32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Up In Flames

Episode Date: June 23, 2023

Jeff and Elliotte are joined by Vegas Golden Knights owner, Bill Foley, to talk about his Stanley Cup prediction (40:00), who is in charge of designing the ring (and the allowance), the Cup tour this summer, building more rinks in the Vegas area, the salary cap, the difference between the Premier League and the NHL, his favourite Golden Knight and more!But they kick off the podcast by discussing Elliotte’s conversation with commissioner Gary Bettman in New York at the NHL Board of Governors meeting (00:00) and the news surrounding the “cause-based” jerseys, Arizona, franchise sales, and Larry Tanenbaum selling a share of MLSE holdings (13:10). They also go over what is happening in Calgary (20:40), what we might see from Winnipeg (29:20) and Philadelphia (30:00) next week at the NHL Draft, interest in Milan Lucic (33:20), Hershey Bears winning the Calder Cup (34:00), and if we’ll see Hershey head coach Todd Nelson make the leap to the NHL (36:10).Watch the full interview with Gary Bettman HEREEmail the podcast at [e-mail] or call The Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemailMusic Outro: Fleece - Do You Wanna PartyListen to the full track HEREThis podcast was produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.Audio Credits: KKGK, NBC Sports Philadelphia, NHL Network and Sportsnet.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.

Aren't you sick of us yet? Welcome to 32 Thoughts to Podcast Presented as always by the GMC Canyon AT4X I do wonder about that People thinking, are these guys really still around? Are these guys really still doing podcasts? Hey Merrick Friedman Delich We can't miss you if you won't leave. Well,

still a few more podcasts here before the end of this show for this season. And we have a lot to get to. Elliot, you're freshly back from New York City and the Board of Governors, and we're going to start there. For those that want to see Elliot Friedman's interview with Commissioner Gary Bettman, it is in the show notes. It is an excellent interview. It's an exclusive. And the one thing that people are talking about, I think more than anything else in the interview so far, no specialty jerseys in warmup starting next season. Well, actually, I've suggested that it would be appropriate

for clubs not to change their jerseys in warmups because it's become a distraction and taking away from the fact that all of our clubs in some form or another host nights in honor of various groups or causes and we'd rather that we continue to get the appropriate attention that they deserve and not be a distraction. I think the only concern... Yeah I think there's a lot of places to go on this you know first of all as I said in the interview I want people to come to a hockey game and feel comfortable in their own skin. I've said this many times. As long as you are, you know, treat other people right, try to treat other people right.

No matter who you are or what your background is or what you believe, you're welcome in my world, especially in hockey. I want people, I think hockey is a great game. I want people to go to games and I want them to feel comfortable and have a great time. And as I also said, it's really unfortunate that this came during pride month. Now I have to say, Jeff, I'm not entirely surprised. I was reminded today after this all came out that I had a few people who reached out to me while this was all happening last year and they said, this is where we're going to end up. And they just saw it coming because as Bettman said, you can't have everything

good that you're trying. And the vast majority of players were wearing these jerseys. You can't have everything good that you're trying to be wiped out by who isn't doing it. And that's what was happening, unfortunately. Legitimate concerns, but in the final analysis, all of the efforts and emphasis on the importance of these various causes have been undermined by the distraction in terms of which teams, which players. This way we're keeping the focus on the game, and on these specialty nights we're going to be focused on the cause. So Pride Night stay and fans will?

Oh, absolutely. 32 of our clubs did Pride Nights. Some do Heritage Nights. Everybody does Hockey Fights Cancer. Some do Military Nights. All of those nights will continue. The only issue will be, or the only difference will be, is we're not going to change jerseys for warm-up because that's just become more of a distraction from really the essence of what the purpose of these nights are. So I know a lot of people who weren't surprised.

They saw this coming. Like I said, I think it's too bad and i want people to feel comfortable on a lesser scale jeff and i did want to mention this i as a broadcaster really like those games where different jerseys were worn in the warm-ups i loved watching people come out to the pride jerseys the hockey fights cancer jerseys the pride jerseys, the hockey fights, cancer jerseys, the military jerseys, Vancouver, they would always wear Diwali jerseys. And I thought they were beautiful. Like I liked that to me, if I was on the desk or on the set and they came out and they flashed to the jerseys and it was different or it looked fresh. I love that. I love that moment of saying that looks cool and putting it on social or something like that.

I think there is a loss in all of this. And that's why I hope, Jeff, and I wrote this last night in just the quick blog after the Board of Governors. on this because I do think that's a colorful, fun, and even more important part of the game that I think gets lost. Now it's important to remember the pride nights or none of these other nights are going away. The jerseys are still going to be manufactured and sold. The one thing that's happening is the change in the warmups, but I do hope we get to a day where we can find another solution to this because A, it's about making people feel that they're welcome. And B, and again, I said, it's a much lesser thing. It's a fun part of the game that we're losing right now, unfortunately. You know, I had someone DM me. I don't expect you to have an answer to this because I don't

have the answer to this. I don't have the answer to this. I just want to sort of put it out there as part of the conversation. I had someone DM me tonight saying, well, what if one of the jersey advertisers wanted to attach in their corner of the jersey that they buy a rainbow flag? I don't have an answer for you on that no i know i'm just putting it out there as things to think about and as part of the conversation like what what would the consequence be then would it still be up to the player or would we be entering a different conversation again i throw it out there knowing that you don't have the answer i don't have the

answer i just wanted to make that part of the conversation here. What if one of the Jersey sponsors wanted to have that as part of their part of the Jersey? Once again, I give the audience credit for coming up with a question that I have no idea what the answer is. Hey, I don't know if you've realized this yet. We've been doing this podcast for- I barely got out of New York tonight, Jeff. I had a bit of a planes, trains, and automobiles at the end of the night yeah my head is so exploded right now that i wouldn't even know where to start with that question here's a clue uh

our listeners are smarter than us it's taken me it's taken me a long time to to admit it but by a very large margin we We're finally there. One thing as well, and I want to circle back to the Board of Governors here, but a little bit later on in the podcast, you'll hear an interview that Elliot and I did with Bill Foley, the owner of the Vegas Golden Knights. Strongly encourage, once Elliot and I are done babbling on here about the latest news, that you stick around to listen to this interview. Fascinating guy, interesting guy, and in his own words, he likes to give you an answer when he's asked a question.

