Latest / Foul Territory / Will General on why Nashville should have a Major League team

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Will General on why Nashville should have a Major League team · Foul Territory

0:00
Speaker 1: Let's have everybody to put their best foot forward, and
0:02
Speaker 1: I know that we'll be standing tent toe's middle of
0:04
Speaker 1: the ring, ready to tell why Nashal is the next
0:07
Speaker 1: best place. Here we go.
0:13
Speaker 2: Will General is the Nashville Stars director of marketing, joining
0:17
Speaker 2: us right now to talk about what could soon be
0:20
Speaker 2: an MLB destination. Will great to have you on the show.
0:23
Speaker 2: Thank you for the time. And I mean, I'm going
0:25
Speaker 2: to start out hot. When is this happening? When's Nashville
0:27
Speaker 2: getting the team?
0:28
Speaker 1: Man? Hey, gentlemen, really appreciate you having me on today.
0:32
Speaker 1: And yeah, I'm excited to talk about the Nashville Stars.
0:34
Speaker 1: And there are things we can control and things we
0:37
Speaker 1: can't control. We cannot control when the commissioner is going
0:39
Speaker 1: to be ready for expanding Major League Baseball. But as
0:42
Speaker 1: those situations in Tampa and the Athletics start to get
0:45
Speaker 1: figured out, we're really excited to share our package with
0:48
Speaker 1: Major League Baseball and the rest of the league for
0:50
Speaker 1: why Nashal is the next best city for Major League Baseball.
0:54
Speaker 2: So Will, what communication has happened so far with MLB,
0:58
Speaker 2: Like can you speak to them about this and get
1:00
Speaker 2: everything ready in advance for when the league finally makes
1:03
Speaker 2: that announcement that they're ready to add ball clubs, and
1:07
Speaker 2: what is the package, like, I mean, give.
1:09
Speaker 1: Us the pitch, Yeah, for sure. So we're in regular
1:12
Speaker 1: communication with Major League Baseball and what we're doing and
1:14
Speaker 1: what we're building here, and what we're doing is clearing
1:17
Speaker 1: all the roadblocks and making it an easy path for
1:19
Speaker 1: Major League Baseball to show up here. So expecting no
1:22
Speaker 1: preferential treatment or anything, we are regularly updating them on
1:26
Speaker 1: what we're doing. On the real estate side, I mean,
1:28
Speaker 1: with this city and this town, it's about finding the
1:30
Speaker 1: right location for a stadium or an arena as we
1:33
Speaker 1: talk about it, because baseball is only going to be
1:36
Speaker 1: a be there for eighty one nights a year, plus
1:38
Speaker 1: some playoffs we'd love to see. But the rest of
1:40
Speaker 1: that night, the rest of those nights, that place is
1:43
Speaker 1: going to be filled with the best entertainment in town.
1:45
Speaker 1: The city cannot stop growing and will not stop growing
1:48
Speaker 1: and really being the entertainment mecca of the Southeast. We're
1:52
Speaker 1: excited to bring major League Baseball here. So the real estate,
1:55
Speaker 1: you have the venue itself, and then you have the team.
1:57
Speaker 1: So that's one thing that's a little bit different about
2:00
Speaker 1: us is that we are really investing in the team
2:02
Speaker 1: and the brand right now. The Nationville Stars were a
2:04
Speaker 1: Negro League's team that played here in the forties and
2:06
Speaker 1: the fifties, and they're actually Stars teams in Philadelphia and
2:09
Speaker 1: Detroit and Saint Louis all throughout the Negro Leagues. And
2:12
Speaker 1: we have a great partnership with Bob Kendrick and the
2:14
Speaker 1: Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. And it's our belief that the
2:17
Speaker 1: final stamp and all of the things that Major League
2:20
Speaker 1: Baseball has done to recognize the Negro Leagues as a
2:22
Speaker 1: major league is to name a team after a Negro
2:25
Speaker 1: League's team.
