Latest / The Dave Allen Show / 04/25/2024 - Dirty Birds and Regatta
Transcript
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- 0:23or WVRC Media. From the studios of WVRC Media. The country,
- 0:30the United States of America, the state West Virginia, the city Charleston.
- 0:38This is the Dave Allen Show on five eighty Lives and your host. What
- 0:44we've got here is failure to Milka's kind of a big deal. I have
- 0:50come here to chew bubble gum and check out got a fall out of love.
- 0:56Dave Allen again, there's a good morning to you. Welcome to the
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- 2:07Well, yesterday the Regatta folks announced their entertainment lineup for Regatta twenty twenty four.
- 2:13Matt Sutton, who is the chief of Staffer Mayor Good One's going to
- 2:15talk about that a little bit later on, plus some other things going on
- 2:19with the City of Charleston. We're going to get into that with Matt,
- 2:21plus some other stuff to get to as well. And as always, your
- 2:24phone calls and text welcome. Bicley Picley Wiggley hotline three zero four three four
- 2:29five fifty eight fifty eight through pharmacy texts three zero four nine three five five
- 2:32zero zero eight. It is opening day for the Charleston Dirty Birds. Let
- 2:38me bring in Joe Garron now from the Dirty Birds Opening Day, Opening night
- 2:42if you will at the ballpark. Nothing like it, nothing like it.
- 2:45We're excited for it, Dave. It's going to be a great, great
- 2:47night. Weather's fantastic. We've got Andy Shay here with us, and we
- 2:50also have our new manager here talking about exactly. Yeah, we got PJ
- 2:53Phillips here. I know Pj worked with Andy over the last few years in
- 2:57Lexington or a few years back, actually my first year working with PJ.
- 3:00And I'm just excited to see the team that he's put together and see us
- 3:04win a lot of ball games, all right, and we're gonna get no
- 3:06PG a little bit later on, Andy, let me bring you in here
- 3:07for just one second if you will talk about the excitement of Opening Night.
- 3:13I mean, you've done a few of these, talk about it. This
- 3:15is my twentieth one in this industry, so it's weird, weird, weird
- 3:19saying that out loud, but I mean it never gets old, and it
- 3:21is you know, I love every single game. I love every single season,
- 3:24and I mean it's kind of a testiment how much I love this industry
- 3:28because I still wake up like a little kid this morning because it is there's
- 3:31one opening day and we've been spending months and months getting ready for this on
- 3:36the field off the field. So I mean, that's what I was saying
- 3:38this morning. When you see the forecast and it's beautiful, it just reinvigorates
- 3:44you that much more. And I may be I don't know if we need
- 3:46a center field or a catcher. I mean, I may be ready to
- 3:49go tonight because I'm pretty hyped up, right now and coach, I'm pretty
- 3:53hyped up right now. Yeah, don't don't look at the body fat,
- 3:57look past that. Look at the heart, Look at the heart. All
- 4:00right, I want to talk to the new manager, PJ. Phillips,
- 4:02PJA. Thank you for being here. Good morning, sir. I appreciate
- 4:04you, and welcome. Welcome to West Virginia. Where's home for you?
- 4:09Where are you from? Rislin, Atlanta? Georgia's Atlanta? And you have
- 4:12a brother that people may have heard of. Yeah, Brandon Phillips played for
- 4:15the Reds. Yeah, absolutely, yeah, and you're rocking the White Sox
- 4:18cap this morning, which is a good because my wife is from Chicago and
- 4:23her family are all White Sox fans, not Cubs or all white Sox having
- 4:28a tough year this year. Man, Yeah, it's not just what.
- 4:30I'm a Reds fan and I said that we could just play the White Sox
- 4:33every every series like we did a couple of weeks ago. Be all right,
- 4:36talk about your background though, talk I mean you said you're from Atlanta,
- 4:40We know that, But talk about your your playing career, and I
- 4:42may have to have you pulled that microphone up just a little bit. If
- 4:44you will go ahead. Yeah, I played about ten twelve years professionally.
- 4:46I started with the Angels, they went to the Reds for a year,
- 4:49then I did the sprayschat with the Dodgers. Then I started head coaching around
- 4:56twenty sixteen twenty seventeen. Was a player manager and that I just just want
- 5:00to get into just managing straight out and been doing it ever since. What
- 5:04is it about being a coach or manager that appealed to you? I mean
- 5:10just helping the guys out. Man. I'm big on just you know,
- 5:13having that team in chemistry, you know. I just love being run the
- 5:15guys. So when I decided to manage, and it was another thing just
- 5:18to keep me graduating baseball. I love traveling, so baseball, you know,
- 5:23you travel every weekend sometimes just manly, that's the main thing. What
- 5:28what's your management style like are you? Are you the in your face kind
- 5:31of manager? Are you more laid back or maybe a combination of both depending
- 5:35on the situation. Definitely laid back. I'm a players coach, you know,
- 5:39I had to let the guys, you know, run the locker room.
- 5:43I come in here and there if I need to. But other than
- 5:45that, I just want guys to be free and to be passionate boy playing
- 5:48all right, Well, we're excited about the season, and I know you
- 5:51are one. You look like you can still play. That's what people be
- 5:55saying, man, But I don't feel it. I tell you that my
- 5:58body. I throw VP a couple of rounds in I'm banged up after that.
- 6:00What kind of injuries have you had over here? Over here? I
- 6:02had a shoulder injury. I had a fresh in my scapelo, so that
- 6:05kind of put me out for two years and I just come bounce back after
- 6:09that. Now do you have aspirations? I guess you you do. You
- 6:12wouldn't be doing this to make it to the majors first off. You know,
- 6:15I just wanted to do it, you know, to hip the guys
- 6:16out. But you know, I'm kind of getting a little better at it,
- 6:19starting learned every year to get better. And uh, I definitely got
- 6:21dreams of being a Billy manager. What are you most excited about with this
- 6:26lineup this season? Oh? Man? Just the guys in general. Man,
- 6:28we have a great group of guys. We got common Guy and throwing
- 6:30the night, We got Kem Barnham, Drew Ellis Delano, the Shields.
- 6:35You got to back up a minute, Lando, the Shields. That name,
- 6:40no, no, not literally, that name is familiar to people.