Yeah, you asked a great question. Jeff asked the best question in this interview. Oh, the salary cap one? I'm not going to spoil the salary cap one. That was an interesting one. That's what's called a listener hook, Jeff. I learned that in broadcasting school. That's a hook. That's a tease. That's a little bit of cheese in the trap. Stay tuned. The Bill Foley interview coming up at the end of this podcast. BOG, no Michael Anlauer there. So the Ottawa question wasn't a question at all, but what were some of your takeaways? He's, by the way, Anlauer, apparently, I think this is only the second board of governors meeting he's ever missed.

Well, he's a minority owner with the Montreal Canadiens. Yeah, but he always goes. Yes. He always goes. I think since he bought into the Canadiens, I think it's the second one he's missed in about 15 years. Wow. Like he's got good attendance.

Not every owner is at these things. He has excellent attendance. So it is very, very rare that Ann Lauer is not in attendance, but he's still buying the Sanders. So no Ottawa news aside from the fact they're hopeful it'll be by sometime in September at the latest. Is that just in order to keep a low profile until this deal is finalized or he just didn't want to be poked and prodded by you?

Another question I don't really have the answer to, but I suspect it's he didn't want to talk to me. Okay. Very good. He did all of his talking with us at Boston Pizza earlier on this season when we did our tour.

So there you go. Main takeaways though, from the, uh, the BOG and your conversation with the commissioner. Well, I just want to say, you know, one thing from kind of a media point of view, you know, we were the were the uh only reporters there myself and our camera guy uh dan slater and i don't like that and simply because it's not a

good sign of where our business is going that was one thing you know i i kind of like talking to some of the other reporters but this has been a really tough month for the business of sports media. Yes. And I didn't like that, I have to say. So that's just a personal comment. I think that there were a lot of things that we kind of expected. Number one, the cap is only going up a million this year to 83.5. The players have their escrow caps. They made it very clear they weren't going to tamper with them. And the NHL was unwilling to budge without that.

I know some people were even kind of hoping would they squeeze an extra half a million out of that to 84, but it didn't happen. You know, the other thing right now is that while that squeeze is tight and the escrow deficit from COVID is going to be paid off early next year, you know, the NHL right now is really good business. Ottawa for 950 is a good number. Tampa Bay sold a minority stake at a reported 1.4 billion valuation recently. And we'll get to Larry Tannenbaum in a second.

So the franchise values are definitely rising. Now there's always a big debate of, are they rising enough? You know, the Charlotte Hornets, Michael Jordan sold them for 3 billion this week. You know, people can certainly argue whether or not they're moving as fast as everybody wants. But, you know, one of the things, Jeff, you have wondered on this podcast is, does that mean that, you know, people are going to be in a rush to sell? And the commissioner said, there are no teams for sale, uh, right now for a majority stake. But I did hear from one other governor said, you know, you're going to start hearing

about a lot more of these smaller sales, like the Tampa one and the Toronto one, where a piece of these teams are being sold because the money's too good and the valuations are too good. So I think we're going to hear about a lot of those. But according to the commissioner, we're not in a situation where we're going to get to majority sales. Now, the other one was announced was Washington. And Dubai is investing in there. It's the first one in North America. I didn't know about that one. When I spoke to Batman, I found out about it later. It was reported later by Sportico. That's a big story. I mean, if you're a soccer fan,

especially in the premier league, you've seen this for quite some time uh ronaldo signed in i think saudi arabia messi turned down saudi arabia to go to florida this is coming and it's now entered north america by virtue of the monumental sports which owns the capital so i think we're going to start seeing a lot more small minority stake sales because the money's really good. And as you mentioned, we'll get to Larry Tannenbaum and MLSC here in a couple of moments. But one thing I do want to pick up on,

something you talked to the commissioner about, and that was the future of Arizona. They're in the process of exploring the alternatives that they have in the greater Phoenix area. And they do have a number of options. But I think by midseason, we should have a pretty good handle on what their situation is. And if we need to explore further options at that time, we'll consult with management and figure out what to do. Obviously, playing in mullet has to be a temporary solution, and there needs to be a permanent solution on the horizon. And that's something I know that

Alex Morello and Javier Gutierrez are very focused on and very optimistic. Look, nobody likes this situation. We've talked about it before, but it does very much feel, Elliot, like Arizona is on the clock here. I know there's people out there hoping that the solution is the Suns. The Suns have a new owner, Matt Ishbia. Made a big trade this week. He traded for Bradley Beal, trading Chris Paul. And I know there's people out there who would love to see the Suns and the Coyotes together.

But Bettman said. There haven't been any discussions that I'm aware of. Okay. But like i said jeff i think there's people who would love to see that be the solution and and i'll tell you something else i will double down on this if they leave arizona eventually they will sort out this arena situation and they will go back there there's not a chance that they're going to abandon that market forever i agree not a chance temporarily sure there's just no chance that they're going to abandon that market. Forever. I agree. Not a chance. Temporarily, sure.

There's just no chance that they're going to leave Arizona for good if they leave with the Coyotes. Okay, so let's get to it. Larry Tannenbaum selling off a piece of his MLS&E holdings. He's being sold to a pension plan. And the enterprise value of MLS&C, $8 billion, Elias. Jeff Merrick, Couch Change, $8 billion. Yes. Oh yeah.

Yes. Right. Under every cushion and take back your empties, you too can find $8 billion under there. So I talked about this a little bit on your radio show on Thursday and someone called me after and talked to me a bit more about it. And, uh, you know, I haven't spoken to Tannenbaum. He wasn't at the meeting today. I

believe he's traveling, uh, overseas, but they filled me in and without knowing for sure what I think happened here is he didn't sell any part of his 25% stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment. But what he did sell was a 20% stake in something he owns called Kilmer Sports. Larry Tannenbaum runs something called the Kilmer Group. That's his company. So Kilmer Sports are his sports holdings. And as it was kind of explained to me is what it's believed to be is that it's one step away from Maple Leaf Sports Entertainment. That his 25% share of MLSC is run through Kilmer Sports.

And the pension fund that bought into it bought into Kilmer Sports. So they think that's what happened and 20 would be 400 million dollars and that is what people have told me that they believe this is and so it's a big cash infusion for larry tannenbaum what i did say on your show that they did agree with is that it's potentially significant because people are wondering what this means. And I think people are expecting that in the next few years, we could see major changes at the ownership of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Maple Leafs Sports Entertainment. Right now, it's Rodgers 37.5, Bell 37.5, Tannenbaum 25. Tannenbaum is 78 years old, I think, at some point in time. There might have to be some future planning there.

