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Bengals Booth Podcast: I Know There's An Answer · Bengals Booth Podcast

0:03
Speaker 1: Hig and everybody. I'm Dan Hord and thanks for downloading
0:06
Speaker 1: the Bengals Booth Podcast. Duh, I know there's an answer addition,
0:13
Speaker 1: as NFL Executive Vice President Hans Schroeder joins me to
0:17
Speaker 1: discuss a wide variety of topics, including why the Bengals
0:20
Speaker 1: are playing a night game in Baltimore for the fourth
0:23
Speaker 1: year in a row, and the possibility of the NFL
0:27
Speaker 1: Draft coming to Cincinnati. The Bengals Booth Podcast is brought
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Speaker 1: for the best fans. Kettering Health is the official healthcare
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Speaker 1: provider of the Bengals. Now here's a quick reminder that
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Speaker 1: you can have the latest edition of this podcast delivered
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Speaker 1: right to your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing wherever
1:00
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. It's the greatest thing since a
1:04
Speaker 1: pull through parking spot. For me, one of the simple
1:08
Speaker 1: joys in life is when you're looking for a spot
1:10
Speaker 1: in a busy lot and you not only find one,
1:13
Speaker 1: but have the opportunity to drive through that spot right
1:17
Speaker 1: into another open one that allows you to exit in
1:21
Speaker 1: the same direction that you entered. For what it's worth,
1:24
Speaker 1: the American Automobile Association or Triple A, advises pull through
1:29
Speaker 1: parking whenever possible, since it allows for a safer view
1:34
Speaker 1: when exiting. As far as I'm concerned, it could have
1:36
Speaker 1: been the subject of a Seinfeld episode. Can't you picture
1:40
Speaker 1: George saying, you gotta love a pull through? Jerry, everybody
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Speaker 1: loves a pull through. Now let's get to football. This
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Speaker 1: is a short but timely episode of the podcast Following
1:53
Speaker 1: Wednesday's schedule release. I was among many Bengals fans who
1:57
Speaker 1: questioned the fairness of Cincinnati having a play a night
2:00
Speaker 1: game in Baltimore for the fourth year in a row
2:03
Speaker 1: and the third straight time on a Thursday. So I
2:07
Speaker 1: discussed it the next day with one of the NFL
2:09
Speaker 1: executives involved in putting together the schedule. The league's executive
2:13
Speaker 1: vice president of Media Distribution, Hans Schroeder, ods, I appreciate
2:20
Speaker 1: you joining me on the Bengals Booth podcast. You have
2:23
Speaker 1: Cincinnati ties, correct, I.
2:25
Speaker 2: Do, Dan.
2:26
Speaker 3: I am a proud Cincinnati and I grew up most
2:29
Speaker 3: of my life there. My dad was born in Cincinnati
2:33
Speaker 3: in thirty six and lived most of his years in Cincinnati.
2:36
Speaker 3: Went to Withrow and he played football at University of Cincinnati,
2:39
Speaker 3: and I went to high school in Cincinnati, played football
2:42
Speaker 3: at Sinsid Country Day, and then played football Princeton University
2:45
Speaker 3: after that. So a lot of ties back to the
2:49
Speaker 3: Queen City.
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Speaker 1: Did you attend a lot of Bengals games as a kid,
2:53
Speaker 1: and if so, do you have a favorite memory.
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Speaker 3: We did attend a few, you know, there was one
3:01
Speaker 3: game in particular, it was right around the Christmas time,
3:04
Speaker 3: I think against the Vikings that stood out. I just
3:08
Speaker 3: I don't know why that was so memorable. The other
3:11
Speaker 3: one that was very memorable in a different way was
3:16
Speaker 3: I think would have been the eighty seven strike season.
3:19
Speaker 3: We were at the game the week before the strike,
3:22
Speaker 3: I think, where they were ahead against the Niners. At
3:26
Speaker 3: the end of the game. We were with friends. We
3:28
Speaker 3: left early thinking the victory was in the books, and
3:31
Speaker 3: then we got to the car and heard what had
3:35
Speaker 3: happened at the tail end in that last minute touchdown
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Speaker 3: I think till Jerry Rice at.
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Speaker 2: The end of that game. So the different highs and lows.
3:42
Speaker 3: I think we won that Vikings game, and that was
3:44
Speaker 3: another game that that broke the other way.