- 6:43I mean this is the junior of his dad was quite a player back then,
- 6:46back in his days. He's one of my guys I looked up to
- 6:49when I played. Yeah, yeah, it's great to have It's great to
- 6:53have you here. That's what's your impression, Charleston been so far? I
- 6:56let Charlson, you know, a little slower than Atlanta, but little very
- 7:00calm here. You know, the people here nice. It's like you can
- 7:03ask for really well and the dirty birds. Ever since this management group took
- 7:08over, I mean, it's just done a great job of wanting to do
- 7:12things in the community. And I know it's something they've already had you guys
- 7:15out in schools and doing all kinds of things. You enjoy that community stuff,
- 7:18Oh yeah, I do. I mean we've got a group of guys
- 7:20that's used to doing that too, So we're trying to hit it hard and
- 7:24get the guys to come out. What do we need to do to get
- 7:27more young people involved in baseball? P Jamee, Because I mean the numbers
- 7:30are I'm not talking about just coming to a game, but I be wanting
- 7:33to play it. I mean, there's numbers have shown that you're young people
- 7:36that are interested in the sport anymore. What do we need to do to
- 7:40get these young men and women to want to pick up the bat and ball?
- 7:43First off, baseball is expensive. You know, you play a summers
- 7:47five thousand dollars for travel ball. It comes four hundred dollars for a bat,
- 7:50four hundred dollars for a glove, you know what I mean. Starting
- 7:54there, I think that's the biggest thing because when it comes to basketball football,
- 7:58it don't cost that much. You just buy a basketball, go to
- 8:00the court, shoot a couple of jump shots. That's free, you know
- 8:01what I mean. So it's like when you come to baseball, everything's expensive.
- 8:05So I feel like you couldn't have cost on that, and it couldn't
- 8:09have cost on summer au and all that, and I think more people be
- 8:13more affordable to you know, hopefully that's the case because it's a great sport.
- 8:16Nine fifteen Day Island showing five any line brights You've barket by Husband's Pizza
- 8:18where you can get large at Nitch Pepperoni pizza and a large ton Svelt only
- 8:22twenty ninety nine at your favorite Hustin's location. Jill, I want to go
- 8:26back to you for a moment. I want to talk about some new things
- 8:28at the ballpark. Absolutely, what do you got the big one today?
- 8:31We're really trying to get as many kids into the ballpark as possible. Obviously
- 8:35we're family friendly, affordable entertainment. We want as many families to be at
- 8:39the ballpark. So we got the mini golf presented by Pepsi this year,
- 8:43and we also have our Kids Inflatables are kids area sponsored by Quantum. And
- 8:50I want to talk about some of the food aspects. Absolutely, I know
- 8:52I had to. I mean, somebody's got to do it. And you
- 8:56had a little media event and you invited some of us over last week to
- 9:00come over there, my man Rob Real from our sister station ninety six one
- 9:03KWS, and I somebody's got to be the ones to try the food.
- 9:05And we tried the I tried the Ruben Burger. This is the second time
- 9:09you've brought up the Ruben to me. It must have been good. I
- 9:11haven't tried it yet. Very it's a Ruben and it's a burger. I
- 9:13mean what's not the love, right, but the food wise? What are
- 9:16we looking at this hues? So, like you said, we got the
- 9:18ruben. We have these Beniets, which is very fancy word to be having
- 9:22on a ballpark, but it's basically these these kind of donuts truro esque things
- 9:26where there's caramel syrup inside of them. And then we're also going to have
- 9:30pretzel bites this year, and you know you want a burger and hot dog
- 9:33pretzel popcorn. Of course, we got those up the ballpark. And talk
- 9:35about the various special nights that we were playing in this You don't have to
- 9:37give me the exact dates because I'm going to be talking about the Dirty Birds
- 9:41all season. But I mean, is there anything that really sticks out to
- 9:43you? You're gonna be doing some of the favorites, Thirsty Thursdays and things
- 9:46that. Of course, Thirsty Thursday, every Thursday. Every Friday is going
- 9:48to night yep, tonight, yeah, tonight as well, doll it's a
- 9:54dollar for a twelve ounce beer, correct, all right? And then we
- 9:58every Friday is going to have a giveaway to Friday, we have a suicide
- 10:01prevention T shirt for the first one thousand fans through the gates. Every Saturday,
- 10:05we have Mega Blast fireworks and then some other big nights. I'm really
- 10:07excited about our Strikeout Cancer Night. We're still figuring out the details that'll be
- 10:11in August. We have, of course our African American Heritage Night as well,
- 10:15all the big ones that people are used to, and we're just going
- 10:16to try to make them bigger and better this year. And now we had
- 10:18a text here that said, are they having those dollar family nights at the
- 10:22ballpark this year where tickets are a dollar and hot dogs and drinks for a
- 10:26dollar. We're gonna do two dollars on Tuesdays. So two dollars Tuesdays,
- 10:30yep. And just a little jump there. Not much, yeah, not
- 10:33much talk with Jill Garen and we talked without PJ. Phillips and Andy Shay
- 10:35from the Charleston Dirty Birds tonight is opening that we was see him paying as
- 10:39Charlie's this season? Is that a thing? Yes, we are as well.
- 10:41I'm not sure how many times we're doing that this year. I can't
- 10:43remember. And a swing that microphone backer, Andy, just come a little
- 10:48bit closer, you know, off the top of your head, Andy,
- 10:50I don't know the number, because I mean it's part of one of those
- 10:52things where it's not gonna be spontaneous per se, but I mean it'll definitely
- 10:56be part of it. Those Charlie's jerseys are awesome. The Charlie's hats are
- 11:00too good. The guys started putting them on a little too early on us
- 11:03the other day, but I know we were having a good fun with that.
- 11:05With the new uniforms, which are absolutely amazing. I mean we're the
- 11:09one and only Nike team Nike uniforms in our entire industry. So we got
- 11:13a lot a lot of cool stuff that's going on and the gear and PJ
- 11:18we can bring you in on this. The gear is very important to the
- 11:20young guys and and folks in the world of sports. Is it not say
- 11:24if you look good, you feel good, you play good. And I
- 11:28know that because I'm involved with a lot of things at Marshall University, and
- 11:31I know that when recruits come, no matter what the college is, they
- 11:35want to see the uniform combinations. That's a big deal. I mean,
- 11:37you got to show them you got to win football. You got to show
- 11:39them the socks, the gloves, the whole thing that goes as part of
- 11:43it. We had a text here somewhere, let me see, said Dave.
- 11:50I can answer how to get more kids in. First, get rid
- 11:52of travel ball. It's not for the kids, nothing but a money racket
- 11:56killing community sports. Second, up by age eleven or so. They need
- 12:00to rotate the kids and make sure they all get to play positions. Thirdly
- 12:03for nine and ten year olds and need to incorporate pitching machines instead of having
- 12:05nine a ten year old pitch the whole time. Text about the dogs.
- 12:11Will dogs be walking up to park every Thursday, every Thursday starting tonight,
- 12:16and you talk about your group and about your commitment to the city of Charleston.
- 12:20I've loved it in the city of Charleston's commitment to your group. That
- 12:22goes both way. This will be my fourth season of fourth season owning it.
