Thursday, November 21, 2024

Show Notes

Join Matt Cook with guests Brent Grant and Ryan French as they dive into the PGA Tour's earning assurance program and the complications of the $500,000 advance. They discuss tax implications, responsibilities, and the impact on players like Taylor Montgomery. The conversation covers proposed changes in payment and tax structures, power dynamics, Monday qualifiers, and the disparity between the Tour's narrative and reality. They also analyze media influence, feel-good stories, and Tiger Woods' impact. Brent Grant shares insights on the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, concluding with a look at the Tour's darker aspects.

(0:00) Introduction and welcome; Guests Brent Grant and Ryan French
(1:24) PGA Tour's earning assurance program and $500,000 advance issues
(7:06) Tax implications and responsibilities
(17:28) PGA Tour's handling of tax situation and player impact
(30:28) Taylor Montgomery's situation and PGA Tour's reputation
(34:01) Proposals for payment and tax changes; Tour structure
(42:57) Power dynamics and Monday qualifiers
(50:14) Competition limits and PGA Tour's narrative vs. reality
(54:40) Media influence and importance of feel-good stories
(57:43) Sentiments on PGA Tour's direction and Tiger Woods' influence
(59:39) Brent Grant's perspective on PGA Tour and LIV Golf irony
(1:02:32) Conclusion: The dark side of the PGA Tour and closing remarks

Show Transcript

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Welcome back everybody to Pull Hook Golf, the
podcast.

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I'm your host, Matt Cook.

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Today, we've got a special episode for you.

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We've got Mr.

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Brent Grant here, who is our co-host and our
tour insider and also a tour member.

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And then we've got another very special guest
today as well, Mr.

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Ryan French from Monday Q Info.

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Welcome gentlemen to this special edition of
the podcast.

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And it all stems from something that happened
to you, Brent, and something that you wrote

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about recently, Ryan.

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Actually, the article that you wrote was
fantastic.

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It's called "In the Hole."

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And this is our topic today.

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So we're gonna be talking a little bit about
the dark side of the PGA Tour that a lot of

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people aren't aware of or familiar with because
guess what?

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Major media is not covering these topics that
are going on in the underbelly of the PGA Tour.

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And so we're going to go over the PGA Tour's
earnings assurance program and the tax debacle

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that affected so many players.

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But first, let's start off with the background
to this entire thing.

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Ryan, why don't you give us a bit of background
to the overall program that we're talking

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about?

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Yeah.

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2022, Jay Monahan and the PGA Tour.

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First of all, thanks guys for having me on,
Brent.

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Thanks.

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And absolutely.

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It was, yeah.

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So 2022, LIV is starting to actually become a
thing, and, you know, they're getting a lot of

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money.

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So the PGA Tour kind of scrambled for ways to
be like, look at us.

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We're doing things too.

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And so one thing they came up with was an
advance of $500,000, which is a good thing.

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There's no complaints about the advance itself.

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It's how it was handled from there.

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But, yeah.

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So players were supposedly given the choice,
although we've come to find out that that's not

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the case, to accept this $500,000.

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Rookies got it up front.

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Veterans got the difference if they didn't make
$500,000 at the back end of the season.

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Basically, it's an advance, and also a
forgivable loan.

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If you did not make $500,000, whatever you
know, the difference was forgiven.

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So that was the gist of the program.

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It's good in theory.

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It's good in practice if the PGA Tour had done
the things that I think they should have done.

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And so, yeah, that's kind of where this article
stemmed from, that advance.

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I love that.

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And, well, I love the fact that you just broke
it down like that so simply and really ties

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into exactly what we were talking about in the
article.

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And the part that is interesting to me is that
the players apparently in an email were given

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the ability to decline this $500,000.

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However, when it actually came out, nobody
could actually decline it.

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And I believe you spoke with one player who was
like, it just showed up in my account even

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though I didn't want to take it.

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Yeah.

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I have a copy of the email sent to me by a
player, and it's, you know, it says in a very

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better way than I'm gonna say it, like, hey.

