3rd Degree the Podcast #280

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:00:04] Speaker B: Ooh. [00:00:05] Speaker A: Mm hmm. Oh. [00:00:09] Speaker C: Third degree, the third degree nap, I guess. [00:00:18] Speaker A: Third degree, the third degree nap, I guess. Third degree, the third degree nap, I can. Well, hello there, FC Dallas. Curious fan. Welcome to another episode. This one, importantly, numbered two 80, 280 of third degree. The podcast. Hello, everybody. Here he is, the man of the hour. Lots of him. In this episode, the good Dan Crook. Howdy, Dan. [00:00:47] Speaker C: Oh, Christ. I'd better leave now. [00:00:51] Speaker A: You might want to just have a Internet faux pas real quick if you don't want to. And your hero, my hero, everybody's hero. Editor, founder of Thirddegree.net, and the original soccer influencer himself, the good buzz kerrick. Come in, buzz. [00:01:11] Speaker B: Hey, fellas. I want to thank you both for coming in and doing the podcast in a week when absolutely nothing of importance happened for this franchise. No news to talk about at all. [00:01:21] Speaker A: Had to drag my sorry, sad ass to my computer on a late Thursday evening after watching the latest episode of Rings of power. [00:01:33] Speaker B: How's that show holding up? [00:01:35] Speaker A: I'm not a book. I'm not a Tolkien book reader. You know, I'm just kind of a consumer of the movie and tv show versions of it. Right. It's okay. It's better than I thought it was going to be. But I have a feeling that for the. If you're really into the story and the lore and the canon and all that, I'm sure it's an utter disaster and nothing but to laugh at, so. [00:01:57] Speaker B: Well, I. You know, I'm not a lawyer nerd of Lord of the Rings either, but I. You know, there was some clunkiness in the first season of storytelling, but I enjoyed it much more than I did. For example, the wheel of time, which, being a big, huge book fan on that one, was an absolute dumpster fire. [00:02:10] Speaker A: That shows terrible. Yeah, it really is not good. Okay, well, let's get into it. Nobody cares about the we, the rings of power. What everybody cares about is the giant news that finally drop that we have talked about for. How long have we been talking about this? Two years. [00:02:29] Speaker B: Almost two years. It was about. It was late in last season that we first started hearing about a stadium, and then I was at some presser kind of event, and I specifically asked Dan Hunt about it, and that's when he first flat out mentioned that, yes, we're doing this as coincided with the World cup. So it's been almost. It's been over a year, so something between a year and a half. [00:02:54] Speaker A: It is exciting. You know, I don't know how many people who listen to the podcast were around back in 2003, 2002. That whole period of time after Lamar took the team over and the original. I still don't know how many people are aware that the original stadium was going to be going in McKinney, Texas. [00:03:15] Speaker B: Right. [00:03:16] Speaker A: And I think either people forgot about that or don't know that up until the last minute when McKinney essentially took their football and went home. That's where the stadium was going. And then it all seemed lost. Like I'm trying to remember the whole background about what happened between how long between the McKinney divorce and the Allen deal finally came together. How much time passed, the Frisco deal? [00:03:43] Speaker B: I mean, yeah, no, it's not very long at all. Because if you remember, you know, this, of course, that the, the hunt's willingness to take on the FC Dallas at the time, Dallas Burn franchise is what saved it from relegation and the reason they were willing to not. [00:03:55] Speaker A: You mean that from collapse, death, from. [00:03:57] Speaker B: Being shut down, relegations, same thing. So, like, the hunt's willingness to take that franchise on saved it. It would have been folded and they would have kept Tampa instead, Tampa Bay mutiny. So it wasn't. And the hunt stepped in because the Huntsde already had feelers out and were, and were already negotiating with, you, Will, with McKinney. And then that all fell apart and the hunts had already committed to taking on FC Dallas, Dallas Burn. And they really rapidly flipped it around and I think probably Frisco pounced the minute they saw the McKinney thing fall powered. I think Fisco came in hard and said, we want it because they're very proactive with this idea that they're going to be this very modern sports and they're an entertainment centric city and they always have been from way back in that, from that area. And they had, and they had that big, huge bond fund that they passed at the time and they sort of were looking for something to get. And so it was a sort of, it all came together really quickly, if my memory is correct. And, you know, we saw those drawings that I posted the other day on Twitter. We saw those in 2003 when they were already playing in Southlake. And then, you know, they had that, that dirt started moving around. There was that sign up there on Main street up in Frisco when I first went up there and looked at it, you know, really soon. I mean. Cause you know, they, they knocked that thing out within like a year and a half. And it was like, you know, early in 2004 they started playing there. So they moved quick. [00:05:22] Speaker A: Yeah. And the reason why I bring this up is that I just, you know, for those who weren't around at that time, the level of excitement that not only had Dallas's team survived, but that we were getting our own soccer specific stadium, which, with the time have been the third. [00:05:39] Speaker B: Columbus was first. I don't remember who was. [00:05:41] Speaker A: I thought LA was Galaxy. The Galaxy had one beforehand. I thought it was the crew. The galaxy, then Dallas. [00:05:48] Speaker B: Yeah, I would buy that. [00:05:49] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:05:49] Speaker B: I don't remember. [00:05:50] Speaker A: Somebody's going to tell me I'm wrong. [00:05:51] Speaker B: But anyway, first I remember that. [00:05:53] Speaker A: Yeah. The point being is Dallas was one of the. One of the rare teams that had its own soccer specific stadium. And the controversy around the fact that it was up in the middle of a cattle pasture in Frisco was kind of a side conversation. Those of us that really cared, we're super excited about all of it. And so what I feel like is happening this week is that level of kind of newfound excitement over something that had kind of started to wane in fan excitement to a certain degree over the last few years, which we can talk more about per what happened last night. And it just. It really was cool to kind of see people get excited about the future of the club when the renderings came out. Because, you know, I. We can talk about our own individual levels of excitement about that. But I think, by and large, the reception of the renderings, what they look like in those drawings, was a total home run for Dan Hunt. [00:06:55] Speaker B: Yeah. I will say one thing, that they've always done a really great job with their renderings. This club. I mean, every time, you know, in hindsight now, we look back at old renderings, and we're like, those look really lame. But at the time, they were like, oh, my gosh. And then the hall of fame ones, they're like, oh, my God. Look amazing. And the new ones now look. Oh, my gosh. They look amazing. The roof looks amazing. It's all. I mean, it's hard not to get in times like these get really, really excited. And it's not till, of course, you get into the actual building of it and you get overruns and you get. Things happen. And matter of fact, like, you remember, of course, in the original stadium bill, we had that torrential summer of rains. And the stadium flooded out and delayed them for months and cost all this extra money. So, you know, the execution is not always the renderings, but the rendings are always look so good. [00:07:34] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:07:34] Speaker B: It's hard not to be excited. [00:07:35] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, to be fair, none of the drawings of any stage of this stadium have turned out to be what we actually ended up getting. And I. And I am 100% prepared for what we saw on Monday night is not going to be what the stadium looks like in 2028. It's just, it could be better, it could be worse. I don't know. But it won't be exactly like what we got or what we got in the drawings. [00:07:57] Speaker B: Of course not. [00:07:58] Speaker A: Yeah. All right, so, uh, let's talk. So, Dan, you went to the press conference. You are first up to the microphone. First off, why don't you just kind of tell everybody about Dan's presentation and how he presented the plan for executing on this, please? [00:08:18] Speaker C: So Dan spoke briefly, just kind of a little impassioned speech. They had the major projects director, wherever it was, for the city of Frisco, that did the main presentation, which was the. The slideshow that was kind of. Sorry, the PDF that was kind of shared around the day before, all the points of the phasing, financials, all that good fun stuff. So it was effectively the city making a presentation to the city. Dan did speak a little bit about what the city means to his family and made a big thing about how the stadium in Frisco was the last thing that he worked on with his dad. And, you know, although the tugging at Heartstrings part of it, but, yeah, yeah. His involvement was really to be there to speak to people after and take photos. [00:09:16] Speaker A: I will quote Dan Hunt, and we should probably keep this one in the back of our minds. He was being interviewed by somebody and he said, quote, I. I think we're going to build one of the great soccer venues in the entire world. Now, that is a pretty tall statement, even