Halford & Brough in the Morning - Will The Sonics Ever Come Back To Seattle?

Episode Date: July 17, 2025

In hour three, Mike Halford & guest host Jamie Dodd chat with Seattle Times sports columnist Tim Booth (1:15) about the hold-up behind the Sonics returning to Seattle, and if it will actually happen now, plus the boys tell us what they learned (27:00). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

802 on a Thursday, it's a thrash Thursday here on the Haliford and Brough show featuring Jamie Dodd on Sportsnet 650. Haliford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates, BC's first and trusted choice for debt help with over 3,000 five-star reviews. Visit them online at Sands-Trustee.com. We are in our three of the program. Our three is brought to you by Campbell & Pound real estate appraisers, the most metal of all the real estate appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell and Pound. Visit them on the internet at Campbell-Pound.com today. We are broadcasting live from the Kintex Studio, Kintex footwear and orthotics working together

with you in step and guests on Sportsnet 650. Well, they call in on the hotline powered by Power West Industries. Don't get caught in the dark when it matters most. Visit them at PowerWest.ca today. They keep the lights on. We'll go to that Power West Industries hotline right now. Tim Booth from the Seattle Time joins us here now on the Halifax and Rough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Tim, how are you?

I'm good, how are you guys doing this morning? We're good, thanks for taking the time to do this. We appreciate it. So first question, big question, open-ended question. What the heck is going on with NBA expansion as it pertains to Seattle? It's the big question right now. Well, if you listen to Adam Siller the other night, probably not, you know, not a lot. It's a very, it's a very slow process.

And people here are getting, are getting a little frustrated. You know, this was, this was something that you know when the when the Kraken arrived and they finally got the arena situation solved here there was a lot of hope and anticipation that this was gonna be you know the Kraken starting in 21 and maybe by 25 we're talking talking about, um, you know, the NBA being back here. And this has just drawn out, it, it became a much longer and a much slower process than what fans were, were hoping for. And there's a ton of reasons as to why.

Um, but ultimately it just comes back to right now, the MBA owners, the board of governors just seems to not have an appetite for making this an expedited process and speeding up the timeline on when this might happen. And I think that's the other piece of this too. It's kind of morphed from becoming a, what we all felt was a likelihood to kind of being more of a might now, because these owners are showing that they are not interested at least in the moment of cutting up this new revenue stream,

this new media rights deal that's gonna kick in starting this year. They don't seem all that excited about maybe cutting another slice for a 31st team or cutting another slice eventually for a 32nd team. So it's just led to what's been just a And I think I think some growing frustration and pessimism among fans in the in the Seattle area about whether the Sonics are when and if they're actually going to come back at this point. And the allure of expansion fees and the money going to these owners isn't enough to, you know, I guess overtake the the slicing of the pie from the TV money? You would you

would think so. I mean because cause we're talking about money that, you're talking about expansion fee that's probably somewhere in the five to $6 billion range that would get divided up evenly between the 30 teams. The sense that I was getting being in Vegas the other day was these owners want to see what the actual money that's coming in from the new media deal that kicks in this year, they want to see what that actually does to their bottom line for at least one season before they really kind of dive into, okay,

if we did cut it by one more piece or we did cut it by two more pieces, how does that factor into what our bottom line is and what these revenue streams actually are? Because they have projections of what it's going to look like. We obviously know it's 11 years and 70 some odd billion dollars that these media companies have paid to the NBA for their rights. But I don't think the individual teams know quite yet what it looks like for their day-to-day bottom line And I think the sense is that they want to see what that is

See how that affects you know, do they go from being a team? That's that's losing money to maybe actually making a little bit of money You know year to year and then at that point factor in Okay, if we do add an expansion team or we do, or we, and we do go that route, what is that influx of cash potentially look like for our franchise and what we want to do? Is there any sense, Tim, from Seattle or from your perspective that this maybe could be a bit of posturing on the MBAs part, right?

Of, well, hey, we know Seattle is ready and they really want a team back. And it's always, as you said, it's always seemed likely that's going to happen. Maybe this is, you know, we can drive the expansion fee up a little bit or whatever, because it seems like a very surmountable problem to me, right? The idea of dividing up the media rights pie, it doesn't feel like the kind of thing that should be an actual roadblock to it. So is there any idea from your, from your end that this could maybe just be posturing and angling for a better deal from the MBA's perspective? A little bit, but I think what you're getting to the verge of is are they going to get to

the point of being greedy with, let's say it's nine months from now that we're talking, okay, they actually want to move ahead and they've approved it. And here's what the expansion fee is. Are you going to get to the point where this posturing by the NBA drives this expansion fee to be at a point where maybe the group that everyone's expecting in Seattle to be part of this says, oh crap, we can't do $7 billion.

