Chuck E. Cheese, Waitr (WTRH) and the NFL goes to 17 Games

Podcast Transcript

Jeffrey: Hey this is Jeffrey with another edition of Stock Smart, the weekend edition for the first weekend in April. I’m here with a special guest tonight, my partner Whitney Johnson, how you doing?

Whitney: Hey, thanks so much for having me. It’s great to be on the show.

Jeffrey: So, what’s on your mind Whitney?

Whitney: Well in breaking news I have to report, this is very exciting everybody. Hold on, a waiter at Chuck-E-Cheese to its delivery platform. And wow, is that an exciting breaking news story.

Jeffrey: Now Chuck-E-Cheese do you eat there a lot lately?

Whitney: So a funny story about Chuck-E-Cheese. I have four children and I used to take them to Chuck-E-Cheese when they were very very young and the only thing we could not do at Chuck-E-Cheese is eat their food.

Jeffrey: So you went there for everything but the food?

Whitney: Everything but the food

Jeffrey: and who is doing the delivery of the food now?

Whitney: It is called Waiter, it is a delivery service app

Jeffrey: Now we talk about stocks and sports on this show. Is this an app, is this a publicly traded company?

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Whitney: It is, it’s symbol WTRH,

Jeffrey: WTRH, Ok. So the company delivers food, so it’s in the competition space with DoorDash and GrubHub and all these other and Uber Eats, right?

Whitney: It is

Jeffrey: So in terms of my outlook for this because I’ve studied a lot of these companies and they’ve gotten absolutely bludgeoned because I believe people are going to want to go and actually see what their food looks like in a restaurant rather than have it delivered.

Whitney: and I know from the days that I was at Chuck-E-Cheese. This was, my oldest is almost nineteen. So this was 15+ years ago. Did I say my oldest? My youngest is almost 19. So this was 15 years ago we were there. 15-20 years ago. The food quality was no bueno.

So what I’m wondering is how is this actually a desired food product? Like if you’re thinking of a pizza, are you wanting to order from Domino’s or Papa John’s or somewhere like that or you gonna even think about Chuck-E-Cheese

Jeffrey: to me, those are the worst pizzas anyway. So if you’re going to order from Chuck-E-Cheese which is the worst pizza. I would say it’s cardboard with tomato sauce on it. And then you have Domino’s which is slightly better cardboard with tomato sauce on it. And then you have something like Pizza Hut, which is actually pretty good, because they have those kind of seasonal pizzas they do and they can be kind of good but I would say that it’s a big loss for waiter. I wouldn’t be interested in it. I think those companies in general as investments are not going to be a good investments. I would say that we’ve gone through a very unique period in

Time when restaurants had to focus on food outtake, I don’t think they’ve been as focused on it in the past because I think most of their business comes, I say and I’ve done this research 75-80% of their business generally was in the restaurant and their biggest margins of course are alcohol. So when they go back to the restaurant in terms of normalcy they’re going to suffer in terms of the quality of food takeout because they just won’t care about it as much it makes sense to me. What do you think about that Whitney?

Whitney: totally makes sense.

Jeffrey: It does make sense. We’re talking a little bit yesterday about the NFL and we’re going to talking a little bit about sports on this show because we’re getting into a new area, but we can’t really disclose that yet, but it’s coming soon. So we were talking about the NFL and how the NFL has reached an agreement where they’re going to now have 17 games during the season. What do you think about that Whitney?

Whitney: Well, what was interesting to me is that they’re adding the extra game in the regular season, but they’re taking one preseason game away.

Jeffrey: Do you watch preseason games.

Whitney: No

Jeffrey: Do you watch regular season games.

Whitney: Sometimes

Jeffrey: OK, how often do you watch NFL games?

Whitney: Maybe one or two per season

Jeffrey: Can you name five players in the NFL

Whitney: Oh, yes I can.

Jeffrey: Let’s wait, first off, let’s bet on if this is accurate and you cannot use players who are no longer in the NFL, they actually have to be current players, like Jerry Rice, who you know, not playing anymore. And Roger Craig is a friend of yours? So he’s not playing anymore, just in case you didn’t know that. He’s like 57.

Whitney: Thanks for the reminder.

Jeffrey: So he’s not playing anymore, Joe Montana? Not playing. But you know the most free one, the five, so here’s the list. Let’s go. This is for… So what’s the bet? What are we betting?

Whitney: Oh gosh, It’s got to be something really good.

Jeffrey: Is it like you have to take out someone else’s garbage? Because that’s a pain, no one wants to do that.

Whitney: I actually have a funny story about this. One of my tennis partners always wants to bet a tank of gas.

Jeffrey: Gas is expensive. And by the way, we are actually financial advisors. So here’s the thing, we should know how much gas has gone up, and gas has gone up 70% in three months.

