3rd Degree the Podcast #240

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Um, yeah. Ooh. Third degree. The third degree nap, I guess. Third degree. The third degree nap, I guess. Third degree nap, I guess. Third degree nap. Podcast. [00:00:25] Speaker B: Third degree. The podcast is brought to you by Soccer 90 Dot. The holiday season is upon us. Soccer 90 Dot is the best place to get all your soccer gear. That FC Dallas gear, that North Texas soccer club gear, the European stuff, national team stuff. They've got everything. Soccer 90 dot. Third degree. Listeners get 20% off with the code. Third degree at checkout three rdegree at checkout Soccer 90. Com. Some exclusions may apply. [00:00:53] Speaker A: Well, hello there, FC Dallas Curious fan. Welcome to episode number two. 40 240 of third degree, the podcast. We're now kneecap deep into the offseason. It is me, Peter, host of the kickaround over on the ticket on Saturdays, and I am hanging out, talking. All things burn with my buddies. First, the man who I thought was just a he just got Declan Rice at the last second for a home win against the first place team. I'm sorry about that, Dan Crook. Howdy, Dan. [00:01:31] Speaker C: It's all right. It only took $140,000,000 player for a team that's top of the table to celebrate like they just won the World cup against Little old Luton. [00:01:42] Speaker A: I know that had to be very satisfying to see them freaking out over that win. [00:01:47] Speaker C: That was fucking awful. Devastated. [00:01:51] Speaker A: Sorry. I was just trying to be positive about it. Damn. [00:01:57] Speaker C: It's all right. We'll bounce back against. Let me check. Oh, man. City. [00:02:04] Speaker A: Man. City lost today to Villa. Come on. You're just as good as Villa, aren't you? [00:02:10] Speaker C: No, they destroyed us earlier. [00:02:13] Speaker A: Man, I love watching Luton. You guys all. That's such a hard working group, and it's such a great place I got to go to. I really want to go to a game there anyway. All right, sorry. We will move on. Now. Time for the host of our and the reason why, really, any of you curious are actually here. It's not for Dan or me. It's for this guy, the original, your hero, my hero, everybody's hero. Editor, founder of Third Degree Net, Buzz Carrick. Come in, Buzz. [00:02:37] Speaker B: I. Peter, nice of you to say that, although I don't think that's 100% true. I also agree with Dan that Arsenal over celebrated. [00:02:44] Speaker A: They did? [00:02:45] Speaker B: You're supposed to act like you've been there, right? [00:02:47] Speaker A: No, I agree. I was very confused why Arsenal was having a conniption fit over winning a game at Luton like that. But losing that game would have put a big, giant dent in their season, especially considering that City lost today. So they've got a big lead on City as we lead into this Christmas season. [00:03:05] Speaker B: I mean, there was that stock that they hadn't won there in like 46 years, but it's not like they're FC Dallas going to Seattle. It's because they haven't played there in 46 years. [00:03:16] Speaker A: Man. Just even trying to make that analogy is very funny. [00:03:20] Speaker B: Yeah, you're welcome. [00:03:22] Speaker A: I like that. I like that a lot. Okay, so as I said, we are knee deep into the offseason. There are things to talk about. Not a ton. We were asked to discuss kind of our general recap of the Apple TV MLS season pass experience. So I think we'll do that here a little bit later on. First, I think the most pressing thing, Buzz, is to discuss the finalization of a long rumored signing Anise Sully, a 17 year old Romanian kid who's approximately the size of your average nine year old Texan kid. [00:04:01] Speaker B: Yeah. I would like to applaud FC Dallas for very quickly replacing Alan Velasco because this. [00:04:06] Speaker A: With miniature Alan Velasco. [00:04:09] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, that's not what happened. Look, this deal was reported by somebody back in September as being close to being done. It even had details of the price and the length of the contract, and you don't get that kind of report unless it actually is done and they're just waiting for the window to happen. And that's effectively what has happened here. The historical part from my end was that Goldie TV wrote an article saying that it was a done deal and then deleted the article. But it was up long enough that it ended up in the Google feed the next morning. So we all got to chuckle and have a little fun trying to suss out whether this was a real thing happening or not. And sure enough, it is. So there are not a lot of details from the FC Dallas side, but the initial reporting was, I believe, a $3 million deal buy to get him and a four year contract. Well, that lines up exactly with what is called the U 22 Initiative. And what's important to understand about that is that's a mechanic that the league implemented that is designed to incentivize teams buying as an investment. You're buying a young player with the idea that you're going to play him and develop him and then eventually sell him on. The other player that falls into this category for FC Dallas is Giovanni Jesus. Who? Giovanni, like you like to call him Giovann Jesus. Yeah. So immediately in the press conference, coach Nico Estevez tapped the brakes a little bit on like this. Is a young kid. Be patient. Don't expect him to walk in. This is not the same as Alan Vlasco, who was bought for eight or 9 million or whatever it was. This is a player that's less than that, but it's still a player that you're paying money for because of what you think eventually you'll be able to sell him for. So I think it's a four year deal anyway. It's a buy to sell. I don't remember the deals right in front of me. I'll look it up. As you know, Dan, his opinion on this thing, word on the street is that he's a wingish player with some vertical ability. The clips are all of him taking guys on with the ball at his feet, running at players. So not quite the false swing. Velasco was more, perhaps a little bit more like Kamungo of all people currently on the team, maybe a little bit more like Paul, and that he wants to run at people with a little bit of verticality. So we'll see how quickly he actually plays. Fits in, gets minutes. This will be an interesting balance of Nico's aversion to playing young kids not named Alan Velasco and the Cubs investment in a kid that they're going to want to see get on the field at some point, eventually. [00:06:35] Speaker A: There are a lot of aspects of this that I find interesting and probably controversially frustrating. The video that you talk about, I think the club reposted I thought was weird because it was just repeated clips of him beating guys one on one, but I don't think I ever saw him score a goal in the clip. [00:06:57] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a bit of a weird clip. He's played a certain number of times for Romania. He's played most recently for Urania's U 19 team. I think every single press release, story, article, team spokesman over and over and over again mentioned that he was named by, I believe it was the Guardian as one of the best players in the 2006 class. Well, 2006 kids are still in the academy around here. So this is a young kid, still in high school age player, despite the fact that he's already been capped by his national team, has been playing in Europe, even though he's originally Canadian. He's Canadian and Romanian both. By the way, he does count as an international. Some people get confused by that. For MLS teams based in the United States, Canadians are foreign players unless they are a homegrown Canadian, which means like they came out of an academy and signed, which Liam Frazier is. So Liam Fraser confuses people, because Liam Frazier is not an international, whereas this kid, even though he's Canadian, is an international in terms of roster status. So that's slight difference there in those two players. [00:08:00] Speaker A: Stupid MLS. [00:08:01] Speaker B: I know the rules are just ridiculous, but it does matter when you're a team already over the international's limit and the season haven't come around yet. [00:08:08] Speaker A: Yeah. All right, Dan, this is where I want you to jump in because I guess my question is, at some point, is it fair for a fan to be frustrated by the club making a big deal out of what appears to be an addition to the roster that is more about future business than actually making the actual team better? [00:08:31] Speaker C: Um, I think that's a tough one. You know, you look at Maro Diaz, did his transfer make a difference in 2013? Fabian Castillo, did his transfer make a difference in 2011? No, but 2016, both of them made a huge difference. It's a 17 year old, eyes on the future, eyes on making a profit. I think the reaction would be much better towards this if this didn't happen right as we're waiting. Well, whereas we're two or three days away from MLS cup after a pretty disappointing end of the season, if it was January, early February, you've got that optimism building. You've got the squad being worked on. On the face of it, it's an international for a European team. Young has played not top level European football, but somebody who was valued enough to be recognized, like Bassett, as one of the top 62,000 and sixes by the Guardian, someone who spent a year in the Barcelona system and someone who, given the recency of foreign players, crying homesick, someone who's Canadian, spent more than half her life in Canada and has lived in three different countries, it is promising. It's not necessarily going to help come February, but it's a promising transfer that should have some end positive. [00:10:27] Speaker A: Okay. And because I'm famous for being pessimistic about this stuff, I always say I'm a callous because we've seen these things go nowhere before many, many times. Not just with Dallas, but with a lot of MLS clubs, is the thing that I always get suspect about. And you guys tell me I'm just being an old curmudgeon if I am. Is the fact that if this is a kid who comes out, know, part of the Barcelona system