Because you see the valuations of these teams continuing to go up. The Celtics were always sort of like seen as a benchmark whatever the Celtics sold for that was going to be the ballpark of what the expansion fee would likely be and then all of a sudden oh well here comes the the Lakers selling for a valuation of 10 billion dollars and why well they shouldn't be you know part of the calculus as you're kind of going through this, because the Lakers are a special entity within the NBA ecosystem, there's going to be owners who look at that and go, well, if we got 10 billion for the

Lakers, why can't we push the expansion fee to six and a half or why can't we push the expansion fee to $7 billion? And if that sort of posturing or negotiating that the NBA owners want to do in this process, it might get to the point where it's just not financially feasible or even smart to go down that road because you still at the end of the day,

on top of paying an exorbitant expansion fee, you still have to run a franchise and you still have to make a franchise successful and you still have to reintegrate yourself into a market that we're talking about. It's going to be 20 years since the NBA will have last been here by the time this potentially could happen. How do you, how do you involve yourself in a, in a fan base that yeah, you still have your diehards and you still have your people who desperately want to see the NBA back here,

but you have an entire generation here who's grown up without it. And are they going to be willing to pay $250, $300 a ticket, you know, to come to come see a game because you've had to pay this massive expansion fee and at some point you need to recoup what you're having to invest, you know, into starting a franchise. So there's a lot, it has the potential of being a slippery slope. And I think it all comes back to how far do certain owners and certain groups within the board of governors, how far do they wanna push this?

And if they push it to, it feels like it's kind of at a teetering point where if they keep nudging this further along both in timeline and you know, the, the sort of rumblings of what the expansion fee might be, you might push them over, push groups over the edge and make this just not happen. Well, I was just going to ask you how frustrated collectively is Seattle right now? There's a lot of frustration. There's a, there's a, there's a lot. And it's,

it's simply just, you know, it's been 17 years now of kind of hoping and dreaming to see the day that the team is actually going to come back. And it just feels like it's just one incremental roadblock after another along the way. You know, it was, you wanted the the cracking to get started and you wanted them to get established. And that was, that was kind of understood among, among fans here that you needed to let the hockey team get off the ground. Obviously it hasn't been the cleanest, cleanest

start for the, for the organization, but you know, or it's more or the most successful, but you needed to let them get off the ground and get it, get themselves established. But then you had collective bargaining with the NBA, they had to come to agreement on their new deal. And then you had the media rights stuff that had to get, had to get solved. And then you had the issues with the, you know, the Turner lawsuit and all these little things that come up along the way. And all fans here want is the team back. They don't want to hear about, well, this is the reason we have to delay it six months, or this is the reason we can't address it nine months. And I think with that, I don't think it's been misled, but the comments Adam Silver has made along the way, 12 months ago, 18 months ago, he kind of spoke with a lot of excitement about expansion. And I think it

really got everybody's hopes up. And I know, and I know for a fact, basically a year ago, people within the potential ownership group here in Seattle, they were like full steam of full steam ahead thinking, this is going to happen. And it was going to happen soon. There was a lot of people who thought that at the September 2024 owners meetings, they were going to announce that they were starting the expansion process then. And so then it's just gotten delayed a little bit and a little bit and a little bit. And the tone from Silver has seemed to change from being excited about expansion

to coming up with more reasons why it's not going to happen. And that's back to your original question. That's all led to everybody here just being really frustrated and almost tired of the constant delays and the way the process has played out. And it's led to this kind of a feeling of like, are you alienating this market potentially to the point where they're not going to care. And that's that's a really sad place to be at when you have the history here. And it's such a basketball hotbed and you have such a built in, you know, legacy here of what it could be

if you do figure out a way to bring a team back here. Tim, pivoting to something that's a much better story for Seattle sports fans right now, which is what Cal Rowley is doing. And he has his moment in the national spotlight winning the home run Derby this week. And, you know, just looking at his season, it's incredible what he's doing.

He's on pace to arguably have the greatest season ever by a catcher in MLB history. And, you know, Mariners fans, for as much as the team has struggled to find consistent success in its history there are no strangers to incredible individual seasons right going all the way back to like when Ken Griffey jr. was a phenom and Randy Johnson won a Cy Young, A-Rod, Edgar Martinez, Ichiro, Felix Hernandez how does what Cal Raleigh is doing this year

stack up in terms of how it's kind of capturing the imagination of the city and Mariners fans to some of those great individual performances we've seen from past Mariners. To me, it's the most, it's the most exciting individual season by a Mariners player, maybe since each year was rookie season in 2001, but I'd even go back a little bit further to sort of the heyday of when Griffey was here. And it kind of hit me. I was on the last road trip with them and I was watching his Howls at Bats both in New York and in Detroit. And I saw Yankees fans and I saw Tigers fans pulling out their phones to take photos and videos of Cal standing at the plate