3:47
Speaker 1: So I think the Vikings game you're talking about they
3:49
Speaker 1: won on a field goal at the gun by Doug Pelfrey,
3:53
Speaker 1: and the forty nine Ers game they won that they lost.
3:56
Speaker 1: Sam White famously went for it on fourth down the
4:00
Speaker 1: Bengals in their own territory, thinking they could like run
4:03
Speaker 1: around in the backfield and kill the remaining clock. They didn't.
4:07
Speaker 1: It gave the forty nine Ers one last chance touchdown
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Speaker 1: pass to Jerry Rice.
4:12
Speaker 2: Not a great memory, but they're all fun.
4:14
Speaker 3: As a kid, going to an NFL game and being
4:17
Speaker 3: able to go to a football game like that was
4:18
Speaker 3: always special. Even though Dad coached and was around the
4:21
Speaker 3: game a lot, it was always just that magical experience
4:24
Speaker 3: of walking into an NFL stadium.
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Speaker 1: All Right, we appreciate you joining us on the podcast
4:29
Speaker 1: to talk about the NFL schedule. We have established your
4:32
Speaker 1: Cincinnati bonafide, so I think I can get right to
4:35
Speaker 1: the biggest gripe that Bengals fans have after seeing the
4:38
Speaker 1: schedule release. This is the fourth straight year that the
4:41
Speaker 1: Bengals are going to play a night game in Baltimore.
4:44
Speaker 1: It's the third straight year that the game is on
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Speaker 1: a Thursday night. It's obviously tough to win under those circumstances. Now,
4:51
Speaker 1: I think we all get you've got thirty two teams
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Speaker 1: to satisfy. It's impossible to come up with a complete
4:57
Speaker 1: fairness when you put the schedule together. But was there
5:00
Speaker 1: an effort made to try to avoid having that happened
5:04
Speaker 1: for the fourth year in a row.
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Speaker 3: There, you know, there was, And look, we look at
5:09
Speaker 3: things over time year to year. Things are going to happen.
5:12
Speaker 3: They may happen a couple of years in a row,
5:15
Speaker 3: but we were certainly aware of that. We were also
5:18
Speaker 3: aware of being on the road a lot recently in
5:21
Speaker 3: prime time, particularly against division opponents, and those were things
5:26
Speaker 3: we looked at some options along the way, and certainly
5:28
Speaker 3: saw some schedules with different mixes of prime time for
5:33
Speaker 3: the Bengals. But I think then, like what we tried
5:36
Speaker 3: to look at is the totality of it. And you know,
5:39
Speaker 3: one of the things the Bengals have done over the
5:41
Speaker 3: last four or five years has played their way onto
5:43
Speaker 3: the national stage, and I think their schedule reflects that.
5:46
Speaker 3: You see that across their primetime windows, but you also
5:51
Speaker 3: see that across the doubleheaders and them being featured with
5:54
Speaker 3: Green Bay and featured in Buffalo and featured with Detroit,
5:58
Speaker 3: which those are also really big wins for us, are
6:00
Speaker 3: our biggest windows across the ear and so we certainly
6:04
Speaker 3: saw it. We saw it when we were in Baltimore again,
6:08
Speaker 3: and I'll come back to Thanksgiving in a second, but
6:11
Speaker 3: we also saw the totality of the schedule, and I
6:14
Speaker 3: think if you look at the Bengals, no three game
6:16
Speaker 3: road trips, you know they're away obviously have this this
6:20
Speaker 3: year just based on who they play, the shortest travel
6:23
Speaker 3: time of any team in the league, which hopefully makes
6:25
Speaker 3: your life a.
6:26
Speaker 2: Little bit easier.
6:28
Speaker 3: But you know, every team looks at things differently, but
6:31
Speaker 3: we thought there was a really nice mix of being
6:34
Speaker 3: on the road.
6:35
Speaker 2: Being at home.
