FIBB sanctioned competitions, it's ⁓ it's a points based system. Now Major League volleyball doesn't run it this way. It's totally fine. But in this point system, a three ⁓ sweep is worth three points. A three one sweep is also worth three points. But when you get to those five setters, that's when it starts to get a little interesting. If you win your five setter, you only get two points and the loser gets one point. And so again, conversely, if you lose a five setter, you get one point, which I honestly think is a very, really nice it's a very nice system to acknowledge the fact that a lot of times you might be ahead at fifteen in a regular set and somehow, you know, you don't end up closing out the whole set, but that short set to fifteen, every point really matters. So Lauren Bertolacci and that squiss squad qualifying the way they did, that's really impressive coaching, I think, and a lot of mental toughness to really chase the margins of those. of those gritty games. Like you're gonna get the win, sure, but how you win really, really matters. Absolutely. And we know that Lauren is such a great coach, but then to be able to see her pull off a a pretty, pretty big comp accomplishment like this is awesome. ⁓ she said that that it was possible they could have slipped behind Romania in the rankings, so they were kind of nipping at their heels there. ⁓ and they might have fallen out of World Cup consideration, but they made it. Jen and I have talked about ⁓ the World Cup ⁓ and how it's gonna be hosted between US and Canada. So we've mentioned that. And then Lauren also has more of this on her episode with us. So please go back into the archives and check that out because she had some really great stuff about her time ⁓ coast coaching the Swiss Swiss national team, say that ten times fast, ⁓ this summer and ⁓ you know in in her time away from the Indiegnite. So please for more on that, go check it out. ⁓ and and yeah, that's episode 15. So please go listen to that. On back to the reveal today, which were at least today for us. ⁓ we're coming to you from slightly in the past as you know how it works. But ⁓ this morning we got the reveal that MLV Los Angeles, no more. We have the LA Thunder. We got the name, we got the logo, we got I think the colors officially. ⁓ but Jenna, the the your final thoughts really here on your on I mean, obviously our first thoughts on LA, but the final thoughts on expansion. Finally, we have the teams all logoed, all named. And all ready to go. And ⁓ so cool to see the Thunder officially welcome to MLB today. And my first thought genuinely, genuinely sovereign, is hallelujah, because now all of our good listeners can stop asking. Don't get me wrong, I love it when you guys do ask, but we told you, we promised, we had players, we've had logos, we've had names. It's all good information and it's all coming down the pipe. And ⁓ I I'm super excited to finally see the constellation of teams in our league fully represented it. represented instead of just for those little little placeholder meatballs. So it I mean it keeps getting me jazzed up and fired up for the season and the draft to really to really see this thing take shape, you know? It's no longer a hypothetical. It's getting more and more real every day, much to the ⁓ chagrin of our employee workloads. But it's all exciting stuff. No, super excited for it. I'm gonna fumble around for some quotes here, but ⁓ Ben Priest, co-owner and team governor said, quote, Los Angeles gives us the opportunity to build momentum. Well, the first three MLV seasons in a market that naturally brings together sports, media, entertainment, and culture. We're focused on long term growth for the league, its athletes, and the sport. You know, j that's one as I as I'll search for some more here, ⁓ just to fill in some of the gaps. But ⁓ the colors first, Jenna, what'd you make of the color scheme? We were talking a little bit about that ⁓ that nice, I don't know what you'd call it, like purpley burgundy kind of, you know, color scheme that almost it was cool in their reveal. It's like the lightning flashes. And I think that was an interesting one because If you see that in the sky, sort of like the r the reflection of the lightning on clouds, it's like, ⁓ yeah, that does make some sense there, which I never would have thought of that again, like purpley burgundy color as being c sort of naturally part of like lightning and thunder. Yeah, no, storm crow storm clouds kind you know, now if I think about it, I'm not sure if I ever saw a purple storm cloud myself. ⁓ Midwesterners, you'll all understand when the sky turns a little bit weird and green. And you know that's the time to get in the basement because the tornado's coming. But ⁓ I really thought the LA Thunder ⁓ their purples and shades of dare I say periwinkle really do complement each other in a very, very aesthetically pleasing way. I'm gonna wanna get my hands on some of that merch from a purely fashionable standpoint. But I thought it was a really fun way to continue incorporating different colors. I know we were begging for purple at the beginning of this ⁓ this off season and well, we got a lot of purple. We got a lot of purple going on, and that is a okay with me. And it's all very different shades and expressions of purple. Probably talking out of my lane here just a little bit, but you can really feel a different flavor and energy with each of the types of purples. Like I f I find Vegas Thrills purple to be a very nineties, you know, nineties water cup purple, which I very much enjoy. Whereas the Thunder's is more of a very laid back, cool, understated but feminine type of purple. And Severin's just nodding endlessly politely as these discussions of shades and burg Burgundy buddy, where did burgundy come from? I mean probably my my transitionally colorblind nature. I still see a little bit of it in there, but you're right, it's probably more of like that. ⁓ you know, again, I'm totally unqualified for this. But it's like when you see when you get blackberry ice cream, like that that is what it looks like to me. We ain't got no blackberry ice cream in Wisconsin. We got we got vanilla, we got some chocolate. I think Got peanut butter. Peanut butter's good. Love me some blue moon. Either way, I think the color of Color scheme looks great. ⁓ I think the logo is unique. And then we're also just really excited for you know, we we've gotten the roster already for this team. We've mentioned that before. Jenna and I ⁓ gave you a deep dive ⁓ a couple episodes ago on the who was left between LA and DC to be announced. We've also talked to head coach Alicia Childress back in episode eight. ⁓ really I thought it was unique, Jenna, too, that It seems like they really gave her full control. They kind of handed her the the keys to the kingdom and said, Here, you build the roster the way that you see fit. You take control. We know that you're one of the best in the league. And so, you know, really gave her ⁓ you know, just the complete space to go do her thing. So I'm really excited to see how that plays out. We've talked about it a little bit, like we said, but ⁓ strong team on paper. And now finally with ⁓ a nice color scheme and and hope well, we