Latest / Spiders Sound Off / Episode 17: Small Ball, Big Takes, and One Angry Rant!

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Episode 17: Small Ball, Big Takes, and One Angry Rant! · Spiders Sound Off

0:04
Hey Porter, you excited for a Halloween episode?
0:08
Porter. Porter.
0:11
Porter. Porter Porter is a ghost.
0:17
Left Tom alone talking hoops. The best show yet.
0:22
Spider sound off spider Sound off spider.
0:29
Welcome everybody to another episode of Spider Sounds Off.
0:32
We have a jam packed show today with multiple guests, scrimmages
0:38
of both teams to discuss, and also plenty of time to make fun
0:41
of Porter. Porter, who's on vacation,
0:45
entrusted me with figuring out our last October episode.
0:50
And where is Porter France? He's also there with two other
0:55
Spider couples. Seen some pictures.
0:57
It looks cold but beautiful. Well, what did he miss?
1:02
Well, the first thing he missed was our open women's scrimmage
1:07
or exhibition. That was against Norfolk State
1:10
about a week ago. Just going to do some
1:13
highlights. It's been a week now.
1:15
There's been a lot written about it if you know where to look,
1:17
but just want to give you some insights as we head into their
1:22
first regular season game in about a week.
1:24
A starters were to be expected. The big three, of course,
1:27
Maggie, Rachel and Allie, but also joining them were Sam and
1:32
Peyton as a starter, Sam playing the five and Peyton as a wing.
1:36
I I expect the same starting line of opening night.
1:38
I think they look pretty effective, but you can tell they
1:41
were really comfortable playing with each other.
1:44
Other things to note, Rachel actually had a rough shooting
1:46
night and that was following our episode.
1:49
Hopefully that is not a spider sound off curse, although it may
1:53
be why Porter was deported to France.
1:55
And other more exciting news, Ava Persichetti came off the
2:00
bench at 2 threes. Within just a couple of minutes.
2:04
She looked great. She will be an important part to
2:08
the success of this team this year.
2:10
Whether she's the coming right off the bench or she the 7th or
2:14
8th player, she's going to get a lot of a lot of minutes.
2:18
Maggie was Maggie. There was some point in the
2:20
second period where I think she scored seven points in a row and
2:23
pretty much took over. My only Maggie complaint, and I
2:26
remember this from last year too, like she plays so hard, she
2:29
gets beat up a lot. Like she was on the floor
2:31
probably 3 or 4 times getting fouled a lot.
2:35
I mean, it is part of her game. I don't want her to stop that.
2:37
But does it get me a little nervous that we're in a
2:39
scrimmage and seeing her getting beat up so much?
2:42
Other notes Alicia Newell, one of Porter's favorites, she was a
2:46
defensive menace in that game. I think right when she came in
2:49
and came off the bench first time down the court, the other
2:53
team had the ball. She just picked their pocket.
2:55
At a minimum, she will be that defensive stopper for us this
2:59
year when there are guards on the other team that we need
3:03
someone to just get in their face.
3:04
Hopefully she can continue to develop on the offensive end.
3:08
There was a really nice moment where Ali and Alicia played
3:12
together. I think they even started the
3:14
second-half together. There was just great play on a
3:17
other team. Missed a shot.
3:19
I don't know if Ali got the rebound or quickly got into her
3:21
hands. She saw Alicia sprinting down
3:23
the court, did a full length pass to Alicia, who just took it
3:28
right for a easy layup. So that was exciting.
3:30
So hopefully we see a lot more of that.
3:33
And two other just kind of tidbits of, you know, stars, you
3:35
don't hear about South freshman Shanika Campbell.
3:39
She got a lot of minutes, both halves.
3:42
She's big, tall, very athletic, runs up and down the court super
3:46
fast. She's come a really long way, I
3:49
think since Porter and I saw her a couple months ago.
3:52
She ran the floor with confidence.
3:54
She was aggressive and really tenacious inside.
3:57
She also hit a three, which is great to see.
3:59
So I think that she can develop her outside shot.
4:02
She can be a great player for us this year and in the future.
4:06
And I'd say the highlight of the night was when local star rain
4:11
right, hit a three, got fouled and there was a row of, I don't
4:16
know, about 10 people that just went crazy.
4:18
So she had her home fan section. They went nuts.
4:21
She did finish the four point play, although that was thanks
4:24
to a lane violation. So it was an exciting game.
