Good Seats Still Available

Tim Hanlon

"Good Seats Still Available" is a curious little podcast devoted to the exploration of what used-to-be in professional sports. Each week, host Tim Hanlon interviews former players, owners, broadcasters, beat reporters, and surprisingly famous "super fans" of teams and leagues that have come and gone - in an attempt to unearth some of the most wild and woolly moments in (often forgotten) sports history.

  1. 7h ago

    The Original UFL's Omaha Nighthawks - With Ross Benes

    For three strange, memorable seasons, Omaha had professional football. The Omaha Nighthawks arrived in 2010 as the newest franchise in the fledgling United Football League — a would-be NFL alternative stocked with recognizable names, second chances and just enough legitimacy to make people wonder whether this one might actually last. Writer and Nebraska native Ross Benes ("Remembering Pro Football in Omaha") joins us to remember the Nighthawks' brief, wonderfully odd run and the night it all seemed possible. Playing inside aging Rosenblatt Stadium — the beloved former home of the College World Series, already awaiting demolition — the Nighthawks debuted before more than 23,000 fans with a roster featuring former NFL Pro Bowler Jeff Garcia, hometown hero Ahman Green and one-time Ohio State phenomenon Maurice Clarett. Omaha rallied from behind to win in the final seconds, Nelly performed at halftime, and for one evening a startup football league felt like something considerably bigger. Benes recalls why Omaha embraced the team so quickly, how the UFL's collection of former NFL stars and local heroes made it feel different from ordinary minor-league football, and what it was like watching figures such as Clarett and later Nebraska Heisman winner Eric Crouch chase one more opportunity on the professional stage. The conversation also follows the story's rapid unraveling: a move from intimate Rosenblatt to a cavernous new stadium, declining crowds, mounting financial trouble, unpaid players and a league that eventually disappeared altogether. It's a story about football, nostalgia, doomed leagues — and why some of the sporting experiences least likely to endure can become the hardest to forget. + + +    MORE ABOUT ROSS BENES: https://www.rossbenes.com/ SUPPORT THE SHOW:  Buy Us a Coffee: https://ko-fi.com/goodseatsstillavailable SPONSOR THANKS:  Royal Retros (10% off promo code: SEATS): https://www.royalretros.com/?ref=SEATS Old School Shirts.com (10% off promo code: GOODSEATS): https://oldschoolshirts.com/goodseats FIND AND FOLLOW: Linktree: https://linktr.ee/GoodSeatsStillAvailable Web: https://goodseatsstillavailable.com/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/goodseatsstillavailable.com X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoodSeatsStill YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@goodseatsstillavailable Threads: https://www.threads.net/@goodseatsstillavailable Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodseatsstillavailable/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoodSeatsStillAvailable/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/good-seats-still-available/

    The Original UFL's Omaha Nighthawks - With Ross Benes

  2. 7h ago ·  Bonus

    You Might Also Like: The Next Five

    Introducing Driving Industrial Decarbonisation from The Next Five. Follow the show: The Next Five Hard to abate sectors; the heavy industries of steel, cement, chemicals plus transport, aviation and mining are responsible for nearly a third of global greenhouse gas emissions. Decarbonising heavy industry at scale is no longer just an environmental imperative; it is a massive economic advantage if you get it right and even worse if you fail to do so. For decades, the narrative surrounding these ‘hard-to-abate' sectors has been trapped in a paralysing triad of assumptions: that transforming the backbone of world industry is simply too risky to execute, too complex to engineer, and far too expensive to justify. And on paper, that cost argument seems real. Clean production alternatives still carry a severe green premium. Near-zero steel costs anywhere from 10 to 75 percent more to produce. Green cement? You’re looking at a 30 to 125 percent price increase. Joining host Tom Parker is Dino Otranto, CEO of Fortescue Metals, Axel Eggert, Director General of EUROFER, The European Steel Association and Bertrand Badré, Managing Partner and Founder of Blue like an Orange Sustainable Capital and former Managing Director and CFO at the World Bank. Sources: FT Resources, Carbon Tracker, IEA, McKinsey, EUROFER This content is paid for by Fortescue and is produced in partnership with the Financial Times' Commercial Department. The views and claims expressed are those of the guests alone and have not been independently verified by The Financial Times. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. DISCLAIMER: Please note, this is an independent podcast episode not affiliated with, endorsed by, or produced in conjunction with the host podcast feed or any of its media entities. The views and opinions expressed in this episode are solely those of the creators and guests. For any concerns, please reach out to team@podroll.fm.

