The Play by Play – Year in Review and Predictions for 2024

The Play by Play – Year in Review and Predictions for 2024

Hosts: Jack McFarlane & Nick Schlemmer

This week on The Play by Play podcast, Jack McFarlane and Nick Schlemmer share the 2023 year in review from top music, sports, movies, games, and news. Ready for some 2024 predictions? We have some good ones – listen in!

– Taylor Swift’s 2023 tour and its financial success

– Sports contracts, highlights, and championships

– Music streaming trends and surprises

– Movie predictions, music and phone trends for 2024

– Quote of the show

Thank you for joining the show today!  Remember to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!

Transcript follows:

Jack McFarlane 0:11
Hi everyone, and welcome to the HR Happy Hour Network. This is The Play by Play podcast hosted by myself, Jack McFarlane and Nick Schlemmer.

Nick Schlemmer 0:18
Hey guys, how’s it going?

Jack McFarlane 0:19
Well, guys, we have officially made it to the last episode of 2023. So you know what that means it’s time to do our annual year end review. Fun fact, when we did it last year, it was our fourth episode. And now it is our 19th episode. So we have come a long way in just one year. And we are very excited to recap it with you guys.

Nick Schlemmer 0:42
Yep, and me and Jack, just want to give a big thank you for making this year. Such a fantastic year for us. We hit so many milestones, we came a long way. And thanks to you guys, you guys made that all happen. So we really thank you for that. And with that being said, let’s jump into a year and review.

Nick Schlemmer 1:06
Alrighty, guys, we are back in, like I said, we are jumping into our year and in review for 2023. We’re gonna be talking about major events, a little bit of sports, a little bit of music, a little bit of movies, I can’t wait to get into it. But let’s start us off with just major events. Right. And I think we have to start it off with the one and only Taylor Swift. Jack, can you tell us a little bit about that?

Jack McFarlane 1:29
Oh, my gosh, yeah. So we’ve talked Taylor Swift a couple times in the in the previous episodes, and I’m sure everyone listening has heard numerous news stories. I know like, just yesterday, she one time personally year, or whatever. So she was like the staple of 2023. I’d say she had her big tour. And we’ve got some of the numbers here for you guys. So just for Taylor salary, so her take home pay each show of her tour was roughly 10 to 13 million. Just let that sink in.

Nick Schlemmer 2:07
Just for her. Yeah. And that’s worth over. Correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s like 2 billion in ticket sales. Is that right?

Jack McFarlane 2:15
They estimated it was like 2.2 billion and North American ticket sales. Alone. That’s crazy. I’ve never heard of, you know, I was not alive when the Beatles were very popular. But I have to. I have to guess that’s like Beatles numbers.

Nick Schlemmer 2:32
Yeah, I mean, I don’t know who else would reach that those type of numbers in just one single tour, like just one year of a tour.

Jack McFarlane 2:42
Yeah, it’s crazy. How famous her tour was in the fact that it like completely overshadowed another, you know, super mega pop stars tour and Beyonce. Yep. Like, I didn’t hear anything about a Beyonce tour this year. Because all I heard was Taylor Swift. But if you combine the two tours, it brought in roughly five and a half billion dollars into the spinning economy. Just between those two tours.

Nick Schlemmer 3:09
Yeah. So that well, that obviously has to mean that her tour was obviously it was big, right. Not as big as Taylor’s right. But it was still a lot.

Jack McFarlane 3:17
Like very, very successful. Yeah. And yet, you know, I didn’t really hear about it was all tailored, like every day. I was just today. Yep. Yeah, just today I was on the ESPN app. Where I that’s where I go to get away from Taylor Swift right. I either still escaping it because I’m scrolling through the articles. And there’s one where it was like, Taylor Swift describes romantic timeline with Travis Kelce. And I’m like, why is this on the ESPN app?

Nick Schlemmer 3:50
Somebody on the inside of ESPN loves Taylor Swift.

Jack McFarlane 3:54
Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, she brings in millions of dollars for him for the NFL now so I get it, but, man, there’s no escaping Taylor Swift.

Nick Schlemmer 4:02
That’s right. But what do you say another huge contract, right? Why don’t you tell me it tell us a little bit about Messi’s contract and MLS?