But also, I think the relationships between the three have been strained at times. And one of the situations that really led to some straining was Masai Ujiri's contract negotiation, the big one with the Raptors. And I always love discussing this stuff because I'm sure our employers aren't always crazy to hear me discussing this. Like people think I get this from the Rogers bosses. Nothing could be further from the truth. I've been told they don't like it when I discuss this, but you know, you try to keep it,

you know, as vanilla as you can while still reporting the story. I think there were a lot of hard feelings after that process was done. And I remember someone said to me, it was pretty plugged in that eventually that will lead to the breakup of MLSC. And I believe that every few years, I don't know how much it is, the three parties kind of have to go through their agreement. And I don't know if they rewrite it or they touch it up, but they have to get through it. They kind of have to meet about it.

And, you know, someone said to me that they think that some of the tough feelings between some of these three ownership groups, you know, that there might be some maneuvering. And they are wondering if that's an infusion of cash to help Tannenbaum through what some of the maneuvering that could come. I don't know. I'm telling you what I've been told, but the one thing I do believe is that we will get to the point where there could be some kind of ownership change and I'll

play it conservatively. I'll say 10 years although some people believe it's going to be sooner i'll say 10 years they think this is coming now you'll remember jeff that when fenway bought the penguins i reported that they tried to buy into maple leaf sports entertainment and they were rebuffed Were they rebuffed or was it too expensive? No, they were rebuffed. Okay. They were told not available. And the fact that this happened and it might be one degree away from MLSC

itself, there are some people who are a lot smarter than I am, Jeff, and they think this is step one of what the future might be. I was curious about Larry Tannenbaum in Toronto. He's been a big part of the league. He's on your executive committee. Will he continue in his current roles, or is this to be taken in any way of him taking a step back? No, I don't think he's taking a step back.

This is a small, passive investment. It's nothing more than that. I think it would be a shame to have Tannenbaum out. You know, I'll say this. He cares a lot about those teams. That's true. I think early in his time there, I think some people took advantage of, you know,

how much he cared. I think some of the players did and some of the people that did, they took advantage of his goodwill, but he steeled himself. You know, he doesn't have the majority control. The two telecoms do, but I think he really cares about those teams. He basically single-handedly saved the Toronto Argonauts.

He cares about the people. It would be very different without him there. There's no question about that. Anything else from the Board of Govern governors you want to go over? I enjoyed a few minutes at the M&M store and my favorite diner, the Times Square Diner. Nice. It was a little too exciting getting home, but I love New York City and just haven't been there enough. We wanted to do a podcast earlier.

The flights had other ideas. Yes. But nonetheless, we got there, and here we are. I would like to thank a Ranger fan and a podcast fan named Stephen who helped me navigate Penn Station to find the right platform for New Jersey transit. Been a while. Did you get a podcast listener to hold your hand through Penn Station? Yes, basically that's

what happened. We ran into each other on the street. We started chatting. He said he listened to the pod. We were both going to Penn Station and he just said, go that way. Alright, thank you Stephen for taking care of my work spouse and making sure that he got to travel okay.

Listen to the 32 Thoughts Podcast ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. From the Toronto discussion to the Calgary discussion, and there's a lot of different ways we can go with this. The very latest news, as it has just come out, involves Mark Savard, who is hired as an assistant coach with the Calgary Flames. who is of course the head coach there. I'm going to throw a dart here and I don't think it's going to land anywhere

but at the bullseye. A lot of this is because of the player relationship that he had with Craig Conroy previous. Not to discount what he's done either with the Blues or the Windsor Spitfires but we always look for relationships and who wants who where. This one, Elliot, stretches back to when

Conroy and Savard were teammates with the Calgary Flames. You know, he's an excellent offensive mind and they were looking for that. No question. I believe that Cale McLean and Dan Lambert are also on the radar for this.

I have to say, I enjoyed how Savard broke the story. How subtle he was? It was a very, very hard day for the Calgary Flames. And Mark decided to give them some good news at the end of it. Yeah, he certainly did. Listen, part of the Flames day was Mitch Love goes to Washington. And the one thing, like when I put that out this morning, the one thing, and I mentioned this to you on the radio show today, I knew the Calgary Flames fans really loved Mitch Love, but I had no idea the degree that they'd attached themselves to Mitch Love.

When I put that out there, there was a whole lot of take this tweet down, delete this now. Why are you doing this? Like Flames fans love this guy, Frege. I mean, he has a really good reputation. I wasn't surprised they reacted that way, but he was in demand. He very much was. AHL coach of the year a couple of times.

He heads to Washington, but circling back to the Calgary Flames, and you wrote about this on Twitter, you know, last time we were together on this podcast, we talked about Lindholm and that decision fueling what Craig Conroy's direction is going to be. And then tonight you put out the Tyler to Foley could be available. Well, you know, Frank Cervelli had a lot of news on the day. He, he mentioned Lindholm,

Hannafin and Backlund. And let me just go through this a little bit because this is what I think is kind of happening. Hannafin has indicated he would like to go back to the United States. Look, he's a year away from unrestricted free agency. And when you become a UFA, you've earned the right to make your call. I got no problem with that. And Hannafin had let them know that that was the way he was going. So they knew about that. Now, I believe that Calgary basically planned this around, we want to know about Lindholm and Hannafin first.

They identified them as the priorities. Those were the two players whose decisions would take them in a lot of potential directions here. So Hannafin said, I'd prefer to go elsewhere. And again, I don't think it was anything negative or harsh. You know, he's an American guy. He wants to go back to the United States. Lynn home. As far as I know,

as we tape this on Thursday night, Jeff, I don't know that he's given them a decision. And so I'm prepared to wait here, but I think that they, they know what they're going to have to offer them. We've talked about it ad nauseum. It's Bo Horvat money.

And he wants to know that they're going to be in a situation where they can win. And he hadn't given them an answer, yes or no. They were waiting for his answer. Backlund, I think they've offered him the captaincy. I have said this before on this pod. The captaincy was very important to him, and I think he was bothered they didn't give it to him last year. And the players at their end-of-season meeting said that one of the reasons

this year went off the rails is because there was no specific captain who felt the responsibility to deal with Daryl Sutter. And a number of the players, I think, said it should have been Backlund. I believe they've offered it to Backlund, but I also think that they weren't close on their contract negotiation. And this is, I think, what's kind of happened maybe with to fully too so i had someone who said to me today that they think that what kind of happened here is that calgary went to some other players and they're like we kind of want to see what happens with these guys first

and then when they when hannifin said no and lindholm hasn't answered yet i think some of these other players were like okay i'm not in control here my fate is decided by someone else the other thing here too is i don't think they ever offered hif in a deal. I think they have talked with Lindholm, but from what I'm hearing for some of the other players, the Flames are being very tight on term. Very tight on term. And I think if you're Toffoli, you want big term or bigger term. If you're Zdorov, you probably want bigger term.