    You Might Also Like: The Next Five

  3. Nov 2

    The New York Islanders Owner Who Wasn't - With Nicholas Mennuti

    For a few surreal months in 1997, John Spano owned the National Hockey League's New York Islanders. There was just one problem: he didn't have the money. Author Nicholas Mennuti joins the conversation to revisit one of the most audacious cons in professional sports history, chronicled in his book "Spano: How a Hockey Superfan Conned His Way Into Owning an NHL Team." By the mid-1990s, the Islanders had fallen far from their four consecutive Stanley Cups. Nassau Coliseum was deteriorating, payroll was thin, ownership was disengaged, fans were furious, and the franchise desperately needed a savior. Into that opening stepped Spano: a hockey obsessive with expensive tastes, powerful connections, a fabricated fortune and an uncanny ability to convince people he belonged among sports' ownership elite. Mennuti traces how Spano learned from the booming sports-business culture of the era, explored deals involving the Dallas Stars and Florida Panthers, secured an $80 million bank loan, won the confidence of NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and ultimately took control of the Islanders despite having only a fraction of the wealth he claimed. Even stranger, Spano may actually have had some instincts for the job. He pushed for a new Long Island arena, pursued superstar forward Mark Messier, challenged team GM Mike Milbury, renegotiated local television rights and helped create real value around a franchise he could not afford to own. It's a story about fraud, fandom, ambition and institutional credulity — and about how a desperate NHL franchise briefly handed its future to a man whose greatest asset may have been his absolute belief that he belonged there. + + +   SUPPORT THE SHOW: Buy Us a Coffee: https://ko-fi.com/goodseatsstillavailable BUY THE BOOK:  "Spano: How a Hockey Superfan Conned His Way Into Owning an NHL Team": https://link.amazon/B09sNq5Yw SPONSOR THANKS:  Royal Retros (10% off promo code: SEATS): https://www.royalretros.com/?ref=SEATS Old School Shirts.com (10% off promo code: GOODSEATS): https://oldschoolshirts.com/goodseats FIND AND FOLLOW: Linktree: https://linktr.ee/GoodSeatsStillAvailable Web: https://goodseatsstillavailable.com/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/goodseatsstillavailable.com X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoodSeatsStill YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@goodseatsstillavailable Threads: https://www.threads.net/@goodseatsstillavailable Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodseatsstillavailable/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoodSeatsStillAvailable/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/good-seats-still-available/