and has been capped by his national team and the Haji Academy and all of these other really high level pedigree items that sound really good, how do you end up in Frisco? Why isn't he at like a Portuguese club or a Spanish club, you know what I'm saying? That's always the thing about these decisions that just make me put on the brakes for a second and go, well, how good is he? [00:11:21] Speaker B: Well, when you see a deal like this, and I think being a U 22 initiative, the design in that program is to take a risk and spend a little money on and outspend European. [00:11:33] Speaker A: Clubs that may be interested. Is that essentially what's happening here? [00:11:36] Speaker B: Yeah, I think so. I'll get around. I'm working my way around to that. I think, like, for example, if Fabian Castillo came into the league now, I think he would be this kind of guy where the club played 800,000 for him, but his salary was only like $100,000. You remember he was a young DP for one season because of that $800,000 buy that they paid well. Times have moved on. So that kind of guy is now a little more expensive. So the bottom line is that somebody convinced FC Dallas that this kid was special, and whether it's somebody they recommended or a scout they have on the ground, I mean, it's not like it doesn't seem likely to me that Zanata is over there scouting Romanian leagues in person, right? Somebody they know really recommended this guy, and they really like what they have on tape. Because effectively, what happened, you're right, Peter, is essentially they're just overpaying. They're taking a gamble and they're rolling the dice, and they had the best offer on the table. Or perhaps potentially this kid who grew up in Canada was pretty interested in coming back to the United States or Canada and was tired of living in Romania. You know what I mean? I've never lived in Romania, but it doesn't strike me as totally out of line that a 17 year old kid might be excited to come to the United States if he's from Canada. That's not an unreasonable thing to assume. [00:12:46] Speaker A: Sure. [00:12:47] Speaker B: So it could be a confluence of that, but I think really, in the end, that's all. It's like, you know, the difference between this guy and the kid they signed in the academy from Barca USA, who technically he was signed by North Texas. He's two years younger. But FC Dallas has already traded for its homegrown rights. That's the same investment, except that one of them is an American and one's not. One of them was slightly more expensive and a little bit older. So it was a mechanic that you had available that Dallas, of late has been going after these 1516 or 17 year old kids not from their academy. They signed that. North Texas signed a goalkeeper from. I think it was Gremio. The academy picked up a kid from Flamingo. They've got these little feet. ThiS is Zanata's thing, right? This is what he does, is he finds these little projects, these little guys, and he tries to whip them together, literally sells them on. Like, that was his rep, right, was to buy young Philippe, the goalkeeper, was one of these guys. Remember, we thought he was going to make the Brazilian Olympic team and he didn't because he got, you know, they don't all work. But that's what this is. This is a flyer, this is an attempt. This is why you don't expect him to walk in. This is not a DP. He doesn't have to hit. It's a know at the same time you're investing. So like Giovanni, they gave him playing time and they leaned in favor of him, Omar Ema, because they want him to pay off. It'll be the same with this guy. This kid will get some little preferential treatment. If you play this position, you're in the unit, academy team. You're going to look at this and go, oh, no way. I'm getting there now. They just got this kid, you know, they're jumping the queue in terms of like, maybe there wasn't something coming out of the Academy. Remember, we're in this little gap I talked about. So maybe this is the guy they saw as a bigger sort of talent in a way, but that's the way to think of him, really, is like a high priced homegrown as well. [00:14:29] Speaker C: One thing to think about is MLS. It's a shop window. You mentioned. Why didn't you go to Portugal? Unless you're playing for sport in Lisbon, Benfica or Porto, you may as well be playing Sunday league. No one's looking at you. MLS is attracting eyes, whether it's through the TV deal it has, or whether it's just because you've seen Almaron, you've seen guys, you've seen young players. [00:15:01] Speaker B: Sorry, Messi. [00:15:02] Speaker C: Well, well, no, I'm talking about outgoing. You've. You've got Chris Richards playing, getting another start today. You've got your Western McKinney's, you've got people who've come out of the systems in America that it is a high potential, low cost place like Sweden was in the past, Portugal was in the 90s, Spain was in the early 2000s, before they kind of got the national team going. And this is kind of just the US and Mexico is kind of getting its time where you can get a decent caliber of talent for not a lot of outlay. And so if that's his chance to get in the shop window for a bigger opportunity down the line, that's more power to him. [00:15:50] Speaker D: All right. [00:15:51] Speaker A: I think that's fantastic perspective from both of you. So I'm going to ask you just kind of straight up. On a scale of one to ten, for those who are listening to the pod, the curious that are relatively new to all of this, where's your excitement level on the scale of one to ten? About this kid in particular? [00:16:11] Speaker B: In terms of 2024 roster impact, my excitement level is a two. In terms of like, this is the kind of signing that I love, a young, interesting player that can actually maybe turn into something. I'm going to go more like a seven. So long term, seven, short term, it's not going to matter. [00:16:30] Speaker C: Two, I'll just go with a straight six. It's kind of middle of the road. It could go really well. It could just be nothing. It's hopefully not going to be as spectacular a failure as Jesus, Simonez. Yeah, that's just really it. I don't really understand if people are getting too excited or too distraught about what's ultimately going to be someone that counts as $150,000 against FC Dallas's salary cap. [00:17:06] Speaker B: I'll say one thing, having watched Pablo Orangi's Maro Diaz, even to a certain extent, Alan Velasco, if this kid's mentally tough is what I am going to care about over almost anything else, and that's where Dan said he's lived these other countries, is a good sign. I really hope that he can come in here and just be like, yeah, let's go. Versus these guys that come in here and waffle and don't want to play and don't want to do this and don't want to that and we'll go home. [00:17:30] Speaker A: Oh, man, I'm so with you on that. And I do think a lot of this, at least from my perspective, it's a function of timing. Like, if this had been an additional signing they made after some really nice DP decisions and actual replacements for the 24 season that are going to make this team better, I'd be super excited about this. But for this to be the first thing out of the box, it's like, well, this isn't helping us next year, guys. And I also am a bit frustrated with this team's weird obsession with tiny players. I mean, the kid is five foot, 4125 pounds. [00:18:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:18:10] Speaker A: And look, I don't like labeling MLS as a quote, unquote physical league, but it is a physical league and whatever. You get my point? [00:18:22] Speaker B: Yeah. This is definitely not like. Remember last week we talked about this winner was, okay, do you have ambition or not? While this guy's really interesting, this is not the ambition signing. This is not like we're going for it in 2024. This is a long term investment. As you say, Peter, if this was after the moves to make you better, we'd be like, sweet bonus. Because it came first. It's like, is this is really what you're doing? Because this is not really going to help you. I mean, if it helps in 2024, I'll be astounded that a 17 year old is going to help you, even if he is going to be 18 at some point. For him to be that good would be remarkable. Even Alan Vlasco, when he showed up at 18, didn't walk in and blow us all the way while the first shot did. But then after that, we were like, is that all there is? Come on, we got to do more than that. Right? [00:19:09] Speaker A: It kind of blew his wad on the very first game, and he's worth. [00:19:12] Speaker B: 6 million more than this kid. So tap the brakes on like, you're 100% correct, Peter, that if this was a bonus signing and maybe two months from now, we'll be looking at as a bonus signing. But for this to be the first move is like, really? That's what you had lined up? Let's go. [00:19:31] Speaker A: Yeah. All right. Well, welcome to Frisco. Nice. Just stay away from the barbecue. [00:19:39] Speaker C: Good news. He had a growth spurt. He is now either five five or five six. [00:19:43] Speaker A: Sweet. Okay, awesome. [00:19:46] Speaker C: He's catching up to Julian Einstein. [00:19:48] Speaker A: Well, to be completely fair, somebody in your discord made the very astute observation that the current reigning MLS MVP is five foot six. So maybe there isn't. [00:20:00] Speaker B: He might be five three. That guy who? [00:20:03] Speaker A: Anise? [00:20:03] Speaker B: No, the Acosta. [00:20:06] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. He tiny little, but he's also not 125 pounds. [00:20:11] Speaker B: Yeah, it is possible to be too small, like you can be small and be bulldogged, like David Ferreira was, or Messy like Messi is or Acosta is, but you can be too small. I don't think five five is too small like this kid is. If he's got enough, between 17 and 19 will be a lot of muscle and body mass just turning into more of an adult. So over the next two years, we'll see. Maybe he'll toughen up and be more resilient and more spark pluggy. Again, we also want to reserve judgment, so we actually see him in training and in games, but it's definitely FCD short at