And Backlund too. I don't know. Backlund's 35 years old. I can see them saying, we really want to be careful on term. And Backlund's saying, hey, wait a second. I've been this loyal this long. Come on. And Calgary's being careful.

Yeah. So I think that that's what's happened here. I think they priorit prioritize two guys. Hannafin says, no, Lindholm's all think about it. The other guys see where this is going and they're like, okay, I'm not the priority. And also I think there's some disagreements on term. That's why I think we are where we are.

And I just don't know at this point in time where the whole Lindholm thing is going to shake out. By the way, on the flames, if Anthony Duclair is available, that's a team I think is going to go after him for Huberto reasons. You mentioned this a few months ago, and that's the speed factor. And the Huberto compatibility factor. And that's the speed factor. And the Huberto compatibility factor. Exactly. That Huberto needs someone with speed on his line to back up defense, to get him some open ice so he can create.

I think it's a really smart play. And if the Florida Panthers are in the market for a defenseman, I don't know, for each, what are you thinking? I think they're definitely going to look for D. Are you thinking Hanif or are you thinking about Zdorov? I might be thinking about both, to be honest with you. Wouldn't you? I don't know.

I just thought about it. It's not the worst idea you've ever come up with. You're never going to get sick of that line. You know, one other thing I'd like to say about the Flames too is that, and we talked about it after the Flames exit interviews, is I don't think the players got along really well this year i think there were some players i don't know if factions was the right word or some players just didn't mix some of the newcomers with some of the people that were there

i wonder if this is just the you know the flames are just at the point where this might not actually be the worst thing for them. If the players don't want to stay, that's their right. I don't have a problem with it. But their mix and their season last year, they've already changed the coaching staff, basically. Although they promoted Husker, they've already changed that. They're going to get a chance to change some of their players. New GM.

New GM. New GM, although he's internal too. I just wonder if this is what they need. Okay. So the intrigue in Calgary continues. What do you expect for this, for Calgary specifically? We could ask this for every team and get a bunch of different answers, but given how many balls are in the air right now for the Calgary Flames, how crazy is this going to be heading into Nashville next week?

Well, you know what? We've been talking about Winnipeg, and now Calgary's right in there with them. And it's not exactly secret that Daniel Breer is trying to do things in Philadelphia. Yeah, Breer had a really good media conference on Thursday. First of all, for Winnipeg, I think with Dubois, I think in the next few days, he's going to narrow it down to like two or three teams. I mean, we're really going to get into this. I think Winnipeg's got to know by the draft and I think he recognizes that. So that's one thing. one thing. The other thing too, with Wheeler, I understand that everybody's kind of on the same page with this. He understands either he's getting traded or he's bought out. And I think they're

kind of working together. Like what's just the best solution. I think both sides realize it's time to move on. And I think they're working together to find the best way to do it. It's going to be one or it's going to be the other. Philly, you know, I thought it was really interesting. I'd mentioned that other teams think they're going to get another first rounder. Breer made it very obvious he's trying. He just doesn't know if it's going to happen. Honestly, everything's on the table. We've had discussions in both directions.

You know, it would have to, it would kind of have to make sense, I guess, for both sides, whoever's involved. Like I said, I'm not taking anything off, but I would think that if something like that were to happen, it's probably going to be on the draft floor, depending on how the board falls during that day. Just the way it always works. We have layers of players at certain levels i gotta tell you this we talked about mishkov and mishkov by the way is making himself available to teams which is good to hear

uh i believe we'll have the chance to meet with him. Somebody told me there is a team there that is willing to draft like Mishkov, sight unseen. And this is just me talking, but listening to Briere and Brent Flaher talking about Mishkov. Yeah, we're trying to get as much information and we'll spend a little bit of time with him

and we'll try to get as much information as we can and make our decision after that. We do a lot of background. We do talk to players on his team. We've talked to coaches, our staff has talked to. So we've done a lot of our background and we'll spend time with him and his family and get a comfort level and then make a decision appropriately. Did they not give you that impression that they were willing to do this? Did they not give you that impression that they were willing to do this? I don't know whether I'd go that far, but there are, but listen,

there are people that are saying like, everyone has their own line about Mishkov. Yeah. Oh, he's not going to get past Montreal. Oh, he's not going to get past Arizona. Oh, he's not going to get past Philadelphia. I think the one thing we do understand is he's not going lower than eight because I think if it gets to Washington, I think that's where the ball game ends. But I don't know.

I know what you're saying. I just don't know that I'm ready to make that step yet. But you are? I don't know. I just, like someone said to me, he thinks there's a team or teams that will just take him sight unseen. Like they'll just say, you know what? We believe in this kid's talent we can sort it out and the way briere and flora talked about him like they were complimentary but here's the thing too

let's not forget briere and and brent flora spent a lot of time before briere took the general manager job flora and briere traveled and scouted together all season. Like these guys have kind of been at the hip for a long time this year. And whether it's scouting or whether it's discussing prospects and the Philadelphia Flyers upcoming draft, like I'm not surprised that that press conference was smooth and well-delivered and no one was stepping on one another because these guys have kind of been at the hip all season long for each. Fair enough.

We'll see where this one goes. And I'm sure they've had the Mishkov conversation all year long because how can you, how can you not? Just a couple of the things here. You know, Milan Lucic had permission to talk to teams. This is just purely my opinion. I wonder about the Ducks. I think he still has a place in California. Yeah. And Jeff, what did we say about the Ducks?

They're young and they miss Nick Delorier. And they got pushed around a lot. They got pushed. Every time they played Arizona, they got pushed around a lot. Yep. That one makes a whole lot of sense to me. I'll tell you something too. We mentioned the other day that I think the Leafs were going to take their run at Nylander.

I am very curious to see what happens here if he is not extended by July 1st. We'll pay attention to that. Yeah. One thing I do want to mention before we go to break here, and Bill Foley's on the other side, owner of the Vegas Golden Knights, congratulations to the Hershey Bears, and really congratulations to Coachella Valley, and congratulations to the American Hockey League in general.