at Yankee Stadium or at Comerica Park for his at bats. And it got me thinking like, the Maritors don't normally have a guy who has that, who draws that kind of attention when you have the opposing fans wanting to have their cameras out just in case something amazing happens. That's kind of a level that he's gotten at this year with what he's done already in the first half of the season. He's a very down to earth-earth easygoing kind of guy he's super intense and he and he competes you know like crazy both in terms of his preparation and and what you see him do on the on the field but you know he signed the contract extension here before the season that now looks

like the biggest bargain that the Mariners may have ever gotten in their entire history the biggest bargain that the Mariners may have ever gotten in their entire history. He puts in the work, he's evolved as a player, he's changed things with his swing and what his approach is at the plate and he's done all these little things and it just he it just gravitates him or gravitates the fan base to him. And so I think what we've seen this, I think what we've seen in this first, you know, 95 games or whatever it's been so far, um, you know, I kind of, I kind of put it on par with what we saw Griffey do in like 97 when he won the MVP and he hit, hit 58 homers. Like Griffey was the face of baseball at that point, the backwards hat,

the smile, the swing, all of that. And in, in a weird way, like what Cowell's doing, he might not be the face of baseball, but he's the face of Seattle right now. And he's a recognizable face within baseball. And that's that's rare for this franchise to truly have. And the fact that it came kind of out of nowhere just adds to the to the story and the aura, I guess, of what he's accomplished so far.

And he's the face of Honeybucket now too, which is a big deal for him. He is the face of Honeybucket, yes. If there was ever a more perfect partnership, I don't know. For those that are unaware, Honeybucket is a portable sanitation service, better known as a porta potty.

And I guess it was what yesterday, Tim, that they announced that they're teaming up with the Big Dumper. And yeah, as you pointed out, one of the greatest athlete company collaborations that we've seen in recent memory. Yes. Yes. I mean, there are certain things that go hand in hand together. And yeah, a guy with a nickname, big dumper

and a porta potty company coming up with an agreement on a partnership. It's like one of those chef kiss kind of moments. It's just, it's too perfect. Some go hand in hand, some go dumper and bucket. We're speaking to Tim Booth from the Seattle Times here on the Haliford and Rough Show on Sports Night 650. So all of this is going on in Seattle sports, you know,

NBA expansion is dominating conversations, Cal rallies, breakthrough season. That's also dominating conversation. Oh, by the way, there's the Seattle crack and they had some news yesterday because their schedule along with everyone else's got announced across the national hockey league. But given how you cover Seattle sports in its entirety,

I'm curious about, you know, Jason and I, my other co-host, Jason and I, we have this conversation all the time about where the crack can fit in a very crowded and very passionate landscape of Seattle sports. And they haven't done themselves a ton of favors by missing the playoffs and kind of being a boring product, but it feels like you have to do a lot right now to be in that conversation.

I'm curious, from your perspective, covering the entire landscape, being a boring product, but it feels like you have to do a lot right now to be in that conversation. I'm curious, from your perspective covering the entire landscape, for lack of a better question, where do the crack and fit? You know, it's kind of funny. I was having a conversation with someone about this in Vegas the other day. Because we were talking about the Knights and kind of how, you know, they walked into this perfect situation. Obviously, you know, the first pro team in Vegas, then you have the shooting and the way kind of the Knights became a focal point for the community to rally around, you know, what they did. And then, of course, they go to the Cup final and do everything that they've done since with this amazing amount of success. So, but in regards to the, to the Kraken, like Seattle has

tiers, I guess, probably the best way to say it. And the Kraken are definitely tier two, you know, right now, when it comes to all the focus and the attention, and what people care about, you know, it's it's Seahawks and Mariners. And, you know, maybe's, it's Seahawks and Mariners and, you know, maybe you get through the university of Washington, you know, Seahawks Mariners are tier one, maybe the university of Washington and maybe all this talk about NBA expansion would be like one B, you know, I kind of that kind of level. And then you have sort of everything else that's here and the cracker are, are, are definitely in that, in that tier two because you've had issues with,

you start during, well, COVID is still going on, which definitely is not the most optimal way to engage your fans and a new fan base when you're still dealing with, launching a franchise during a pandemic. You have issues with their television deals early on and the distribution. You have this incredible season where you go to the playoffs and you kind of have everybody waiting to take that next step

and show, hey, we can be the next, you know, the next version of Vegas. And then you fall on your face the next two seasons. After that, you've had the turnover with coaches. You've had, yeah, you said you've played, you've had a pretty boring product that you've put out on the ice at times. It's, it has not found a way to engage the fan base in the way that I know the franchise was, you know, the front office of the franchise was hoping. Or the diehard hockey fans that have been here for a long time, who have desperately waited to have a team here and to see the opportunity for their friends