can't wait to see the ⁓ the uniforms as well. ⁓ where they're all take the court. But I'm I'm very excited to see how this all comes together off of the page and finally ⁓ in on the court in person. Well, I think it has to be fantastic, obviously. We saw Alicia do it with San Diego, and now we see the pieces she has in her arsenal this season. I have no doubt that it's gonna be great. And I think the ⁓ Thunder management made the absolute right choice of choosing to trust Alicia and her vision for what she wants from this team. I'll keep hyping up Alicia as long as I can. ⁓ I think she really represents a really exciting shift in the next generation of coaching. Mindful athletes, how you do it is just as important as how what you do. And ⁓ yeah, go thunder, baby. And and the former MLV athlete angle to it as well. I know she's played many other places, including decorated career at Penn State, US national team athlete. But, you know, also playing in this league, I think is a really, really big thing to have a coach ⁓ you know, from a former player ⁓ who can really relate on that on that level. I think that's really great, especially with, you know, ⁓ from from just her experience as well. I think from also coaching in in San Diego to then bringing that experience here. I think incredibly well rounded, incredibly introspective, which we've talked about before. ⁓ and and now, you know, we sort of look at it it's it's the final the final cap or to this summer of introducing all of these teams and the excitement now turns into, you know, this is great that we've made this announcement, but now we now we gotta get going. Now we gotta get ev everything ⁓ into game shape and I just think that is that that whole prospect is exciting for all of these teams. They've all done their announcements in very different ways. And so now I I'm just curious to see if that carries through on the court and them all playing in different ways, sort of the similar way that they've been different in their in announcing their identities. I mean, I I completely agree. And before we get too far away, make sure you go check out our Alicia Glass episode. That one was episode eight. We've got good stuff in the backlog. And maybe we can see what little tidbits will resurface, like you said, when these teams finally take the court. It's not something new you invent every day. It's hard baked into these coaches' ethos and I it has to shine through their players. And I I'm stoked. I'm so stoked to see how these teams actually stack up of each against each other. You and I talk about these rosters back and forth all the time. And we'll finally be able to see what it starts looking like. Heck, I'm even excited to see if you get to go out to some OTAs to see some of these things continue to come to life. As am I, yeah. Looking forward to to ⁓ that possibility as well. In terms of what's coming next, we would anticipate a home venue announcement for the Thunder coming up relatively soon. After that, we'd anticipate ⁓ a schedule for the league announcement coming pretty soon. And then after that will be already at November twenty third with the MLV draft, which we talked to you all about last week. So lots of stuff still ⁓ i in the works and coming soon. And ⁓ you know, I think this is just the next step in that that evolution of c ⁓ consistent league news that continues to evolve throughout the off season and and as it slowly dwindles away the off season. ⁓ but it's it's going out with a bang with all these announcements. This is the time to lean in and listen in because it's getting good. So Jenna, let's let's move on to ⁓ our next topic here, which is ⁓ the the marquee player exception announcement, which ⁓ was posted to our website a couple days ago and ⁓ has already gotten some feedback as well too. I saw Emily Eamon tweeted about it and I saw ⁓ it making the rounds on social media, but I also saw ⁓ a few questions on this as well. So what we'll seek to do here is is answer it. But first we'll seek to give some context. as well, ⁓ and you're definitely gonna be a valuable, valuable help with that. Let's start with I'll start with this quote from our fearless commissioner, Jamie Weston, who said, quote, MLV is committed to building the premier professional volleyball league in the world, and that means creating the right environment to attract and retain the best players in the sport. End quote. One more for you is from Cold Voss of the Grand Rapids ⁓ Rise, governor and co-chair of competition as well, and he said, quote This structure gives our teams that flexibility while protecting the integrity of the roster and salary cap system for the rest of the league. Just as importantly, it gives MLV teams the opportunity to pursue the next generation of athletes as they enter professional volleyball. End quote. So, Jenna, I think maybe even before I go any further, can you give us like a base overall explainer of what this is and what it's doing? Exactly. So whether you saw the press release or not. The long and the short of it is this is the marquee player exception. So as you all well know, there is a salary cap in place across major league volleyball to ensure competitive parity across teams. Very standard, very typical with professional leagues. Now, what this rule, this exception does, it provides a mechanism and an ability for a franchise to pay to pay a certain special player, an exceptional player above their league salary cap to have not the entire amount of that exceptional player's salary count towards the salary cap. Say you want to attract a really, really high level international ringer and those types of players come with a certain cost. And signing that player at their market value would negatively impact your current ⁓ salary cap and affect the rest of your roster. Now, because the league is committed to building to building that really high level competitive on the international stage league, We need to have a mechanism and an ability to be able to sign those kinds of players without completely blowing off, blowing up the rest of the structure. So that's what this is intended to do. It is theoretically an unlimited fund for a team to invest in the player of their choice. Now it's up to your own business discretion on what value you place on those players and what the market demands of those players, but again, it provides a mechanism for teams to go above and beyond for one or two exceptional players that we will discuss in just a moment. Yeah, I think, you know, I I'm gonna take the perspective of zooming out and and looking at the broader landscape of of just sports. And I think you see this a lot. And I think it's another thing that this league is adding that I I don't ⁓ legitimizes as the wrong word. That's not what I I'm trying to think of the the right word here. I think it's like modernizes. Maybe that's maybe that's the word I'm looking for. I'm still not quite there yet, but essentially what it does is it is it's a very similar structure. To what a lot of what you see throughout sports. So for example, in the NWSL, you have the Rodman rule, ⁓ as it's been commonly termed, which is a similar thing where you can extend yourself beyond the cap to sign exceptional