6:36
Speaker 3: You know, different teams will look at when they're in
6:38
Speaker 3: Green Bay or when they're in Miami. You know, you're
6:40
Speaker 3: in Green Bay a little bit earlier this year, you're
6:42
Speaker 3: in Miami a little bit later. Teams will probably sort
6:44
Speaker 3: of like that based on the weather and the dynamics
6:46
Speaker 3: or otherwise, and so well, ultimately we were a little
6:50
Speaker 3: bit more focused on the right overall schedule. You know,
6:54
Speaker 3: we saw some schedules late for Cincinnati that had a
6:56
Speaker 3: three game road trip in it for an example, and
6:59
Speaker 3: again Visa VI this schedule, we thought this was a
7:02
Speaker 3: better overall schedule for the club. But seeing that again
7:05
Speaker 3: they're in four primes, I think threer on the road.
7:09
Speaker 3: You know, we're mindful of that, and I think as
7:10
Speaker 3: we get into next year will probably be even a
7:13
Speaker 3: little bit more forceful on how we think about that.
7:16
Speaker 3: But overall, we really like the Bengals schedule, like we
7:19
Speaker 3: try to do for all thirty two teams, and be
7:21
Speaker 3: really fair and make sure we're not doing anything to
7:24
Speaker 3: disrupt the competitive aspect. The last thing I'd say then
7:27
Speaker 3: on Thanksgiving specifically, Look, we went into the year. Thanksgiving
7:31
Speaker 3: has become such a big day for NFL fans and food,
7:34
Speaker 3: family football, and you can see across that day. We
7:39
Speaker 3: saw last year there are forty million viewers that tuned
7:41
Speaker 3: into Detroit's game in Chicago against Chicago after two thirty.
7:46
Speaker 3: The highest few regular season games ever are that four
7:49
Speaker 3: to thirty game in Dallas, and so we saw there
7:53
Speaker 3: as an opportunity with a lot of really good matchups
7:55
Speaker 3: this year to really try to cater to our fans
8:00
Speaker 3: we know are tuning in and really big and high
8:03
Speaker 3: levels that day, and so we put our thumb on
8:05
Speaker 3: the scale to try to get really great matchups across
8:08
Speaker 3: that Thanksgiving Day and into Black Friday too. And so
8:12
Speaker 3: one thing I'd say to the Cincinnati fans is, you know,
8:14
Speaker 3: a lot of that's a sign of where the Bengals
8:16
Speaker 3: have come and played too.
8:18
Speaker 2: They've played their way into prime.
8:19
Speaker 3: They played their way into the biggest stages in primetime
8:22
Speaker 3: on Thanksgiving nights one of those.
8:24
Speaker 1: No doubt about it. And in fairness, the Bengals do
8:28
Speaker 1: have a Thursday night home game against the Steelers this year,
8:31
Speaker 1: so they do have an AFC North primetime game at home,
8:34
Speaker 1: which they hadn't had for a few years. I just
8:36
Speaker 1: want to quickly get back to the Baltimore thing, though,
8:38
Speaker 1: final question on that topic. This might be overly simplistic
8:43
Speaker 1: on my part, but couldn't they simply have been flip
8:46
Speaker 1: flopped Bengals at home. I'm Thanksgiving against Baltimore Ravens in
8:51
Speaker 1: Cincinnati at one o'clock two weeks later.
8:54
Speaker 3: Look, we looked at we certainly saw some configurations like
8:57
Speaker 3: that and flipped again, it's it's solving for a really
9:02
Speaker 3: complex puzzle with all and how the different pieces come
9:05
Speaker 3: together and in this one and where the final one
9:10
Speaker 3: that we like the best for everybody. But I will
9:13
Speaker 3: tell you for Cincinnati too, we like their schedule with
9:16
Speaker 3: this configuration a little bit better. But I think we
9:19
Speaker 3: totally get it, We totally hear it. You know, we'll
9:22
Speaker 3: try to mix that up. I think, you know, great example,
9:25
Speaker 3: green Bay has been on the road to start the
9:27
Speaker 3: year a lot of straight years.
9:28
Speaker 2: You see him at home this year.
9:29
Speaker 3: So there's things that when we've seen that happen for
9:32
Speaker 3: an extended period, and I think we're getting close to
9:35
Speaker 3: that with the Thursday night in Baltimore. I think that we'll,
9:38
Speaker 3: you know, we'll look at that maybe a little bit
9:40
Speaker 3: differently in the future, but we really like the overall
9:43
Speaker 3: schedule this year for Cincinnati.
9:45
Speaker 1: NFL Executive vice President Hans Schroeder is our guest. You
9:48
Speaker 1: have seven media partners. Now, do those media partners say
9:52
Speaker 1: we want a Joe Burrow game.