    The New York Islanders Owner Who Wasn't - With Nicholas Mennuti

  4. Oct 26

    The Many Acts of John Madden - With Scott Howard-Cooper

    Few figures in American sports ever reinvented themselves as completely — or as successfully — as pro football's John Madden. After a Hall of Fame coaching career with the Oakland Raiders that included a Super Bowl championship and one of the highest winning percentages in NFL history, Madden walked away from the sideline at just 42. What followed became an even larger legacy: groundbreaking television work, a transformative role in the rise of Fox Sports, an enduring video-game franchise, ubiquitous advertising campaigns, and a place in American popular culture that extended far beyond football. Sportswriter and author Scott Howard-Cooper joins us to discuss his new book, "BAM!: John Madden, the NFL Explosion, and the Video Game That Changed Sports," an exploration of Madden's remarkable second act and the many ways he helped expand football's reach. Howard-Cooper recounts Madden's reluctant entry into broadcasting, the natural teaching ability that made him uniquely effective on television, his partnership with Pat Summerall, and the enormous credibility he brought to Fox when the upstart network stunned the sports world by acquiring NFL rights. He also traces Madden's unlikely relationship with Electronic Arts and the development of a video game that introduced generations of younger fans to football strategy — and often to Madden himself. The conversation also explores a less-publicized side of Madden: the profound impact of Darryl Stingley's devastating 1978 injury, Madden's lifelong concern for player safety, and his willingness to challenge the NFL on issues ranging from youth tackle football to Thursday-night games. It's a look at how a football coach became a broadcaster, businessman, teacher, pop-culture icon — and one of the most universally beloved figures the NFL has ever produced. + + +   SUPPORT THE SHOW: Buy Us a Coffee: https://ko-fi.com/goodseatsstillavailable The "Good Seats" Store: http://tee.pub/lic/RdiDZzQeHSY BUY THE BOOK:  "BAM!: John Madden, the NFL Explosion, and the Video Game That Changed Sports": https://link.amazon/B0ing3z4D SPONSOR THANKS:  Royal Retros (10% off promo code: SEATS): https://www.royalretros.com/?ref=SEATS Old School Shirts.com (10% off promo code: GOODSEATS): https://oldschoolshirts.com/goodseats FIND AND FOLLOW: Linktree: https://linktr.ee/GoodSeatsStillAvailable Web: https://goodseatsstillavailable.com/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/goodseatsstillavailable.com X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoodSeatsStill YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@goodseatsstillavailable Threads: https://www.threads.net/@goodseatsstillavailable Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodseatsstillavailable/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoodSeatsStillAvailable/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/good-seats-still-available/

    The Many Acts of John Madden - With Scott Howard-Cooper

  5. Oct 19

    "Miami Before Messi" - With Joe Shaw

    Long before Lionel Messi turned South Florida into the center of the soccer universe, another Miami team was making history — and disappearing almost as quickly as it arrived. The Miami Fusion lasted just four seasons (1998–2001), a turbulent, often exhilarating Major League Soccer experiment that began with Colombian icon Carlos Valderrama, found an unlikely home at Fort Lauderdale's renovated Lockhart Stadium, and ended shortly after winning the 2001 Supporters' Shield. Led by the wonderfully unpredictable Ray Hudson, that final Fusion squad played some of the most dazzling soccer of MLS's early years. Then it vanished. Author and podcaster Joe Shaw revisits the franchise's extraordinary rise and demise in his new book, "Miami Before Messi: A South Florida Soccer Tale," an ambitious oral history built on interviews with the players, coaches, executives, supporters — and, crucially, owner Ken Horowitz — who lived it. In a revealing conversation, Shaw retraces South Florida's earlier soccer adventures with the NASL's Miami Gatos, Toros and Fort Lauderdale Strikers; the frantic transformation of Lockhart into a pioneering soccer-specific venue; the Fusion's star-crossed beginnings; and the remarkable collection of castoffs and characters who nearly captured an MLS championship. Along the way, Horowitz's previously untold account challenges conventional wisdom about who actually pulled the plug — and why — as MLS itself teetered on financial collapse. Packed with forgotten innovations, colorful personalities, painful what-ifs and surprising historical connections, it's the story of a franchise that helped shape American soccer's future without surviving to enjoy it. 25 years later, with Inter Miami's success built partly on the foundations of its forgotten predecessors, the Fusion's brief, brilliant existence deserves another look. + + +    MORE ABOUT "MIAMI BEFORE MESSI": https://miamibeforemessi.com/   SUPPORT THE SHOW: Buy Us a Coffee: https://ko-fi.com/goodseatsstillavailable The "Good Seats" Store: http://tee.pub/lic/RdiDZzQeHSY BUY THE BOOK:  "Miami Before Messi: A South Florida Soccer Tale": https://amzn.to/4i9cGSo SPONSOR THANKS:  Royal Retros (10% off promo code: SEATS): https://www.royalretros.com/?ref=SEATS Old School Shirts.com (10% off promo code: GOODSEATS): https://oldschoolshirts.com/goodseats FIND AND FOLLOW: Linktree: https://linktr.ee/GoodSeatsStillAvailable Web: https://goodseatsstillavailable.com/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/goodseatsstillavailable.com X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoodSeatsStill YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@goodseatsstillavailable Threads: https://www.threads.net/@goodseatsstillavailable Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodseatsstillavailable/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoodSeatsStillAvailable/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/good-seats-still-available/

