32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Shutting Down The Las Vegas Strip

Episode Date: February 1, 2022

Steve Mayer is the Chief Content Officer at the NHL. He’s responsible for organizing all the big league events including outdoor games, the draft and All-Star weekend.Steve joins Jeff and Elliotte to talk about some of the challenges with organizing an event in Las Vegas, how they are using the Bellagio Fountain and why they are shutting down the strip, adding ball hockey to the festivities, future outdoor games (including Florida), and what it will take to get backwards skating into the skills competition.Full transcript for the episode can be found here by Medha MonjauryThis podcast is produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.

Guys, it's bad enough with the two of you, but to hear four of you. Welcome to a special edition of 32 Thoughts to Podcast, as always presented by the all-new GMC AT4 lineup. On today's show, you'll hear a conversation Elliot Friedman and I did with Steve Mayer. Now, you've heard Steve on the program before. For the first time, that would have been the Vancouver draft, 2019. And then the second time would have been before the bubble in the summer of 2020. Steve is a senior executive VP with the NHL. He is a chief content officer of the NHL. And that's a really interesting position. So essentially, Steve is responsible for the entertainment package that goes into a lot of what the NHL refers to as

tentpole events, whether it's the Winter Classic, the aforementioned NHL draft, or All-Star. The All-Star weekend is huge for the NHL. It's huge for fans. It's huge for sponsors. And this year, it's in Las Vegas. And that brings with it, from Steve's point of view, I would imagine, a lot of internal pressures. When you do something in Vegas, you really raise the stakes to put on a show. So him and his group are responsible for spicing up the skills competition to say nothing of the game itself. And just so we're all on the same page, All-Star Skills is Friday, February the 4th at 7.30 Eastern. You can watch it on Sportsnet and Sportsnet Now,

stateside on ESPN. The game itself, Saturday, February the 5th at 3 o'clock Eastern. Watch that on Sportsnet and Sportsnet Now, stateside on ABC and ESPN+. Plus, everything takes place at T-Mobile Arena. Well, almost everything. As you'll find out, there are some events outside the rink as well. Let's get right to it.

Here's Steve Mayer, Senior Executive VP and Chief Content Officer for the NHL on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Steve, first of all, thanks for joining us. I know it's a really busy time for you. All-star game on the horizon. You're probably thinking, oh, here we go. These two guys are going to lob goofy ideas like Zamboni races at the all-star game at me here for a few minutes. We will try to limit the goofy ideas. I'm not promising we'll completely stay away from them, Steve, but we will try to limit them. That is our promise to you.

Walk us through your days lately, like leading up to this tentpole event, the All-Star Weekend. What are your days like these days? I mean, I spend half my day getting goofy ideas from people. You came to the right place. It's super busy right now, but we welcome it. After not doing these events for a few years, it's kind of nice to once again be in that sort of event mode. We're in the middle of getting ready for All-Star,

but on the heels of that, we've got Stadium Series in Nashville at the end of the month. We've got the Heritage Classic in Hamilton in mid-March. So this is an exciting period of time. It is so busy. I have to admit, there's a lot going on. There's a lot of movie parts. And because we just never, ever stop, meaning the event is next weekend in Las Vegas,

but I'm going to hear a few goofy ideas today. And if they're good enough and goofy enough, we could put them into play next week. I mean, we are never, ever satisfied with what we've got. So up until the time we do the event, we're willing to change. Okay. So we got lots to follow up out of that one. First of all, slightly off off script you mentioned the outdoor game the heritage classic in hamilton that is supposed to be just before a hundred percent

capacities allowed indoor in ontario is that game okay yeah so what we've been talking to those that are making big decisions in ont, although and obviously they've come out with the day after 100 percent. We are confident based on the current environment that we will have that game played with 100 percent. You know, we are awaiting some decisions, but nothing as everybody listening. And you guys know better than anybody, nothing he stays is 100%. And things can change. And we're being extremely patient.