9:54
Speaker 2: Yes.
9:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a simple and straightforward question. And Joe is
10:01
Speaker 3: obviously incredible and in that you know, handful of of
10:05
Speaker 3: you know, best quarterbacks in the league, but there's a
10:08
Speaker 3: lot more to it. You know, they're they're an exciting
10:11
Speaker 3: you know last year you know No. Nine and eight,
10:13
Speaker 3: but a lot of really exciting games. I mean, both
10:16
Speaker 3: those Ravens games are super exciting. The Commander's game on
10:19
Speaker 3: Monday Night super exciting. They're a fun team to watch,
10:24
Speaker 3: and so yeah, they're definitely a team that that partners
10:28
Speaker 3: asked for, and partners are excited when they see them
10:30
Speaker 3: on their schedule, and I think they're on you know,
10:32
Speaker 3: put aside that the one offs of of maybe Christmas Day,
10:36
Speaker 3: I think you know, you'll see the Bengals across to
10:40
Speaker 3: all our partners or at least all our major days
10:43
Speaker 3: like a Thanksgiving too. So they're on Amazon, They're on
10:45
Speaker 3: Monday Night, They're on Sunday Night, They're on both Box
10:49
Speaker 3: and CBS's key big double headers going across the entire country.
10:53
Speaker 3: I think in back to back weeks weeks five and
10:55
Speaker 3: six against Detroit and then coming back in Lambeau the
10:58
Speaker 3: next week, those are our biggest dude windows of the
11:02
Speaker 3: of the weeks. So definitely you see that interest across
11:05
Speaker 3: our partners.
11:07
Speaker 1: I read today that more than four thousand computers are
11:10
Speaker 1: involved and trying to put together as close to a
11:12
Speaker 1: perfect schedule as you possibly can. What are the things
11:16
Speaker 1: that you input that you try to avoid. You referenced
11:20
Speaker 1: trying to avoid three game road trips, that's obviously one.
11:24
Speaker 1: What are the some of the things that you're trying
11:26
Speaker 1: to get those computers to avoid.
11:29
Speaker 3: You know, it starts with the really basics. Every stadium
11:34
Speaker 3: across the league has certain dates for whatever reasons, they're
11:37
Speaker 3: just not available. So Cincinnati is a great one. Almost
11:40
Speaker 3: every year we have a weekend or two early in
11:43
Speaker 3: the year where the Reds are at home, and that's
11:46
Speaker 3: a challenging date.
11:47
Speaker 2: For us to play Cincinnati at home.
11:48
Speaker 3: So think about that first lens of we go in
11:52
Speaker 3: and say, here are the dates we just can't play right,
11:54
Speaker 3: and then you layer on things like travel and sort
11:58
Speaker 3: of again, we mentioned three game road trips or things
12:01
Speaker 3: we like to avoid. We're never perfect. I think this
12:03
Speaker 3: year's final schedule had three of those. But we look
12:06
Speaker 3: to avoid things like teams playing on the road road
12:09
Speaker 3: after a Monday night. You know, we try not to
12:12
Speaker 3: have teams be on the road, traveling home, getting late
12:15
Speaker 3: to their facility Monday night, back on the road the
12:17
Speaker 3: following Sunday, try to put them at home on Thursday night.
12:20
Speaker 3: We have certain geographic distances, you know, we can't play
12:24
Speaker 3: and don't play three time zone travel and trips, so
12:28
Speaker 3: that limits who and where and where you can play
12:30
Speaker 3: on a Thursday night. Again, we try to look across
12:34
Speaker 3: the year with division opponents and sprinkle those up when
12:37
Speaker 3: and where and look at the pairings. Again, this isn't
12:42
Speaker 3: necessarily an AFC North the issue, but you know, one
12:44
Speaker 3: of the things we liked about the schedule this year
12:46
Speaker 3: is in the NFC East is an example, Washington and
12:50
Speaker 3: Dallas had played each other in Week eighteen the last
12:53
Speaker 3: three or four years in a row. We remixed that
12:56
Speaker 3: up this year and changed the shuffle. So we look
12:58
Speaker 3: at some things like that. There's bye weeks and trying
13:01
Speaker 3: to be equitable for the bye weeks all but also
13:04
Speaker 3: see where they're short weeks with Thursdays fall. There's the
13:07
Speaker 3: European and the international travel that gets layered on there,
13:11
Speaker 3: and so it's a bit of a jigsaw puzzle as
13:13
Speaker 3: all those different things come together. Then trying to make sure,
13:16
Speaker 3: like you said, we get teams into different partners packages
13:20
Speaker 3: as well. So that's another limitation Okay, I want to
13:23
Speaker 3: make sure I see Cincinnati in a Thursday night, in
13:25
Speaker 3: a Monday night, in a Sunday night. So all those
13:30
Speaker 3: things sort of go into the soup of how the
13:33
Speaker 3: computer has to think about it. Computers only as smart
13:36
Speaker 3: as we ask it to be, with the rules and
13:38
Speaker 3: the things we act, you know, we asked it to do.
