BREAKING NEWS: Alcaraz Playing US Open, Slam Player Council Formed, & More

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So it's like, okay, that's enough to talk about going into the open, these are things that matter, the grand slam player council of things, and I'll be damned if on the drive on the way over, I don't get a call from Mike and Sean's, like our JW wrote, Carlos looks like he's in for the US Open. Yeah, just like a subtle announcement. I love it. He goes, he goes, boop. He dropped the thing on Instagram, for Brutio Romano, he has 49.7 million followers. He's a soccer guy. Carlos went through the sky. Carlos posted it. Yeah, here it is. Here we go. He posted that video. I'm going to have to clip that one, Sean. Yeah, we allowed to use that over and over again to go to because there's a world where I don't want anything. I'm just going to go clip it. Here we go. Let's just add that to the sun. Yeah. Top comment. US Open. Can't wait. Yes. So you think the challenge, you think the gauntlet's throw in when Sinner officially commits, he's going to go on McAfee. I think we have a new, I think Carlos is now set a new standard. He'll go on like some F1 Instagram handle. Yes. Something in Monaco. Yes. It's way cooler than McAfee. This is great news. I mean, we were going to go with the slam prize money of things. I know that the grounds passes and criticism that the US Open is getting for the price of those. I have kind of an issue with that. So we're going to get to that at some point. There's lots of stuff that I like about the prize money announcement and increases. And there's a couple little ticky-tack things that don't really sit well with me. All of these things we were going to go through, Karen Morehouse, CEO of the ITA is leaving. Apparently, all along good terms. We'll digest that. But Carlos stole the lead. He's playing the US Open. That's where we're starting with JW. How do we feel about that? We're happy. That's a great sign. I'm a little bit nervous that after a serious injury like that, and I remember he's been out since since Barcelona in April and the first tournament you're coming back is going to be best of five. It's a lot of forehands and backhands. But I think it's good news. I think they slow-play this. I think the tournament's breathing a sigh of relief. Presumably, that means he'll do -- who'd lose some mixed doubles. Two, I assume. That was not entirely clear yet. Time stamp. It's Thursday. But no, this is good. It's not going to have a funny point to me. They said, wouldn't it be a real pity if 46-year-old Beatis Williams played in more singles main draws in 2026 in Carlos Alcaraz. Something would be profoundly wrong. That's not going to happen, because Carlos looks like he's going to be there to defend his title. I'm a little nervous about jumping right back in under these conditions. He's not playing with some salaminal things, so this will be his first tournament since Barcelona. But bottom line, this is a good day. Good day for Tennis. I am so happily surprised, and my suspicions are wrong, and I am thrilled about it. Tennis is most exciting player. We don't know what we're going to get. A lot of the time he pulls shots out of nowhere, I think. For him to play this, I have to think the risk of further injury is next to nothing, right? It seems like he's happy to accept that, hey, listen, maybe my legs will be tired. Maybe I haven't played any match reps. I might lose first or second round. I might get Vanda Zanskolt again. But I'm going to go, you know, would he be playing this if it was, you know, what's one of your challenger city names that you come up with off the top of your head there, Jada? Chillic coffee. Chillic coffee. I love chillic coffee. I'm a big fan of chillic coffee. Beautiful. In August. This is great. This is such a win for Tennis. Question marks, I mean, worst case scenario, no center, no alcoras. That's a nightmare. Yeah. I mean, that's an absolute nightmare. All of a sudden during fan week, if you're Carlos, I think you play Mixed Doubles because I think it actually adds a little value to your singles venture and I don't know that I would say that normally getting into a big stadium with a crowd with ball kids with an umpire announcing the score, you know, having a break point that, listen, it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of his career, but matters in that moment when you have a partner and it stands for something and you could win something versus losing something with eyeballs on you. I think you should play Mixed Doubles if his wrist is okay, you know, and I don't know what his progressions are and I don't know how they're prioritizing practice sets or whatever, but I mean, there's every chance that during the week before the US open actually starts, like we haven't played one point of the singles tournament yet. You're going to see Federer, Agassi, Mackinro, probably Venus, probably Syri, I mean, Syrina, you're going to see the biggest names in our sport, maybe Alker. I mean, this is such a win for, for not only just the US open, but for fan week in general, JW. Federer, you said who, who the hell would be on the other side