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Join Talisman, an award-winning, full-service agency igniting memorable partnerships & collaborations across sports, entertainment & web3 where they host industry leaders to unapologetically deconstruct the business of sports.
Welcome to the Playbook Podcast by Talisman. During our first Playbook Conversations panel in New York City, we gathered executives and athletes to talk about where culture, community, and business collide. In this conversation, we spotlight Brooke Nundillah, the three time all American and captain of the Omaha Supernovas on her role in leading the rise of professional volleyball in The US and why the sport is one of today's most exciting growth stories.
Dharpan Randhawa:Hi, Brooke. Hi. So before I do an introduction, I'm gonna ask you a question. How well do you think AI knows you?
Brooke Nuneviller:It's funny because a lot of my friends go into chat gbt and they'll they'll ask the same question like describe me in your words. And I did it the other day. And I would say it's pretty accurate. I think the more especially that you're using AI like chat g p t, the more you're asking questions using it as your therapist, then you're gonna get a more accurate description. But I would say pretty well.
Dharpan Randhawa:Okay. Well, let's find out. So I asked chat g p t to write me an introduction about you, for you, for this event. Word for word. If you've been paying attention to what's happening in America's sport right now, you've probably noticed something exceptional.
Dharpan Randhawa:Volleyball is having a serious moment, and at the heart of that movement is one of the most exciting and inspiring figures. Brooke Nunavella is a three time all American, the captain of the Omaha supernovas, and one of the standout athletes helping to define the rise of pro volleyball in The US. But she's more than just an elite player. She's also a leader, a cultural voice, and a symbol of what's possible when talent, timing, and fan energy collide. Today, we're gonna talk about the future of volleyball, the power of community in sports, and what it means to be a modern athlete in a sport that's finally getting the spot spotlight it deserves.
Dharpan Randhawa:Please join me in welcoming Brooke Nobelos.
Speaker 4:Thank you. Wow. Was that was that spot on? I mean, I would
Brooke Nuneviller:I would love to think that's spot
Speaker 4:on. Okay,
Dharpan Randhawa:let's talk about Nebraska. What's so mesmerizing about volleyball in Nebraska? What makes Nebraska such a cultural and commercial powerhouse for women's volleyball? Because it's it's a vibe. It's a thing.
Dharpan Randhawa:Right?
Brooke Nuneviller:I think I mean, we've had professional volleyball in The States now, really for the last two seasons. And I think the moment that I stepped foot in the state, and even before when I was getting recruited into the Supernovas, our coach called me and he's just describing the vibe that Nebraska will give the sport and just the passion that they have for it. And that starts I think collegiately. And when he was just selling that information, was so excited to step foot and just to play in front of the fan base. But I think that really just starts from the fact that Nebraska doesn't have professional sports.
Brooke Nuneviller:Right? They don't have an NBA team, they don't have an NFL team that they're following. And so then their eyes and their attention goes directly to their major university, University of Nebraska, the Huskers, which has one of the craziest fan bases in the country. And then if you've just looked at the sports that they're following, it's been football if maybe twenty years ago you would say that. But the last decade, fifteen years that John Cook, our now general manager for the Supernovas has taken over, they have grown such a significant fan base for volleyball.
Brooke Nuneviller:And the Huskers go crazy for that sport there. So I think as soon as they heard that the Supernovas were starting, they had a professional sports team, they just got so excited. And I think that energy just shifted to the professional sport, and they Nebraska is definitely a volleyball state more than anywhere else, I would say, in the world.
Dharpan Randhawa:Yeah. That's crazy. I mean, I remember going and and and seeing my first SuperNovus match in in Omaha, and I remember driving up to the CHI Stadium in an Uber, and it felt like the whole city was just walking to like, you know, it was like The Walking Dead. They were all like so thousands of people just walking, holding hands and flags, and it was quite amazing to see, let alone what happened inside. That was a different story again.