who aren't diehard hockey fans to get engaged in what the NHL is and get and have a team to actually rally around and sort of call their own. I don't know what the magic formula is for them to actually kind of capture the fan base in the way that they've been hoping to do and maybe kind of nudge themselves up in the hierarchy of everything here other than when, right? You know, it's a great equalizer for everybody. I'm sure the Canucks fans would be happier if they won. You know? You know, didn't have the backslide they had last year. Like the way that the fan base here kind of started

to engage beyond the hockey fan and just the general sports fan in year two when they made that playoff run was pretty stark. But then to backslide the way they have, you can't. There's been no forward momentum with it. And so until they until they roll out a product that's either super entertaining and is going to win a bunch of six, five games or is six really successful. And we're talking about them being at the top of the Pacific Division

for most of the season. And, you know, until that happens, it's it's still just going to be a sort not a secondary team, but it's not going to be able to make inroads with fans here, with the general sports fan here, the way that they were hoping it would. Tim, this was great, man. Thanks for taking the time to do it today. We really appreciate it. Yep, thanks for having me on, guys. Yep, thank you.

That's Tim Booth, Seattle Times sports reporter here on the Haliford and Brough show, featuring Jamie Dodd on Sportsnet. That's right. 650. I'm sure you listen to our show. Religiously, of course. Yeah, and then when you don't, you download the podcast.

Yeah. Just listen to it over and over and over again. Brough spends a lot of time, a lot of time chastising the Seattle Kraken for their inability to. And granted, it's tough. It's a saturated sports market. There's a lot of eyeballs. There's a lot of competition. But to sort of have the response that the Kraken have had to that challenge leaves a lot to be desired because they are irrelevant. It's such a short grace period you get now I feel

right and as Tim said they desperately needed to sustain after that year too like year one okay hey bad but we're just we're going off the good vibes we're all excited we have hockey that's great I'll step forward in year two playoffs this is incredible and then since then it's been absolutely nothing and it doesn't look like it's coming either this year and they don't even have like The really exciting young star that you can kind of build the franchise around or be the face of the franchise they don't have The hook the kind of the thing you can hang everything else on and until they have that or as he said until they start winning

Consistently, it's just gonna be really really difficult to I know he said the Mariners and Seahawks are tier one. I think the Seahawks are tier one. Well even the Mariners like OK you got the Callarally story that helps them break through but really the Seahawks are the Canucks of Seattle where they're going to dominate the conversation no matter what. Every other team needs things to go right needs some sort of positive story to rest the coverage on. Now it's interesting because in our market, and like I've done this for a long time, I'm very old and it is-

Yes, yes you are. Yes, yeah, I forget where I'm going with this. That's how old I am. No, I try and explain it to people all the time because I think there's some people that don't really understand that in a lot of ways, we don't really have a sports market here. We don't even really have a hockey market here. We have a Canucks market here. I think that's something very important to understand.

I think a lot of people don't really, they don't really grasp how diverse but also how energetic it can be when you're forced to fight for the market share. When you realize that you've got competition domestically to get people in the door and get people to pay attention to your product and you have to make a real concerted effort to do it. You can't just roll out the same thing year after year and bank on generations and generations of fans like my father did this and his father before him did it like and that's very much it connects in this City right people have grown up with it BC Lions See the lions aren't there. No, I was saying like that's just like banking on that. Yeah

Just like oh, yeah, we'll just keep cruising along right, right but but in the same breath, wherever the league was at, at its heights or even now, where it's obviously having some issues, although I think local ownership has really revived some of it, it was always going to be, the CFO was always gonna be a secondary product. I know if you talk to, especially like Donnie and Rick, like the talk back in the 80s, that it was a bigger tick

and everything, that's great, but that was like 40 years ago Rick, like the talk about back in the 80s that it was a bigger tick and everything, that's great. But that was like 40 years ago now. Like the reality of it is, is we now- When you have every Canucks game on TV. We now exist in a market where, you know, it's like put on the Canucks game. It's a joke, but it's also not. I've, you know, having like worked in some

of these other markets, you know, platooned in and out during different jobs that I've had, like it becomes an entirely different conversation and entirely different energy. And there is a real competition to get out in front and capture that audience. Imagine not just having like other big four sporting teams to compete against, but think about like in Chicago, we've got the Cubs and the White Sox. It's like the same league. You want to talk about competition. You're not just competing against the Bears and the Bulls and the Blackhawks. It's like, no, these, these guys play in the same league as you and you have to find a way to convince

people. No, no, don't go to their games. Don't go to their games. A beautiful historic Wrigley park come to ours at ugly, whatever it's called now. You speak of miskeen. What iskey. I have no idea what it is now. We'll look it up the break. It could be one of our What We Learned. That's a tough sell right there. Speaking of the BC Lions, it's the biggest rivalry party of the year this weekend. Lions, Rough Riders, Saturday July 19th at 4 p.m. with the Watermelon Smash on Terry Fox Plaza. Get your tickets now at BCLions.com. We're gonna go to break when we come back on the other side. What we learned, ours, and the humanoid edition. Get yours in. Dunbar Lumber Text Line is 650-650-HASHTAGAT-WWL

and tell us what you learned over the last 24 hours in sports. You're listening to the Halford and Breff Show featuring Jamie Dodd on Sportsnet 650. Now for my favorite part of the show. What'd I say? Talk to the audience. Oh, God, this is always dead. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time On the show