2:27
Speaker 3: Hey, hey, Will, I love that. And you know, being
2:29
Speaker 3: from Ashville, I do know how you know, big Nashville
2:33
Speaker 3: is starting to grow. So you know, my question is
2:36
Speaker 3: when you talk about location, you talk about, you know,
2:39
Speaker 3: being able to build a stadium, parking, what does that
2:43
Speaker 3: look like there? And then too, you talk about a
2:46
Speaker 3: lot of other cities that you know, I always say
2:48
Speaker 3: Charlotte would be would be a great place. What makes Nashville,
2:52
Speaker 3: you know, especially too from a minority standpoint, Why is
2:56
Speaker 3: that a good place to build a brand outside of
2:59
Speaker 3: the history that comes to the Negro leagues.
3:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, and come on out to Nashville and you'll see
3:04
Speaker 1: it yourself. I mean, I have lots of love for Charlotte.
3:07
Speaker 1: I went to Davidson, I played baseball there, so lots
3:09
Speaker 1: of love for Charlotte. But Nashville is on a different
3:12
Speaker 1: planet right now. I mean, we just had Cmafes, the
3:14
Speaker 1: biggest scene in country music. There are a million people
3:17
Speaker 1: downtown in Nashville. From the NFL Draft a few years
3:20
Speaker 1: ago to all of the teams that have come here,
3:22
Speaker 1: I mean, hockey was never supposed to succeed in Nashville
3:25
Speaker 1: and they have one of the best fan bases in
3:27
Speaker 1: the country. Soccer would never succeed in Nashville and have
3:30
Speaker 1: one of the best fan bases in the country. And
3:32
Speaker 1: this is baseball country right here. I mean in our backyard.
3:35
Speaker 1: Across the street from me are the Vandy Boys and
3:37
Speaker 1: Hawkins Field and Tim Corbins, an advisor of ours, out
3:41
Speaker 1: East and East Tennessee. I mean Tennessee had an unbelievable
3:44
Speaker 1: run last year and made a good push this year
3:46
Speaker 1: as well. So this is just baseball country on the
3:49
Speaker 1: minority front, I mean, Nashville is an incredibly diverse city
3:54
Speaker 1: and a ton of history of black music. I mean,
3:57
Speaker 1: Nashville is so centrally located that all of the jazz
4:00
Speaker 1: that came up from New Orleans and all the blues
4:02
Speaker 1: over in Memphis was stopping here in Nashville as well.
4:05
Speaker 1: There's an amazing black music scene here in Nashville, an
4:07
Speaker 1: amazing diverse community. But this is really a game for everyone.
4:11
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't have to tell you guys how
4:14
Speaker 1: how unifying the game of baseball is. And with a
4:18
Speaker 1: city and a state with a ton of pride like Nashville, Tennessee,
4:21
Speaker 1: it's just right for Major League Baseball to come here.
4:25
Speaker 3: All right.
4:25
Speaker 4: So somebody that's also been involved in this a little
4:28
Speaker 4: bit with another city in Orlando trying to get a team,
4:30
Speaker 4: where's the money going to come from? That's what I
4:32
Speaker 4: want to know. Do you have an owner that's going
4:34
Speaker 4: to step up and say I'm going to be the
4:35
Speaker 4: majority owner. Do you have a location for the stadium,
4:39
Speaker 4: because I mean, I remember I've watched what the Titans
4:41
Speaker 4: went through and they kind of struggled to get a
4:43
Speaker 4: stadium build. Is there a location where's the money for
4:45
Speaker 4: a stadium going to come from? And then if you
4:47
Speaker 4: want an expansion team. Who's going to pay the expansion
4:50
Speaker 4: fee because that's already going to probably start at what
4:52
Speaker 4: two billion plus, yeah plus a stadium.
4:56
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, we don't have a go fund me
4:58
Speaker 1: set up right now, but we've been reased funding for
5:00
Speaker 1: the last six years. We've been at this since twenty
5:02
Speaker 1: nineteen and have had an amazing group of local investors
5:06
Speaker 1: and national investors pouring into what we're building here. Yeah,
5:10
Speaker 1: the team will be expensive, in the stadium will be expensive.