of the net from Federer? Someone who's a glutton for punishment. Bear in mind, too. I don't, you know, we're playing singles because that hasn't been announced. Yeah. Oh, all right. Jumping. Sorry. How about this, too? Did we mention if Carlos does play Mixed Doubles, his, his likely partner, provided everybody's healthy? The rumor that it was not quit for nine or ten months is, I won't say your name, but I'll say, like, if we had to rhyme it, it'd be, she, Shmarina Shmilliams. How about, she, she's one more than three times the majors of Carlos Alker. Yeah. I'm in full fucking mode. It's probably going to be Syrina. Exactly. So, so imagine, no, I don't know, God, I mean, do, do we, can we just step back? How much do we love this bad shit, crazy sport? Love it. So, so, the, you know, the, the most dynamic player in the sport has been out. He announces his return through the, the, the shifter to the shims of, Sharnia of European soccer. Here we go. Now he can, now he comes back to play Mixed Doubles with 44-year-olds, we think, we think sport just right. They would be listening. If they end up doing it, it's a lucky guess. It's a lucky guess. Exactly. We don't know this. Can I, can I, can I get this back on the rails, though, something serious? The, on Monday, he was practicing with, with Holger, Bruno, how, how much of actually getting reps with somebody with else that's pretty leap and also massive, okay, massive, we talked about this during the last show with Novak, like he could be in Greece practicing with people who are five or six hundred. There's a lot, a million really, really good players out there that may have a forehand that could mimic a tour forehand or a serve, but rolling that all up into one, it's really smart for Carlos to get reps against Holger, Bruno. Even if Holger is at 80% of what he normally is on these Achilles, the guy can still create a pace, like that you're not going to find locally. So you can feel that on the right kid with, especially with tendonitis, right? Feeling a 135 serve, followed up by like a cannon of a forehand, massive, that matters. You can get a work, like it doesn't matter as far as getting a workout, getting your legs in shape. You can do that against any two chuckers, honestly. As long as they can make a ball, you can do two on ones. You can get your legs going. You can do four hours. You can get your reps in. You can work on footwork, but match play, you have to play against real players. Like, you know, I mean, like real players disrespectful. I mean, like top 20 players, if you're alchoraz or, or joke of it, like even joke of it, losing in Cincinnati, I said in the last show, matters less because I'm more interested in the fact that he's getting two weeks of reps against. You would assume players that are top 20, 30 every day. Well, I mean, keep going with mixed doubles, too, where, okay, it's, it's, it's mixed doubles and everyone's going to have some laughs, but you know what, there's a scoreboard. You, you said this. You can't check your phone in between points the way you could in a practice session. It's a just completely different context. Is the ideal preparation to defend your US open title? No singles matches since April and then mixed, no, but we'll take what we can get. And I suspect he does play next. I hope he does. One for the, just like the tennis universe, he's such a star. I mean, it's weird because like when you're in the sports world, there's always like three or four athletes that are the biggest in the world that when they walk into the room, they are the stars. Carlos is that person. At least in my experience, what I've seen and what I've seen close up, like he attracts people and the way he engages, the way he plays. It's like it's like this mixture of like an eight year old, but also like the best player on Earth when he's flying high. Like it's just weird thing that's just so attractive. It's weird to have someone who's that good also be relatable with smiling, with their temperament. You feel like he's going out to play like horse and is amused by his own ability to make shots that no one else can make, right? But that's attractive as a fan. So we need him in the game. This is a massive deal. Fan week at the US Open, I mean, what a win. What a win. They found a way to make three weeks of not just like dumb fluff, but like the mix is a real event that people want to watch on TV, you know, bringing back Federer for a tribute night. People really, really smart music, I, our dear friend, Iris Copperman, one of my best friends, Ross Coverman. She's playing Sunday on kids day for fan week. So bringing in young musical artists and it's just, they've, they're thinking a lot about it and say what you will about the US Open being expensive because that's where I want to go next. But don't say anything about being creative, creating another week of entertainment, and free tennis on Louis Armstrong for mixed doubles, bringing the best champions back over and over and over and basically creating a spectacle, a full event before the event actually starts, right? Now, JW, we have not talked about this. So I don't know where you stand on it and I would