Mo Salah, MLS, Arthur Blank and a Busy Week in American Soccer Business

Hello and welcome back to the Soccer Business podcast. I'm Sabar Devons and with me is

Andrea DeCosta and we've had a busy week. Haven't we Andrea? We've been out on the road

meeting people going to events. It's been a pretty intensive few days of soccer business

activity. Not a lot of sleep Simon in a lot of chats, a lot of conversations, a lot of late

night pines, but all in all a very productive week in the soccer business here in the US. Yeah,

we started off with a reception in Miami. The NFL held with the British consular and then an

EFL workshop really that was held at Hard Rock Stadium for the club owners and also for potential

investors in the league. It was a really interesting chat. We're not going to go into it all

here, but what was the highlight of that event for you? I think it's just like the overall

growth of the EFL in the US. As you can imagine, a lot of the US investors and current owners

are excited about that. We've seen some of the losses and the cost challenges that they have.

So just all of them being in the room and trying to act more as an American League,

Code and Code and American League, where they all try to a rising tide lifts all boats,

kind of scenario in Co-Minglin and Co-Minglin and trying to help each other and be supportive.

Let's compete on the pitch, but let's partner in the boardroom kind of situation. So that was

an interesting dynamic that we saw the past couple days. Yeah, and the event was held at Hard Rock

Stadium, the home of Miami Dolphins. And it was really interesting for me. I've covered the tennis

tournament there. The tennis tournament was going on. We were having a meeting off of the side.

Out of the window, we could see them preparing for the F1 race that's coming to town.

We had an interesting chat from Todd Boyer, who's the SVP stadium upstairs just talking about

how they do that and how it's such an impressive facility. I mean, talk about making the most of

having some real estate. It's an incredible operation and a tight ship that they've been running

there for the last several years. The amount of quality of premium events and the amount of

logistics that go behind the scenes. Even the fans and people in the business, they probably have

no idea the the amount of hours and work that go and planning that goes into building these events

and operating back-to-back events. So they're they were doing the Miami Open. They had just finished

college football and the NFL with the Miami Dolphins. A few weeks from now, they're going to have

the Miami F1 Grand Prix after that. They have the World Cup. And a lot has to happen in parallel as

well. Incredible operation and incredible executive as well in Todd. Yeah, I know it was it was a

really excited to how to do that. How much analytics going to their ticket pricing and so much

detail. It was it was really interesting. We'll have to dig deeper into that because so many people

are looking to to maximize the revenue from their stadiums in different ways and make them

365 day operations and just no better example. I don't think in the world of sport than the

what the Miami Dolphins have done with with a stadium that I used to go to and there was just a huge

huge parking lot, you know, which is now, you know, an international standard tennis tournament

and a Formula One track as well as sourcing all those things inside the stadium itself. We

finished stuff and we got a little bit of tennis in and then we flew up to Atlanta to go to the

second day of the sports business journal, MLS Conker Caff, US Soccer, the business of soccer

they called it to obviously avoid any confusion with that well-known newsletter and podcast brand

the soccer business, but the business of soccer was a big event. It was a big event in another

amazing stadium, another amazing facility in Mercedes-Benz Arena in Atlanta, some great speakers but

but also, you know, here we are of, you know, less than two months two or three months away from the

world cup. And there was a buzz, wasn't there about the place when you got there? I feel like I

felt that for the first time about the world cup, like the the overall sentiment and the folks in the

room, it definitely feels like the world cup is around the corner. Just by getting to the stadium as

we were arriving from the airport, you see a lot of construction happening in the different highways

because of FIFA, even our Uber driver is saying how much has been happening in the city to get ready

for the FIFA world cup. So you can start to notice everyone from corporate and actually working in

the business to the day-to-day citizens are all getting excited and seeing that the FIFA world

cup is around corner. Yeah, yeah. It was an interesting event with a lot of interesting speakers,

you know, great networking opportunity as well, but also, you know, good to meet many people

who listen to this podcast and who read the newsletter as well. We're getting to some of the

topics that came up from it in a little while, but let's take a quick glance at some of the news

items this week. Big transfer story, player trade story, as we should call it, in the American

market, Antoine Griezmann, the latest big name player to come and sign for Major League Soccer,