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You have a choice.

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And then, yeah, one player I spoke with, he's
like, I didn't want it.

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His big thing was, like, very just, hey.

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I like to play when I make a cut on Wednesday
or whatever.

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I think that's when you get paid, Brent.

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Correct me if I'm wrong.

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Like, on Wednesday, I just like to see the
deposit.

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It's like my reward, whether it's $3,000 at a
Korn Ferry event or $100,000, it's just I like

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to see it, so I didn't want it up

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And so, you know, his was like, hey.

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I'm not gonna take it.

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If I don't make $500,000, they'll send it to me
at the end.

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So everybody had their own.

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Like, guys could get it if you want to invest
in, you know, a TrackMan or there's a lot as

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Brent knows way better than I.

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You know, golf is very expensive, and so to
compete on the PGA Tour, swing coaches and

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physio guys and TrackMans are a huge upfront
cost.

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So, you know, some guys would want it upfront.

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Most guys would, I think, that were rookies.

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But they didn't give him a choice.

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That player told me that it just showed up in
his account one day.

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Other players asked to have it deferred to 2023
for tax purposes.

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They said no.

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You know?

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Again, and I don't think ever the PGA Tour does
this stuff purposefully to screw the players,

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but they just don't know what they're doing.

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And then when problems arise, they're just
gonna do what's best for them, and the players

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are gonna get in the way.

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It's, I mean, you put it very politely.

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I would go on to say that, yes, the purpose
behind this had good intentions.

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Right?

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This was supposed to be a positive thing, but
how they handled it was very poorly.

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And now let's get into the actual fact that
there was no contract behind this either.

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So, Brent, did you ever sign anything in order
to receive this money?

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I mean, tell me a little bit about kind of the
process that it went through.

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Yeah.

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So, like Ryan was saying, you know, halfway, I
believe, through the 2022 season, they were

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talking about, you know, some sort of program
that they were talking about, that outlined

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some sort of base salary, that they were
looking at other sports.

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And they said, well, you know, baseball,
football, basketball, and whatever all have

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these, quote, unquote, league minimums.

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And, you know, we think we should have that
league minimum as well.

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And, again, much like, you know, a lot of the
changes with the tour over the last three to

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five years, you know, they come in with, you
know, a really positive thought, you know, and

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maybe even have, you know, some more positive
thoughts to back that up, but eventually, it

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turns very, very sour.

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So, and this was no different.

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In fact, actually, I would even call this
probably the most egregious change that they've

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made to date until the most recent
announcement, but we've got another year to see

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what happens with that.

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What Brent's talking about here, folks, is the
fact that he's not calling the 500k egregious.

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Okay?

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He's not saying, hey.

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Throw 500 grand in my account, and that's a
terrible thing.

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You've done an awful thing.

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Like I said, I feel like the tour was trying to
do something good that everybody was pushing

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towards, which is covering the cost.

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I've talked with other Korn Ferry Tour players
that have been in debt up to $150,000 after a

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season of playing out there because of all the
travel.

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And Ryan, you put it very well with all the
technology.

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I mean, you really have to build out a team now
around you in order to be able to perform at

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the highest level.

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And so that costs a lot of money in order to
put all those pieces around you.

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By the egregious part is that they received the
$500,000 and then all of a sudden were taxed on

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it at the end of the year because the PGA tour
was like, woah, hang on a second.

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We we kind of fucked up here.

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Okay.

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We we kind of messed up.

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We didn't take out taxes.

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We didn't know that you were gonna have to pay
taxes on this.

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So Brent, take me through what happened right
before Christmas as to you getting notified

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about this.

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Yeah.

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So, first thing I'll say is, no, we didn't sign
a contract with regards to any of the money.

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There was never a piece of paper that was put
in front of us.

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I believe we got an email detailing how the
payback would work.

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So we took that and ran with it for the entire
year.