like, when we don't do that, I normally learn something when I kick the ball back to you. There's a lot of people on Twitter fans, there's a lot of prominent voices on Twitter that are basically saying, you know, they're quoting prices of $300 and $400 for grounds passes, which is what they're going for in ticket master currently. That's absurd. You'll get no disagreement here. And if we're not being totally lazy about this conversation, we're talking about a problem with the secondary markets in ticket master as opposed to the list price on the ticket, which is $65 for a grounds pass. Now, Sean, what did you say? There was a very big prominent voice that had a problem in basically on Twitter said that this is not in the spirit of tennis, right? The USDA is supposed to be a nonprofit. How could you possibly charge this amount of money, which they're not for a ticket? And you had the line of the day. What is it? The line was someone seems confused by a commercial arm that actually funds its nonprofit. J.W.? I wonder if that person had more experience with capitalism and perhaps had reached some of the benefits of market inefficiencies. Maybe they would understand it differently. All right. I'm toward here because at some point, like the market is the market, we should be still free. I've been to tournaments where literally they have papered the town with free tickets because nobody would go. I mean, at some level, we should be celebrating the popularity. This is a function of scarcity and, you know, this is the supply and demand and market economics. I also am sympathetic. These are really steep prices. A lot of fans have been this completely foreclosed from going because of the price. And I think there's a way, I poke around on this and you're right. It's complicated. We're talking about reselling. We're talking about different states. They say, oh, in Australia, you can get in for $60 or whatever. Yeah, Australia has different regulations on reselling. There is an issue. They can't do a queue like Wimbledon because they don't, I mean, I don't think Corona Park is going to be too happy about 10,000 people in sleeping bags. Like there are some practical issues here. I've poked around a little bit and I do think there is a way to thread this needle. And there is a way to let the market do its thing and you're not going to be able to stop all the resellers, but you also can set aside X number of tickets to sell day out. Two thousand grounds fasts are going for $50 day out. So there are ways that support properties. That's essential. They're a queue, right? They're a solution. It's essential. It's a queue. I don't know. Yeah. I mean, you're, again, you're not going to have 10,000 people sleeping in Corona Park. Wimbledon can do that if they own the land. It's not quite as simple as the USDA is greedy or conversely, the other side is not quite as simple as the market is the market. I do think there are some workarounds here if the will is there. It's really disappointing how many people have said to me, I used to love going to the open. I went as a kid and I just simply am priced out and that's, that's not, that's not cool. That's not in keeping with the spirit of a tennis tournament and nonprofit, the USDA. On the other hand, we also should take a little bit of satisfaction in the fact that they've created a really popular event that's, you know, maybe it's not me and you, but some people are willing to pay $350 for a grounds pass. I think there's a solution here and I think it's a lot more complicated than either greedy USDA or unfettered capitalism rocks. I think there's some workarounds here, but this is going to be a story, especially when people get a look at the club's seating prices, which are not in the hundreds of dollars, but in the thousands of dollars. This is going to be a story during this US open and if I'm the USDA, I'm figuring out a way to message this and I'm also figuring out a way to hire some kind of consultant. So I can say, hey, look, tickets might be really expensive, but we have allocated $1,500 per, you know, $2,500 ground pass of the day for $50 that people can have first come for serve. I think there are creative solutions here. Are you willing to sacrifice a little bit of revenue to hit those solutions? I mean, well, the question is what revenue is sacrificing, right? Because it is, it is ticket master that's, these are all verified resales, right? So if you look at, if you look at the price comparison to Roland Garros, right, I think it's like a $20 difference. What the USDA price is to what Roland Garros is for our grounds pass. But the pricing for those, those seats you were talking about are relatively the same, right? So the, the actual stadium seating is all relatively on market. It's all relatively the same and maybe that's a challenge that it is. But I mean, mind you, ticket master and live nation were being sued by several, by the federal government and several others in the Trump administration settled with them and they were going to break up ticket master because of things like this. And Kid Rock was sitting in the White House, bitching about things like this, that the reason he'd go