35-year-old Frenchman joining Orlando City from Atlético Madrid. He's probably the biggest name

that Orlando have had since Caca, the Brazilian who your compatriot who played there in the early days

of that franchise really helped establish the franchise. He's been a great player. He's 35 years

of age. Does he still move the needle? Is he the kind of acquisition that is going to make an

impact on MLS, do you think, or is this just a good local deal? I think it's a little bit of both,

right? It definitely increases the excitement of the local community with ticket sales and

getting to see him through and just putting a good product on the pitch. He's still a quality

player if you're watching him a little bit in Atlético Madrid in the last season or so. He

definitely can make an impact on the pitch, even though he's 35 years right now. From a global

up your perspective, I don't know how that translates to viewership on the broadcast. If people

are going to tune in into Orlando City games to actually watch Anthony Griezmann, but all in all,

I think that's a great signing. It's the first big signing for the Will family since they acquire

the club from Flavio Gusto, which is also a Brazilian guy. Exciting for the league, but I think

it's the pattern of the MLS of a lot of these big signings throughout the year. There's a lot of

coming to these major markets and I think that's keep going and it will be interesting to see how

that develops. Yeah, I've got to say, I don't think he moves the needle. I don't think he, I don't

think he's going to make a business difference to my MLS. I don't think he's going to add viewers

domestically or internationally. I love watching him. He's been one of my favorite players throughout

his career because he's just so cool and calm and crafty and such an intelligent footballer

can play different positions along the front line. He's always been really the supporting act

for a big big star somewhere, whether that be his time in Barcelona, his time at La Dica Madrid,

where they always had a big center forward, playing in front of him like Fernando Torres or someone

like that. Even in the national team, he always performed really well for France and his amazing

generation they've had for the last two or three World Cups. Yeah, but he was the one providing the

bullets for Benzema, for Mbappe, for Geroux before that. He's not the guy who's going to get

people excited. No one's going to be switching their home games to an NFL stadium for him,

but then again, very few people can. He's a good sign and good positive sign. I don't want to be

down on it, but I don't think it's a difference maker. Also, I'm a little bit concerned that MLS

is still in that kind of market for the 35-year-old European at the end of his career because

sooner or later, the league, if it's going to really start to cross over into the mainstream,

needs to be finding a way to get that player at 29. Get that 29 to 31-year period where they're

still very much at their peak before the decline starts to set in and it's seen as that. The stigma

was always his retirement home. It's not anymore. We know lots of young players are coming from

South America and from Europe and joining. We see great signings like Anders Dreyer at San Diego,

who's smart. You know, you'd go and sign a Danish international fromander, like from a football

point of view, that's much more exciting than Antoine Griezmann, but it's not going to move the

needle at all. But you've got to get that combination of, I think, signing players who are like good

and going to make the league better, but also have those headline marquee deals. And I don't

think Griezmann really is the headline marquee deal, but there is one story doing the rounds at

the moment that I think would be. And that is, of course, Liverpool's Egyptian international

Mohammed Salah, who's announced that he's going to be leaving the club at the end of this season.

And immediately, MLS comes into the conversation partly because he's a 33-year-old player and a big name.

But also, there has been this link there with San Diego for quite a while. Their owner,

Mohammed Mansur, who we listen to in Atlanta, lovely chap, he came and actually sat next to me

during the panel that followed his own. And I was able to have a little personal chat with him.

Super nice gentleman, very emotional about his investment as well, I thought. But

he did not hesitate for one minute when Kevin Egan from Apple has him on stage.

Who is your all-time favorite soccer player? And he went Mo Salah. In the middle of

those newspaper headlines saying that I thought said something, what would Salah be a game changer?