We remain incredibly confident. We haven't received the official, official word, but we do believe we will play that game with 100% capacity on March 13th. Good. You mentioned being able to pivot and add events. I'm curious, what is the biggest obstacle to doing something new at the All-Star game? Is it budgetary?

Is it the players' skepticism about either looking silly or getting injured? When you have a new idea for the All-Star game, what's the biggest hurdle you have to get over? There's a lot of parties that weigh in, and rightly so. You need a real unanimous vote in order to sort of move things forward. And again, everybody has their reasons for why this is a good idea or why this is not. And so you've got to go through those processes.

You hope that, you know, if it happens to be an idea that was generated by my team, you hope it gets through, but you also are willing to understand and listen why something might not get to the finish line. Budget is always a concern, but, you know, we'll talk on shore a little about what we're going to do in Vegas, where the two things that we're going to do outdoors as part of the skills, we made a decision that, hey, let's do it. Let's do it right. Let's do it big. And that obviously is an added budget to anything that we've done before.

So a good idea, I think we would try everything we can to get it done, and that wouldn't be a factor budget. But there are factors and there are thoughts along the way that come into play on some of these ideas, and you have to sort of respect the opposition if there is one. But we keep coming at everybody with ideas. We always want to make these events better than the last one. And, you know, in this case, in Vegas, you know, we do think we have a couple of nice wrinkles that will absolutely stand out and be

extremely memorable. Does one of them involve the Bellagio Fountain? That is correct, my good friend. So we are, you know, it's been widely reported, and so That is correct, my good friend. So we are, you know, it's been widely reported. And so I'll tell you guys that we're going to do two events outside of the arena.

Yes. So I think that's a nice little twist. One will be on the Bellagio Fountains. So you guys will appreciate this. So what we're doing is we're creating a rink, what will look like a rink, on the fountain. So the face-off circles, the goal, the middle face-off, all those will be hard surfaces of which the game, the skill, will be performed. And imagine that the water of the Bellagio Fountain is the ice. And imagine that the water of the Bellagio Fountain is the ice. So when you look from high above, you're going to think that we built a rink in the Bellagio Fountain.

Really super cool. We're using the fountains as an element of the game. I don't want to give away too much, but it's going to be fun. In fact, going around and now talking to players about their potential roles, we're getting a lot of players coming back or management or team management coming back to us going, hey, my guy really wants to do that fountain thing. So I think that's really cool. And the other, we're going to shut the strip down. So I don't think it's been ever shut down for sports.

We're going to take the strip over and we're going to do an event, which I say it's hockey accuracy shooting meets blackjack. You're going to take a giant truss of 52 cards. We're going to roll it out onto the strip. And when I say a giant truss, I mean it. And the players are going to shoot at this truss. And every time they hit a card, that's their hand. That's their blackjack hand. And to simplify it, closest to 21 wins.

So we're going to have some fun with that. Another really cool big personality event, because I think there's going to be a lot of strategy, a lot of talking, a lot of going after each other. But we're really excited about doing something a lot different. We've never done this before. And it's because of Vegas. I mean, Vegas is the best place. Yep. Kind of break something like this out and do something that's unique and different.

So those are two that we're really looking forward to. Do the players have to bet with their own money? There is no gambling involved. fortune. Do the players have to bet with their own money? There's no gambling involved. You know, I... What they do on the side is up to them. Yeah. Gambling is not a part of this particular event, but

you know, listen, we wanted to combine Vegas and combine hockey and do it in a really cool way, and it's going to be really flashy, really showy. And we're going to have to be really fast and furious in terms of our staff and our operational staff, because we are not getting the strip shut down for days. We were not. So it's going to be a matter of sort of gorilla run in there, get it done,

move it out and open up the strip again. run in there, get it done, move it out, and open up the strip again. But the folks in Vegas have been just incredible to work with. This is an out-of-the-box idea. It's not been easy to get the permitting and all the things that you need to put an event like this on. But huge kudos to everybody in Vegas for helping us out to get to where we are. I wanted to ask you about that because it is a very interesting part of this, Steve. How hard is it to get the strip shut down for an hour?