to a show and they had four after he was giving inspirational speeches to the Air Force. Anyways, it's sorry for her. I'm just saying it, there is something to the fact that when maybe there's a room, maybe there's room where they have to go renegotiate their deal. This is the US open. The USDA renegotiate their deal with ticket master because artists are doing that, right? I saw on the comments where people were saying like Olivia Dean, you know, negotiates a deal with ticket master saying, you know, here's the cap on the resale or else, I'm not going to use you as my ticketing person. And I think that that's probably the one thing the USA, USDA probably could do not knowing the insides of things because that's just the way that's, that's the problem. Yeah. Right? But it's not the USDA setting the price at three hundred dollars. Here's the important thing. Here's my thing. Let's, let's lead with, wow, this is outside of the Super Bowl. Maybe the most in-demand event, sporting event in our country on an annual basis. Like it is absurd. The amount of revenue created in two weeks because of the enthusiasm for the product that stems from the players, that stems from the venue, that stems from all of this, the TV deals and everything else. Also, if you mention how expensive the prices are without also mentioning secondary markets in, in frankly, New York state law, then it's an irresponsible complaint. Or lack of it. Yeah. Yeah. Like it's a lack of state law. Correct. This is Kathy Hoekle who probably has more guilt here than anyone. Yeah. So like, if you don't say US Open bad because prices are this way, the secondary markets are dictating and valuing supply demand, which is outsized. It is unbelievable how many people want to go to this tennis tournament. So listen, smart people are going on and getting on an opinion that benefits themselves, right? Without mentioning secondary market and how the pricing actually works once it's out of the USDA's handle, which you have to go through. I mean, you kind of have to go through ticket master. Like you have to. What are the other options? Like, are they Pearl Jam? They can they make their own decisions for 400 plus players coming to New York? Probably not. Like, I don't know. So listen, just have a nuanced argument. Is it overpriced? Is it too expensive? Hell yes. Completely agree on that. Absolutely. Absolutely. We're not arguing that it's not. This sucks. What did Dana on the Q&A show say, how do we hack? How do we get in? It's too much. There's a lot of people that are out there that are saying, and we don't disagree with you. But saying that like, they're saying that the USDA selling these for $400 is categorically false, right? The ticket pricing is X. Now, can they change it? Can they effectuate it in different ways? Yes. I mean, the growth of this tournament, even in five years, JW, has been absurd. I mean, it wasn't like this back when I played, it wasn't it was big, but it wasn't this. Yeah. I mean, you know, this and whether it's by accident or design, this has become Coachella, the tennis tournament. And, you know, I mean, I could play Sean and people would go watch because it's the US open and there's music and there's sunny Do's and it's a fun day on the Sun. It's really not nearly as player dependent I think by again by accident or design maybe someone was bright enough to see the big three are gonna break up and Serena won't be here We've got to sell the event and not the players Just this my dovetail to our next discussion But I also think that you know this how does tennis replicate? I mean part of it is is the infighting and it is a pity and I do want to pause and say it is really a pity that's so many true tennis fans the people that are listening to the show the people that write into me with questions about dent in the shop of all his back hands Yes, they feel priced out. That's that's sucks And at the same time I think you're right. This is more a Kathy Hocal. Yeah, it's more a New York politics ticket master live nation Be upset at you know the Department of Justice that settled a suit that it probably could have won I mean, that's where you want to direct your outrage But I do think it's you right. It's a simplification to blame the USDA and say agree the organization But I also think they're not totally off the hook. I think there are Creative ways that they could be allocating tickets for the real tennis fans of fans who are not going to run and Try and sell these for 4x face value, but who actually want to go see Alex Ayala and Arthur feasts so It's it's complicated, which doesn't make for great talk radio, but it's a reality. It's it's it's it's hard to digest in 180 characters It's hard to digest when people who know better are selling it is something different than what it is Mm-hmm. That sucks also by the way also just thought of a new New idea for a served fan meetup, okay Like you said people would go watch if we were at the US open and JW played Sean Frankly, I wouldn't need to be at the US open venue to have breakfast sandwich and watch JW play Sean yeah While commentating that match. I'm just saying like you know for for another day somebody