Jack McFarlane 4:11
Yeah, so another huge event that happened this year was one of the greatest soccer players to ever play. Messi came over to play in America in Miami, a part of the MLS. It’s the biggest deal in their League’s history for two reasons. So one has actual contract from the team is the biggest salary of an MLS player. It’s 20 million for two years guaranteed 20 million. And you got to think that doesn’t sound like a lot for sports contract, but MLS is a smaller League. It’s not getting the revenue that the big ones are so that is a huge deal for them. But where the deal goes from, you know, good money to Bizerte money, is it he got like a partnership with Apple TV to get a percentage of the revenue made on all MLS First games that were streamed on Apple TV over like two years. So it’s estimated to be like 125 to 150 million over two years plus his 20 point 4 million guaranteed.

Nick Schlemmer 5:13
Wow. I mean, I don’t think I ever realized how much money is involved with like these partnerships, or even in college like with NIL. I’ve never realized like, how much these people are actually making partnering with somebody else.

Jack McFarlane 5:29
Yeah, especially in Iowa. Like you said, there’s so much money just in the in the past year for like, especially college football, I see it a ton like Utah, every player got a truck that a brand new truck, not like some use 2018, a brand new truck, some serious money. And then you see people like Caleb Williams, who is threatening to not declare for the draft, he’s like, he’ll be the first or second overall pig. But he’s like, if you draft me, I want to own a percentage of the team. Which is that him talking or his agent talking? You know, that’s up for debate. But still the fact that the deals are getting this lucrative and for people that are not even professionals. It is crazy, like Messi, you can understand. I mean, he’s one of the greatest ever do it just won the World Cup. Right. But I think that’s what we’re gonna see in 2020 for a lot more nio a lot more massive contracts.

Nick Schlemmer 6:25
I think it only gets bigger, right? Like, I don’t think it’s ever going to shrink. As far as like the size of the deals, the amount of deals like maybe at some point, there’ll be like a gap to how much each school can like, allow their student athletes to make maybe, but yeah, like, at a time that that’s not happening. Yeah.

Jack McFarlane 6:47
Yeah, well, and you know, I’m almost glad glad for it, though, because colleges forever made billions of dollars off athletes and Ames didn’t give them a penny unless you count the scholarship. Right? That actually is Yeah, that’s a good deal. But I am glad to see that the athletes and not just athletes, anyone can now make money off their name image likeness likeness. So I think that’s I think it’s a great thing.

Nick Schlemmer 7:13
Ya know, I couldn’t agree with you more, and keep it on that sports topic. What do you say we talked about some of the big things that happened to sports this year. Winners of championships and whatnot. Would you say we hop into that?

Jack McFarlane 7:24
That’s a great idea. We’ll start it off with kind of the big four, you know, MLB, NFL, NBA NHL. It was pretty crazy year for sports, I’d say especially like MLB wise, there were so many different teams in first place. So many teams that really attention but in the end, the Rangers beat the Diamondbacks and five games, right? It’s five games that you predicted. The day of.

Nick Schlemmer 7:48
I was like, this is the game.

Jack McFarlane 7:51
Nick said it here first so the news broke your first keep that in mind everyone. Moving over to the NFL. It was I believe a NIC prediction from last year. So to for to nail on your predictions. A Kansas City Chiefs victory? What a Super Bowl. Honestly, 3834 high scoring controversial ending, but man, it was a blast. I had a good time watching it.

Nick Schlemmer 8:18
Yeah, that was a that was a great game to watch so many emotions throughout the people that were watching.

Jack McFarlane 8:28
I mean, it was back and forth. Like, yeah, for both teams. Yeah, it’s it was so much better. I always try to compare it to like, when the Rams played the Patriots in 2018. Maybe it was where it was like 13 to three. Like, no one wants to see the defensive game. I mean, I liked events, right? I’m a pretty hardcore football fan. Even I’m like in the Super Bowl. You want to see a close, you know, back and forth. David, it gave us everything we could have wanted. Yeah. Why don’t you tell us about your? Oh, yeah, offense all the way. But why don’t you jump over and tell us about some NBA action? I know. You’re a huge basketball guy.

