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Ohio State Football: BIG Changes Coming To The Home Of The Buckeyes · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyees tomorrow morning for Friday, June twenty sixth.
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  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Tom Moore. The Ball State Game in
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  Speaker 1: seventy one days, the Gimmi gets Michigan in one hundred
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  Speaker 1: and fifty five days. Our friends of jeff Ruby's Columbus
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  Speaker 1: are proudly offering nationally acclaimed USDA Prime Stakes, seafood and
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  Speaker 1: detail that is simply unmatched. Just go to Jeffrey dot
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  Speaker 1: com slash Columbus to check out the menu and make
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  Speaker 1: a reservation. Today joined by Tony Gerdman of Buckeye Insiders
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  Speaker 1: here at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. And we were
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  Speaker 1: not here at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center for the
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  Speaker 1: event that we attended earlier in the morning, but we
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  Speaker 1: came over here because that building behind me and specifically
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  Speaker 1: these offices right here. That is the topic of today's
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  Speaker 1: show because we just got a chance to talk to
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  Speaker 1: rossby Ork, Athletic Director of Ohio State, and boy, there
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  Speaker 1: are some big, big changes coming to the Woody Hays
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  Speaker 1: Athletics Center.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, about one hundred and twenty five million dollars worth
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  Speaker 2: of renovation that is being planned, and said groundbreaking ideally
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  Speaker 2: or not ideally, but and this kind of plan would
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  Speaker 2: be like in eighteen months is what he would like
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  Speaker 2: to see. But basically they've run out of room, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: and they can't even meet in the team room altogether.
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  Speaker 2: One of the questions was, so when you because they
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  Speaker 2: will have to move everybody out when they're renovating, and
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  Speaker 2: so the question was like, so you're gonna have people
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  Speaker 2: like in closets, you know, somewhere else, And he's like,
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  Speaker 2: we already have people in closets. We know Keenan Bailey
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  Speaker 2: and like James Lord Nidis have began their coaching careers
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  Speaker 2: here in closets basically, So they're looking to increase the
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  Speaker 2: office space and some of the other amenities as well well.
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  Speaker 1: And one of the things he said is if a
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  Speaker 1: position coach wants to have a meeting with an individual
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  Speaker 1: player and someone is in that position room watching film,
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  Speaker 1: they have to kick one of those people have to
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  Speaker 1: leave because the position coach's office and the position group
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  Speaker 1: room are the same spot. So that's one of the
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  Speaker 1: many issues they're trying to solve right now. You're gonna
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  Speaker 1: this is going to be a comprehensive upgrade. And if
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  Speaker 1: you have ever been part of a major renovation project,
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  Speaker 1: I just went through one at my day job a
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  Speaker 1: few years ago, you want to move people out because
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  Speaker 1: if you're trying to work around people, it's gonna cost
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  Speaker 1: more money, it's gonna take more time. So they have
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  Speaker 1: a plan. It doesn't sound particularly glamorous for the interim,
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  Speaker 1: but you have you'll have those renderings of the new
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  Speaker 1: building to sort of show people, listen, this is all
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  Speaker 1: going to be worth it. But for now, we're across
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  Speaker 1: the street. We're in modular trailers. It's something.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, when you're at when you're hosting recruits on visits,
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  Speaker 2: you can be like, no, look at the look at
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  Speaker 2: the renderings. Pay no attention to the semi trailers over
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  Speaker 2: there that we're gonna be working in for now, Pay
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  Speaker 2: no attention to the fact that we have to go
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  Speaker 2: across the street from the Fawcet Center or wherever. I'm
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  Speaker 2: wondering looking at all on TANGI now, do they build
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  Speaker 2: a temporary walkway like over over, because as I said
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  Speaker 2: when we were over at the press conference, there's gonna
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  Speaker 2: be there're gonna be like one hundred players walking across
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  Speaker 2: the street. It's gonna be like dealing with Canadian geese
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  Speaker 2: and you're just gonna have to just sit there and
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  Speaker 2: wait because it's not a quick walk. I mean, it's
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  Speaker 2: it's across the busy thoroughfares. So it'll be interesting to
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  Speaker 2: see what they do with that.