wants to offer up a court for another All offer up Sean. Hey, listen, I'd love to go to great as my champion. I'd love to go to grand such a Look at JW just talking about people need to be priced and then bang in the afternoon pass will be very cheap Yeah, I know about rates. Okay. Yeah, we can do that We will not we will not be mimicking the prize money increase though is the UTA USDA He's dead read before we get into the nuts and bolts because there's a whole lot of good and Some stuff that yeah, you know, but read read kind of the nuts and bolts of I still think it's insane that grand slams announced what the prize money packages are Like 12 seconds before an event starts, but I digress and let's let's yeah starts tomorrow Here's what you're playing for so so they they just announced a record 108 million total player accommodation for 2026 That's up 20% from the 90 million in 2025 second straight year of a 20% jump 44% increase over two years great deal 44% increase Over two years now. I will say this and this is a talking point that they Like to tell people, but that doesn't make it untrue If they had done nothing if they had done nothing for prize money this year It would still be the highest paying tournament in the world By a decent margin, right? So go ahead That is gets men's and women's singles champions 5.5 million each up from 5 million. That's the largest champions check in tennis history First-round main draw singles gets a hundred and forty thousand dollars a 27% increased largest first-round payout in grandson. I'm history good quarter-final 80,000 semi-finals 1.45 million runners-up 2.8 million plus an initial two million dollars committed to a new player support program Aim to contemplating existing end-of-career pension funds and supporting players through mid-career life events in retirement transitions it all one great if they're happy we're happy great and the formation at least in theory or on pay like some version of a grand slam council Where we're at least pretending like these meetings will get us to a permanent solution where The prize money is predictable and not just announced five days before a tournament and then We white knuckle defending it on whatever side we're on until the tournament starts and then we all forget about it Right is that the kind of the cycle we're in now JW Yeah, I mean, I don't think it's in I don't think it's unintentional that is I think it is intentional that it came so soon before the start of the tournament Right, I mean if you're not happy with these numbers, you have a lot less time to mobilize in years past this announcement has come far earlier in August than Then August 20th when I got one for you might get get a little of this I looked this up rare research when Andy played his last match at the US open First-round money was $23,000, right? So it wasn't it wasn't last year, but it's not ancient in three thousand dollars 2012 first-round loser money $23,000 this year first-round loser money of qualifying So guys like way out of the top 100 $32,000 wow of qualifying though of qualifying And you're right. I mean $140,000 first round of the main draw I really like the fact that it basically was the Wimbledon this all right. Let's just a big picture this this was basically Wimbledon right 20% prize money increase and it's not evenly distributed It's distributed more heavily in the early rounds to the players that need it most that's great. That's probably as it should be happy to make Contribution a million dollars to each tour is not going to break the bank, but it's a nice gesture Good optics happy to have player involvement just Pagula's name who I've heard from both sides labor and management both of them love just Pagula So she has a future and tenants administration just so we're clear here like This isn't a just we like just Pagula because everyone likes just Pagula just Pagula Is doing work on this like a lot of people like I come on here and talk shit. What am I doing? Talking shit talking shit Pagula is doing work. She is smart. She is motivated. She is not kind of touting her own time commitments to this she is a badass and she is a very important figure Beyond just being a really good player in the sport of tennis right now And and she's doing this why exactly and she's doing this why I think as we speak she's playing in Cincinnati I mean, this is a player who is a contender to win this tournament You'll think you don't think she has better things to do than sit in the room and figure out which pool this million dollars she get year mark to um She gets a lot of credit here. I also think just tangent. She knows what it's like to be a top five player But remember until she was age 25. She's like a triple digit ranking so she understands The challenges for the players who are stars. Also, I mean the one thing the one thing we also should just make clear The players have asked for some kind of formula basically some equity stakes some sort of share in the upside That's where these majors have drawn the line. You want a 20% year over year increase. All right. We'll sign off on that You want some more say in the balls on the scheduling great happy to set