Nick Schlemmer 9:05
Yeah, so NBA the last year, the Denver Nuggets to come the finals. And I have arguably one of the best best players in the world. Right?

Jack McFarlane 9:17
Yeah, I mean, he’s one back to back. MVPs. He is dominating again this year. He’s like a, he’s like the Terminator. Like he’s like a robot. He shows no emotion. He does not talk. He does not celebrate. He does not gloat. He just goes out there destroys everyone, and then goes home. And I like to imagine that he just sits in a dark room and just waits for the next game like he’s

Nick Schlemmer 9:45
I agree with you completely. I mean, I’ve seen so many clips of where he’ll go and score 50 points, right like that’s like a major deal to do that in a professional level in the NBA. And like you said, there’s there’s no reaction just straight face like he does this on the daily.

Jack McFarlane 10:03
Yeah, he’s the ultimate professional like, even after winning the finals, getting Finals MVP, he goes back to his home country and doesn’t celebrate does not even pick up a basketball and just chills. Yeah. Everyone that wins a championship in any sports celebrates like crazy at least for a week. I mean, he didn’t do anything.

Nick Schlemmer 10:22
Oh, yeah. Yeah. The end of parades and all kinds of stuff. Yeah, he went straight back home.

Jack McFarlane 10:28
He’s like, I want to I want to get next year. So I don’t know. I don’t know, though. Over the NHL, we saw the Vegas Golden Knights win the Cup against the predators for the predators and panthers. That’s Nashville Predators. You know, I wasn’t really watching it that much. The Blues didn’t make the playoffs. So it’s kind of just sad, right? It’s just sad when you’re home. Not in there. But perhaps the Vegas very new franchise wins it all. And I was down in Vegas recently and they’ve got the posters everywhere. They are loving that hockey team. So you know, I’m happy for him.

Nick Schlemmer 11:08
I bet that’s Yeah, that’s probably just the talk of the town. There’s all these new teams that they’re getting to come to Vegas, right?

Jack McFarlane 11:15
So yeah. Yeah, Vegas sports are is blowing up. Blowing up. Speaking of Vegas sports you take the Vegas bowl. Yeah, everyone goes for it.

Nick Schlemmer 11:27
It also helps that they’re all of their sports that are coming in there are actually winning it. Yeah.

Jack McFarlane 11:34
Yeah. Minus the Raiders. Yeah, yeah. You know what? That you know, props to Vegas. They’re really trying to make it a sports town. And they’re succeeding and harsher release. But let’s jump to golf. We’re both huge golf guys kind of give us a little recap of what happened in golf this year.

Nick Schlemmer 11:54
Yeah, of course. So straightaway, Tiger want to jump to the FedEx Cup. Viktor Hovland coming home with fit at the win for the FedEx Cup. I know I like Victor I think you do to correct me if I’m wrong, but yeah.

Jack McFarlane 12:08
Yeah, he’s just like a good guy. Right? Like I’ve never heard him in any controversy. I’ve only ever heard like tour pros talk about how much they like to play with Victor and stuff. But what shocks me is that like when you think of who’s going to win it you think of Victor and like the top 10 But you never think of him and as the number one guy, right like I always think of Schaeffler. Yeah but no longer Ross so true. And now Hey, John ROM, but so he’s never gonna win again ever again. But yeah, you get the point. Like Viktor Hovland is not the guy even though he I mean, he is that guy. Right? That’s him.

Nick Schlemmer 12:45
Well, yeah, he is a very talented golfer, but but like you said, he’s not. I don’t know how I want to say this. But one of the top names I guess you could think of just straight away in the league, but But yeah, he’s a great golfer. Well,

Jack McFarlane 13:00
Incredible. And you know, what an $18 million. Check for one tournaments. Not bad either. That’s what I always think of FedEx have all that money. I gotta get better.

Nick Schlemmer 13:10
Yeah, that’s right.

Jack McFarlane 13:13
We’ve got to get better. We got to make some of that money. But let’s jump over and we’ll finish with some college sports. We’ve got college football. We’ll be quick here. They went back to back. Georgia Bulldogs. wasn’t much of a shock there. They crushed TCU. And that’s not even a good enough word. It was a thrashing. It was a blowout. It was not fun.