exceptional players. If you're not quite an NWSL fan, another one I've got for you is the NBA. It's the first thing I thought of when I saw this come down ⁓ through our our internal wires there was It's kinda like bird rights in the NBA. And again, those have the the MBA aprons and and exceptions and all they have a million of them and they're really confusing. But bird rights essentially, if I've got this, you know, right off the dome here, is it allowing you to extend yourself beyond the the salary cap, you being a a team, to sign your own players and to retain talent there. And so while this may be a a mechanism for us to r retain and acquire talent, you know, that That those mechanisms exist in sports and I think it's important because it also maintains, as as you heard from some of the quotes up top, the integrity of the rest of the rostered salary cap. You w this is not a league that's like major league baseball with unlimited money, which they're currently about to go into a lockout for to try and change that. But it it is a league that is tr that is doing exactly what you just alluded to, which is allowing money that may be out there to be spent to improve. improve the league. And I use that very, very broadly to improve in whatever aspect that you think because improvement means retaining and and acquiring talent in in a way that you're in a way that you have the the funding capable of doing. And so we are allowing teams to really use the full potential of value that they have available to them to acquire talent. Isn't that what you want in any sport? whether we're talking volleyball or not, and I know I've gone all over the sports map on you, but that is that is an exciting thing. It's an exciting thing when you see it in other leagues. It's an exciting thing when you see it in our league. And and I think it's it is all within the best benefit of bringing in the best possible talent or keeping the best possible talent in our league. And it that's as simple and also complex as I can make it. ⁓ I thought that was an amaz that was a great assessment, Severin. ⁓ it's Exactly. We're we are enriching this league. And as you took us all over the sports map, permit ⁓ permit me to take us all across the global map, our league is entering season four. That is a very, very early stage for a league like ours. And when you compare and you consider ⁓ both the establishment of some of the higher tier European leagues, ⁓ the volleyball industry, you always hear stories of athletes bringing home backpacks of cash from parts unknown. because of these, you know, really well-funded leagues from one way or another. And ⁓ MLV wants to position itself to be able to compete for some of these same athletes, some of these same high caliber athletes, without completely blowing up the structure of our league that's very much in its toddler phase. and not only international, when you understand the ⁓ the landscape of college volleyball, college volleyball as a league itself, though not fully a professional league with its new NIL budgets and things, has the benefit of decades and decades of college sports recognition. And that's why maybe they are able to command certain amounts of certain amount of funding that within our previous salary cap would not have been in reach. It's all about enriching the league and providing teams this again, I can't stress this enough, Severin, this optional tool. If an opportunity comes, an exceptional player is interested to come and play for us. We are able to pay her what she is worth on the open market. Simple as that. And forgive me because again, my brain just I can't help but go to the the other sports here, which is why we it's great having you to ground us here. But again, another meta point of view I sort of have here is is we t w we, the collective talks a lot, as they should in women's sports about paying her what she's worth, paying them what they're worth. This is a mechanism to do that. You have these amazing stars coming from, like you've perfectly illustrated, be it from college, be it from from International Pro. Let me just stick with college for a second. They're making boatloads of money in NIL deals. And and frankly, I don't think many leagues, many professional leagues are gonna be able to come close to that. If if any, this some of these NIL deals are crazy. But eventually it's all gonna come to an end. But can you go, can you meet them at like 50 instead of going from 60 to zero? Can you meet them at 40 instead of going from 60 to zero? Can you make it worth the while of this massive college star? And if you want to attach a name to it, hell, I'll do it. I'll say, like, you know, like the Harper Murrays of the world or the Olivia Babcocks of the world. You use that as the the person that you put in your mind for this right now. I mean, millions upon millions of dollars in in college right now. I've I haven't seen their contracts, I haven't seen their NIL deals, but I know it's a lot. I know they're on my TV screen when I'm just turning on ESPN, so I know I know it's quite a bit. That's not gonna be available, but can it be something that is commensurate to the value that they would bring as a pro? And importantly, Jenna, I think it also has the room to grow. Because to me, I just get all excited about. So let's say you have this fantastic player who you use this exception on. Well, then What if you start a bidding? What if what if a bidding war happens? Maybe after a year, you're you're paying this player in that exception window. And another team's like, Well, we want to use our exception on this, but we want to pay her a little bit more to be able to come over here. And then you get a bidding war. And then after the bidding war, you know, the teams go and and chase more investment because we need this player. Look at what they've done for this market. Look at what what they've done to bring butts in seats. Look at what they've done to elevate the level of play of our team. And then You bring more investment into your team, you you go and find more money to pay this player, and then all of a sudden, more money in the league, more money going towards these players that should at the base level be earning what they're worth. And, you know, it's this it's such a stupid base level thing to say, but you are worth what someone is willing to pay you. This league is showing these players are worth trying to find a way to pay them as much as we possibly can. One hundred percent. Would we want to say pay them what they're worth, they're worth a hell of a lot. This rising s these rising stars of college volleyball pr command immense, immense value in the marketplace. And the definition of value is up to every individual franchise. Yes, she's a rookie player. She's probably a damn good player, but when you speak about these enormous NIL deals, there's another dimension of value there. And this rule is what gives you the flexibility to decide how much value you're going to assign that. That's all it is. It's placing more power in the the hands of teams, in the hands of agents, in the hands of these athletes to negotiate what they're worth. And I love that point. You're worth what someone will pay you. Simple as that. Frustrates