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And then right before Christmas, I believe
three days before Christmas, I got a phone call

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from the tour player relations people, and,
essentially, to sum it all up, it was, yeah, we

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messed up.

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You owe us $67,000.

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We didn't see this coming and oops.

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Sorry.

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And, the subsequent conversations afterwards
were detailing where that number came from and

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essentially what it came from was the tour paid
us the $500,000 and through the money that we

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made to pay that back.

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The states wanted their cut of that money, and
so the PGA Tour had to pay that somehow

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because, obviously, we didn't get it because we
paid the PGA Tour.

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So they ended up paying that money for us.

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And then, essentially, what they figured out
was that they were gonna make that burden, and

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take that burden and put it onto us, all of us
that didn't keep our card.

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Right?

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Going down to a tour where you make a tenth of
what is made on the PGA Tour.

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That's not an exaggeration.

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And then to sum it all up, we asked, well, is
this gonna happen to the 2023 or 2024 rookies?

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You know, what have you guys learned?

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And how can we make sure this doesn't happen
again?

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Well, they just said, well, yeah.

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Now we just withhold 100,000 from that 500, and
then, you know, we just take it out from there

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and, you know, pay the difference at the end of
the year.

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And we're sorry.

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You know, it won't happen again, but you're
gonna have to owe us.

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And I mean, you know, $67,000 is a lot of
money, and I believe they chopped it down by

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18,000 of noncash benefits, which was basically
them paying the health insurance company on my

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behalf, which would usually come out of the
earnings that I had.

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I told myself I wasn't gonna do this in this
episode because it's very serious, but it's

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just that type of somber type of mood around
this entire thing.

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So let's talk about the mistake that was made
here.

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Ryan, who made the mistake here?

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Was it on the players that, hey, you guys
should have known that you're gonna have tax

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implications here?

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Or was this a mistake made by the tour to where
they kind of rushed this program out?

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And then from there, we're like, oh, shit.

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We gotta pay taxes on this money.

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Yeah.

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I mean, here's the thing I always say since
I've talked about this article a few times is,

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listen, I know nothing about taxes.

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Nothing.

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But I know that if I hand somebody $500,000 as
a company, that I should probably explore the

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tax ramifications of that.

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And then I'll go a step farther is the PGA Tour
knows that pro golfers have an already

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complicated tax system for those listening.

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You have to pay taxes in every state that you
earn money in.

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So and this is even another layer of very
complicated tax code.

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I talked to 12 CPAs for this article, and all
you know, there were probably nine different

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answers among the 12.

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Right?

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So here is the issue is, like, if you say it's
the player's fault, two things.

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One, we'll get into the actual taxes of it and
why they paid taxes before they earned money.

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But the second part of it is, again, the PGA
Tour should've said something up front.

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And then the first tournament that they
realized that this was an issue, whatever

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tournament that was, I'm gonna argue it was
super early.

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Okay?

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You owe it to your members to go even if it was
this article wouldn't have been written if in

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after the Sony in January, if that's when they
learned that there was an issue.

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Sure.

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They immediately sent an email to the people
who got the $500,000 up front and went, hey,

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guys.

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Listen.

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We're not sure how to handle this.

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We've made a mistake.

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Here's the issue.

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Laid out the issue and said, make sure you talk
to your CPA.

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We've talked to our CPAs.

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We're not sure how to handle it.

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It's a very complicated tax code come April.

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And you wanna come to us.

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We'll help answer the questions.

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We'll get you in touch with our CPAs.

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This article wouldn't have been written.

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This is not like, listen.

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Take the taxes out of it.

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The PGA Tour owes its members to communicate.

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Mhmm.

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And let's—I don't know how you hand $500,000
and don't make people sign something and don't

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think of the tax ramifications of it.

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But let's say we forgive that part, and then
you realize you made a mistake.

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Okay.

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00:13:17,274 --> 00:13:21,514
Then you owe it to your members to just simply
send the email I just said.

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That's it.

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That's it.

218
00:13:23,250 --> 00:13:31,670
This isn't again, the tax side of it is the
players got $500,000 as an advance.