up some kind of a council There's no way in hell we are giving you Facebook equity, you know, then this is uh Yeah, this is sort of this is a classic sports and labor negotiation But with the for the French notwithstanding it does seem as though the tournaments have really drawn the line on some formula Where players share on the upside that said 20% if you if you get a 20% raise year over year over year If you can go from $23,000 to $140,000 in 13 years or 10 years You're doing pretty well. So I don't know I mean the big question now is just is this and the answer to this is no the question I asked both sides is Is this going to be enough? Can you promise that this was done knowing this was going to stave off protest? Well, this you're talking about the Grand Slam you're talking about the Grand Slam player council, right? Are you talking about just this increase just from the US open? I'm talking about did the US TSA okay? Okay, Larry Scott okay players here's what we're going to offer reassure us this is going to get us to where we need to be so we don't have to deal with protest And that was not part of this negotiation there so who knows so we'll see we'll see how the players receive this and there's a lot of uh I've had some conversations with people I normally like I I come on here and listen I'm not gonna blow someone up if it's a good relationship I have a lot of relationship in tennis where I can call someone up and there's you know tennis is a family The trust tree is big. I come on. Is this real? What is this? What am I hearing? What am I doing? This council thing is like people are They I've gotten more stump speeches from people on both on all sides of this over the last three days With you know, okay, so you were threatening to boycott the mix if it didn't if you didn't like us I don't know Are you using tickets and player transportation as a leverage point in these negotiations Did Wimbledon, you know, use that and did players shut up really quickly off of their media obligations Oh, well There's a lot of that going on. I've had more of that in the last three days jw you get any of that shit Um, yeah, I'm I'm I think you raise a good point too, which is um, you know This this is a community and you want to honor competencies. Yes. At the same time you you hear things that are affordable now I've heard through reliable sources the The USDA is well aware of Wimbledon sort of using this this kill switch, which is basically We're shutting off. I mean the USDA does about five million dollars. It says in comp tickets to players Um, that's about a billion dollars on resale market by the way I was going to say, it's a billion dollars per figure. That's a unicorn on the on the resale market. Oh, no, that was a dick. Is that 11 grounds passes or is that face value? No, I'm going to take the the the tournaments are aware of the levers that they can use. And one of them is that these things in kind trans free transport. You take it for granted. But you know, if you say screw it, I'm pulling out of the mixed doubles. And I'm going to disparage the USDA. You might be walking that maybe you don't, you know, you're taking that. The Long Island Railroad schedules are available online. I do think the hope is that this satisfies the players. They realize it might not be everything they wanted, but it was done in good faith. But I do think if there is for the third straight major, some sort of player backlash, player protest, players pulling out of the mixed doubles, I have heard that the USDA is prepared to launch what counter attacking weapons it has, starting with tickets and transport. I'm amazing. I'm amazed at like the leverage pieces that actually hit like we are united. We are only doing 15 minutes. We're going to take away the tickets for your uncle. We're good. Fuck me. No, not that. Not that you seen gas prices. We need we need a car. The toxic, but I mean, but it is interesting. Right and take a tack. I hate that shit. By the way, like, like leveraging tickets over players who have like, imagine you've invited your cousins and they're flying to London or New York to watch you play. And then it's like, you can't speak your mind now rightly or wrongly. Like I could defend either side of this. You we said 44% in two years, massive deal. The US open does more than anyone else. Simply and it's like, okay, can we get a five year look? Have we earned that? Yeah. But like this ticky tag bullshit with like the tickets and these little like paper cuts. I don't know. I just feel like it's beneath the whole conversation in my opinion. So wait, let me let me ask you that. Where do you guys and I think it's really an interesting sort of philosophical discussion. Where do you fit in on the one hand? You say $140,000 to lose 6262 on the first Sunday. Are you kidding me? That's amazing. And then the flip side, the, you know, the labor side of it is like the dollar amount is irrelevant. How much are you guys making even with this prize money increase? You're paying less in prize money than you get from ESPN. That's what before you've sold a single ticket, before you've sold a suite and hospitality and the obligatory honeydews