Hot Dogs from Heaven, Mariners changes and Sue Bird gets a street!

welcome to inside the arena your source for everything off the ice off the court and outside the field of play with your hosts KO Sports director Nico tamur and Ko's senior reporter Chris [Music] TS here the Lee once again best voice ever by the way yeah David Lee right we've talked about this in the past kind of sounds like those Chicago Bulls mid 990s games right at the start uh I don't know if you saw any of the DNC in Chicago I I am going to start making a a pitch to have little JN though uh announce us here before every episode episode number 13 buddy you know 13's lucky for me by the way why is it lucky I don't know it just always worked out that way 2013 was a good year got engaged you know stuff like that was born on the 13th of February basketball number growing up was 13 I was I was born on a 13th as well and you know it's Taylor Swift's favorite number yeah I did hear a thing or two about that yes yes so Taylor Swift we'll just talk about that during the show and I'll see how many see how many people Tor Swift's favorite number here first hey we've got a special interview today from Heaven yeah hot dogs from Heaven yeah the brain behind hot dogs from Heaven also Sue bird the new Mariners manager Dan Wilson and we're gonna get right to it we're gonna get right into four corners this is something that we do every week every week here on inside Arena we go around the Four Corners talking about what's good and what's bad in the World of Sports off the field off the ice off the field of play and let's start with the good Nico the good comes out of the bad um tough situation for the niters you got a lot of manager go and I'll talk more about that in my bad in a minute as well but what's really cool for me is the good that's been made out of this Dan Wilson If by relieving Scott service right now that's the only time you can really promote Dan Wilson that way because if you do it pro season fans are going to clamor for maybe perhaps a proven winner something like that but Wilson comes in right now and this is a chance for a an all-time Mariners fan favorite an outstanding guy too anybody who meets him and I've had just limited interaction with him and so that's my positive is that listen if you're gonna have a negative of have to fire a manager mid-season at least you get the positive of Dan Wilson who has very quickly gotten the Mariners player to buy in how it all turns out we'll find out in about a month but to take that really awful situation and turn it into what's been a really good atmosphere at T-Mobile Park both in attendance and the players reaction to a new manager I I think that given the tough circumstances the Mariners have done almost everything right out of that scenario almost will be another Corner coming up in a second yeah and you were there the the day he talked to the media correct correct yeah and I would say we always talk about winning the press conference I think he did that by just being Dan Wilson 34 games as you look at the the schedule um this is going to be fun I know these guys are ready to to take it on and um I'm excited to with this opportunity this is um you know this has been a home for us for a long time this has been an organization that I've spent some time with and uh to be in this position to have this opportunity um I'm extremely grateful for that humbled by it um and um I want to do the best job possible to help um get these guys get all of us back to the playoffs and and in the the quickest route possible if the Mariners get back to the playoffs after just 34 games of Dan Wilson a this town will erupt with euphoric excitement and it'll be one of the coolest stories in Seattle Mariners history I always like to look at this from the Dynamics off the field right we were we were saying that the sky was falling last week uh as we were heading into that big move uh when we were recording this and and what's interesting at least from where I sit is Dan has been a part of this community for 20 or so years he is a friend of ownership Jerry depoto came here not necessarily as a local guy or a friend of ownership he's been here close to a decade now but that's an interesting Dynamic there as somebody who has been with the franchise in some capacity longer than Jerry depoto uh it's going going to be interesting to watch how this all plays out at the end of this year hey I got something that's good too good any way you look at it uh Su bird and Megan rapino what a week it has been for both of them uh who have retired from their respective Sports being honored in The Last Week Big to-do at Lumen field with the rain with Megan rapino having her number officially retired in a special ceremony and Su bird she has her own street she doesn't have the court but she has a street that's named Su bird court she had the Mayor Bruce Harrell out at climate pledge Arena at the corner there Lenny wilin way uh to officially unveil the street that is now named after sub bird I think there's some history here in Seattle with a woman a female athlete getting a street named after her this does not happen very often in Seattle Edgar Martinez Lenny Wilkins and now subd and I had a chance to talk with her about going to the Olympics not getting the gold medal watching her friends get another