219
00:13:32,290 --> 00:13:38,554
They assumed a lot of CPAs, agents, tax guys
assumed that that check came from Florida,

220
00:13:38,554 --> 00:13:39,375
which it did.

221
00:13:39,434 --> 00:13:40,654
So they paid taxes.

222
00:13:41,195 --> 00:13:46,394
I think what's getting lost in this is that
sometimes from the people coming back is it's

223
00:13:46,794 --> 00:13:48,095
players paid taxes.

224
00:13:48,554 --> 00:13:49,855
They paid it in April.

225
00:13:50,000 --> 00:13:51,360
They paid federal taxes.

226
00:13:51,360 --> 00:13:54,019
That was probably a $150,000 check.

227
00:13:54,240 --> 00:13:55,539
They paid state taxes.

228
00:13:56,799 --> 00:14:01,519
It happened that a lot of them thought that
there wasn't any state tax associated with it

229
00:14:01,519 --> 00:14:03,220
because their check came from Florida.

230
00:14:03,444 --> 00:14:09,225
And a lot of the players hadn't even earned
close to $500,000 in April of 2023.

231
00:14:09,845 --> 00:14:14,745
So even if they wanted to assign it to a state,
there was no state to assign it to.

232
00:14:15,284 --> 00:14:19,779
That's where the tax where CPAs have nine
different answers.

233
00:14:20,240 --> 00:14:27,279
So it all comes back to at Sony, when they
realized there was an issue, you owe it to your

234
00:14:27,279 --> 00:14:30,399
members to send out a simple email that says,
hey.

235
00:14:30,399 --> 00:14:31,539
This is super complicated.

236
00:14:31,679 --> 00:14:32,924
We didn't think through this.

237
00:14:35,004 --> 00:14:35,964
Talk to our CPAs.

238
00:14:35,964 --> 00:14:37,024
Talk to your CPA.

239
00:14:37,485 --> 00:14:47,004
You don't call people who have lost their job
on a missed Q-School four days before Christmas

240
00:14:47,004 --> 00:14:49,120
and let them know that they owe $60,000.

241
00:14:49,820 --> 00:14:50,639
That's it.

242
00:14:50,860 --> 00:14:51,899
That's all there is to it.

243
00:14:51,899 --> 00:14:52,500
This is, yeah.

244
00:14:52,700 --> 00:14:53,500
This is not a comp.

245
00:14:53,659 --> 00:14:56,480
Take all the taxes and all the tax code out of
it.

246
00:14:56,620 --> 00:14:58,059
You don't do that to your members.

247
00:14:58,059 --> 00:15:03,535
I wouldn't do it to my employees, and I know
they're not employees, but they're members of

248
00:15:03,535 --> 00:15:06,654
your organization that are an intricate part.

249
00:15:06,654 --> 00:15:08,014
You just wouldn't do it to them.

250
00:15:08,014 --> 00:15:09,134
That makes it even worse.

251
00:15:09,134 --> 00:15:09,455
Right?

252
00:15:09,455 --> 00:15:11,875
Being members even more so than employees.

253
00:15:13,070 --> 00:15:13,230
Yes.

254
00:15:13,230 --> 00:15:13,616
Yeah.

255
00:15:13,616 --> 00:15:14,776
Again, yeah.

256
00:15:15,163 --> 00:15:18,750
Taxes are a huge part of pro—Brent knows this
way better than I.

257
00:15:18,990 --> 00:15:25,230
The taxes, you pay 25 state taxes and you like,
different state taxes.

258
00:15:25,230 --> 00:15:31,274
Like, it's a prominent part of off-the-course
shit that goes on every year.

259
00:15:31,335 --> 00:15:33,514
They know how important tax stuff is.

260
00:15:33,654 --> 00:15:35,274
This isn't like a surprise.

261
00:15:35,735 --> 00:15:36,054
Nope.

262
00:15:36,054 --> 00:15:44,500
Like, taxes are a huge, huge part of
off-the-course life as a pro golfer.