5:12
Speaker 1: We are fully planning to self fund it, and we
5:16
Speaker 1: have tons of investors from the baseball world and from
5:19
Speaker 1: outside of the baseball world that are incredibly excited about
5:21
Speaker 1: what we're building here. So the money is going to come.
5:24
Speaker 1: We are very confident in that Major League Baseball will
5:27
Speaker 1: ultimately decide who the ownership group is, and what we're
5:30
Speaker 1: doing is sort of building this incredible package to be
5:33
Speaker 1: exciting to a potential group of future investors so that
5:37
Speaker 1: we can have that best package to go to Major
5:39
Speaker 1: League Baseball.
5:41
Speaker 3: Hey, Will, I want to ask you talk about a
5:43
Speaker 3: kid that grew up in the South. You know, typically
5:46
Speaker 3: when you grew up around these parts, it's Braves Country.
5:50
Speaker 3: How do you plan on winning over a new fan
5:53
Speaker 3: base and kind of converting a lot of these you know,
5:56
Speaker 3: a lot of Braves fans that are in ASHVIU, I
5:59
Speaker 3: mean Nashville, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina. You know, you
6:03
Speaker 3: get a lot of people.
6:04
Speaker 1: That at the end of the day, it's this Braves country.
6:07
Speaker 3: What is that like as far as the marketing goes,
6:09
Speaker 3: as far as trying to win some of those fans
6:11
Speaker 3: over to say, hey, this is another new team of
6:14
Speaker 3: the South that you guys can get behind.
6:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was also Falcons country, and it was whoever
6:20
Speaker 1: else's country. So I mean, that's one very special thing
6:23
Speaker 1: about this place. I mean, the city's growing like crazy.
6:26
Speaker 1: I'm not a native. I moved from Chicago most recently,
6:29
Speaker 1: but when you get down here, you sort of start
6:31
Speaker 1: drinking that Southern kool later that sweet tea, I should say,
6:34
Speaker 1: and you start to just want to be a part
6:35
Speaker 1: of it. So not only will people have their historic fandom,
6:41
Speaker 1: but we think that they'll be excited to support a
6:42
Speaker 1: team from here in Nashville, Tennessee, built by the local
6:45
Speaker 1: community here. So we're excited to go to battle with
6:48
Speaker 1: all the neighboring teams and bring more people into our
6:51
Speaker 1: fan base. I mean from a marketing standpoint, it's all
6:54
Speaker 1: storytelling and merchandise right now.
6:56
Speaker 2: For us.
6:56
Speaker 1: We believe the story is rooted deeply in Tennessee history,
7:00
Speaker 1: baseball history, and in American history. So it's about telling
7:03
Speaker 1: that story to more people. And then on the merchandise side,
7:06
Speaker 1: it's about finding great partners to help us tell that story.
7:09
Speaker 1: So I'm rocking our new era hat right here. We
7:13
Speaker 1: put these out first in March. Within a week we
7:16
Speaker 1: sold out to thirty six different states to non US countries.
7:19
Speaker 1: We put them at back out in June. We're to
7:20
Speaker 1: have fifty states and five non US countries. So I
7:24
Speaker 1: think you can see that the story that we're building
7:26
Speaker 1: and the team that we're really building this whole package
7:29
Speaker 1: around is there's already demand for it. So I'll make
7:32
Speaker 1: sure to get a package sent over to you guys,
7:34
Speaker 1: so you can rep the stars from where you're at. Yeah,
7:36
Speaker 1: I appreciate that. Love that.
7:39
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7:41
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7:43
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7:46
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7:52
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7:56
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7:59
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8:01
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8:02
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8:04
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8:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, you did it awesome.
8:07
Speaker 2: And then right after that experience, I saw the little
8:09
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8:12
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8:15
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8:17
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8:18
Speaker 4: See if the price might start just going up a
8:21
Speaker 4: little bit.
8:22
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8:24
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8:26
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8:36
Speaker 2: your first slab pack or card purchase at arenaclub dot
8:38
Speaker 2: com slash foul. What are fans saying, like, do you
8:41
Speaker 2: hit the streets and talk to fans, and you know
8:43
Speaker 2: what do you hear from them? Obviously, there's a super
8:46
Speaker 2: successful minor league team and a team that sometimes acts
8:49
Speaker 2: like a major league team with the facilities they have
8:52
Speaker 2: in Vanderbilt as well, that gets great crowds.
8:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean there's just so much bescigement for baseball
8:57
Speaker 1: here in town. I think those two examples you gave
8:59
Speaker 1: are points of it. I mean, I was down at
9:02
Speaker 1: the Vandy Boys games all throughout the stretch with my son,
9:04
Speaker 1: and I mean, it's just an amazing baseball atmosphere, an
9:07
Speaker 1: educated fan base, a fan base that demands excellent so
9:11
Speaker 1: that that's something that will strive for as well. But yeah,
9:13
Speaker 1: the fans are incredibly excited. They love the brand, they
9:16
Speaker 1: love the hats, they love the idea of a team.
9:19
Speaker 1: So yeah, we're building fans well before we have a
9:21
Speaker 1: team and highlights and all of that. So that'll make
9:23
Speaker 1: my job easy at that point. But right now, it's
9:25
Speaker 1: all about the drumming up excitement for the opportunity to
9:29
Speaker 1: bring major League baseball here in town and then to
9:31
Speaker 1: really honor the negro leagues along the way.
9:34
Speaker 2: Well, I'm gonna kind of take a few fan questions
9:37
Speaker 2: and blend them into one. They're asking about other cities
9:40
Speaker 2: that are bidding for teams, and even other cities or
9:43
Speaker 2: teams that are still figuring out their own stadium situations.
9:46
Speaker 2: How much does your group keep track of that because technically,
9:50
Speaker 2: I mean, the other teams bidding eventually are going to
9:53
Speaker 2: be your competition. And then even a situation like the Rays,
9:56
Speaker 2: which is still being figured out. It seems like they're
9:58
Speaker 2: going to stay put in Florida, but you never know,
10:00
Speaker 2: So how much do you track those situations and what
10:03
Speaker 2: are your thoughts?
10:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean we're very in tune with everything that's
10:06
Speaker 1: going on in Major League Baseball from the expansion side
10:09
Speaker 1: and the relocation side. We are solely focused on expansion.
10:13
Speaker 1: I mean, everything that we're doing would hopefully be attractive
10:16
Speaker 1: to anybody looking to relocate, but our focus on expansion,
10:19
Speaker 1: So we're very in tune with it. I mean I
10:22
Speaker 1: get excited about that side of it when we are
10:24
Speaker 1: really out there having this conversation that the game of
10:28
Speaker 1: baseball is healthy and strong and we should look at
10:30
Speaker 1: expanding to new cities, and yeah, let's have everybody to
10:32
Speaker 1: put their best foot forward. And I know that we'll
10:35
Speaker 1: be standing tent to's middle of the ring, ready to
10:38
Speaker 1: tell why Nashville is the next best place.
10:41
Speaker 4: All right, So I got to ask somebody again that's
10:43
Speaker 4: been involved with the Orlando effort to try to get
10:45
Speaker 4: a team in Orlando. You look at media market rankings,
10:48
Speaker 4: Nashville's twenty sixth right now, Orlando's fifteen, already going to
10:51
Speaker 4: pass Detroit probably for fourteen, is coming up on thirteen
10:54
Speaker 4: with Seattle. You know, you have other teams, Nashville's twenty six,
10:58
Speaker 4: Portland's possibility at twenty three, it's at twenty one, Salt
11:01
Speaker 4: Lake City's at twenty eight. What's the pitch to get them?