me sometimes is is I'm trying to almost head off any like criticism that I feel like I'm going to see eventually on on anything. But particularly it's like the idea of of paying From money that just isn't there, for example. So like some people may may look and say, like, well, you know, to what what we were just talking about, this isn't even close to the NIL deals, you know, like w this this is just, you know, not even close. Well well, it's it's in the right direction. We can't we can't do it something that that isn't possible, you know? Like and so to be able to y show that we're willing to invest, and by we I just mean, you I'm I'm I'm even talking about women's sports, like to be able to show that we're it' willing to f invest into the the product in that kind of way is the step towards eventually what we hope will be even bigger contracts. You just saw in the WMBA, I think the first couple million dollar contracts. Did they were they able to do that right away? No, of course not. That league's been around since I think the late 90s, early 2000s. That takes time. But this is an incredible first step to eventually maybe we can get there. Once this sport and this league has finally gotten to that place where we're all trying to get it. I think that's such an incredible like you can look back to this and be like, hey, that was one of the first steps. That was one of the first bu building blocks. I would love it if every player on every team could be making, you know, NFL level contracts. Heck, that that's that's small potatoes. Could be making MLB level contracts, you know, all guaranteed money, crazy signings. You you're you're pissing off all your teams because, you know, you're you're you're earning Bobby Bonilla kind of deals where you're getting paid into the future. But you need that money to exist somewhere. And I think it's all well and good to I I think everybody agrees. Yes, absolutely. People should be paid what they're worth. But that money has to come from somewhere. And the investment in the league, which we're seeing heck, with all these expansion teams this year. I just I get so excited about it because you're starting to see it happening. And so this is the next logical step. Where what happens after that investment? You you you raise the ability to be able to go out and then reinvest into that talent. And that's the whole point. That's the entire it it's it's the entire start of the building blocks of continuing to grow. And I think it's such a great thing about this league of being very transparent with the fact that that next step is being taken and it's here and it's right now. And those players that you are fans of, whether you're watching the international stage, whether you're watching the college stage, they're they're gonna they're gonna be done soon and they're gonna come play for us because that has value. This this whole new addition to the salary cap structure has value. To be able to attract those kind of players. One million percent. And I I, dude, you're getting me all fired up just listening to you. ⁓ another thing is I'm so I'm honestly so pumped that we are so open about it. Because a lot of times when you're negotiating contracts or you're in conversations with your agent, or you know, players talk to each other, agents talk to each other. ⁓ I I heard I heard MLV has unlimited contracts now, or I heard they're trying to get so and so for. Half a million dollars. Again, rumors and hearsay doesn't necessarily do a lot, right? You can hear rumors about any sort of agent negotiations, any all of the stuff, it gets pretty murky anyway, as is. But for the league to come out and say, hey, this is what we're doing. This is the commitment we're willing to make. Come to the they're essentially setting the table for these deals in such a transparent way, which I absolutely love. It's it's exact it's no longer speculating and wondering, we're putting our money where the mouth is. And to your point, too. I think you hit on a really beautiful point. I attended a women's sports conference a couple of years ago when the league was ⁓ just getting started and it spoke about a cyclical effect on investment in women's sports. And the negative element is, well, no one watches women's sports, so no one invests. So then no then the product suffers. And the product suffers, so no one watches, and it's an it's an endless cycle that slowly grinds to a halt. Whereas the converse is You invest money in women's sports, the product increases, more people watch, more people want in, and it continues this really exciting investment cycle. And it just needs a little bit of a drop in the bucket to get that wheel moving. And once that momentum starts, it's infectious, it's contagious. We've seen it already with increasing viewership broadcasts, investment. And I think this is just one more shove in the right direction to get this thing over the line until it's humming and breathing and just a part. just as much a part of American culture as all those other sports you were referencing with their very well known exceptions for their marquee players. Yeah. And I think this is, you know, it's one area where you you know, and I and I I hear it so many times and I totally understand it. Like the the comparisons to other sports, it's like, you know, th this is this is not other sports. This is volleyball. This is not even other other leagues. This is pro volleyball in the US. This is MLV, you know, we are our own thing. Yes. Got it. heard. I think anybody who goes to a match knows that is the case and will not question you on that at all. I love it. I we love it for that. That's why we're here. But there are certain parts of it where being like a lot of other sports and a lot of other models is a good thing. And I and again, the beauty of this is I don't think it's in it's necessarily exactly like what we mentioned before with like the bird rights and the NWSL Rodman rule. And so, you know, it's unique in that own sense of things. And and there's you know, ⁓ the details that you touched on earlier as well, Jenna. But to me, this is one of those situations where, you know, the the the staunch volleyball is volleyball person, which it's not like that. I I this is a straw man person that I'm making up here. But should that be your take, I think this is one where you really it would behoove you to really let up and be like, you know, this is a really good thing to be like other sports in this category. Well, and it reminds me again of ⁓ those early days. We want to Of one of the goals of the league was to convert the unconverted. Sure, we are well on our way to building the best volleyball league we can be. We've got Bolt Six, we've got really exciting games, we've got great broadcast deals to be announced. We are becoming the world's best volleyball league, but I have a bigger site for Major League Volleyball. I want Major League Volleyball enshrined in the pantheon of American sports. NFL Sundays, baseball in October, NBA. ⁓ All winter long, Michael Jordan. I want our volleyball stars to occupy that same level of the traditional established male sports. I don't care that they're male sports. I want major league volleyball to be among those