13:41
Speaker 3: But all those factors are things we asked them to
13:43
Speaker 3: wait and include in the schedules they output to us.
13:46
Speaker 1: And you referenced international games. I was a little bit
13:49
Speaker 1: surprised the Bengals weren't selected to play in an international
13:52
Speaker 1: game this year. Katie Blackburn has already come out and
13:55
Speaker 1: said publicly that she expects to host one in twenty
13:58
Speaker 1: twenty seven, the next time the Bengals have nine home games.
14:01
Speaker 1: If that's the case, does it make it less likely
14:05
Speaker 1: that the Bengals would play as a road team next year,
14:08
Speaker 1: knowing there's a high probability there'll be a home team
14:11
Speaker 1: the year after.
14:13
Speaker 2: Nope.
14:14
Speaker 3: In fact, we saw a lot of schedules this year
14:16
Speaker 3: that had the Bengals playing in international games. We saw
14:19
Speaker 3: a lot that had them. I know, there was a
14:21
Speaker 3: lot of speculation for some reason, and maybe Joe said
14:25
Speaker 3: it at.
14:25
Speaker 2: Some point, but I think maybe I saw along the way.
14:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, So the mayor of Madrid came out publicly and
14:33
Speaker 1: said that Cincinnati was going to be Miami's opponent. We
14:36
Speaker 1: don't know where the mayor of Madrid got that, but
14:38
Speaker 1: it led to all this speculation that somehow that had
14:41
Speaker 1: been leaked to the mayor and it was going to happen.
14:44
Speaker 3: So that's a great example, right of how this all
14:47
Speaker 3: ties together. And this isn't a hard and fast rule,
14:50
Speaker 3: but one of the things that we saw with just
14:52
Speaker 3: how the timing laid out was if the Bengals, which
14:56
Speaker 3: were very very much a candidate to go to Madrid,
14:58
Speaker 3: if they went to Madrid, then they would come home,
15:02
Speaker 3: have a week, and then potentially be on the road
15:04
Speaker 3: on a short day Thursday. Because we really liked that idea,
15:07
Speaker 3: not that it had to necessarily be Baltimore, but like
15:10
Speaker 3: the idea of Cincinnati in primetime on Thanksgiving Night, particularly
15:14
Speaker 3: with Baltimore, given those games when you stitch it all together,
15:17
Speaker 3: then we weren't going to necessarily make them go to Madrid,
15:21
Speaker 3: come back, have one week, and then play a short
15:23
Speaker 3: week Thursday. We were allowed to do it but it
15:26
Speaker 3: was one of the things we just felt, you know what,
15:28
Speaker 3: for the right schedule for them, probably something we avoid
15:31
Speaker 3: this year. So great example of how these things connect
15:34
Speaker 3: to one another, and sort of the Thanksgiving Thursday probably
15:38
Speaker 3: definitively impacted how we were thinking about them in Madrid,
15:43
Speaker 3: But they were certainly a candidate and will certainly be
15:46
Speaker 3: a candidate again next year for international slate of games.
15:49
Speaker 1: This is only the second time the Bengals have played
15:51
Speaker 1: on Thanksgiving, and the previous time was a long time
15:54
Speaker 1: ago twenty ten. Was that one of the things that
15:58
Speaker 1: you considered, Hey, I have not had that team on
16:01
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving in a long long time.