I mean, however long you're using it for. What do you have to go through or what do you have to do to get that approval? It's not easy. It's not easy. There's a lot, as you can imagine, to go through. And, you know, from an operational standpoint, and rightly so, those that are involved, especially in the Las Vegas side, the Clark County side, you know, they need every inch of how you're going to do it, how tall things are, how small things are, where are the barricades, what are the lanes, how are you going

to divert traffic, what is your plan, are you working with the police, are you working with all the hotels that are in the surrounding area? I mean, I could go on and on. There's a checklist of hundreds of things that you have to do, you know, and that's actually interesting that you bring it up because I think on the surface, you know, our fans, our viewers, they see this event and I don't know if they even care, but to get to where we get to, it's never easy, no matter where we do it, whether it's in the arena or outside of the arena, there are so many people that you need to sign off on. Jeff asked me the question about coming up with an idea. You know, you need so many people to be involved. It's not just, hey, bring the players out, let's shoot some pucks. There's so many factors and you need

everybody unanimously to sign off. So in this one, we knew what we were getting into. You know, we got so much incredible cooperation, guidance. Obviously, the strip has been shut down before, of guidance. Obviously, the strip has been shut down before. But yeah, it's not as simple as just let's do this event. And hey, by the way, we'll be there when we're ready to go. No, you have a lot of preparation and a lot of nuances to make things like this work. I'm curious about the process in all of this. I'm curious about, you know, the thought process, the creativity, how important you think it is to do something different every time you hold the all-star event. What's the old saying? Creativity breaks patterns. You know, if we don't think outside, then all of a sudden the same pattern just get repeated over and over again.

Walk us through how something goes from an idea to actually, you know, becoming an event or part of the event? Like what are the stages that it goes through? Like, you know, you have an idea. What do you do with it, Steve? You know, we definitely never want to just produce an event. You know, just let's get it done. I never heard that. I never want to hear that.

I'll tell you one of the beauties of what we do at the NHL, it starts with where we go and do these events. I think first and foremost, we say we're in Las Vegas. Okay. What can we do in Las Vegas that you can't do somewhere else? Or how do you celebrate Las Vegas? Or what does Las Vegas have, you know, in Minnesota, state of hockey? So how do we celebrate Las Vegas or what does Las Vegas have you know in Minnesota state of hockey so how do we celebrate the state of hockey how do we do things that sort of feel

different because we're in Minnesota and then we can bring to life but again and I keep on pointing to you know an amazing operational team you know I could come up with every creative idea in the world, but it then needs to be executed. And it needs to be executed at the highest level. And again, there's so many pieces to that execution that I don't think people realize. And I'll tell you, sometimes we can't do it. Like there's just something that stands in our way that prohibits us from actually taking it from creative idea all the way to execution. It's something in the middle kind of pushes us aside or waylays us to not be able to do something. But, you know, I think we brainstorm constantly. We're always thinking of, here's what we got. Is there a little piece that can make it better? To give you an example, we're going to do a big opening in Las Vegas and DJ Zedd is going to be on the ice and perform. And there's going to be, I don't want to give too much away, but there's going to be skating Elvis's and Rat Pack folks and showgirls.

We got a whole to do. We got on a call yesterday and we literally changed so many elements of this opening. And it always evolves. There's always another idea that you either consider to say, let's do it or not. But thanks for the idea. You know, that's the best process. And you guys do this every day. You always are trying to think of other things. I'm sure the goofy ideas are about to come, but we're open.

We're wide open to hearing what everybody wants to pitch. Breakaway Challenge we're going to be doing. And that's that event that we did for many years. Vegas was the perfect place to bring it back. Everybody agreed. Right now, we're in the process of going to the players that are going to participate in that. We want to hear from the players. What are your ideas?