I think 100 percent is like two sides of the same coin, right? We look at Griezmann in terms of

a big name at that stage of his career. And you look at Mo Salah, the kind of audience and

in passion that he brings from the men of region from Middle East and North Africa. I think

it would be a total game changer, specifically not only for the product on the page and how much

he can still perform, but from a media and attention perspective, I definitely think it would be a game

changer. Yeah, if you think about going into the period after this World Cup, and if you have

San Diego men, the biggest star in Asian soccer, absolute hero in career, we've seen all the numbers

associated with what he was able to do at Tottenham and what he's doing at LAFC in terms of his

commercial appeal, the partnerships they can generate. If you have that player from Asia,

you have the biggest player in the world and the most popular South American player in our lifetime,

Leonor Messi. And you then have the top player from North Africa and the Middle East, who is an

icon in the Arab world as well. I mean, people can't quite grasp until you've been out to that part

of the world just how big is it? It doesn't matter that he's Egyptian. He's a, you know, in any of

those countries in the Gulf region as well. He's just absolutely a superstar and he's good enough

to light up MLIC in the way that Messi has done as well on the field. He's a character, he's a

personality, it'll track different people. For me, if they can get that one done, it would be,

it would be huge, but there are some issues that have to resolve, right, Andre, before they could

go out and be sure of being able to get more sour. Yeah, first in terms of the salary

that they have to like unlock for to be able to comply with the MLS regulations, the Napoli star

Lozano has paid quite a bit. He has a guarantee salary of $7.6 million as of today. He hasn't been

playing, right? We had this discussion in the past about the fallout he had with the manager

in his current situation and not being related in recent games. So they're going to be able to buy

his contract. I'm sure they're going to figure something out to be able to empty that kept space.

To be able to get Mozala, but there's also the element of like San Diego that's not part of

their strategy. That was their first season last year. They were incredibly successful. They have

the partnership with Right to Dream Academy in that Sir Mohammed Monsour extensively and

proudly talked about it right during the conference in terms of having the presence in Ghana,

in Denmark, in Egypt, and how they really focus on player development. But I think that's the kind

of exception that you have to make. You have your plan, but along the way you have to make

adjustments. And you can tell the passion the Sir Monsour was talking about the project and how

involved he is and the purpose around of having the club and how he was like, he wakes up super

early in the morning to be able to watch the games in the middle of the night because of the

time zone difference of where he's basing in the UK. So it will be interesting to see how he's

going to leverage that and the fact that he's very proud of being Egyptian. He mentioned that a

bunch of different times during the talk yesterday. So I think that's also going to play a role in

the relationship he's going to be able to build with Monsour. Yeah, yeah, they have to resolve that

situation with Chucky Luzano. He's been like frozen out. They want him out of the club. I'm sure

they'll eventually find a way to do that. He's a designated player. They can pay Monsour whatever

they want, basically, you know, as a designated player, but they need to get Luzano just makes sense

to resolve that situation anyway. I think it's a good fit and I got the impression from listening

to Mohammed Monsour talk. He sees San Diego FC as really as a big legacy project and he's

enjoying it as well and I don't think he's going to look at it and go like, how does that affect

our P&L for the next two years if we sign Monsour? I think he's like, this is just going to be awesome

if we have Monsour at my club in San Diego and so I absolutely can see them going for it. He was

very shrewd and smart enough to say it's a sporting decision. I've got my people in place who

make those decisions. That's the right thing to say, you know, MLS is not the kind of place like

Spain where a club owner will promise a player and then deliver them to, you know, appease the

fans or win popularity before an election or something like that. He doesn't need to do that. He

needs to show due, deference of respect to his sporting experts that he's brought in but they'll

fight. I just feel like they'll find a way. I just feel like it's one of those deals that's

going to happen. I'll be surprised if it doesn't. Unless, of course, the Saudis come in with an offer

that quite frankly just takes everyone out of the discussion. There are rumours that our Saudi

clubs interested in him and that league you feel could also do with a little bit of start,

dust on the lift, you know, another wave really after that initial burst when Ronaldo went there.

So interesting one with MLS seller. Moving on to, you know, going back a little bit actually to

that conference, Arthur Blank was that kind of our host really there, wasn't he? He was at his stadium.

He talked about a lot of things. I thought a really impressive

discussion he had with the organizers there from the sports business journal and he was talking

and he picked up on something from a panel earlier on and it was a little bit out of the ordinary

for these kind of events where everyone's extremely careful not to disagree with each other too much.

But he highlighted some comments that came out of a panel on the women's game that did the

previous day where there have been a lot of talk about the long-term growth, about community

asset, about engaging, changing and the sort of social good of women's soccer. And he was very

quick to say don't make this sound like a hobby like don't make this sound just like a community

activity you're doing or philanthropy. There's no reason why women's soccer can't be a successful

business. He wasn't putting it down at all. In fact, I think the other way he was saying

go out there and be a business like everyone else and he was saying about his own team

they're going to play in the big stadium you know they will they will reduce it down the way

they can do with those stadiums to make it a 28,000 capacity for women's games and so on. But he said

also we can go as big as we want we're not putting any limits on it. And they're building a

training ground for the women's team as the same as they've done for the men's team he's

treating them all exactly the way that everyone wants to see that the women's game gets treated

the same. But that was a very sharp point I thought he made like you're going to have to think

about making money and profit and so on. What do you think about that intervention from him?

Look at the end of the day you've got to remember how savvy our businessmen these guys are.

They're not there for just pure luck and just serendipity right. They really know what they're

doing. If you think about it I think it was reportedly the heap paid around 70 million for the

franchise expansion fee for the MLS with Atlanta United back in 2017 and for his NWSL franchise

is more than double than that and 165 million. So he definitely understands the cost that comes with

launching a new franchise in the momentum and the opportunity that NWSL has in terms of

building a leak from scratch and avoiding all the pitfalls that we've seen global football in terms

of as as is not as just a revenue challenge is more of like a cost challenge. I think that

has been the theme of the week and how you can build a sustainable business. It's going to be hard

to see a lot of these valuations playing out in my honest opinion here like these franchise

fee expansion fees going back to Sir Mohammed Mansour what he paid for 500 million dollars

for this NDFC when he's going to see the return and payback period of this is more of like a

passion project with a lot of purpose behind it and you see what Arthur Blank was saying yesterday

so he's just trying to build a business and trying to avoid some of the pitfalls that a lot of

these leagues and a lot of these teams have found themselves in and the the women's

overall business is growing a lot from attendance we're going to talk about this in a little

second but at the end of the day you just need to make the money to justify the cost.

Yeah yeah we see those attendance then the summit the latest expansion team which is the

record expansion fee paid for the NWSL they've got their first home game the plane against Trinity

Rodman and the Washington spirit they don't make leave scheduling to accident in American sports leagues

do they they've got the biggest star coming for their home opener is how the stadium of the

Denver Broncos is going to be at least 55,000 people there which would be a record attendance for

the NWSL team there and it's going to be a huge event they're building a they've got their new

stadium agreed this week as well Denver summit they got that over the line there was some doubt

for a while they've they've received some funding to help them with their training facilities so

you see all this activity going on in the NWSL and I think you're right the the valuations as

they are with MLS you can look at some of those valuations and think you know went when are they

going to be realized but I think it was interesting that Blank was saying don't don't overemphasize

the community like the good works side of what you're doing don't emphasize like be a business

like everybody else but also I just very briefly made the point that a number of people in the

business brought up over this last week which is with the NFL about to renegotiate their media

rights deals the feeling is that's going to take a huge chunk of money out of that market and

it's going to be very difficult for a lot of other sports the PGA tours commissioner brought

that point up himself this week saying we're going to have to think about other things and just

media rights and Arthur Blank saying who's involved with the PGA tour himself saying that applies to

MLS2 and like you need to start thinking about more than just media rights now I think MLS actually

has an advantage over a lot of leagues in that respect because they've always had to right the

Premier League and some of the other leagues in Europe have relied on that TV money and are now

going to be scrambling a little bit for how they find alternative sources of revenue MLS has

never had a big TV deal I mean the Apple TV deal is the biggest one they've ever had and it's

really peanuts compared to like what the Premier League's deal is on let alone you know the NFL

so they've been looking at that for a long long time other sources of revenue but he's right

isn't he the the the era of being able to rely on big media rights deals in North America

is really going to be brought into question by the size of these new NFL deals that are coming online

I think that was a very clever comment that he made in terms of where you're going to find

these other revenues he touched on a little bit of the real estate to your point of like how he's

going to leverage that incredible property that he has in Mercedes-Benz stadium that the women

seems going to play there that he's built in the training ground so he's also investing in the

real estate there's also a fun little interesting thing that happened with the Denver team as well

in terms of getting a bond a low enough 40 million dollars that is back by the naming rights

of the training grounds so what how can you be creative financing and be creative with your revenue

generation to be able to build your your business at the end of the day but that's that's across

the board I think the NFL specifically is related to the American market but that's a global

situation we see the Premier League with their media rights everyone talks great about this

primarily because of the international distribution that they were able to get but that's the

the media rights going up to the right with traditional box casters I think I don't think that's

going to be the case going forward and everyone has uh walking up to that yeah I mean another thing

that my life does have and it goes back to what we're talking about with more seller it does have

the opportunity unlike a lot of leagues to sort of mimic the Premier League in a sense and get

some revenue from his international broadcasted because he really is a negligible amount for a lot

of European leagues and South American leagues isn't it whereas you know if you've got people

like Son and Salah and Messi playing in it you can you can make money from from overseas viewers as

well it's an interesting one final thing really on that event in Atlanta Don Garber spoke before we

arrived but we're still there on day two very much you know meeting and greeting and doing his thing

but the day before um some of the the athletic reported that he might leave before the end of his

contract um he's widely expected to leave at the end of it they're talking about a 2027

uh departure but just listening to people in that room talk about it whether he leaves early

later or exactly when people predicted him leaving is going to be a big change isn't it because he's

just been so central to everything that MLS has done for decades now I feel like the the best

comment that I heard from a ball don Garber was from Arthur Blank himself calling him the godfather

of soccer which I thought was really interesting yeah and just looking how he was moving throughout

the conference you can tell he's a workhorse he was doing back-to-back meetings like whenever people

were doing their thing and moving around I'll see him on like a booth on the corner and I'll just

pay attention I'm someone that is like socially like a cute of what's going on around me and he

probably cranked like five six seven eight back-to-back meetings people were just rotating and he was

just getting business done and he did throughout the whole day so you can tell that like not only he's

really highly well regarded by the community and the industry and the owners but you can tell he

has put it into a lot of work the last three decades oh yeah yeah yeah I mean there'll be a time

in place to do a really in-depth look back on Garber's time in MLS I think you know that

that job of commissioner for a North American League doesn't exist anywhere else in the world in

in quite the same way it's an incredible range of skills you have to have you've got to be a politician

and an entrepreneur you've got to you've got to be able to balance so many interests and yet drive

forward an enterprise it's a really interesting role I think he's done an amazing job I know it's

a tradition in the North American sports as well even Roger Goodell gets booed every time he

appears at the NBA at the NFL draft and it's tradition you know you find people making comments

about Garber amongst the fun basically he's been absolutely amazing for MLS to see where he's

taken them from a league that was really fragile and wobbling when he took over to one that's got

30 teams and messy and stadiums and so on who do you think it's going to be a successor do you

have some some thoughts or opinions some things that you have been hearing through the grapevine

I mean nobody really knows right I spoke to a couple of people who I thought might know

or who swore that they didn't do no one's even sure whether it's going to be internal or external

I think the fact that the MLS has hired a company to come in and help with the transition

and their business structure overall suggests to me that outsiders are going to be in the frame

right because if you bring in consultants to look at it they're not going to say just

yeah just just to point the next guy that's not what consultants do right they're going to give you

the range of options so I think some outside figures will come into it there are internal candidates

who've been mentioned Charles Alcheque who was president of MLS next pro until recently who's

moved into another senior position is someone who often gets mentioned and somebody I would imagine

who would relish that opportunity but there are also people outside in the game what I don't

think though is that this is one job in MLS that is going to an American you know or an North