4:26
I think the team looked good. You know, they're still
4:31
naturally trying to figure out, you know, who is going to be
4:35
the, the new Addie and Katie in the line UPS, kind of another
4:39
wing and the the five. But I think what's what I like
4:44
is that I think we're pretty deep at those positions.
4:47
So there's a lot of, there may be more rotating or more minutes
4:50
passed into, into those positions in last year, as you
4:54
know, Katie and Addie played a lot of minutes for us.
4:57
So, but I, I can see us being very successful with lots of
5:00
players helping out in those positions versus having to rely
5:05
on, you know, 1 replacement for each.
5:08
So anyway, so that's the latest on the women's team.
5:12
Again, their first home game is coming up and definitely excited
5:18
to be there and see them do it in a real game.
5:20
Well, before we start talking about the scrimmage against
5:24
James Madison University, just want to remind you to follow,
5:27
like or subscribe to our podcast.
5:30
I really have two reasons for that.
5:31
First off, Porter, even while in France, looks at our data about
5:36
five times a day. And so please, for his and my
5:39
sanity, follow, like or subscribe.
5:42
Second, think of this actually helps you.
5:44
Instead of searching for us, your listening platform would
5:48
deliver it to you. So make finding us easier.
5:52
You won't regret it. All right, well, hey everybody,
5:55
we're going to talk about the JMU scrimmage from Saturday the
5:59
25th or I guess it's officially an exhibition.
6:03
We have a special guest today, an old friend of mine and season
6:07
ticket holder, Rob. Rob, welcome to Spider.
6:10
Sound off. Thank you, Tom.
6:12
It's a pleasure to be here and to try to fill the enormous
6:16
shoes of 1 Porter Shomo. Yes, it's, it's hard to do the
6:20
first question. It's really probably the most
6:22
important one. What was it like sitting next to
6:25
a credentialed member of the media for the first time at a
6:29
Spiders game? Was you nervous?
6:31
You know, how did that make you feel?
6:33
I, you know, they ran the whole gamut of emotions for me.
6:35
I was, I was afraid, I was elated, I was petrified.
6:41
Just everything you can imagine sitting in your August company
6:45
with your very shiny fancy media credential badge.
6:51
Yes, probably the you feel a lot of those emotions right now too,
6:54
I'm guessing. OK, so for those who don't know,
6:59
we beat JMU in the exhibition 63 to 58.
7:05
Starting lineup was Tyne Waltz, Johnson, AJ Lopez and Tanner.
7:12
AP was in street close. I heard he tweaked something but
7:16
it should be OK. So still questions on what the
7:19
day one lineup will be as Porter and I have a a running bet on
7:23
that. Rob, what were your kind of
7:26
initial impressions of the team for the first time this year so
7:29
that. Line up you mentioned other than
7:32
walls is very short, I would say not very physically imposing.
7:42
And so, and I think that, you know, that became evident pretty
7:46
quickly in the in the first half, JMU was able to get the
7:51
ball inside the paint pretty easily, had several offensive
7:56
rebounds where our guys were sort of powerless to stop them.
8:03
So that was my first initial impression was just that that
8:08
particular lineup where you mean Colin Taylor is essentially your
8:13
power forward. I guess in that lineup is your
8:19
seems like you're going to give up a lot on defense to try to,
8:23
you know, and you got to score a lot on offense to make that up.
8:27
Now we did have a nice surprise coming off the bench in terms of
8:31
scoring A Jalen Robinson. What was your impression of him?
8:36
Yeah, he, yeah, I think he, of the, of all the guys who we I
8:40
hadn't seen in a spider uniform, was the Flash the most very
8:47
looks like he's got a super athletic kid, knew where was
8:53
supposed to go, knew what he was supposed to do inside the
8:56
offense, which, you know, as a red shirt freshman, you hope
9:01
they picked that up in the year where they're not in games, but
9:06
they're certainly practicing. And, and you could tell it, you
9:10
know, he sort of, he knew where to be and what to do.
9:14
And, you know, had a couple, had a couple nice dunks, which we
9:19
don't always see and not breakaway dunks, just, you know,
9:24
yes, grab a rebound and put it back up and dunk it.
9:27
So that. Yeah, he had one on a a a free
9:30
throw, right? Like we were shooting the free
9:31
throw. We missed it and he was the
9:33
first in there and dunked it. It was pretty nice.