work again. [00:20:45] Speaker A: All right. The other thing that came out was that since we last talked, all of the roster decisions have been made in terms of who's getting their option picked up, who was cut, who is remaining, and so I'll just run through real quick. Picked up. We're all very grateful that Ilara was picked up. Ian Frazier, junka Endelay. The big one that was kind of a surprise to me was seeky and zebuling was picked up. I didn't think we were doing that. [00:21:15] Speaker B: I didn't either. Because you're talking about international spot, we don't feel real optimistic he's getting a green card. He'd gone down to where he basically wasn't playing after he had some of those gaps in the middle of the. [00:21:26] Speaker A: Season, and he didn't play very well this year either. [00:21:29] Speaker B: At times early, early on he did, but in the second half he really fell apart and he wasn't getting on the field. He's already 26. There was a little progression from season one to season two, but there's been really not much since then. I'm like you, Peter. I was really surprised that they picked him up in the LA, a little less so because at least he's still only in his second year. But yeah, I was caught off guard by Siki being saved. I don't understand that one. At some point, hopefully coach will explain it to me, but it's a mystery to me. Daniel, I don't know what you feel about him. [00:22:01] Speaker C: No, I'm a little confused. I'm happy for him. [00:22:09] Speaker A: If he wasn't an interNational, I don't think we'd really care because he's a nice little low budget, low dollar salary, help bolster the roster, guy that you can throw on late if you want to, for some energy. [00:22:22] Speaker B: Consider that the going price for an international spot is like, I don't know, 100 and 5200K in MLS. Funny money. That's a lot of extra money to pay to have CK on your roster. So it's not just how much he costs in terms of his salary, which is pretty good if you throw an extra 200K on there. Now you're talking about a $500,000 player. Is that a $500,000 player? [00:22:43] Speaker A: No. And the other thing that mentioned, I think, Dan, you brought this up. Somewhere in the discord was the conversation that maybe potentially he's out trying to get his green card, which would resolve this issue. But you feel like that's not anything that's happening very quickly. [00:22:57] Speaker C: So Zanard did say in a press conference that three players are in the latter stages of getting a green card. If you think about the. So the green card they're going for is the exceptional talent, the green one, the permanent resident status they're going for is the. It's like exceptional talent for athletes. So that wasn't funny. [00:23:21] Speaker A: It was hilarious. [00:23:23] Speaker B: Go ahead, Dan. [00:23:25] Speaker C: So there's like. I think it's seven categories. You have to kind of satisfy a number of them. So it's exceptional achievements, high income, proving. It comes down to even stuff like how many verified articles are written about you and stuff. I just don't see enough of the categories being met where you can rationalize someone like King Yon, someone who had won for one, made 800 grand. So he was halfway to the investment category in general, who had played at decent clubs in South America, had played for Argentina at top tier nations under 17s, had won the copy Libertadoras that had those big achievements, kind of satisfies those sort of criteria. And someone who, for a good period of time, was starting for FC Dallas. Compare that to Siki. No major club honors. Played an under 20 game for South Africa. That's not what a tier four ish Nation making 80 or 150 grand, whatever it was, just doesn't really satisfy anything that says, oh, yeah, exceptional talent is doing a job that an American player can't do, which is ultimately the purpose of it. [00:25:06] Speaker A: Well, it's weird to me. I don't get it. But maybe they also was thinking maybe they saved him to trade him for something. But why would anybody trade for that? I don't. [00:25:17] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:25:18] Speaker A: In terms of decline, Colin Smith, Mr. Martinez was shipped off back to Spain. Fuck. Who? Kenyon was on this list, which also is weird to me, only in the fact that they had mentioned. Mean, I just think this all relates back to the mystery of the timing of him going to get his green card and the fact that he's acquired it right in the middle of them trying to make the playoffs and then play in the playoffs. He kind of evaporated from the squad. And then there's three other ones we'll talk about in a second. Anything in particular? Insight about Kenyon that are the other guys that were declined? [00:25:54] Speaker B: Well, I thought there was a good chance that Fakundo might know. They might have tried to negotiate to bring him back at a smaller number, and it's possible that they asked him about that. He basically was like f off. I got my green card, as you say. Him leaving what he did might have put a sour taste in their mouth. So, John, play alone. I'm not surprised. Based on his number, I'm not surprised. Could you have? I think if Liam Fraser hadn't worked out we might be having a different conversation. But Liam Fraser worked out in the sense that he played just as well as Facundo down the stretch and he's know and cheap and is mentally tough. [00:26:29] Speaker A: Half the cost. [00:26:29] Speaker B: Yeah, way less than half the know. The other person I want to talk about in that group is actually Colin Smith because I thought Colin Smith had a phenomenal season at Birmingham. I really thought that they would keep him over Indelay, especially because Colin Smith's an academy know get that roster seen. I'm not anti Indalay but I have not seen anywhere near the progression. I think ColIn Smith's more ready. You remember that when Colin Smith was called back here and actually started a game or two at right back, whereas Endele, we only saw him shift back there like when he had subbed in somewhere else and he would shift back there late in the game, maybe plays more of a wing back. You know, he does bring a little bit more versatility as a high wing, but Colin Smith played wing in the academy too, so I don't really understand that one. I kind of really thought Smith would get kept and they would not. The reason you kept one of them at all is because of Giovanni Jesus being out for half the year. Otherwise I don't think they would have kept either one of them. But in the end, Ndele gets the spot. [00:27:27] Speaker A: Okay, I want to go through the three last ones individually and these are three people that are still quote unquote, being talked to. Their deals were declined, but the club is figuring out a better deal that maybe suits the club better. The first one's Corsia. Am I saying his last name right? We saw so little man, I never remember close enough. Yeah. And this is the local kid that was playing somewhere in Eastern Europe. They brought back whatever and never really did anything. It was always such a weird signing me. It was like, we'll just take a blind shot at this and see if it goes anywhere. So I'm assuming they're just going to try to resign him on even less money. [00:28:05] Speaker B: Well, I think that when they say talking to, I think they mean they've just at least made contact with their agent because all three of these guys were in fact, declined. And I have an assumption about why each of them fall into this category. And with Corsa, I think it's just you actually need to add two center backs to this team. One of them needs to be big and the other can be a little bit more of a project player. So I kind of feel like you actually might even need to add three, depending on where you think Nolan Norris plays. So I kind of feel like with him, they were just, you know, we kind of like you a little bit. We don't have much to offer. If we get to February and we still need a center back, we'll call you, I think, kind of feel like that's what it is with him. It's sort of just giving him a heads. Like, if you don't find another place, we might circle back to you in a couple of months. Keep your options open, keep your phone turned on. Kind of what I feel like with him. [00:28:56] Speaker A: All right. And then Jimmy Mauer was also declined, which leads me to ask the question, does that mean that one of the kids are likely to take that second roster spot as a goalkeeper? [00:29:10] Speaker B: Yeah. That means Antonio Carrera is ready to be number two. [00:29:13] Speaker A: Really? Wow. [00:29:14] Speaker B: Well, I think know, because if it's just like, hey, Jimmy, thanks. You're just a little too old and we're going to go get another journeyman keeper. That feels weird to. Because like, at that point you would just say, hey, Jimmy, just come back for a tiny bit less and you'll be. Cause. So I think it's ready for Antonio, number two. I do think part of this probably is, and this is just congestion on my part. I'm not reporting anything is that I think they're going to go after I stone and so they needed a homegrown spot. They need that third spot for I stone technically on the books. So you tell. Look, you know we love you. We want you to coach. And by the way, he's out at MLS next Fest working for the league or the team or whatever as part of their evaluation process of that tournament. I think he's actually working for the league, technically, so he's still around. Okay, Jimmy, we're going to go after the 18 year old kid. If we don't get him, maybe we'll circle back and you can be our third guy. If you'll work on this kind of number, maybe we'll make you an academy coach part time, sort of have that relationship going. Because he is a guy I think he would like to retain as an academy coach. I think. I hope he wants to be a coach. He went and got his coaching license, but that's maybe more about his kids than it is. Just like he wants to be in the academy. Last time I asked him, he said he was thinking about it. SO a guy, you want to be involved in your organization and maybe just aren't sure how it's going to work yet. So that's