for a guy who is well documented in the art of hyperbole. [00:09:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:09:44] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, I think I will say they had a couple of miniature scrums, different tv stuff, and people jumping in. It kind of escalated. It started with talking about soccer specific stadium in MLS and progressed to soccer, soccer specific stadium in North America. And then, you know, drunk under his. [00:10:09] Speaker A: Own power, he decided to go global. [00:10:13] Speaker C: Maybe. Maybe I. [00:10:16] Speaker B: The one thing I'll take away from a lot of that or that part, you know, the discussion of the family and the connection to his dad and. And, you know, the. How committed they are as a family. That Frisco. Look, this all reinforces what we've said all along, that the hunts were never going to leave Frisco, that, like, all these people were talking about, oh, they could go play. Here they go play there. No, dude, they're not. Stop. They're staying in Frisco. This. They're going to be there till way after all of us are gone. It's like they're not leaving that setup. It's too good of a setup for them. [00:10:45] Speaker C: Yeah. And obviously now they're locked into till 2057. [00:10:49] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Why don't we talk about the money just a little bit, if you don't mind, whoever. Buzz, I know you broke it down in your thing. Dan, do you, whoever wants to talk about the money. [00:11:02] Speaker B: Well, I can tell you what was in that little document, which is that, you know, it's a project of 182 million, but, you know, a lot of that is for the stuff that's going to be outside of the stadium. You know, if I read this document. [00:11:16] Speaker C: Correctly, actually, it's not. That's just for the stadium. [00:11:19] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, see, I didn't read it correctly. [00:11:20] Speaker C: Well, no, I thought so, too. And then they clarified that at the. So 182 million for the stadium, the economic development committee and financial, something that had done their votes earlier in a day. The school board had voted on their part the day before that. So that's going to come from mostly the, like the penny taxes on hotels and stuff like that, the, the usual shirt that stadiums get built with. So not directly like the taxpayer. The hunts will contribute $65 million. They will. Similar to the hall of fame, how the $34 million came from the city, but the hunts just raised the rent so that they would pay it back. So they're doing that to the tuna. 65 million. The actual overall development, because the majority of it is privately funded, will be 1.1 to 1.3 billion. [00:12:23] Speaker A: For all the ancillary stuff they're building around the stadium. [00:12:27] Speaker C: Yeah. The four office buildings, 1.2 million class A office space, 200. I can't remember the size of the apartment building. I think it was a 200 room luxury hotel, was the phrasing of it. [00:12:45] Speaker B: I think it's important to mention at this point that the stadium renovations and the other ancillary things are effectively two different projects. Whether it's different companies involved in building it, whether it's different timelines. Like the basic timeline for the stadium renovation is to be finished by, I believe it's 2026. Dan, correct me if I'm wrong, and then the. But the stuff on the outside, the timelines are like 2035, 2037. So the ancillary stuff, we call it ancillary. From the city's perspective, that's probably the primary, in a sense. The hotel the offices, the mixed use, the condominiums, you know, that's all major, major projects. That'll take much longer. [00:13:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:13:20] Speaker B: The stadium itself is much smaller. [00:13:22] Speaker C: And the big thing is the. The hotel and apartment building will go on land that is owned by the hunts, not by the city. The four office buildings will go on land that is owned by the hunts. So, you know, they're obviously going to gain in that way. And then they have two target dates. One's like 2035 and one's 2037. To get those two phases. The. The southeast corner that's got the. So, like, where field zero is right now, opposite the farmers market. [00:13:54] Speaker A: Field zero is the field out by the parking lot on the east side where the kids play soccer before the game. [00:14:01] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that that gets done by 2035, they get a kickback of something like a grant kind of paid back to them, which kind of goes back to the 65 million, I guess, that they're paying. And then the same with the 2037 for the four office buildings. [00:14:21] Speaker A: Yeah. To me, it's kind of interesting because one of the kind of cool things that have happened, Buzz, you did this and other people did it, is starting posting photos of what the stadium look like and the surrounding area looked like when the place first opened. And it was essentially a stadium, a bunch of soccer fields and nothing else. And. And. But the promise back then was is that all this stuff would grow up around it. And certainly in the 20 years, or effectively 20 years since then, a ton of crap has grown up. There's a brand new city hall. There's all the stuff across the street on main street, the stuff directly to the west of it, the stuff on the other side of the tollway. All that is, you know, new in the existence. So now it's almost like there's a phase two of that same kind of growth pattern that's going to take place over the next 15 years of watching all this other stuff replace the stuff that has grown up in the first version of the stadium. [00:15:17] Speaker C: So they kept referring to the halo effect. It's what they're talking about for the PGA of America headquarters and for the star, where exactly the stadium, you build it, and then everything else kind of grows around it. So for them now, because Frisco Square is already there, that's not getting touched. What they're talking about now for their halo effect is if you cast your mind back a couple of years, right, you. If you drove along Main street, you would see soccer corner, and then you would see absolutely nothing. And then you would get to, like, the old downtown area where, like, summer moon isn't that steakhouse that burned down. Now the railyard's there, and everything's kind of filled in between where the big silos are and the old downtown. Well, that area is now going to fill back in to the stadium because you've got this development, you've got roller towns putting that taproom in where the grain silo is next to the farmers market. So they're talking about, you know, this now all encompasses the rail district as, like, an enormous entertainment area. [00:16:21] Speaker A: Yeah, there's lots of plans, man. It's going to be really cool. And there's a ton of money involved in this. The hunts are just essentially paying rent for a much bigger rent for a lot longer time. The money's being fronted, obviously, by something else. But the. I think the important part for people to know is, is that when there are cost overruns, and there will most absolutely, certainly be cost overruns, as there was with the hall of fame and the south end remodel reconstruction and the original build. And the original build, the hunts are, that comes directly out of their pockets. They're responsible for paying all that. And it won't be, you know, couch cushion money. It's going to be a substantial amount of money, whether that be because of delays, inflation on construction costs is, you know, when the concrete costs went up during the south end reconstruction, or if the Clark and Dan hunts of the world decide they want their own personal suite of. In the building that wasn't in the original plan, like they have at Arrowhead. Uh, they got to pay for all that out of their own pocket. So it's a big investment on their part. [00:17:26] Speaker B: There have been even times, like, halfway through the build, they're like, wait, we want to change this. You know, like. Like in the original build, like the fact that it was in the bowl and they got all those reins wasn't there originally. Like, they were going to come out at midfield, there was going to be like a tunnel that was going to come out, and they moved all that. Yes, and they put the elevators in the north in, and then, you know, it's like, it all changes. And those overruns, even the weather ones, back in the original time, because they. They lost like 40 or 50 days or something from rain. That all I want to say. The overruns were like 40, $50 million that time, if I memory, sirs, uh, they definitely been way up there both times. [00:18:00] Speaker A: I. I think the other thing to know is that, you know, when they decided to put this thing up there. This was a long. This was a long term vision for Lamar Hunt. I. I don't know how many people that are fans of the club realize and understand just how much land both the Hunt family and the Jones family have been gobbling up in Colin county for. For a time, dating well before this stadium was there. I mean, they've been doing this for, you know, a long time. And the amount of land those two families own in Collin county is substantial. And both of them now are cashing in on all that ownership. Uh, yeah. [00:18:40] Speaker C: You look at Prosper, that entire place was owned by Jerry Jones. [00:18:44] Speaker A: Yeah, there. Yeah. And there's a whole bunch of. So I, you know, somebody a few months ago made a joke that they're going to start calling Dallas Fort Worth. You know, the current acronym is DFW. And somebody said, you know, it's going to be end up being DFFW for Dallas Frisco, Fort Worth. [00:19:00] Speaker C: Someone actually used that phrase well in the council present. [00:19:03] Speaker A: And you know why? Because it's, I am telling you, in 20 years