Nick Schlemmer 13:35
I think I really do think I turned it off at halftime because they were I don’t even think I made it to have 30 points. Like, I think they’ve won 50-50 Something too I think.

Jack McFarlane 13:48
Three to seven or something like that. Just in Georgia. Okay. Luckily, they’re not in it last Alabama. They’re not in the Final Four. So we’ll see a new winner this year. Moving over to some men’s basketball. We saw a lot of Cinderella runs. I know you crushed your bracket. You had Miami go really far. I think Did you have them winning at all?

Nick Schlemmer 14:11
I had them winning it all. So they finally bought the Final Four, which is good.

Jack McFarlane 14:16
But yeah, State went all the way to the championship and lost to UConn, who just dominated everyone the whole time. So yes, I’m surprised with again.

Nick Schlemmer 14:26
Yeah. Like you said, you can. They were. They every game they played was not very close. They won by over 10 points. But like you said, there’s a lot of Cinderella stories, right? FAU Florida Atlantic. Oh, that’s right. Yeah, go state. Like all these teams that made a run in last year’s March Madness. They’re now like, top 25 ranked teams. Oh, yeah. Which is cool to see.

Jack McFarlane 14:55
Yeah, it’s I like I like that college basketball is kind of in like, I don’t know Like maybe a transitional phase when it comes to the dominant team. So it used to be Duke, North Carolina, Kansas every year and don’t get me wrong, those teams are still very good, but they’re not the clear 123 anymore. Like, I love the variety. I love it.

Nick Schlemmer 15:15
No, I couldn’t agree with you more. And then over on the women’s side, we have LSU bringing home the national champ.

Jack McFarlane 15:21
Yeah, they were just a dominant team the whole time. I did think Iowa was going to beat them. Both teams played incredible, but LSU was just, you know, they’re your flashy. We’re going to put it all out on the court and rub it in your face team. Right. That was a fun tournament. And you know, you got you it’s making the final four. Hey, this year, they’re gonna win it all.

Nick Schlemmer 15:43
I really hope they do. I would love to see so many besides like LSU or South Carolina.

Jack McFarlane 15:49
Carolina’s coming but I think that kind of does it for the sports. Let’s jump over and look at some music real quick. All these numbers that we have are from Spotify. Just so you guys know. And as we talked about before, the number one artists guys if you could guess it, it was Taylor Swift most streamed artist on Spotify. Not much surprise there. And now let’s just say that we’ve kind of set it all about her. So some some other names that I noticed on there was like bad Bunny was number two. I love that bunny. I was just listening to him right before we started recording. The weekend. We talked about him the other week being really high up there. And the one that I don’t know if surprises the right word, because I’m not surprised to see his name, but I’m surprised to see his name. You know what I mean? It is Drake. Yeah. Like, maybe, yeah, I don’t I like Drake. But I like his old music much better. Like his new music to me. It’s I don’t know. I’m not a big fan of it. There’s only a couple songs that I think are pretty good. Like, so that surprises me that Yeah.

Nick Schlemmer 16:55
Yeah, he’s he’s just one of those guys to where he gained so much popularity early on in his music career to where he’s just like, how do I want to say this? He’s like, always solidify the spot as Exactly, yeah, he’s always gonna have Yeah, he’s gonna be on the top 10 Always. But, but the surprising thing is Jack moving to the top 10 songs, right, not the top 10 artists but the top 10 stones? Who Who would you think? Which artists would have the number one song when I think it would be a person on the top 10

Jack McFarlane 17:29
Oh, yeah. And I think 99.9% of people would guess that it would have been Taylor Swift. And I would be I thought it was Taylor Swift.

Nick Schlemmer 17:39
Yeah, no, I wouldn’t be right there with you. But it was actually Miley Cyrus with their song Flowers.

Jack McFarlane 17:45
So that that one is very surprising. Like when I when I saw that, I was like, What even is that song? Like? I think I’ve heard it a couple of times. And then syncing that list. I realized maybe it’s a recent commercial, but have you seen it I’ve seen on like Hulu and stuff. It’s some Gucci like perfume commercial with the song and Miley Cyrus and it’s like some flower scent. I’m like, that makes sense, because apparently it’s a mega popular song. You know, I’m not a big Miley Cyrus fan. So I didn’t know I would have guessed Taylor Swift but that that really was a shock.