9:36
Yeah. So he definitely, he definitely
9:41
showed showed up and was sort of the the most impressive newbie,
9:48
if you will, in a spider uniform.
9:50
Yeah. And, and the one thing we had
9:51
going for us is that JMU could not shoot from outside.
9:54
Like, it was pretty brutal. I think the stats say they were
9:58
5 for 28 from three. And and, you know, give our
10:02
defense some credit, but JMU seemed to miss a lot of open
10:05
looks in that game. Yeah.
10:08
And you know, it's a scrimmage for them too.
10:11
So I don't know what they were trying to work on.
10:13
But in the first half they were, they were having a lot of
10:18
success pounding the ball down low, scoring close to the
10:23
basket, getting off as rebounds. And it it seemed like in the
10:25
second-half they went away from that a little bit.
10:29
The rebounding margin at halftime, I think we were, I
10:32
think we were down maybe 8 or 10 rebounds at 1/2 and it tightened
10:38
up. The rebounding margin.
10:40
Margin got better in our favor in the second-half, but I I
10:43
didn't sense that was because we were making a renewed emphasis
10:48
on rebounding. I just think, Jamie, you kind of
10:50
went away from that pounded inside program in the
10:55
second-half, probably to their detriment, but you know, their
10:59
coach could have been trying to work on other things.
11:02
Yeah, Yeah, it's hard to tell. I mean, I was pleasantly
11:05
surprised to say like Beagle was pretty active out there.
11:08
So him and Walt's going to split time and we probably played 5 or
11:12
6 minutes with neither of them on the court.
11:14
So talk about small. I think when we had kind of
11:16
Robinson or Daughtry as our big, but Beagle was pretty aggressive
11:20
in there. So that was that was good to
11:21
see. Yeah.
11:22
I agree. I like Beagle I I don't think
11:24
he's at quite as it doesn't give you everything that Walls does.
11:29
He certainly is not the kind of presence around the rim that
11:32
Walls is, but I think he can do 80% of what Walls does.
11:37
So I was just good to see him more aggressive and trying to
11:40
get his own shot a little. Bit yeah.
11:41
And one thing, you know, it's easy to be critical on
11:45
exhibition. Let's point out, like JMU is the
11:48
preseason favorite to win the Sunbelt.
11:51
Now they have lots of new players.
11:53
I think they have 13 total new players on their roster.
11:56
So they're trying to figure a lot out early on.
11:58
But as you said, they're kind of they were bigger than us and not
12:02
just in height, like they had some bulk inside.
12:05
They won 20 games last year. So let's not forget we won the
12:09
scrimmage. Mooney was certainly playing to
12:11
win. And this is our last chance to
12:14
have kind of that game like environment with another team
12:18
before our first regular season game.
12:20
So I'm like, I'm glad to see he was playing to win.
12:24
What did you think? If, if the fans don't know when
12:26
the game was over and they announced it in the last few
12:29
minutes, there was going to be a bonus 10 minutes at the end of
12:32
the game and both teams cleared out their benches.
12:35
I think of those 10 minutes is 10 minutes I'm never going to
12:38
get back. Rob, what did you think of
12:42
those, that extra 10 minute period?
12:46
I think the less that's spoken of, the extra 10 minutes is
12:50
probably probably for the best. There were some guys, you know,
12:54
we played basically all of all of the guys who hadn't got into
12:59
the game, into the regular game, played in that, in that last 10
13:04
minute span. So I, you know, I'm sure that's
13:08
what it was designed for is, you know, we want to give these kids
13:12
some, some run in a sort of game like setting, you know, the,
13:18
the, the refs stayed and they called fouls during the 10
13:21
minutes. So I'm sure that was all useful
13:24
for for those guys, but I didn't see a lot from those players in
13:29
that 10 minutes to think that those guys are going to be
13:33
competing for minutes in the in the regular rotation.
13:39
Rob, true or false that the best intramural team you ever played
13:43
on could have won that last 10 minutes segment?
13:48
It's probably false. If I was on the team, they
13:50
probably had no chance to to compete.
13:55
So if I was, if I could coach the intramural team, maybe.
13:58
But if I have to play, no. Got it.
14:02
Got it. Any kind of outside of the game,
14:05
How was your experience at the, you know, somewhat new and
14:09
improved Robin Center I? I, I, you know, I remarked to,
14:13
to you during the game, but there were actually more people
14:16
there than I thought there would be.