kind of how I feel like where he is on the. We're still talking. [00:30:40] Speaker A: Well, Antonio, are you thinking he is ready to be the number two or is that also a salary? Hey, we can kind of cut a good chunk of dough. [00:30:53] Speaker B: I think he's ready to be number two. It's a chunk of some dough, but. [00:30:58] Speaker A: Not significant enough to make a big deal. [00:31:00] Speaker B: Yeah, because if you miss on, I mean, Jimmy's on what or was on? I don't remember. I don't have it in front of me. Hold on. Jimmy was like on 300 something. I think it is a savings. But keep in mind, if you miss on I stone, then you have to go get somebody anyway. You got to replace them because the other options that they have that might be coming through in terms of academy or North Texas are nowhere near ready to be playing an MLS game. [00:31:25] Speaker A: But I stone would be three. [00:31:27] Speaker B: I stone would be three. And he'll start every game for North Texas if he signs here. And then Carrera will be number two. The number two. Because pause is not infallible in terms of a red card or an extra yellow card or he's not infallible in terms of 100% injury. There have been a game or two that Mauer had to play. So whoever is number two has to be ready to play. And I think Antonio is ready to play. I saw a clip reel of him against, I think it was Brazil from the U 20. He just went to the pan Am games. [00:31:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:31:59] Speaker B: Oh my God. Dude. He was ridiculous. And there was lots of talk about people. A couple of games they played, they're like, they should have lost four nothing if it hadn't been for Carrera. Wow. So I think Drew Keyshawn is one of the best goalkeeper coaches in the league. And so if he thinks Antonio's ready to be number know, and the way we'll know for sure is by their action at this position. If we only see them go after I stone, then you'll know he's the two. If you see them bringing in a USL guy or something like that, then you'll know. Oh, maybe it's not quite time for Antonio to be two at that point. You might look for maybe Antonio to go to maybe a USL championship team on know to make that step up from North Texas because he's about done all he can in North Texas. Antonio has playing there is not going to. I mean, it's better than nothing, but you want to try and push him a little bit. So I think it's probably likely that he's ready to be number two. [00:32:45] Speaker A: All right, the last one is Hadir Obrion. His deal was declined, but still qualifies as one of the three that is, quote being talked to, Buzz. [00:32:56] Speaker B: Yeah, this one's weird. I don't understand this one. Maybe he's close to getting your green card and they're like, if you get the green card then we can talk about it. Maybe they're hedging their bets. Like if they're going to trade somebody else and then come back, maybe we'll need a wing. And then you want to come back to him? Possibly. I'm not really sure. Why? Because we had this whole conversation about we thought, I thought that O'Brien was going to be making way because he and AnSA in roster terms are the same player. So why they're still having open discussions with him confuses me. Unless he's not going to be international. Unless maybe they're going to move a wing is the only thing I can think of. Like maybe you want to bring him back in if, I don't know, remember LA call about Paul. Or remember maybe Dante Seeley has some value who's a young, previously highly regarded player. No, he doesn't. Maybe Bernie's going to be sold for $5 million. Shit, now we need a wing. Hey, Obrion, I'm just saying there might be some insurance thinking there perhaps with Obrion, because I'm not really sure why you would do this with him unless you think. The only thing I can think of is that maybe by tabling like an offer, what they call a bona fide offer. Now if he goes through the reentry drafts and nobody picks him or whatever, nobody can grab him for free. They're going to have to come to you and then trade for his rights or some kind of stupid MLS mechanics that somebody else might want him is all I can think of. [00:34:30] Speaker A: Yeah, I was going to ask. Related to any of these players? Quinone and Obrion in particular? Maybe Martinez is another one, although I don't know why anybody in the league would pick him up. Does the team retain any sort of rights? Because none of these guys qualify for free agency, do they? [00:34:47] Speaker B: I don't believe know. This is where you get into a level of minutiae can be ridiculous. And it has to do with what they call a bona fide offer. Doesn't necessarily mean what he was on before, it just means it has to be legitimate. So they might have said, hey, Obran, here's a hundred grand. You know, that's just bona fide. Just means, you know, you don't necessarily have to say he doesn't have to take it. But by offering him a deal, FCD Dallas would keep his MLS rights even if he's not picked up. Because the way it works is the reentry draft because they declined his options. So my understanding is he'll be on their entry draft. The first version of it is you have to pick up his number at where it was with like a bonus. Like a kicker, like a 10% kicker. The second one, you had to pick up his offer where it was before his number, where it was before his option. So that was like 4500, right? Well, people probably don't want that. If you're interested in Oberon, you probably would have let him go through that and then grab him for cheap. Well, by making some kind of offer, aKa negotiating or talking to him, then Dallas retains those, if I understand the rules correctly, and believe me, they're so freaking chaotic that I could be having them wrong. But to the best of my knowledge, by making some kind of offer to him, Dallas would retain his MLS rights. And if somebody wanted him, they would then have to give Dallas something. Now they wouldn't get much because Dallas doesn't want him. They didn't pick up his option. So it would just be like a small thing, but it would be something. And this is where you get into the really stupid area of MLS, trying to prevent free agency and all that kind of stuff. It's really dumb and it's not going to mean that much of a thing. So other than it confuses the shit out of people. [00:36:33] Speaker A: All right, well, there's all the players. That's the situation. Anything else about the roster? Stuff about at least the cuts that we need to get into before we move on to the neat stuff? [00:36:44] Speaker B: No, that was really it. It's just that. Don't read too much into this talking stuff. You remember Matt Hedges when last year was that last year when they let him, his option expire? Basically they were lowballing him and he was like, forget it, I want multiple years and a million dollars. So talking to was just like, hey, Agent, you have our phone number. Here's what we got if you want it. So it means very little in terms of actual realization of, like, could that guy be back or know it doesn't hardly mean anything. [00:37:15] Speaker A: Okay. All right. So the other thing that took place was that Nico and Zanata held a press conference via Zoom that everybody got invited to. And to my great delight, Buzz got to ask questions and capture the answers, and we've got a couple of them here. So Buzz bravely dove into the idea of so how did you frame the question? Because the way that you have it edited, I didn't hear your actual question. How did you frame the question about Velosco related to putting him on IR for the season? [00:37:50] Speaker B: I said, any concerns that Alan went home to have his surgery and then went on television and told everybody that he asked to be loaned back to his club, Independiente. And have you considered using a season ending specifically? I said, since you're not going to have him for like 95% of the season, have you considered using the injury reserve spot and putting him out for the year? So that's what I asked and here's what he said. You ready? [00:38:17] Speaker D: Yeah, I bust. No, no concerns about this. This actually is something that happened. But I think Alan, the way he said was just, I don't know, just a little bit more that he's there and he's closer to the guys. But obviously at some point his agent contacted me last season, earlier this season saying the Pinienta was struggling but was more, not in a serious way. At least what I understood when I recall from my conversation with him is just like Independente wanted Allen back on loan just to help to save the season that they were having. But honestly was not something like it was a phone call that lasted three minutes maybe so. I never spoke with Alan about this after that was just the conversation me and his agent and was more in, we joked about it that obviously we would never let Alan go back there on loan on a situation. We're not willing to let Alan go. And I'm not sure about what you said about 95% of missing next season. We really believe he has, he's progressing really well so far. Obviously very early after his injury, after his surgery, and we've seen players coming back sooner than expected and we're hoping Alan can help us in at least a good part of the season. So for now, our idea is not to. We still have time to make that decision, but our idea is not to place Alan in the season ending injury list. And because we firmly believe and obviously every month, every week we're getting information, we're knowing how he's progressing, and we'll know more closer to the beginning of the season where we are with him. But the idea is not to place him and the idea is to have him playing with us later in the season. Obviously we hope that the earlier possibilities. [00:40:35] Speaker B: Obviously I got to tighten that up some. So the thing about he's like, I don't know where you got the 95%. Well, Coach, sorry, Andre, experience, because this injury is nine to twelve months out, but let's say it's nine, that's through July. That means he can return to training in August and your season goes August, September, and then it's over. So it's like how many guys walk onto the field effective