Latest / Foul Territory / The details behind MLB’s first salary cap proposal w/Evan Drellich

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The details behind MLB’s first salary cap proposal w/Evan Drellich · Foul Territory

0:03
Speaker 1: Let's do this. Let's talk bis. Evan Drelik is here
0:07
Speaker 1: for the athletic. He covers labor talks like nobody else
0:10
Speaker 1: on the planet. I'll say it for him, right, this
0:12
Speaker 1: is your time to shine, Evan. So let's start with
0:15
Speaker 1: something juicy, like what you know all about the conversations
0:19
Speaker 1: that go on between MLB owners and players when they're
0:23
Speaker 1: trying to figure out the next labor deal. Okay, so
0:26
Speaker 1: we're going to get into some details, but I want
0:27
Speaker 1: to start here. Did anything this week when all the
0:30
Speaker 1: news broke surprise you about details that were handed out?
0:34
Speaker 1: And be honest, because most things you expected, right. We
0:37
Speaker 1: knew there was going to be a cap proposal. We
0:38
Speaker 1: knew there was going to be some type of floor
0:40
Speaker 1: proposal from the player's side, and they'd ask for more
0:43
Speaker 1: of a higher minimum, stuff like that. But anything overall
0:46
Speaker 1: surprised you about the way the week just went down.
0:50
Speaker 2: There are two things, Scott, that jumped out at me,
0:53
Speaker 2: and I think one of them is a surprise. If
0:55
Speaker 2: we really step back here, the whole story of this
0:57
Speaker 2: negotiation is you have one side, the owner, trying to
1:01
Speaker 2: convince the other side to take this thing that we've
1:03
Speaker 2: known for a very long time, they don't really want
1:06
Speaker 2: or they've always been very resistant too. So the big
1:09
Speaker 2: question is can they do it. Can they convince players
1:12
Speaker 2: to change their minds after all these years of one
1:16
Speaker 2: way of thinking the union proposal, what jumped out to
1:21
Speaker 2: me most about what they did was really kind of
1:24
Speaker 2: a preemptive strike. You know, they go a day before
1:27
Speaker 2: the league, The union presents on Wednesday, the League presents
1:30
Speaker 2: on Thursday, and the Union paints this whole picture of
1:34
Speaker 2: here's all the ways we can achieve change in the
1:38
Speaker 2: Union's eyes without a cap. You know, all right, you
1:41
Speaker 2: want to do revenue sharing changes, and you want to
1:45
Speaker 2: entice our players with a minimum salary, Well, look, you
1:49
Speaker 2: know we can fight for a minimum salary that's much
1:51
Speaker 2: higher in our setup. Of course, the one point five
1:54
Speaker 2: million the union proposes is not going to end up
1:56
Speaker 2: going through. But that brings me to the one part
1:59
Speaker 2: that was surprising to me, and that is what the
2:03
Speaker 2: league did, which is use the word juicy. They didn't
2:07
Speaker 2: dangle the juicy carrot. The League didn't when making its
2:11
Speaker 2: proposal address also the reserve system. There was nothing on
2:14
Speaker 2: free agency, there was nothing on time to arbitration. There
2:17
Speaker 2: wasn't anything on minimum salary. And so if we go
2:20
Speaker 2: back to our original thought here, which is that the
2:23
Speaker 2: whole question is can they convince the players? Well, the
2:26
Speaker 2: league is waiting to show where it's willing to kind
2:31
Speaker 2: of really push in and say, here's that inducement, here's
2:35
Speaker 2: that thing that's going to really make you go, oh okay.
2:39
Speaker 2: And this is going to be a very long negotiation.
2:41
Speaker 2: Both sides have to avoid getting to impass, which is
2:44
Speaker 2: something we'll talk about down the line, but that's something
2:47
Speaker 2: that that's a legal term that can happen in bargaining.
2:51
Speaker 2: But it's in a way a bit of a slow play.
2:53
Speaker 2: The league said, here's our cap proposal, and I'm still
2:57
Speaker 2: sitting here waiting to see, well, how are they willing
3:00
Speaker 2: to go, uh, to try to convince these guys and
3:04
Speaker 2: and so there's obviously a ton of drama left unfold.
3:07
Speaker 2: But the first time we get the proposal on the
3:10
Speaker 2: reserve system, the minimum salary, how much time is it
3:12
Speaker 2: a free agency, how much time is it the arbitration,
3:16
Speaker 2: that's when things are really going to pick up.