16:03
Speaker 3: For sure, And look, I think it's such a big
16:06
Speaker 3: stage now for us, you know, it has to be
16:08
Speaker 3: a game and a matchup that we feel good about
16:11
Speaker 3: as that threshold. But then we also love, you know,
16:14
Speaker 3: the traditions in Detroit and Dallas are awesome. I mean,
16:17
Speaker 3: even for somebody that's not from either place, it feels
16:20
Speaker 3: like Thanksgiving. It feels like watching John Matten back in
16:23
Speaker 3: the day covering a game, like they feel naturally organic
16:27
Speaker 3: to Thanksgiving into the NFL and the football. But we
16:30
Speaker 3: also love the fact that we can rotate that primetime
16:33
Speaker 3: game around and it can go to different places and
16:35
Speaker 3: other markets. Green Bay last year was one of them.
16:37
Speaker 3: As an example, that felt like a really cool way
16:40
Speaker 3: to end Thanksgiving Thursday of football in Lambeau. Like again,
16:44
Speaker 3: it feels like a really great football game to Baltimore
16:47
Speaker 3: in a Rayvends Bengals game.
16:49
Speaker 2: How you're ending Thanksgiving night? That feels very special.
16:52
Speaker 3: I know NBC is thrilled to have that game to
16:55
Speaker 3: end that day, but yeah, we try to rotate and
16:58
Speaker 3: get different exposures, whether it's there or now we have
17:00
Speaker 3: Black Friday, now we have Christmas. You know it is
17:03
Speaker 3: delivered for us. We wanted different teams to host some
17:06
Speaker 3: things will play on both Thanksgiving and Christmas, but wanted
17:09
Speaker 3: to mix that up a little bit, give different teams
17:12
Speaker 3: the opportunity to host on Christmas. So definitely something we
17:15
Speaker 3: look at.
17:16
Speaker 1: NFL Executive VP Hunts Schroeder is our guest. Last year,
17:20
Speaker 1: the Bengals played Dallas in a game that featured an
17:22
Speaker 1: alternative Simpsons telecast. Will there be something similar this year?
17:27
Speaker 1: And do you try to pick different teams every year
17:30
Speaker 1: for those special productions?
17:33
Speaker 3: Definitely do the latter, and you know that was something
17:36
Speaker 3: we came up with a couple of years ago. We
17:38
Speaker 3: really like Disney has been an awesome partner, first with
17:42
Speaker 3: the Toy Story experience and then last year with the
17:45
Speaker 3: Simpsons experience. Probably not going to be in Cincinnati game
17:49
Speaker 3: again this year. I think your Monday night game for
17:52
Speaker 3: that game on is side by side where you're in
17:56
Speaker 3: Denver alongside another game that we so we'll probably look
18:01
Speaker 3: to do something else for another Monday Night game with
18:04
Speaker 3: Disney throughout the year. But for us, those are really
18:07
Speaker 3: fun ways to take football and present the differently it's available,
18:11
Speaker 3: and it ultimately goes available to ninety plus countries around
18:14
Speaker 3: the world, and to take sort of that ip that
18:17
Speaker 3: Disney has, that's really fun to marry it to an
18:21
Speaker 3: NFL game, to use the next gen stats platform that
18:23
Speaker 3: we have, just a different and fun expression of the game.
18:27
Speaker 3: So we thought it was really cool last year. The
18:29
Speaker 3: Bengals were great to work with and that game, obviously
18:33
Speaker 3: if you're a Cincinnati fan, was really special with how
18:35
Speaker 3: it ended and seeing I think was it Barter was
18:39
Speaker 3: at least that was playing Jamar with that touchdown down
18:43
Speaker 3: the sideline to sort of bring it home was just
18:45
Speaker 3: a fun way when you saw the replays of that
18:47
Speaker 3: were pretty cool.
18:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's the only time in Bengals history that they
18:51
Speaker 1: had their own punt blocked and that enabled them to
18:54
Speaker 1: win the game when Dallas kind of botched the recovery
18:57
Speaker 1: of the block punt. I'm always in intrigued cons by
19:00
Speaker 1: things that we don't even think about that impact the
19:04
Speaker 1: NFL schedule. Are there any big concert tours or other
19:08
Speaker 1: unusual events that pose challenges this year?
19:13
Speaker 3: There's always something, and there's always something you know there
19:18
Speaker 3: you hit on some of them, the concerts. Some of
19:20
Speaker 3: them are baseball stadiums and shared parking lots. Some of
19:23
Speaker 3: it are marathons, right. Some of it you never know
19:27
Speaker 3: what the events and where it's going to be. Sometimes
19:30
Speaker 3: it's an international soccer game or something that that's happening.