8.34 on a Thursday, happy Thursday everybody, Halford, Bruff, Sportsnet at 6.50, it's Jamie Dodd and Jason's Bruff chair though. And then I'm gone tomorrow, so it's you and Israel Fair in the chair. That rhymes. Nicely done. That rhymes. Nicely done. So true. Nicely done, me.

Alfred and Bruff in the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal reduces your debt by up to 80% with no more interest. Visit them online at Sands-Trustee.com. We are in hour three of the program. It is what we learn time. Hour three is brought to you by Campbell & Pound real estate appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell and pound visit them on the internet at Campbell dash pound calm today

We have to what we learned from our side of the table basketball Ben's gonna begin. We did not prep this I don't know what direction is going it's gonna be a true good old-fashioned what we learned disowning basketball Ben's what we learned What do you mean? Don't hold Mike Alford responsible? I mean sometimes I'll tell people like we're gonna know what we learned, but I know already I've learned it. This is a true- I just want to remove myself from this what we learned. I didn't mean it to come across like that. Well we did talk about a little bit during the break, but it's we learned that Jeannie Bouchard has officially retired from tennis. Yes, we did learn that. Got up to fifth in the world for world rankings, finalist

in Wimbledon in 2014 I believe and the semi-finalist in the Australian Open and French Open officially retiring from tennis. I think she's gonna be pursuing pickleball. I was gonna say is she retiring from pickleball? I don't think so. I think she's gonna hop into the pickleball realm, stay with the racket sports. So she's gonna play or has she already finished at the NBO? That's the's the whole thing, right? Is she finishing in Montreal? Yeah, I chose the National Bank open. It's going to be her final tournament.

That's where she's. Yeah. Number five in the WTA rankings. I that was. Yeah, it was a it was it was a bright shining star. Brayley and then just sort of faded away, as we've seen with a couple different tennis players throughout. I do think people have kind of unfairly maligned her a little bit. Now, obviously there's a disappointing aspect of her career, but it's not like this was people weren't making it up that she was talented.

You know what I mean? She was the fifth ranked woman in the world. She made it to a Wimbledon final. There was real talent and promise there. And then there's injuries that come and you can have all the other debates you want. But let's not lose sight of The fact that like she was very young at the time and those were really impressive accomplishments at the time I think she won a junior Wimbledon title I'm not mistake that's right And then the next year she went to the the finals of Wimbledon right and she lost to Petra Kvitova in the finals and like pretty

Pretty impressive run there for her. Yeah. I also had the biggest crush on her when I was younger. Really, you don't say. That's the important part. I made a bet with my sister for 500 bucks that one day I'm gonna take her out on a date. And I made that bet like 12 years ago and it's not looking solid for me.

That was her sort of viral moment non-tennis division. She was like Justin Bieber? No, or the guy shot, he shot with her. That's right. Yeah, it was some rain. Oh, and the Dallas Cowboys game or something? Yeah, and then he actually ended up going on two dates with her too. Look at that. Yeah two dates That's my hero. Now. See I was more of an Anna Kornikova guy. That's the generational gap between us Ben. There you go All right, moocow that retirement

Always a tough way to do things here on the Alfred and Bref show at least wasn't a death Those are the worst. You need the somber moocow for the death. We've discussed that before though. Moo. Sometimes we don't do the moo following someone's unfortunate passing. Sometimes we do, just whatever the mood strikes.

Anyway, Jamie, you're up. What did you learn? All right, what I learned is that the CHL, and I guess the WHL specifically in this case, is still searching for its pitch to young elite hockey players in the wake of Gavin McKenna departing for Penn State. And of course this is a big story and with the rules changing around eligibility you can go from the CHL to the NCAA. Now there's NIL money involved. Everyone is wondering what this means for

the WHL and the rest of the CHL leagues. What does this mean for junior hockey in Canada? I think it's fair to say there's a lot of panic. I don't think is too strong a word from some of the major players in junior hockey. Dan near commissioner of the W.H.L. He went on the pipeline show, prob podcast focused on junior hockey and he had this to say as part of his picture explaining why young hockey players should choose to play in the CHL. I know people who have flown coach their whole life and then had an opportunity to get upgraded and they sat in business class. Do you know how hard it is to go back to coach once you've sat in business class. Well, the American hockey league versus the NCAA environment, I'm not sure that playing a Friday, Saturday schedule