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  Speaker 1: The new building, he said, expanded locker room, expanded team
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  Speaker 1: meeting room, coaches offices will be separate from team meeting
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  Speaker 1: to from position rooms, new weight room, and then new construction,
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  Speaker 1: so plus renovation of the existing building. So it's going
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  Speaker 1: to not just be same building, new or shinier. It's
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  Speaker 1: going to be new or shinier, plus also new space.
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  Speaker 1: It sounds like maybe taking part of one of the
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  Speaker 1: outdoor practice fields is a possibility.
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  Speaker 2: But that was my understanding early on, yeah, a few
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  Speaker 2: years ago, where like one of the closer fields to
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  Speaker 2: olent Tegi would become some office buildings or some some
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  Speaker 2: sort of a building, whereas the indoor playing facility will stay.
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  Speaker 2: They're probably just going to modernize it a little bit
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  Speaker 2: and go from there.
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  Speaker 1: And the other question I thought was very interesting was, Okay,
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  Speaker 1: you kind of you went through the we need the
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  Speaker 1: ten million dollar locker room renovation, we need the waterfalls
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  Speaker 1: in the building and the modular sleep space and all
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  Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. You went through that era of
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  Speaker 1: college football, and that was in the twenty tens. Now
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  Speaker 1: you've got to pay players, you've got nil, you've gotten
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  Speaker 1: you have donors who are being asked to pay for
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  Speaker 1: a whole lot of different stuff on a whole lot
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  Speaker 1: of different fronts. This is you're kind of you're pulling
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  Speaker 1: in a couple different directions here. I thought that was
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  Speaker 1: kind of an interesting, interesting angle with this.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, what he said was basically, they've just been in
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  Speaker 2: this era of there's money needed for this, money needed
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  Speaker 2: for this, And his quote was like, we just need
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  Speaker 2: to do this, and there is there are donations, there
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  Speaker 2: are paperwork in front of fellow other donors that they'd
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  Speaker 2: be close to the one twenty five just with that.
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  Speaker 2: But at this point he just wants to like they're
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  Speaker 2: in a place now where they've handled everything else, they've
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  Speaker 2: dealt with all of that, they know what it is,
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  Speaker 2: and now they can get back to focusing on the
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  Speaker 2: woody and making it what they want to be and
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  Speaker 2: what not, just what they want it to be what
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  Speaker 2: they need it to be. And I think that's a
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  Speaker 2: key thing, is because you can look at it and
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  Speaker 2: be like, it's a nice building. How can you you know,
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  Speaker 2: how does it not work for you? And then when
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  Speaker 2: you hear stories that the entire team can't meet in
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  Speaker 2: the teaming room, you can't have two different things going
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  Speaker 2: on in one office, and some guys don't have offices,
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  Speaker 2: and the expansion of the coaching staffs the Mark Pantoni's
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  Speaker 2: entire team. Although you know he's the GM now he
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  Speaker 2: used to be. He's the recruiting guy. He's recruiting the
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  Speaker 2: the graphics and all of those people. You've got the
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  Speaker 2: sid here now, and so there's just this constant expansion,
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  Speaker 2: and so yeah, it makes sense that the building is
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  Speaker 2: beyond needing that expansion.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like you build the school and then they
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  Speaker 1: build a new neighborhood and all of a sudden, there's
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  Speaker 1: more kids, and well, you got more staff, or if
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  Speaker 1: you've got more people who need offices, and all of
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  Speaker 1: a sudden, now you don't have enough offices. This is
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  Speaker 1: not the only construction project going on. The work being
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  Speaker 1: done over at Ohio Stadium. Roth Biorg said, there is
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  Speaker 1: Ohio Stadium, he said, is always under construction, just perpetually
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  Speaker 1: under construction. It's like seventy yeah, basically. But this is
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  Speaker 1: something where they're trying to just kind of get their
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  Speaker 1: arms around the whole picture. Where Yeah, one hundred and
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  Speaker 1: twenty five million dollar renovation at the Whaty Hayes Athletic Center,
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  Speaker 1: that's obviously a big project. What they're doing over at
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  Speaker 1: Ohio Stadium. They're building that nineteen twenty three club. They've
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  Speaker 1: got the new boxes in south stands, sort of additional
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  Speaker 1: club seating, and that's part of a bigger project that's
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  Speaker 1: sort of an ongoing, multi year thing. There's gonna be
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  Speaker 1: significant work going on there pretty much every year at
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  Speaker 1: New Turf this summer as well. But he said, right
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  Speaker 1: now they're just trying to get their arms around the
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  Speaker 1: whole thing and be able to have a fifty year plan,
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  Speaker 1: one hundred year plan. You're going to be an Ohio
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  Speaker 1: Stadium for the foreseeable future. You got to figure out
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  Speaker 1: what do you need to do to sort of make
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  Speaker 1: this a place that is viable in fifty years.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's interesting that you are planning a fifty to
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  Speaker 2: seventy five to one hundred year thing now, but it's
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  Speaker 2: it's necessary because the alternative is so much more expensive. Now,
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  Speaker 2: what was what did Ohio Stadium cost like one point
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  Speaker 2: two million to build in nineteen twenty two to twenty one,
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  Speaker 2: and that came from.