- 12:26It's been about three calendar years, but my family and I moved here
- 12:30about a year and a half, and I mean every day has been getting
- 12:33better and better, more support every day. And then that's where it just
- 12:37goes full circle because then I start thinking, well, what more can we
- 12:39do? And you know, I mean Jill has absolutely taken in a run
- 12:43and just beyond measure awesome with our Dirty Birds and training program, and we've
- 12:48got a massive partnership with twelve different little leagues in the area. And then
- 12:52outside of baseball and everything, I mean partnerships with the library, partnerships with
- 12:56so many schools reading programs. So how can we give back and how can
- 13:00we kind of like take that place in that almost mantle of being the one
- 13:03professional sports team in the city, let alone one of two in the entire
- 13:09state. So, you know, it really keeps going full circle. I
- 13:13mean, the more support that we receive, that's the more support that we're
- 13:16able to give. And I mean it just keeps growing and growing. And
- 13:20I think you'll be able to see that in literally every aspect of our operation
- 13:24now outside of the stadium, the new stuff inside of the stadium and the
- 13:28field, you know, on the field. I was thinking about this the
- 13:30other day. I mean, I think very literally, we have upgraded every
- 13:33single position on the field from last year, which you know, again you
- 13:37know, I don't mean this in any type of way. It wasn't exactly
- 13:39the highest bar, but I mean I think it just shows the commitment to
- 13:43this city, to everything that we're doing, and that so many people again
- 13:48off the field, like Jill on the field, like Delino, Drew,
- 13:52PJ. Everyone want to be here. And I love the fact too that
- 13:56the stadium itself is being used for other things other than baseball. I mean
- 14:01when you had the light the night over there, I mean that was absolutely
- 14:03that was absolutely fantastic. I loved every minute of that. And you know,
- 14:07again, that was a great example of the support that we received.
- 14:09And it's like, Okay, now, how can we do more? How
- 14:11can we make it even bigger? How can we make it even better?
- 14:15Because we do have this amazing, amazing accessible stadium three hundred and sixty five
- 14:20days a year, So you know, how can we I hope no one
- 14:24else on the staff is listening, but how can we get as close to
- 14:26three hundred and sixty five as possible? Yeah, it's a great thing for
- 14:31the city. And then Charleston has such a history as a baseball town.
- 14:35And I was talking yesterday, I had kind of commission Bensulango on. He
- 14:37took part well, he showed up for the home run there. I don't
- 14:41know how well he actually did, but I think my guy, my guy
- 14:45from a hometown, ended up winning the amateur round, so to speak.
- 14:48Chad Acres did a fantastic job over there, and again it's about things like
- 14:52that, not just on the field. It's about bringing you know, the
- 14:54community in for events such as that and all these special nights and concerts and
- 15:00everything that's going on there. I mean, thank you for what you're doing
- 15:03for the city Charleston. Well, I appreciate that. I really do,
- 15:05and I mean, you know, I just want to keep growing and growing.
- 15:07And speaking on that home run derby, I mean the two keys were
- 15:11entertainment and engagement with the team. I mean that was what we said from
- 15:15the very beginning, the very first time the pgn I spoke. I remember,
- 15:18you know, it was, hey, how can we make this super
- 15:22fun for the players? And that literally every one of them's because we're going
- 15:24to have six or eight that are actually participating in it, but that leaves
- 15:28twenty or so or twenty plus that are not actually participating. So I mean
- 15:33every person that came to the game, I mean I think they all had
- 15:37like dozens of interviews and if they did autographs, and if they didn't,
- 15:41it's because they kind of chose not to. But it wasn't for lack of
- 15:43accessibility or the player engagement, which was just absolutely vital for us. Before
- 15:48we let you go, we talk about the merchandising to the Birds, mean,
- 15:50you guys will get so much stuff. Thanks by the way, that
- 15:52for the swag bag they set me in day weekly up with I appreciate that,
- 15:56but kind of following up on what I said with PG earlier, that's
- 15:58a big part of it. Well, and the Dirty Birds merchandise is selling
- 16:02well nationwide. It's been doing phenomenal. It keeps getting better and better,
- 16:04and so that's why it keeps kind of motivating and pushing us. I mean,
- 16:07we want to It's funny. My mom's coming to town today and you
- 16:11know, I was just like, hey, you're gonna have a field day
- 16:14in the store today because we've got all sorts of new stuff. We've got
- 16:18some great brands, and then we've got the fun kind of you know,
- 16:22pushing the limits a little bit more with like a Dirty Bird's chain, which
- 16:25has been absolutely popular, you know, beyond popular, and we got it
- 16:27first Kirk Cousins was wearing when he signed with Atlanta. I was like,
- 16:32man, we're way cooler than that. So we've got our own. That's
- 16:34definitely better than cousins. All right, Andy, I appreciate you being here,
- 16:38PJ. Before we let you go sell the people Charles to why they
- 16:41need to come see the Dirty Birds play. I mean, it's going to
- 16:45be very exciting. We got a lot of power, we got guys that
- 16:48throw a lot of strikes. It's just entertainment, man. We're trying to
- 16:51give the fans a show, and I feel like the more people come out,
- 16:53the more the better we're going to play. So just come on out
- 16:56of support and see PJ. Pvelops again, the new manager of the Charleston
- 17:00Dirty Birds Jail. I'll let you close it out. Just welcome everybody to
- 17:03the park tonight, absolutely gates. You're opening at five o'clock. We have
- 17:07a red carpet that's going to be rolled out for our fans as well.
- 17:10So we're really excited to have everyone there coming out to the ballpark, rolling
- 17:12out the red car a legitimate red carpet for the fans. They're the stars
- 17:17of the show. I know that the Dirty Birds are great, the players
- 17:18are awesome, but let's be honest, we don't have the Dirty Birds if
- 17:21we don't have the fans. In the stands right, we're rolling out the
- 17:22red carpet for you guys all right in Dirtybirds Baseball dot Com. You guys
- 17:26have a great website. You can follow all the promotions, tickets, merchandise
- 17:30and everything on the Wednesday guys, best of luck tonight. It's going to
- 17:33be a fantastic night for baseball in the Capital City. I mean, the
- 17:36weather is going to be picture perfect and it's Thursday, Thursday. The Fairyhawks
- 17:40of Staten Island I think are coming in tonight, so it's going to be
- 17:42a great to a great night at the ballpark. I appreciate you all being
- 17:45here. Thanks a lot, Thanks Dave as we get over to the ballpark.
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- 20:08rich and collaborations with the Honeys invite you to witness he transformative power of Special
- 20:12Olympics. Take a few moments to be inspired to join the collective effort of
- 20:15making a difference. Not just a story, it's a movement of hope,
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- 20:32Bickley Wiggley hotline three zero four three four five fifty eight fifty eight fruit Pharmacy
- 20:36texts three zero four nine three five five zero zero eighth for me knock out
- 20:41a couple of texts here. Uh, y'all need to upgrade the bathroom cleanliness
- 20:47for like a highly used rest area bathroom last season noted. We make sure
- 20:52that they get that. Texas, Dear day, travel ball times have changed.