3:18
Speaker 3: So that's what you really wanted to see. You read,
3:20
Speaker 3: you read all the proposal, and you were like before,
3:26
Speaker 3: this is terrible. So so there's there's nothing juicy in
3:29
Speaker 3: it for you so far.
3:31
Speaker 2: Look the the the details. It was all kind of speculation.
3:36
Speaker 2: It was with speculation until we had the actual cap
3:39
Speaker 2: and floor figures. We we don't know what they would
3:43
Speaker 2: be in subsequent years. It's it's still a very partial picture.
3:47
Speaker 2: It was also interesting to see where they would start
3:49
Speaker 2: the revenue split out, because this is a big thing
3:52
Speaker 2: with a any cap system is you're defining how much
3:55
Speaker 2: revenue each side is going to get, and you know,
3:58
Speaker 2: it's all a little bit You got to take it
4:01
Speaker 2: with a grain of salt, with the understanding that no
4:03
Speaker 2: one's going to start anywhere near where they expect to go.
4:07
Speaker 2: I would expect and clearly the league would expect that
4:10
Speaker 2: if the players are going to accept the cap system,
4:11
Speaker 2: which they vary well might not, it would have to
4:14
Speaker 2: be above fifty percent. You know, they're not going to
4:17
Speaker 2: take this major leap into the system, you know, for
4:23
Speaker 2: an even split. So that's the starting point. You know,
4:25
Speaker 2: how high would they go? What what percentage of revenues
4:28
Speaker 2: would players? Would the owners be willing to give the players,
4:32
Speaker 2: And the other part of this that that we the
4:35
Speaker 2: media don't really have yet. I think the union has it.
4:40
Speaker 2: It was in the proposal is how do you define revenue?
4:43
Speaker 2: What are you counting and how are you counting it?
4:46
Speaker 2: So it's yeah, I maybe more than most here. I'm
4:50
Speaker 2: a little bit like, okay this. You know, we're kind
4:53
Speaker 2: of starting to walk here. I think Ken Rosenval put
4:56
Speaker 2: in his column that the players aren't even in the stadium,
4:59
Speaker 2: and I kind of I think that's right.
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6:02
Speaker 3: Okay, you're talking about the revenue sharing for fans who
6:06
Speaker 3: see fifty to fifty split. Yes, the players do get
6:10
Speaker 3: to see the books. Do they get to see all
6:12
Speaker 3: the books? Do they get to see the malls that
6:14
Speaker 3: the teams put up around the stadium. That's to be
6:17
Speaker 3: questioned and everything, But can you give fans just a
6:20
Speaker 3: little idea of what the revenue sharing is currently, because
6:24
Speaker 3: if they're saying, Okay, here's here's our plan. We'll give
6:27
Speaker 3: you fifty to fifty as a player, it's not can
6:31
Speaker 3: you tell us where that is? How close that is now?
6:35
Speaker 2: So the revenue split between the players and the owners
6:39
Speaker 2: today can fluctuate. That's kind of the you know, the
6:41
Speaker 2: big crux of the market systems that can go up
6:43
Speaker 2: and down every year. It depends on how you want
6:46
Speaker 2: to count it, because you know, are you counting amateur
6:51
Speaker 2: the amateur bonus pool? Like what goes into it? Typically
6:55
Speaker 2: the estimates you see is that the players are somewhere
6:59
Speaker 2: for eight percent, But again without knowing the different inputs
7:05
Speaker 2: into it, it just becomes a really hard comparison. Now,
7:09
Speaker 2: what is important to understand about the fifty to fifty.
7:12
Speaker 2: Certainly Scott Boris made the point yesterday and others have
7:15
Speaker 2: made the point over time that yes, if you have
7:18
Speaker 2: a even revenue split, it doesn't incorporate franchise value. It doesn't.
7:25
Speaker 2: You know, the moment an owner sells a team, the
7:29
Speaker 2: proceeds from that are not split fifty to fifty, right,
7:32
Speaker 2: So it's fifty to fifty in the operating annual balance
7:37
Speaker 2: sheet of a team that's one. And again, just as
7:42
Speaker 2: an understanding, you know what today is it would be
7:46
Speaker 2: really important to understand what they are counting, and we
7:49
Speaker 2: just don't fully have those details. My guess is that
7:53
Speaker 2: the league has no interest in sharing ancillary revenue from
7:57
Speaker 2: ballpark villages and all the rest. You know, the Atlanta
8:01
Speaker 2: Braves when they publicly report their earnings. They break it
8:05
Speaker 2: down into two components, baseball and the battery that the
8:09
Speaker 2: ballpark village they have. And so it's a great question
8:12
Speaker 2: of how much of that would be included, and I
8:15
Speaker 2: don't have the answer yet.