263
00:15:45,120 --> 00:15:48,899
So it makes it even more egregious that it was
not communicated.

264
00:15:48,959 --> 00:15:49,919
That's all there is to it.

265
00:15:49,919 --> 00:15:50,079
Yeah.

266
00:15:50,079 --> 00:15:54,995
And as you're talking about it, Ryan, it really
makes me think too that because this was an

267
00:15:54,995 --> 00:15:55,794
advance, right?

268
00:15:55,794 --> 00:15:59,014
That they're going to take the money back from
your winnings.

269
00:16:00,274 --> 00:16:04,615
That's what actually complicates it even more
so because if it was just a paid-out salary,

270
00:16:04,995 --> 00:16:07,829
let's say, then that's coming from Florida.

271
00:16:07,829 --> 00:16:10,730
You don't owe the state taxes in Florida
because there are none.

272
00:16:11,029 --> 00:16:17,509
However, it's because the PGA Tour is now
recollecting that money throughout the year at

273
00:16:17,509 --> 00:16:18,970
each one of the locations

274
00:16:19,429 --> 00:16:20,629
in which the employee has

275
00:16:20,629 --> 00:16:21,289
more money.

276
00:16:21,654 --> 00:16:21,894
Yes.

277
00:16:21,894 --> 00:16:24,054
And they're not employees, right?

278
00:16:24,054 --> 00:16:26,855
So I talked to CPAs who are like, oh, this
happens all the time.

279
00:16:26,855 --> 00:16:27,815
People get advanced.

280
00:16:27,815 --> 00:16:28,615
Well, they're employees.

281
00:16:28,615 --> 00:16:30,075
They're not independent contractors.

282
00:16:30,134 --> 00:16:33,975
Then it's not really—it's not a loan.

283
00:16:33,975 --> 00:16:37,669
Some CPAs were like, oh, you just claim it as a
loan.

284
00:16:37,669 --> 00:16:40,889
Well, it's not really a loan because it's a
forgivable loan.

285
00:16:40,949 --> 00:16:49,689
So, again, all of that adds up into you talk to
9 to 12 CPAs, 9 different answers.

286
00:16:50,644 --> 00:16:54,485
That's when, as the PGA Tour, you go to your
players and go, hey.

287
00:16:54,485 --> 00:16:55,924
Make sure that this is straight.

288
00:16:55,924 --> 00:16:56,644
That's it.

289
00:16:56,644 --> 00:17:01,944
This is relatively simple from the standpoint
of you made a mistake.

290
00:17:02,245 --> 00:17:03,944
I don't know how that mistake happens.

291
00:17:04,250 --> 00:17:08,330
And then you go to your members that you're
supposed to protect all members and say, here's

292
00:17:08,330 --> 00:17:08,970
the issue.

293
00:17:08,970 --> 00:17:10,970
Make sure you are on the up and up.

294
00:17:10,970 --> 00:17:12,350
We'll help if you need to.

295
00:17:13,769 --> 00:17:16,730
The shocking thing to me is what happens next.

296
00:17:16,730 --> 00:17:17,049
Right?

297
00:17:17,049 --> 00:17:20,954
With the actual solution that the tour came up
with.

298
00:17:21,335 --> 00:17:26,454
And why don't you take us through that quickly,
Ryan, around what was the result?

299
00:17:26,454 --> 00:17:28,055
Like, what ended up happening?

300
00:17:28,055 --> 00:17:30,075
We obviously know that there's a tax
implication.

301
00:17:30,679 --> 00:17:35,179
Did the tour do the right thing, or did they
end up putting it onto the players directly?

302
00:17:35,960 --> 00:17:36,279
Yeah.

303
00:17:36,279 --> 00:17:41,740
I mean, so, you know, they made the players pay
it back.

304
00:17:42,599 --> 00:17:44,625
Some did it up front.

305
00:17:44,765 --> 00:17:46,625
Some did it with their first check.