    "Miami Before Messi" - With Joe Shaw

  6. Oct 12

    "This One Will Be Different": The Stadium Subsidy Game - With J.C. Bradbury

    Publicly financed stadiums have been sold for generations as civic investments, economic engines, and catalysts for growth. Yet again and again, the promises change while the underlying economics stubbornly refuse to cooperate. This week, sports economist and longtime baseball fan J.C. Bradbury joins us to explore the arguments behind his new book, "This One Will Be Different: False Promises and Fiscal Realities of Publicly Funded Stadiums." Drawing on decades of research — and his own front-row view of the Atlanta Braves' move from Turner Field to Cobb County — Bradbury examines how stadium financing has evolved from publicly built "concrete donuts" to today's luxury-heavy, mixed-use developments. At the center of the discussion is Truist Park and The Battery Atlanta, widely promoted as a new model for sports development. Bradbury explains why the surrounding restaurants, apartments, offices, and year-round activity still do not necessarily translate into net new economic growth, and why substitution — local spending simply moving from one place to another — remains the central problem. The conversation also digs into hotel taxes, stadium districts, hidden infrastructure costs, luxury suites, political incentives, commissioned impact studies, the decline of local scrutiny, and the now-familiar 30-year stadium replacement cycle. Bradbury argues that the buildings themselves are rarely obsolete; the economics of novelty and revenue extraction are what keep the cycle moving. It's a wide-ranging look at how sports facilities became public policy, why elected officials keep approving deals economists routinely question, and why every new generation of stadium boosters remains convinced that, somehow -- this one will be different. + + +   MORE ABOUT J.C. BRADBURY: https://jcbradbury.com/   SUPPORT THE SHOW: Buy Us a Coffee: https://ko-fi.com/goodseatsstillavailable The "Good Seats" Store: http://tee.pub/lic/RdiDZzQeHSY BUY THE BOOK:  "This One Will Be Different: False Promises and Fiscal Realities of Publicly Funded Stadiums: https://amzn.to/4yFl8zL SPONSOR THANKS:  Royal Retros (10% off promo code: SEATS): https://www.royalretros.com/?ref=SEATS Old School Shirts.com (10% off promo code: GOODSEATS): https://oldschoolshirts.com/goodseats FIND AND FOLLOW: Linktree: https://linktr.ee/GoodSeatsStillAvailable Web: https://goodseatsstillavailable.com/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/goodseatsstillavailable.com X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoodSeatsStill YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@goodseatsstillavailable Threads: https://www.threads.net/@goodseatsstillavailable Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodseatsstillavailable/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoodSeatsStillAvailable/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/good-seats-still-available/

    "This One Will Be Different": The Stadium Subsidy Game - With J.C. Bradbury

  7. Oct 5

    The WNBA At 30 - With Tamryn Spruill

    For nearly three decades, the Women's National Basketball Association has survived expansion, contraction, indifferent media coverage, shaky ownership, low salaries and repeated questions about whether women's professional basketball could ever become a sustainable American sports business. And yet, here it is. Journalist and author Tamryn Spruill joins us to discuss her essential new book, "The W: A History of the WNBA," which traces the league from its roots in the wildly successful 1996 U.S. Olympic team through its current cultural and commercial renaissance. Spruill takes us back to a moment when the WNBA wasn't even the only new women's league in town. We revisit its early rivalry with the American Basketball League, the rapid expansion to 16 teams, the financial strains that followed, and the many franchises that disappeared, relocated or were simply forgotten along the way. We also explore the league's long struggle for visibility. Spruill explains how limited television exposure, uneven media treatment and an inability—or unwillingness—to understand the WNBA's actual audience kept generations of elite players largely outside the mainstream sports conversation. Eventually, streaming, social media, changing cultural attitudes and more aggressive sponsorship helped players and fans build something traditional sports media often failed to create for them. And, naturally, we spend plenty of time with the teams that "used to be" - including the Charlotte Sting, Orlando Miracle, the newly-concluded Connecticut Sun and, of course, the original Houston Comets dynasty. + + +   MORE ABOUT TAMRYN SPRUILL: https://www.tamrynspruill.com/   SUPPORT THE SHOW: Buy Us a Coffee: https://ko-fi.com/goodseatsstillavailable The "Good Seats" Store: http://tee.pub/lic/RdiDZzQeHSY BUY THE BOOK:  "The W: A History of the WNBA": https://amzn.to/3TnDeHe SPONSOR THANKS:  Royal Retros (10% off promo code: SEATS): https://www.royalretros.com/?ref=SEATS Old School Shirts.com (10% off promo code: GOODSEATS): https://oldschoolshirts.com/goodseats FIND AND FOLLOW: Linktree: https://linktr.ee/GoodSeatsStillAvailable Web: https://goodseatsstillavailable.com/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/goodseatsstillavailable.com X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoodSeatsStill YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@goodseatsstillavailable Threads: https://www.threads.net/@goodseatsstillavailable Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodseatsstillavailable/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoodSeatsStillAvailable/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/good-seats-still-available/