14:17
I I think this is the first maybe exhibition game they've
14:20
had or the first one in quite a long time.
14:24
So I was kind of on you didn't have any expectation that figure
14:28
there might be 100 people there, but you know, there was probably
14:32
1500, maybe 2000 people in the building.
14:36
So that I think that was, you know, that bodes well for
14:40
hopefully lots of people coming out to the Robins Center to
14:44
watch the team and we're going to have a lot of home games.
14:47
I think it's the we might have the most home games ever on our
14:51
schedule this year. I think I heard that somewhere.
14:53
So going to be lots of games for people to come out and see the
14:57
video. The new video boards I thought
14:59
looked good. They were some of the camera
15:02
angles were a little odd, but I like I like the fact that they
15:08
different boards show different stats.
15:11
So you could kind of, you know, get a different picture of the
15:16
game from the stats on the boards.
15:18
And there's a on the in front of where the announcers sit there.
15:25
We were facing that side. So there's now a score bug down
15:30
there at court level, which I thought was was good and is, you
15:36
know, you can, since you're looking that way anyways, you
15:40
can look at that one sometimes more easily than you can the the
15:44
main scoreboard scoreboard in the sky.
15:46
I've I've heard we have new and improved concessions.
15:49
I didn't try any of them, so I can't, I can't report that.
15:52
But I did see something from the universities saying they've
15:58
they're, they're taking steps to beef up the concessions of the
16:01
game, which is which is always nice as.
16:02
Well, you think it's going to be like lobster and filet mignon is
16:06
that, is that what you're hoping for?
16:07
I don't think it'll be quite quite that fancy, but anything
16:12
is better than the Papa John's pizza.
16:18
Well, Rob, I appreciate you joining.
16:21
Do you have any predictions for the Spiders this season as we, I
16:27
guess, you know, game one's a little over a week away.
16:31
You have any? I mean, we're going to win 20.
16:33
We're going to the tournament, you know, what seed are we going
16:36
to get? Like what?
16:37
What are you thinking going into the season?
16:39
I think. There's talent on the roster.
16:43
I will. I will say that we didn't.
16:45
Will Johnston played a lot. He didn't shoot it well, but he
16:51
can certainly, you know, from what you guys have said, from
16:54
the practice reports, seems like he's got a good outside shot.
16:59
AJ Lopez is not afraid to shoot. I I think he's going to do,
17:04
going to do a lot of the offensive heavy lifting.
17:08
In the beginning it seemed his shot is kind of hit or miss, at
17:13
least in the scrimmage it was. But he's not afraid.
17:18
You know, I, I think Walls only had three points.
17:22
We're certainly going to need more than that.
17:23
I don't think he, I'm not sure he shot more than once or twice.
17:28
You know, it's a scrimmage, so he might have been told, hey, we
17:32
don't need you to, you know, we don't need you to worry about
17:34
getting your points tonight. Just worry about other things.
17:37
But you know, he'll certainly have to do more, do more on the
17:40
offensive end. You know, the defense is what
17:45
would probably concern me the most just just having seen that,
17:50
that scrimmage. But I'm sure we weren't running
17:53
everything we will run on defense wise during the season
17:58
and with those personnel matchups won't be the same
18:02
either. So if I you know, prediction
18:06
wise, we have the out of conference schedule is pretty
18:10
soft. So, you know, if we don't go
18:13
into a 10 play with 10 at least ten wins, I would think that
18:20
will that will mean things are off to a pretty bad start.
18:25
But, you know, if we could get ten wins in the out of
18:28
conference, go 500 in conference, you know, make it to
18:33
the top half, that would seem to be a realistic expectation for
18:37
what I saw, what I'm hopeful. Of what was a little bit of a
18:40
surprise is that Jaden Daughtry, who's coming off a heart concern
18:47
and months off from practice. I mean, he played I think over
18:50
15 minutes. So we didn't see a lot from him,
18:53
but just getting the minutes and told me that he he can be a
18:55
contributor a lot quicker than expected.
18:59
So hopefully kind of he's in addition that, you know, is
19:03
still coming back, but has, you know, a lot of potential and
19:06
he's an inside body. If him and Robinson can be that
19:11
power forward with, you know, Beagle or walls, I, I get a
19:16
little less worried. But I think like you said that
19:18
if if the starting lineup is in a sense 4 guards and a center,
19:26
that could be trouble. Well, any Rob, thank you for
19:29
joining. I think Porter needs to work on
19:32
his resume a little bit, but hope you know, he'll travel home
19:36
safe and maybe sometime later this season, depending on how it
19:40
goes, kind of bring you back. You can, you know, when we have
19:43
some real games. Give us some some of your hot
19:46
takes. I'm happy.