gold medal and also this renewed interest in the WNBA heightened interest in the WNBA if you just look at TV ratings and ticket sales I asked her whether she felt like hey she still had something left in her uh based on all of that here's what she had to say any tinge whatsoever picking up the ball again after going to Paris all the attention this year at the WBA um yeah so my my my standard line is um which is true it's not really yeah I would love to play now who wouldn't I mean when things are are starting to pick up um the excitement the viewership the fan bases everything but as a 23y old not as a 43y old that ship sailed um so of course there's moments where I wish I could get back out there uh then reality sets in you know I take a look at my knees and I'm like this is not happening and so then I'm able to you know just kind of live in the moment and and understand that I can still be a part of it I'll be it in different ways I can still have impact you know all those good things um but yeah for me this is seeing where the WNBA is now is something that um I fought for and I was a part of that fight for a very long time and it's actually really enjoyable and validating to have it for lack of a better turn the corner that it's turned cuz that's that we knew it we all knew it we believed and it's really great to see it actually um have this like what feels like a snowball right it's just continuing to pick up momentum and so even though I'm not playing I do very much feel a part of it and it's it's it's truly gratifying subber they're also part of the storm ownership group nice little private ceremony but uh her and and Megan both on hand looking cool with their shades on a sunny day we had a sunny day uh in Seattle this month on one of the coldest in memory so the sun came out for subir there outside climate pledge what about the negative though there's some negative stuff yeah you know I I talked a minute ago and I and I listen there's some positives that come out of this Mariners regime team change and I know it's difficult anytime you lose a manager and whatnot and I and I still think Scott service is a good manager it's just you have to make these changes we talked at length about this before the only negative I lament is the fact that Scott service had to find out by looking at the crawl of Major League Baseball Network or another news channel as Jerry depoto put it now I commend Jerry depoto for being forthcoming about that because I'm C he's he hates it um and I'm not going to speculate in how it quote unquote leaked Ken Rosenthal because that that would insinuate that it was a mayor ners problem and you don't know if it's depoto letting somebody at the league offices know and somebody from MLB leaks at the Ken Ro so I don't think anything was done malicious here far from it I just lament that Scott service had to find out after nine years in town the way he found out on the crawl on a news channel as Jerry depoto put it um and you know listen fans hear that we heard that we were surprised and they'll they go after Mayers management I don't think it was quite that way I don't think there's some big leak with the or anything like that I think it was just one of those circumstances if I had to guess and it is a guess it is speculation it probably came from outside the Mariners like Major League Baseball's offices something like that telling Ken Rosena hey be ready and Ken being the great reporter he is did the rest of the work um so that's what I would say listen I I I love the energy from the Mariners after I love the way the players have bought into Dan Wilson I just if you're GNA say a negative this week for me it was a guy that and Jerry depoto would agree with this a guy who gave nine years to Seattle did bring it back to the playoffs and did a lot in the community him and his wife did a lot for um you know helping homeless pets in the area um the fact that he had to find out that way that's not a good thing and and I know they know that that that just kind of stunk to see that happen that way well and you know this that Jerry depoto and Scott service longtime friends roommates played in the majors together uh this was personal for both of them that also led to people speculating in advance that Jerry depoto wouldn't make this kind of move uh you and I were on the air the day that this all went down and and I pointed out that the the timing here is rough for this franchise uh when they are dealing with the collapse of Root Sports losing the rights to the Seattle Kraken losing the rights to the Portland Trailblazers they're worried about hey if if they do not make the playoffs this year there's going to be a loss in fan interest and a lot a loss in season ticket renews all of that we saw it with the Kraken all of that is a factor here yeah on why you make a coaching decision like that speaking of TV I'll stay negative on a couple of different things yes I'm I'm gonna cheat this week uh as we bring it home no such thing uh Comcast exfinity they they may black out the huskys we'll see if this gets resolved by the time people hear this but there's a carriage dispute with Comcast xinity that may make it tougher for people to watch the huskys on the Big 10 Network uh in their first game on Saturday uh and we'll see if this gets resolved this this is one of those