    The WNBA At 30 - With Tamryn Spruill

  8. Sep 28

    Baseball's First All-Star Game? - With Scott Reich

    On September 27, 1917, some of baseball's greatest stars descended on Fenway Park for a game that has largely disappeared from the sport's collective memory. Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Walter Johnson, Tris Speaker and others came together not for a pennant or championship, but to honor Tim Murnane — a former player, manager and baseball executive who became one of the sport's most influential early journalists. After Murnane died suddenly that February, leaving behind a wife, six young children and significant debts, baseball rallied around his family. The result was the Tim Murnane Memorial Benefit Game, an extraordinary afternoon featuring the powerhouse Boston Red Sox against a hand-picked team of stars from both major leagues. Players left their own teams during the season and traveled to Boston at their own expense. Before the first pitch came skills competitions that look remarkably familiar today: a home run derby, throwing contests and a race around the bases. Will Rogers rode onto the field on horseback, Fanny Brice hawked programs in the stands, and former heavyweight champion John L. Sullivan coached first base. Author Scott Reich joins us to discuss his book "One Day in September: Baseball, Brotherhood, and the Birth of the All-Star Game," which resurrects Murnane's remarkable life and makes the case that this forgotten gathering provided a blueprint for baseball's modern All-Star Game — sixteen years before the first official Midsummer Classic. Along the way, Reich takes us inside baseball's unruly formative decades, explains how Murnane became one of the game's most trusted voices, and explores what this remarkable afternoon revealed about the sport in 1917 — when ballparks doubled as civic gathering places and baseball's biggest stars could put pennant races aside for a cause larger than the game. + + +   MORE ABOUT SCOTT: https://www.scott-reich.com/   SUPPORT THE SHOW: Buy Us a Coffee: https://ko-fi.com/goodseatsstillavailable The "Good Seats" Store: http://tee.pub/lic/RdiDZzQeHSY BUY THE BOOK:  "One Day in September: Baseball, Brotherhood, and the Birth of the All-Star Game": https://amzn.to/3TnDeHe SPONSOR THANKS:  Royal Retros (10% off promo code: SEATS): https://www.royalretros.com/?ref=SEATS Old School Shirts.com (10% off promo code: GOODSEATS): https://oldschoolshirts.com/goodseats FIND AND FOLLOW: Linktree: https://linktr.ee/GoodSeatsStillAvailable Web: https://goodseatsstillavailable.com/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/goodseatsstillavailable.com X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoodSeatsStill YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@goodseatsstillavailable Threads: https://www.threads.net/@goodseatsstillavailable Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodseatsstillavailable/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoodSeatsStillAvailable/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/good-seats-still-available/

    Baseball's First All-Star Game? - With Scott Reich
See All (510)

4.7
out of 5
107 Ratings

About

"Good Seats Still Available" is a curious little podcast devoted to the exploration of what used-to-be in professional sports. Each week, host Tim Hanlon interviews former players, owners, broadcasters, beat reporters, and surprisingly famous "super fans" of teams and leagues that have come and gone - in an attempt to unearth some of the most wild and woolly moments in (often forgotten) sports history.

Information

  • Creator
    Tim Hanlon
  • Years Active
    2017 - 2026
  • Episodes
    510
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2025 Good Seats Still Available
  • Show Website
    Good Seats Still Available

You Might Also Like