But we're working with the players to give them ideas as well. Again, wanting to make that particular moment in skills really outstanding. And Vegas is a cool place to do that. So I hope that answered your question in a very long, good way. But once that idea is on a piece of paper, somehow it's got to come to life. And that's where some really talented people who understand how to bring it to life come to the party and start working. Give me an example of something that you or your staff wanted to do. And someone finally just said, Steve, what the bleep?

We can't do that and you know it. You know, in Vegas, when we were looking at places to do these outdoor events, I wanted to hit pucks off the stratosphere. Oh, that's awesome. That's great. You know, something like that. You know, and then somebody was like,

how are we going to harness our players? How are we going to do this? That's way too dangerous. And it is. And there's a couple of ideas even inside the arena. We were talking about this yesterday. There is something that I would like to do, and it's dangerous.

It involves players and our player safety group. And for all the right reasons, are saying, I just don't feel that safe, nor I don't think a player would want to do that. You know, so we're constantly coming up. We're at least challenging people to say, you know, why this won't work. We'll ask the right questions, but we also will clearly understand why, in their mind, it's a no-go. And then we move on. That was a very fun process, kind of thinking about those outdoor events. Because we definitely wanted to do them.

And there were lots of ideas on the table and some were crazier than others i think we landed almost where we wanted to be right from the very beginning you know there were a couple of the stratosphere ideas that just you know end up on the cutting room floor just because of how dangerous they were i think you have to tell people that harnesses are for wussies, just so you know that, too. I'll tell you, this day and age, sometimes being in the harness, Elliot, being in the harness is actually safer, probably, sometimes than being on the ground.

I mean, I can speak to that. I fell on the ice last year, and I broke. I remember that. You got hurt. Yeah. Yeah, but, you know, the player safety and their health you know that has been you know our theme for a while we're not going to put a player in danger but you know there are some cool things that you can absolutely do and you know just it's worth the ask the other

thing i just wanted to ask you was chara i heard there was a role for him. Then I heard he might not be going. Where does that stand with him right now? Because this is a personal thing for me. I'd love to see him there. You know, unfortunately, he will not be at All-Star. And that decision actually, you know, came from him. And we respect that. Obviously, there are the All--stars that have been picked.

We did add Trevor Zegers to the mix, but unfortunately Zdeno will not be in Vegas. Okay. Steve, one of the things that I'm always curious about are the events around the all-star game and all-star weekend. And one of the things that I'm curious about is, and Andrew Ferentz is part of

this, the ball hockey component to all of this and trying to get as many hockey sticks in people's hands all across North America, not unlike what the NFL is doing with NFL flag, which is a really great idea as well. How much if Wux, I think this is sort of a soft launch for this program. How much can you tell us about what Andrew Ferentz and his group are doing in Vegas? That group is outstanding and they have done for the league and to grow hockey everywhere. It's awesome. And this particular program is, I think, going to be just amazing. Yeah, Vegas is the soft launch, as you mentioned. We actually are talking again about that and trying to do something, you know, a bit significant in Vegas to really gain even more attention, you know, for what Andrew and his team are doing. is another one of these incredible areas and one of the things that we're finding and sort of preparing for the other event. What a hockey head, a hotbed now,

you know, we had done the NHL award for years and years in Las Vegas with no team there. And the difference between then and now, just to see how the community just eats, sleeps, breathes hockey, how the kids are so into it.

And trying to do events for kids in Vegas is really important for the league. Our dance fair, which opens on Thursday, soft launch there on Wednesday with a kids event. It's a really important event, and we're seeing, because of the way tickets are being sold and how families are buying, that this has become a true huge sport for kids growing up in Las Vegas. And who would have ever thought that?