sports. So I think your comparisons to those traditional sports are completely applicable because we do want to be like them. We do want to have an we do want to have a big, beautiful American sports model. And I don't think we should shy away from that. And if these mechanisms and these rules are what allow us to pursue that. Then all the better. I'll give you one more before the fans screaming at me are at home to please stop talking about every other sport but volleyball. But I'll just give you one more because it's what my vision of of what hopefully the next step of this will be is just like so I'm not a soccer fan, right? But even the cultural re relevance of Messi being in the MLS has hit me and when I'm just on my couch watching literally honestly anything other than soccer until we get the World Cup. But That's what I want for volleyball. I want, you know, you tell me, na name a an incredible ⁓ player playing overseas right now to to be that kind of figure and and and again, work with me. It's apples and oranges. There's there's probably not that exact player right now that would be possible for for that. Igonu. I'm gonna I'm gonna put Igonu. Paulo Igonu forward. There you go. Yeah. And and what if what if she comes over to MLV with this exception again, throwing out just a name. With this new exception, you get an Omaha that's like, we're gonna we're gonna throw some money at her and she's gonna play in MLV. And and maybe it's when she's done, you know, playing over there in Italy, but you have to start somewhere, baby steps. And then you just get this tour around every single spot that is so into volleyball. And you get a little girl who gets to watch that and and be like, Ngano is like the best player that has ever been around in her lifetime, and she gets to see her on Matt Court. And that's never mind, you know, all of the fantastic college players. Like again, one name, work with us here. But that's a whole other level of the international star who's who's doing you know, that kind of stuff that you're seeing over there in soccer. So again, not a perfect comparison, work with me, but it's one final sport take that just again with this mechanism gets me excited for the future. And maybe that'll be ten years from now, fifteen years from now. Hopefully not. Hopefully it's sooner than that. But I mean That's why this is exciting. It's the building block to make that happen. And it starts by our league and our structure looking at what's there and saying, How can we be better? And doing it. Not just talking about it, doing it. And this is the first real step of doing it. And I love it. ⁓ before we go too far away, I do want to bring us back into reality with an ever so slight touch with some more boring details from the press release. Marquee player exception is going into effect this season for ⁓ for the ⁓ rookie marquee players only. So this exception will apply to draftees coming out of the 2026 draft only. And then once free agency 2028 begins, that's when teams can pursue those international stars for season five. So rookie marquees for season four, seasoned marquees and rookies for season five. So keep an eye on the draft. even more closely because something big could happen. It's very great to have the co-host who brings you back down to reality when you're floating away on all these crazy comparisons and getting all ahead of ourselves before we actually talk about the details. And so let's do more of that talking about the details. And Jenna, I think one mechanism maybe to do that would be by dipping into the mailbag. Does that sound good? Should we hit on any other details before we do that? I I I put the ball on your court for that. The one the one thing I want to keep emphasizing about Mar it's This is truly an exception, right? And I think we talked about that a lot in our specific examples. Not every team is going to have a marquee player. If some of us remember franchise players from ⁓ season one, season two, that's not necessarily this. This is truly the exceptional type player, one in the mill I don't expect to see our league chalk full of marquee rookies this season or even next season. Again, it is an optional tool. to continue to enrich our league when the when the opportunity presents itself. So you don't have to pass on Paula Ogonu when she comes knocking on your door. Again, work with us here. Not the name, it more of a representative name of the type of players we're talking about here. So absolutely. And and hopefully not everybody is is all, you know, like, why are you throwing around specific names? And hopefully that helps to fully contextualize what we're what we're talking about here and the kind of of ⁓ examples that we mean. And that's this purely what they are, especially, you know, when talking about Harper Murray, Olivia Babcock, purely hypothetical examples, but again, hopefully to to illustrate our point there. If this is all really confusing to you and you just want some details, again, that press release is on ⁓ our website. You can go navigate it, you can find it, you can read it, and you can have a little bit more context as well in addition to what Jen and I are specifically talking about. But I think she's doing a great job with keeping you informed on the exact details. It's helping me better than just reading a press release. ⁓ not that we don't love them, but I always need a little bit more extra context. ⁓ sometimes with my spooth brain being able to to kind of figure things out when someone else tells me how it goes. ⁓ and that's hopefully what we can do here too with the mailbag. So we're gonna open up, we're gonna dip into the mailbag. ⁓ and we're gonna start with well the first one here is about broadcast deals, which we'll talk about in a second. ⁓ let's go to this one, Jenna, ⁓ which was about the salary cap. And it says, what do you know about the salary cap? Is it growing? This is from Morning Setter. So that's the thing. The salary cap is not growing. It's gonna be remaining fixed at 1.2 million. Which is perfectly fine across the board. The nar marquee player exception is that's when we would have some quote unquote expansion. Now your marquee player salary in the nuts and bolts, I'm not gonna bore you all with the complete details. A portion of the marquee player salary will come out of the salary cap, but not the entire portion. So again, like we said earlier, this allows you to invest in your marquee player without completely blowing the rest of your salary cap and the rest of your athletes out of the water. You can't pay your marquee the entire salary cap and leave the rest of your girls to eat ramen noodles in their, you know, in their crummy little apartment. So can I can I just jump in on that quickly too? Because I think on the flip side, I'm not gonna name names, but we n you and I know about situations in this league where women have made sacrifices to be able to keep other women on rosters. Mm-hmm. That's that shows you the incredible character that exists within this league. And I just wanna I feel like that that has adds context when we're talking about these big deals and these big contracts. It's like or the p the potential for them rather. There already exists such a