and then pumping iron and drinking smoothies all week is necessarily the best segue into what the AHL grind is like. The internet then proceeded to hang Dan near. Yeah. So basically we're coach and the NCAA is business class and hey, you only have to play twice a week and the rest of the time you're getting this nutritional access and access to great weight training and all of that. But don't do that. Don't make things too easy on yourself. Come here for the grind. So you're ready for the A.H.L. I think to say the least that's going to be a tough sell. That's going to be a very tough sell. Look I get it. They're not going to be able to compete with the facilities and some of

the resources that top NCAA programs can offer. I think there I do think though as as tone deaf as that is right. And I think especially to like 17 year old an 18 year old hockey players I don't think that's going to work. Like, hey, you should really like build some character by going on these massive bus ride through Western Canada. I actually think the panic is maybe a little bit overdone right now because yes, there are going to be extremely high profile players like Gavin McKenna who say, oh, hey man, I can go make, I think it's reported he's going to make 700,000 playing at Penn State next year. And I get access to all of these facilities. That's great.

But it also means and this is for the CHL, right? It used to be that players, if they wanted to preserve their NCAA eligibility, they had to go to Junior A. Well, now those guys can go to the WHL. They can choose to do that. So it's going to be different. But I don't think this is a an apocalyptic scenario for the CHL. I don't think the argument they're making is going to help. They just kind of need to relax and let the chips,

let the cards fall where they may here. And then I think they're going to be in a totally fine position going forward. So have I ever told you about the, uh, Mike Halford PR company that I'm going to run once our time here in the radio and it is coming soon comes to an end. Yeah. Once my time here is over, I'm going to run a crisis management and public relations firm and the entire premise is going to be, say nothing. Right.

Don't say anything. When you think you have to address something, you don't. When you feel compelled to have a conversation about something, you shouldn't. Don't do it. And when someone asks you a question and you think you have a smart answer, you don't. This was the stupidest thing that Dan Neer could have said. Yeah. Because he right now, if you're in a no win situation, which he is to a certain degree

right now, they're getting, you no win situation, which he is to a certain degree right now, they're getting, you know, beat up by the NCA. Everyone's trying to pit them as one versus the other. Everyone's expecting you to react in a panicked or defensive sort of way. Don't take the bait. Nope. Don't try and make it an us versus them

and what we can offer and what they can offer. Don't play the game. Don't indulge. Let everything settle down. Understand that you're going to get through this. You're going to take some body blows, but you will survive as long as you don't make things worse for yourself. Right. And Mike Alford of SLT Enterprises, SLT, standing for Say Less Things. Yes. Say, yeah. Say nothing.

Wyshinski has a good piece up at ESPN this morning about this and the Gavin McKenna to Penn State thing and how it's gonna change the landscape. And one of the things he points out is it's not like Gavin McKenna bypassed the WHL. He played two and a half years there. And they got a phenomenal highlight reel worthy season out of him for the Medicine Hat Tigers.

It's not like you're going to never see these top phenomenal prospects play in the CHL anymore It might be just more of one stop on the way and that's fine again I don't think that's like a death knell. Oh, what's gonna happen to all these teams and little communities? They're still gonna be fine You're gonna lose some of the top players once they're eligible for college But they're still gonna start their careers there and you're still going to have tons of talent coming through. The CHL has had it real good for a real long time when it comes to the

landscape and what they've been able to do and how they've been able to profit off the backs of teenage hockey players for years and years and years. Eventually it was going to change. It was an inevitability. This was going to happen. And I an inevitability this was going to happen. And I just think of it like, look at it this way. For the long time, the NCAA was far inferior to junior hockey. But guess what? It still existed, right?

It still produced NHL players. It still had great moments. It still had fans. It still had infrastructure. You don't have to be the top dog in the developmental pyramid in hockey to still have a really good thing going. And if the new path is, you know, 15, 16, 17 in the dub or the O H L or the Q for these players and then a year in college that okay, is it a bummer? Sure. But it's not it's not anything more than that.

It's not existential for these leagues. Jay Dog, the car hog writes in about Dan Nears remarks. Yeah, but what he did was kind of human nature. You have to give him a break. Lots of people would have responded the same way. People say stupid things all the time. Heck I do. Yes, Jay Doug, you are a car hog.