Dharpan Randhawa:Cool. Where were you on the day when that 92,000 people filled a stadium to watch a women's volleyball match in Nebraska? This
Brooke Nuneviller:is such a hot topic for me because I wish I was in the stadium, but I was playing with the national team. I think we were playing in a tournament in the Dominican Republic then, so I couldn't make it. But Off
Dharpan Randhawa:the hook.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Dharpan Randhawa:Off the hook. That was crazy. Right?
Brooke Nuneviller:Yeah. That was amazing. And I that's not a fluke. Right? You can't just like sell a volleyball match in a football stadium and just get 92,000 people, break the world record for a female attendance.
Brooke Nuneviller:But I don't know. You just you can't do that anywhere else. And the fact that Nebraska can, it just gives these fans a lot of credit, and you see that with the Supernova's games as well.
Dharpan Randhawa:Yeah. K. And getting the spotlight back on you for a second, you know, you had I wanna talk about court over beach. You had the talent to do either or. What made you choose indoor volleyball over beach?
Dharpan Randhawa:Was it a strategic decision? What do you like better? Why did your path go this way instead of that way?
Brooke Nuneviller:I love both so much. I grew up actually playing beach volleyball a ton. I grew up in Arizona, would drive to California and play in beach tournaments every weekend during the season. So I love that sport so much. Played two seasons in college as well at the University of Oregon.
Brooke Nuneviller:And luckily for me, with COVID, we did get a fifth year out of that, an extra year of eligibility. So after I finished my fifth year of indoor volleyball in December, I actually put my name in the transfer portal and see to see if I could go play beach somewhere. I knew I could but if that was an interest of mine and I was deciding whether or not then if I wanted to go play professional volleyball indoor overseas because that was the only option at the time. Or if I wanted to go try to play beach volleyball. And I think in the back of my head, I just knew if I chose the beach path, I'd be done with my indoor career.
Brooke Nuneviller:And that was just something that I was not open to. I think this sport just has so much room for growth and you're seeing that now. And luckily, I stuck with it because I didn't even know this could be an option for me. And that was back in December '22, so
Dharpan Randhawa:Not too long ago.
Brooke Nuneviller:Yeah. Almost three years ago and I didn't even understand like what this could turn into. But luckily for me, I I stuck around and I'm really excited to see how the sport grows.
Dharpan Randhawa:Is beach kinda pulling you back a little bit?
Brooke Nuneviller:It is, for sure. And I think it's because I've been told my whole life you could be an incredible there's two positions really in beach volleyball. There's a blocker and a defender. You you have the perfect like as an indoor player, you wanna be a great all around player as a defender and you have the perfect size, like you would be a perfect beach defender. So I've always been told that my entire life and that's something that I've been drawn towards and I think I have a lot to offer that sport.
Brooke Nuneviller:But you will see me transition into it after my indoor career. It's a little easier on the body than just compounding all the time with with the sport court. The sand's a lot more forgiving. But right now, I I love my indoor path and we'll see.
Dharpan Randhawa:You know, we're talking about different types of sports, properties and different type of sports codes. And and, you know, I'm biased towards women's volleyball. I'm a co owner of the Supernovas, as you know. So I'm I I've got a very front row seat into women's volleyball, and it's the number one sport played in high school today by girls, and it's a number three sport played at collegiate level. Why are so many girls playing volleyball today more than they've ever played before, and this thing is on a rocket ship?
Dharpan Randhawa:Why?
Brooke Nuneviller:Yeah. And I've seen that stat probably for the past five years. It being the most popular youth woman, female sport growing up in The States. And so I I think one, you're seeing the sport of indoor volleyball exploding, and that starts at the collegiate level. So you're seeing these young girls, you know, they're they're seeing their role models on TV TV more than ever than they were seeing maybe a decade ago.
Brooke Nuneviller:And they're on TikTok. You know, they're seeing these content creators, these athletes that are really marketing the sport really well, and they're falling in love with these athletes. And then, you know, that's who they wanna be. That's who they're aspiring to. They're aspiring to play professional volleyball when they're that age.