Nick Schlemmer 18:20
Yeah, and I think one more shocking point was on this list is that Taylor Swift only has one she has two songs right on this top 10 globally. But she came in at number six in number 10 Everybody else was all different artists

Jack McFarlane 18:37
and everyone on it other than Taylor Swift. Let’s see I’m just gonna take quick peek I don’t think well the weekends featured in one of them. And scissor has number two, but other than those three, everyone on the songs list is not on the artists list. Which is kind of shocking. And then I guess we’ll quickly look at albums this might have been the number one album last year to I can’t remember it’s bad bunnies album. I’m not going to try and say it I do not speak fluent Spanish guys. But you know it’s it’s bad bunnies album. I think it was wasn’t number one last year. I think it might have been.

Nick Schlemmer 19:12
If it wasn’t this album but I think it was. It was his Yeah, it was Yeah.

Jack McFarlane 19:19
So this this album has been my number one album on Apple Music recap for two years in a row. That is good. I don’t know what he’s saying. But he’s got great beats and you know, I like to jam out like working out he’s good workout music. And then you see Taylor Swift up there and the weekend more of the top 10 names on the on the albums list.

Nick Schlemmer 19:42
Yeah, and Jack I’m kind of curious. I just want to know what Who was your top artists for this past year?

Jack McFarlane 19:48
My top artists I can give you my top five and you guys can guess what genre of music I predominantly listened to. One to five was Luke Bryan. Morgan Wallen Luke. combs, Blake Shelton and Travis Scott. I got a wildcard there with Travis Scott from music but yeah, who is yours? I’m interested here. I’ve got to get so I’ve got to guess

Nick Schlemmer 20:11
you’re probably gonna get the guest right, but my number one artist was Morgan Wallen,

Jack McFarlane 20:17
I would have that’s the one I would have guessed I’d put a million dollars on it.

Nick Schlemmer 20:21
Yeah, I think my top five was Morgan Wallen, Post Malone, Travis Scott, aand a couple other rappers but if it wasn’t a lot of

Nick Schlemmer 20:28
country and it was my gym music

Jack McFarlane 20:31
Gym Music

Jack McFarlane 20:31
What was your number one song played?

Nick Schlemmer 20:34
The number one song played was a Travis Scott song.

Jack McFarlane 20:38
Yeah, so I have I’m in the same boat. My number one song was the jam song is by Gunner can’t say the name. But you guys are welcome to look it up. It’s a great song. It’ll great workout song. And then I think I had Morgan Wallen number two. We had that I always love the recap. So it gives you your personal one. I think that’s a just a fantastic thing.

Nick Schlemmer 21:00
That’s always fun to see.

Jack McFarlane 21:01
But I’d say to end our recap here. Let’s let’s take a quick look at the movies of 2023. And I know with the writer strike, not that many movies came out and that was a whole ordeal in itself. Another major event that happened. And the number one movie, I think we all would guess I never saw it. But I would have guessed this number one it was be Barbie. Right? It made over $1.4 billion globally. Yep.

Nick Schlemmer 21:30
Yeah, I think we all like you said we would have guessed that. But the one I think we we didn’t see coming was number two, right?

Jack McFarlane 21:37
Yeah. So and to put it this way, only two movies made over a billion dollars globally. So a Barbie and then tell it tell us this movie neck? Let’s see if anyone can guess it. Yeah,

Nick Schlemmer 21:46
So number two behind Barbie just just by a little bit was the Super Mario Bros movie.

Jack McFarlane 21:51
I haven’t even seen it. I would not have guessed that to be the number two movie. But you know what I guess it was?

Nick Schlemmer 22:00
I did see it. And I’m not like crazy into Mario or anything. It was good. Do not get me wrong. It was a good movie. But you kind of had to know what was going on. Right? You had to know the backstory and everything. But yeah, it was a really good movie. But on this list, Jack, what what is your favorite on this top 10 list that we have.