11:05
Speaker 4: Because one thing MLB work looks at is TV markets
11:09
Speaker 4: in national markets. How do you explain that Nashville is
11:12
Speaker 4: so low on this list? I mean, listen, the fact
11:14
Speaker 4: that they went to Vegas at forty. I mean, I
11:16
Speaker 4: guess it kind of proves your argument, right, But it's crazy.
11:19
Speaker 4: They went from Oakland, which is, you know, top ten
11:21
Speaker 4: to Vegas is kind of crazy. But you know, what's
11:25
Speaker 4: the pitch there? And how do you get MLB to
11:28
Speaker 4: agree to this? Because normally MLB wants the bigger markets
11:31
Speaker 4: that are left.
11:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think media markets in this day and
11:35
Speaker 1: age and what's going to happen with the media deals
11:37
Speaker 1: with Major League Baseball is one way of looking at it.
11:40
Speaker 1: But I think we're moving towards something where that we're
11:42
Speaker 1: going to have national rights, where we're going to be
11:44
Speaker 1: able to reach And looking at just Nashville as a
11:47
Speaker 1: dot really under sells this entire region of Mississippi and
11:51
Speaker 1: Alabama and Arkansas and West Tennessee and East Tennessee. I mean,
11:55
Speaker 1: the fan base for the Titans and for the Predators
11:58
Speaker 1: exists far beyond this small a circle which is Nashville,
12:01
Speaker 1: which will continue to grow and is continuing to grow
12:04
Speaker 1: and has grown every single year on those lists. So
12:06
Speaker 1: this market can absolutely support it. And especially as you
12:09
Speaker 1: start to think about this broader region. I mean, if
12:12
Speaker 1: you look at the College World Series just the last
12:13
Speaker 1: couple of weeks, I think there were thirteen SEC teams
12:16
Speaker 1: within a couple hour drive from Nashville. There are a
12:19
Speaker 1: lot of fans that are up for grabs, that are
12:21
Speaker 1: excited about the opportunity to bring baseball here.
12:25
Speaker 3: Hey, will last one for me. You're doing a great
12:28
Speaker 3: job of, you know, like you said, getting the community
12:30
Speaker 3: involved doing a lot of self funny. But when you
12:33
Speaker 3: have these big projects, is there anybody else, notable maybe
12:38
Speaker 3: behind the scenes that kind of help you, you know,
12:40
Speaker 3: push this thing along to kind of try to get
12:42
Speaker 3: it moving as far as Major League Baseball goes, Yeah,
12:46
Speaker 3: we have a.
12:46
Speaker 1: Bunch of really great advisors, both on the entertainment side
12:49
Speaker 1: and on the baseball side. I mean, short list. On
12:52
Speaker 1: the baseball side. Don Mattingly's an advisor, Versus Bochi's an advisor,
12:55
Speaker 1: Tony Laruss's an advisor, Dave Dombrowski's an advisor. So we
12:59
Speaker 1: have an amazing group of well respected gentlemen in the
13:02
Speaker 1: league that are very very aware of what we're doing
13:05
Speaker 1: and supportive of what we're doing, regularly repping our hats
13:08
Speaker 1: out there at Major League Baseball functions and around. So
13:12
Speaker 1: that's just on the baseball side. And what makes Nashville
13:14
Speaker 1: different is that entertainment side. So from Luke Combs to
13:18
Speaker 1: Darius Rucker to Jelly Roll to Mitchell Tenpenny, I mean,
13:22
Speaker 1: we've had so many different stars unintended repping our hat
13:26
Speaker 1: on stage. It's really showing that this is a very
13:29
Speaker 1: authentic locals thing. I mean, when you see Mitchell Tenpenny
13:33
Speaker 1: wear our hat the day after they go on sale,
13:35
Speaker 1: and it looks like something you just pulled off the shelf.
13:38
Speaker 1: I think it's a testament to what we're building here
13:40
Speaker 1: and the amazing community that's really shouting from the rooftops
13:43
Speaker 1: that it's time for Major League Baseball to come here
13:45
Speaker 1: to Nashville.