Brooke Nuneviller:They're aspiring to be in college, to be an athlete at the University of Nebraska. So I think one, it's just the the marketability of the sport and the the broadcast, the viewership, it's just exponentially increasing, and it still is. And so these girls are just seeing it more, and they're wanting to be a part of it.
Dharpan Randhawa:Yeah. I mean, would you say that the typical I mean, looking at the Supernovas, I mean, would you say that the fan base of the Supernovas is predominantly younger audiences? Or how would you describe the fan base?
Brooke Nuneviller:Definitely family based. So you're seeing a lot of, you know, parents, young girls obviously, like I said, that are aspiring to be a professional volleyball player. And when I was that age, like, didn't I didn't have those role models. Right? I wouldn't I would turn on the TV or wouldn't be able to go to a sports game.
Brooke Nuneviller:But I would turn on the TV and I'd see like the LeBron James, Kobe Bryant's, Tom Brady's. And now it's like they can attend the professional volleyball game and
Dharpan Randhawa:And a young girl can see you and Right.
Brooke Nuneviller:Right. Exactly. But so you're seeing a lot of those young girls. And the fan base in general, would say, pretty diverse though. You're seeing those families.
Brooke Nuneviller:We get a pretty high male attendance at our games, but then also going back to the Huskers, it's like the people that have built that loyalty to the sport, they're elderly, they're 70, 80 years old, they're coming up to us, they're like, I've been following volleyball starting at the University of Nebraska, and now you guys have turned us into a novice fan. So they're just excited about the sport in general. And you're just seeing a lot of loyal fans, all ages, a lot of young girls though, and families.
Dharpan Randhawa:Yeah. Yeah. I did notice that actually. And I noticed, you know, when you go to a male sporting event and you see, you know, male athletes, they'll see little kids and they'll just high five them and kind of, you know, walk past them. But you girls actually, you know, kneel down, you do eye contact with these young girls and you really interact with them.
Dharpan Randhawa:And I noticed that I thought, this is really interesting. The bigger picture, so, you you are the captain of the team, you are a three time all American. We said we're not gonna talk about the Olympics, but maybe that's a question, I don't know. Okay, we're not talking, okay. How how do you see yourself as a role model more than an athlete?
Dharpan Randhawa:I wanna talk to you about that, the work that you're doing with the community. And do you feel that you're responsible to shape the future of the sport? Because when people think of women's volleyball, it's always you're one of two or three faces that pops up. You are it. I mean, you are the LeBron James of women's volleyball to use your own quote earlier.
Dharpan Randhawa:But are you that's a big responsibility. How do you feel about all of that? And and what are your plans around that?
Brooke Nuneviller:I'm very proud for that to be my responsibility. Like I said, I never had that. And so I think if people were to ask me like why I'm why I'm playing this sport still, obviously, I love the game so much. But if you look at the bigger picture, the reason why I'm truly playing is to be that role model to these young girls and boys that I I never had. I think it's really important and like like I said before, that's why a lot of that's why you see it be the most popular youth sport growing up.
Brooke Nuneviller:You know, it's why these girls wanna play. And I think it's just so important not only for women's volleyball, but for female sports, just that you have that. And you have you see these athletes that you're aspiring to be on TV, in commercials, just on a major sports network. Because it's really exploded over the last three years. And so I I take a big responsibility in that.
Brooke Nuneviller:And I I think I'm really proud for that to be my responsibility just because it's an opportunity that I never got, and now these girls just get to see that they can do it.
Dharpan Randhawa:Big shoulders. Yeah. Yeah. Any questions while before I keep going? Okay.
Dharpan Randhawa:Go ahead, Tom.
Speaker 5:Yeah. So your pathway before these leagues in The US was to go to Europe. Christian Pulisic who plays for the US men's national team has always said, know, or excuse me, Landon Donovan before Christian used to say, I want to play in Major League Soccer, so I want to help build a game here. Is that part of your thought process to staying here? Because you know, I don't know another outside hitter who also plays as a Libero, you could play anywhere in the world and will successfully keep did you decide to stay here for that reason?
Speaker 5:It's a credit built.