19:34
Speaker 3: Sometimes it's college football based on some of those buildings.
19:38
Speaker 3: So you know, there's a handful of things that that
19:41
Speaker 3: all can factor into that. You know, our buildings are
19:45
Speaker 3: incredible facilities or incredible facilities for football. You know, they're
19:50
Speaker 3: incredible facilities for other events that oftentimes our clubs do
19:54
Speaker 3: really good jobs. Are giving us the flexibility so we
19:57
Speaker 3: can try to get to the best NFL schedule we can,
20:00
Speaker 3: but there's certainly a handful of other things that will
20:03
Speaker 3: pop up from time to time, and all of a
20:04
Speaker 3: sudden you find and sale kid as a handful of
20:07
Speaker 3: dates here or there.
20:07
Speaker 2: We just can't get into it a building.
20:10
Speaker 1: I don't know if this topic crosses your desk or not,
20:12
Speaker 1: but I'll ask the question anyway. The Bengals in the
20:14
Speaker 1: city of Cincinnati are hoping to host the Draft in
20:17
Speaker 1: twenty twenty eight or shortly after that. As a city
20:20
Speaker 1: that doesn't have a dome and therefore will probably never
20:23
Speaker 1: host a Super Bowl, does that increase the chances of
20:27
Speaker 1: Cincinnati potentially hosting the Draft?
20:31
Speaker 3: Look, I would certainly hope, so, you know one to
20:34
Speaker 3: you know, I'm not super close to how we choose
20:36
Speaker 3: locations today, but I will say one of my projects
20:39
Speaker 3: earlier in my career was leading the work that led
20:42
Speaker 3: to us to take the Draft on the road and
20:44
Speaker 3: so put the Draft in Chicago the first year, and
20:47
Speaker 3: so was intimately involved in sort of driving that and
20:50
Speaker 3: leading this to do that, obviously with the Commissioner's overall
20:55
Speaker 3: guidance in leadership. But you know, I caninue to be
21:00
Speaker 3: amazed and it's just so cool with that event's become
21:04
Speaker 3: to see in even Green Bay, Wisconsin, hundreds of thousands
21:07
Speaker 3: of people and those visuals of what the draft looks
21:10
Speaker 3: like over those three days is spectacular. And to your
21:14
Speaker 3: point earlier, you know, I'm not sure we're going to
21:17
Speaker 3: get to every market for a super Bowl, but the
21:20
Speaker 3: Draft is an event. I think we've done a great
21:22
Speaker 3: job with it to day about how we take that
21:25
Speaker 3: to different NFL markets and how we give fans in
21:28
Speaker 3: those markets, not only in that direct city, but it's
21:31
Speaker 3: amazing how fans travel from all different areas around to
21:35
Speaker 3: come in for that Draft weekend. And I think knowing
21:39
Speaker 3: the city, knowing what we do for great events, not
21:41
Speaker 3: only sporting events. Octoberfest in the fall is obviously a
21:44
Speaker 3: big what they do big of an opening day for
21:47
Speaker 3: the Reds like we do big events well in Cincinnati,
21:50
Speaker 3: and I think they do an incredible job with the Draft.
21:53
Speaker 3: So I'll leave it to my colleagues as they work
21:55
Speaker 3: through that process, but certainly something I love seeing is
21:58
Speaker 3: how we go to different markets nique ways and to
22:01
Speaker 3: draft the great event to do that with.
22:03
Speaker 1: If Cincinnati can get a draft and a Thursday night
22:07
Speaker 1: home game against Baltimore. You will get no complaints from
22:11
Speaker 1: the fans in your hometown.
22:13
Speaker 2: Noted.
22:14
Speaker 3: I'll make sure I share that back with the team,
22:16
Speaker 3: so I'll take my graters next time I come into town.
22:20
Speaker 2: Make sure it's okay, Tomes.
22:22
Speaker 1: I really appreciate your time. This has been informative and
22:25
Speaker 1: fun for me. Thanks so much for joining us.
22:27
Speaker 3: Thank you Dad anytime, Take care, stay well, and really
22:31
Speaker 3: appreciate you having me on.
22:33
Speaker 1: That's going to do it for this episode of the
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