- 20:59I'm gen X. I play three sports seasonally. Today, by around
- 21:02age twelve, kids have decided I'm focusing on one sport. They play and
- 21:06practice a year round, so they must have a lot of traveling for games
- 21:07to turn a bunch of quote Trump, it's huge, says texture. What's
- 21:14going Matt Suthing is here? Good buddy. I didn't write that out.
- 21:17But I also played three sports seasonally, but not right. And I was
- 21:19talking to somebody about this the other day. I said, growing up in
- 21:22my home county, there were basically three areas of the county and Logan County.
- 21:26You have Logan, man in Chapmanville. Sure, that's that's the three
- 21:30areas. So if you had a road game and you were in Logan,
- 21:33that was a twenty mile drive to Man. Travel ball, yeah, that
- 21:38was travel ball, and primarily you played team Like if you were in the
- 21:42Logan are you make gone like ten miles up the road and now you go
- 21:45one thousand miles away. It's it's different, man, It's a different it's
- 21:48a different world. It's crazy. I mean I have friends to every weekend
- 21:52or someplace. I mean there's some place there where you textans you know you
- 21:56don't want to do something, so well, I got I'm in Charlotte,
- 21:57I got open in Kentucky. I'm and it's like okay, well, I
- 22:00mean it's cool, but it's it is different because again, I don't have
- 22:03any children. So I'm not don't have a dog in this hunt. But
- 22:06it was fun playing three sports growing up different seasons, there were different people
- 22:08who played, you had different friends. But you know, I'm sure there
- 22:11are benefits to this model as well. I've got a buddy of mine,
- 22:15he and his wife, and I may have told the story on the air
- 22:17before, but every weekend they have a boy and girl and they're both high
- 22:22school, middle aged. You know, than that general, all kids are
- 22:23the same to me, And so basically every weekend, like the dad takes
- 22:29the daughter and they head off to Louisville, and the mom takes the sun
- 22:33and they go to Charlotte. I'm just using as an example. Then the
- 22:37following weekend they switch off and you know, the mom takes a daughter and
- 22:41the dad takes the sun. They go to Pittsburgh, they go to Columbus.
- 22:42This is their life. Every weekend. They work out their work schedules
- 22:48so they can leave at noon on Friday. They work you know, flex
- 22:51time, more hours, whatever, so they can leave it noon on Friday.
- 22:52This is what the life is like now for a lot of these travel
- 22:56ball parents. It's just unbelievable. Man. I'm like you, I don't
- 22:59have kids, but it's unbelievable. Yeah, and I think we's so let's
- 23:03transition. Tune in at one o'clock today Capitol Sports Centering announce what's coming up.
- 23:07We'll try to keep some people here in town and bring more people in
- 23:08this one o'clock. One o'clock. Well, I said one o'clock, you
- 23:11said two o cloy Okay, one o'clock today, And no, I mean
- 23:15it's it's true though we see it all We see it all the time,
- 23:18and we see it and it does work. And not to not to play
- 23:21media in transition, but it is true. I mean, the goal is
- 23:23is to is to bring is to keep people here and bring people here.
- 23:26We have the capital of sports center. Not only that, but the ten
- 23:30plus million dollars we spend in turfing fields here in Charleston. Compared that,
- 23:33well you're not compared, but compare that with what Shawn He's done, what
- 23:36South Charleston has, what areas in Putnam County have, and we have this
- 23:38great area for sports tourism. Again, you know, when a lot of
- 23:42these people are traveling. You go to a place like Charlotte, you play
- 23:45one tournament, but you travel forty miles away for each game. Well,
- 23:48we can do that within a five minute drive, ten minute drive right in
- 23:51our own area here. We have the hotels, we're going to have the
- 23:55facilities as soon as we build the Capital Sports Center. So you know,
- 23:57that really kicks off to day one o'clock and it's going to be exciting.
- 24:02But it really is all about capitalizing on that part of the economy because that
- 24:07is what people are spending their money on, and we saw that through COVID.
- 24:10It is recession proof, it was COVID proof. People still they spent
- 24:14their money traveling for their kids, and that's what we want to try to
- 24:18capitalize on as much as bringing people here as it is keeping people here so
- 24:21that your friends don't have to travel every weekend, so every now and then
- 24:23they can still play right here in their home. A lot of these parents
- 24:26that I the ones I reference, would a whole lot rather drive from Winfield
- 24:30to Charleston as opposed to Winfield to Lexington. Yeah, because they stain their
- 24:33own bed that night. Exactly right again. Matt Suther, the chief of
- 24:37staff for the Mayor's Offices, in whether It's today Valance showing five any live
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- 24:57slash apprenticeships today on this Capital Sports Complex. And we've spent a whole lot
- 25:03of time talking about this because this is the single in my opinion and others
- 25:07can disagree, this is the single biggest thing that's ever certainly the biggest partnership
- 25:14that's ever happened between the City of Charleston and Kanawah County. There is nothing
- 25:18like this anywhere near there. And there's just so many I think, Matt,
- 25:22there's so many misconceptions about this, and it's understandable because we're just starting
- 25:26the demolition, you know, process of the Macy's building today. But like
- 25:30I saw all comment with somebody said, well, people aren't going to come
- 25:32here to play pickleball. Well, it's a whole lot more than just pickleball.
- 25:36Pickleball is maybe a part of it, but it's a whole lot of
- 25:38pickleball talk about it. Yeah, So, I mean, I think,
- 25:41you know a couple of things. One is is that when we start to
- 25:44think about what's going to drive the economy moving forward, this is what we've
- 25:48got in our city, in our state, and we've seen it over the
- 25:49last five years, really over the last three years. Entertainment tourism, in
- 25:53particular, sports tourism is what is going to drive the economy in the future.
- 25:56And we you know, we talk a lot, and I think the
- 25:57mayor probably said this on your show, but it's worth repeating. You know,
- 26:00people talk about them all a lot and all the time, and it's
- 26:03you know, when the mall was built in the early eighties, that's what
- 26:04was driving economies in cities. That was what was working all across the country.
- 26:08So people were building malls. Well that's not working anymore. So now
- 26:11what are folks looking for. They're looking for what's going to drive the economy
- 26:15into the future. And we know it's sports tourism from what we've seen out
- 26:18in Shawnee, from what we've seen in the coliseum, a convention center.
- 26:21When we bring these events in. That's what drives it. So what we
- 26:23have to do, you know, here with the Capitol Sports Center, is
- 26:26we start this process of what is probably going to be a very long process,
- 26:30driven drawn out over the next six seven years, of constructing what we
- 26:34really need to be the hub of this on the East Coast. We've got
- 26:37to start with what we know makes what we know makes money. Those are
- 26:41basketball courts, which are which doubles volleyball courts, which can also hold wrestling
- 26:45mats, which can also hold pikeball tournaments. And we have to build the
- 26:48facility so that we have enough to track the big tournaments. You know,
- 26:52it's not you can't put four basketball courts and expect to get twelve hundred teams.
