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let's bring in our friends of pivot Megan rapino and Sue B are legendary athletes Olympic Champions and have been
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dubbed by GQ the most beloved power couple in sports how many of them there are but anyway they're also hosts of the
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new VOX media podcast a touch more welcome to the family Megan and Sue hi thanks for having us how's it going
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how's the podcasting going we are just learning on the Fly it's fun though we're like figuring it out yeah all
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right so let me it's let's start with that the show was originally launched on Instagram during Co explain explain what
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you are doing here with the podcast first well yeah it started you know I guess one addition of it which was just
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we were in the pandemic stuck in our apartment what something we could do together that would be fun so we decided
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to go on IG live like every Saturday at whatever time 7 o'clock we were drinking
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we were having fun we were talking about current events all the things um and then fast forward a couple years
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somebody was like hey would you guys want to do live shows so they're like all right let's try to do that and then
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it kind of morphed into what it is now as a podcast which is definitely more women's sports spent you know we culture
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politics fashion all the things meet women's sports and we're just kind of figuring out from there yeah shooting
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from the hip on a lot it's kind of fun yeah did you feel like everyone has a podcast you have to kind honestly that's
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probably what kept us out of it for so long was that everybody has podcast like oh we don't want to be that I can't tell
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you how many people will just randomly say like oh man does everyone have to have a podcast now and now I'm like we
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do too but listen to Ari soe uh you are of course a WNBA Legend having played with the Seattle Storm for 19 Seasons
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that's an astonishing uh thing but though wmba is having a remarkable season with record viewership and
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attendance thanks in large part to Rookies like Caitlyn Clark and Angel ree who's now out um uh for this uh for the
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season after an injury I just love your assessment of of what they should be doing to build the enthusiasm in mind
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and Megan I'd love you to jump in uh because it's Sports how to get people to do more Sports the New York Liberty has
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seen 130% year-over-year increase in season ticket membership they've raised their prices as as have a number of WNBA
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teams um and I also want to mention Sue joined the ownership group for the Seattle Storm earlier this year why
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don't you start Sue sure um I mean my answer to this question is that we already did it we already did it the the
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product on the floor has never been better it has continued to be kind of like the rock of the league throughout
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the the course of my career and then now so that part you know check that box I think the businesses obviously we get a
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lot of help from the MBA but now each individual team's business is being run with the future in mind right not just
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how we're going to get by this year so things have been the foundation has been built for for many many years and now
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what you're seeing is we finally through all the work we've done yes in the last
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28 years which is the league existence but also more so in the last like four or five years now we're at this point
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where the way I like to look at it we have crossed this imaginary line of celebrity that usually male athletes
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automatically cross the minute they're drafted the minute they play for some reason the WNBA was held back we know
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those reasons a lot of them end with an ism and so now that we've crossed that line you're
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seeing that people are looking at us differently they're looking at the league differently when they get offered
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WNBA tickets you know not just celebrities general you know people in general but when they get offered now
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it's like oh yeah let me check that out where it used to be like eh is it worth it so somehow we have crossed that line
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and now that we're on the other side I just imagine business is going to continue to Boom the only thing that we
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talk about a lot is wanting people whether it's corporate partnership um networks um you name it they we want
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them to look at our potential we've gotten to that point like we've proven it we're here we've done the thing we've
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done the thing without your support now imagine what it would look like if we had your support so people can see our
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potential that's where the business is going to take off in another Direction so Megan if you could come because I
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think probably the same thing that's happening with soccer and other things but talk about that invisible line of
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celebrity and what it does like what what do you think has happened is it because say you your your team did so
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well or people were looking at women's sports in general though they don't separ they separate out men's sports
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pretty easily I mean I think it's a a combination of a lot of things but I think just in general the sort of
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changing tied in the the country even I mean even through the pandemic obviously
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the wnba's work and getting Reverend waro and Senator warno um elected but it's also like I honestly feel like the
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people with the money and we normally know who those people are ran out of excuses or things that they could sort
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of blame on not investing in in women's sports and now all of them are like flocking you know like it's like Bob
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Iger bought into um you know the team in Angel City FC so I feel like it's like we can't say that it's not fun anymore
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we can't say that like everyone's gay and we don't like that anymore like being overtly racist isn't really that
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cool anymore and so I feel like in a lot of ways it just kind of like crossed this threshold I think social media was
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a big part of that players could get their own stories out different ways to disseminate media I think that increased
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TV viewership increased you know um investment from not only existing ownership groups but new ownership
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groups coming in and it's actually like okay fine we'll stop discriminating like
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we'll just see how the business goes to your point about the you know the sort of potential men get invested on
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potential and what they might do eventually all the time that's sort of the Baseline for women it's like you
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have to do the thing catch lightning in the bottle Scott this is more a question
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made for both of you and bring Sue in I think it's different leagues or different sports as asset classes some
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are increasing in value some are decreasing in value outside of the WNBA or football where you both are going to
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have a bias what sports as you look across the landscape or What leagues do you think are increasing the most in
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value and also decreasing the most in value I've heard the NFL has an aging problem for example or its viewers are
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aging any thoughts on which assets are increasing or decreasing I think it's I mean I I feel like in male Sports
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honestly the the screw has been turned and is being turned to milk every little last thing and they're thinking okay can
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we get augmented reality obviously the betting has been huge but yeah I mean I I think all women's sports is is on the
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up because it's been so underinvested in and there's such a um an investment Gap
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there's there's so much room to grow across media platforms live platform like all of it um I mean the NFL just
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seems to rake in money but I I just have to believe at some point like that's just going to run out I mean at some
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points like we're it's not going to be okay that you know however many percentage of the players have brain Dam
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that's just feels like unsustainable yeah often times when I think of this question not not worded the way you
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worded it I'm I'll look at the NFL the NBA whatever it is and I'll be like what's going to take this down or what's
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going to decrease this value or what's going to change player salary we keep waiting and it doesn't happen it do I
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don't think it I actually don't think it will I think just to Megan's Point other
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assets are going to grow and reach those levels hopefully yeah okay let me change
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the topic we talk a lot on show about the negative impact of social media on kids and teens but it's an issue for
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athletes as well um you recently talked in the podcast about the trolls that athletes face Megan said the negativity
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shouldn't be the default but it is um do you think the you're you guys are very active on social media do you think the
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pros outweigh the cons when it comes to athletes on social media and talk a little bit about how you use it yourself
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I feel like I use it as a way to express myself I'm not really looking to get anything like back from it necessarily
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whether it's comments or whatever but but you're Megan's unique in that yeah I am very unique in that and I was also
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like I came to it a little bit older I feel like my brain wasn't like formed around it like kids are now I really
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like feel for them it's so like woven into the fabric of their upbringing and their like social understanding of of
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how to be and it's really difficult um I always just suggest athletes like don't
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get in your comments like be in the real world like you have people around you friends family advisers all the things
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like stay in that world but also I understand that sometimes that's like impossible to do but it's kind of a
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hellscape in there yeah it's a it's a fake place with real consequence and so I think you always have to have some
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sort of balance in that and and when you whenever you feel as an individual the way Megan was wording it whenever you
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feel like that balance is out of whack you got to find a way to reenter it um because I do think again coming from the
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lens of a of a of a woman's athlete in this country um especially a basketball player especially with the WNBA it has
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100% helped us grow it has helped individuals have Brands it has helped us get messages out is it it has helped us
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bring awareness to certain things without it I don't know if the league is where it is right now so it's hard for
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me to say that it's a bad thing but then also it's a cesspool so you have to find
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that balance and that is the the tricky part I feel like that's where I'm hopeful that every I don't know
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eight-year-old right now is taking they have like a it's like Social Studies English social media but it's also like
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I find it really frustrating like there's and you guys talk about this all the time this is well known like the the
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media companies and the internet companies have done almost nothing to stop what they know is happening and now
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it's like yeah I mean cat's kind of out of the back like how do you roll back whether it's Bots or trolls or just like
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the the sort of devolving of conversation or decorum or Norm or like kindness that is now just the norm on
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the internet like the norm is just to like whatever kind of Quip you can get back whatever kind of like little
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negative thing that someone can type whether it's a fan or someone on social media whatever it is like that seems the
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default but it's like where's their responsibility just so always fascinated or I should say I don't understand and
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think it's a bad idea when couples go into business together I feel as if it's putting all your eggs in one basket
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thanks yeah the eggs were already there I guess the question is a lot of people do it and it works out really
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well for a lot of people do you have any best practices or rules to try and maintain the health of the business and
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your personal relationship given that you're obviously just so involved with each other you know during work hours
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and nonwork hours well we fig yeah we're figuring out on the Fly um we talk about
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a lot of our business stuff with our couples therapists and uh I'm sure in our individual therapy as well I know I
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do it comes up um we have really great people that work with us and we're we're trying it like who it could go up in
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flames and if it does we're going to pull this clip and be like Scott was right and it could all just like come
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shattering down but I feel like I don't know we're also enjoying it and it's fun
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and we get to talk about something that we really love in women's sports which is something obviously we both played
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and you know it's such a big part of our relationship and we're just we're just out here giving it a away yeah I think
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the time management of it all is is maybe the most difficult um like when are we working when are we not cuz a lot
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of Our Lives is what you're seeing on this podcast like this is what we talk about in our day-to-day lives so it's at
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times it's like okay when do we shut this off when are we just chilling when are we because that's the only time for
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me personally I'm just telling you this for the first time that's the only time me personally where it gets blurry or
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kind of like oh I don't want to talk about this right now we just talked about it for the last 12 hours yeah but
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then simultaneously this is you're what you see right now is like this is it this is
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our lives we just happen to have a camera and a microphone in front of our faves and in front of our faces but then
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at the same time as athletes our whole lives have been that so this isn't like a new Dynamic anyway uh thank you so
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much Megan rapino and suburb uh if you want to hear more expert analysis of the business of sports from Megan and Sue
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check out a touch more