Jack McFarlane 22:16
Yeah, my favorite movie ended up being the fifth highest earning movie and it was fast X. I didn’t even want to see it. My wonderful girlfriend Melissa made me go see it. She saw it like three times. It was like you have to see it. I went. Oh my goodness. That movie was awesome. All the Fast and Furious movies are so awesome. I don’t know why I ever doubted it. You know? Yep. For sure. What? What was your favorite movie from the year?

Nick Schlemmer 22:42
So mine came in at number eight in mind was the Mission Impossible movie? I really liked that.

Jack McFarlane 22:48
That was I did not see that. But you know, Tom Cruise is pretty good. Yeah.

Nick Schlemmer 22:51
But like, but like you said, I’m right there with you fast x would have been very close. Number two. Yeah. It’s hard to be great movies all around.

Jack McFarlane 23:01
Well, let’s say we take a quick break, Nick. And then we’ll come back and hit you guys with just a couple predictions for the year to come. 2024.

Jack McFarlane 23:14
Welcome back, guys. We just had a quick break. And we are so excited to bring you our predictions for the year of 2024. We did this last year. And we did get a couple right. I mean, we predicted Oakland was going to lose the A’s and sure enough, they are losing the A’s that is happening. I think they have to wait to the end of their stadium deal. But that’s a prediction that came true. So we’re hoping to get a couple more right this year. We’ve got one sports one movie one music and one crazy out there prediction. So why don’t you start us off with your sports prediction. Nick, what do you think? And for 2024?

Nick Schlemmer 23:50
Yeah, so in my sports, I’m gonna lean towards the NBA side of things. I’m going to say that the Lakers are going to win the NBA championship this year. That’s That’s my sports prediction.

Jack McFarlane 24:01
I think that’s really good. And it’s worth noting that right now they are I just checked the score. They’re up by like 20 on the pelicans. And if they win this game, they’ll make the isn’t that I guess just the championship game in the NCAA Tournament? So maybe you’ll be right already. You know, that’s that’s a championship in my book. Right? Yeah. So this shoot a couple days.

Nick Schlemmer 24:27
Exactly. It’s like the halfway there championship.

Jack McFarlane 24:30
Yeah, exactly. I think if they win it, I think that counts as one prediction. Already Correct. 100% success rate for this year. So I really liked that prediction a lot, especially if LeBron can sustain playing 40 minutes tonight at the age of 1000 years old.

Nick Schlemmer 24:47
That’s right. But Jack, what was your sports prediction?

Jack McFarlane 24:50
So my sports predictions for my good old college of Utah. We’re moving to the big 12 And I think that we’re going to win the big 12 in our first year and And then we’re also going to crush BYU. By 100 million points a large amount. We’re going to destroy them. It’s in rice. Eccles stadium, up in Salt Lake. They’ve got no shot. We’re going to, we’re going to destroy them. Let’s go, Utah. That’s my prediction.

Nick Schlemmer 25:19
I I’d say that’s a very solid prediction, right? Because Utah has won their conference the last couple of years, right? Yeah.

Jack McFarlane 25:26
Every year that cam rising, has started at quarterback. He’s won the conference, obviously did not play this year as a medical redshirt. And we did not win a conference. We made a bowl game, but we didn’t win the conference. So next year, we’re coming for it, especially with Texas and Oklahoma gone. We’re gonna be the best team and the big 12. I mean, I seriously who else is I mean, who I mean, there’s a couple. There’s a couple in the big 12. But I mean, Texas, Oklahoma, your big ones. I mean, Oklahoma State was just in the big 12 Championship, and I don’t think they’re better than Utah. No,

Nick Schlemmer 25:58
I don’t think so. Either when Utah is a quarterback?

Jack McFarlane 26:00
Yeah, I will say that. But let’s move over to movies. So there’s rumored to be a lot of good movies coming out in 2024, especially now that the strike is officially done. So what do you kind of think will be a really popular movie and one you’re looking forward to?

Nick Schlemmer 26:16
In looking over the list earlier, and the one that stood out to me the most was, I don’t think it’s going to be the top movie on the charts for anything. But I definitely think it’d be like a top three top five kind of situation. The new Deadpool movie. They just always seem to do good bringing the large crowds and super funny, super funny.