- 26:56You need those eight basketball courts. But oh lucky us, because we've
- 26:59got another ten basketb courts literally right across the street in the Coliseumic Convention Center.
- 27:03So we can all of a sudden, as opposed to having you know,
- 27:06the Colossemic Convention Center, which can host you know, probably when you
- 27:10look at it, maybe sixteen eighteen volleyball courts. Well, now we're going
- 27:14to be able to have close to thirty and those are the type of things
- 27:17where we really start to bring the big events in town and we really start
- 27:19to drive the economy and drive revenue into our city. So it really it's
- 27:25not just about having a couple of pickleball courts here there having a workout facility
- 27:27downtown. Those are nice amenities. That's nice to have. That's what you
- 27:32have so that when your kids are, when you're when people's kids are practicing
- 27:36and they're playing, that the parents can go work out, or the parents
- 27:38can play pickleball, their parents can do their things, or if you live
- 27:41downtown, you can have yourself a gym right in your own neighborhood. This
- 27:44is about bringing in major tournaments into our city to one showcase our city and
- 27:48to showcase our athletes, because that's important. A lot of times when you
- 27:52go to these, you know, facilities that are across the country, you
- 27:55get lost in the shuffle of some of these bigger teams. Well, when
- 27:57you're the host team, you get to stand out to be the ones who
- 28:00shine. And I think that's really what we love here in West Virginia more
- 28:04than anything else, and I know it's true in Charleston, is to show
- 28:07off ourselves is to show off our city, bring people to us, say,
- 28:10let us tell you everything about us. And that's what this is really
- 28:12about. It's not just about having a few pivotball courts or basketball courts.
- 28:15It's about having a facility that will be the economic driver into the future for
- 28:21our sitting for our community. Compair that with what they've got in Shawnee,
- 28:23and all of a sudden, you know, Knall County, Charleston, Knall
- 28:27County go from being able to dabble in this to being able to dominate the
- 28:30sports tourism world because we know it when we live here. Everybody knows whose
- 28:36travels here. The folks from Sports Facility, Inc. Who are the ones
- 28:38helping with the sports center, will say it, nobody has a better destination
- 28:42than Charleston and Knaal County because we have the exits, we have the interstates
- 28:45that run right through here. We have the hotel, we have the restaurants.
- 28:48I mean, you're going to get to stay in the Marryotte, walk
- 28:52across the street and be able to play in your tournament. There's no other
- 28:53city in the country you can do that with. So it really is we've
- 28:57got it all. What we don't have are the anchor facility, the indoor
- 29:00anchor facility to make sure that we can drive this economy. And that's what
- 29:03we're going to start to build today. We had a text here that said
- 29:06we'll do sports complex, have batting cages and pitching mounts, not not permanent
- 29:11bounty cages and pitchers mounds. But the nice thing about when you just sort
- 29:15of have a court type facility is you can you can bring those in.
- 29:18You can have stations where you're able to be able to put up nets and
- 29:22to have batting to make batting cages like they do in some areas. They
- 29:26won't be dedicated just to that, but you'll have the space to be able
- 29:29to do that because the very multipurpose in terms of when you put down a
- 29:33court, it could be very multipurpose. Texas Nitro has put nine million dollars
- 29:37in sports complex turf fields, tennis and pick a ball courts, basketball courts.
- 29:41Largest pickaball courts and tournaments are at the courts of Nitro. Absolutely there
- 29:45are awesome and I know people who go up every week from Charleston to Plate
- 29:48to play pick a ball and tennis at Nitro and they've done an amazing job.
- 29:52I mean, they have done amazing job. And I think they've talked
- 29:55about they can put a dome over there, a little bubble or something over
- 29:59top of that too as well. So that's gonna be that's gonna be huge.
- 30:00I mean, that's that's a it's a great facility. And again to
- 30:03your point, you know, we we sometimes think it's a you know,
- 30:08whole state of way to go from Charleston and Nitro. But it's like ten
- 30:11minutes, right, so it's easy to do. Every Sunday, I sometimes
- 30:15longer, yeah, sometimes, but every Sunday I drive out to tes Valley
- 30:18and play tennis. The group group of guys come down from Ashland, Kentucky
- 30:21and Barbersville and the group us come up fro Charlston and we meet in tes
- 30:22Valley. We play. Everybody drive twenty minutes and we're and we're playing tennis
- 30:26for two hours. It's it's great and it's it's best for everybody. And
- 30:29again, and I know the mayor has talked about this, and I have
- 30:30talked about this independent is that what is good for Charleston is good for South
- 30:37Charleston and Saint Albans and Windfield and all these areas. I mean take it
- 30:41on. I mean, I'm a big believer in the whole Vantage Valley thing,
- 30:42all right, and I think that, uh, you know, I'm
- 30:45one of my one of my really good friends is the mayor Barbersville, the
- 30:48village of Barbersville, Chris Tatum. I talked to Chris a lot, and
- 30:52what they're doing down there with sports, tourism and this stuff is amazing.
- 30:56I mean they're I mean, Barbersville is doing really really well right now.
- 30:57It's great. And when people say, oh, they've got this in Barbersville,
- 31:00the response is that, well, we should have in trust. It's
- 31:03great. Let's go down to Barbersville. I mean, let's go down there
- 31:06and support their economy because they come here and support ours as well. It
- 31:08can't be all or nothing. None of us are big enough by ourselves to
- 31:12be all or nothing. We have to be in it together. In that
- 31:15Advantage Valley quarter as you called it, which is very appropriate from you know,
- 31:18Cabal County on down the canal is the key to our future and we
- 31:22all have to be in it together. And I think we're finally to the
- 31:26point that everybody is working on the same page. I mean, yeah,
- 31:29Now, today, as you said one o'clock, there is going to be
- 31:32a press conference where for those that mad, of course we'll be covering it
- 31:34on the news and whatever. But for people that can't make the press conference,
- 31:37what's going to be said today. So the biggest thing I think we're
- 31:40going to talk about it is sort of the Sports Center Authority taking ownership of
- 31:45the MA season and the start of the demolition process, which is the official
- 31:48start and kickoff of the event. The mayor will be there, Commissioner Selango,
- 31:53Commissioner Carper I believe, unfortunately Commissioner really won't be able to be there.