time, that is going to be a legitimate acronym. Because the number of the growth and the number of people and the stuff that is going to end up in Collin county is. Is going to be frightening for most of us that have lived here our entire life to understand just how huge it is. And all of us that were. That, you know, tried to debate and argue people for why they were wrong, for putting this thing in Frisco 20 years ago, we're all just going to sit around and go, we told you so. This was the right thing to do. Because even 20 years later, it's still the right thing to do. But 20 years from now, it's absolutely, in hindsight, going to be the absolute best thing they could have done in terms of market potential and audience, et cetera, et cetera. [00:19:51] Speaker C: That is the most positive thing you've ever said about the hunt family. [00:19:56] Speaker A: Well, look, I got to give them credit, you know. I mean, I would have loved for them to have figured out a way to build a stadium somewhere in Dallas county upper. But that doesn't exist. It never existed yet. [00:20:12] Speaker B: The thing to remember, you know, and new fans won't know this, other than us having said it, is that this franchise was saved because of this stadium. You know, it wasn't literally this one at the time, but then two months later, this is the one that they got. And this is why this franchise still exists. And people talk about how they wished it was this place or that place the other place they wish the team had played, what was blah, blah, blah. The reality is that the hunts in this stadium are the reason this team still is still around. [00:20:37] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. [00:20:38] Speaker B: So you know what? You can have all these. These discussions about if the team would have been folded, would they eventually have come back to Dallas with a different franchise? You know, it's a big market, so probably. But, you know, would there have been another owner with the pockets that would have wanted to do it? That would have been the hard part, because the hunts are often more in with Kansas City these days than Dallas in a lot of ways. So, you know, the bottom line is, this is the reality we live in, and this is the stadium that we have to cheer on, the team that we all follow. And it's going to be in a place that's going to explode with people far beyond what it is already. And they're going to look like geniuses for putting it there in the first place. [00:21:12] Speaker A: All right, let's talk about some of the features, the new features that we see in the renderings. Buzz, what's your favorite new feature of the rebuild? [00:21:24] Speaker B: Probably the roof on the what? You know, the general reconstruction of the entire structure on the west side, which will be improved press boxes, which. And broadcasting, which, of course, matter to me, but also the size of it and the size of the roof on that side. Because we've all sat on the east side, and we know that just putting a roof over the east side wasn't going to do any squat at 07:30 p.m. you know, you needed a structure sticking up on the west. So that's, probably, for me, the best, most exciting part. That specific. [00:21:54] Speaker A: Yeah. And just to be clear, for people that, you know, haven't read the details or just saw the drawings, the roof is not going to be a solid structure. It is going to be a tarp, just a much bigger version of what already currently exists over the south end. Did they provide any other details about the roof's capacity to shelter from rain and stuff? Dan? [00:22:14] Speaker B: Not specifically, but. Oh, I know you're sorry. You're going for Dan there. But if you look at the pictures, the one on the east side is about the same structure as the one on the south, but the one on the west is demonstrably bigger. [00:22:23] Speaker A: Yes. [00:22:23] Speaker B: You know, and covers, among other things, like the big, giant, huge tv screen, which they're going to want to have relatively covered, too. So it's pretty substantial. [00:22:34] Speaker C: Yeah. And I think they've, you know, we've always talked about when people go on about COVID on the east side, you know, I may be wrong here, but in the renderings, it does kind of look like the west side roof is pitched up a little bit higher as well, just to kind of give that. That extra shade to the. To the east. [00:22:53] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I'm. Look, I'm assuming hks and all the architects did all their sundial, you know, algorithm Jim jam and figured out what the best solution was in terms of covering up the east side for a 730 kickoff. I don't. I would not anticipate that anything is a 100% solution, but I do anticipate that it'll satisfy most people for that particular purpose. What I don't understand because somebody asked me this question because I. And I realized I've never sat under the tarp on the south end for a game before. I. And so I have no concept if that tarp actually works in. It appears to work for shade, but I don't know. Does it protect rain from coming through? [00:23:33] Speaker C: It depends. It depends how the wind blows. I've been under there before where actually, there was a game against Colorado. It got called off last year. I stayed entirely dry in the corner just. Just under that. Other times, you know, if the rain's blowing from the north, it's going to blow it directly under it. [00:23:53] Speaker A: Yeah, I meant just like coming rain, hitting it on the top. Is it permeable in terms of letting water through it? Because it's a fabric, and so, yes, it's water resistant. [00:24:01] Speaker C: Okay. It's like Tpu, I think. [00:24:03] Speaker A: Okay, interesting, because that was the other thing that dawned on me when I was looking at the drawings, is that, you know, obviously it is emboldened with a giant Toyota stadium. The Toyota logo stadium. If they change. If they change sponsorship, how do they fix that? [00:24:21] Speaker C: I think the team added that because the videos you can kind of see when they do the transitions, the logo moves slightly in it, and the transition isn't timed at the exact same time. So I think that was an FC Dallas add on just to keep Toyota in it, because there's no Toyota iconography anywhere in. Or any sponsors for that matter, in any of the. Well, actually, no, there is actually a small ad board, but there's not like anything like, super bold and obvious that says Toyota in the architect's drawings. [00:24:55] Speaker A: Yeah, well, it would be surprising to me if they didn't put a logo on the roof, for all the obvious reasons, but at the same, have one. [00:25:04] Speaker C: On top of the stage roof right now. [00:25:07] Speaker A: No, I knew that, but if it's a piece of, if it's fabric and they sublimate the logo of a sponsor on it and they change sponsor, that's going to be a huge project to replace that at a huge cost. I would anticipate. Just a thought. It was just what ran through across my mind. Dan, do you have a particular favorite new feature out of the renderings after. [00:25:30] Speaker C: What I let down? Those video boards were on the south end, particularly before they linked it up to the whole system and they just displayed an advert in rotation. 6000 square foot video board is pretty cool. [00:25:44] Speaker A: The one that will be on the north end above the safety. [00:25:47] Speaker C: The one that is supposedly the largest in any soccer specific stadium in North America. [00:25:53] Speaker A: Yeah, that is pretty cool. And it's not my particular favorite component. I'll get to that in a second. But in the video it does clearly state that there were on the north end where the old stage used to be. The beer garden will be a safe standing area and I'm guessing based on the numbers that it's going to hold at least like 3000 people. [00:26:16] Speaker C: 3400 is what they said. Yeah, hopefully they just make it a real safe standing area this time and not some crappy bike racks. [00:26:25] Speaker A: Yeah, run out to Frisco ISD and get all their old used bike racks. They. We're throwing in the trash. No, I suspect it'll be very, very nice, especially with that video board. Now, Buzz, a lot of people made jokes about whether or not it was so nice. Could we hold edge fest there again? Rip edge. Edge fest. But, but then it was like, no, there's no stage. But in fact we're hearing there is actually a stage. [00:26:55] Speaker B: Yeah. From, from the people that we know that have been involved with this project for a while. Our understanding is that the portions of the, where the fans are going to be in the north end, these new seats are adaptable in some way. I'm not privy to the engineering of it, but are some way adaptable to have a stage area there. If you want to get something there now, it won't be nearly as big as they have now, obviously. And that's one of my favorite things too, is getting rid of that big, huge, giant sound light rig or whatever and getting rid of that big, huge, blank, empty stave and huge walls over that in the stadium. It was just so empty and awful as it is. [00:27:29] Speaker A: But where will they sell tacomas though, is what I need to know. [00:27:32] Speaker B: On the roof, apparently, as you pointed out. I'm sure they'll find a place in the walkways as they do now, to have tacomas. [00:27:40] Speaker C: Or that would be the doctor pink parking lot. [00:27:43] Speaker A: Right. Actually, Buzz, you just said a word that is my favorite part of the renders. And the thing I'm most excited about is it appears. Now, I don't know this to be true, because the renderings don't give it a full detail, but I'm excited by the. What appears to be the correction of the problem of the original stadium, which was trying to get around the entire place in terms of the size and width and breadth of the concourses. And it does appear that with this change, you'll be