306
00:17:47,164 --> 00:17:51,984
Brent would be in the group that, you know,
paid it off throughout the season.

307
00:17:53,005 --> 00:17:54,625
Still not done yet, by the way.

308
00:17:54,765 --> 00:17:55,244
Yeah.

309
00:17:55,244 --> 00:17:56,625
Brent's still not done.

310
00:17:57,670 --> 00:18:04,390
And, you know, again, you could argue this
point.

311
00:18:04,390 --> 00:18:10,970
People can argue this point, but I think, you
know, the combined total is probably $250,000.

312
00:18:11,509 --> 00:18:14,154
The PGA Tour is a drop in the bucket.

313
00:18:14,294 --> 00:18:14,775
Right?

314
00:18:14,775 --> 00:18:22,134
And if you don't wanna put the full blame on
the PGA Tour, there's no argument that they

315
00:18:22,134 --> 00:18:25,015
share in the blame, but not even close.

316
00:18:25,015 --> 00:18:25,515
Right?

317
00:18:26,160 --> 00:18:29,600
The communication factor, the fact that it
wasn't up front, all of those things.

318
00:18:29,600 --> 00:18:30,100
Right?

319
00:18:30,720 --> 00:18:35,519
They give away tens of millions of dollars to
top players all the time, and I have nothing

320
00:18:35,519 --> 00:18:36,340
against that.

321
00:18:36,559 --> 00:18:37,920
You could just be like, hey, guys.

322
00:18:37,920 --> 00:18:38,820
We made a mistake.

323
00:18:39,894 --> 00:18:42,714
Understand that if this happens again, you
would owe us this amount.

324
00:18:43,815 --> 00:18:44,634
We're sorry.

325
00:18:44,855 --> 00:18:45,755
You're lucky.

326
00:18:46,694 --> 00:18:47,674
Thanks for coming.

327
00:18:48,214 --> 00:18:49,194
Have a good day.

328
00:18:50,214 --> 00:18:57,430
Again, three days before Christmas kinda sums
up, you know, kinda sums up what the PGA Tour

329
00:18:57,430 --> 00:18:58,710
thinks of their employee.

330
00:18:58,950 --> 00:19:02,309
You're talking to seven to ten guys who just
lost their

331
00:19:02,309 --> 00:19:02,789
job.

332
00:19:02,789 --> 00:19:03,269
Mhmm.

333
00:19:03,269 --> 00:19:03,430
And

334
00:19:03,430 --> 00:19:06,089
then because of your mistake,

335
00:19:09,484 --> 00:19:11,565
they're even more more than

336
00:19:11,565 --> 00:19:12,705
their next season.

337
00:19:13,805 --> 00:19:15,884
Checks are gonna basically disappear.

338
00:19:15,884 --> 00:19:16,045
So it's

339
00:19:16,765 --> 00:19:17,565
Now let's

340
00:19:17,644 --> 00:19:19,019
just a lack of care.

341
00:19:19,180 --> 00:19:21,740
Let's put this into perspective for everybody
as well.

342
00:19:21,740 --> 00:19:22,140
Right?

343
00:19:22,140 --> 00:19:28,539
So we're talking about a total tax implication
for these players that total combined together

344
00:19:28,539 --> 00:19:31,440
is around $250,000, give or take.

345
00:19:32,174 --> 00:19:36,494
When we look at what the PGA Tour has been
doing now, they could have done the right

346
00:19:36,494 --> 00:19:36,994
thing.

347
00:19:37,214 --> 00:19:40,974
They could have absolutely gone to each of the
players and been like, Hey, this is what

348
00:19:40,974 --> 00:19:41,454
happened.

349
00:19:41,454 --> 00:19:47,069
So next year, make sure that you're aware that
there's going to be a tax implication because

350
00:19:47,069 --> 00:19:47,950
it's our error.

351
00:19:47,950 --> 00:19:52,029
We're gonna take it on the chin for this one,
and we're gonna make sure that we take care of

352
00:19:52,029 --> 00:19:52,529
you.