So it's a great place to launch what I think is going to be a significant program for us. And Andrew and his team are doing great things. And, you know, where this evolves to tournaments in different cities and bring our players into the mix where they can participate and work with kids in these various communities. It's really great because it's a little simpler, as we all know, to play ball hockey than to play ice hockey. And it could be a path to get them onto the ice so absolutely yes totally i think it's great and you know there's some big things planned for the future of ball hockey is there anything else all-star related that you wanted to discuss you didn't even ask me about my big music moment.

Machine Gun Kelly? Wow. Is Megan Fox coming? Megan Fox is coming. So we're going to have a pop culture moment at the Vegas All-Star Game. You guys will like this one. Working with his team on the sort of creative, and again, as you know, we've talked a lot about it. This is getting my juices flowing.

It's going to be crazy what he's going to do. Unlike our last craziness in St. Louis with our Green Day performance and some salty language, this is a little more performance art that I think everybody will quite enjoy. You know, obviously he's one of the hottest in music and pop culture. We're like incredibly thrilled that he wants to do this event and he's going to do it and we're psyched. And yeah,

that's, that's going to be another cool moment and all-star weekend for sure. Are there any other acts that are part of this at all? No, music. And this is typical of all-star when we get closer to stadium series. And in fact, the Monday after all-star,

we're going to announce two huge country music headliners, and we're going to have two of them, not one that we are thrilled about. And that stadium series is going to be two of them not one that we are thrilled about and that stadium series is going to be a salute to nashville and country music and we've got some huge plans in nashville we're really excited about that but this one you know typically it's been about the players you know and we got the best in the world coming but there will be some really cool elements the open is going to be, I think,

you know, something that people will remember and be very unique to Vegas. So we're going to have some fun. It's going to be a good weekend. Confirm or deny, you will be getting a full sleeve tattoo in honor of Machine Gun Kelly during All-Star. I deny it. Boo. No, but I am going to get my hair spiked. Oh, very good. Excellent. I deny it. Boo! No, but I am going to get my hair spiked. Oh, very good. Excellent. I'm going to go blonde.

I'm going to go blonde. That'll look good. I think it'll be a little different. It's a different look. Now, listen, even in that entertainment community, and we're going to have a few NFL players, celebrities, a lot of Vegas celebrities are going to be joining us. One of the things that we are finding, and I think it's just the general success of the NHL and how we are becoming

more and more relevant with new TV partner in the U.S., Sportsnet doing an incredible job. You know, I just feel like we're getting those like Machine Gun Kelly who want to be part of our event. And that's great for us. You know, his audience is huge. And if you can get just some of his audience to come and watch our game, we win. One of the things I initially heard was the Pro Bowl is going to be there, right?

And there was supposed to be some crossover. And unfortunately, because of covid some of that gets blocked right but when i heard that idea i was i was thinking good on the nhl for trying to think of something like that i thought it was a really great idea what kinds of ideas were you were you talking about with them there will be some integrations. Oh, good. Okay. Yeah, I don't think we ever felt like we were going to all be in the same place at the same time. But we've always talked to them about some NFL players participating in some of our events and certainly being in the building. And there are a couple of opportunities that you'll see where an NFL player will be a part of what we're doing. And they've been great.

We have literally been working with the NFL for about six months on calls every single week. We've been, most importantly, coordinating for a fan in Vegas the opportunity to never miss anything. for a fan in Vegas the opportunity to never miss anything. So from a scheduling and timeline situation, we definitely worked together so that we were never coming up with an event that would take place at the same time. And we've been very respectful of each other. We have a longstanding relationship. For me, before I ever got to the NHL. I worked with the NFL and believe it or not,

there are lots of people at the NFL on their events team that used to work in the NHL. And it's been awesome to work with them to sort of put a big weekend together for those in Vegas and there'll be participation. I think that if there was not COVID in the air and this was not a COVID year, we'd probably have more. But I think there'll be enough that people will recognize that the two events are taking place at the same time. Okay, selfish question time, Steve. On the podcast, the last couple of months. Is there backwards skating? Stand by.