Brooke Nuneviller:A 100%. When I originally got the phone call and they said, we're starting this professional league in The States if you wanna come be a part of it. Wow. I was thinking that's a really big risk. Right?
Brooke Nuneviller:I have a really good contract in Turkey where I played for my first year. And I think when you're when you're talking about contracts for the following year, you're you're speaking to teams February, March during your season, that first season that will start in August. And I was kinda withholding on a lot of those conversations and just because I I had heard of this league, I had heard of the potential that it could be. But you don't know. You know, it could all fall apart.
Brooke Nuneviller:You're getting an offer and you you may not even get paid that season. And so I think like I was willing to take that risk just so I can take on the responsibility of starting something that's really exciting. And I'm really proud to have been a part of this league for the last now three seasons. And I don't know, just growing the game and being a part of something for the first time is really exciting for me.
Speaker 5:I'm gonna make a statement. I may not like it, but I think women's volleyball is the best version of the sport, male or female. And I don't think there's another sport you can say that about, and that's the disparity, but WNBA is not the best version of basketball. When soccer is not the best version of begin, they're both interesting, they both have a following. But the men's game is over, the points are over so quickly.
Speaker 5:The the women's game, because the net gets lowered, because the spike is still a part of it. So here you are watching the growth of women's sport. I think you're playing the most exciting version of the sport men and women. You've gotta be thinking right now that the sky is the limit when we look at what's happened with these other sports that are finding success. Talk a little bit about what you and your fellow and your big think about that.
Brooke Nuneviller:I've always said that. When I'm talking, I think that's why professional volleyball is really exciting. And I'm gonna go back to the men's and women's side. It's like if you look at the professional women's sports that are in The States currently, the WNBA was followed by the NBA. The just WSL, like whatever it is.
Brooke Nuneviller:It's always the female version that's following the male side of it. And this is so exciting because women's volleyball is just the first avenue for the sport of volleyball in general. And I would love to say like I want the men's side of it to be able to get the same opportunities as well. But I'm so excited to be a female athlete in the sport of volleyball just because of that reason.
Dharpan Randhawa:Go ahead.
Speaker 4:The question for both the I asked
Speaker 6:Kawona on Claire's side. Obviously, you could be responsible for sports just for your role as a player, you know, a roll out, wins a turk, etcetera. How much engagement are you getting on the business side of the sport by now? How are the teams are they collaborating players to help build business model to grow, or are they kind of working a little bit independently now, and should there be more kind of flare ownership, marketing, leadership, business collaboration so that we're collectively growing versus kind of like players doing their business side doing their
Brooke Nuneviller:I'd say right now, it's definitely more separate. Right? I started really working on my own marketability probably in November, December. And for me, I got one year of NIL when I was in college and you know, no, exact exactly. I'm seeing these players get hundreds of thousands of dollars a year and I'm like, whew.
Brooke Nuneviller:It's yes, I wish I had more time, but also I'm excited for this aspect. But I think there's a huge room for opportunity to work together. And we haven't tapped into that yet. I think they're so worried about they were, the last two seasons, much more worried about the logistical side of things. Like, you know, let's make sure we have a nutritionist and trainers and things and just handling those sides.
Brooke Nuneviller:But now you're seeing big time players come out of college that already have this following and you know, they're half a million followers, some of them. And so there's a there's a huge opportunity for that. But right now, I would say it's pretty separate.
Dharpan Randhawa:Yeah. I think I think from a you know, the the the Major League Volleyball League has just merged with So now we've created a proper version of a professional volleyball league that is the ultimate benchmark of where teams like the Supernovas are gonna play. That's that's that's fairly new. That just happened. So what we've you know, as as a co owner, as a commercial partner of the team, what we're seeing is the growth of the sport is going at 200 miles an hour in that direction, and the commercial components and capabilities and opportunities are going at 60 miles an hour because no one's thought about it that because it just exploded on this rocket ship.
Dharpan Randhawa:So what we're trying to do now is work very closely from a team perspective with the league and say, okay. What can you do? What should you do? How can we help you do better for brands and partners? And from the supernova side of things, we're saying, okay.