selflessness to be able to have everybody get to to be able to try to have everybody be able to get what they're worth. Does that make sense? Am I am I connecting those dots? Well, I'm trying to sort of say I think that the another thing that I love about this is I think that our our Players are are very attuned to not ⁓ d to making sure that everybody has a seat at the table, kinda like what you're sort of alluding to. Yeah, I feel like. It allows these athletes to get and to use the plain coarse language, you can get yours without taking it out of your teammates' hands. Right. That's much better way to put it. I mean, yeah, you're you're not literally taking food out of your teammates' mouth. Like you can pursue what you're worth without being directly in opposition to your teammates. And I think that that really reflects the character of the athletes that play for us. And I'm really glad that we can again continue to support athletes pursuing their value without having to make these really difficult sacrifices for the rest of the team. And like you said before, Severin, athletes taking, you know, taking a little bit of a hit here and there to ensure that their team stays under cap. ⁓ I don't think you hear about that a ton in other sports. You do sometimes. You do sometimes, which I I would I would argue that you you do sometimes. I don't think it's necessarily celebrated because, you know, it it has to do with teams sometimes I think a lot of times you hear the other I mean, as a Patriots fan, I used to hear about it all the time with my team just because they just never wanted to spend their money. But that was publicized through like, you know, had to to do this, to do that. And it w I think it was in a much different context. But I was gonna say too, like, I think I've talked to I have, I don't think I know, I have talked to athletes who've told me straight up, off the record, I had the ability to go somewhere and and maybe this would have been a better situation monetarily. But it wasn't the same level of care. It wasn't the same level of commitment to me as a player in other ways. And I, you know, again, I think it gets really it can get a little Gross when talking about money and all that stuff and and and obviously what's you know, as we talked about earlier with our discussion about making sure there are steps to be able to show worth from a financial standpoint. I think I've heard of ways that athletes are are showing what they're worth i in in just investment in time, in energy, in coaching, in physical therapy, in a whole bunch of other ways. and I I'm so happy that now the monetary investment can also be a continued added part. to that. ⁓ and so I I guess what I'm trying to say is I think combined with all of the other great foundational pieces that we we have heard, you and I, in in various different circles, about the time and and true investment of character or into character, I think this added piece to it is only going to help improve that, if I'm making any sense. No, you totally are. I feel the urge to rapidly defend myself because you're right. You hear that in football all the time, people taking pay cuts to keep their receiver core together. However, without going too terribly eat the rich on you. No, Tom Brady lost two million of his god knows how many million dollars. You know, it's a very, very, very different world than our athletes who, for the very, very vast most part make a comfortable middle class salary. without obviously going into specifics. It's a it's a completely different everyone knows it's a completely different scale in the NFL. And I don't think anyone's gonna cry at a Patriots player that lost couple million in the great scheme of things. I I I wish all of my teams would be the Dodgers. I'm going to a different sport again, but just be like, you know, if any penalties, we're just we're just paying everybody everything. I believe me. I I I wish wish that could be the case. It's sadly not been my New England Patriots, but be that as it may. You keep giving me yes. No, go for for I was gonna say you keep giving me the sidebar to be like the Brewers are the best team in baseball, you guys. And ⁓ my god, you better tune in. I'm so excited. There's a game tonight as we're recording. We're up two ⁓ on the Padres because it's a Tuesday. I'm excited. My small market city needs this. Thank you. Jenna, let's go to the next mailbag question, which ⁓ has to do with the draft. This is from ⁓ our friend Tensei two one four who comments on a lot of our videos. We appreciate it. One of his ⁓ or their mailbag questions today was, do draft picks have to declare for the MLV specifically, or ⁓ are there other options? Okay, yeah. This one's again where our beautiful little analogy of us fitting into the American sports landscape falls apart a little bit. Our athletes, any athlete graduating college, finishing their ⁓ cult collegiate careers ⁓ in the season that the draft is being held is automatically considered eligible for the MLB draft. You do not have to specifically declare for the draft. However, that does place additional pressure on recruiters and MLB coaches to really understand what an athlete is liable to do, where her interests lie, what steps she might be considering for her first stop on her pro career pro career. ⁓ and a lot of these conversations happen. ⁓ it helps a lot now that athletes have representation work working for them throughout their season. So it's not like athletes are having professional sports negotiations in the midst of their senior year. But it also points to this is why we have Amy Paulie, the director of player personnel and NCAA recruiting on staff at Major League Volleyball. It is her job to identify the rising seniors and build relationships with their teams, their staff, and really help. them help us understand what kind of moves they would like to make after college and that really informs a lot of draft decisions. Yeah, I think you you hit the nail on the head there with talking about Amy. I think she is always has her finger on the pulse with all of that. And, you know, not only is a great resource for us, but I mean, it is just a great resource for the league. And and what she does there, I think is ⁓ so valuable for for that and for the draft. And ⁓ I really don't have much else to add because I just I think it's important to highlight her And then I think, you know, just basically to be like, Yeah, we we our w she's she's a big part of having that system in place. ⁓ so we love we we love her for that and we love what she does. It's great. Yep. She does a great job of like I said, you the job is making sure you know who's available and you know who would be a good fit for our league. And now she gets to dangle the very exciting rookie player exception in front of some folks. So I'm sure that makes negotiating slightly more fun. But let's see what's I know when that five for five rule passed, I guarantee you her phone was ringing off the hook and I was one of them being like, ⁓ my god, what does this mean? And yeah. Yeah. So we might have to be patient to see some of our our ⁓ favorite rising super seniors hit our courts. Another mailbag question. This one comes from Mason Henderson