Jack McFarlane 26:38
Oh, yeah. And plus superhero movies make a lot of money. Yeah, like if there was a new Avengers movie coming out, that would almost be a lock for. Yep. For number one. So I think that’s a really good guest there. I like that one. And then I’m kind of going in the same direction. Guests wise, I don’t necessarily think this will be the highest grossing movie of the year, but I think it’ll be in the top 10. And that’s going to be Mufasa. The Lion King. Now I’m a huge lion king fan. And so this is kind of like the prequel of you know how Mufasa because you only see him for a little bit, and then he gets run over by a bunch of animals. So rip, Mufasa but I’m so excited for it. I love Lion King comes out July 5.

Nick Schlemmer 27:21
I like I like how, just like with the Hunger Games just did, right? They’re starting to make these movies that are like before the first movie that ever came out, right? It’s like way back and yeah, I like how they do that.

Jack McFarlane 27:34
Let’s jump over to music. I’ve got someone who I think is going to be the most streamed artists I’m going to try. And it’s not going to be Taylor Swift level, right. I don’t think anyone will be. But you know, tariffs, we’ve had a huge tour, and then was the number one most listened to. So I think that’s exactly what’s gonna happen with Luke combs. He’s got a big 25 Stop stadium tour. US only and I think that’s going to just you know, he’s super popular. I think he’s gonna push them over the edge and he’s gonna be the most streamed artists on Spotify.

Nick Schlemmer 28:09
Yep, no, I think that’s a great prediction. And me and Jack, we’ve been lucky enough to see a concert right, which

Jack McFarlane 28:15
was I’ve seen I’ve seen two now. I’ve seen him incredible. Incredible.

Nick Schlemmer 28:20
I totally recommend it. But yeah, now that he’s doing these like, like you said, the stadium tours. I think that’s only gonna like, help.

Jack McFarlane 28:27
Yeah. Well, and like, people go crazy for Luke Combs. Like, one of the stadiums he’s going to is the football stadium here at the University of Utah’s football stadium. And already all the country radio stations are giving away tickets talking about it, counting it down. It’s not for like seven or eight months. So I think it’s going to be huge.

Nick Schlemmer 28:51
Yeah, and I’m kind of right there with you with my prediction. Stay on the countryside. I said that country music is going to make a rise to the most listen genre. So currently that genre. The number ones is pop. Yeah, this year, but is time to the throne. There’s an Yep, that’s right. Somebody else is on the throne. It’s country music. Yeah.

Jack McFarlane 29:14
Everyone listening go stream country music 24/7 for the next year, and we will make it country music habit. If it’s on silent background, played on silent, just 24/7 We’ll get there. We can do it.

Nick Schlemmer 29:29
But Jack, I’m interested in this. I want to hear your crazy prediction.

Jack McFarlane 29:35
My crazy prediction. So this is one that we’ve talked about before. It’s a very new trend, but a lot of companies are picking up on it. My prediction is that flip phones will be the most popular phone to buy. In 2024. Google just made a flip phone. Samsung’s already had a couple of flip phones. Apple is in the works with one but there’s no release day for it. So that might not come out in 2024. But I think it’ll come out in the next three years. So that’s my crazy out there prediction flip phones are back and I’m an advocate. I love mine. It’s incredible best phone I’ve ever had.

Nick Schlemmer 30:14
No, I think that’s a bold prediction. But I think that’s a solid one. Right? Like, and like, what goes around comes around everything. Back is a trend, right? Yeah, the flip phones may not have been a trend per se, like back whenever they were just made, but everything comes back. Right. So I would love to get my hands. I haven’t tried one of those out yet. Like the new flip phones. I need to try it.

Jack McFarlane 30:40
It’s awesome. Yeah, I’d like I always find myself like doing things that like with a normal phone just can’t do like, if you’re typing on your computer, I can angle my phone and it sits up by itself. So I can see if I’m trying to type something or watching a video on the side. But you just cannot do with a normal phone. Like I don’t know if I can go back like if you gave me like just a normal iPhone. I wouldn’t. I might break it on accident trying to fool this show. So let’s hear your crazy prediction. I I kind of have an idea what it is. So this one’s crazy.