- 31:57Not unfortunately, congratulations to him because I think on Facebook he's having a
- 32:00baby today. Wife is his wife is yes, Yeah, Center Center mansion
- 32:05will be there. I think a lot of what we're going to hear today
- 32:07is sort of the setting up for the next steps of what we're going to
- 32:10see into the future and what we're going to see what this process is going
- 32:14to look like as we move forward. It's not gonna it's not going to
- 32:17come down tomorrow and be built the next day. It's going to take some
- 32:20time, but it's really about coming together to celebrate the start of this and
- 32:25really start to generate the interest and need because one of the biggest things I
- 32:30think, and it's very and it's very valid, is that people needed to
- 32:34see progress. And this is progress, and we're going to see it today.
- 32:37This is the first step of many, but this is what's going to
- 32:38get it going. And really, now that the ownership of the Macy's parcels
- 32:42taking place and demolition has started, now we can really go out as a
- 32:46city and as a county is a sports authority and as a community and start
- 32:50to do some private fundraising for the for the facility, do some with public
- 32:54as federal and state dollars as well as city and county to make sure that
- 32:58we have the appropriate funds to do this where we feel very comfortable that we
- 33:00will. But you're going to start to see that first step today and what
- 33:04we'll see moving forward. And you're a Charleston guy, is that right?
- 33:07Are you? Are you originally from that? Absolutely? Yeah? Born and
- 33:09raised here? Okay, all right? And so you've got a unique perspective
- 33:13because I was talking to the commissioners Salango yes today and talking to me or
- 33:16a good one not originally Charleston folks. But as they say, got here
- 33:21as quickly as they could. Uh So, as a Charleston guy, you
- 33:24remember, you remember the town Center in its and it'd say, to give
- 33:30me some of your memories. Yes, I mean I think, you know,
- 33:32the when I think of the when I think of the Town Center,
- 33:35I really think of those of those days where the whole family went down.
- 33:38We went to go to one particular purpose and then we would you'd get to
- 33:43eat at whatever. You know, eating a food court in those days was
- 33:45great, right, you get to eat whatever you want. Everybody got something
- 33:46different, and then everybody got to go to their own shops and then you'd
- 33:50say, okay, we're all going to meet here and come back. Right.
- 33:52So somehow you did it with that text text is yeah, and you
- 33:55know, without smart watches or anything like that, so it really just said
- 33:59be here two. Yeah. But I mean, you know the Santa photos
- 34:05and the Easter Bunny they used to have. You know, I'm a big
- 34:07sports card collector. We used to have card shows in them all every now
- 34:09and then. You would you know, that's always where you went to.
- 34:14Uh. Pro image I think was the sports store back then. I think
- 34:17was the name of it. So that's where you go get your hats,
- 34:20and you know, it's the lives of the of the early days. But
- 34:22it really was a great place for for to just go and to be able
- 34:27to to to to shop and do all that. I think it's a little
- 34:30bit different perspective than people who weren't quite from here, because for me it
- 34:32was easy access. Right. For a lot of folks they were like,
- 34:35well, you made a trip to come to Charleston and do that. But
- 34:38you know that that was good. But they, as I said, nothing,
- 34:42nothing lasts forever. That was that was what was a driving economies.
- 34:45But if you try to continue to go against the grain, if you just
- 34:50try to say, okay, well you know you're going to continue to do
- 34:52large scale retail and everything like that, that's not what works anymore. It's
- 34:55just not. I mean, you we we can want it to, but
- 34:58it's just not. And and frank, you know when you look at geographic
- 35:01regions that people say, well, Barbersville's got them all. Yeah, and
- 35:05that's good, but you're not going to see shops set up, you know,
- 35:07twenty five thirty minutes thirty thirty five minutes from each other, because they
- 35:09don't have to anymore. They become destinations. It's got to reinvent itself.
- 35:14It's got to become something new. Our job as a government is to create
- 35:17a an environment in which something new can come in. And that's what we're
- 35:21doing with the Capitol Sports Center is to creating something that's going to put people
- 35:24in that general vicinity. The Coliseumic Convention Center does it. The Capitol Sports
- 35:29Center is going to do it, and then hopefully the mall will reinvent itself
- 35:31into whatever it needs to be moving forward, because it's not going to be
- 35:36a large scale retail space. It's just not because they don't exist anymore.
- 35:38I mean, the Mall of America is changing its model. I mean the
- 35:42largest model country. May yesterday talking with Matt Sutton, who's the chief staff
- 35:47for Charles Mary Amy Goodwin. Can you hang out with me here one second?
- 35:50Be got to talk where gods. Absolutely, Yeah, that's what I
- 35:52came. We're talking about, and then we kind of get off out of
- 35:54tangent somewhere. But Dave alland Jill in five eighty nine percented department by Pinnacle
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- 36:15what you don't know can hurt you back after this and The Voice to Charleston
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- 37:01in the House of Delegates. We need Mark Carter in District fifty seven.
- 37:07Hi. I am Mark Carter as a conservative lawyer. I am a strong
- 37:10supporter of life, faith and the Second Amendment. Mark Carter was appointed to
- 37:15national offices by both President Donald Trump and President George W. Bush. Let's
- 37:21elect a new Conservative Republican to the House. I am Mark Carter, and
- 37:25I would appreciate your vote for House of Delegates. Paid for by Mark Carter.
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- 38:30right the first time. Our children and families deserve leaders on the Kanaal County
- 38:35Board of Education, and Kate White is a leader that our families can trust.
- 38:38Kate White fights for safer schools for our kids, in the best education
- 38:42for our children and teachers in Kanall County. Kate White is a wife,
- 38:45a mother, and a leader in our community. Kate White understands our families
- 38:50and will deliver a world class education for all of us. Let's vote for
- 38:52better education and a brighter future in Kannall County. Let's vote for Kate White
- 38:57for Kannall County Board of Education. Or about the committee to elect Kate White
- 39:00for school Board. Phone calls to Dave Island chillis service of big Ley,
- 39:07Pigley Wiggley and texting service that provided by Fruit Pharmacy. You're a hometown family
- 39:10pharmacy. We have Matt Sutton, the chief of Stafford Area good One here
- 39:15with us this morning. Tech says mister Sutton. Will the taxpayer funded new
- 39:19sports complex also be managed by an out of state firm. There haven't been
- 39:23a decision made on who's going to manage the front move Avenge the sports center
- 39:28moving forward, but it will need professional management for sure. I mean we've
- 39:31saw that with how the Collegeum the Convention Center runs. Once we got the
- 39:35sort of the professional management that came in, not that they didn't do a
- 39:38good job there in the past, but really started to put a focus on
- 39:42making sure you book as many dates as possible and having access to an entire
- 39:47country worth of options people who have long reach is important. So I think
- 39:52that yeah, at some point or another, there will be a decision made
- 39:54on who's going to manage it, and that will need to be a professional
- 39:58outfit whose job solely is to book that facility before we get and I promise
- 40:01we're going to get to reg God, I promise your take. You were
- 40:05surprised, as everybody else was. I had the Mayor on talking about the
- 40:07closing of Chop House and Tidewater Grill Saturday night. Yeah, it's sad.