Dharpan Randhawa:What type of brands and partners do we want? Number one. Number two, how do we find our authentic voice? Because like I well, I got like I said, when I went into Omaha and I saw little girls crying because they wanted to meet Brooke and crying when they did meet her, how does a brand capture that and not lose what you know, the lightning in a bottle is there. So to answer your question, it's catching up very, very quickly, but will it get to 200 miles an hour in the next twelve months?
Dharpan Randhawa:I I hope so. But, man, it's exciting. It's really exciting.
Speaker 4:Why Bobby's trying to get out the Olympics?
Brooke Nuneviller:No. We can talk about it. We can talk about it. When I I mean, growing up, you know, that was always a thing for me, Olympic aspirations. It's really the highest accolade that you can get as an athlete in whatever sport.
Brooke Nuneviller:And so that's always been something for me. I was in the national team gym in 2022 and '23, would travel with them, made big time rosters that were always lifelong goals. And the last two summers, I've had free and I haven't been playing with the national team. I was kinda going through a position change. I was with them as a libero for my entire career, really.
Brooke Nuneviller:I started playing with USA volleyball since the age of 10. Whether that was like their high performance program, youth national team, junior national team. Like I said, Olympic aspirations always. And then I decided I didn't wanna be a libero anymore cause I'd always been an outside hitter in club volleyball, high school, college and that's what I do professionally as well. It was just a hard transition going back and forth.
Brooke Nuneviller:So I haven't been with them recently. I did get invited back into the gym this summer a little bit later for out to be an outside hitter which is really exciting. As even though maybe in this room, like I I seem relatively tall or just out in society, but for my position, I'm pretty small. I'm undersized. I would say they're probably around like six one, six two, and then I'm five ten.
Brooke Nuneviller:So in the gym, they typically are going for those six one, six two players until recently. They're starting to open up their eye a little bit more. So I can see myself hopefully getting back in the national team gym and
Speaker 1:Well, you could jump.
Brooke Nuneviller:Yeah. Yeah. I got to. Right? Do the vertical training as much as possible, which makes up for it for sure.
Brooke Nuneviller:So, yeah, maybe in the future.
Speaker 7:Coupled with that, I do have a question. A lot of sports have these breakout moments every four years. It's just like it's an Olympic sport, we all tune in, and then we tune out. You know, the next three years, eleven months, and however many days. For volleyball, what do you think is the single most, like, accelerate at this Like, if you could run three plays right now for this Bob Burnie, people that know nothing about it, companies that wanna spend, you know, reaching a target to interact with, what do you all think are, like, three things that would be a quantum leap for volleyball now?
Dharpan Randhawa:That was my last question. Excellent. Great minds. I'll start. You can chime in.
Dharpan Randhawa:I mean, the the the first thing would need to be, you know, the audience growth on this thing. I don't even think the broadcasters have worked it out yet. They're working it out. We're talking to some of the largest broadcasters for the for the new league right now to figure out what's going on, and that's just traditional broadcast. I think once you start getting into the streaming audience, people wanna see what happens behind the scenes.
Dharpan Randhawa:They wanna see what's going on, where you know, what what for the training, the nutrition, we joked about you eating veggies up there. So the the the the behind the scenes and the audience that this thing has the potential to create is what's really exciting. I don't think we we've worked that out yet, but we're working very hard to work that out. So that's that's for me, that's the one thing. The second thing is, you know, an authentic community story, which, you know, I'm gonna let Brooke talk about in a second.
Dharpan Randhawa:And and and, you know, the third thing, I I for me, you know, brands can tell a really authentic story with this because it's real. It's affecting not just a sports fan, it's affecting a household. Mums and dads and grandmas and grandpas and next door neighbors, everyone, especially in places like Omaha and other big volleyball states are getting behind it. So, you know, and we're going through this right now. We're like, you know, what type of brands do we wanna talk to?