after a blown ACL, when like the minute they're cleared, they don't. They take months to get back to their full form, sometimes even a whole year to get back to their full form. So technically, yes, it won't be 95%, but what value will he have past that? And in terms of roster building and the way this league works, if you have a DP that sucks or that is not doing anything, aka Paul Ariel, last year, team's not very good, so that's why I brought it up. And obviously he very clearly blew off the whole idea. Know, they didn't give a crap about them, wanted to believe loan back thing, which I think is a sign of a greater problem with this kid, and B, they're willing to basically blow a DP for the year because maybe we'll get him back for like a month at the end of the season when he'll be terrible. So that's basically all that said. Well, I should have cut it down more. [00:41:47] Speaker A: Well, no, I think one, I think it's interesting to hear him kind of scramble because he clearly wasn't prepared to answer this question. And at least the question about the IR part, because maybe they're not aware that you had made this recommendation. I have to assume that. I'm shocked that he wasn't prepared to answer the question about Alan making this public statement down in Argentina, about going back to Argentina, because I thought that was incredibly embarrassing for the club to see your player doing that and for him to kind of like. I mean, it was a very easy question to answer if you were prepared for it. Yeah, we saw it. We don't think there's anything to it. It was a three minute phone call. It's much to do about nothing. That's literally how quick they could have answered that question and be done with it. But when he kind of, like, dances around it, it's like, okay, are you sure you're sure you're not upset about that? That sounds a little weird to me. [00:42:40] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm actually surprised that they didn't make him do some kind of public statement saying that I'm all about SC Dallas, that they just kind of let it go. And I'm like, he's down there partying with all his, like, every day is a new photo with him and his buddies that play for Indian PNTe out having a good time. [00:42:56] Speaker A: Yeah. I think the thing that I'm concerned about is the idea. I'm not concerned that Alan decided to have his knee surgery in Argentina, because I get it. He probably has a doctor that he trusts, and that's a big part of this. But for Zanata to go on and on about how they're getting, like, daily and weekly updates on Alan's progress. From who exactly? Alan? Alan's mom. Do they have their own person down in Argentina seeing that? Because here's what I imagine is going to happen. They're going to get all this information over the course of however long it is before Alan comes back to Texas. And they're not going to really know what they're getting back in the form of Alan Velasco until he gets off a plane and steps out on the field or goes to the training room and kind of shows off what kind of progress he's made. [00:43:42] Speaker B: Well, I certainly hope that they're working with some kind of physical therapy group, rehab group, whatever down there that they've hired that's reporting directly to know, even though it's Alan's decision where he goes. At the same time, it's know we need direct feedback. But you're right, it does make me. I'm. Maybe I'm blowing this up out of nothing, but maybe it bothers me. And I think that in this league, you cannot afford to have a DP bring you zero value, and they're going to have a DP bring you their value. And I think that's a problem. Maybe. Dan, am I losing my mind? Am I crazy here? [00:44:16] Speaker C: No, definitely not losing your mind there. And one thing, Pete, you mentioned being prepared for the question. For Zanata. Honestly, if there wasn't a signing the same day, there probably would have been maybe one or two people on that call. [00:44:37] Speaker B: Yeah, that's fair. [00:44:39] Speaker A: I don't understand what you mean. [00:44:43] Speaker C: I mean, I've had countless numbers of those Zoom calls where I'm the only person or one of like two or three. [00:44:50] Speaker A: How many people were on this one? [00:44:52] Speaker C: Maybe ten, including staff. Ten? [00:44:56] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:44:57] Speaker A: Fair. [00:44:57] Speaker B: I mean, Tom Boger was on there. A couple of the Spanish guys were on there. Me. Yeah, Dan was there. [00:45:05] Speaker A: Third degree? [00:45:06] Speaker B: Yeah, third degree was showing out. Some other local English speakers were on there. [00:45:13] Speaker A: Well, I guess the thing about the injury deal, which is I hope they have somebody under their employment watching this, because what I'm hearing is they are essentially making a decision to just use the DP as is on the hope that when he gets back from Argentina, all signs are good and that he's made significant progress based on somebody's word that he's doing really well. And I don't know who that person is. I don't know how that works. [00:45:44] Speaker B: I don't either. And people heal at different rates. I don't exactly think of Alan Velasco as, like the greatest ass busting rehabber of all time. I don't have him in that conversation. In my head, based on what I've witnessed, he's not a rapidly gets back faster than you like guy. So I know they say that they like the progress and all that stuff, but that's putting a pretty optimistic spin on it. And you got a lot of money in this kid, and I'm sure they're more worried about the long term, but it's like, don't forget that you have a season to play. You got to have a million dollar contract in a gigantic DP slot going to nothing. [00:46:24] Speaker A: Well, this will all also relate back to the other news we got about the league, which is the fourth DP thing that we can talk about here in a little bit. The other question you asked was about Jesus Jimenez and the buyout. Again, why don't you set that up? [00:46:38] Speaker B: Okay, so I asked him, have you considered using your buyout mechanic on Jesus Jimenez? And here's what he said. [00:46:46] Speaker D: This is something we'll discuss. Jesus has one more year guaranteed year contract with us. We used this year. Yes, on Franco Hara and not Jesus Jimenez or any other player. If we feel we need to use the buyout option for any player, that's part of the league rules, and that's something we can do. So there's nothing right now under conversation that we would make that for any player. But it's a possibility that can happen that the league allows us. And if we feel we need to buy out any player to open space to bring someone that we feel is going to improve the roster, we'll do it. [00:47:36] Speaker B: So the one thing I'll point out about that is you hear how quiet that one was compared to the first one. [00:47:41] Speaker A: Yes. [00:47:41] Speaker B: Yeah. By this time he was sitting back. I don't think he was loving my questions. So the answer to that is basically a non answer. He basically said, we'll discuss it and we could use it. We can use next year's. We use this year's on Frank O'Hara. So it's in the stable of options. It's in the cards. They weren't going to commit on it. If they don't do it, they're being absolutely asinine and stupid. They have to do this. [00:48:07] Speaker A: They were so unprepared for this. [00:48:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:48:10] Speaker A: Because the answer to that question, he could have just said no. Yeah, but he prattled on and talked in a circle for a full 60 seconds, essentially saying the same thing three times, which just makes it sound super suspect. [00:48:23] Speaker B: Yeah, we could. He said if we wanted to. Yeah, that's true. You could if you wanted to. That's not what I'm looking for, but okay. [00:48:29] Speaker A: Thanks, Andre. [00:48:30] Speaker B: Yeah, I get it. They don't want to say that. They don't want to say that without talking to him first. They won't want to say that until we actually get to next year when they could theoretically use it. I don't know why you need to hesitate. I think you just say how we're going to do that. We just have to negotiate with know. Because in the end, you don't even have to negotiate. You just tell him you're doing it and you pay the man his money and he leaves. Because that's the thing is you got to pay him. It's like you got to pay out that contract. And I will remind everybody, and this is why it's important. It's not just that again, it's a DP level contract. The difference is that last year Toronto paid his cap hit. So you got him for basically free on your cap. This year you will not be. If you want to keep him on your roster, it's a DP. So you now have $4 million DP players before they've even passed the fourth DP role. So that's why you cannot do this. You cannot keep him. You have to buy him out. Because you can't have both him and Alan Velasco on your roster doing nothing as DPS. That'll be two of your four or it'll be two of your three. [00:49:32] Speaker A: At least one of them is doing nothing because he's injured yeah, fair enough. [00:49:36] Speaker B: I mean, listen, I'm not anti Alan Velasco. I'm just being ruthless and deal with it when he comes back, just put him on IR. He'll live. He's not going to help you that much for a. [00:49:48] Speaker C: Know. The unfortunate side of this is. [00:49:52] Speaker A: Even. [00:49:53] Speaker C: If he agrees with you, he can't really say anything. You can't give the game away that early. It would be incredibly shitty to say, yeah, he was absolutely terrible. We're just going to dump him. Players aren't going to come to a team where the technical director says something like that because that would get out. That would be the one thing that suddenly FC Dallas hits the headlines for. [00:50:21] Speaker A: Yeah, but again, he could have just. [00:50:23] Speaker C: Said have he could know? I don't know. He does talk in circles. It is his second language. He has probably been burned in Brazil for things he has and hasn't said before. I don't necessarily know the full picture of it. [00:50:42] Speaker A: The only person on the entire planet is going to be pissed off if he gets bought out is Jesus cementes, and I'm not even sure he's going to be upset about it. [00:50:51] Speaker B: He's going to get money. He don't care. [00:50:53] Speaker A: So if you could say no, that's not our plan at this moment, and then change your mind and go the opposite direction, nobody's going to care. And at the end of the day, look, the number of people that heard all of this, you could probably count on a couple of hands. It's not that big a deal. I'm just saying, when it comes to doing these types of things, this isn't the club's strength in having a strategy and an action as to how they're going to deal with the media. When they get asked these questions about their roster, they seem to do it by the seat of their pants, which I think tends to come back and bite them in the butt more times than not. [00:51:32] Speaker B: Yeah. Let me be clear. I'm not surprised that I got non answers, but they shouldn't have been surprised that I asked such questions. [00:51:38] Speaker A: Right. [00:51:38] Speaker B: I'm not going to waste my one or two questions on things like how are you going to use the fourth DP when the fourth DP hasn't been passed yet? I'm going to ask it about how the actual concrete things that are worrying me, hoping they're actually going to say something, knowing that they're more than likely not going to. The only real answer they gave out of that was that they think that Alan Blasco wanted me loan back was a nonsensical, no big deal kind of joke. More than anything, that was a fair answer, and I'm actually glad they said that. It doesn't change the fact that I'm concerned about the injury. It doesn't change the fact that I'm concerned about Jimenez hitting the cap. Even though I got a non answer on that, I am actually happy that the answer was non answer rather than a flat out no. Because the flat out no is either a lie or it's like you idiots are going to keep him one of the two, right? [00:52:21] Speaker A: Well, okay, so just to kind of do all of this in summation, and I'm going to take it from the position of being one of the curious, listening to the podcast, which is the question of just based on where we're at at this moment in time with the club, what is your sense of the vibe about this club's plan going into 24? [00:52:42] Speaker B: Well, the macro level answers that from that zoom, a couple of things. Vibe answers that they gave to some of the more generic questions are related to some topics that I've had discussions with coach Nico over the course of the last part of the year, and Andre both, too. It's like there's a recognition that when the injuries went south, they didn't have enough bodies. And they mentioned maybe five or six times in this press conference, they mentioned, what was the word they use, basically the schedule overload that happened this year because of the league's cup coming in, you now have regular season play, you have open cup play, you now have Leagues cup play. So there's this load of games that didn't exist before and that they miscalculated in terms of how much roster that would take, and that there's going to be an adaptation on the part of the club to deal with that. And like the first press conference where we had that, it's a prOcess, and then we had the next year, it was mentality. Well, this press conference, it was all about that adjustment to the roster. So I think on the macro level, you're going to see a few less kids on the bottom of the roster and more veterans that could actually hold up like a Liam Fraser kind of guy, Sam Junko kind of guys. And I think you'll see, potentially see them actually use the 18th and 20th, sorry, roster, 18th through 20th, the 19th and 20th roster spots that they haven't filled in years. Even way back under Lucci, they weren't filling those spots. FC Dallas wasn't. So I think you'll see them try and use those spots this time, and maybe we might not see a lot of homegrowns come in from the academy. We might see more of an emphasis on a college pick that could work out or maybe in a homegrown that's older, like less projects and more like guys that can actually help. So that's the big takeaway from all of this. I did not get a particular sense of, we got a bunch of stuff lined up to make this team a lot better. They're talking about maybe one player coming in of a good value, and I sure as hell hope they don't mean Solly because that gets 17. I hope that wasn't what they meant. Hopefully they mean like, a DP. So we'll see. There's still a big wait and see this winter. Like, how ambitious are you? Let's go already. They're at nine internationals, so something has to give. He did say as Dan said. I couldn't tell if he said three or a few. Either way, some green cards might help, but if you look at the roster construction thing I did, there's only, like, one or two spots available, right? You need a center back, you need a backup center back, and that's really it. There's not really room for anything else unless you jettison some people. And that's when we're going to find out. Do you buy out Jimenez? Do you go get another player? What kind of player will that be? That's the big question mark. That's what we're waiting for. Because they've already said basically they're not going to do the ambition of putting Velasco on the IR. So we're left with buy out Jimenez and get a guy to replace him of value. So that's where we're at. [00:55:47] Speaker A: The other just quick thing, which was a visual that won't make a ton of sense in an audio medium, was the Zoom video that you posted. Maybe you should post it. Well, did you post it on your Twitter account? [00:56:01] Speaker B: I posted it on YouTube. I posted on my Twitter account. I posted it in the Patreon. [00:56:05] Speaker A: All right, well, everybody should go watch this, because on the Jimenez question, at the very beginning of the video, the look on Nico's face, that was the Allen question. Oh, was that the Allen question? Oh, I thought it was the. It. It's. It's priceless. And it's so funny because it's like you can totally read on his face that he's not excited about this and he's trying to freeze frame a good, happy, trying to put a good face on it, that the camera actually moves away from him and cuts him off the frame. It's great. [00:56:42] Speaker B: Yeah, good stuff. [00:56:44] Speaker A: All right, well, there we are. Updated on roster stuff. Now, one of the questions that came up in the discord that I mentioned earlier that I thought we could spend at least a couple of minutes on before we end the podcast is somebody asked us in the discord to kind of give our general review on MLS season pass debriefing after its debut season. And I thought we'd kind of talk through that and I don't know how to do know. Dan, do you have any kind of overview or thoughts about the product or the service that you'd like to put out there? [00:57:16] Speaker C: It did its job. I think early in the season they really expected too much from the clubs individually to produce additional content for the platform. Yeah, that's really it. [00:57:31] Speaker A: If you had to give it a letter grade overall, what would you give it? [00:57:34] Speaker C: B. [00:57:35] Speaker A: Okay, I don't mean to keep banging on you. Do you think it was priced correctly based on what you know, by the end of the season? Now that you've had an entire season of it, is the $100 or the $69 or whatever for somebody who actually had to pay for it, not through season ticket. Do you think thAt's a fair price. [00:57:53] Speaker C: Or correct price based on the price of other leagues and things that I've had to pay, whether it's MLS or the football league? Yeah, totally fair. [00:58:06] Speaker A: Okay, Buzz, you work in the industry. What are your thoughts about the whole thing? [00:58:11] Speaker B: Well, I think the camera quality is really good, way better than what we've had before, even here. I think the graphics package is phenomenal. The misinformation or incorrect information is way too high. [00:58:28] Speaker A: What do you mean by that? [00:58:30] Speaker B: Well, whether it be a difference between the lineup they show, between the pregame show and the actual game broadcast, where one graphic is done from a studio show with like, weaving those guys and another graphic is done by out of the truck. Sometimes there's a difference in those two graphics. The accuracy in that graphic being correct for what they're going to play and the players are in the right position was about. Only about 80%. Things like showing a warm up shot of Bernard Kamungo and having it say Nicosa Tafari on the graphic and they're talking about Nicosa Tafari and it's a shot of Bernard Kamungo. That specific one. I messaged Weebie and he messaged me back and he was tearing his hair out. He couldn't believe it. He was so angry. [00:59:15] Speaker A: You messaged Weebly. [00:59:18] Speaker B: Okay, yeah, it happens. There's a disconnect there. When you hire people that don't know the game, they don't know the team, they don't know the team they're covering. I get that if you're doing a broader league perspective, there might be hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of players, but your local guys should be able to give you the guy you asked for. I mean, the dude's literally wearing a jersey with a number on it. It's not that hard, let alone if you just know what the guys look know, but you can read the number if nothing else. So that kind of thing bothers not. There's a level of not good enough in that that would be untolerable at other large major NFL, for example. Or, you know, there's too many times the talent on the game would be a former guy who did the team that you're playing. Sometimes it's Mark who's doing the Mavericks and then also doing FC Dallas when he can. So he knows FC Dallas and Mark's a pro and so he does his very best with the other team. But other guys aren't as balanced as Mark and professional as Mark. So you would get these games where the two talents know almost nothing about SC Dallas and they spend the whole game talking about the