- 40:12It was complete end of an era. I know it's complete in the air
- 40:15in my life. I mean, they've been opened pretty much as long as
- 40:16I can remember, celebrated birthdays at Tidewater. A lot of a lot of
- 40:22early business lunches in my career were at Tidewater. I remember a lot of
- 40:25those. And it is it's not It's never fun. I don't care whether
- 40:30it's somebody who's been open for forty years or somebody has been open for four
- 40:35years or for four months. Any business that closes is sad. As a
- 40:37husband of a small business owner, I know how hard it is and how
- 40:42tough those decisions are to be able to make. But you know, you've
- 40:45got to remember the good times that you had and then it's not you know,
- 40:51tide Water and Chop House closing, is it really hurts our city because
- 40:54they were landmarks in our community. But you know what, we also have
- 40:59a lot of other restaurants that have stepped up to try to help the workers
- 41:01who were there. Oh yeah, and to me, that everywhere, everywhere,
- 41:05and that was the most impressive thing. And that's always what West Virginias
- 41:07do is that, you know, they step up and they help each other.
- 41:09Uh. And you know, as soon as that happened, I saw
- 41:13dozens of restaurants throughout basically Huntington on down trying to reach out, saying and
- 41:16even into some of the Logan County area where people were reaching out and saying,
- 41:20come work for us. And I think that's great and hopefully most of
- 41:22those folks have been able to do that. It is sad, but at
- 41:25the same time, you know, businesses have to run, and businesses open
- 41:29and close, and what we have to do is create something that will will
- 41:31will allow for the next generation of Tide Water and Chop House to open,
- 41:36who will be up and open for the next forty or fifty mons. One
- 41:38more question about sports center. A text wants to a one percentage of the
- 41:42cost of the sports complex will be tax dollars. You know, that's a
- 41:45good that's a good question. I mean, I think what we're gonna end
- 41:46up, what you're gonna end up seeing, is a large mix of funding.
- 41:50I mean, the county and city have already put five five million dollars
- 41:52in each. We got a Congressional director and spending request from Center Mansion and
- 41:57Center Capital for two million dollars. There's going to be more requests made of
- 41:59the of the federal government, There'll be some private fundraising, and at the
- 42:02end of the day, the city in the county will have to see what
- 42:05the difference is and then split what will be necessary. I think that I
- 42:07know from the city's perspective, we have revenue sources that are readily available to
- 42:10us that will allow us to be able to fund this without having to raise
- 42:15a single dime of taxes on anybody. And I think that's going to be
- 42:19the key. One thing that we've seen and when we looked at this,
- 42:22is that we're generating so much revenue from the events that alreadyccurred to Colisseuno Convention
- 42:27Center, from the events that we're seeing throughout town through the growth of our
- 42:30downtown communities in the Summer Street and Capitol Street, from what's going over to
- 42:32Ballpark, and from everything that's occurring in our city. We're seeing our revenues
- 42:36increase. So we have the ability to go out and continue on bonds that
- 42:40already exist, to be able to extend those into the future without having to
- 42:44raise anything, and still be very conservative in our projections moving forward, because
- 42:47the key we want to do with this is we want to put ourselves into
- 42:51a position where when that facility opens, it's ready to start to operate so
- 42:54that it can start to generate revenue for our community. It's not just about
- 42:57the facility making money, it's about everybody around it making money as well.
- 43:00So well, that still yet to be seen, but there will be some
- 43:04some dollars that have to come, mostly through probably bonds. But the good
- 43:07news is, like I said, we already have the revenue necessary to generate
- 43:09more than enough money out of the out of the revenue we currently get to
- 43:13be able to pay for the Fort Sports Center. Matt jeff Jenkins has the
- 43:16lead story this morning wv Metro News dot Com. The Public Service Commission is
- 43:21out with their report that Mountaineer Gas did act appropriately and reasonably last November with
- 43:27the gas of water situation on the West Side. You can read the Jeff's
- 43:30entire story wv metronews dot com that was just from the gas aspect of the
- 43:35water is still to come. I guess any comment from you on that and
- 43:37then I promise we'll talk. For god, I haven't got to read the
- 43:40report obviously, Jeff. Jeff is probably the most trusted reporter in the state.
- 43:44So if he's saying it, I believe that. I'll believe that was
- 43:46the result of the report. Yeah, yeah, yeah, So I haven't
- 43:50got the chance to see it yet. I will say this. You know,
- 43:52working with the gas company during that entire entire process, uh, it
- 43:55was very It was very slow. It was very difficult. A lot of
- 43:58folks. They were doing everything they could at the time to be able to
- 44:00remedy the problem and working as fast as they could. And they, you
- 44:05know, every time that they thought they had solutions, they ran into more
- 44:07problems that you know, we're just unforeseen. But it wasn't that they weren't
- 44:12working at it. They worked very hard to try to get it done quickly
- 44:15as possible and get people back, you know, safe into their homes.
- 44:19So haven't got to see the report, but you know, I will say
- 44:21from our end as we were, we were happy with the work and the
- 44:23gas company did to Dave Allan Hill and five any line brought to you apart
- 44:27about General Hardware Windfield and Milton a General Lumber of Winfield planning a project this
- 44:30spring, please remember the shop locally. Visit General Hardware WV dot com.
- 44:35We're going to take a break and then we are going to talk for God,
- 44:37I promise right after this and the boys at Charleston w c HS.
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- 45:47four sixty five or visit WATERBOYWV dot com to see how affordable it is to
- 45:52give your family safe, healthy water. That's Waterboy WV dot com. Trump's
- 45:58plan to stop we'll gender ideology from poisoning our kids. Will investigate Big Farmer
- 46:04and the Big hospital networks that participate in sex transitions of minor children, and
- 46:09big farm as lobbyists should be held accountable too, like Pat Morrissey. As
- 46:14a DC lobbyist, Morrissey helps steer taxpayer funds to a gender transition clinic for
- 46:20children and got rich lobbying for a drug company peddling puberty blockers. Morrissey's family
- 46:25still owns the DC firm that lobby's for a child transition provider with a clinic
- 46:30in West Virginia. Pro transliberal lobbyist. That's Pat Morrissey, the pro Trump
- 46:37conservative businessman Chris Miller. Miller supports Trump's plan to protect our kids. As
- 46:43the father and the eleven year old girl, You're darn right, I don't
- 46:45want her sharing a locker room with biological mails. Both doctors are literally practicing
- 46:51mutilation, not medicine, and they should be in prison. I'm Chris Miller
- 46:54and I'll sign that lass Governor paid for by Miller for Governor Night. This
- 46:58is doctor Casey sax. I worked in the Trump administration at the US Department
- 47:01of Education and now I'm dedicated to ensuring every child in Connaught County receives equality
- 47:07education. Vote for doctor Ksey Sacks for school Board. On May fourteenth,
- 47:10paid for by the Committee to Elect Ksey Sacks, join the talk show of
- 47:14record in West Virginia. Talk Line with Hoppy Kirchible get in depth coverage of
- 47:16statewide politics, news and hot topics, some insightful interviews, tovely discussions.