things that sometimes gets resolved at the last minute but right now the the huskys uh if you have Comcast Xfinity and can't get the Big 10 Network you may not see the huskys play and by the way Shameless plug the cougs will be seen for free over the air on the CW in Seattle I'll tell you sister station we talked about that at length I mean for the cougs being left out in the pack whatever that CW National Carriage deal for them is a good I'm not just saying it because it's our station it's a really good deal for the bees and the cougs I like that well and and along those lines that's why I wanted to say I wanted to cheat this week and actually have a fifth thing because it's related to the Washington huskys did you see this that the Washington commanders DC's football team they have a new naming rights agreement and you know what they're going to call the Stadium what are they going to call it Northwest Stadium oh so the Washington commanders are going to play in Northwest Stadium not to confuse anybody who's a fan of the Washington Huskies the Washington commanders in a naming rights deal are playing on the east coast in Northwest Stadium tell them to St the other DC can stay in that DC or the other Washington can stay in that Washington I'm I'm tired of telling people I live in Washington and having them think that it's Washington DC this is just more confusing for every yeah whatever I I hate it too Chris great negative point on the Four Corners yeah so there we go like the fourth Corner Fifth Quarter the fifth quarter or quarter or so I've heard that somewhere before yeah Fifth Quarter like a high school football show like after the whatever you want to call it I love you guys I love I love those guys you know at least the commanders like aren't going to be good and they're not going to be on national TV or anything so not a lot of people are going to see that confusion yes hey uh let's not confuse anybody about the SuperSonics okay we got we got to fill every week we're doing this the supersonic minute as the the buzz continues to build look at that we have a logo and everything wait wait hey we got to do we got to do one of these here go for the supersonic minute uh here you go I I was at that sub bird dedication heard Seattle's mayor tell a couple of reporters the city's closer than ever his Words to Bringing the sonics back that one wrinkle as we have discussed on this show it's what this show is all about this new TV deal that is part of the discussion on expansion and whether it's Warner Brothers Discovery that's tbst T&T will be able to find a seat at the table now according to deadline the NBA is saying in a court filing that Warner Brothers Discovery simply does not have the cash to match the Amazon bid as as we've discussed here Amazon one of the three Partners now with the MBA and this new uh 77 billion TV deal so deadline is saying saying that Amazon is willing to set aside billions of dollars in escrow for three years for this deal uh while Warner Brothers Discovery can only provide lines of credit so uh call it a poison pill if you will in this deal uh but that is what the the argument the NBA is saying now on why they need to move forward on this TV digital rights deal and and basically end their partnership with Warner Brothers Discovery tbst TNT that they've had over the last 30 years is that Amazon has the money Warner Brothers Discovery uh does not and this expansion discussion will likely not be buttoned up uh or may not be buttoned up I should say until this whole thing gets to a certain point where the NBA feels comfortable moving forward yeah and it's just um you know we want it to happen as soon as we can so we can hopefully get going with expansion but I like that term buttoned up well you know what else is buttoned up the Mariners have a certified hit on their hands hot dogs I'll tell you and you know this better than most the Mariners have this uncanny ability to come up with these ideas that just go National first of all we love them here in Seattle but they go National they become a huge deal the entire baseball World loves it and this hit they have right now is going virro you're going to hear some great examples here uh of How It's Gone virro future plans for it so hot dogs from heaven for anybody outside Seattle everybody in Seattle knows it it's the no that at random game and just before the eighth inning they're going to start playing uh a certain song that we'll talk about in a minute and you will see hot dogs attached to parachutes flying from the third level and you get a free hot dog um it's pretty incredible how do you come up with this kind of idea well that's what I wanted to talk with Tyler Thompson about from the Mariners he's the brain job behind a lot of these things I love that the word experimental is in his title about experimental promotions uh because that's what this was and it was a hit so without further Ado my conversation with Tyler Thompson on hot dogs from Heaven it's been a totally cross- departmental collaboration everyone from our organization's getting in on it we're all you know chipping in different ways from The Ordering of the hot dogs to the you know ordering parachutes and creating graphics for It sharing it on social media all the different parts of our organization we're all coming together to make