Always love a game seven, and there's only one thing better than a game seven, and that is overtime in a game seven. Mike Vecchione with the goal and the scramble in front billy pettman involved as well work trip in front vecchione couldn't settle it down but still available in front of the net loose puck they score mike vecchione has won the calder cup for the hershey bears there was a loose puck scramble right in front. And Mike Vecchione buried it.

Game 7 goes to Hershey. They have won their 12th Calder Cup in franchise history. And the inaugural season for the Coachella Valley Firebirds comes to a heartbreaking end in Game 7. Hershey had to come back down 2-0. And interesting, if you notice the two players that scored Elliott, and you think about the future of the Washington Capitals and how big next season is for these two players specifically, Connor McMichael made it 2-1, Hendricks Lapierre tied it up.

Are there two bigger prospects that need to have a good showing with the Caps next year than those two guys? That's big. You know, someone sent me a note saying, you know, those guys couldn't play in Washington this year and they scored those two big goals. Like how perfect was that for the Capitals and

for Hershey? Yep. This is why I think the AHL is such an important league because you can build your confidence that way. I know there were people in Washington who felt that those players were not ready to help them this year. And hopefully they use that motivation to prove people wrong. They use this championship run in those, those two big goals to prove people wrong. I think there's nothing that Washington would like more than to have those players be impactful players

as soon as next year. And I hope for them it happens. Also, Todd Nelson now becomes a two-time Calder Cup champion coach, once with Grand Rapids and now with the Hershey Bears. 12th Calder Cup for that storied franchise. The oldest in the American Hockey League. So we'll see

what happens with Todd Nelson next. I know that the music is really winding down here and everyone's grabbed chairs or grabbing chairs right now. Do you have a thought on the future here for Todd Nelson? Well, I just wonder if he's going to be in Toronto's mix at all.

You know, Toronto has a bench opening. They have an AHL coaching opening, but I can't imagine he'd want to move laterally. But, you know, they have a bench opening, so you wonder about that. And listen, congrats to Coachella Valley as well. First season of operation, take it to the Calder Cup final, a game seven overtime.

What a thrilling first season for the Firebirds. Congratulations to all those players. Congratulations to Dan Bilesma and the entire Seattle Kraken organization. That has been quickly, Elliot, we've talked about it before. We don't need to belabor the point. One of the great success stories of the American Hockey League

oh yeah like 35 I think it's 3500 season ticket holders like right away for Coachella Valley this is an American Hockey League team one that hasn't operated before we've talked plenty about Henderson and how much that means to the American Hockey

League and listen right away Coachella Valley, the Firebirds have become huge economic drivers in the American Hockey League, Frege. Absolutely. All right, on that, Coachella Valley makes it to the Calder Cup Final in their first year of operations, much like the Vegas Golden Knights made it

to the Stanley Cup in their first year of operations. Fell short that year, but fast forward a few, and they're now Stanley Cup champions. We'll talk to the man who predicted it. Why did he do it and what's next for the Golden Knights? And how much would he spend on the Vegas Golden Knights if he had the ability to do so? Bill Foley, owner of the Vegas Golden Knights, is next.

Hi guys, it's Brian from Burlington. I know I've been listening to the last couple of podcasts and Elliot's made a couple of comments about it being prom season, graduation season. I was at my son's graduation and Kyle Dubas was being given an honorary degree from his alma mater at Brock. And Elliot's made a couple of references about not graduating from his alma mater at Brock. And Elliot's made a couple of references about not graduating from his alma mater. I was wondering if we could get a petition going or something like that to get Elliot

to be given an honorary degree from Western. I don't think that's hard. I think they give them out like candy, really. So I'm not good at social media, so I hope somebody can take that and I'll be happy to sign up to it and get everybody else on board, mostly just because I want to hear Jeff say, Dr. Friedman.

So good job, Amo. Good job, Jeff. And good job, Dr. Friedman. Thanks. The noble charge from Bill Foley was cut in six. They talk about dreaming. The Golden Knights are going to make that dream a reality. A devotion to destiny. Misfits to champions. The Vegas Golden Knights win the Stanley Cup in 2023. Bill, first of all, congratulations.

Six years to the Stanley Cup. We're going to get to that quote here in a couple of moments. But what we've seen in sports, and specifically in hockey, is organizations take a lot of pride when they win championships in presenting their players staff everybody with championship rings and the designs now once upon a time was very conservative and uh you know button down here's a very nice subtle uh looking ring but now these things are over the top. And if we know anything about Vegas, Vegas goes over the top. Can you give us a peek or a hint of what the Stanley Cup rings

are going to look like? Well, I talked to Stoney about it on the parade, and I said, okay, you're in charge. You pick two other players or pick a player's wife or a player's girlfriend. You guys come up with your basic ideas of what you'd like to see in this ring, run it by me and run it by Kerry Boobolts and let's make sure we get it done to your specifications and to what you want. And Stoney just said, how much? And I said,

well, how much do you need? He said, I'd take half a million to 600k ought to do it i said you got it that's good goodbye that's goodbye that's good by me and uh so if they get out of the cosmo or the aria and take time to start this process then we can get underway but i just saw a video of them they're down at uh the cosmo a whole bunch of them drinking out of the cup. So I don't think anything got done last night. It sounds like it's going to be fantastic. It sounds like it's going to be great. I don't like asking a lot about this because I think it's kind of gauche. But the one thing I was curious about, and I've talked about it with Nona in the past,

is what people don't realize is that however you choose to celebrate, the Golden Knights take care of almost all of that, right, financially. It's pretty much your choice. Like it's not like the league pays for it or someone else pays for it. Really, there's been no budget. They can spend what they like. They do get cops a lot in Vegas, obviously, at the various restaurants and so on because people want to see them in there and they want to take pictures and so on. But no, it's all on us. The parade was on us.

The ring will be on us. We probably will make replicas that will distribute yourself for a very modest amount of money. And so we'll recover some of the investment, Marie. And I just want to have a ring. That's awesome. I want a ring. I want my name on the cup. We're going to of the investment memory. And I just want to have a ring. That's awesome. I want a ring. I want my name on the cup. We're going to get the engraving.

We're going to grab the cup for about seven days. We're going to get it engraved toward the end of June, early July, and take it out off market. So when we tour with the cup, it will have already been engraved, which will be fun because they'd say, oh, wow, here, this is me. Look at this. What are you going to do with it, Bill?