- 47:22We tackled the issues that matter. Turned in and join the conversation on talk
- 47:24Line with Hoppy Kerchivle only on five ad wchs Todave Allen Show in five It
- 47:30and I brought to you apart by a live Healthy West Virginia presented by WVU
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- 47:38chief of staff for the Good Administrations here all right, I promise we'd get
- 47:42to it. It's forgot a time as well. It's not for time.
- 47:44It's time to announce the entertainment. And it happened yesterday during a big press
- 47:49conference over four points by Sheridan. You got Shaggy that's going to be there.
- 47:53You got the Beatles Tribute, the Fab four as they're called, is
- 47:59going to be there. And I'm going to go ahead and give Chris Janey
- 48:01his friend of mine the credit for the first He's the first one I saw
- 48:04post this online said, how ironic is it that we're having the British invasion
- 48:07on the fourth of July, But nonetheless Eddie Montgomery of Montgomery Gentry is going
- 48:14to be there. My goodness, how many hits do those guys have Eddie?
- 48:17Of course, following the death of Gentry, Eddie Montgomery continues with that
- 48:22and then this nineties thing. I love the nineties Saturday Night Vanilla Ice,
- 48:27Trades of Naughty by Nature, Tone Loke Young MC. I mean, yeah,
- 48:32yeah, and it is a really exciting lineup. And I think,
- 48:37you know, over the last two years and regard this is you know,
- 48:39people remember this is the third year back of the newly former God. Obviously
- 48:44the God had had decades ahead of it, but with the newly formedas our
- 48:46third year, we look back at the last two years and you see what
- 48:50works, right, We see what brings people out to the boulevard. We
- 48:52see what brings people to town. You know, the regd of very much
- 48:54is a celebration at Charleston. But what we like more than anything else is
- 48:58when people come from other areas to help us celebrate Charleston. So when we
- 49:00look at that, you start to sit down and figure out what is what
- 49:05are the type of acts that will that will generate people to the boulevard,
- 49:07which puts people into our local restaurants, puts them into our local bars,
- 49:12helps them buy beer at the regatta, helps them take their kids on the
- 49:14carnival ride or go on the car ride themselves and spend the night into our
- 49:17into our hotels, and really trying to put the acts together is about having
- 49:22something where everybody can come down and have a good time, sing along with
- 49:23the songs that you know, be able to see artists that you that you
- 49:27know and that you've heard of, and appeal to the to the broadest base
- 49:30of the public. You know, everybody's not going to be every night.
- 49:34It's not going to be for everybody. But the hope is is that one
- 49:36night is for somebody, and that that's the key and putting it together and
- 49:38with this nineties thing, I mean when you start talking about people like Vanilla
- 49:42it's fun fact. Vanilla Ice was the homecoming act when I was at Marshall
- 49:46University in nineteen ninety. When they signed Vanilla Ice, everybody was like,
- 49:51who the heck is Vanilla Ice. By the time Homecoming came around, Ice
- 49:53Height's Baby was the number one song in America. And again there's you're never
- 49:59gonna use everybody. I get that, and I one hundred percent and a
- 50:02lot of chatter on it online, you know, about whatever. But here's
- 50:05the thing about it. Those people that were fans of these acts when they
- 50:08were new are now in their forties yea, and they got kids and they
- 50:12spend money. Yeah, So I mean the thing about it is when you
- 50:15know, you don't just start picking out names out of a hat. The
- 50:17Regatta commission every year, you know, they have a marketing committee, and
- 50:22that marketing committee puts together a marketing plan for the year, and they for
- 50:24the regatta, and they look at who is the target audience, Who do
- 50:28we want to come down to the boulevard. Who are the ones who are
- 50:30going to be able to have the most impact in our community, And you're
- 50:32absolutely right. It is the people who are that thirty five to fifty five
- 50:37who have a couple of kids, who will come down and bring out the
- 50:39entire family. And they're the ones who have the disposable income. You know,
- 50:43again, not to get too much into the world. But people you
- 50:45know, you know, I've talked about this. I collect sports cards a
- 50:46lot, and cards from when I was growing up in the late eighties and
- 50:50early nineties are now really expensive because people who are my age can now afford
- 50:53them. We could afford them back in the day. We couldn't afford a
- 50:55ten dollars card now, but now we can be able to afford it.
- 50:58And the same is true. We're seeing these touring acts all over the country
- 51:01and they really are a lot of the nostalgiacts. Look what we just saw
- 51:05with Journey and Toto over at the Colisseum Convention Center is a prime model of
- 51:09this. These folks are being booked all across the country, and they're not
- 51:13just doing fairs and festivals. I Love the Nineties is selling out venues all
- 51:15across the country. The Fab four, yes they're a tribute man, but
- 51:19they're selling out twenty five hundred three thousand seed venues all across the country because
- 51:22it is that nostalgia and it is the closest thing you're going to see to
- 51:24be it in a Beatles concert, which none of us are ever going to
- 51:27be at again. They don't exist, so it's the closest we're going to
- 51:30get. And so the couple things that we look at one is is that
- 51:32what is that that's going to bring people of the audits who are the target
- 51:36market. And then looking at too, what are the acts that haven't been
- 51:38in this area for a while. You know, you could have noticed that
- 51:40I Love the ninety tour hasn't been in this general market for a while.
- 51:44We haven't seen Montgomery Gentry featuring a Montgomery in this market for a while.
- 51:49We haven't seen Shaggy in the Fab four haven't been here. So it is
- 51:51one of those things that it's like, Okay, people who are an hour
- 51:53away, an hour and a half away are going to say, well,
- 51:55this is my chance to go see them, and oh, by the way,
- 51:57it's free. And that's the biggest part to it. People going to
- 51:59come to and see our concerts for free and spend their money and spend their
- 52:01stuff in our local communities instead of spending it on tickets. And and you
- 52:06know, social media is what it is today, so it is what it
- 52:08is. We're good at giving people fodder, but that means you're out there
- 52:12doing things, and it's giving people stuff to talk about the most important thing
- 52:15is is we'll find out July third, July fourth, July fifth, and
- 52:19July sixth how successful they were. And that's when people show up on the
- 52:21boulevard because remember we heard these exact same things last year, and then we
- 52:24saw what flow Rider and Jody Messinam brought in five thousand people. You know,
- 52:29man, I appreciate you, Man, thank you a lot. Today
- 52:30valence showing five day Lives has been brought to you apart by Morgan and Morgan
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