Dharpan Randhawa:I mean, BetterHelp, perfect. And she's escaped, but I'm gonna track her down. But that's a perfect brand. So for us, it's community, it's authenticity and brand messaging, and it's this ginormous tsunami of audiences that hasn't been lassoed yet and worked out commercially. But on the on the community side of things, you know, maybe you wanna talk a little bit about why volleyball is so sticky.
Brooke Nuneviller:Mhmm. Yeah. I mean, going back to the just authenticity side of it, it's like these fans love the sport. They're so loyal to it. Like he said, like he's walking outside of CHI, he's coming to the game and it's it's Omaha is flooded with our colors are like bright blue and pink.
Brooke Nuneviller:So you can't you can't miss them. But they're wearing these shirts like everyone is walking around the city. They're at the restaurants. They're they're filled and they're just so in love with the game. I think the reason that people love volleyball so much after just going to one game, it's so fast paced.
Brooke Nuneviller:There's a reset between every single point. It's also really interesting that volleyball resets between sets. You get a completely clean slate. You can lose a set 25 to 10 and it doesn't even matter what the score is, it just matters what the set score is. And you can completely reset and it starts over at zero zero the next set and you get a new opportunity to try to win the next 25 points.
Brooke Nuneviller:And I think that's really exciting. Know, it can cause a lot of controversy, upsets, things like that. But I think, yeah, people just specifically in Nebraska, they they just love the sport and they've grown up with the Huskers. It's now translated into the Supernovas and they're just excited for
Speaker 5:What are
Dharpan Randhawa:some of the other big volleyball cities in The US, Brooklyn? Mhmm.
Brooke Nuneviller:So I think if you're specifically looking at now MLV, the teams that we've had, Indy is huge. They're selling out a lot. A lot of the Midwest, you look at Wisconsin, Mattis yeah. Madison and Minneapolis, Minnesota, Columbus.
Speaker 8:Does any of it stem from the college aspect? And then obviously, we're we're now in pretty good sense of a big tennis right? Absolutely.
Brooke Nuneviller:It definitely stems from the college, especially just because professional volleyball is so new now that we have a draft. And so a lot of these college players are getting drafted and they played in, MLV the last couple seasons. And definitely stems from them. And they want to see like their favorite athletes now playing professionally. And hopefully, like you're gonna see in the next few years, the probably most like influential college players, they're gonna you're gonna see that translation to the professional side as well.
Dharpan Randhawa:Yeah. Hold on one more. Just to add on that question of yours, Rachel, the other maybe another element. We're just doing this really interesting exercise at the moment where we look we're looking at all of our players and their social media, not just their numbers, but their reach and the way they create content. They're all that the creator economy in female athletes who play volleyball is leaps and bounds above any other female sport athletes.
Dharpan Randhawa:I don't know why necessarily. Maybe I kinda do. But, you know, they are they're they're creating content. They are they're online a lot more. They have huge following.
Dharpan Randhawa:And when you look at the deals around some of these athletes, they're not there. No one is talking to these female volleyball superstars like Brooke and saying, hey. We want you guys to do more as individuals as well. But that's also, I think, in part because the bullet train just took off, and everyone's kind of like, woah. Hey.
Dharpan Randhawa:Hey. We slow down. What can we do? And that's another thing that we're working out, which I think is a massive miss, but we've identified it. Would you say that's true?
Brooke Nuneviller:Yeah. Absolutely. And I think like the female side, like, they have been when I was in college, it's like when NIL was starting, you're seeing these football players that are getting the huge deals and basketball players. And I think for us, like we've had we've had to work for it a little bit more. So if you look at the social media side of things, like I invested a lot of time in like trying to build my following in college and now in the professional world.
Brooke Nuneviller:And I think we probably have more experience in that side of it and we're more willing to do the work.
Dharpan Randhawa:You've hustled harder.
Brooke Nuneviller:Yeah. Yeah. On that side for sure. On that side.
Dharpan Randhawa:Any other questions? Yeah.
Speaker 5:Well, I'll just say part of the challenge of Bung First and not following it successful nationally is the funding. Right? So there is no WNBA without WNBA. There's no NWSL without US soccer recognizing the importance of the winds getting to the national level and funding it. Part of the rebrand from PBF to MLB is an influx of potential new owners.