Where are you going to take it? Oh, it's going everywhere, of course. The guys have it going all over Canada back and forth, back and forth. I'm going to take it up to, we have a food, light, and art festival at Rock Creek Cattle Company in late July. And I'm going to have it there. And then I'm going to take it to Whitefish where I've got a bunch of buddies and former hockey players and so on. So we'll take it up to Iron Horse and probably go to Fish Camp and then we'll take it down to a bunch of the bars in town and tour it around. Then it goes to Saskatoon with McNabb and then it's basically in Canada for five or six days

and I get it back because we have a wine function at Chalk Hill on the 4th and 5th, and so I'm going to have it there. It's kind of about a 1,000-person party, so it'll be fun to have it at that party. And then we have a grand opening of a steakhouse in Hillsburg, so I'm going to have it there. Wow.

And then there's going to be other guys who are going to get it, other people are going to get it. And it'll be back in Vegas in the fall when the guys come back and we'll take us around a lot of places in Vegas. But it's going to have a busy summer. It's going to be busy. Well, you know, I want to get right to this

because I want to make sure that we spend a little bit of time on it. When you said six years to the Stanley Cup, some snickered, some full out laughed and said, there's not a chance. That's not how this works with expansion teams. I've always been curious when it became obvious that your team was going to win the Stanley Cup.

One of the things that I wondered was, did Bill Foley take names six years ago? Did Bill Foley say, all right, I remember you laughed at me and here we are six years later. And if you did, I don't think that's petty because I'd probably do the same thing. And I suspect Elliot would as well. Oh yeah. We're both petty.

Did you remember Bill who laughed six years ago? You know, I do remember some of the laughs and so on. And I'm frankly, I deserve it. I mean, what am I doing making a silly statement like that? But I believed in my own mind, if we did our expansion draft properly and we built our team properly, that we could be in the playoffs

in three years fairly comfortably. And I thought if we built our team properly, we could win the Stanley Cup in six. Now we overachieved. We made the playoffs five out of six years. We've been in the conference finals four times. We've been in the Stanley Cup now twice and won it once. And I feel this time, maybe we were like Washington was when they played us the first year, and

Florida was a little bit like we were. Not expected to be there, overachieved, overperformed. And when we met the big boys, when we met the Caps, we sort of learned, okay, this is what it's all about. This is what you have to be. And we really tried to build our team to be a Stanley Cup winner by hiring, by getting an elite, elite, elite centerman, elite forward, elite D man, and then building around.

So it's, it's a plan. And we were fortunate that we did it. We were fortunate. We got there, got all the way because it is, there's both of, you know,

in particular, it is such a grind. It is so hard. I mean, 62 days of playoffs. I mean, I'm exhausted and i didn't do anything what what advice would you give because that's one of the things that often happens is you know owners or coaches or gms they call other owners or coaches or gms who've won and they said what advice would you give us what was the most important thing you learned?

So I know you're a competitive guy and you might want to share, but if you were willing to share, what advice would you give? One of the things I've always done in all of my businesses and all of my endeavors is set unrealistic expectations and then exceed them. And that's really what I was doing when I made the statement, cup in six, playoffs in three, cup in six. I was trying to set an unrealistic standard for our team to be thinking about and give them a chance to exceed that standard.

And we went through a lot. Those first five years, players in and players out, a lot of the things we did were not in and players out, a lot of things we did were not popular and not everything we did worked out just the way we wanted it to. But that's part of hockey, isn't it? It's part of sports. But I really felt like after we got through last year and we were fortunate enough to hire Cassidy as our new coach and his philosophy and the way he dealt with the players and the team we had put together. I just felt like we had a real chance. And then we did really well and got fortunate with our goalies this year, of course. We had five different goalies, but each one of them stepped up in their own way to carry us through,

in particular Aiden Hill, of course, when he came in Edmonton. And then one of our mid-season deals of Barbershop ended up being a gigantic winner for us. You got to cost us. But if we can keep him, we're happy to pay the price because he's really a team player. He's a great guy. There's one thing to talk to other owners and managers and give them advice on how to win i'm curious about conversations with people that are outside the nhl that are

considering investing in the nhl you know we just had ryan smith on the podcast a couple of weeks ago owner of the utah jazz and he's clearly very interested in getting involved in the National Hockey League. Do you actively have conversations with other people who are interested in either expansion teams, a relocation market? How many conversations, if at all, Bill, have you had? And if so, what's the sales pitch? I'm curious, what's the Bill Foley sales pitch to someone like Ryan Smith who wants to get involved in the National Hockey League? Well, my sales pitch is be involved in a community, and he is involved. He's already checked the box.

He's got the basics to have a very successful team in Salt Lake. But be part of the community. Be local. Don't go outside your local network. And we didn't do that in Vegas. We sold tickets and we made sure we sold teachers, doctors, lawyers, firefighters, policemen, and so on. If you come to our games, you won't see many opposing jerseys in our arena, but I don't want it. We sell about 1,200 or 1,300 seats to visiting fans, and that's about it. And when they sit, if you notice, when they're seated in our arena,

there might be four in a row together. Then there's going to be an empty row before you see another jersey, outside jersey. And there are never more than four in a row together, and they're never behind each other in seats, if we can avoid it. Sometimes a broker gets involved and we can avoid it. Sometimes we get, you know, sometimes a broker gets involved and we can't control everything. So we're really careful about being local,

being involved in the community, and the community's with us. That parade was unbelievable. I don't know how many people were there, but then the after parade level on the stage, I'm told there were 30,000 people stretched across Las Vegas Boulevard in that plaza, listening to the speeches and listening to the guys.

They all had something to say. Now, were those, I know you, obviously you're a big wine guy. You have your Foley wines wines but you also have a partnership in champagne with uh 50 cent who was at game five was william carlson over served on foley champagnes or wines on that podium i can't speak for william i was over served i can't speak for Carly. I'll let him speak for himself. I think everyone heard the speech.

By the way, I'm really fascinated about what you just talked about, seats. Is there anything else that you do to maximize home ice advantage, Bill? Well, we try and put our divas behind the other bench early in the game. So they're down there dancing and trying to be distracting. We really take care of our guys. I believe we've done a really good job of making this a team that's really a together team. I mean, these guys are all for one and one for all. I try and help that every way I can in my own little ways. But in terms of home ice advantage, we let them come in. We try and put them in oddball places,

way up in the upper bowl all by themselves. We don't like to give them good seats. But we respect the fact that they have the right to be in that arena too if they get a ticket. So it's okay. I just don't want too many of them. Do you get involved much in player moves? How much do you talk to Kelly or George about what you're up to

and how involved do you get? You know, I'd say I'm a veto. I go to all the scouting meetings, all the pro scout meetings. I sit through them for usually a week at a time. We go through every team. We go through every player that might be available. We talk about the players, how they might fit on the team, talk about character. So I'm in those meetings. I'm an observer. Occasionally, I'll make a comment. But then when we get serious about players we're really going

after, then Kelly or George will go out and start making calls, normally Kelly, but that I'll kind of wander in and sit in a call too and just hear what's going on. I want to make sure we're all on the same page, and we are. I don't tell them what to do. They come to me and say, this is what we think we should do, and this is what we believe we'll have to give up in this draft pick or that draft pick. And I might say, well, can we try this or can we try that? But I'm supportive. I'm involved, but I'm supportive. What type of hockey player?