19:47
Happy to join anytime you need cogent analysis that Porter
19:51
can't provide. And no doubt.
19:56
Thanks, Rob. Well, I've got a new segment
20:00
that Porter is going to hate. It is called what's.
20:05
Wrong with you. People what's?
20:08
Wrong with you people. Turn that brown upside down.
20:13
Oh, at least don't be a moron. What's wrong with you people?
20:18
What's wrong with you people? OK, people.
20:26
You can criticize the administration, Coach Mooney as
20:32
as much as you want with grounded information.
20:35
And you know what? We will do the same as this
20:37
season unfolds. And it's, you know, if you want
20:39
to talk about last year's results, the upcoming at a
20:42
conference schedule, lots of grounded things to complain and
20:45
debate. But what we don't need are
20:49
made-up box scores for secret scrimmages to then complain.
20:53
Also a surprising complaint about in a game where the coach
21:00
knows he's 10 bonus minutes at the end to play.
21:04
His developing players, a fan or maybe multiple fans criticizing
21:10
that he played to win and that he didn't play in regulation.
21:16
Players that, if you watch, are clearly not ready to be core
21:21
contributors of this unit. And maybe they'll be ready in a
21:24
month, maybe they'll be ready in two weeks.
21:26
But they weren't ready against JMU.
21:30
And so let's turn that frown upside down.
21:34
But the season's about to start. Let's have some optimism.
21:38
You know, we're O in five. We're going to be pretty
21:40
critical here, I I promise you. But like I said, what's wrong?
21:46
With you people, turn that frown upside down, but at least don't
21:52
be a moron. What's wrong with you people?
21:55
What's wrong with? You people OK, I got.
22:02
That off my chest. Now let's move on.
22:05
I'm going to share with you a pre recorded interview with
22:10
Francis Reimers to learn more about the four the culture
22:14
holiday classic coming up this holiday season featuring the
22:18
Richmond Women's Spiders basketball team.
22:21
Hey everybody, I want to introduce Francis Rhymers, who
22:25
is the founder and CEO of Firestarter and is a cofounder
22:30
of the for the culture holiday classic that the Richmond
22:33
Spiders women's team is playing in December.
22:36
So Francis, thank you for joining us today.
22:39
Thank you for having. Me.
22:40
So tell me a little. Bit about Firestarter kind of
22:42
and then we can get into, you know, how you got involved in
22:45
helping create this new tournament so.
22:47
Firestarter is a company that I founded about nine years ago,
22:53
and every day I work with high school, college and professional
22:57
athletes to help them create, grow, manage and protect their
23:01
personal brands. So my firm is a full like
23:07
turnkey company where we provide marketing, PR, sponsorship,
23:11
merchandising, event services, philanthropic development.
23:15
Pretty much I tell people the quick, the quick and easy is
23:18
anything their name or face touches, my firm can help them
23:22
produce it. And obviously a lot has changed
23:26
in the last five years in college sports or with the kind
23:29
of athletes in generals. I guess you went from a branding
23:31
expert to eventually NIL expert kind of how did that, how did
23:35
that come to pass? Yeah, so.
23:36
Before NIL was even in people's minds, athletic programs around
23:42
the country would reach out to me to come in and talk to
23:46
student athletes about how to manage their brand online,
23:50
particularly through social media, give them the do's, the
23:54
don'ts, basically not to do anything that would bring any
23:58
heat upon themselves or upon the athletic department.
24:02
And as this conversation around NIL really started to firm up,
24:09
people were reaching out to me to be an SME around what this
24:13
could look like, what this would look like for athletic
24:15
departments, what it would look like for athletes, what it would
24:17
look like for brands. And then in 2021, when this when
24:22
this thought really did become a reality, I was being brought in
24:27
by athletic departments to consult around how to structure
24:31
these programs. I was talking with agents about
24:34
how to educate their clients and how to engage with athletic
24:39
programs and athletes themselves about what this meant for them
24:43
and their parents and how to navigate these conversations as
24:47
they move forward. And then not too soon after,
24:51
collective started to form and come online.
