Good Seats Still Available

About Good Seats Still Available

"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.

Publisher

Tim Hanlon

Category

history · sports

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

6 Mar 2017

Latest episode

12 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

1 of 505 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   12 Oct 2026

   466: "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 (https://amzn.to/4iey5up)." 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): https://ko-fi.com/goodseatsstillavailable The "Good Seats" Store (http://tee.pub/lic/RdiDZzQeHSY): 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/4ykKRg3): https://amzn.to/4yFl8zL SPONSOR THANKS: Royal Retros (https://www.royalretros.com/?ref=SEATS) (10% off promo code: SEATS): https://www.royalretros.com/?ref=SEATS Old School Shirts.com (https://oldschoolshirts.com/goodseats) (10% off promo code: GOODSEATS): https://oldschoolshirts.com/goodseats FIND AND FOLLOW: Linktree: https://linktr.ee/GoodSeatsStillAvailable (https://linktr.ee/GoodSeatsStillAvailable) Web: https://goodseatsstillavailable.com/ (https://goodseatsstillavailable.com/) Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/goodseatsstillavailable.com (https://bsky.app/profile/goodseatsstillavailable.com) X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoodSeatsStill (https://twitter.com/GoodSeatsStill) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@goodseatsstillavailable (https://www.youtube.com/@goodseatsstillavailable) Threads: https://www.threads.net/@goodseatsstillavailable (https://www.threads.net/@goodseatsstillavailable) Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodseatsstillavailable/ (https://www.instagram.com/goodseatsstillavailable/) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoodSeatsStillAvailable/ (https://www.facebook.com/GoodSeatsStillAvailable/) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/good-seats-still-available/

2. 

   5 Oct 2026

   465: 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): https://ko-fi.com/goodseatsstillavailable The "Good Seats" Store (http://tee.pub/lic/RdiDZzQeHSY): http://tee.pub/lic/RdiDZzQeHSY BUY THE BOOK: "The W: A History of the WNBA (https://amzn.to/4hH9Ofd)": https://amzn.to/3TnDeHe SPONSOR THANKS: Royal Retros (https://www.royalretros.com/?ref=SEATS) (10% off promo code: SEATS): https://www.royalretros.com/?ref=SEATS Old School Shirts.com (https://oldschoolshirts.com/goodseats) (10% off promo code: GOODSEATS): https://oldschoolshirts.com/goodseats FIND AND FOLLOW: Linktree: https://linktr.ee/GoodSeatsStillAvailable (https://linktr.ee/GoodSeatsStillAvailable) Web: https://goodseatsstillavailable.com/ (https://goodseatsstillavailable.com/) Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/goodseatsstillavailable.com (https://bsky.app/profile/goodseatsstillavailable.com) X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoodSeatsStill (https://twitter.com/GoodSeatsStill) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@goodseatsstillavailable (https://www.youtube.com/@goodseatsstillavailable) Threads: https://www.threads.net/@goodseatsstillavailable (https://www.threads.net/@goodseatsstillavailable) Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodseatsstillavailable/ (https://www.instagram.com/goodseatsstillavailable/) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoodSeatsStillAvailable/ (https://www.facebook.com/GoodSeatsStillAvailable/) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/good-seats-still-available/

3. 

   28 Sept 2026

   464: 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 (https://amzn.to/4yj5WrV): Baseball, Brotherhood, and the Birth of the All-Star Game (https://amzn.to/4yj5WrV)," 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): https://ko-fi.com/goodseatsstillavailable The "Good Seats" Store (http://tee.pub/lic/RdiDZzQeHSY): http://tee.pub/lic/RdiDZzQeHSY BUY THE BOOK: "One Day in September (https://amzn.to/4yj5WrV): Baseball, Brotherhood, and the Birth of the All-Star Game": https://amzn.to/3TnDeHe SPONSOR THANKS: Royal Retros (https://www.royalretros.com/?ref=SEATS) (10% off promo code: SEATS): https://www.royalretros.com/?ref=SEATS Old School Shirts.com (https://oldschoolshirts.com/goodseats) (10% off promo code: GOODSEATS): https://oldschoolshirts.com/goodseats FIND AND FOLLOW: Linktree: https://linktr.ee/GoodSeatsStillAvailable (https://linktr.ee/GoodSeatsStillAvailable) Web: https://goodseatsstillavailable.com/ (https://goodseatsstillavailable.com/) Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/goodseatsstillavailable.com (https://bsky.app/profile/goodseatsstillavailable.com) X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoodSeatsStill (https://twitter.com/GoodSeatsStill) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@goodseatsstillavailable (https://www.youtube.com/@goodseatsstillavailable) Threads: https://www.threads.net/@goodseatsstillavailable (https://www.threads.net/@goodseatsstillavailable) Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodseatsstillavailable/ (https://www.instagram.com/goodseatsstillavailable/) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoodSeatsStillAvailable/ (https://www.facebook.com/GoodSeatsStillAvailable/) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/good-seats-still-available/

Inside a recent episode

315: The Junior Basketball Association - With Brandon Williams

Published 28 Aug 2023 · Transcript excerpt

[…] So it was a lot of moving pieces that were that was taking place but the biggest part of that was I need my boys to play somewhere and I need them to remain relevant in the eyes of the basketball community so that's where Lithuania comes in while I'm working on this whole JBA league to kind of get at least one of them ready for that. So in essence what's what's happening here is that there is little to know at least in his mind place for kids literally who either can't or don't want to go through either the high school or certainly the college route to make that next step into presumably the greatest basketball league in the world the NBA. […]

Who has been a guest on Good Seats Still Available

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Jordan Treske
• King David Haynes
• Steve Albert
• Brad Porteus
• Kevin Ticen

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

68,851

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 65 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

99

Social presence

0

YouTube

76

Engagement

0

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Guest appearances

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