Speaker 5:There really starts for you as a part owner or a T. Talk a little bit about how excited you are that you've got some other potential franchise owners coming in, it seems like there might finally be an influx of capital because I think that's gonna be what's needed get the Yeah.
Dharpan Randhawa:I mean, you know, when the when the new league was formed, we had a lot of interest from team owners, NBA team owners, who wanted to have a female team. We had private equity talking to us about, hey, listen. We need we know we need to do something. How do we get into this? How do we jump on that train that's going 200 miles an hour?
Dharpan Randhawa:And and I know the league spoke to quite a few. I mean, Logan was leading a lot of those conversations as well from Talisman. So for us, you know, amazing team owners in this new league, you know, everyone's gonna rise. All boats are gonna rise. And, you know, we are really excited, but We want other teams to do big sponsorship deals because by doing that, the whole thing rises.
Dharpan Randhawa:And I think finally it's been really good to have the MLV kicking off next year with a merger with the Professional Volleyball Federation. Now I think it's truly given professional women's volleyball a home. I've been told by the league that there's four or five other new inquiries of teams that wanna come on board. So bring them on. Yeah.
Dharpan Randhawa:Bring them on.
Speaker 4:Going back to Raja's question a little bit, like the markets that you mentioned, like that's where volleyball is also kind of intrinsic in that market's DNA. What is it that you could do to take the the sport into, I think it's still fairly big in Boston, but like to more like, I don't know if that's a coastal thing because it does seem like it's more of the big time, but I'm just curious, yes, it is intrinsic. Omaha, I get why it's so popular. Everyone's kind of raised with it and it makes more sense, I totally agree. I think it's the premier version of the sport, but what can you do to go to markets where it's not that popular and and build it up so that it is?
Speaker 4:Because it is it's a it's a fantastic product. It's awesome to watch, but, like, in those other markets, I'm just curious how you grow it.
Brooke Nuneviller:I think the base, right, is to gain that popularity in the places like Omaha, like Columbus, like Indy. And I really think nowadays everything circles back to like the social media presence and these young girls and boys growing up with these role models or just people they're following, know, people that they like to see their get ready with me on a game day. And I think it starts with things like that. And then once you get that viewership, once you get, these athletes in commercials, once you just establish a greater presence for them, then you start to move into those areas that might be more saturated with other professional sports, you know. But I think in the next couple seasons, you're gonna see a crazy exponential growth, especially from the marketing side with these athletes, and that'll allow them to capitalize in the bigger markets.
Speaker 4:That'll be fascinating leading into the Olympics if MLB can really kind of gain a strong hold in some of those markets and the distribution deal. I feel like distribution deal will be more interesting for reach rather than price that you might want. And then going into the Olympics again because I feel like it is one of the most watched Olympics for it, but then there it does kinda go dormant a little bit. It'll be I'm excited to watch it. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Dharpan Randhawa:Okay. Last closing message. What do you wanna tell? Is the camera there? This is gonna go live on all our channels.
Dharpan Randhawa:What do you wanna tell little girls who you know, is there a message for little girls who wanna grow up and be like you?
Brooke Nuneviller:You can. I was told my entire career, I talked about, you know, the difference between Libero and outside hitter and, you know, my transition between that. Everyone said I could be a really elite Libero. No one said I could make it as an outside at the collegiate level at a power five conference. May as well a professional level.
Brooke Nuneviller:May as well getting invites to national team tournaments as an outside hitter. They said, you're too small, you're not strong enough, you don't jump high enough. And I think now you're seeing a lot of people like me that are smaller or said that you couldn't do something. You're getting to see those people on TV. And I think just don't listen to what anyone says because now you have these role models, you have these examples that is living proof that you can go out and do whatever you want.
Brooke Nuneviller:So just go watch them and never let anyone tell you no.
Dharpan Randhawa:High five. Alright.
Speaker 1:We hope you enjoyed the chat and look forward to having you next time on the Playbook Podcast. Hi.