who says, What do you think is helping volleyball grow the most? Jenna, I'll take lead on this one if you don't mind. I have I have a definite thought. I'm sure you have opinions. Availability. Let it be where people can actually watch the matches. I love the ESPN. ⁓ I think it's Women's Sports Sunday or Women's Sports Saturday. my my my place in the week is all completely gone right now, so please, sorry, bear with me. But the the investment that ESPN is making in their time and their, you know, showing women's sports over their airwaves, fantastic. I think ⁓ there was a really interesting article in Sportico. ⁓ I'm gonna butcher exactly, you know, I'm like I'm not I'm gonna paraphrase, but it was a sa effectively like Gen Z is leaning towards ⁓ and this it might have been Sports Business Journal or Sport Eco. I should have pulled this up beforehand. But it's basically Gen Z is leaning towards more, I'm using air air quotes, alternative sports, but basically like put pushing back from the table of of football, ⁓ kind of you know, v investing in a lot of women's sports, watching a lot more of baseball, which I think is a little bit of a cyclical back to where, you know, your grandparents were big baseball people. Your your parents probably were less of baseball people, and then you know it's coming back around. Speaking very generally, if your parents are big baseball people, I apologize. But the the point being you the first thing you have to do, and you you mentioned this earlier as well, and it was a really good point. You have to put them where people can see them. And it drives me up a wall when it's it's so difficult to be able to just watch women's sports. And and I'm I should specifically say volleyball. I love being able to see college games on all the time. One of my biggest things is there are so many people out there that just want something to watch before they go out on a Saturday night, that want something on at the bar, that want to be able to, you know, invite people over to to just have something on. And they may not be your they're not, frankly, your ardent volleyball fan. But you have the the hardened volleyball fan. You they're going to find Through the ends of the earth, the way to watch you and your sport at whatever level it may be. You need to reach the people that aren't already there and you need to make it accessible. You do not need to hide it behind fifty dollar paywalls, specifically only for volleyball fans, and not be able to watch it or distribute it anywhere else. Just gonna leave that one there. But I also think that you just have to you have to make it accessible before you start asking people to pay for it. I think is the That's my thought. That's my opinion. And I I just it it's such a fantastic, amazing sport that you need to peop have people to watch and and you need to get the people who are not already there. Dude, say it again for the people in the back. That's all I got. That's what I got. But I just, you know, and and I think the the I mean, we all know, you all know, listening, like when you walk into a packed Omaha match, when you walk into Fisher's Event Center, when you walked into the MLV championship in Dallas to watch them hoist the trophy, like that's what this is supposed to be. It's everybody there, butts in seats, watching at home, available for you all to see. And I just think the easiest thing that you can do is make it easy on the people you're trying to reach to be able to access the sport. And I think that's the number one thing. You got to walk before you can crawl, or no, you got to walk before you can run. And and the walking is to be able to put it in front of people. And that's that's as simple as that. So Mason, sorry for getting all all on a rampage there, but my thing is the thing that I think is helping volleyball grow the most, specifically right now, just to recap, is the investment I I love specifically in the college game of just being able to put it on a lot of different TV channels for people to see. ⁓ I love that we do that. You know, I don't I I think it's pretty accessible to get all of our matches. We'll be working through that this this year to be able to tell you exactly how you can do that. That's one of my my responsibilities. I feel like the the Hulk meme, I just saw Avengers Endgame again. It's like when he, you know, goes to the glove, he's like, I feel like I was made for this. ⁓ so you know, I I'm happy to help in that in that category. ⁓ but you know, it's certainly something that we want to do is to be able to make it easy for people to to find to find ways to watch. Period. My gosh, I've eaten like almost the Hulk the Hulk analogy was wild. Thank you. Thank you. I interviewed ⁓ Mia the other day too and ⁓ we we had a nice ⁓ talk about like the Marvel cinematic universe too. So anytime anybody drops stuff like that, you know, it's it's it's always great. Wait, she's a Marvel girl? I had no idea. She is. Exactly. We'll we'll see if I leave the Hulk ⁓ the the Hulk reference therein at the end, you know. I felt the passion. Thank you. I'm taking up like all of the time here through this mailbag, but ⁓ any comment that you had on on What do you think is helping volleyball grow the most? I'd specifically like to know your point, especially as a former player. I mean, I I honestly think you nailed it on the head, ⁓ right on the head. Especially since my big crusade personally as a player and as someone who's been in the sports bubble, ⁓ in the volleyball bubble and in the general sports fan bubble now, I just want it to be more accessible and more easily stumbled upon. That's how people are gonna fall in love with this thing. You and I doing what we do is gonna help, yes, but again, the ability to meet. sports fans and serve them volleyball when they haven't necessarily been exposed to it is completely huge. ⁓ again, Big Ten network airing volleyball immediately before and after football games is huge because people are putting on the Big Ten network to catch those football games. And you're catching a lot of those residual eyes when people might be able to turn and say, ⁓ I didn't know the Badgers were this good at volleyball too, because currently the Wisconsin football team is so ⁓ volleyball is carrying all of the ⁓ reputation of the badgers at this point. ⁓ don't quote me, I went to Marquette, so I'm contractually obligated to hate the Badgers, I think, as I've mentioned in a previous episode. But continuing exposure is good. Can never be a bad thing. Jenna, we've gone for for almost an hour an hour on this. A lot of a lot of just all over the place, I feel like, but in a good way, because I think that's the the excitement that really this this process Marquee player exception brings. It's the excitement that the the ⁓ LA Thunder bring for sure with ⁓ finally getting our our our teams all ready, set to go ⁓ for the season. So w it's been a lot of fun going through this episode, but we we I think it might be time to start wrapping it up. And to do that, I think we should talk about our our quote unquote fun topic, which was something that we completely forgot to talk about last week being in the same ⁓ area, you coming out to Southern California. What why