able to circumvent the entire diameter of the stadium in one big loop, if you look at the drawings. And I'm excited about that, just mostly because currently it was so poorly thought out with the concession stands and stuff. It was. It's obviously way too crowded and hard to navigate, but that looks like a massive improvement for a game day experience. [00:28:40] Speaker B: I mean, it's all good. New bathrooms, new concessions, new. More suites. That's more revenue. I mean, it all looks good. [00:28:45] Speaker A: We're going to get led lighting and a new sound system. That I'm just going to trust is not going to sound like, you know, somebody screaming into a 55 gallon drum from Sam's. [00:28:56] Speaker B: Led lighting means you're going to get that white effect when they score that. Your models may vary on whether you like that or not. [00:29:02] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm cool with that. [00:29:03] Speaker B: Yeah, it's tough for tv. Who cares about tv? [00:29:08] Speaker A: Sorry, Buzz. [00:29:09] Speaker C: So it depends what color they do it in as well. [00:29:11] Speaker A: Yeah, that's fair. Okay, so let's talk a little bit about what Dan, did they talk about the plan? Because this is going to get into a whole different part of the conversation, is the impact of what this. What this means for the next. Not one, not two, but three MLS seasons. [00:29:31] Speaker C: Yep. So, yeah, I guess we'll get on to the. The part that you're referring to directly at the end. But effectively, the east side will be the starting point. That will. That should begin in January or February. Midway through 2026. In the summer is when they expect to complete that. They will then start on the west side. Full completion is expected for the start of the 2028 season. Now, the north is the kind of discrepancy in this, because Buzz had mentioned, we obviously know someone who's linked to that project. Um, and they were under the understanding that the north end would be phase one. It would be part of that mid 2026. Uh, the other day at the council meeting, and all the stuff after it, all the talk was very vague. When I asked Ann Hunt about it, he kind of just included it in, um, some other detail was that it would. It would be a part of the first and second phase, so not necessarily opening at the very end of it, but it would just kind of be in there somewhere. Presumably, as you know, project delays and budget comes into effect. [00:30:51] Speaker A: Well, they did also announce that the. And this is going to get into ticketing and so forth, which is for the 2020 upcoming 2025 season. Capacity will be limited to the west side as they're going to, as Dan said, going to start on the east side and so limited to the west and south. And seating will be limited. What was the capacity number, buzz? 11,011. [00:31:19] Speaker B: 5000. 11,000. [00:31:20] Speaker C: So Dan said 11,000 or eleven five. He kind of used both. [00:31:27] Speaker A: Depends on if he's going to have a party in the suites upstairs or something. [00:31:30] Speaker C: I guess so. I guess it depends if it's like, you know, all kids or adults, two to a seat, throw an extra couple in. We don't care. [00:31:41] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. And then. Because we. What? We don't know. So the east side is supposed to be then the host for seating for the 2026 and 27 season. Is that how this is gonna go? [00:31:56] Speaker C: Yeah, there's just gonna make people straight over. [00:31:58] Speaker A: And that means that that side of the stadium will be completed. [00:32:02] Speaker C: Yes. [00:32:03] Speaker B: It sounds. It even mentions that the east side is gonna be finished halfway through 2026. So it's like it may be have with the season that you get flipped. [00:32:11] Speaker C: Yeah. In the summer, they'll. They'll move people over. [00:32:14] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:32:17] Speaker A: Which coincides with the World cup. So there'll be a World cup break. Yeah. [00:32:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:32:23] Speaker A: Interesting. [00:32:24] Speaker B: There's your good flip time. Yeah. [00:32:25] Speaker C: Yeah. And I guess they've also, at that point, they've also got a kind of stage, the construction a little bit differently in case Toyota soccer center happens to be a host venue for World cup training teams. Training or anything like that. [00:32:39] Speaker A: Yeah. And I, you know, it took me a while to wrap my brain around this, and I'm. And I. And I don't. So I'm going to say it out loud, and it may be the most obvious thing possible, but what is about to happen is they are going to essentially demolish and tear down to the ground the existing structure and rebuild it. Most of it, yes, most of it. There are a few parts that are staying, which are the. That's the offices and what else? [00:33:09] Speaker B: Well, the hall of Fame, obviously. [00:33:11] Speaker A: Well, no, yeah. The south end isn't being touched at all. I'm talking about the parts of the north east, the north east and west sides. They're essentially coming down to this, to the ground and they're rebuilding it. [00:33:22] Speaker B: Yeah, well, the corner offices on the, on the west side, I think are. [00:33:25] Speaker C: Sticking like the FCDL on the east side too. [00:33:27] Speaker A: Yeah, I, and I, and to me that just seems ridiculous in a way that ostensibly the stadium will have been rebuilt within a 20 year span of its, of its initial construction. [00:33:44] Speaker C: Well, someone at the Rangers is saying, what took you guys? [00:33:49] Speaker B: And I would even guess that, like in terms of FC Dallas offices that, you know, once ancillary, other offices are built in the parking lot next door, then you could see, and this is a guess, FC Dallas move into those brand new offices and then they could do something with the ones that are left. [00:34:05] Speaker A: Yeah, got those. And rebuild them or. [00:34:07] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, honestly, if you've been in there, half of those is not finished anyway. [00:34:11] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:34:12] Speaker B: Right. I mean, they're a mess inside a lot of them. So, you know, and I, and I know that people at SC Dallas are clamoring for more space all the time and I'm sure the club would be happy to have more space. And this is just pure conjecture on my part that I'm guessing that's what will happen. And, but, you know, that's not, that's a decade away. You know, those, that 2035 for those offices or whatever. [00:34:30] Speaker C: So one thing as well, like obviously, you know, we, we went in that, we had a couple of seasons in that shell space that's still unfinished for press conferences. Other than that, there's a few meeting rooms and it's just a cube farm. Otherwise there's not really, you know, there's plenty of room. There's plenty of, they can work with without having to like, demolish a ton of stuff. [00:34:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:34:50] Speaker A: Now they're not going to move the locker rooms again, are they? [00:34:55] Speaker B: No, those are all on the south side of the hall of Fame. [00:34:57] Speaker A: No, I know, but I didn't know with this new construction if they would change those again. [00:35:01] Speaker B: Uh, on the north side, um, you know, if, when they're in the rivet in that part, it depends on how far over they go into where the offices are because that's where the old locker rooms are and where, like, the youth clubs now use them. So it'll just depend on, you know, where that demarcation line is in terms of the destruction on the north end. [00:35:19] Speaker A: And are there any planned changes to any of the Toyota soccer complex at large in terms of the fields or Doctor pink stadium or any of that. Was any of that included, Dan, don't. [00:35:33] Speaker C: Believe any of that's getting touched. [00:35:35] Speaker A: Interesting. [00:35:35] Speaker B: Yeah. In the overhead sort of layout of the entire complex where they show the other fields, you can still see the doctor pink field and all the complex fields in the little pond and the parking lots over there by Doctor pink. That's all still there. Like, what's the media lot and what's the gold lot? Those are still there. You know, none of that stuff looks changed in any of the stuff we've seen. [00:35:58] Speaker A: There are some. Some parking lots will be lost and they're going to build a parking garage somewhere, I read. [00:36:04] Speaker C: So, yeah. So one of the office buildings is going to go where the platinum lot is right now. Where the what? Platinum lot. [00:36:12] Speaker B: Okay. [00:36:13] Speaker A: Just adjacent on the west side. [00:36:15] Speaker C: Yeah. The one where by. Where us youth soccer is in the red lot that's been to become office buildings. Those will each have a multi story car park. The. The development on the southeast will eat into, by the looks of it, will eat into the south part of the blue lot. That will also have a couple of multi story parking lots, one for the apartments, one for the. For the hotel. So. And it looks like they're going to have pedestrian footbridges in place, too. So there'll be a lot less play and frogger in traffic. [00:36:51] Speaker A: Yeah. If you thought ingress and egress was difficult now with parking garages, I wonder what that's going to be like. [00:36:58] Speaker C: There was also a little bit of talk, and this was more on the city side of things about. And it's something that Arsenal does really well using the additional bar space and the additional development space around it. So, like the Rollertown tap room and obviously the Frisco fresh market, the hard standing building of that never really came to prosper because of the pandemic. But having all those additional spaces that people can go after the game and just kind of filter out gradually at Arsenal to stop people from just 60,000 people flooding to underground stations, what they do is, in all the bars, they drop the price of beer after the game. So people have an incentive to stay back a little while longer. They gradually filter out and then, you know, transport London. Don't shit themselves. [00:37:51] Speaker A: It was funny somebody asked this question in your discord buzz. With the addition of a roof, what will happen to the drone shows? [00:38:00] Speaker B: Well, they left a strategic gap in the northeast sort of corner between the roof for the. [00:38:06] Speaker A: It'll be peekaboo drone shows. Everybody will have to, like, peer around that one little weird little crease in the roof. [00:38:11] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:38:12] Speaker C: People realize how high up those things go. [00:38:15] Speaker B: Yeah, they are pretty high. [00:38:16] Speaker A: Maybe they'll fly them in the hole of the roof. [00:38:20] Speaker B: Yeah. Right over the stadium. [00:38:21] Speaker A: Yeah. Fascinating stuff. Okay, well, let's talk about the inevitable downside of all of this. [00:38:29] Speaker B: Yes. [00:38:31] Speaker A: And, buzz, I think you in particular, this is hitting you hard, which is the, you know, along with the renderings and the announcements and the celebration came the calls from the ticket reps. Yeah. Kids prices are going up, and they're going up mighty. [00:38:48] Speaker B: They're going up big. Yeah. Listen, you know, I feel really bad for people that are going to be priced out. I do. And that includes me. I'm definitely priced out now based on these new ticket prices. But then I was already going to give up my seat anyway because of the amount of how crowded it's going to be. It's going to be 11,000 in that place. They'll be able to fill that, no problem. Even with an increased price, I think so. It's going to be packed out every game, you think. [00:39:15] Speaker A: Hold on. Can we have a conversation about that? [00:39:17] Speaker B: Sure. [00:39:18] Speaker A: Do. Do you really think they'll, they'll be able to do 11,000 and a half efficient stadium? And, I mean, let's just take the team quality on the product on the field part aside. I, I'm really, I'm just going back and thinking about what a mess that stadium was when they were doing the south end, and that was, by and large, restricted to just the south end. This is going to be, for a year and a half, the entire east side of the stadium is going to be gone. All that parking is going to be lost. I just. I'm really concerned about what this impact is going to have on the entire game day experience and people's temperament for doing that. [00:40:01] Speaker B: Yeah. If you think about the construction, in theory, since I'm not involved in it, you know, you are going to lose the east side and you lose all that parking on the east side, you know, but in terms of construction, but you won't lose all of it because they're not building on that east side parking lot. They're just going to use part of it for the construction. Well, the people that are going to be there are the people that were filling the left half of the stadium, and all the parking on the left half of the stadium is still there. So for everyone that's going to be going, their entire half of the stadium will be exactly the same. And the scratch, the parking lot will be the same, the concessions will be the same. The only difference is that when you look across the city, don't be anybody sitting over there. That's it. It'll be like what? The loan construction worker will be over there just like he was in the south end. You know, it's not like the south end which impacted Main street. Like, this is going to be the half a stadium that you're not going to be involved with as a fan. So. And I think with their attendance this year and the increased job of done selling products, I think it'll be full every time. I really do. So the thing about the price is the thing, it stinks. I get it. But you have to, I think you have to understand the way franchises look at tickets and the way they look at pricing of tickets. Scarcity works in their favor big time. It's basic supply and demand. They want their ticket to be perceived as scarce. It's why they don't just sell cheap tickets, they sell expensive tickets. And then you give you kickbacks and things like that. So they want a high price. They're probably clasping their hands in glee at the fact that they're going to be able to get these higher prices because of the limited scale and demand. And I quite cynically am sure that three years from now, when the whole stadium is open, the price will not go back down. Those highest will stay at this higher price. Oh, for sure. Yeah. They would prefer higher ticket prices and less people. I know that sounds crazy, but there's a reason why the stadium only holds 20,000 people. They could make it 80,000 sea stadium. They got the money, right? So the scarcity, whether it be forced scarcity or scarcity of market or scarcity of construction, is good for them. They love it because they can do this. They can raise the prices. And I don't mean just the hunts when I say them, I mean owners of franchises. This is how it works. Look at the way concert tickets work these days and how those prices are escalating and how you see artists a lot of times going to smaller venues rather than these big. They'd rather sell out a small venue than they would have a half full big venue. Right? You're on the radio, you know that. So it's like, you know, this is how it functions. And I agree that it sucks. But the more popular this league becomes, the more tv revenue there is, the more the demand is artificially decreased. Allows them to raise prices more and more and more. And this is just the nature of the business. And that's why, like, I know, for example, the likelihood that I'll be going to the. To these FC Dallas games on a ticket in the future is probably relatively small because of the price, because of how crowded it's going to be, because of, as you say, the construction making it harder to get into the area. You know, it's like. It's just not like I don't go to cowboy games on buying a ticket either, because those prices are crazy. Right. And I live a mile from the stadium, so, you know, it's just the modern world we live in, where I, for example, will be watching a lot more of it on television than I will be in person unless I'm sitting in the press box, of course. [00:43:18] Speaker A: Dan, can you kind of outline for people what the increases are looking like, please? [00:43:24] Speaker C: Yeah. So in the smallest areas, $4 is the increase. I think the largest that I found, I've heard people talk about 65%. I think those are instances where people have tickets on the east side, which is cheaper, and then they're going to have to move over to the west. The largest on the west, from the prices published, is about 50%, which would be rows. Sorry, sections 103 and 109, they got from like 500 to 750. [00:44:00] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:44:01] Speaker C: If you. If you are one of those big spenders in the. The middle sections, they've actually created an extra. An extra price band. So the middle five sections were $1,070. The middle three will go up to 1350. The two either side of that are only going to go up $30. So, yeah, it's. Yeah, it's a little weird. They're also doing this whole two tier price structure in the south side for the all you can eat seats. So people that were paying $875 last year, they may be paying 900. If they opt for the up the higher tier, they may be paying 1250. So, you know, depend on what people opt for. There is. There is a not horrible jump, and there is a really crappy one. [00:44:57] Speaker B: I mean, it stinks as a fan, of course, to be one of these people that your price is going to double and things like that. But I don't think that the FC Dallas ticket prices are crazy out of whack with the rest of the league. I still think even at these increased prices, the values compared to the rest of the teams in MLS and compared to other sports are still pretty decent. I know that every individual, of course, doesn't want to pay more money. That stinks. [00:45:23] Speaker C: Yeah. You know, I think. I think the you know, if you're gonna say there are wins anywhere, the supporter section only going up $4 is a win, 400 is. Is affordable. There are far worse prices in. In major league soccer that all you can eat stuff if you're on that lower tier of it. [00:45:42] Speaker A: Mm hmm. [00:45:42] Speaker C: Only going up $25. That's cool. That's great. That's what you would spend in. In beer at one game. And then if you're the either side of those middle three sections, only having, like, a $30 increase, that's great. If you are on the west side, if you are having those middle three sections. Yeah, that's pretty rough. Finally, the super sweet and the upper tier part of the south end, that's only going up, like, 10%, although at that point, they're already paying $2,500. [00:46:17] Speaker A: Yeah. And certainly, I think the frightening part is the prices that are being introduced for next year. I'm going to guess for 26 when they move everybody over to the east side, are going to be even more expensive because of the features and amenities that'll be available on the east side. [00:46:38] Speaker B: Well, that one will be weird because you're going to get half season west, half season east. Yeah, that one might get kind of crazy. And generally speaking, the east side does not historically been as expensive as the west. But maybe that's now solved, you know? So it's hard to predict that. [00:46:49] Speaker A: Well, you know, the question I have about that that'll be interesting is, is what is that experience going to be like when the only seating is on the south and east side and there is no structure whatsoever on the west side to block the sun. [00:47:03] Speaker B: Yeah. Where it's going to be rough. [00:47:06] Speaker A: I mean, seriously. [00:47:07] Speaker B: Because I wonder how they're going to do television with no west side. [00:47:10] Speaker A: I'm sure they'll figure something out. But the idea of the. The sun being. Having unfettered access to the east side until it hits, because currently, with the way everything is about 08:00 the existing structure blocks the sun. If there's nothing there, I mean, it could be sunset on an August day before. [00:47:31] Speaker C: I guess it depends how much of the structure they actually keep. If they knock the whole thing down, that's going to be terrible. If they kind of keep some of the shell. [00:47:39] Speaker A: I think they're tearing that whole damn thing down, Dan. I think they're literally raising the entire west side from scratch. [00:47:46] Speaker B: You buried the lead. Think about the whole season of amazing sunsets you'll get from the. [00:47:53] Speaker A: Like, you're. It's like. It's like a sit on your porch. No, it'll be like a scene out of Dune. [00:48:01] Speaker B: Buzz. [00:48:01] Speaker A: And staring into the sun, getting sun blindness. That's going to be brutal. [00:48:08] Speaker B: I'll be pissed. [00:48:09] Speaker A: Say that again. [00:48:10] Speaker B: Submit a dune right reference. That's all. [00:48:12] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:48:13] Speaker C: Free sunglasses. Sponsored by Advocate. [00:48:16] Speaker A: But the point I was making, I was trying to get to before I got to sidetracked with that thought, is, by the time this thing is finished in 2028, the season ticket prices for 2028 are going to make people's ears bleed because they won't. They won't be the same. They're not going to. Whatever the price is next season, in 26 or 27, those prices are all getting jacked way up for 2028. [00:48:43] Speaker B: That's probably likely. But, you know, if they're also trying to go from 11,000 back to 20,000, maybe they'll, you know, taper them up. [00:48:49] Speaker A: But, yeah, man, they're going to have the brand new, shiny stadium. The hype will never be greater than it will be then. Yeah. [00:48:58] Speaker C: This could be just a repeat of what happened with the south end. Right. They did the whole puzzle stuff where they went to, like 20 different price bands and they raised prices up 40% in half of the stadium, although they dropped the prices in other parts. They haven't done that this time. Obviously, it didn't work very well because there was the whole, oh, they're going to have 12,000 seats. They could sell that easy. They didn't. [00:49:20] Speaker A: No, they did not. Not even close. [00:49:22] Speaker C: And they had to react to that. Right. They had to hold prices for a couple of years and let people come back. So, I mean, well, potential to do that again. [00:49:32] Speaker B: They're significantly better at selling tickets these days and marketing this team since they post pandemic since Jimmy Smith came in. I mean, you know, it's a different franchise in that regard. [00:49:40] Speaker A: Yeah, I, you know, all of this, I find what I'm really most concerned about is what's going to happen over the course of the next three seasons, because I just think the fan, the game day experience is going to suck. I think it's going to be a real hassle to go to games. I think watching the games in a stadium that is half under construction is going to be a brutally poor experience. And I worry about what the effect that has building up to the excitement of the new stadium, along with the fact that the World cup is coming and all the excitement that will be tied to that. The timing of all of this stuff is really, really weird. Along with the current state of the team and the flux that it is particularly in, because, um, I just. That that's the one as excited I am as about the final product. Getting to that point, I think, is going to be incredibly painful. [00:50:34] Speaker B: Well, remember, too, they're counting on this post World cup bump, you know, and to have massive demand post World cup. [00:50:40] Speaker A: Well, considering it'll be two years after the fact, hopefully the bump will still exist at that point. [00:50:47] Speaker B: It'll contribute to them being able to sell out 11,000 seats between and then, you know, and. And hopefully it means more revenue for the league and for the television and broadcasting and everything else, which is what's really important, you know, and then, so the revenue will be going up for the franchise, and then they can keep up with the rest of the league, hopefully. [00:51:05] Speaker A: All right, well, so, buzz, you'll just go sit up in the press box and use a media pass to go to the games. [00:51:13] Speaker B: You know, maybe I just. I may not go. It's an hour drive. I just may not fight all that stuff. You know, Dan covers the games for us, so, you know, I'll probably just mostly be watching. I'll go to practice during the week, and I'll go watch academy games, maybe go to North Texas games. [00:51:28] Speaker A: Right? [00:51:29] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, listen, I'm. I'm a soccer nerd, so my, you know, $1520, you know, whatever it is, North Texas soccer club ticket works for me. [00:51:38] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:51:39] Speaker B: So now, mile away from my house. [00:51:41] Speaker A: All right. Any other aspect? I mean, we've literally spent an entire podcast episode talking about the stadium. [00:51:47] Speaker B: It's a big deal. [00:51:48] Speaker A: Is there anything else about the stadium, Dan, that you wanted to touch on or the surrounding stuff or that I've forgotten? [00:51:55] Speaker C: Yeah, that was actually something kind of interesting. So I think maybe it was in discord or it was in a group me or something, but it came up that all that material had a lot of references to hunt sports group, but, yeah, hunt sports group technically doesn't own FC Dallas anymore because the brothers bought the other siblings out. So it's kind of funny, when they were making the presentations and people on the city council kept saying, hSG, the Hunt family. So, yeah, I don't know what the relation is there now. I actually intended to ask that, but. [00:52:36] Speaker A: I think part of the complexity there is is that the stadium stuff is probably related to the company the brothers founded as owners of the club, but all of the ancillary land stuff is probably larger family, HGS, HSG related, I would guess other. In other words, it's not just Dan and Clark involved part of it. [00:53:01] Speaker B: I do want to say I wanted to repeat this story because people have always have often questioned, like you and I, Peter, have been saying for years now, now that Dan and Clark had bought out the rest of their family in terms of ownership of FC Dallas, that FC Dallas is owned by something called. I think it's like Dallas Soccer Stadium, LLC. Yeah, well, no, the team itself is owned by. Operated by something. I think it's called Dallas Soccer, Inc. Or something. They have. There's many layers to this company, and the way we're. We are 100% sure that that's true is when that young player broke his leg, do you remember, in training, and sued the team for money? [00:53:37] Speaker A: Oh, that's right. [00:53:38] Speaker B: Right. So I. The death, the. The testament, the testimonies, the reporting, the defamation. Not the defamation. The deposition stuff was all in the court filings. And looking through there, one of the people that got called by the lawyers for the young man was somebody from HSG, and they kept asking him, like, why is HSG doing this? Why is she doing that? He kept saying, HSG has nothing to do with it, is that SCGA doesn't own it. FC Dallas. FCGA doesn't operate. FC Dallas has nothing to do with this. And the judge was like, why are you even here? He's like, I don't know. We have nothing to do with this. And the answer was, because Dan had, you know, used their offices to occasionally conduct, like, phone calls for FC Dallas or something. Like, he wasn't in Frisco every day or whatever. So they tried to lump HSg in. The lawsuit did. And they basically like, was like, we have nothing to do with SC Dallas that's owned by Dan and Clarke at a totally different company. So, like, 100% literal legal evidence that what we've been saying for a couple years now, I don't remember how long we've been saying that, Peter, actually, maybe in a decade, is true. So it's important to understand that what Dan was saying was that, like, all this documentation with the city, all the stadium, all that stuff, all mentions HSG and understand that there's a business difference between all that stuff and FC Dallas specifically, which is specifically owned by Dan and Clark. And whether that makes a difference to anybody or not, I don't know, but I think it's an important distinction. [00:55:00] Speaker A: It is. And it's very convoluted and very complex. [00:55:04] Speaker B: It is. [00:55:05] Speaker A: At the end of the day, the hunt family is going to make a epic f ton of money out of all of this. And Frisco is going to continue to turn into an absolute destination location. No, no question about it. [00:55:21] Speaker B: For all. [00:55:22] Speaker A: I mean. I mean, when all is said and done, the list of things that you will be able to go to go to Frisco and do as an individual on a date or as a family or otherwise is pretty mind bending. [00:55:35] Speaker B: Yeah. And remember, there's even, like an amusement park coming, right? Some kind of Disney like thing. [00:55:41] Speaker A: Universal. The kids universal thing. I've said this in a couple other places. I just wish they had had the foresight to somehow negotiate a deal with the Joneses to play these three seasons or two seasons inside the star and put a grass, you know, a removable grass surface in that place that's 12,000 people, that whole surrounding area. It would still be in Frisco, man. That would have been the coolest thing to do to get everybody excited about a new stadium as an weird little venue. It is. But, man, could you imagine how kick ass that would be to be able to go watch games there in the air conditioning for a little while while your other place is getting. Right? Plus, it would have allowed them to do the stadium faster because you're not trying to accommodate games there. [00:56:26] Speaker B: It would be super cool, Peter, but you and I know as well as anybody that it's about revenue control and. Right. You'd have to give up revenue control to do that, and they won't do that. [00:56:34] Speaker A: Well, that and the fact that the hunts and the Joneses would never do business together like that. [00:56:38] Speaker B: Yeah. Not. Probably not. [00:56:39] Speaker A: No. But it felt like a cool idea. [00:56:41] Speaker B: It would have been fun. I gave you that. [00:56:44] Speaker A: And it would have been. It would have gotten everybody used to the concept of the. Of the kind of full day thing because of all the surrounding retail and restaurants that are at the star, which is what they're trying to replicate at this, ultimately, anyway. Right. So you're already kind of training everybody to get used to the idea of come enjoy your entire evening out here like this. [00:57:05] Speaker C: I saw lacrosse there. It's an interesting viewing experience. It feels more like you're a lap swimming pool than a venue to watch a sport, like a team sport, you know? Yeah, I don't know. Wouldn't have been that enjoyable. [00:57:22] Speaker A: It would have been different. And I still think it would have been better than what we're about to go through. But maybe I'll eat my words and the next three years will just be filled with kick ass on field success and frictionless game day enjoyment. [00:57:37] Speaker C: And if not, we just go to Dallas Trinity instead. [00:57:40] Speaker A: Yeah. We just watch games on Apple TV and go to games on Friday night at the Cotton bowl. Yeah, for sure. Okay. Do we even want to bother talking about the team? [00:57:51] Speaker B: Yeah, I need to talk about it. [00:57:54] Speaker A: Okay. [00:57:55] Speaker B: I got a problem. [00:57:56] Speaker A: All right, so last night. It's Thursday, recording this. Last night, obviously Dallas got back into the jump after the international break, had a game against RSl. None of us were looking forward to. Look, this is what it is. The team clearly is playing better, but they're not necessarily getting the necessary results. They lost again last night, three to two on the road. And if I'm doing my calculations right, for all of the good vibes of the fact that the team aesthetically is playing nicer, the difference in points per game. Now, if you calculate all of Peters games, which include the US Open cup loss and the two leagues cup losses, is now down to 1.54, which is only slightly now better than Nico Estevez, is 2024 of 1.4 per game. [00:58:51] Speaker B: Yeah. Listen, this is not a good performance. Well, I take that back. In some ways, it was a good performance. Dallas played pretty well in a lot of phases of the game. This is the hard part about analyzing soccer sometimes, is that you can talk about, you know, the performance being relatively good, except in two areas and those areas where their inability to score and the other team scored. So which is all that matters. Right. But, you know, they did play with a higher level of possession, the higher level of passing. You know, they did create more chances on goal, you know, 16 shots to the. Compared to the home team, which had less. You know, there were a lot of things that were really good, but the bottom line was some things that they did. Their finishing was again, poor. They only got like five shots on target. The Anderson Julio had two shots and they both were goals. And here in the PK, you know, Ibiaga just could not handle him. You know, individual mistakes cost Dallas, whether it be the PK that gave up the Martin paws, being caught out of the net, far fan overreaching on the third goal, the individual errors cost them. That's what happens with bad teams. But the one positive or not the one positive, a couple of guys play pretty well. Alan Vlasco was really exciting to watch because even from a week and a half ago, he looks remarkably better, which is exciting. I actually made him a man of the match just because of that, because it made me really exciting to watch him play. But what I want to talk about is the team tactics because it made my head hurt and it was an absolute. [01:00:22] Speaker A: I'm so glad you're saying it because I spent most of the game going, what exactly is happening here? [01:00:27] Speaker B: Yeah, what in the world is going on? Like, I was watching the first half and I was so frustrated and annoyed, I actually went back and, like, went through the whole first half trying to figure out exactly when the various shifts and changes happen and why they happened to. And it was so baffling that people couldn't figure out whether Paul Areola was playing wing back or Sebastian let was playing wing back. And the Dallas formation said it was Paul Areola. I wrote down Paul Areola when they kicked off, Paul was standing in wingback, but the way they actually played, Sebastian Leggette played more wing back than Paul Areola. And so, like, a bunch of the stat sites listed legit as the wing back. Well, we know that's not true because Dallas plays a narrow shape and Leggette is the under ten underneath wing, the face, the false wing. Ariel was just so high on walkabout that Sebastian Leggette just kept having to cover it back for him. So the whole first half, Ariel is just wandering everywhere. And Dallas is caught between playing a back four, really? Because junk is shifting back. And Nicosi Tafari, if you go look at his heat map, my breakdown is playing right back and forth, playing center back. Go look at his heat map, you'll see it clear as day. And then show got hurt and couldn't run, basically for like ten minutes. So Areola, like, flipped sides with Ferreira, which is weird because Ferrer is not a wingback. And so Ariel is now playing left midfield on top of junk in what looks like a 4141 so that they can put a box around show because he can't run. So while they get Alan Vlasco warmed up. And so then they sub in Alan Velasco before halftime with like 30 seconds left. They finally get him into the game. That's how desperate they were to get show off the field. And then after halftime, they actually sub in Ruan for junka so that they can put Paul at left wing back and put Juan at right wing back, and they can actually get back to the formal 343. And then 20 minutes later, they subbed in Logan Farrington for Nicosia Tafari, which is a weird swap of players. And that ended up meaning that they had to shift to a four three three, and Logan went up top. So in the course of the game, they went through five versions of the formation and the tag team, one of which just included Paul Aurelio walking everywhere he wanted to go whenever he wanted to go there and basically playing without a position. So it all drove me absolutely bonkers crazy, and I couldn't stand it, except that Ariel and Legit had two of the best performances on the field and played pretty well. So, like, the more I sat and thought about it, the more I was like, you know what? It honestly doesn't matter as long as your entire team can handle it. And obviously legit and Ariola can handle it, but I'm nothing sure the rest of the team can handle it. And I'm not sure that the idea of having Tafari as a right back and far fan, as a center back is really something you want to do. And that's what it ended up being, you know, and. And Jungkook played like, an actual wing back. His heat map looks correct, but Ariel is. Is a mess and Legitz is a mess, and it was. It was just the biggest, like, chicken soup for the soul tactical setup and execution that I've ever seen. And I could only hope that it was the plan because otherwise it's just shooting blanks in the dark, and I don't know what's going on. [01:03:34] Speaker A: I I watched it, and along with everything you just talked about was the, you know, now expected Jesus just doing whatever he wants to do throughout the game. I saw him playing. I saw him playing out on the touchline. I saw him coming back for the ball between center backs. I saw him playing way up front. I mean, he was all over the place and what made it. And that just because of the all, you know, Areola essentially doing the same thing, it was like everybody just had a free role. [01:04:04] Speaker B: Right. Exactly. [01:04:05] Speaker A: In the game, which seemed really weird, and it looked very. It looked very unorganized. And it was probably the worst I've seen out of Lucene Luxem's team. [01:04:19] Speaker B: Yeah, it was a mess, and I just hope that it was all intended, because if it wasn't intended, I don't know what that says because it was a. It was a technical disaster. But then again, like I said, like, those two guys played pretty well. Ferreira continues to improve. He wasn't ideal, but he continues to improve. His free kick that he jumped on, which the broadcast, Mitch was hysterical, was just sublimely well done and smart on his part, you know, but then Petter Moussa had a horrible game. [01:04:45] Speaker A: Yes. [01:04:45] Speaker B: Part because he didn't see a lot of the ball because those guys are going wherever they wanted. [01:04:48] Speaker A: Well, but I. But I was about to. To say this. He looked so frustrated. [01:04:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:04:53] Speaker A: And that I, you know, I thought I got frustrated with him. There was a. There's one moment in time, I can't remember if it was just after the start of the second half. You