You are not the commissioner of the Western hockey league. And that's also where your services come in, right? Because it is human nature. And that's why you need Mike Halford to say, oh, oh, no, don't say anything. Don't say anything. I remember reading way, way, way back about, um, chess players. And there was a guy who, he wasn't a famous chess professional,

but he was, uh, widely regarded as one of the best chess professors or teachers. Sure. And one of the tricks that he would teach players to do was to sit on their hands when they weren't making a move. And it was because, like instinctually, when you see something happen, your first, you know, the human nature is to react, right? Oh, I see something. And you're up and then you put your hand on the chess piece

and then you move. And the idea would be you sit on your hands and it forces you to sit and analyze and wait. You keep your hands still, or you keep them in a position where they can't do something reactionary. And I think that you, and again, it's hilarious that I'm saying this because I talk for three hours

every morning reacting to a- The famously reactionary medium of sports radio. Just firing off- Don't do what we do. Firing off stupid takes that get no thought into them whatsoever. Reacting to a Vander Cane being traded to the Canucks. Yelling obs that begin no thought into the whatsoever reacting to a vander cain being traded to the canucks yelling obscenities borderline into the microphone and then going home afterwards and being like I shouldn't have done any of that, but I

learned From this and I do think that when you're in a position of authority and power in a moment like with the whl Where you are facing a crossroads to a certain degree? Sometimes it's better just to say less don't you don't do the Lionel has ooh he's gonna win yeah not out loud anyway you say to yourself in a private quiet moment Okay, fire the damn matrix actually I got a surprise quick what we look wow oh my don't fire up the dog just very Wow, I was this close to hitting it. Yeah, I just just a real gotta mention because it's very very important that we get this out there Yeah, Canucks Teddy Bluger had a goal and an assist yesterday in the beauty league.

Oh, no. I'm going to kill you. Oh, we mentioned the beauty league. A goal and an assist for Teddy Bluger. Oh, wow. He's lighting it up. Is that our new 2C? Is that our new 2C?

We are all stupider as a society for ever following the beauty league. I have a beauty league take here. So Rick Tauke famously did not care following the beauty I have I have a beauty league take here so Rick talk it famously did not care for the beauty league I believe I don't know if it was an out and out ban but it was definitely like hey Brock cut that out don't don't be doing the beauty league okay so okay first hold on not to interrupt but how did I miss this because when you brought this up last night we were chatting about it I was like what's he talking Rick talking we

call like River called River hockey really hockey. Really? Right. Yeah. No talk. It was not a beauty league guy. It taught bad habits for you. He didn't, he didn't care for it. He wanted them to be doing other things. Talk. It was not a beauty. Okay. Like you should be at the practice facility. Oh yeah. Dang it. So, but so now obviously, I mean the shackles are off now that, uh, how does Adam foot feel about to beauty league? So these guys clearly talk it should be a mask talk it being anti to beauty league clearly was holding back the offensive Development of guys like Teddy Bluger and now we're gonna see them hit another level

I remember there was that one summer where we were following the exploits of Remember Keith Ballard at the beauty and Brock Brock is like to beauty league MVP And that was a major talking point in Vancouver sports Radio if you ever want to have an excellent existential crisis in terms of this industry in your life It's when you're covering the beauty league stats. Yeah, I mentioned it before I used to keep I used to have it in my sports Updates of the old station. I know Almost tongue-in-cheek. I was like, I can't believe I'm covering this note the word almost doing a lot of heavy lifting there Okay, let's fire up the Dow Matrix.

What we learned humanoid edition, Bratu is always by AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. Our favorite AJ's sauce pie, an upside down version of the bar pie with fresh mozzarella and basil, only at AJ's Pizza order online at AJ's. That pizza, I go with basil. Sure, interesting.

Like Basil McCray. Let's dig into this here. We got some humanoid at what we learned here. Justin and East Van, hashtag WWL what we learned in a move to spite Rick Tauke at leaving the Canucks. Jim Rutherford has invited Bruce Boudreau to crank the siren ahead of the Flyers game on December 30th. I do like the Flyers game on December 30th

I do like those that have positioned the December 30th game not as Rick talk its return, but the know Yeah, no, Jules revenge game. That's gonna be big. I see you gonna get what's kind of tribute is no Jules and gonna get huge Yeah, yeah, have you guys heard of Yegor? Chinakhov Yegor, I have him. Yes. You're not doing this. Are you apparently he's requested a trade Did you look into it at all before reading the in-basket? Because I did, and there's not a lot there. Well, the rumor is out there. Yeah, I know, but I looked into it.

I think we should just support this rumor. There's precious little out there. So by the way, there's two failings every summer in hockey. One is coverage of the Beauty League, the failing by everyone involved. Yeah, the other one is taking Either Russian or Swedish language reports, right? Translating them and then getting trade rumors off them. I think we're this is per his agent I'm just looking at it now. What is it? Okay, but was it in English per his agent translation per his a-har-har translation

The translation actually said he does not want to be traded. Oh, he missed one word Imagine Isn't it sad though? Cuz I just googled this quickly when I saw it come in and you know in the like news The headlines results in the search. Yeah, one of them is sports illustrated eight minutes ago Columbus blue jackets forward request trade This is a total tangent But isn't it sad how far sports illustrated has fallen like that like it was just like that's just some dumb content clickbait farm now They don't have they have no idea what's going on. They're just looking for the clicks

It's like that sports illustrated and I just completely discount it doesn't mean anything Lines tweeted it so it's real. Okay. Yeah ports line saying CBG aware he wants to be traded and they've had trade talks, but GM Dom Waddell said he's not going to simply accept the best offer to appease, will only move him if he gets an acceptable offer. Expectation is that he will still be at training camp story coming. So, Chinakoff, perhaps most famously, was taken 21st overall in the 2020 draft and nobody had anything on him.