Over the last couple of months, we've been talking a lot on the podcast and even had yonas brodine record something for the podcast about uh an event revolving around who's the fastest backwards skater in the nhl has that idea come across your desk or found your ears so that listen as you could imagine over the years we've probably considered every possibility, you know, to add to skills. So the answer is yes. Did it come up this year? No, but it's in, it's always in the sort of discussion part of, let's say eight months out when we really start to say, all right, what are we changing in skills? It does come up. For this year, I think because we spent so much time on the two outdoor events and adding that breakaway challenge,

we decided not to tweak some of the other events too much. But for the future, it's on the list. We'll put it on the list. Okay, there you go, Elliot. I'm going to continue to bark about it. Sorry, I'm going to continue to drone on about backwards skating. Yeah, there you go, Elliot. I'm going to continue to bark about it. I'm going to continue to drone on about backwards skating. If there's enough public sentiment,

maybe that would be reason to change. Listen, I'll keep banging this drum. The one thing about the All-Star Weekend, it answers questions. The skills competition answers questions. I always say about this podcast, hey, what does your podcast do? It answers one question, and that is, how does this work?

I look at the skills competition and I say, you break down the components of what goes into a hockey player. And it answers a lot of questions. Who's the fastest skater? Who's the hardest shooter, et cetera, go right down the line. And backwards skating is such a profound element of the game that I look at and I say, there's a significant question to be answered here. That's the only reason that I think I'm so fixated on it, Steve. And maybe I'm also fixated on it, Steve. And maybe I'm also fixated on it because I think it annoys Elliot and I love doing things that annoy Elliot. I think it's actually pretty good.

I got to tell you. And I have to say our audience seemed to really rally around it. So I have to seem to dig it. I have to tip my hat to the audience. Okay. So I have one more thing I want to ask you about outdoor game next year. What are you thinking? I'm thinking I'm living trying to figure out, trying to get some deals done.

It goes back, Elliot, to what we were talking about earlier. Nothing gets done with the snap of a finger. Yeah, and I don't think, again, I don't think the audience absolutely recognizes venue deals, city deals, a lot of paperwork slash conversation, and then all the elements within all have to be sort of figured out before we ever announce the game. You know, I think one of the things that I'll say, and you know, we're getting closer to making some announcements, but I will tell the audience that we are going to have a Winter Classic and a Stadium Series game.

There will not be a Heritage next year. You know, Heritage will be back on the docket in two years. And there are talks about adding games, changing dates. I'm probably giving you a little scoop. We're very open-minded in terms of dates of games, when they fall on the calendar. I think because we have some new U.S. television partners, discussions are out there to try to change things a little bit.

Maybe not on new year's day is what you're saying whether it's winter classic stadium series i mean i think we're keeping an open mind i do think for next year everything is status quo everything will be very similar but i do think moving forward there's discussions about what do we change? And because of COVID and because of the crazy schedules and the years that have proceeded this year, admittedly, we had some plans that got derailed a bit. Games, as we all know, moved. We were supposed to play in Minnesota a year ago.

All-Star game in Florida. Like, that's another one that, yeah. Again, a kudos to Vegas, who, because of how late we had a move on All-Star game in Florida. Like that's another one that you had. Again, a kudos to Vegas who, because of how late we had a move on All-Star, it was one of the few places, admittedly, that you could go in a short period of time. Hotel rooms, facilities, operationally, we were able to do it in a quick, quick time frame where many times you need a year at least to prepare. We're moving toward getting all this finalized. I wish I could tell you where we're going, but that'll be for the next time you have me on. Okay. So I have a couple of other questions here.