8:18
Speaker 5: Here's my thing with this whole thing going on here. Well,
8:22
Speaker 5: first off, do you think we'll get something done before, like,
8:27
Speaker 5: in about eight nine months. Do you think both these
8:29
Speaker 5: sides will come together sooner rather than later to figure
8:33
Speaker 5: this out?
8:34
Speaker 2: Yep? You know, Todd, I just did a long, like
8:37
Speaker 2: thirty five hundred word story on franchise value, and the
8:41
Speaker 2: ending sentiment of this piece is that there are clearly
8:46
Speaker 2: owners who think they are I don't know if they'd
8:50
Speaker 2: agree with this word, but off the top of my
8:52
Speaker 2: head suffering in this current system, that they're already losing
8:55
Speaker 2: out on what they should be making. And so if
8:59
Speaker 2: enough owners get that feeling, they might just stand there
9:03
Speaker 2: and go, you know what, this is not what we
9:05
Speaker 2: want it to be already. Let's suffer. Let's you know,
9:08
Speaker 2: we'll take the pain of a year of miss games.
9:11
Speaker 2: The question I can't answer at this point is how
9:14
Speaker 2: many owners end up adopting that belief. My gut instinct
9:17
Speaker 2: based on everything I've seen in this industry is that
9:20
Speaker 2: everybody likes to make money. The way you make money
9:23
Speaker 2: is you play games. They've got a national media right
9:25
Speaker 2: steal to renegotiate in twenty twenty eight. For twenty twenty nine,
9:29
Speaker 2: the industry revenues are, you know, probably getting close to
9:32
Speaker 2: thirteen billion dollars. They were twelve billion for the twenty
9:35
Speaker 2: twenty four season. We don't know what they were for
9:37
Speaker 2: last season. I think there's tremendous incentive for them to
9:41
Speaker 2: find a way to play. The wild card is if
9:44
Speaker 2: the owners stand there and go, we need better, and
9:48
Speaker 2: they'd have that they have that right. That is something
9:50
Speaker 2: they can do if they choose to. Now.
9:53
Speaker 5: My other question was for the player's side. You know
9:58
Speaker 5: you hear about MLB and side. What do you think
10:01
Speaker 5: the number one thing for the player's side. I know
10:03
Speaker 5: you've gone over all details and everything, but what do
10:05
Speaker 5: you think the number one thing players can all agree
10:08
Speaker 5: with if the other side the breath is okay with,
10:12
Speaker 5: what is the number one thing you think they want
10:14
Speaker 5: out of this whole deal?
10:16
Speaker 2: Money? And not to be too cute about it, but
10:19
Speaker 2: you know, if you look at what The opening proposal
10:21
Speaker 2: is it does drive a huge amount of money potentially
10:24
Speaker 2: in the player's direction. Right, They're bumping the sea the
10:27
Speaker 2: first tier of the CBT to three hundred million, which
10:30
Speaker 2: is a fifty six million dollar raise from what it
10:32
Speaker 2: is now. They're basically doubling the minimum salary to one
10:35
Speaker 2: point five million. They're adding one hundred and thirty million
10:38
Speaker 2: to the pre arbitration bonus pool, which the only caveat
10:42
Speaker 2: there is it didn't go up at all in the
10:43
Speaker 2: life cycle of this last CBA was fifty million flat
10:46
Speaker 2: the whole time, So it's going to go up somewhat here.
10:49
Speaker 2: But you know, they want to preserve the market system
10:53
Speaker 2: and they want players to make as much money as possible.