24:54
And so I did a lot of consulting around that and was one of the
24:57
founding staff of Alliance 412, which is collective at the
25:01
University of Pittsburgh. And and then Fast forward to
25:04
present day, I'm now with Cab Futures, which was the
25:09
collective, but is now the marketing agency for all UVA
25:13
student athletes. So I've seen every every side of
25:17
this conversation as it has evolved and.
25:20
With the house settlement kind of how things changed free for
25:24
that world, you know, in the last I guess six months or so.
25:29
I mean, I guess we're officially as of July 1st, right?
25:32
So the house settlement allows athletic athletic departments to
25:39
have revenue share and every school is handling this
25:44
differently. Some schools are divvying out
25:48
their their profits to revenue sharing sports 1st and then on
25:53
down the line from there. Some schools are only sharing
25:56
with revenue sports. Some schools are not sharing at
25:59
all or still trying to work through how they can share that
26:04
with athletes. And so it really does vary
26:07
school by school, program by program about how that is, but
26:13
that some school student athletes are truly getting a
26:16
share of revenue which is is is over and above compensating them
26:22
for the use of their name, image and likeness.
26:26
What's been your experience? I know one of the changes in
26:28
this. I haven't heard of any
26:30
scuttlebutt in the last month, but I know early on there was
26:33
some about the whole clearing house, clearing house and
26:36
sending nil deals through the clearing house to get, I guess
26:41
stamped, approved or denied. Like have you been able to go
26:45
through that process? Is it chaos?
26:47
Is it working OK? What what has that been like?
26:51
I. Have personally gone through the
26:53
process and it was relatively painless, but to be completely
26:59
honest, the deal was very benign.
27:03
It was something that, you know, could easily, you know, all the
27:07
TS and all the I's. The TS were crossed, the I's
27:10
were dotted. So there was no anticipation of
27:13
there being any issue. But I have heard of people
27:17
having some problems. I think it's going to be one of
27:22
these things, you know, the organization is a consulting
27:27
agency that is not related to the sports world.
27:31
They, you know, they're really not in the throws day in day out
27:35
of creating these deals, managing these deals, managing
27:39
all of the people and players on all sides.
27:42
So nor do they have the staff in house with that experience or by
27:47
and large with that experience. So I do believe that when large
27:53
amounts of deals start rolling through, there's certain to be
27:58
issues, but me personally, I haven't had issues to date.
28:04
OK, so you've built all these connections over your career,
28:06
and that led you to helping create this new tournament at
28:11
the Henrico Center. Tell us about that.
28:13
Yeah, so. The For the Culture Holiday
28:15
Hoops Classic is taking place at the Henrico Sports and Events
28:20
Center December 19th through the 21st.
28:23
This is a Division One women's basketball showcase that is
28:28
bringing your Lady Spiders and along with VCU, Penn State,
28:33
Georgia, Alabama A&M and Coppin State for three days of of what
28:40
I'm sure to be fantastic basketball.
28:44
And I was brought into the fold by John Tate, who in
28:50
Pennsylvania women's AAU circles is a bit of a godfather.
28:55
And he and his wife recently wrote relocated down to
28:58
Richmond. And so when he reached out to me
29:01
and said, I think I'm going to take things to the Division One
29:05
level and do a women's showcase you in, I said, absolutely,
29:09
let's let's roll. And it's been a lot of fun
29:12
putting this event together. And I'm really super excited to
29:15
see all of these ladies come out and and show us what they've
29:18
got. So I.
29:20
I'm curious kind of just how all of this works logistically.
29:22
So obviously Henrico has this, you know, relatively new
29:26
facility. I, I guess what was the process
29:31
of figuring out where to where it goes to finding refs to
29:35
finding the teams, like all of that?
29:38
You know, I think what folks take for granted when they, you
29:41
know, hand over their, their, their ticket and take a seat.
29:46
There's a lot of a lot of details that have to be figured
29:48
out. Like tell me what that was like.
29:50
Yeah. So.
29:51
A lot of the logistics stuffs like refs and talking to the
29:56
teams and and that sort of piece was well handled by John and our
30:02
other Co producer Sasha Palmer, who's based out of Atlanta.
30:08
John and Sasha have the connections with the teams, the
30:12
refs, all of that. So those were those were
30:15
relatively easy through their personal networks.
30:18
Those are relatively easy conversations for them to make.