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  Speaker 1: It hats it hands and going county to county with inflation,
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  Speaker 1: I don't know, that's probably like three trillion dollars now, but.
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  Speaker 2: It's really unless you've got some oil baron, you know
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  Speaker 2: that that sort of thing, it's it's not almost not
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  Speaker 2: financially feasible. You'd have to take from all of the
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  Speaker 2: research money and they're not going to do that. So
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  Speaker 2: you've got a nice building. You just want to keep
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  Speaker 2: it up to date. And that's bathrooms, that's plumbing. That's
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  Speaker 2: one of the things he kept talking about was experiential seating,
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  Speaker 2: which is I get closer to the action.
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  Speaker 1: I think that's the south south end zone software. You're
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  Speaker 1: sitting right at field level, You're right there as the
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  Speaker 1: team's running out of the tunnel all time.
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  Speaker 2: So just maximizing those seats that kind of revenue, and
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  Speaker 2: basically with the cost of everything now you kind of
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  Speaker 2: have to see everything has what kind of dollar sign
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  Speaker 2: can you put on. It's like a yard sale. Everything
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  Speaker 2: is for sale sort of including perhaps down the road,
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  Speaker 2: some naming rights.
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  Speaker 1: Well, and yeah, naming rights on Ohio Stadium. He said
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  Speaker 1: he when he got to Ohio State, he said, well,
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  Speaker 1: you know, you're not saying no to anything. Everything sort
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  Speaker 1: of on the table, And I think he got some
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  Speaker 1: pushback on that. One said that is definitely not selling
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  Speaker 1: naming rights to Ohio Stateium. Definitely not the what they're
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  Speaker 1: going to be leading with donors. It didn't say never,
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  Speaker 1: but it does sound like it's they have a lot
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  Speaker 1: of things they're going to try before they would get
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  Speaker 1: to that point. They've already named the field, they have
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  Speaker 1: some other you know, they're talking about jersey patches that's
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  Speaker 1: going to supposedly be coming soon as well. So there's
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  Speaker 1: a lot of other stuff that people will be able
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  Speaker 1: to pay for before they can pay to put their
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  Speaker 1: name on Wendy's Stadium at Ohio Stadium or whatever whatever
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  Speaker 1: they end up going with. So there you go. Update
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  Speaker 1: on some big changes coming here to the week. Hayes
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  Speaker 1: Athletic Center again groundbreaking eighteen months or so. They've got
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  Speaker 1: to raise the money before then. There's a lot of
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  Speaker 1: money to raise, so but it could be some big,
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  Speaker 1: big changes coming to the Woody Hayes Athletic Center in
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  Speaker 1: the next year and a half. Thanks again to our
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: friends at Jeff Ruby's Columbus, the award winning upscale steakhouse
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: in downtown Columbus name one of the top fifty steakhouses
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  Speaker 1: com slash Columbus to check out the menu and make
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  Speaker 1: a reservation today. That'll do it for today. Thank you
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  Speaker 1: guys all for joining us. Have a great day. We'll
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  Speaker 1: talk to you tomorrow.