I remember the entire sports net panel just flummoxed. They're like, I don't even know who that is. It was the reachiest of reaches. He has played close to a hundred games at the NHL level with minimal production at the forward position. I believe he's a left-headed shot to play his right wing or the inverse. As as you can tell I'm doing most of this research Just like just like the sports net panel when he was drafted were Struggling to come up with things to say I know that Yarmulke Kalina was the general manager involved in the scouting of him and the sort of reach of a pick And he did make the NHL level rather quickly

So there's that to be said as far as a trade I we're in the very early stages of this reported trade request So I don't have a ton of other information on it But a dog good job on getting to the bar you go because when I looked it up there was nothing Doubting my journalistic integrity on air look where it gets you Mike the urologist from Brockville what we learned Canadian Mike Woods is in the lead group of today's mountain stage of the Tour de France with 50 kilometers left Mike is relentless in the lead group of today's mountain stage of the Tour de France with 50 kilometers left. Mike is relentless with the cycling techs. So I wanted to throw him a bone here. I also this week I've done like a heel turn on the sport of cycling. How so?

Just because not as a athletic accomplishment, but I the idea of going to watch it live could not be less appealing to me. And I've taken some big pushback people like but it's free you can just go to the side of the road is like that's Not a selling point. Yeah You can just stand on the side of the road. I was cares. Yeah, I've never I've never really I've tried believe me I've tried and it's funny because when I was growing up in those halcyon days of getting sports illustrated delivered to your door Yes, cycling was a big deal. Yeah, man because when I was growing up in those Halcyon days of getting Sports Illustrated delivered to your doorstep, cycling was a big deal. Yeah, man.

Lance Armstrong? I'm talking even pre-Lance Armstrong, right? Greg LeMond and everything else. And now that I think about it, do you remember that sliver of time where everyone had Livestrong gear? Do I ever? Every person I knew had a yellow Livestrong bracelet.

I never did. No. I have never worn a yellow. I live strong. I never did no I have never worn a bracelet Of any description what a bold what a bold stand ever Never you should wear one to the show tomorrow They tried to try to give me a metal alert one and I said no Cut it off. Cut it up a dog. You know have you ever worn a leather bracelet actually no I haven't no Have you ever worn a leather bracelet actually no I haven't no Question why did you have no leathers he was I he you played in a band yeah, no no we weren't I often you weren't a bracelet band. No it was a break

Predominantly bracelet were you more of a hat band? What was your what was your guy was? I was like you know I was during the emo scene Hair and yeah, yeah No, no bracelets. No? No, I could not like I think. I was just heavily tatted. Yeah. I was the only one in my band that didn't have two full sleeves.

Right. Everyone else was just like tattooed up the wazoo. And sometimes literally. Very painful. I was waiting for the kicker on that one. Yeah, it hurt like hell. But it was worth it. Oh, Tim and South Suri with What We Learned learned Victoria's holding a massive hot rod show and cruise this weekend

July 17 to 20th, it's called Northwest deuce days. Sure. I hope that I think I hope I just didn't get dolly-walled by Duce days by the way, if you're looking for stuff to check out this weekend For the football and of course the footballing, the European football aficionados, Nations Cup is on in Richmond. It is the best amateur sports tournament, never mind what sport, it's fantastic. All ages, men's and women's throughout Richmond, about every single field in Richmond is on. Also this weekend if you're into baseball of the little league variety, Jamie's wearing his little mountain hat right now. The minor provincials are on at Hastings Little League where I used to coach and of course the scenic backdrop

of the PNE behind Saunders Field at Hastings. So there's lots to check out this weekend from the sporting realm. You got the Hot Rod Show, Deuce Days, again, I hope that's what it's called. And thank you to Tim and South Surrey for texting in that's in Victoria you can go check out a bunch of soccer action out of the Nations Cup in Richmond Little League Baseball Provincials the minor Provincials at Hastings that's going on all weekend as well and I'm mentioning all this because I am gone after today I'll be back on Monday have a good show with Izzy tomorrow thank you Jamie Dodd and Izzy Chair Izzyzy Fair. Izzy Fair. Izzy Chair. Good ol' Izzy Chair.

That's all tomorrow. Today though, we gotta say goodbye. Signing off, I have been Mike Alford, he's been Jamie Dodd, he's been Adog, he's been Basketball Ben. This has been the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet at 6.50.