other team and you're like, boys, Dallas is winning three one and they're still talking about the other team. They don't know what to say about the other team. Or they'll talk about a player. That player does this or that and the other and you're like, no, he doesn't. Who did you talk to? So they have some talent problems they need to iron out. But generally speaking, I think it's overall really excellent products. So my complaints are real, but I think overall, I think it's significantly better than what we had before. I think it's great that you can find the games very know if you have the package. I think it's great that they have a structure of when the games are on. So you know, when the games are on all the time. I don't buy this like, oh, that means our game has started a funny time locally. I don't care. National broadcast, man. I love the fact that, like the NFL, you know, the games here at noon and know, and then the night game at seven, know, it's like, you know, those structures. I do think that they could benefit from an afternoon game. So that you had this on that Saturday, so you had more of a like for those of us that want to have soccer all day, that we come off of the Euro games, there's a gap. I want to jump right to MLS or whatever, but that might benefit a little bit. But other than that, I think I'm 95% good on the whole thing. I think it's pretty solid product for the most part, especially for season one. [01:01:56] Speaker A: Your letter grade. [01:01:59] Speaker B: B plus. [01:02:00] Speaker A: Okay. And do you think the pricing was correct? [01:02:03] Speaker B: Yeah, I think so. I mean, I'm a guy that got it for free because I have season tickets, so it's hard for me to really qualify. [01:02:10] Speaker A: WoUld you have paid? Well, I guess I can't ask you that question because obviously you would have paid for it if you had to. [01:02:16] Speaker B: Yeah, I would have, because I do what I do, but I would have gotten one from probably as a media person anyway, even if I hadn't had one already from a season Ticket. I think it's a fantastic Value if you're a season ticket holder getting that as a free add on. I hope they keep that going because that's really nice. It'd be hard to take that away after they've given it to you. Otherwise, even if I didn't have a season ticket, I would have bought it. But I'm an MLS glutton, so it's hard for me to really say what the average fan might think about it. [01:02:47] Speaker A: Interesting. I just think from my point of view, my thoughts about it are more holistic in terms of its impact on the league nationally. I heard a lot of people saying that they felt like the league evaporated from Kind of the national scene this year and because it was all hidden in this sandbox of Apple TV, and I think there's something to that because I do think what happens when you sandbox your league on a streaming service. Not that ESPN was ever really paying that much attention to you in the first place or any national sports media outlet. It just gives them even a bigger reason not to pay attention to you. And I think that was taken advantage of to a High degree this year, and I don't know what that means for the league. I still haven't put my finger on if sandboxing the league behind a paywall like that is a feature or a bug of this entire thing. I still haven't figured that out. Because when Messi joined the league, well, lo and behold, everybody decided they wanted to sign up for a few months and watch the Thing, and it worked, right? So I Think it Is A function of if the Product's really good. It's kind of like selling season tickets. It's almost like the concept Of Them Putting the stadium Up In Frisco and Not Downtown. And this idea that Frisco is too far away for anybody to go to until the product's really good or there's something going on in Frisco, then everybody wants to get up there. Right? And that's kind of my point of view about this in particular, in terms of the actual product this year. I agree with you on the resolution. Quality was fantastic. All of the little bits and pieces. The thing that drove me nuts more than anything else, Buzz and Dan, was the studio stuff. I was really disappointed in the quality of the studio stuff. I felt like everybody involved from the talent point of view, very clearly. And again, I come from a background of talent management and producing talent. And the vibe I constantly got every time I turned that thing on is that everybody involved was far more concerned about how they looked on TV than making sure that they sounded like they knew what they were talking about. [01:05:10] Speaker B: Yeah, I know what you mean. [01:05:11] Speaker A: And actually servicing the people watching it. And that really drove me nuts repeatedly. Like, I stopped watching all that stuff because it just became so distracting. I didn't find it good information. That was the problem. And it felt more like a fashion show or hey, look at us kind of thing than anything that was entertaining, like any of the NFL products or NBA shows or any other sport that's going on. And maybe that's just a byproduct of first year growth. They'll figure that part out. [01:05:43] Speaker B: It'll get better. I think it's the balance of. I know what you mean about the national picture. The balance with that is the current death of the regional sports network that we're seeing. [01:05:52] Speaker A: Yes. [01:05:53] Speaker B: Dallas couldn't get one of those deals in the first place, so they were only getting on local TV with a very small reach, greater penetration in the market, but a very small reach outside of that, to the idea that now Dallas'games are going to the whole country all the time versus they were only going to the local market all the time. So for a local club like Dallas, were they actually going to get money from this? When they really were never getting any money before? They were almost always doing buys. It's astronomically better for a couple like Dallas for the league. You traded maybe some national exposure for worldwide exposure because Messi, perfect timing of that thing and being able to sell this thing now around the whole gigantic worldwide, I would love to see numbers of what they made up internationally compared to what they made up domestically. I'd love to see those numbers. I do think that keeping a game now and then on Fox was really important and they really need to keep doing know. The more they can, the better in know overall. It's like it's going to take a couple of years to shake out in terms of those macro level ideas before we really know whether what the impact is. [01:07:01] Speaker A: Yeah, and I'm also interested in seeing how this thing progresses as they build out their infrastructure. Because what most people probably don't remember or ever knew in the first place is that part of this Apple deal is that MLS was supposed to build their entire own broadcasting tech stack and facility and everything. And because the deal got done so late before the season, they had to go out and hire somebody to do all of that for them. So I'm assuming they're still in the process of building out their facility and getting all the equipment and hiring all the people and I'm assuming everything will get better as they get all that done. But I'd be shocked if it's done in time for the 24th season. [01:07:41] Speaker B: Yeah, I would almost guarantee you that it won't be next season. As far as I understand, they're still working all that. So what they're doing right now, they'll probably continue to do is that the games are produced on site out of a truck. Producer, director, graphics are added talent sometimes is on site, but often is not. Often they'll be in a different location than the actual game is happening and they're just adding in talent. But I don't know the percentage of that and I don't know how often it is. I can usually tell when they're not if I pay really close attention. So I know it's not 100%, but I imagine that next season we'll see the same basic progress. And I would bet you for 2025 they'll actually have that facility ready and then you'll see a change. You'll see a change in the pre and halftime. You'll see a change in what it looks like from site. They'll just be sending camera feeds back. I know they've done that some because I've been on site when they've been sending camera feeds back only and not producing a game, but most of the time it's still produced, almost always locally with crew and stuff in a truck. [01:08:41] Speaker A: Yeah. One of the things that you mentioned, Buzz, that was really the big surprise out of all of what came out of this, what I did not have on my bingo card was people complaining about the games all being played at the same time. [01:08:54] Speaker B: Right. [01:08:55] Speaker A: Because I have been told for the last several years that what the youngs want in the world is to be able to watch whatever they want to watch, when they want to watch it. And so the fact that your team may be playing at the same time that another big game is going on is not a big deal because you can just watch it on demand, on your phone or in your iPad or under the covers or while you're sitting on the toilet, whatever you want. I thought that was the whole point of this. And so I was really shocked at the amount of complaining that I continued to see all season of people fussing about the fact that games were all at the same time. I just never could figure that one out. [01:09:31] Speaker B: Yeah, that's something I've actually complained about the other way for years, since like the beginning of the league, I've always told them, man, your games are always at different times. And then the team would always be like, oh, no, they're always at the same time. No, dude, the NFL is always at the same time. [01:09:44] Speaker A: Noon, right? [01:09:45] Speaker B: Three night game, you know, when it is, period. The Cowboys may vary in that, but there's a game on at those times. And that's not like that at MLS. At MLS, it'd be all over the place. Everybody starts local on whatever time that they want to have their game start local. So the games were all over the