was that? What was the main purpose of that. You see, Severin, ⁓ I had a bit of a side quest in my life. I wanted to meet the one, the only, James May of Top Gear Fame in San Diego. He was doing a meet and greet to sponsor his gin. And I said, to heck with it. Southern California, I twist my arm, say less. So I packed up my bags. Severin very graciously accompanied me down to San Diego to meet the man, the myth, the legend, and yeah, mission accomplished. ⁓ Top Gear was I've been just an enormous fan, probably since college. Now, I'm not the biggest gearhead in the world. However, their brand of humor and the almost Anthony Bourdain-esque travel elements of their programs, I think, was really very, very foundational to me accepting the short time that I lived abroad. I played I played abroad for three years and, you know, most of that time is spent living abroad and I think their programs really introduced me to a lot more of the world than I had been exposed to growing up in, you know, central Wisconsin. And ⁓ no, James May was a big part of me being willing to take the plunge. And I know you've got a s similarly impactful story of being a Top Gear fan. Yeah. No, I I I ⁓ actually connected with Top Gear through my grandfather and I remember who was a b a big ⁓ gear head and ⁓ you know, was on the he was he was part of the ⁓ you know, in in the pit lanes back in the Bruce McLaren days of F one. I think I've told this story before and and was a big reason why I became a Formula One fan. And, you know, whenever he would come over sometimes, we'd look for the right thing to watch on the on the TV and it was always surfing over to BBC to see if Top Gear was on. I remember first, you know, not really connecting with it when I was younger, and then eventually I grew to really enjoy the comedy. And I think one of the first episodes I saw was James May driving a Ferrari F forty and it the I I think it's really I've really connected with it differently. I've I've connected with those three presenters and and obviously it's a big year with the transition over to the new t ⁓ crew on ⁓ the new grand tour, but even as as I knew I kind of wanted to do media for my profession, I've always admired just their ability to be serious, to be hilariously funny. ⁓ no, the Dacia Sandero has been delayed. Good news, exactly. You know, you go all the way from that to these really profound, ⁓ you know, like for lack of a better word, like sh Shakespearean sonnets on on these wonderful machines. And and and I know it was wasn't James May, but like one of the f or or even one of the things that that stands out to me is from ⁓ only 'cause I rewatched it recently. It was Richard Hammond actually who does his whole he he it's it's sort of the camera crew hikes up with him to the mountainside. I don't know if you've seen this one where and then he talks about his near death experience. And here you are watching a car show. And this man is talking about, you know, like the closest he got to the afterlife and how he knew it wasn't his time to go yet 'cause he it's it's like you're watching a car show. It's incredible. And and you listen to, you know, ⁓ the everybody know if if your four you pages like mine, you hear Jeremy talk about how when he was reviewing a Porsche that it it was fast enough to help him get ho ⁓ to the hospital to see his father before he died. And and you you it it's it's ⁓ I've always found that w those shows be a top gear or grand tour were filmed and and edited and presented so in such a in such a genre bending way, you know, from funny show about cars to the most, you know, gut wrenching ⁓ you know, deliveries. And and I just I've I've always loved it. And then the, you know, and the then then the one that was really silly that I have to tell James was I also again similarly through my grandfather, he bought me my first ⁓ ⁓ video game that was car related. It was the one of the Forza games and I eventually kept ⁓ playing them even after he passed away and one of them was the Forza video games where James May actually did intros and th the whole Top Gear trio did. And it was ⁓ I I told him I was like, you know, big fan of the Top Gear days, big fan of the the Grand Tour days, but I'm one of the real OGs because every time your intros came on for Forza Motorsport I can't remember if it was five or six, but it was one of ⁓ I I never skipped ⁓ I always listened through to them and ⁓ You know, I he I drew a nice smile out of him for that. So ⁓ yeah, long story short, really appreciated all with all the work throughout media and ⁓ I think it was really cool that he just happened to pop by San Diego on a on a random day. Yeah, on a random Tuesday. Thanks for coming with me to San Diego on a random Tuesday. Way to go podcast, homie. Yeah, absolutely. You know, g and then and then the podcast is only natural to make that happen. But yeah, really cool. And I definitely would say it's a scenario, at least for me, Jenna, where meeting your heroes is actually okay in that scenario. Yeah. Hands down, one hundred percent. And of course, as I'm required to say, they all look much taller on television, but that's okay. I think that's everybody for you. It it it it really is. But a girl can dream. I still would love to believe that Loki's taller than me, but that's you know, that's just not not the case. Well, Jenna, we've gone on for for quite a bit here on episode twenty five, but we covered everything from meeting James May to the Thunder to the Marquee Player exception and and the news and everything in between. But it's been a fun episode. And so with that, we'll we'll say thank you for listening, everybody. Please continue to like, comment, share, and subscribe. It's how we grow the show, it's how we gain new listeners, and it's how we connect with you. So we appreciate it. ⁓ your comments always have a chance to make it in the mailbag as well. So any questions, any confusion, any please severed. Stop talking about any other sport but volleyball. Totally understandable. That's why we've got Jenna here to bring us back to back down to Earth and back down to the volleyball court. ⁓ and also, you know, we'll just continue to please say go check out the Ren Essentials over on our our shop page or little shop extension there ⁓ on MLVB dot com. Really great stuff. Maybe some more stuff that may be coming soon. ⁓ so please continue to to go check out ⁓ what might be, you know, continue continued ads over there as well. ⁓ these episodes drop every Thursday, three PM Eastern. They'll probably even continue to drop next week while I go on a little bit of a vacation while we're still in the off season. But Jenna's gonna h hold down the fort over here. But that's ⁓ I I'll let her, you know, continue to to I won't I won't spoil what's coming next week ⁓ for Jenna as well. But ⁓ we appreciate you. Like we said, Thursday, three PM Eastern. ⁓ and this has been episode twenty five already, so we'll keep it rolling. Thank you once again to Mike, Jenna, and Amy, our producers. It does not happen without them and it does not happen without you. Once more everybody, thank you for listening to the Set Six Podcast, the official podcast of Major League Volleyball, and we'll see you next time.