30:23
And then the fact that John is in Richmond and I'm located in
30:27
Alexandria, Richmond and its new facility and the amazing
30:32
accommodating staff that we've worked with there made the
30:36
decision of having the event in Richmond a, a pretty easy one
30:41
for us to make. We could have gone to other
30:44
cities, you know, Phoenix, Tampa, Vegas, these are all
30:49
cities that are are well suited for an event of of this size.
30:56
But we felt Richmond was a great place to go, centrally located
31:00
for all of us, a good economy, interested community, great
31:05
teams right there with Richmond and VCU it, it felt like a no
31:10
brainer. So relatively in terms of events
31:13
that I've been a part of over the years of of my 25 plus year
31:18
career, this one came together pretty quickly.
31:22
And as we go along, we've already signed a contract
31:25
bringing us back to the sport Henrico for the event again next
31:31
year, which is great. And but the business community
31:36
has really engaged, which is fantastic.
31:39
That's what we want and made the decision to stay easy.
31:43
But in, in events that I've done in past years, this one has come
31:47
together pretty, pretty seamlessly, which is which says
31:51
a lot about the people and their networks in the city and what
31:55
they're willing to do to help make this event successful.
31:59
I'm curious like. When maybe go back?
32:01
Like how long ago did this whole process start?
32:04
Like when, when, when did the idea get, I guess did John reach
32:08
out to you and say, hey, let's, let's try to do this?
32:10
Like how how long ago was that? Yeah.
32:12
So he. Reached out to me in late
32:14
January 2025 and we really started putting real pen to
32:20
paper in early February and it pretty much took off from there.
32:26
So just a couple of months to get up and working.
32:30
The really, truly the biggest challenge was sponsor outreach.
32:36
You know, just because of money cycles and budget cycles, that
32:41
has been the biggest challenge of this event.
32:43
Everything else has kind of fallen into place relatively
32:46
quickly. But if you don't hit sponsor
32:49
windows at the right time or if people don't know about the
32:53
event or who you are, that does make getting those, those
32:57
sponsor dollars in the door a bit challenging.
33:00
But other than that, everything else came together relatively
33:05
pretty quickly. It helped me some I'm.
33:06
A a finance guy at heart like when you when it comes to
33:10
sponsors like are, are schools getting paid to come or is the
33:15
sponsors helping really since you don't have kind of
33:19
guaranteed ticket sales to kind of make sure you've got like a
33:22
minimum to pay for officials pay Henrico like tell me tell me how
33:27
the the the sponsorship dollars work so it.
33:31
For an event like this, because it is a showcase and we are not,
33:36
you know, we, we are not housed within any conference, any
33:40
school. Some, it depends on the
33:44
relationship we have with the school for something like this.
33:48
Some schools pay to participate, some schools we cover their
33:53
their expenses to participate and I won't get in the details
33:56
of who qualifies for what. So some revenue comes from
34:02
schools wanting to participate in in the event.
34:06
The other line of income comes from ticket sales.
34:11
So getting people in the seats and making sure that every game
34:15
is nice and sold out is extremely important to us at
34:18
this stage of the game. And then the other piece of the
34:22
puzzle is sponsorships or partnerships that we put
34:25
together. So you know, the sponsors, the
34:29
sponsors that we have on our website right now, we are
34:32
incredibly grateful for them and their dollars that they are
34:35
bringing in the in kind partnerships that we've been
34:39
able to develop with, with some of our vendors.
34:42
Those are incredibly important because anything obviously that
34:46
takes off the the bottom line helps us, helps prepare us for
34:53
the following year and, you know, to be blunt, helps us
34:57
determine if we stay in a city or we go and move on to another
35:02
location where maybe we might get a a better financial
35:08
relationship established. And so all, all of those dollars
35:12
coming in for an event like this is extremely important.
35:16
Yeah, it's interesting. Too, Because as hot as women's
35:19
basketball is, you're, you're still challenged on like how
35:24
much are fans going to travel with their team?
35:29
And obviously you've got Richmond and VCU.
35:30
So that, that, that makes it a little easier for those schools.
35:35
But I can imagine, but you know, even Penn State and Georgia, big
35:38
universities with big alumni bases, trying to estimate how
35:42
much are their fans going to travel versus how much do you
35:44
need to generate business from just local fans.
35:48
There's there's got to be some guesswork in that bit I.
35:51
Mean also, you know, we take into account are there young
35:55
women on the team that are from the Richmond area or the DC
35:59
metro area? Penn State has a very large
36:02
alumni base up and down the I-95 corridor.