hot dogs from Heaven the best feature in baseball at what point in that brainstorming do you where somebody says hey I got it let's Chuck hot dogs from the 300th level it was early I mean really we were like talking about what we could possibly do for hot dogs from Heaven a guy on our team named Malcolm says what if we throw them on parachutes and then that's when we all went to work and we said let's make this happen so our game entertainment team brought it to life and certainly I was fortunate enough to see the process yes there's a lot of work that goes into that and you mentioned it cross departmental I mean we're seeing you know High UPS in the front office and everybody get involved I mean how cool is it to see it's a fun unique concept but everybody's taping hot dogs it doesn't matter what position you might have or whatever even back in the fall it was totally like a huge piece of teamwork from the Mariners I mean it was an empty ballpark it was like 40° and we had people from different departments going up to the 300 level and testing different types of parachutes testing the weight of the hot dogs the size of the parachutes what if we put ketchup packets in them what if we put mustard packets in it could we do both and then eventually now on game days we've got a whole group we send an email out to our front office every time we do it we say come in here help us wrap the hot dogs so we get the hot dogs from sedexo usually a couple Innings before the feature happens we bring them together to in one of our conference rooms at the Ballpark and then we do an assembly line someone's pulling the Hot Dogs Out quality check make sure the hot dog's still warm make sure there's ketchup and mustard in there someone's taping the hot dogs passing it to the next person pull punching it passing it to the next person making sure that the parachutes on it to the next person and then we got to roll up those parachutes two we throw it like uh you know two separate vehicles so to speak you've got the hot dog on one side the parachute on the other side they go together you don't wrap the parachute around the hot dog if you do that it won't deploy and then we bring all those people up here to the 300 level 12 15 20 depending on how many hot dogs we do everybody throws them along with of course Belinda Carlile who's a big part of the team too yes and so I was taping um I got to ask I mean did my taping nobody seemed to gotten injured Friday so I think we're okay right yeah you did you did good we could tell it was your first time but overall you're your honorary hot dog thrower to us for sure I want to come back next year um to have an idea like this and have it just explode the way it has we'll talk about the national stuff in a minute but even just with fans here in the park and seeing how much they enjoy it how special is that super validating I mean so much of what we do is qualitative versus quantitative in the game entertainment role I mean we get surveys from fans that say we like this we didn't like this this is something that we should improve but really what we're listening to is crowd response we're listening to the noise that people make when we put a video up or a graphic up or one of our rally clips and it's no different for hot dogs from Heaven the first time we threw those parachutes back in April we heard the crowd erupt we knew right then we had a hit so since then we've been trying to do different things to make it better and get fans to want to pull their phone out and video it when we do it make fans want to try to catch a hot dog and uh since we've started it every single time we hear that same crowd Roar the first time you see parachutes come over the 300 level for the first time so cool and we were talking off camera a minute ago about obviously the allstar experien and seeing Chris Stapleton do it here I mean first of all describe how all that went down but then also take me through again similar question to before but that satisfaction that it's catching on that kind of level yeah I mean we know that we've got a little bit of a hit in our hands I mean we think that not hot dogs from Heaven is something that could be here for years I mean it could be a Mariners game entertainment classic and to be part of the team that brought something like that like the Hydra was before or people love the cap Shuffle to but to know that we may have something like that in our hands that fans look forward to year after year is really exciting and to keep trying to think of new ways to versione it and make it bigger and better every time that we do it is you know super validating that's my job is like all right here's something that works great how do we give it to people how do we keep making it better how do we keep it a surprise um and you know like you said we've done uh all sorts of things with hot dogs from Heaven this year not only have we thrown hot dogs 18 times at the Ballpark to date uh we've got a couple more we're still going to do this year for fans that are coming to the ballpark so but uh also you know when the Toronto Blue Jays were in town we said how do we make this different we did Canadian bacon from the clouds that day we didn't play binda Carlile we played Brian Adams Heaven that day a Canadian artist uh also uh I got to work the All-Star Game in Arlington