I'm asking something personally here, and you don't have to name a very specific individual. I'm just curious, what type of hockey player do you like watching? Well, we all like the excitement of the elite player that can take the puck down the ice and can make that unbelievable pass and leads to a score. We have that now with a number of our players. And I love the D-men and how they play and the intensity. So I love our fourth line. Our fourth line is such a dynamic line that we roll four lines.

And that's what we did the first year. And to some extent the second year, you lose track a little bit once in a while after you get into the game for a while. And we got back to it in the last couple of years, rolling those four lines. I believe we just wore the other teams out. We just had four lines rolling through. So McDavid had to play 24, 25 minutes plus power play time if that were happening. And our guys were playing 17 and a half minutes, 18 minutes.

And I believe we wore them out. I'm not saying their talent wasn't just as good as ours or in some cases better, but our depth and our structure was really, really good this year. And we got to see if we can keep it together next year. I'm curious about, you know, what's happened to you as an owner of a pro sports team, you know, in hockey, outside of the players themselves, who are always the stars in the 1980s coaches achieved a certain celebrity status. And then in through the 90s and 2000s, general managers became more of a celebrity and a really important part of the team, at least from a fan perception point of view.

But something really curious has happened in the last, I don't know, 10 years. This isn't exclusive to hockey, but we'll use it for the example. Owners have achieved a certain celebrity status. And we've heard owners say this before. I was wildly rich in my other business, but then when I bought a pro sports team, there's a certain fame and cachet that came along that maybe I wasn't expecting.

What's it been like for you? Have you had that experience? Well, I tell people I could be the CEO of GM and no one cares. And I'm the owner of the Vegas Golden Knights, and it's a very special thing. And I am recognizable. I'm not an outgoing person. I don't socialize really. Carol and I are pretty quiet at home. We have our kids come over. And we go to occasional party, but generally speaking, we flake on parties.

We don't show. But I'm pretty transparent. And when I'm asked to do an interview, I'll do the interview and try to be open and forthright about it. And always not mince words necessarily. So my reputation has been enhanced by Aki in terms of being in Las Vegas and being fairly well known and recognizable. And it's just Bill, like go down the street and, hey, Bill, how's it going today? How's the team? So it's really fun.

It's a really rewarding and fun experience. And I'm having the same experience now over in Bournemouth with my Premier League team. Trying to do the same thing, trying to be open, transparent, out front. But it's not about me. It's about the team. I'm happy to do it. I'm happy to be part of the community. I want them to know that I'm involved,

that I'm supporting the team as I'm supporting the biggest Golden Knights all the time, the Sober Knights, the Nighthawks, our little indoor football league team. So I have fun with all this. This is a lot more fun than business, a lot more. How would you compare the NHL and the Premier League? Because we always talk about growth.

And how do we make the NHL bigger and how do we grow it? Is there anything you see from the Premier League that you would say, we need to do this? We have a different financial model in the NHL. What the commissioner has done is fantastic, having a hard cap. It keeps everybody in line and it makes us very, very competitive. So the 40th largest metropolitan area in the country can win the Stanley Cup. Premier League is a lot tougher. It's international marketing. So with Bournemouth, I have worldwide rights to all marketing of AFC Bournemouth.

And we're focusing on it. I see no reason why we can't have sponsorship of 100 million pounds, 120 million pounds. And this year we'll do about 14 million pounds. But if we market it right and do it right, we'll have that sponsorship revenue. And then we can be the little guy, the little engine that could. That's my goal for Bournemouth. Much tougher in the NHL to get that national sponsorship support. We do well. I believe last year the team did about $40 million in corporate relationships and sponsorships, which is really good for a fairly small metropolitan area. I mean, we're definitely embedded with the community. We have a pretty good TV contract,

but by comparison, the Premier League annual contract is about 3.5 million pounds among 20 teams with it skewed to the top five or six. But even so, our piece of it is number 15 in the league is probably about 130 million pounds a year. So $162 million in TV alone. So Premier League has a big advantage, but football is the most popular sport in the world. More people watch the Premier League on a Saturday than watch the Super Bowl. It's amazing. It's a worldwide sport. So hockey needs to keep expanding. And what Gary Bettman has done is excellent. He's taken hockey to the Sun Belt and it's really been successful. It's taken a while, but the Panthers

are successful. Tampa Bay's been successful for years and years. Carolina's now a very, very successful team. Nashville's successful. So he has a great group of owners and a great league about him. How does he grow it? Do we want more NHL teams? Is there more place for NHL teams? Does it get too cumbersome? That's for the commissioner to figure out. I'm happy to be along for the ride. You mentioned the hard cap there a second ago. I'm curious about this one.

If there wasn't a hard cap, how much would you spend on the Vegas Golden Knights? Great question. $135 million. So you'd be tops deliberately? Golden Knights? Great question. 135, Willie. So you'd be tops, deliberately? Well, I don't know if I'd be tops, but we'd spend everything

we have. We'd put it all on the tee. We spend to the cap every year, and we'll keep on doing that. We're only going up by a million dollars, apparently, this year. So we're all going to be cap-constrained again. We finally, after years of being in cap tell, we finally got out of it, what, a year and a half ago or so, or two years ago. And so last year we survived fairly well and didn't make the playoffs.

And this year we really didn't have any cap issues and we're in good shape for next year. But we had to learn a lesson. We were not perfect, and boy, did we get some heat on some of the things that we did. But we had to do it. We had to stay cap compliant. Do you have a favorite Knight player that you've had there? Well, you know, I like them all.

They're all my grandchildren is the way I look at it. But every grandparent has a favorite. Every grandparent has a favorite. I always had a special place in my heart for Flower. He and I were really close and that was a really tough situation that we went through with Flower. And so I really wanted him to retire here. Unfortunately, it didn't work out. And I feel badly about that because he's such a great guy. But you go through our own locker room, what a bunch of great guys. I mean, they're just fun. They're fun to be around. I'm fortunate. When I'm in town, I go down, I try to have lunch downstairs with them. And sometimes I sit with them or across from them. There's always a lot of banter.