353
00:19:52,829 --> 00:19:56,369
And $250,000, like you said, it's a rounding
error.

354
00:19:56,429 --> 00:19:56,929
Error.

355
00:19:57,390 --> 00:19:57,890
Error.

356
00:19:58,109 --> 00:20:00,210
I don't know why I stumbled with that word.

357
00:20:00,269 --> 00:20:04,065
However, that being said, again, I wanna put
this into perspective.

358
00:20:04,924 --> 00:20:11,664
Scottie Scheffler won over $62,000,000 because
of all the Signature Series, the increased

359
00:20:11,724 --> 00:20:15,424
purses that were out there on the PGA Tour this
year.

360
00:20:15,484 --> 00:20:21,710
Jay Monahan, he could have even to him, this is
almost a rounding error for his own personal

361
00:20:21,710 --> 00:20:27,089
salary, but which has been reported, by the
way, in 2022 was over $18,600,000.

362
00:20:29,390 --> 00:20:35,164
So even the players like the PAC could have
come together and been like, hey guys, this is

363
00:20:35,164 --> 00:20:40,465
kind of messed up that this happened to some of
our newer members that received this stipend.

364
00:20:40,684 --> 00:20:45,539
Let's go ahead and pull together and actually
get this done so that we can make sure that

365
00:20:45,539 --> 00:20:49,799
these guys are taken care of, but none of that
happened.

366
00:20:50,259 --> 00:20:55,960
So I just in your opinion, what should what
should they have done?

367
00:20:56,835 --> 00:20:57,815
Go ahead, Brent.

368
00:20:58,194 --> 00:21:04,194
Well, you know, I don't wanna, you know, I
don't wanna make this a boohoo session and and

369
00:21:04,194 --> 00:21:06,835
the tour is so terrible session or anything
like that.

370
00:21:06,835 --> 00:21:12,329
But I think to add a little bit of a little bit
of, to what you guys are saying, you know,

371
00:21:13,049 --> 00:21:14,329
we've talked to many people.

372
00:21:14,329 --> 00:21:19,210
Ryan has obviously talked to to, you know,
dozens and dozens of people about this from the

373
00:21:19,210 --> 00:21:22,809
tour, tour players, people in and around the
tour.

374
00:21:24,250 --> 00:21:34,644
This was not common knowledge, and the reason
why I know that is I emailed multiple people,

375
00:21:34,704 --> 00:21:42,039
texted multiple people, called multiple people,
and these are all people that deal with the PAC

376
00:21:42,039 --> 00:21:46,299
and or at the corporate level and even on the
player relations level.

377
00:21:46,519 --> 00:21:50,600
None of them knew that this situation had
happened.

378
00:21:50,920 --> 00:21:57,095
The last thing that any of them had even
thought about was they knew they had to make

379
00:21:57,095 --> 00:21:58,694
some phone calls to us saying, hey.

380
00:21:58,694 --> 00:21:59,994
You know, we messed up.

381
00:22:00,295 --> 00:22:03,335
And then that was the last anybody had thought
about it.

382
00:22:03,335 --> 00:22:09,115
And I spoke to, I spoke to a rather
high-ranking member in the corporate structure,

383
00:22:09,700 --> 00:22:12,840
who has since basically blown me off.

384
00:22:13,380 --> 00:22:14,660
And his words were what did

385
00:22:14,660 --> 00:22:15,320
you say?

386
00:22:15,860 --> 00:22:16,660
You heard me.

387
00:22:16,660 --> 00:22:17,960
Blew me off.

388
00:22:19,059 --> 00:22:19,559
Yeah.

389
00:22:20,340 --> 00:22:21,585
And not the good kind.

390
00:22:22,944 --> 00:22:26,865
So he essentially kinda shrugged me off and was
like, hey.

391
00:22:26,865 --> 00:22:30,544
You know, I'm just trying to understand this
situation even though I haven't thought about

392
00:22:30,544 --> 0