Nick Schlemmer 31:14
Yep, nope. This one is crazy. So just like Jack used his school for sports prediction. My crazy prediction involves my university as well, at Nebraska. We are in dire need of a quarterback. Everybody knows this. I don’t think we’re gonna go out there recruit a solid quarterback. Not the best, just a solid one. That’s all we need. Right? And make at least a bowl game next year and fingers crossed postseason play.

Jack McFarlane 31:42
Yeah. Hey, 12 team play next year.

Nick Schlemmer 31:46
That is perfectly for the crazy thing.

Jack McFarlane 31:50
I mean, it’s really not. With 12 teams, it’s really not that out there. Even for Nebraska think about it. If they can just win the big 10, which is tough, right? Especially with the teams coming into the big 10. But think about it. Iowa’s in the big 10 championship game, right? It has a lot to do with your schedule. So if Nebraska plays well and find some stuff in the game, they might win it. You win the big 10 You’re going to be in the playoffs. So I don’t think it’s impossible. I do think it is still out there, that they’ll even get a quarterback. It’s still crazy. But your only hope is Matt rule. I mean, it’d be tough if you’re if you’re like one of those top guys. And you’ve got an offer from like, UCLA or Oregon or Oregon State and it’s like, do I want to go there or go to Preska as a quarterback? Right? Because Nebraska is really good run game like, you know, on the line that you guys got some like your the lines massive, right? Like those are some corn fed boys. Yeah. But like as a quarterback, do you want to go up 100 times. But you never know real. There. You know what goes around comes around. Nick. Right. You just said that. Nebraska football could be coming back around. Right?

Nick Schlemmer 33:03
They used to be incredible at one point in time. They were the powerhouse. They were the Alabama football. Exactly.

Jack McFarlane 33:11
And maybe that maybe it’s just I think with memorable they will be coming back. Yeah, I think that rules. It’s a trend. Well, game for sure. Right. You got to think if next year is not a bowl game, then something’s wrong. I think you’ll be Yeah, I don’t think you’ll get it for sure. Maybe not playoff, so I don’t know. 100%

Jack McFarlane 33:33
All right. Well, that kind of wraps it up for our predictions. So I know it’s time for your favorite part of the show. It’s becoming my favorite part of the show. But sadly, it’s our last one of the year. It’s gonna be our last quote of the show.

Nick Schlemmer 33:46
We’re wrapping it up with the quarter the show for the last one of this year, like Jack said, and I think this goes great with the year and review the year wrap up. And it is by Brad Paisley.

Jack McFarlane 33:57
So we oh, there we got Brad Paisley.

Nick Schlemmer 34:00
He said, Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one. Oh, that’s good. Let’s write a good book for 2024.

Jack McFarlane 34:14
Good things to come next year. All right. We’re seeing here first, not just for the podcast, but for everyone in the world. Okay. This year, there was not a lot of the major events were not the most uplifting, not the most happy events in the world. But next year is going to be different. We’re going to follow Brad Paisley’s advice.

Nick Schlemmer 34:33
Yep, just listen to Brad Paisley. He’ll always good advice.

Jack McFarlane 34:37
That’s right. Listen to Brad Paisley and get country music to number one. It’s gonna be a great year. Yep.

Nick Schlemmer 34:42
And get The Play by Play podcasts. Move that on up the charts too.

Jack McFarlane 34:46
Yeah, we we did find a Spotify as list of podcasts and we’re not on there yet. So maybe next year will be probably number one if I had to guess right which say so. Oh, one. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Nick Schlemmer 34:58
Great. We have a great audience.

Jack McFarlane 35:00
I think we have the best audience, that’s for sure.

Nick Schlemmer 35:04
But with us saying that you guys are the best we truly mean that. Thank you for tuning in. 19 episodes down continued support on everyone. I appreciate it. I know Jack does.

Jack McFarlane 35:15
Oh yeah, it is an absolute blast. Megan, nice for you guys. We have so much fun. It’s sad. We’re not going to talk to you all till next year. Crazy to think that, but you know, it’s been a great year. Here’s to the next one. Thank you guys for listening.

Nick Schlemmer 35:30
And bye for now.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai