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State of the Cubs (and their TV network and on-field product) · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:06
Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory. Foul Territory Networks Cubs podcast. I'm
0:10
Speaker 1: Sadeve Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are your
0:13
Speaker 1: Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick. We are
0:18
Speaker 1: a week into spring training. Full camp reported on Monday.
0:24
Speaker 1: We have some stragglers due to visa issues. Christian Bethancourt
0:28
Speaker 1: and Moys's by Asteros are is not here. I believe
0:32
Speaker 1: Craig Council said they you know, they're hoping for this weekend,
0:35
Speaker 1: but yeah, not ideal for them. Otherwise, full camp, full swing.
0:40
Speaker 1: The weather here is not Arizona style, but you know what,
0:44
Speaker 1: I'm not going to complain because it's probably still better
0:46
Speaker 1: than although I think it's it's kind of.
0:48
Speaker 2: It's like sixty four degrees on Wednesday and shio like
0:52
Speaker 2: it was. It was pretty nice. It wasn't just one
0:55
Speaker 2: of those like kind of fake out days where it's
0:59
Speaker 2: like thirty to reason people wear shorts like this is
1:01
Speaker 2: a legit like nice springish type of day, like riding
1:08
Speaker 2: around with the windows open like it was a nice.
1:11
Speaker 1: Yeah you're you're missing out, man. It's like the same
1:14
Speaker 1: temperature here and we're all like shivering and Uh yeah, yeah,
1:20
Speaker 1: the mental aspect really messes with you. So on I'm
1:25
Speaker 1: losing track of days. But Tom Ricketts, Tom Ricketts spoke clearly.
1:31
Speaker 1: I have no idea what day it is today, but
1:35
Speaker 1: Tom Ricketts spoke at some point this week. I think
1:38
Speaker 1: it was this week. Uh and and you know, talked
1:41
Speaker 1: about a lot of different topics, spoke to the team.
1:46
Speaker 1: I don't think his message changes that much when he
1:49
Speaker 1: speaks to the team. It's kind of like he wants
1:52
Speaker 1: he wants to get the message across that you know,
1:55
Speaker 1: you're representing the Cubs and hear the standard that you
1:59
Speaker 1: need to hold when you're on the field or off
2:01
Speaker 1: the field. And also the fans are king, you know,
2:06
Speaker 1: like they do everything for them, do everything you know
2:10
Speaker 1: you can to make sure you appease them. Whether that's
2:14
Speaker 1: you know, however however that is interpreted by the players.
2:18
Speaker 1: I think they do a pretty good job of that.
2:19
Speaker 1: Fans Cubs fans are treated treated pretty well and get
2:23
Speaker 1: a nice show. And then beyond that, there were there
2:27
Speaker 1: were a lot of topics that you know, we obviously
2:30
Speaker 1: have a CBA coming up. We have uh that the
2:33
Speaker 1: Cubs have spent a little bit more money. They have
2:36
Speaker 1: high expectations this year. I think that was something that
2:39
Speaker 1: stood out to me as far as the baseball stuff
2:43
Speaker 1: was you know, he expects to win a division, and
2:45
Speaker 1: you know that there's there's the expectations are raised. I
2:49
Speaker 1: asked him, it's like, obviously last year you had playoff
2:52
Speaker 1: expectations or hopes. Does it feel like the expectations are
2:57
Speaker 1: higher this year? And he agreed, Yeah, the expectations are higher.
3:02
Speaker 1: They've done the work in the offseason to put together
3:06
Speaker 1: competitive team and now expectations are higher. It's not just
3:10
Speaker 1: win the division, which they haven't done in a while,
3:14
Speaker 1: it's go further in the playoffs and try and win
3:17
Speaker 1: a World Series.
3:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, and watching that session online and reading your story
3:24
Speaker 2: and other coverage elements. I think these group inviies are
3:31
Speaker 2: always hard because people have their own different questions and
3:34
Speaker 2: there seem to be these two tracks of like this year,
3:38
Speaker 2: this team, this moment which we'll focus on in this segment.
3:41
Speaker 2: Then there was this whole other kind of like future
3:43
Speaker 2: of baseball, CBA looming part as well. And I thought
3:49
Speaker 2: that quote of like we should win the division is
3:52
Speaker 2: definitely one that's going to be, you know, kind of
3:54
Speaker 2: pinned against the bulletin board and either be proven right
4:00
Speaker 2: or people like us will use it when the Brewers
4:04
Speaker 2: inevitably win the division. I'm kidding, but if the Brewers
4:09
Speaker 2: once again outperform expectations and sort of embarrass the Cubs
4:17
Speaker 2: and eliminate them from the division race, then yeah, we're
4:22
Speaker 2: gonna be pointing back to that. I think, just not
4:28
Speaker 2: that Ricketts's tone changes that much, but he didn't appear
4:32
Speaker 2: to be changed that much from year to year. But
4:34
Speaker 2: he did not appear to be on the defensive. There's
4:37
Speaker 2: not a whole lot of drama around the franchise at
4:41
Speaker 2: this moment. Payroll questions have been quieted by signing Alex Bregman.
4:49
Speaker 2: That's a big part of you know, I think the
4:53
Speaker 2: kind of intangible benefit he brings. He takes heat off
4:56
Speaker 2: of the ownership group and as well as the front
5:01
Speaker 2: and I believe him when he said funds will be
5:06
Speaker 2: there at the trade deadline. I think he said something
5:08
Speaker 2: like I've said that, you know, X number of years
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Speaker 2: in a row, and that has largely been proven out
5:16
Speaker 2: over time. Even if the Cubs don't always begin the
5:21
Speaker 2: season with a payroll that fans may want or should
5:27
Speaker 2: possibly expect, given the prices they pay to go to
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Speaker 2: Wrigley Field. I mean this group, or actually different versions
5:36
Speaker 2: of this front office, has delivered at the trade deadline
5:40
Speaker 2: if the team is good enough. And even when they
5:42
Speaker 2: were on the fence a couple of years ago, the
5:44
Speaker 2: Cody Bellinger, you know surge, I think that was twenty
5:49
Speaker 2: twenty three. I mean they went from possible you know,
5:54
Speaker 2: or likely sellers to acquiring arguably the best hitter that
5:57
Speaker 2: moved during that cycle. And Jamer Kandel go back to
6:01
Speaker 2: nic Castianos before he got wore out as welcome in Philly.
6:05
Speaker 2: Everyone loved him in Chicago, and that was ownership. That
6:08
Speaker 2: was Ricketts, like this team needs a shake up, let's
6:12
Speaker 2: do it, and authorizing I forget how many millions it
6:16
Speaker 2: was at the trade deadline, but like this team's in
6:20
Speaker 2: the race, the money will be there. And that part
6:24
Speaker 2: I think is absolutely true.
6:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I think you said it all exactly what
6:30
Speaker 1: I was thinking regarding that, Like he backs that up,
6:34
Speaker 1: he backs that up. Here after a year, when they're
6:36
Speaker 1: in it, they can add a little bit. According to
6:40
Speaker 1: roster Resource, they're like less than a million dollars below
6:45
Speaker 1: that first first threshold, they will go over unless they
6:50
Speaker 1: have a hard sell off at the deadline. It's just
6:54
Speaker 1: how it works, Like you can't when you're that close.
6:57
Speaker 1: It's impossible to not go over unless you're really shedding payroll.
7:03
Speaker 1: And I think it's also important to remember for fans,
7:07
Speaker 1: like this is two months of a salary, Like most
7:09
Speaker 1: of the players that are moved are impending free agents,
7:14
Speaker 1: So you're talking about like even if you're moving a
7:17
Speaker 1: guy that's twenty four million, it's significantly less money that
7:25
Speaker 1: you're actually paying over the course of you know, it's
7:30
Speaker 1: eight million, eight ish million. You know that you add
7:32
Speaker 1: to the payroll, and that's like in it that's an
7:35
Speaker 1: extreme case, like those guys don't really get moved, Like
7:39
Speaker 1: that's not the type of stuff that happens. You're not
7:43
Speaker 1: in all likelihood, you're not adding that much payroll, maybe
7:46
Speaker 1: in total ten million, and that still keeps them under
7:50
Speaker 1: the second threshold. I believe I should check that, but
7:53
Speaker 1: I'm not sure. We've never had to worry about the
7:55
Speaker 1: second threshold covering the Cubs' threshold. So so yeah, I
8:05
Speaker 1: don't think I understand why why he would say, like
8:09
Speaker 1: I believe him when he says that, I don't think
8:11
Speaker 1: there's any like anything like that. He's saying that can
8:15
Speaker 1: be fudged in a way that's like, you know, uh,
8:18
Speaker 1: he's saying one thing but means something slightly different. No, No, No,
8:21
Speaker 1: you can add payroll because there's just not that much
8:24
Speaker 1: payroll to add. At the deadline, you will go over
8:27
Speaker 1: and obviously they have the ability to go over, otherwise
8:31
Speaker 1: they wouldn't be where they are right now.
8:33
Speaker 2: Uh.
8:34
Speaker 1: And it just makes sense, like I do believe that
8:36
Speaker 1: while he doesn't there's not this desire to spend at
8:42
Speaker 1: the top top tier, there is a desire to win.
8:46
Speaker 1: And that's another thing that he said. He's like, I
8:50
Speaker 1: kind of feel like he's like, this team should be
8:52
Speaker 1: competing for World Series. And he said that in a
8:56
Speaker 1: way that it was almost like this should be the
9:00
Speaker 1: spectation every year. We should like what I think the
9:04
Speaker 1: question that was asked is he talked about the facility
9:07
Speaker 1: that's being built. If people don't know that there's a
9:09
Speaker 1: there's a new facility part of the MESA complex where
9:15
Speaker 1: it was they used to have a bigger like just
9:17
Speaker 1: green area grassy area that's been There's now a hit lab,
9:21
Speaker 1: a hitting lab, and a pitching lab built indoor climate control.
9:26
Speaker 1: Obviously that's huge for the you know, June and July
9:30
Speaker 1: when guys are out there rehabbing and they can go
9:33
Speaker 1: and climate control because it gets obviously the heat's pretty
9:36
Speaker 1: rough in Arizona at that time of year. And someone
9:40
Speaker 1: asks like, are there more things that you want to do?
9:44
Speaker 1: Like what more do you want to accomplish? And and
9:47
Speaker 1: basically what he said is world series more world series.
9:50
Speaker 1: He thought about it. That was his response. I think
9:53
Speaker 1: that's the type of stuff fans want to hear.
9:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I give Tom credit for or being pretty
10:02
Speaker 2: accessible for an owner of a major league franchise, like
10:07
Speaker 2: he doesn't always you know, he doesn't say too many
10:12
Speaker 2: off the wall things, but it's important to hear from ownership.
10:17
Speaker 2: It's a way to connect with fans and explain your
10:22
Speaker 2: point of view, and our coverage benefits from hearing what
10:26
Speaker 2: he has to say. Sometimes his answers don't matter. It's
10:31
Speaker 2: as long as the question is asked that even non
10:33
Speaker 2: answers can be revealing as well. But at this point
10:41
Speaker 2: you have a pretty good idea of what the talking
10:44
Speaker 2: points are going to be, whether it's what he says
10:48
Speaker 2: to the team or what he says to the media afterwards,
10:51
Speaker 2: and I think, you know, as we get into the
10:54
Speaker 2: next segment here of you know, kind of where the
10:56
Speaker 2: Cubs fit in where baseball these labor negotiations are going.
11:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's take a quick break and talk about that.
11:06
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12:07
Speaker 1: All right, Patrick, Tom Ricketts spoke about CBA stuff and
12:13
Speaker 1: he and he spoke about marque I was looking for
12:17
Speaker 1: the quote. I couldn't find the exact quote, but I
12:19
Speaker 1: think he he said Marquee was the best decision they've made.
12:24
Speaker 1: He's he's very happy with the product. Looka they've won
12:30
Speaker 1: Emmy's that they you know, I think Boog and JD
12:33
Speaker 1: do a great job. They the on air product as
12:38
Speaker 1: far as the game is, you know, great. I think
12:43
Speaker 1: we expect that from that. That broadcast in general, whether
12:48
Speaker 1: it's Marquee or not, Like the broadcast in general has
12:51
Speaker 1: always been strong financially. You know, I don't know what
12:58
Speaker 1: exactly is going on bere and the scenes, but we
13:00
Speaker 1: do know that there were layoffs and and they shed
13:05
Speaker 1: their entire digital side of the business. Uh. Some of
13:10
Speaker 1: our friends were laid off. Uh. And and now when
13:15
Speaker 1: you go to the actual Marquis site, because they got
13:18
Speaker 1: rid of the digital side of it, and you click
13:21
Speaker 1: on the Cubs icon at the top. It goes to
13:26
Speaker 1: Cubs dot Com. So it's not that they're not producing
13:28
Speaker 1: their own material. It goes to our buddy Jordan Bastion
13:32
Speaker 1: and his work. And you know, that's that's just one
13:37
Speaker 1: side of things. We don't really know every detail about
13:41
Speaker 1: how things are going, but that indicates that things aren't
13:44
Speaker 1: going swimmingly, at least outwardly. That's not the story that
13:50
Speaker 1: Tom Ricketts was really telling us on them and when
13:53
Speaker 1: speaking to us, Yeah, I mean, Marquis is kind of
13:57
Speaker 1: a just the.
13:58
Speaker 2: Whole saga has kind of been a mess. I mean
14:06
Speaker 2: because you look at I forget what he used. He
14:10
Speaker 2: was using phrases like tailwinds and headwinds and things of
14:14
Speaker 2: that nature. But globally, the entertainment industry we all know
14:20
Speaker 2: is unraveling. The Great cable Bundle is almost no more.
14:24
Speaker 2: They're going to try and piece it together again in
14:27
Speaker 2: a different fashion. And Major League Baseball, with you know,
14:32
Speaker 2: one hundred and sixty two episodes a year, maybe become
14:35
Speaker 2: a bigger part of that. But look, launching in the
14:40
Speaker 2: middle of a pandemic, unwinding their partnership with the other
14:45
Speaker 2: sports sports teams in town. The NBC Comcast part of
14:53
Speaker 2: the equation, which the dominant cable provider in the Chicago regions.
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Speaker 1: Just a lot there, and.
15:04
Speaker 2: I certainly wouldn't, you know, the whole home run idea.
15:07
Speaker 2: I think that was the analogy he used. You know,
15:09
Speaker 2: I wouldn't go that far. I also wouldn't call it
15:13
Speaker 2: a total disaster, because there are talented people who work there,
15:17
Speaker 2: and I get what he's saying in terms of controlling
15:20
Speaker 2: your own destiny, like that's what you want to do
15:23
Speaker 2: as an organization, and this gives them that freedom. And
15:30
Speaker 2: this does seem to be one of just a huge issue,
15:35
Speaker 2: a potential trade off or at least a bargaining chip
15:40
Speaker 2: in these looming collective bargaining agreement talks. And it's hard
15:48
Speaker 2: to this is not just owners versus players. This is
15:52
Speaker 2: going to be owners versus owners when you're talking about
15:55
Speaker 2: a salary cap. And also, you know, Rob Manford state
16:00
Speaker 2: a desire to kind of pul TV rights and sell
16:06
Speaker 2: them as more of a national package. And I know
16:08
Speaker 2: he's you know, indicated that he doesn't need all thirty
16:12
Speaker 2: I think our colleague Elvin Drelic has reported extensively on that.
16:17
Speaker 2: But there are say seven franchises. Maybe there's a couple more,
16:23
Speaker 2: a couple less, but that.
16:24
Speaker 1: That drive.
16:27
Speaker 2: Huge audiences. It's not hard to guess which ones they are.
16:30
Speaker 2: And the Dodgers, the New York Teams, the Red Sox,
16:34
Speaker 2: the Cubs, probably the Giants, and I maybe missing you know,
16:39
Speaker 2: one or two more. But like, they're not gonna want
16:45
Speaker 2: to split up the TV revenues, you know, they don't
16:48
Speaker 2: want one thirtieth of that. And so I'm rambling a
16:53
Speaker 2: little bit here, but that's kind of been the nature
16:58
Speaker 2: of these rsns. Like, you know, Crane Kenny's been in
17:02
Speaker 2: charge of this for a really long time of running
17:05
Speaker 2: the business side and you know, overseeing their TV operation.
17:08
Speaker 2: And obviously they've always claimed that there was never a
17:13
Speaker 2: chance to like, you know, take keep the WGN superstation.
17:19
Speaker 2: I don't know if you had a wayback machine to
17:22
Speaker 2: buy WGN. I think that idea may have been kicked around,
17:25
Speaker 2: but I don't know if they would have been able
17:26
Speaker 2: to keep the superstation. That's all kind of ancient history.
17:30
Speaker 2: That's what everyone wants. And then these blackout rules, that's
17:35
Speaker 2: another one too of Like you know, I think the
17:39
Speaker 2: idea of a Cubs Netflix would be an enormous business
17:43
Speaker 2: right of anyone in the world could just buy the
17:45
Speaker 2: right Scubs games. It's not that simple right now. Maybe
17:51
Speaker 2: they'll get closer to that coming out of the CBA.
17:54
Speaker 3: But like.
17:56
Speaker 2: To me and watching that of like Rickett's getting all
17:58
Speaker 2: these different questions of like the team now that's working
18:01
Speaker 2: out behind him on the field and all of these
18:03
Speaker 2: like business labor issues that are all kind of tied together.
18:07
Speaker 2: Like what were your takeaways walking away from that scrum
18:10
Speaker 2: side if uh.
18:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, he didn't have a lot to say, Like he
18:16
Speaker 1: was almost like it was almost like he was the
18:21
Speaker 1: way he spoke about it, it was like he wasn't a
18:24
Speaker 1: part of it. Almost it was like, yeah, I'm going
18:26
Speaker 1: to leave that to them. It was almost like he
18:28
Speaker 1: was acting like he had no say, which I obviously
18:32
Speaker 1: that's not the case, right, Like he was saying, that's
18:34
Speaker 1: the league to decide that the league is going to
18:36
Speaker 1: handle that with the players. But you know that the
18:40
Speaker 1: league is representing the owners, like Rob Manfred's out there
18:44
Speaker 1: like he's not representing the players. It's not Rob Manfred
18:48
Speaker 1: negotiating on his own behalf. I think some of this
18:51
Speaker 1: what we were just talking about with the TV right,
18:53
Speaker 1: so like there is going to be infighting, and you know,
18:56
Speaker 1: in Evans's piece there there were some interesting quotes from
18:59
Speaker 1: from Manfred about that, which, you know, like it almost
19:03
Speaker 1: seemed like a threat in some way, Like he's like,
19:06
Speaker 1: I don't necessarily need thirty teams rights Walt Wall to
19:09
Speaker 1: get where I want. Like that's some interesting phraseology there
19:14
Speaker 1: by Manfred when talking about TV rights and how he
19:18
Speaker 1: wants to handle that. I believe he has fourteen teams
19:22
Speaker 1: and with the possibility of a fifteenth with the Angels
19:25
Speaker 1: kind of up in the air. Yeah, I walked away
19:28
Speaker 1: from it, like not really knowing where Tom Ricketts stands
19:32
Speaker 1: on these big topics. Obviously we know where he stands
19:35
Speaker 1: with Marquee. They like their independence. I think he was
19:37
Speaker 1: very on that. That is going to be a fascinating
19:42
Speaker 1: topic come CBA negotiation time. But I'm sorry, were you
19:51
Speaker 1: asking about Did you ask me about Bruce Meyer? Did
19:54
Speaker 1: you ask me about Tom Ricketts?
19:56
Speaker 2: No, I meant Ricketts.
20:01
Speaker 1: Suddenly I'm like, wait, did I hear you wrong? I
20:03
Speaker 1: like suddenly realize, like halfway through talking about this, I'm like,
20:06
Speaker 1: oh shoot, did I did I hear Patrick wrong? Or
20:08
Speaker 1: did we switch topics. Yeah, no, so no, I.
20:11
Speaker 2: Think it was like revealing that there wasn't you know,
20:18
Speaker 2: any sort of like your bulletin board material there that
20:23
Speaker 2: I think into Intuitively, our sense is that the Cubs
20:26
Speaker 2: are not a franchise that really rocks the boat at
20:31
Speaker 2: that kind of ownership level, that they're pretty conservative Midwestern
20:38
Speaker 2: organization that is, you know, seems to be uh the
20:46
Speaker 2: type of team that would want a salary cap. I mean,
20:48
Speaker 2: they've used the CBT as kind of a soft salary cap.
20:54
Speaker 2: I would imagine that the Ricketts group would be happy
20:59
Speaker 2: with a salary cap to just sort of get fans
21:02
Speaker 2: and media off their back in terms of like why
21:04
Speaker 2: won't you spend more? You see what the Dodgers and
21:08
Speaker 2: Mets have done in the National League. I don't think
21:10
Speaker 2: there's any thought that the Cubs have any intentions of
21:13
Speaker 2: trying to chase them down at the top of the
21:16
Speaker 2: payroll scale. But I think in the abstract, if you
21:20
Speaker 2: were a Cubs owner of under a different sort of worldview,
21:26
Speaker 2: or if you're just a Cubs fan, I think you
21:28
Speaker 2: would hate the idea of a salary cap, right, I mean,
21:31
Speaker 2: you would want to dominate the rest of the division.