10:57
Speaker 2: And then you know, on both sides we can get
10:59
Speaker 2: to these competitive of balance arguments. You know, everybody is
11:03
Speaker 2: better off in a league that does have as good
11:07
Speaker 2: a sense of competitive balance as possible. The caveat is,
11:12
Speaker 2: what is the trade off you're giving? Right, the players
11:13
Speaker 2: don't want to give up. I don't want to take
11:16
Speaker 2: a cap to balance out the league more. But there
11:20
Speaker 2: are other ways that they're proposing to get there. The
11:22
Speaker 2: league looks at those ways and goes chill. You're making
11:24
Speaker 2: it worse. And so they're not even speaking this anywhere
11:27
Speaker 2: close to the same language. Yet you know, the union's
11:30
Speaker 2: trying to say, hey, we you know, we can do
11:32
Speaker 2: this and this and this to revenue sharing. The league
11:33
Speaker 2: comes back and says, well, actually, you're only making the
11:36
Speaker 2: Dodgers pay less in luxury attacks here. So the short
11:41
Speaker 2: answer is money. But they clearly all are kind of
11:45
Speaker 2: angling toward revenue sharing and quote unquote competitive balance, which
11:49
Speaker 2: is a very loaded topic.
11:51
Speaker 3: Okay, this is all about money, and that's why I
11:53
Speaker 3: love that you brought that up your article, I think
11:55
Speaker 3: it was last week. You just said it about franchise
11:58
Speaker 3: values and stuff. I would encourage anybody to go back
12:01
Speaker 3: and read it if you truly want to learn about
12:04
Speaker 3: both sides of what is happening and what drives all
12:08
Speaker 3: of this CBA stuff. The one thing you hit on
12:10
Speaker 3: in there was about how Major League Baseball's franchises can't
12:15
Speaker 3: sell their teams for ten to twelve times their revenue
12:22
Speaker 3: compared to the NFL compared to the NBA. I'm not
12:26
Speaker 3: sure if you used the NBA too. You had all
12:28
Speaker 3: the numbers broken down and Major League Baseball teams are
12:31
Speaker 3: rated about seven times their revenue, basically taking their revenue
12:35
Speaker 3: for one year multiplying it by seven. Read the article,
12:37
Speaker 3: it'll explain it. My question is, is that unrealistic of
12:41
Speaker 3: Major League Baseball? That's like saying, well, I should make
12:44
Speaker 3: more because I played Major League Baseball and NFL players
12:46
Speaker 3: are making this much like it's two completely different leagues,
12:50
Speaker 3: and we've said that for a long time. Is that
12:52
Speaker 3: unrealistic of Major League Baseball owners.
12:56
Speaker 2: There's a lot of arguments you can make along those lines.
12:59
Speaker 2: I mean, look, somebody could stand there and go, well,
13:01
Speaker 2: if you wanted to be in an industry that where
13:04
Speaker 2: the multiples we're talking about revenue multiples, where your multiples twelve,
13:10
Speaker 2: meaning your team sells for twelve times what you pull
13:13
Speaker 2: in annually, well, then you should have bought a different asset.
13:17
Speaker 2: You shouldn't have bought a baseball team. What baseball owners
13:20
Speaker 2: on the other side look at is, particularly with basketball,
13:23
Speaker 2: basketball and baseball were much closer together, and basketball has
13:27
Speaker 2: really taken off in recent years. Now basketball has had
13:29
Speaker 2: a cap. It's not like that has been the piece
13:33
Speaker 2: have been newly introduced. They have it. They just renegotiated
13:35
Speaker 2: their media rights deals and got basically seven billion in
13:39
Speaker 2: national media money a year, whereas baseball is at two billion.
13:42
Speaker 2: So the media rights is a big component of it.
13:44
Speaker 2: But the owners sit there and look at baseball, look
13:49
Speaker 2: at the payroll disparity, look at the revenue disparity, look
13:54
Speaker 2: at some fans some small markets that say our team
13:56
Speaker 2: can't compete, and some fans do feel that way, and go, well,
14:02
Speaker 2: all the other leagues have this thing that would give
14:05
Speaker 2: us payroll certainty, that would you know, mitigate this revenue disaparity,
14:10
Speaker 2: that would mitigate payroll disparity, you know, and kind of
14:14
Speaker 2: the lynchpin of one of the lynchpins of this negotiation
14:18
Speaker 2: is this question of do you need a cap to
14:23
Speaker 2: mitigate those things? You know? Can you do things other
14:27
Speaker 2: things besides the formal salary limits that would even out
14:32
Speaker 2: and create this better sense of parity in baseball, And
14:35
Speaker 2: the Union's clearly arguing, yes, you can. The league is
14:40
Speaker 2: going for what it desires most, which is the whole
14:44
Speaker 2: shebang to but it you know, this is kind of radical,
14:51
Speaker 2: is not probably the wrong word here, that this is
14:53
Speaker 2: an extreme change from the status quo.