36:06
And so we we took that into consideration.
36:09
Also, Coppin is in Baltimore, which isn't too terribly far
36:14
away. And so they, along with their
36:18
alumni base up and down the I-95 corridor is, you know, something
36:22
that we we took into, into factor.
36:27
Yes, women's basketball is white hot and that has certainly
36:31
helped with with sponsorship. But another thing that, you
36:35
know, people in the, in the sponsorship game, a, a piece
36:40
that people often forget about, yes, women's basketball is white
36:44
hot, but the market needs to matter to the sponsor.
36:49
You know, the yes, being associated with women's
36:53
basketball is incredibly important for an event like
36:56
this. But the sponsor is also looking
36:58
about the overall market that the event is in.
37:02
Is Richmond a good market for that particular sponsor?
37:07
And so that, that's another element that we had to take into
37:10
consideration when, when deciding where to have this
37:14
event, because I can reach out to XYZ national brand who might
37:19
have interest in women's basketball.
37:22
But is Richmond a, you know, of a viable market for them or
37:28
Richmond combined with the DC metro area, is that a viable
37:31
market for them? And so that's, that's a piece of
37:34
the the sponsorship puzzle that a lot of people don't really
37:39
take into consideration that these brands do have to take
37:42
into consideration. Yeah, yeah.
37:45
I guess the the good news is that you've this isn't the first
37:48
tournament women's basketball to take place in at the Henrico.
37:53
That center is the, you know, the Atlantic 10 tournament was
37:57
there last year. Yeah.
37:59
I I mean from a ticket standpoint, we definitely got
38:02
some some tips and thoughts from them.
38:05
They have a different a different situation when it
38:10
comes to sponsorship than we do because they are part of a
38:13
conference and thus have access to different contracts and
38:18
situations as opposed to us who is an independent event not
38:23
associated with a conference. So while they had some, you
38:27
know, some things built in and some things that a budget that
38:31
they are, you know, Privy to, then then we are we definitely
38:38
got some some thoughts and and some tips from them definitely
38:42
around ticket sales. Yeah.
38:44
Well, that's great. So I guess it's what, December
38:47
19th through 21st? And this is, like I said, it's a
38:49
showcase. There's not a, a semi finals
38:52
final sort of format, right? Everyone's just Nope.
38:55
This is really just teams that don't really get an opportunity
38:59
to play against one another to come in and and and check each
39:03
other out and put their best out there for their fan bases.
39:07
We're, you know, kind of two months out from the event, but
39:10
they're moving along. People are inquiring, which is
39:13
exactly what you want to see. Folks can go on to for the
39:19
culture hoops.com to get single day as well as weekend passes.
39:25
We do have some VIP tickets available, but those are quickly
39:29
going. So if you're interested in, you
39:32
know, having floor seats as well as access to our VIP lounge, you
39:37
definitely want to get on and, and scoop those up as quickly as
39:40
you can. But that, yeah, things are
39:42
moving along and people are interested.
39:45
The Richmond fan base is definitely doing its part, which
39:49
we're happy to see. But yeah, we're two months out,
39:53
so lots of runway out and in front of us and nothing would
39:56
make me happier to say that it's sold out.
39:59
But you know, as the brand builder, first, I see these
40:03
individual ladies and I'm, I'm just in awe of what they do and
40:08
the individuals they are. And I'm just excited to be able
40:12
to see them in person on the court.
40:14
Well, thank you, Francis. For joining us at spiders sound
40:17
off and I know speak for Porter as well.
40:20
We we can't wait for the season to get started and we will
40:24
certainly be there in December watching Our Lady Spiders
40:28
hopefully win a couple games. Fantastic.
40:30
Thank you for having me. Well, that's it for today's
40:34
episode of Spider Sound Off. This will be our last episode
40:38
talking about practices and exhibitions or scrimmages.
40:42
Secret or open, we can't wait. Next week we'll be talking about
40:48
the first week of games and following that talking about the
40:52
results of those games. So we're glad to have made it
40:55
through the summer and early fall.
40:57
Hope you've enjoyed a lot of our pre season talk.
41:02
Now we're getting to the season and we can't wait.
41:04
So until next time this is Tom and Porter will be traveling
41:08
back soon and we can't wait to talk to you about some real live
41:12
action. See y'all later in your car.
41:18
On your computer or in your dream?