Whitney: Well, here’s the unfair proposition of that. She drives a pickup truck

Jeffrey: Oh that’s expensive. Is it diesel?

Whitney: And I drive a very small sports car.

Jeffrey: But your sports car eats a lot of gas

Whitney: It’s one tank of gas. My tank of gas is 14 gallons, her tank of gas is 26 or 28 gallons.

Jeffrey: You know my son is really into working on cars. Do you think there’s any way he can modify your tank to make it larger? I mean maybe he can double your tank somehow.

Whitney: Just strap something to the top of the Porsche.

Jeffrey: Sorry about the bet, but you didn’t know I drive a cargo ship

Whitney: It’s a great incentive to try to win a match, which I actually don’t even need further incentive and the tank of gas, not a great incentive for me. I just want to win.

Jeffrey: You want to win the tank of gas?

Whitney: No, I want to win the tennis tournament

Jeffrey: So what’s our bet? Don’t forget, you still have the name five NFL players, which I don’t think you can even do.

Whitney: I 100% can, I’m not stalling.

Jeffrey: If I got rid of one that everyone knows. If I got rid of one, and let me turn over your notes, so you can’t use them. If I can remove Tom Brady, can you still get 5?

Whitney: Yes

Jeffrey: I don’t believe you can, because you know there are guys that play basketball that you probably think play football. So why don’t we start with the list? What’s the bet first then?

Whitney: Let’s start with the list first

Jeffrey: No because then I’ll know if I win the bet if you have the list, so we have to make the bet first.

Whitney: OK well I guess we’re at a stalemate

Jeffrey: So name your five.

Whitney: Gronkowski.

Jeffrey: What’s his name? What’s his first name?

Whitney: Why do I need to know his first name?

Jeffrey: Because he has a first name. Do you just call him, hey Gronkowski, hey how are you doing?

Whitney: No, he’s actually called Gronk.

Jeffrey: Very good. That is so clever that you came up with that, his name is Gronk. OK, go on, we’re going to say that you know that his name is Rob Gronkowski. Do you know the position he plays?

Whitney: Yeah he’s a receiver

Jeffrey: Yes, a receiver of sorts. He’s a tight end. Whitney knew it, she knew it. Go on, that’s one, ding ding ding

Whitney: My favorite player, I’m not going to leave him to last

Jeffrey: McGee is a basketball player.

Whitney: I know that but that’s not on my list. My favorite player is Patrick Mahomes, and I knew his first name, ding ding ding ding, I should get a bonus point for that.

Jeffrey: No bonus points.

Whitney: I knew his first name!

Jeffrey: OK so Patrick Mahomes, do you know what sport his dad plays in?

Whitney: Um, no, but I know both his parents were athletes.

Jeffrey: OK so his dad was a baseball pitcher, you have two, so the big board says two. So you know Rob Gronkowski and Patrick Mahomes. Two people that were in the super bowl. Did you watch the Super Bowl?

Whitney: I did

Jeffrey: Wow, OK that’s a surprise too. Go on, who else

Whitney: Tom Brady, duh

Jeffrey: I took that off the list, you can’t use that.

Whitney: I can!

Whitney: You have already used two people out of the super bowl

Jeffrey: No, you need other players, that’s a scratch. Tom Brady is out

Whitney: You’re stressing me out.

Jeffrey: That’s my job. You know this by now. We’ve known each other long enough

Whitney: Tom Brady, Tom Brady

Jeffrey: Tom Brady, I’m going to put it on the fence as a half

Whitney: No, because I knew Patrick Mahomes first name. So that’s one half

Jeffrey: Ok, I’ll give you Tom Brady

Whitney: OK yeah thank you.

Jeffrey: There you go.

Whitney: Um

Jeffrey: That’s a big um, I think we’re failing here, ship crashing, it’s the Suez canal again, and the tanker ship is crashing the Suez Canal.

Whitney: You know what, I got to call a time out.

Jeffrey: You want to phone a friend? Someone you want to call?

Whitney: I’m calling an audible

Jeffrey: Oh my god, a football term, you used a football term, calling an audible. What are you going to do with the audible?

Whitney: I don’t know yet.

Jeffrey: Ok so, let me give you some clues, here’s an easy one. Number 12, he’s as famous as Tom Brady but is not as famous as Tom Brady

Whitney: Oh wait, what about, Peyton Manning

Jeffrey: He’s not playing anymore by the way, so that is out

Whitney: And his brother Eli Manning

Jeffrey: Not playing either

Whitney: Shoot, I don’t know numbers

Jeffrey: OK so here we go. Let’s go Number 12, he plays for a team

Whitney: I don’t know numbers.

Jeffrey: Do you know my favorite football team

Whitney: On Jerseys

Jeffrey: Do you know my favorite football team

Whitney: Yes, the Packers

Jeffrey: That is correct, ding ding ding ding

Whitney: I get a point for that

Jeffrey: You don’t get a point on the tote board for that, but you do get a point. Who is the quarterback for the Greenbay Packers. Come on, he’s pretty damn famous. He used to date Dana Kirkpatrick. And now he’s also dating someone famous who I don’t know because she’s too young. He’s on every goddamn State Farm commercial by the way Whitney. Have you ever seen him?

Whitney: Hahaha

Jeffrey: Yes his name is haha. Let me give you his initials and he grew up in the bay area. He played in Chico California. That’s where he’s from, his name is…

Whitney: Oh, Aaron Rodgers

Jeffrey: Oh my god, does that even count? That’s four, it’s amazing! So this is the longest answer to whatever we’re getting at. So your fifth player would be.. how about someone who plays for the 49ers. Do you know the goodlooking quarterback that plays for the 49ers that’s probably not going to be there next year and probably go play for the Patriots? His name starts with a J and rhymes with Whitney

Whitney: Oh Jimmy Acropolis.

Jeffrey: Keep going and let’s go and talk about

Whitney: Wait, I actually have a very serious thing to talk about the NFL. So my first thought with these extended games is, how does it impact the health of the players, and then as I continue, you would think that additional games would yield additional compensation, but actually their contracts stay the same, even with that additional game, so my concern would be players’ health, CTE of course, and normal seasonal injuries so then of course I’m thinking with all these extra people out and longer games, extra people out on injuries, more games, you need bigger teams, more players on each team

Jeffrey: How many players do you think are on a team? I’m just curious because you knew 5 players and you knew a bunch of players who are almost dead. But you knew a bunch of players who played in the NFL before.

Whitney: Almost dead..

Jeffrey: It’s true, but their careers are definitely dead. How many players do you think are on an NFL roster.

Whitney: I’m going to take a stab. I’m thinking it’s in the 90s

Jeffrey: Yeah, that’s not right. But OK, that’s a good guess. There are 52 on an NFL roster, there are 55 with the extra guys, the 3 extra guys who are on non-player list. So not a big…

Whitney: So there’s plenty of room on the bench

Jeffrey: The problem is, NFL on a salary cap, there are a lot of complications in the NFL. I think this is is a really screwed deal for the players. Let me ask you a question Whitney, do you know what the average life span, not the life span, but the career span of an NFL player. And most people don’t know this.

Whitney: I would say 6.8 years

Jeffrey: You know what, it’s half of that, about 3.5 years. So depending on your position, some positions have more, like if you’re lucky enough to be a punter, and you’re good, you can last for 10 years. But most running backs, linemen, one knee injury and they’re done, so the sport, and most people don’t know, the NFL players, this is one thing from a financial perspective, and we deal in financial perspectives every single day, is that NFL players have no guarantees on their contracts, every other sport, has guaranteed contracts. NFL, because the way that the NFL players association works, and their collective bargaining agreement, they have no guaranteed money. So when people say, oh, why is he getting such an exaggerated signing bonus, it’s because that’s the only guaranteed money that an NFL player gets. So if an NFL player signs a contract and the contract is worth 50 million, so for five years, with a 25 million signing bonus, meaning 50 million total, the only guaranteed money is the 25 million, so if he gets injured tomorrow and he’s out for the rest of his career, he only gets the 25 million, that’s his career. As opposed to someone like, look at a baseball player’s contract, so when ARod went to the Rangers some years ago, he signed the most lucrative contract ever, he signed a 250 million dollar contract for 25 million for 10 years. That money was guaranteed, now the Yankees took him over and you probably know most of this

Whitney: Yeah, I read about it, but I have a question. The salary cap, the signing bonus, that’s negotiated in the contract right.

Jeffrey: Right, it’s always negotiated up front. The point is, the players got screwed, and I looked up some quotes from players, all the players are really against it. These players, the NFL puts on the face that they care, and one of my favorite lines is when they come in, they say it’s a business when they ask the players to kill themselves to play, they call it a game, and they say they’re lucky. The point is, Warren who was a great orator on the sport for years, he would always say, they were plantation, and I don’t want to say the next word. That he was a plantation essentially a worker and a slave for the NFL and he said he would go play as long  as they CTC . Do you know what a CTC is?

Whitney: No

Jeffrey: Cut the check. So he would go play as that. But the NFL players are getting screwed again. They have short careers. They’re going to play 17 games and it’s a tough schedule as it is.

Whitney: So what is your opinion of cross-conference match-ups?

Jeffrey: I think it’s great, it makes it more interesting.