14:56
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Speaker 3: In that article, you also talk about private equity and
16:00
Speaker 3: maybe that's something that needs to be looked at anyway, again,
16:03
Speaker 3: I'm doubled down. I encourage people to read it. It
16:06
Speaker 3: is so insightful and I'm not that smart, so I
16:10
Speaker 3: read it. Everybody can read it. My question is we've
16:13
Speaker 3: talked all about money. Please don't forget people that this
16:17
Speaker 3: is a sport. Do you think teams do you think
16:20
Speaker 3: owners really want parody? Do you think owners really want
16:25
Speaker 3: to win a World Series? Because the premise of a
16:29
Speaker 3: sport is to win a World Series? Are they going
16:31
Speaker 3: to make money? Absolutely? Are they going to lose some
16:33
Speaker 3: money sometimes? Maybe? But they're keep saying, well, fans want parody,
16:38
Speaker 3: and yet everything's money driven, So do they really want parody?
16:43
Speaker 3: Do they really want to bring a World championship to
16:46
Speaker 3: their city?
16:48
Speaker 2: Yeah? This is another argument you can make here is
16:50
Speaker 2: you know, everybody talking about well Baseball's trailing NBA and
16:54
Speaker 2: NFL and franchise value. Why does the conversation have to
16:59
Speaker 2: inherent be about franchise value. Why do these things need
17:02
Speaker 2: to be treated as assets and investments and that could
17:06
Speaker 2: be a little precious in the sense that they're now
17:09
Speaker 2: worth billions of dollars kind of regardless of what should
17:12
Speaker 2: be in that conversation or what one feels like it
17:15
Speaker 2: should be. That's a debate you can have. The reality
17:18
Speaker 2: is they are they are assets, they are investments. They're
17:20
Speaker 2: going to be treated as such. Do they all win
17:23
Speaker 2: to win World Series? I think they do. I think
17:27
Speaker 2: both things coexist. That sure, these guys want to win.
17:31
Speaker 2: But I'd put it to you this way, if we
17:35
Speaker 2: end up in a workstoppage, if the owners say we're
17:37
Speaker 2: getting a cap, kind of no matter what, here we
17:39
Speaker 2: miss a season of the sport. Every team is losing
17:43
Speaker 2: some hundreds of millions, right the Dodgers are losing their
17:45
Speaker 2: nine hundred million in revenue for that year, and then go,
17:48
Speaker 2: you know, on down the list to the smallest teams.
17:51
Speaker 2: You don't miss hundreds of millions of dollars for revenue
17:56
Speaker 2: for one additional shot at the playoffs. You miss it
17:59
Speaker 2: because you'd like an additional shot at the playoffs, and
18:02
Speaker 2: also it could make you a lot more money. You know,
18:06
Speaker 2: this is a business. I've heard Rob Manford rightly to
18:08
Speaker 2: say that the Major League Baseball Constitution describes him as
18:12
Speaker 2: the CEO of baseball. They're trying to make money, and
18:16
Speaker 2: you know, and we see it in all the other
18:17
Speaker 2: elements of the sport, and it is true here as well.
18:20
Speaker 2: You know Ken Rosenthal put in his column and I've
18:23
Speaker 2: said it to him many times, they're not trying to
18:26
Speaker 2: lower beer prices right, Your responsive to fans when it
18:29
Speaker 2: makes you makes you more money, and the krrot here
18:32
Speaker 2: to make a lot of money is very real. That
18:34
Speaker 2: doesn't mean they don't want more competitive balance, but they
18:36
Speaker 2: also want the money attached with it.