reference, you're paying less in prize money than you get from one media rights contract. So the question is sort of like how much is enough? $5.5 million for two weeks of work, $140,000 for a 59 minute match, or do you look at this through a prism of how much is being grossed and revenue here? So I mean, there's no right answer. Yes, it's an interesting way to frame it. Yes, exactly. Yes, that's how I look at it. Yes. Well, I thought it was interesting. They put out the press release on the Grand Slam Player Council, you know, in the opening line. It's like the Australian Open, Roland Garrus, the Champions, Wimbledon, the US Open today announced the formation of the Grand Slam Player Advisory Council to serve on the forum for direct communication feedback and collaboration between the Grand Slam's and the players, Shelton and Pagula are quoted and here saying they're excited about it. One thing that really jumped out to me is that, you know, they'll be involved in a lot of things, they'll focus on player input into sporting matters at the four Grand Slam tournaments and advise and advancing the shared goal of greater player support. And then they start the fourth paragraph with the words, you know, sporting matters that affect the Grand Slam tournaments collectively. So, for me, that language is they're going to talk to them about the sports side of these slams and when we're talking about is the overall entertainment and economic impact of these slams, which is all very different. So this might not be, this might not be fair in this given scenario. You want to like, great, if the players are happy, you know, Ben Shelton was on record, like people are on record saying it's nice to have a seat at the table. What the table is trying to accomplish matters more to your point than than just being at a table, like tennis is infamous infamous infamous and so this is where this opinion is coming from and it might not be fair to this specific scenario. Maybe everyone's acting in the best faith possible to get to a solution somewhere in between what JW said of this is already insane how much we get paid to play a game, which is true. To, if you're making X, we should be participating in the profits as much as anyone, which is also true. Great. A lot of space between those two things sounds simple, but there's hundreds of millions of not billions of dollars in between those two places. Tennis forever, whether it's ATP councils or ITF or whatever it might be, are infamous for whoever is holding the door to cash for 50 years in tennis in a lot of different areas. Very good at establishing councils and meetings about meetings about meetings and kicking the can down the road to delay progress as long as possible. Now, I'm not saying that's what they're doing. I'm just saying that's what's happened in tennis for a long time is that controversial JW. No, that's that's the playbook, right? I mean, athletes, careers or finite, Wilburton's career is not finite and the playbook for years and years has been, yeah, that's interesting. We'd love to have your input. Let's get back to you and the characters change and maybe the labor leaders change. Larry Scott were suddenly to go become the next commissioner of lacrosse league, hypothetically. That would set the players back a few years. I mean, I think that the kick the can strategy, it kind of sort of makes sense. If you're on the side of these tournaments that aren't going anywhere, you know, the CEO of Wimbledon doesn't have to worry about a wrist injury that's going to keep him out of action. But I do think, I mean, just sort of big picture, the players, if they can reliably get a 20% compounding raise each year. Yeah, with a rather have some sort of model where they've gotten baked into the upside. Yes, but I think a lot of people out there think 20% Europe or your raises and perpetuity sounds pretty good. Yeah, in the details you're going to get announcements, you're going to get press releases, you're going to get quotes. There are tens of people in rooms for tens of weeks coming up with the quotes you read. That is not the entire story. Whenever side you're reading, whichever side you're reading, right, the details matter your point is a good one, which is it sounds pretty simple. Right. Hey, here's how we're going to divide the pie. We'll give you a raise. It's the amount of work that goes into just the semantics. What are we calling this council? This is also compounded by the fact that because of antitrust, these majors can't really, they certainly can't collude with each other, but they can even really communicate with each other. So all of this has to be done four times for the four different tournaments. It's all very inside tennis. I think it's kind of fascinating because I think in a way it gives a real window into tennis. But anyway, that's that's where we stand. The players are making a lot of money. Not as much as they hope to is it going to be enough to stave off a protest. They're getting a fat raise. They're not getting a share of the financial pie with a formula. I think I think they're making as much as they hope to this year. It's just without the predictability of