Whitney: So they’re going to have, with 17 games, they’re obviously an odd number of games, so one of the 17 games will be cross-conference matchups.

Jeffrey: That’s right. So I know some teams, being an odd number this year, some teams will have 9 home games, and some will have 8 road games, and vice versa. That is a definitive advantage, the way that the NFL works, if you’re into gambling, which I do partake in gambling in the NFL, the home team generally has a 2.5-3.5 point edge against the road team and depending on your travel schedule, teams like the Buckaneers who were remote in Seattle, which is one of the most remote places, have some of the worst travel schedules, teams like the Bears who are kind of in the middle central, have an easier travel schedule. So it can be kind of painful for some of the teams that have the extra road game.

Whitney: For sure. But the NFL is expecting full stadiums this season. So I think that’s slightly optimistic, but that is the expectation.

Jeffrey: That they’re going to have full stadiums? That’s interesting.

Whitney: Actually I was really surprised to read how many media writes deals that were over 6 now, they have a combined worth of over 100 billion dollars to the NFL.

Jeffrey: Absolutely. It is the juggernaut mega sports complex of all the sport. By the way, I would want to say one thing, one of the original contracts that was the reason that AT&T bought this dog, which was direct tv, was the NFL Sunday ticket, and I gotta tell you, I had a five digit direct tv number, that’s how long I had it. I literally had a rental apartment in San Francisco, my account number was five digits, I was so new, I was like 25300, I was such a new user because I wanted to watch my team which was an out of town team, and they didn’t have that many games on regular TV at that time. I was living in San Francisco, I could get the 49ers game, and maybe some kind of other game on the East coast, but I would never get the Packers games, so I wanted to watch the Packers, so when the dish became available, I was one of the first to buy the dish, and I actually drove out to the place, I had never even heard of, until I met you, which was called Dublin, and I went to go buy the dish at a place that had the dish and so I went and I put it on my window, out my window, I was hanging out my window in San Francisco, putting my dish on the wall.

Whitney: Was it one of those big gigantic satellite dish looking things?

Jeffrey: No, the dish was about I don’t know, a big pumpkin with a handle. So this is not made for kids tonight… It was a dish that you can receive direct tv on and I put it up, the funniest thing is the coolest thing ever, was at the time, a year later, they made a movie on my street, did I ever tell you about that?

Whitney: You did tell me about that, yes.

Jeffrey: So they were making a movie. There’s a guy Joe Eszterhas, he’s famous for the movie Basic Instinct, and he made a movie on my block, and this direct tv dish was a problem for the scene he wanted to make, because it didn’t look authentic for the neighborhood. And that neighborhood is kind of cool. And so he demanded that I take the dish down.

Whitney: Demanded?

Jeffrey: He was demanding. We were like, here’s how they demanded it.

Whitney: Where are the editing skills?

Jeffrey: In terms of what?

Whitney: They could have edited it out using photoshop…

Jeffrey: This was an authentic director, to shoot this scene, he didn’t do that. By the way, everything is CGI now in movies, it’s terrible. This guy gave a crap about a satellite dish. If you ever see the movies, they’re very authentic, Basic Instinct had everything was on location, it was there, he didn’t do, there are very few scenes in Basic Instinct that are done on a Hollywood set, they did everything authentic, that was the Joe kind of way. They wanted that. So the movie anyway, they shot this movie Jade, it was a dog. It had that guy, the red-headed guy that was in all the CSIs

Whitney: the creepy guy?

Jeffrey: What’s his name? The coolest thing is he was in my apartment. The movie was based on my apartment, so the Hollywood set was based on the apartment that I had. Anyway, they paid me like $4-5000 to take the damn dish down. So the dish paid for itself like 5x.

Whitney: Did you say the Hollywood set was based on your apartment?

Jeffrey: 100%.

Whitney: But you said they were shooting everything on location. That you had to take your satellite dish down because nothing was filmed in a studio.

Jeffrey: Is this a gotcha moment? I think maybe you got me. It’s fine, maybe they had a couple scenes. I would have said maybe the majority of it was done in a Hollywood set, it was. And majority was not filmed on a Hollywood set, the majority was in the apartment and in the authentic locations, anyway, the movie was a dog, I liked the movie, it had Chazz Palminteri.

Whitney: you like dogs?

Jeffrey: Yeah, I do like dogs. Why, do you have a dog?  We’re going to sign off for now. Thanks for listening. Keep the questions coming to Jeffrey@JeffreyKamys.com and I want to thank my partner and guest today on the show Whitney Johnson for being part of it.

Whitney: thank you for having me, it was a blast and so many faces

Jeffrey: The many faces of Whitney. And we’ll see you again next time on Stock Smart.