this year there with the game entertainment team people from around the league and I said I want to bring hot dogs from Heaven they thought about it they said let's make it happen so we ordered parachutes there and then for that crowd it was mlv's Allstar feature that year we threw him Chris Stapleton had noticed the feature he wanted to get on the fun so he had us put hot dogs together during his concert here during the show parachute uh we've got all sorts of things that we still want to do uh things in hot dogs from Heaven that we haven't unlocked quite yet but uh are definitely thinking down the road and how to keep making this big great exciting and like I said baseball's best feature Chris Stapleton notices and reaches out take me through that process yeah so I mean he's got a show back in July here and somehow he had seen it on the internet I mean it's gotten tens of hundreds of millions of views at this point and someone from his team said Chris saw it he wants to make it happen here he wants to do it during his show par or his song Parachute so we said all right we're going to make it happen but different at a concert than it is at a ball game is it's dark so how are we going to make the parachutes light up so we ordered little lights we attached them to them and then we had glow up parachutes that we threw that night and then uh we actually did it again during a drone show later this year something that we're calling dogs after dark now when we do it with the lights out you're just like you come up with these slogans like in your sleep don't you yeah I'm definitely the the tagline or you know I like to start with a name and then work backwards with it a lot of the time so coming up with word play and different ideas and that kind of stuff that's that's what I do and I suppose a similar question to what I said earlier and I'm about to wrap up with this You' been I appreciate the time the uh the notion it doesn't matter what the scores we always hope the Mariners win obviously but it doesn't matter what the score is you're going to get somebody to be happy in that moment at the Ballpark and I know you do that with some of the other things you guys do in the production here at the stadium as well but what kind of feeling is that knowing that you can bring that Joy whether it's irregardless of the outcome or for maybe a little one that doesn't quite understand the game but they know what that cool parachute is right yeah I mean here win lose whatever happens I mean the Mariners are committed to doing a few things and that's serving our communities making unbelievable experiences for our fans and of course winning championships I get to have a big hand in the creating unbelievable experiences for our fans and part of that is how do we program our video board and all the elements that we have on a daily basis whether it's a postgame fireworks show for Life siiz salmon running on the field or throwing hot dogs from heaven and you know having fans take to it love it enjoy it uh want to catch a hot dog want to be part of the hot dogs from Heaven night that we had here earlier this home stand I mean it means the world to us and it's validation that you know we've got great ideas here to see them through and they could be a hit and knowing that the Mariners are known for this coming up with these really cool and unique things how special is that part of it it's great I mean since I was a little kid and decided I wanted to work in sports I've always looked up to the Mariners as the team that does things right whether it was the commercials or any of the great pregame you know ceremonies Hall of Fame ceremonies all the things this has always been you know the top the cream of the crop in sports of Sports Marketing to be able to be part of the team now and have an impact myself it's like a dream come true I wouldn't there's no job in the world I'd rather have absolutely abolutely so I've been rapid firing a lot of questions at you about this is there something about the production the promotions you all do or even hot dogs from having that is important to talk about that maybe my questions didn't hit up yeah I just think really the thing that I want to drive home is you know across the organization how collaborative this is from the time that we did it in the off season to now everybody's had their hand in it from procurement ordering parachutes Partnerships harboring the relationship with hemplers our social media and Productions team for amplifying it our game entertainment team which I'm a part of for executing it on a nightly basis making it happen making it big uh you know to today you know it's something that we're all really proud of and want to keep taking to new heights uh one other thing I guess I should mention is Belinda Carlile knows about the feature she's seen it she loves it she wants to be a part of it somehow so we're working on that maybe not this year uh because she's got some things tours and uh recovering from an injury but uh she knows about it and she wants to be out here sometime can get her throwing a dog one day we're going to have to get Belinda Carlo actually or live performance oh that too either one live performance while throwing hot dogs we got a whole list of things that Belinda could be part of Belinda if you're watching we need you one