American let's say at least because I don't I don't think there are foreign people with the skill

sets to be able to deal with that one you know you can you can be a foreign coach of an MLS team

you can be a foreign sporting director you can work in clubs in various roles that are similar

to clubs elsewhere that job managing those 30 owners in the room keeping them all on the same page

the skills you need to have what you've just been talking about about the way that Garber handles

people and the relationships that he has and I've seen him you know I have to say I've seen him

talking to fans you know that in Miami the fans who wanted to bring a team to hear when there was no

team when Beckham was coming and he's he has the ability to go from a meeting with private equity

people or with potential investors talking about millions of dollars and then turn around to some

guys who are waving a flag saying bringers a club and be able to relate to them that that's

the politician skills like of a top level so you're looking for that caliber of person is he out

there or she out there I don't know but it's going to be interesting to see who they go for let's

do a little quick bit of usl news as well because an interesting one in Sacramento Sacramento

Republic were planning on building a 12,000-seater stadium they're now planning on expanding it

to 20,000 which has you know certainly in line with the USL's premier division strategy which

would be for at least 15,000 to meet the sanctioning requirements this would even exceed it

because it exceeds it there are people speculating about maybe they've got some other ideas as well

but really a positive sign we often say about usl on this show that like let's see let's see whether

they can live up to the big talk and the big ambitions this is one club that seems to be doing that

they're definitely going to need a lot of Sacramento's in the premier division of usl that's

what they're looking for big ambitious projects that actually deliver value and instant engagement

and that kind of project is what they're looking for it seems like the ambitions have been renewed

after the the tribe the tribe took majority control of the club in 2024 the level of folks around

the club when you speak with executives Cabinago all these kind of personnel it seems like on par to

have a division one there was some discussion around there was some discussion around in terms of

they're going to go to the MLS right with the mayor as well have been making some comments behind

the scenes I love to get your thoughts on that as well yeah well very mind the you know the club's

president Tim Holt is as you know a usl career behind him you know so I think he would be well well

aware of the sensitivity around talking about MLS in this context usl on their official website

went with a full page on this one you know that is a great development mayor talking about it I mean

is it something that's maybe you know talked about in order to win political support locally to say

hey we're looking at major leagues we're not ruling it out it's very difficult to get in

and you look at the expansion fees and you say well is that is that ownership group ready to go 500

million plus to get into MLS because it's realistic right it is that realistic for them at the end

of the day that's the question yeah and they don't lower the expansion fee because you built stadium

you know I mean it's great that you already have the stadium but there's no discount you know

so so that's that's still a reality that's there I think it's great news you know for the club to

be going out there and trying to do that I think that's what yeah that you say we need to see more

of that and we need to see some completely new clubs coming in and doing that as well but you know

if we've been you know if we've been fair and honest in our analysis of what's going on in usl

we need to see those big resourced better more successful usl championship clubs taking positive

steps that's always going to be the first thing that you look for then are the new ones coming in

are there surprise ones coming in there's going to be some disappointments there's going to be

some big ones I suspect that aren't interested in stepping up but we're also you know to see

this I think it's positive would they be interested in MLS MLS it's got quite a big footprint in

that part of the world as well in California you know would they really want to go to Sacramento

at the moment when there's you know still some big markets in this country where you think maybe

MLS would be more successful so it's a tough one it's a tough one but you know from a usl point of

view I think it's just a good news story I think it creates the momentum that we've been looking for

after announcing usl premiere which we talk about this often as well like what kind of quality

of investors and operators you're bringing it into the lead that is as important as any other

thing because if you have that is a dominoe effect of like okay if these guys are building this there

is a pathway and there is an opportunity for me to do the same in my region in my market in my state

they're we talk about like what kinds of markets they could go after they're pretty big markets we

talked about New Orleans Baltimore they use your suspects so I think that's all in all very positive

news for the usl yep I think so last one a little bit of a negative one to end on unfortunately

but will cook there's been a lot of talk about how expensive the tickets are going to be the cost

of hotels and so on some of this is in FIFA's hands like ticket prices some of it isn't in Boston to

get the train out to Foxborough Stadium return ticket will cost you about 20 bucks now according

to reporting in the athletic that is going up to about 75 bucks almost a quadruple price increase