place in terms of when they would be on. And even FC Dallas, it'd be like, you got the noon Sunday game, you got the two Sunday game, then there's a Saturday at four, then there's a seven, then there's an 830. It's like, dude, you're all over the place. Nobody knows when your games are on. It's ridiculous. [01:10:16] Speaker A: Well, the other thing that I wanted to mention, because it was the one feature element I was most suspect of actually working was the feature of being able to listen to the home team's radio audio. Man, that is a great, fantastic feature that I thought, I was so delighted to see that actually technically worked. The amount of delay that ever happened with that was generally not there. Sometimes if there was a little bit of delay, it was very slight and not a problem. My review of it is that the quality of that varied from team to team. Dallas's in particular got better. They figured some things out technically as the season went on. Crowd noise and sideline reporters and things like that. But it's one of the best features is that you can pick that instead of the national people that they decided to glue to the game. [01:11:06] Speaker B: I will confess that I never listened to the local radio guys. [01:11:11] Speaker A: Really? [01:11:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:11:13] Speaker A: Well, because you probably didn't watch many of the games live anyway, and so once you had to watch it on demand, it was not available to you. You had to watch the game live. [01:11:22] Speaker B: To get the home audio even live. I watched the national broadcast because I'm actually very interested in hearing what other people think about FCD Dallas, you know, like what other commentators and what outside broadcasters, what the perception of the team is. I know what Steve Davis thinks of the know. Steve Davis is a very smart about. He and I talk about the team all the time. I know what he thinks about the hear. I love Steve. I don't need to hear what Steve thinks about, you know, I'm interested in hearing what Max Bratos and apologies to. [01:11:54] Speaker A: Mr. Davis if he's listening to this episode. [01:11:56] Speaker B: Steve, I love you, you know, my boy, but I'd rather hear Dunny talk about FC Dallas Or Taylor Swellman, who I think sometimes is not necessarily the peak of the creme de la creme, but nonetheless, I want to hear what he thinks about FC Dallas because I can be fascinated sometimes with perspective, right. And how people will talk about FC Dallas without knowing anything about, you know, I'll listen to people talk about how where Alan Velasco's been playing and I'll be like, dude, you haven't watched a single game, have you? It's like he played that way one game, and then he would play back the other place like five straight games. And now this is the first game back in that position, and they'll be like, oh, he's been playing. No, no, he know often tell me you don't know a lot about SC Dallas. Without telling me you know a lot about SC Dallas. And that's usually how it is when they'll describe a player. And sometimes you learn something new. Sometimes you learn something, a perspective you didn't see. Sometimes you're like, man, you don't know anything about this team. So that's all part of it for me. That's part of my enjoyment of the game, is listening to people that don't know the team talk about the team. [01:12:57] Speaker A: Dan, did you listen to the local broadcast? [01:13:00] Speaker C: Because I was generally at the stadium. [01:13:03] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Okay, fair play. Yeah, I generally listen to the local broadcast. The only times I didn't listen was because there was something going on with the audio and it just was too distracting from the game. But they got a lot of that stuff worked out. [01:13:17] Speaker B: I will say that everyone that's in the Patreon or the discord that listens to the great many of them are all in on the local broadcast all the time. And they absolutely love it. They think it's the best thing ever. And I think that's a really amazing feature. It's a phenomenal feature, even if I don't take prayer for myself. [01:13:32] Speaker A: You know what that is though, Buzz? I think that's a byproduct of the fact that everybody's used to hearing a local broadcast with the games and having a national, unrelated crew calling the game was foreign this year. It seemed weird. Yeah, fair. So plus, we're blessed with the fact that Steve's really, really good and Owen's really, really, um. There you go. All right. Okay. Well, interesting. So overall, I thought the product, I thought it was good and interesting. Technically, the Apple stuff I thought was good. My biggest fascination with the whole thing is not how it relates to MLS in any way, shape or form. For me, the most fascinating, interesting thing to keep an eye on is how this affects other sports that are consumed on television across the world, whether it be college football, the NFL, NBA, everybody's got eyeballs on this thing to see how well it does or doesn't work. You know what? [01:14:35] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [01:14:36] Speaker A: This is one giant guinea pig that MLS is right now for everybody else. [01:14:41] Speaker B: Yeah. There's no question. I know a lot of people in this business, and the local landscape is just absolutely crazy right now with what else going on between Cuban Ranger stars and ballies and what may or may not happen with any of can't. This is not the place to recap all that stuff, but it's crazy. I guarantee you that every league, people have asked them about Apple. Apple's been bidding on products, trying to get people to come on board to do it this exact same way. They're trying to get into things worldwide just like this in other locations. This is just their first guinea pig. It's just the first one. And I'm sure they're going to be highly invested in it. They seem really happy with it in terms of what they're putting out there publicity wise. So the next few years is going to be fascinating. Yeah. [01:15:23] Speaker A: And nobody should miss the fact that the whole announcement of Cuban selling the mavericks was, in large part, in his own words, tied to the fact that he doesn't know where all of the media rights values are going for the NBA. And I think he thinks he's selling at a peak point, because when the NBA goes, does their next deal, it may not be the bigger increase in value that everybody thinks it's going to be. And he's talked about that at quite a length. And so the resolution of that may be a product of subscription based stuff online like this, like what MLS is doing. [01:16:04] Speaker B: Well, don't understand that him, he and Jerry Jones and the hunts all want gambling, sportsbook gambling here in sure, they lost last time, but this is a long term play from all of them. And that's part of what Keeven's doing. It's part of what Jones is doing. It's part of what the hunts are. Know, you notice they all have casino sponsors. It's not a coincidence. [01:16:25] Speaker A: Okay. All right, well, I think we've done a service tonight, boys. [01:16:31] Speaker B: Yeah, that was a solid run. That was over an hour. [01:16:34] Speaker A: Somehow we managed to Prattle on about this stuff longer than we probably should. Yeah, for sure. I don't know what we're going to talk about next week. Maybe something else will pop up and we can somehow have it for six for an hour. [01:16:45] Speaker B: Well, the draft is going to be around the corner. They got something to talk about. [01:16:53] Speaker A: Did you say draft? MLS draft? [01:16:54] Speaker B: Yeah. Way to get everybody to tune in, Peter. [01:16:56] Speaker A: Nice. Stop selling that. [01:16:58] Speaker B: Good job cross promoing next week's podcast. Thanks for that. [01:17:04] Speaker A: Sorry, Buzz. Yay. All right, MLS Draft. Let's go. [01:17:11] Speaker B: Well, between now and then we have the free agency day, we have the reentry draft, we have all these MLS shenanigans happening. [01:17:21] Speaker A: When are we going to start talking about what the kit's going to look like next year? [01:17:24] Speaker B: We talk about all the time, but it probably will learn something in January, I'm sure. [01:17:27] Speaker A: Dan, what are you hearing? You're the kit guy on this thing. [01:17:30] Speaker C: The kit itself, not a lot can tell you the goalkeeper top. I can tell you the training gear, but not the kit. [01:17:39] Speaker A: I think we're falling short on our sources these days. [01:17:43] Speaker B: They're just really doing a good job of not letting any of that leak. They used to be leaks galore and now they threaten it. Fire everybody if it mean not really, but you know what mean. So, yeah, maybe they'll do some teasers. I mean, Dan could probably tell you what the template is. So if they give us some fabric teasers, we'll throw some stuff together and see where it goes. Third degree. The podcast is brought to you by Soccer 90. Com. The holiday season is here. Make sure and get all your gifts you could possibly get for your family, friends. FC Dallas Gear North Texas Gear, they got the European stuff, the national team stuff, they got it all. Soccer 90. Com code third degree at checkout, 20% off Soccer 90. Com some exclusions, band the Line. [01:18:23] Speaker A: All right, well, there it is for episode 240. Dan, thank you very much, sir. Always good to talk to you. [01:18:30] Speaker C: Likewise. [01:18:31] Speaker A: And Buzz, you're awesome, sir. [01:18:34] Speaker B: Thanks, man. Be sure and be here next week for the absolutely riveting draft talk, which I know will fascinate everybody. It'll be the best pot of the year. [01:18:42] Speaker A: Yahoo. [01:18:44] Speaker B: Thanks, man. [01:18:45] Speaker A: And thank you, FC Dallas. Curious fan. We will speak to you next week on an incredibly riveting episode of Third Degree, the podcast. [01:18:53] Speaker C: How do we fit in a whole month of draft talk? Who knows? Find out next week. [01:18:58] Speaker A: Third Degree the Third Degree Nair Podcast Third Degree the Third Degree Never podcast Third Degree Nair podcast head by CA.