what are we going to have to do it again next year? And hope six days before the tournament, that's something happens. I think that's the that's my main takeaway is like, okay, we basically bought ourselves time on both sides to come to something that's a little bit more concrete. I know the one thing that has been it's impossible to argue against is that the infrastructure of tennis makes that can very kickable as long as you have a road. Mike Karen Morehouse news. Yes. So Karen Morehouse who's come on the show before she is stepping down as CEO of the international tennis integrity agency at the end of this month. She's joined in she joined in February 2023 from the rugby football league where she was the chief regulatory officer. Apparently, according to people I've talked to there, this is you know, she's stepping down on good terms. She just felt like she had kind of accomplished. She had set a mission statement through 2027 and just felt like it was the right time. And I mean, obviously she was the head during the center stuff, the eager stuff, the vandros of a stuff. Other recent suspensions that just came out. So I think, you know, all in all, she's she's leaving the ITI in a strong position from what they say in the statement. Yeah. So this position catches a lot of heat because on any ruling 50% go, well, you suck for the guilty. And then the other 50 go you suck because it's not like it's it's a it's the worst position to be in. Honestly, like I think she's done a great job. I will say this like unequivocally. I just talked about. You know, are is there is there is there a tool to like, you know, use tickets and transportation to like maybe beat back some of the player outrage or control the narrative a little bit during tournaments and I get the who I don't I'm sure you know, we never got that from ever, ever care in more house in the ITA. They they are almost proactive about communicating as clearly as possible and not showing away from like I'm a dick when I follow up and I you're not giving me any answers. Like, John's a journalist on fucking 60 minutes. Like he's a unicorn at this point. Like we will follow up and we will try to get the right answers. Right. And it's our jobs to, but I want to be clear and I want to like find truth. I don't think we ever had a problem getting as much truth as they could possibly give in a timely manner. So listen, not going to be a popular thing for me to say from a lot of listeners who were pissed about ego or center or, you know, not eager sinner or the person 700 in the world who got a ruling they didn't like with and they want to juxtapose that with other rulings that may or may not have some overlap. Listen, thanks. Good job. Like, thank you for at least for our little, our little dumb show, being clear, being concise and giving us as much truth as you can legally give in a given moment, JW. Yeah, there, there was clarity. There was accessibility. You could talk on the record, off the record, sometimes when you guys know that sometimes with preemptively we would hear hey and announcements coming down after the fact they were sometimes they would they would hold zoom calls after the fact saying you guys can pepper us with questions. This is legally sensitive stuff and you're right. You know, no, no one ever says, oh, you pop me. You're right. What's my penalty? There is always an objection. There is often an appeal. There's water hanging all over this and if nothing else, Karen Morehouse was honest and accessible and I thought accountable and that hadn't always been the case in that position and we wish her well and I think if nothing else, I mean, you're right. It's anti-doping. It's inherently messy. It's inherently unpleasant, right? There are no positive stories that come out of that office. It's it's match fixing and doping and yet you always knew that you were dealing with straight shooters and it was much appreciated and I think that from an optics standpoint, I think that office is in a lot better place than it was when she took the job. Yeah, and listen, I've been on whatever side. We all have like an opinion about rulings, right? But when I would say I would email and say like this is so dumb, like why are the thresholds the way they are? It's a speck of sand in the swimming pool. Why are we putting the onus on players who are not professionals in the fucking amounts of anything besides, you know, tennis stuff and they go, yeah, we understand the problem. Here's how we get to that thought and you might fully agree with it. You might agree with most parts of it, but they were very good at just saying this is our thought process and this is the why, at least from from RN, which I can completely and totally respect. If all parts of tennis work like this, we'd have a lot less episodes like today. Yeah. Yep. Simply. I thought I was just going to have a workout and pick the kids up from school today. Yeah. Here we are. We said quick serve. This is more like a total served. That's where service now is AI specialist come in. They don't just tell you what to do about your busy work. They actually do it. To learn how to put AI to work for people, visit servicenow.com.