I've gotten to know their families. I know their wives. I know a lot of them really pretty well. And it's a lot of fun for me to hang out with those guys. It's another experience. I'm an old guy that's kind of, you know, being rejuvenated by these great young men that play hockey. What did you think then when it became obvious what Bruce

Cassidy was doing with the starting lineup? Yeah, I didn't know in advance because I was out running around doing a bunch of other things. I wasn't paying attention, but when I saw them on the ice, the Misfits on the ice together, I thought, wow, this is great. This is fantastic. We've got them back again. And I think it gave us a spark. You know, I really do. It was quite a game we played that fifth game. What's your next bold prediction?

You know, I'm going to try and stay out of the production business for a while. No, no, don't do that. Bruce Cassidy already picked a repeat. You got to follow that up. Well, the only thing I did tell Carly when he signed his eight-year deal, I said, okay, that's three cuts in eight years. And we were on the ice with the Stanley Cup, getting our photo taken. I looked over, I was laying down next to him and I said, okay, Carly,

that's one. We got two to go. I believe your first meeting with the NHL was in June of 2014. I just was wondering if you could take us back, Bill, about that first meeting. And I remember like people in the league told me there was a lot of skepticism.

They weren't sure that Vegas would work. And I think your true legacy here is not only the Golden Knights, but now everybody's coming. The NFL is there, Major League Baseball is coming, the NBA is going to come. You were the first guy to see it. Can you take us back into that meeting and how you sold the NHL on this? It was interesting. That was a meeting with the executive committee, as I recall, my first real experience with a group of owners. And in that meeting, there were two or three of the owners, yeah, let's go. Okay, we're done. Let's give them a chance. Let's get going. And then calmer heads, particularly the commissioner said, well, this is a very interesting meeting. In particular, the commissioner said, well, this is a very interesting meeting.

We'd like to see now the results of your in-depth analysis of the city and why you think you'll be successful. And once we see that, we'll get back to you. And then we started talking franchise numbers. And that was an interesting discussion. I started at 150, and I think the commissioner started at 600 or 650. And I went to 175 and he went to 600 or 650. And I went to 200 and he went to 600 or 650. So it was a great lesson. And I don't negotiate against yourself, I guess the real professional. Do you remember who the other owners were that were really bullish at the beginning? The other ones who said, yes, I like this.

I do, but I'd rather not call them out. I don't think, I think I'd be breaching the confidence, but I do remember them. And there were three that were really, hey, okay, this is it. This is good. Let's go. Let's get it done. And then the calmer heads like Jerry Jacobs. Well, this has been very interesting.

Blink if one of them was Ted Leonsis. Blink, blink, just blink. What do their names rhyme with? Just so you know, he's shaking his head. He's like, I'm not playing this game. Go ahead, Jeff. One of my last questions here for you is the future of hockey in Nevada. Every area that's successful tends to eventually have a very vibrant youth hockey market.

And we see it all over the United States. And they go hand to glove. all over the United States and they go hand to glove. How many more rinks do you think need to be built ASAP to take youth hockey in Vegas to the next step? I know this is something that's special to you and I know you're heavily invested in it. How many more rinks initially does the area need? Yeah, so we have four and we built ourselves

and there are two existing rinks. There's one other one that's kind of, it's kind of there and not there. I believe at least, at least four more, one in West Henderson, kind of over where the Raiders are, that whole area is developing very, very quickly.

I'm having a meeting or need to have a meeting with Mira Goodman about a site in not North Las Vegas, but a little bit north of Charleston. It kind of may be out toward Rampart, close to Centennial Hills. They could use two sheets of ice out there. We'll start with that. I've just got to get the financial side of it worked out and figured out and see if I can't get some help from Anderson,

some help from the city of Las Vegas. But winning the Stanley Cup is going to help. And we have demand. We're out of ice time. We have no ice time at any of our rinks. So we need more sheets of ice and we need them right away. But I have to do it in a financially viable way. And we're committed to it. If four is not enough, we'll build more. The town is growing. When I got here, the town maybe had 2 million people in the SMSA, now we're two and a half. This town is growing. It's growing fast. So I just want to keep on meeting that demand because if I can keep on putting sheets of ice in Las Vegas, our youth hockey program will really get underway. I mean, it's underway now. It's 12, 14 times what it was when we got here.

But where are we? 25 times bigger, 30 times. I want NHL players coming out of Las Vegas. And that's a dream. That would really be fantastic. Next October, it is tradition that the Stanley Cup champion opens at home and they drop the banner. How big is that banner going to be?

And what's it going to look like? Boy, it's going to be fantastic. You'll have to be here. You'll have to be here to see it. But that is going to be unbelievable, isn't it? I mean, to do that opening night, wow. I can't wait. It'll be special, and we're sure it'll be larger

than life, as everything is in Vegas. Bill, you're very generous with your time. I know you're very busy. Thank you so much for parking over half an hour with us. That's really generous, and congratulations once again. Your name is going on the most fabled trophy in all of sports, and it looks great on you and the organization.

Congratulations. Thanks, Jeff and Elliot. It's great to see both of you. Really. Thanks for the time. Congratulations, Bill. Very happy for you. I mean, this is one of the great ownership runs in the history of sports.

Like, you opened Vegas. You opened Vegas. Thanks. That's very kind of you. Really enjoyed that. I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did talking to Bill Foley. And thanks to the Vegas Golden Knights, Nate Ewell, shout out for making this one happen.

Much appreciated. A quick programming note as well. Next podcast comes to you Monday. It is our annual NHL draft preview, this time a roundtable. Four people, yours truly, Elliot Friedman, Jason Bukala, and Sam Cosentino. It's sort of in the area of about an hour long, getting you all set for the draft in Nashville. Look for that one to drop on Monday. You know, a few weeks back, we got a really nice email from a listener.

Jeff, great name. He requested a band that he wanted featured on the podcast. That is a great name. You too, be quiet. Done deal, Jeff. Taking us out

is a Canadian indie quartet that just released their second single of 2023. Fleece combines 60s harmonies and psych rock with contemporary pop to create their distinctive vintage future sound. Celebrating pride and kicking off the summer, here's Fleece with Do You Wanna Party? on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Thank you. Shake up. Let it, let it, let it, let it, let it Let it, let it, let it, let it, let it

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