21:35
Speaker 2: Financially and have you know, as few restrictions as possible.
21:43
Speaker 2: But you know that's not you know, I don't you
21:48
Speaker 2: would in reading the reporting and talking to people around
21:50
Speaker 2: the game. There are certain owners who are like heavily
21:52
Speaker 2: involved in labor. Jerry Reinsdorff clearly has that reputation. I
21:58
Speaker 2: believe Tick Montfort out in Colorado, he's pushed gone on
22:03
Speaker 2: the record just being like raising his hands, given up.
22:05
Speaker 2: Looking at what the Dodgers have done financially, I think
22:09
Speaker 2: the Cubs are like a lot of things, more kind
22:13
Speaker 2: of middle of the road, and I think it, you know,
22:18
Speaker 2: for consumers will be fastened to see, like what they
22:21
Speaker 2: do with this TV deal. Like clearly the Cubs overhyped
22:28
Speaker 2: Marquee from the start. These promises of kind of wall
22:34
Speaker 2: to wark wall coverage have evaporated. It seems like they're
22:39
Speaker 2: kind of hallowing things out a little bit before in
22:44
Speaker 2: anticipation of a lockout. That is just a perception at least,
22:50
Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, like the Cubs
22:54
Speaker 2: have great content and like people want to watch their product,
22:59
Speaker 2: and they have, you know, an obsessive group of consumers.
23:04
Speaker 2: They attract casual fans as well, like I could see
23:09
Speaker 2: some iteration of Marquee having a very bright future, but
23:16
Speaker 2: right now, I mean, it's just obvious there aren't there
23:19
Speaker 2: aren't gonna be as many games on this.
23:21
Speaker 1: Spring, right there's like a handful of games. Yeah, they
23:26
Speaker 1: you know, I think Friday's opener will be on and
23:30
Speaker 1: and there'll be a couple others. But it's not I mean,
23:34
Speaker 1: when you have your own network and you're not airing
23:37
Speaker 1: every spring training game, uh, it's a little jarring to
23:41
Speaker 1: like what this feels like the point, like what are
23:44
Speaker 1: you putting on your airwaves? Like it this was a
23:48
Speaker 1: network built around the Cubs and they're you know, I
23:52
Speaker 1: mean spring trinking, you know, I know, like spring training
23:55
Speaker 1: baseball games aren't like must see TV. Uh. But that's
24:00
Speaker 1: what like, that's the point of a network. It's like
24:03
Speaker 1: this is for the obsessed, right, this is for the
24:05
Speaker 1: ones the fans that just yeah, I don't care if
24:10
Speaker 1: it's spring training. I'm putting this on in the background
24:12
Speaker 1: while I'm getting my you know, work done, or I'm
24:15
Speaker 1: on my zoom meetings for for work, or you know,
24:18
Speaker 1: you're hiding in your cubicle and pulling up the Marquee
24:21
Speaker 1: app and watching games, you know, at work, whatever it
24:27
Speaker 1: may be. Not having that ability seems like a missed
24:33
Speaker 1: opportunity and kind of going against the spirit having your
24:38
Speaker 1: own network. It's a little odd to me. But also
24:41
Speaker 1: it goes to what you were saying. I think it.
24:43
Speaker 1: You know, the perception is this isn't a perfect business
24:48
Speaker 1: at the moment. I don't know what the next steps are.
24:51
Speaker 1: I don't know what happens after you know, this season,
24:57
Speaker 1: but it clearly does seem like things are are up
25:00
Speaker 1: in the air with Marquee. That is not the perception
25:05
Speaker 1: that Tom Ricketts was sharing with us. It's just what
25:09
Speaker 1: we are seeing and hearing, you know, like you know,
25:13
Speaker 1: connecting the dots. It feels like that's a fair assumption.
25:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's also fair to say, like this is not
25:21
Speaker 2: only a Cups problem. This is trying to like get
25:24
Speaker 2: people's to capture people's attention and to like build a durable,
25:31
Speaker 2: reliable business during this age of you know, technological option
25:37
Speaker 2: is extremely hard. There's a lot, like pretty much every
25:41
Speaker 2: professional sports organization is trying to you know, grapple with this.
25:45
Speaker 2: And I think the last thing I would add two
25:47
Speaker 2: is like I don't think people who run teams care
25:53
Speaker 2: about Emmys at all. And I think people that run
25:56
Speaker 2: networks know that the games are the thing that everything
26:04
Speaker 2: revolves around that and for that whatever three hour window
26:11
Speaker 2: you know, six nights, six days a week, you know,
26:14
Speaker 2: however the schedule falls, like you have to absolutely dominate
26:20
Speaker 2: that that window, and you know, we'll see I don't
26:25
Speaker 2: think there'll be like a huge may have given them
26:29
Speaker 2: benefit of doubt here, I don't think. I don't think
26:31
Speaker 2: the viewers like during those time periods will notice, you know,
26:34
Speaker 2: a huge difference or like since any of that going
26:38
Speaker 2: on behind the scenes, and that in the end, the
26:42
Speaker 2: Cubs have a good team, which makes people like the
26:46
Speaker 2: broadcasts more when they're winning, and more people watch when
26:52
Speaker 2: they're winning. So like from his perspective, like I understand
26:59
Speaker 2: that part of it that like, yeah, the Cubs are
27:02
Speaker 2: going to be playing meaningful games wanted December, sorry into September.
27:07
Speaker 2: You know, they're planning to play playoff games in October
27:11
Speaker 2: at Wrigley Field, and like that is what drives the
27:15
Speaker 2: business that you know, during some of the lean years,
27:17
Speaker 2: we talked about a lot of stuff around the team,
27:19
Speaker 2: like unless you have players, you don't have any of
27:22
Speaker 2: these other ancillary businesses.
27:25
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely. The bottom line is they fans just want
27:28
Speaker 1: to be entertained. And you're right, like the biggest attraction
27:32
Speaker 1: are the games, like and it's and it's not close
27:34
Speaker 1: really you know, so, uh, Marquis is a huge success
27:39
Speaker 1: or not. You know, you can talk about the timing
27:42
Speaker 1: of you know, six years ago when this all started.
27:46
Speaker 1: None of that was ideal obviously, like they they've missed
27:49
Speaker 1: like the absolute peak of it, and then COVID hits
27:52
Speaker 1: in their first season a lot of things, you know,
27:56
Speaker 1: and maybe when when you look at it through that lens,
27:59
Speaker 1: you can say that have done well relatively speaking, but
28:04
Speaker 1: you know, ultimately it's not like the huge money maker.
28:08
Speaker 1: It doesn't seem to be the huge money maker that
28:11
Speaker 1: you know, ten years ago everyone looked at having these
28:15
Speaker 1: networks being this just like I mean, look at the Dodgers.
28:19
Speaker 1: Obviously Shoheo Tani puts them in this other stratosphere, but
28:22
Speaker 1: they were in another at another level even before that,
28:25
Speaker 1: largely because of this amazing TV deal they have very
28:28
Speaker 1: rare type deal that you know, I think they make
28:30
Speaker 1: a ton of money. The Yankees make a ton of money.
28:34
Speaker 1: Not sure who else is even close to that level,
28:37
Speaker 1: but the Cubs were hoping they could get close to
28:39
Speaker 1: that level. Didn't work out exactly in that fashion. I'm
28:42
Speaker 1: fascinated to see what all happens with this stuff. I
28:46
Speaker 1: don't think we have any real answers just yet, but
28:50
Speaker 1: clearly it isn't an obvious obvious destination as to where
28:56
Speaker 1: this word that sends up. But that's a we'll figure
28:59
Speaker 1: that out maybe offseason, who knows. All right, Thanks so
29:02
Speaker 1: much for listening. We'll be back with more Cubs talk,
29:07
Speaker 1: more reports from spring training. Thanks for listening. This is
29:10
Speaker 1: Northside Territory. Make sure to rate, review, subscribe, subscribe to
29:13
Speaker 1: the YouTube channel, and subscribe to The Athletic, where Patrick
29:16
Speaker 1: and I are on top of all things Cubs. Thanks
29:18
Speaker 1: for listening. Everyone, Take care,