last thing for you okay one last thing for you Nico oh my gosh as as a hot dog thrower official stand I want to present to you the official hot dogs from Heaven shirt which we gave out to fans that about the ticket you're part you're part of the hot dog plan now I I I am honored I'm glad I didn't mess anything up up and I want to be on retainer anytime that's goodu yeah I'm on retainer a Tyler Thompson Senior manager game entertainment and experient exper experiential marketing excuse me that's a tough word to say for the Mariners you know what else they do there a lot is he responsible for that he you know he's when he's not producing a game they're coming up with ideas but producing a game game means pulling those sorts of things up and uh yeah coming up with the ideas like the hydros the salmon run like think about all those things you enjoy about a Mariners game that comes from Tyler and his team has there been a tragic ketchup incident though well I will say this when we were taping the hot dogs you saw ketchup poke through a few times there was one time a parachute got a little bit loose and a hot dog kind of went down at a full speed but it looks like a gentleman caught it um I'm sure it's happened but it's all in good fun well you know you and I have talked about this over the last few weeks as as the Mariners have struggled on the field just how many people there are working hard off the field like that to come up with ideas that capture the imagination of casual fans and people who aren't necessarily paying attention as much attention to what's going on the field that does matter to the Mariners I know they've been criticized about it over the years but uh that is just one example just showing your video there yeah the amount of people who are behind the scenes who are prepping all of this I think often about people like Greg green who's worked at the Mariners now for I believe 20 or or more years think about the the hubub a couple of years ago about Edwin Diaz with the Mets and that Timmy trumpet's song as he walked out with the Mets and the attention that got in the New York media and the national media that was a great green idea right when Edwin Diaz was with the Mariners I mean we're seeing this I it wouldn't it wouldn't surprise me at all if other teams start copying this idea we've we've seen what the Mariners have tried to do over time too with the lighting and you know the flickering of the lights after big hits and during the game I mean that is these are ideas that have caught fire that also get shared between uh teams across Major League Baseball but it does seem like this is one of them that has definitely hit and until somebody gets smacked upside the head with a hot dog or a mustard packet gets dumped over their head uh they'll probably continue to do it and I think you you just got the scoop right there on Belinda Carlile well wouldn't that be we we'll have to be there when and if she's there and and listen I think it's important to Showcase like you everything you said about that side of the Mariners they're Innovative they're creative I know fans make it frustrated with other parts of the team but this is an awesome franchise that does these things and hey let's over the last month maybe hope that they can match it on the field as well and they may very well do that you know we've still got time this is this is something the Mariners still have time we still have time the final buzzer for the final buzzer what do you got my final buzzer is we're about to enter the best time in my opinion of Seattle sports when the Mariners are hopefully in a playoff push I think they will be football season starts we didn't even talk about the Seahawks much in this show I think they're going to be I I don't know what to expect specifically but I think they're going to be pretty awesome this is my favorite time of year in Seattle sports huskys cougars Kraken Kraken Camp Mariners October it's end of September October it's the best with that crisp fall smell best time of year in the air it's the best time of the year and you know what's been great this year is we've had this show right I mean that made it the best year ever yeah we've already over the last 12 weeks we've had people like Kenny M Brianna treat from climate pledge Arena talking about sustainability the environment Lenny Wilkins udub athletic director Pat Chun WSU athletic director an McCoy yes both sides of the Cascades former president of Fox Sports networks Bob Thompson last week Peter thomasa from The World Cup organizing here in Seattle all of that available on YouTube on your favorite audio platform for download people just need to smash that like button so they can get all of this information that they cannot get anywhere else yeah and think about it Gary pyton was here Xavier McDaniel Maron bamp that left shrimp we got the best on the sonics especially because you're in the room well we've got a minute every week at least dedicated to the sonics and maybe that time will continue to get more and more and more as we continue to move closer and closer to the end of this year how about that for a tease as we close it out it's going to have to bring him back and take us out dedly you've been listening to inside the arena with Nico and Chris please subscribe on your favorite platform until next time