Number one, we've had audiences that have asked us about this and I wanted to ask for them. we've had audiences that have asked us about this and i wanted to ask for them they've asked about florida and one of the things that we've said is that apparently the humidity it's just too difficult to play an outdoor game there is that still the case or have you guys been able to find anything that made you more confident that you could eventually play an outdoor game between the lightning and the panthers somewhere in florida so you know flor play an outdoor game between the Lightning and the Panthers somewhere in Florida? So, you know, Florida is a place that, of course, you know, given the two teams that are there, their success, especially this year, you know, we'd love to be able to play a game there. We have the greatest ice making team in the world, Dan Craig handing things off to Mike Craig and Derek King,

that we have the utmost respect for their ability to make ice. It is very difficult and we would need perfect, perfect scenarios to be able to do it in Florida. Again, we're keeping an open mind to it. Obviously, it would have to be a night game. Obviously, you have to go in what could be the coldest period of time. But right now, it's the humidity that makes this really difficult. They get a lot of precipitation in Florida, another piece that would make things very difficult. It's an uphill climb. We'd love to be able to do a game there, but it's an uphill climb in order to figure out how we could protect the ice, potentially in a bubble. There's been a lot of discussion about certain pieces that would make it doable, but

then when you, you know, even if you built the ice in a bubble, you didn't have to pray that when you took the bubble off that it was the perfect day. And that's a big chance to take to answer your audience. Hey, we'd love to do a game in Florida, but right now it is, it is the humidity that makes it extremely difficult to make ice. I loved Tahoe last year. I loved it. Oh, so good year i loved it oh so i loved it i don't care about all the criticism about when you had to move games to me that's just life you try things i thought it was fantastic is that idea back on the radar at all i loved it yes we had some issues with the sun, but the overall look and even looking, somebody the other day showed me some pictures from Tahoe, and it was as spectacular an event as we've ever put on. These games are so special. And you guys know this. You've been there. When you walk into Nashville and there's 70,000 people watching a hockey game, that's pretty good.

You know, and it's not about the business of it all. It's just about bringing the game to more and more fans, whether Machine Gun Kelly's audience is watching or we're able to put 70,000 people in a football stadium. or we're able to put 70,000 people in a football stadium. I do think that as we move forward and expand, the opportunities could be there to add a game here and there in those type of environments. But I think first and foremost, especially now, given the environment of finally being able to do what we do best and not to put on these big events

again you know it's going to be a little time before we go there because we definitely want to bring the game back to fans i'm with elliot it was a super visual like that's one of the things that i think i'll always remember that look uh and that game uh just how cool it looked in the few years you've been at the nhL, I've begun to understand you a little bit. I know that you have something in your head that you're not telling us, that you are saying somewhere down the road, I am going to pull out this whopper if they let me.

What is that? What is it? What is this thing that you have in Steve Meyer's brain that when it ever hits the NHL, whether it's in one year, five years or 10 years, we're all going to say, Holy smokes. You're going to have to watch and find out. Nice try for each. You know what?

We're all just trying to make this bigger and grander and better. We're trying to grow the league. We're trying to, as you guys know, there's a lot of clutter out there in the sports world. You always got to figure out how are you going to do something that breaks through that clutter? How are we going to get attention when the pro bowl is going on and there's other sports going on and if we do get attention which we clearly believe we will we're winning we did our job and so you constantly are trying to do that you know we have greatest league we believe people come to watch our sport they're're fans for life. So you just constantly are trying to say,

like, let's go, let's go. And how do we get some attention in this crazy sports world that we're all in? And so, yeah, there's a few ideas in the brain. Elliot, you know, come on. That was a good try. I really do appreciate that. Stay tuned. Stay tuned.

Stay tuned. You'll find out. But again, thank you guys for the support and appreciate some of the kind words on that. You guys have said just doing our jobs and just trying to keep the league in everybody's mind and do some fun, cool things at the same time

and have some fun. Well, listen, Steve, we appreciate you coming on. And listen, have a great time. I know it's a lot of hard work. You've got a great staff that put this all together. Try to enjoy it. I know it's a lot of stress, but enjoy next weekend in Las Vegas.

We'll be watching. Guys, thanks again for having me on and certainly appreciate it. And yeah, hope the audience loves the All-Star Weekend.