75 bucks to take a 20 mile trip out to the stadium from the center of the city when you're

already paying the hotel the ticket price you're skipping the expensive parking lot fee as well

I mean price gouging is going to be a problem isn't it at this world cup and it seems to me there's

a risk that it just could leave a very bitter taste for some people there's a reason why they're

calling does the most expensive world cup of all time I feel I feel like people just don't

enjoy the feeling of being ripped off right that's the thing some people don't mind paying it

it's well but it's not all about where you get in return and that feeling and the bitter like

feeling that you get after being ripped off anecdotally Richard Albert that was with us at the FL

I was texting with him he was at the game he's based in Boston and there's no easy solution his

sister lives literally like 10 minutes from the stadium it took them nearly two hours to drive

there on top of the parking and the fees and everything he did enjoy the experience the stadium

was so out it seemed like a lot of the players are excited to play in these like big American

stadiums Chua Mani from France said that he texted or called him Brady that he's excited to play

where the pictures and where he won so many games but that experience is being kind of turned around

with with all the expensive stuff that comes around and going back like going full circle with Todd

from from the Miami Dolphus Hard Rock stadium said is all about the fan experience the egress and

the ingress and having a holistic view of everything that happens as soon as they get to the

arena when they when they're leaving and it seems like this world cup is going to be very messy

when it comes to that I remember when I was in in Qatar for the the 2022 world cup of course

complete different dynamics and market and everything else but they had a brand new metro that was

completely free yeah a lot of you know it was very easy to come in and out the the fans were

super excited there were people that went to every single game in the world cup that's definitely

not going to be possible with this one but that's something that you're not going to be able to run

away from yeah I think the transportation and one of the things that slightly concern me was the

official statement from from the Boston Transport Authority responsible for that train who said hey

we had to build like new facilities for this world cup you know we invested X million in in like

putting on so that more trains can get to the stadium and fans get a better service so we need

to recoup that now and it's like is that the deal is that the deal that you put in them millions to

make this thing go really really well but the fans have to pay for it like over the odds I just

think people you know I just think people people especially people coming from Europe you know if you

have if you have Germans turning up in Boston who are used to like two euro train tickets that take

them halfway across the country or whatever you know if you're if you have Germans turning up in

Boston and and they're being asked to pay 75 bucks just to get to the game you know I think people

are going to have a really bad feeling you get a lot of negative headlines and that's not good for

anybody so hopefully people just calm down a little bit on that side of it and have a little thing

it's difficult to know who has you know in in the United States who has the authority you know in

some countries it could just overrule this couldn't they you know we know we know some countries

where that could happen but it does the United States is not like that people you know have to have

the authority to make that kind of decision we will see we will see but tons going on I don't want

to end on a you know negative like that because it's been such an amazing way cousin Andrew and

it's been great to spend some time with you as well traveling around meeting so many people in

the game so many people who you know listening to our pod as well I mean it's been it's been you're

super sorry Simon I didn't know that spending time with you and like I'm not a people that have come

to you saying that they listen to the pod they read this newsletter they have met you throughout

you know although work that you've done in the last several several years in the business so

that was pretty cool to see it as well no it's been good it's been good and it's great and

everyone who is listening who doesn't read the newsletter you can of course get that every

Friday at the soccer business dot com the soccer business dot com it's completely free and lands

in your inbox every Friday afternoon with all the top news from North American soccer industry and

the investment world around it talking of which I better get off and write that newsletter because

time is ticking it's been a busy week thanks again for joining us and it's been great to have you

and next we will be back with interviews again we haven't forgotten about those we've got some great

interviews coming up for you as well over the next few months as well as keeping on top of this

news agenda at this busy busy time for North American soccer business thanks very much and all

until next time

you