13:48
Speaker 2: Hey, last one on my end, Oh go ahead, Aja.
13:50
Speaker 4: Are these guys you're talking about were they invested in
13:52
Speaker 4: this or are they just supporting it as advisors? Because
13:55
Speaker 4: the biggest thing that I've learned being a little bit
13:58
Speaker 4: involved in this is you need people in NY that
14:00
Speaker 4: are willing to put their money behind it. Now it's
14:02
Speaker 4: great that they're wearing a national star's hat, but are
14:05
Speaker 4: they willing to put money behind it to help with
14:07
Speaker 4: this cause.
14:08
Speaker 1: That group includes both investors and pure advisors who are
14:12
Speaker 1: representing the brand and telling our story. And then we
14:15
Speaker 1: have a long list of investors outside of the public
14:18
Speaker 1: realm that are funding what we're doing today and investing
14:22
Speaker 1: more money every single day to bring this to reality.
14:26
Speaker 2: There you go, and that kind of plays into my
14:30
Speaker 2: last part here is you know how many celebrities and
14:36
Speaker 2: athletes that have roots to the area. You know, are
14:39
Speaker 2: you still receiving phone calls for like, how does that
14:42
Speaker 2: action work nowadays? Where Hey, it's no secret that if
14:45
Speaker 2: you're involved with a team, it's fun and it can
14:48
Speaker 2: be very lucrative. Like there are a lot of pluses,
14:51
Speaker 2: right And we've seen some you know, legends get involved
14:54
Speaker 2: with teams. I mean Magic Johnson is a good example.
14:57
Speaker 2: He's involved with Dodgers. Pretty smart move on many fronts.
15:00
Speaker 2: So how many calls do you receive in your role
15:04
Speaker 2: from people that are reaching out to get involved with
15:06
Speaker 2: the team and how does that go?
15:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's pretty regular at this point and
15:10
Speaker 1: it's a great thing. And Magic's a really great example
15:12
Speaker 1: as well. John Lore, managing director, who started this dream
15:16
Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen, was actually part of the counter offer
15:20
Speaker 1: to the Dodgers when Magic and his group wanted So
15:24
Speaker 1: lots of connections there. But yeah, we are regularly talking
15:27
Speaker 1: to investors, advisors, partners. I mean we have a new
15:31
Speaker 1: partnership coming together with Rawlings right now. I mean lots
15:35
Speaker 1: of people are interested in what we're doing, and the
15:37
Speaker 1: ability to be in on the ground floor is a
15:39
Speaker 1: pretty unique thing. I mean, this is a special asset
15:42
Speaker 1: class that not everybody has access to, and people are
15:45
Speaker 1: excited to really support what we're doing here and to
15:48
Speaker 1: be some of the first fans of the Nasville Stars
15:51
Speaker 1: and be a future owner of a team someday.
15:55
Speaker 2: I love it. Well, well, this was awesome. Thanks for
15:57
Speaker 2: talking to us obviously. Good luck with the process. We're
16:00
Speaker 2: keeping an eye on it as well. It's been talked
16:03
Speaker 2: about for a long time, so hopefully they start to
16:05
Speaker 2: move in that direction soon. We appreciate it.
16:07
Speaker 1: We'll be following, yep, I'll follow you. Follow up with
16:10
Speaker 1: you guys, and get you guys some merch so you
16:11
Speaker 1: can rep two. And for anybody listening, please follow us
16:15
Speaker 1: at Stars Baseball, nationale Stars on all social channels. Stick
16:19
Speaker 1: with us for the ride. It's gonna be a fun one.
16:21
Speaker 2: There you go, give it a follow. The merch is tight.
16:23
Speaker 2: I like that a lot. The black brim and the
16:25
Speaker 2: white that's crisp, really nice. So yeah, appreciate it again. Everyone,
16:29
Speaker 2: go check out what the Nashville Stars are working on
16:31
Speaker 2: here and we'll catch you down the road.
16:33
Speaker 1: Thanks Will, Thanks gentlemen,