18:39
Speaker 1: So I'm going to finish with a different topic from
18:42
Speaker 1: another recent article that you hit because I feel like
18:45
Speaker 1: you know, with this show talking to you, talking to
18:47
Speaker 1: Ken and others, there's a battle that's going to take
18:50
Speaker 1: a while over a key topic here that revolves around
18:53
Speaker 1: money in the cap and then there's a lot of
18:54
Speaker 1: little things in details that we're just not going to
18:56
Speaker 1: get to and learn more about for a while, right
18:59
Speaker 1: until solved the big stuff. Here's another thing that I
19:02
Speaker 1: think matters a ton to fans because it impacts a
19:05
Speaker 1: couple of new cities and every other team that is
19:08
Speaker 1: in the bigs right now, expansion. Do you think we'll
19:11
Speaker 1: learn anything from expansion out of this soon? And that
19:14
Speaker 1: includes more teams getting vocal about how Earth I should
19:19
Speaker 1: say cities potential expansion cities getting more vocal about how
19:23
Speaker 1: this could actually look. You wrote about Sacramento recently. I
19:26
Speaker 1: think that case in general is fascinating because they were
19:28
Speaker 1: the lifeboat for the AIDS situation. Yet I don't think
19:31
Speaker 1: they're blowing anyone away with their performance in terms of
19:35
Speaker 1: the place being filled up. And I don't make predictions often,
19:39
Speaker 1: but the one thing that I've been saying as strong
19:40
Speaker 1: as possible is Salt Lake City's getting a team. I
19:43
Speaker 1: don't care what anyone says, but anyway, your thoughts on
19:45
Speaker 1: where we're at with the West side of the country
19:48
Speaker 1: getting their team at some point.
19:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, expansion is generally going to wait until after labor
19:54
Speaker 2: And what I mean there is like the league official
19:57
Speaker 2: process where you know, they form a committee and they
20:01
Speaker 2: go through the search and all that. That doesn't happen
20:04
Speaker 2: until you get a new CBA. If you look at
20:06
Speaker 2: the current CBA, there there's already a provision in there
20:11
Speaker 2: that allows for MLB to to go out and expand
20:14
Speaker 2: you know, it's not as far as I understand it's
20:17
Speaker 2: it is not that the CBA negotiation is going to
20:21
Speaker 2: allow for expansion. It's it's almost more practical that right,
20:24
Speaker 2: you got to get the labor deal done, See what
20:26
Speaker 2: your environment looks like. See what kind of asset you're selling,
20:29
Speaker 2: because frankly, if you get a salary cap, you could
20:31
Speaker 2: probably charge a higher expansion fee than you know, the
20:34
Speaker 2: fee that the new team coming in has to pay,
20:37
Speaker 2: then you could if you don't have a cap. So
20:39
Speaker 2: you got you settle the labor environment, You figure out
20:42
Speaker 2: what what the owners are actually buying into, what is
20:44
Speaker 2: the CBA that they're they're uh, you know, going to
20:47
Speaker 2: be participating in uh, and then and then you go
20:50
Speaker 2: from there. You know, handicapping at this point is tough.
20:54
Speaker 2: Salt Lake City does seem to be in a better
20:56
Speaker 2: position than Sacramento. I think that's totally fair to say.
20:59
Speaker 2: But you're going to get all these cities and local
21:02
Speaker 2: governments compete. It's a dream scenario for MLB because all
21:07
Speaker 2: the teams are going to be trying to one up
21:09
Speaker 2: each other, find the most free money public money that
21:12
Speaker 2: they can throw at these stadiums to convince MLB to
21:14
Speaker 2: do it. So the league will be in the driver's seat.
21:18
Speaker 2: And the time to look at is basically twenty eight
21:23
Speaker 2: because Manfred says he wants it done before he's supposed
21:27
Speaker 2: to retire in January of twenty nine done, meaning they've
21:30
Speaker 2: chosen the city, and then if that schedule sticks, twenty
21:34
Speaker 2: thirty two is when teams, you know, you need a
21:37
Speaker 2: few years, a couple of years to build the stadiums.
21:40
Speaker 2: So check back in shake the eight ball, and check
21:44
Speaker 2: back in post labor.
21:46
Speaker 1: That's fair, Okay, so we've got some time there. But yeah,
21:49
Speaker 1: it was interesting to see them pop up, and I'm
21:51
Speaker 1: sure we'll see some others pop up over the next
21:53
Speaker 1: year or so to say, hey, here's what we've got,
21:55
Speaker 1: here's our plot of Bland, all of that, right, I'm
21:58
Speaker 1: sure you'll get the pr emails.
22:00
Speaker 2: The lobbying is underway, right, they're all they're all gearing up.
22:03
Speaker 2: They're all gearing up for that official process. So and
22:06
Speaker 2: it's fair to say we are underway. It's just that
22:09
Speaker 2: official MLB component that's gonna wait.
22:12
Speaker 1: Yep, Okay, cool, Well, good stuff, dude, Great to hear
22:14
Speaker 1: from you, great to get all the details. We'll be
22:17
Speaker 1: hitting you up as this stuff pops up. And have
22:19
Speaker 1: a nice weekend.
22:21
Speaker 2: Good luck to us all.