know, they're doing this weird thing where they're trying to, like, do one touch ball and these tiny little triangles trying to get out of a, you know, kind of a press of some sort, and somebody plays him a pretty poor ball right at midfield near the touchline, and he immediately gets it tackled away from him, and he makes absolutely zero effort to recover the ball. He just stands there and watches Salt lake dribble away with the ball, and I think to myself, okay, there's a problem, because he's frustrated to the point where he's just essentially given up. [01:05:32] Speaker B: Yeah. The thing is, is like, as bad as all that was, there was a whole lot of the Dallas team that was good, and you could just go to so simply, it's like, if I got. Doesn't give up that stupid pKnorthenne, if pause isn't caught up on a shot from midfield, you know, if Dallas actually has more than five of their 16 shots on target, Ariel Laferra and Musa had a combined eleven shots and only three of them on target. Like, if those guys do anything remotely like they do when they're actually good in shooting, Dallas would have won this game in a place that's very difficult to play, despite all that insanity that we just talked about. But I. I contend that I will continue to intend that that insanity of all that movement contributed to the individual errors that happened in the back. Oh, people were paying. Was overreaching. Nicosis out of position. Ibiog is left on an island. [01:06:19] Speaker A: Pauses out too high. [01:06:21] Speaker B: Pauses out too high, trying to compensate for all that. And I contend that that that discombobulation led to Musa not being involved as much as he should have been, and all those guys being not as clinical on goal as they should have been. So, you know, I'm not going to blame it on that, because there are a lot of people that will just say, look, oh, the great teams, the world do all kinds of like that all the time. That's true. That's true. Messy. This is Paul. Ariel's not messy. I'm sorry. He's not so, like, you cannot wait. Yeah, you can't play like, you can't play like Musa is, you know, playing for man city, you know, and he's got guys underneath him that are world class. It's not the same team. You can't play like that, you know, it's. You can play similar ways in small ways, but you can't just let guys just go like, jesus, I'm you. Maybe I'm used to it, but Paul was driving me crazy, and I love Paul, but that I just. You can tell I'm still frustrated by, like, I was so frustrated while watching it. I. I went, I watched the whole thing, went back and went through the whole first half again. It's just, you're a glimpse about, like, what is going on. [01:07:22] Speaker A: You're a masochist. [01:07:24] Speaker B: I know. And then I had to figure out the changes in the second half, too, like, what the. Were caused by Farrington coming in, and then it was a disaster, tactically. So I. I needed to get started. Thanks for coming. My TED talk. I needed to get all that out because I was yelling at the television at 130 in the morning yesterday. [01:07:43] Speaker A: It was frustrating. And I thought what was really interesting is that at one point they started going through the available subs list, and what Luxane had available to him versus what Mastroianni had available to him was a clear reminder that this entire season is. Is all about just really crappy, poor roster construction. [01:08:02] Speaker B: Yeah, they rotated a bit because they could afford to against Dallas. [01:08:05] Speaker A: Yeah. But they were also winning the game to nothing with a rotated. I mean, that's the, that's the thing is, you know. [01:08:12] Speaker B: Yeah. Their, their mvp was missing. They put Diego Luna on the bench. You know, it was rough. They gave a guy his first ever start and, you know, it's just. And he had the assist on the game winner. [01:08:22] Speaker A: You know, I mean, I. Look, I don't know where you two are at. This. I am, and I've. I've said this in your discord. I've said it on this podcast. I've said it on the radio. I'm frustrated by people's willingness to accept Peter Luxane as the next manager of this club. I'm not saying he's a bad guy. I'm not sure. I don't even know if he's qualified. I don't have any clue as to what quality is as a manager. I know he's got this team playing slightly better, but I think he's done that simply by making some really obvious moves that anybody could have done, that even Niko probably could have done. In fact, I was saying this to somebody today about the game, which is every time Dallas gives up a goal like that, I think Niko Estebas just laughs out loud. [01:09:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:09:11] Speaker A: Because he's like. It's exactly the reason why we were playing the way we were playing. [01:09:16] Speaker B: Oh, looks. And I had a post game comment where he said the versus Vancouver, they did a whole lot better offensively. Had it all locked down. You mean when you played Nico ball, he said that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Vancouver game is a great offensive speaker. [01:09:30] Speaker C: Zero. [01:09:30] Speaker A: So, I mean, I'm sure he's a great guy and yes, he's gotten a couple players to play better, but I don't, you know, the great Dustin brought this point up today because somebody in the discords or on Twitter said, I'd be nice if Dallas would hire somebody with more than five years of management. And Dustin was the one that pointed out in the history of this club, even prior to the Hunts, they've never had a manager with more than four years of first team coaching experience. [01:09:59] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:10:00] Speaker A: That includes Dave Durr, which I didn't even know that. [01:10:03] Speaker B: No, he was one of the Foxes for a few years because remember, he left the Foxes to be the head scout for. [01:10:08] Speaker A: Yeah, I'd forgotten about it like two. [01:10:10] Speaker B: Years before the league launched. Yeah. And you're not counting shells as run at SMU is first team, I guess. [01:10:16] Speaker A: No, of course not. That's college ball. No, no. And I, and so I, you know, I think a lot of people have just come to the, the line of thinking of, well, the hunts are never going to go out and hire a legit manager. So this is that. Luxane is the best of the worst remaining choices, I guess. And that, to me, feels very Stockholm syndrome. [01:10:42] Speaker B: Yeah, well, some of that may be our fault because we've explained, you know, where, where they are in terms of the amount of money. We believe, and people have told us this coach for this franchise gets paid, you know, like coaches with winning pedigrees of, at a professional level get paid more than this coat. This franchise probably is going to pay. [01:10:59] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:10:59] Speaker B: You know, that. I think some of that is going to be the case of, like, you can just look at the history of coaches here and think that, okay, if they're going to hire somebody, it's going to be along the same lines. So is the devil, you know, versus the devil you don't, you know, do you want to risk, you know, go out and do an x, y or z when, you know, like, okay, was this good enough? You know, and I think people look at the league play and think maybe it's good enough, you know, I'm not sure I agree, but, you know, I'm also a realist and I try and deal with it as it comes, you know, and just, I know who one or two other candidates are and, you know, and I know which ones I would pick or not pick, but I'm not in charge. So what, it's not up to us, right? [01:11:40] Speaker A: No, it's just it, I mean, what's. [01:11:42] Speaker B: Your expectation for the kind of coach they're going to get? Luck scene or not? What kind of coach are you expecting? [01:11:47] Speaker A: Oh, I'm expecting it to be what it has been always is just somebody getting a first shot, you know, and, and I'm frustrated by that. We've, you know, just in the, in the, in the hunt's ownership of this, they've done this model, this idea of giving somebody their big break six times and every time with the exception, I guess, I'm sorry, they've. Is it five or six? Whatever it is, every hire they've made, other than Oscar Perea, have never managed an MLS team or for most of them, it's any first team experience. I think Colin Clark's the only one that had any level of first team experience. [01:12:27] Speaker B: Yeah, he coached a team and then gave that it was like a league or USL team and he gave it up to be Jeffrey's assistant. [01:12:34] Speaker A: Right. And so, yeah, that would be the only one. I don't count the interim thing for Estevez back in Portugal. I don't think. I don't think that counts. But I just would like Dan and Clark to try something different and go get somebody that actually has some skins on the wall. But I know they won't do that. So if it is going to be back to the, you know, whoever's left over. I know a lot of people feel good about Luxane. I just. I don't have enough evidence to tell me that he's any good at this job. I just don't know yet. [01:13:09] Speaker B: Yeah. Do you know? But you know, I know it could be worse. [01:13:14] Speaker A: Sure. Dan, do you have any grasp on his ability to do this? [01:13:20] Speaker C: Well, no. [01:13:24] Speaker A: That's the most non committal no ever. [01:13:28] Speaker B: What I. What I do have a firm believe he is good at is managing of men like he does a good job, from what my witnessing of it, of rallying guys, putting an arm around him when he needs it, ripping a guy when he needs it. You know, I think he's good at that part of building camaraderie, building a locker room. I think he'd be good at that part. You know. Do I believe yet that he has the tactical nuances? I would have liked to think so, given the level he played. At. But to be honest, like, like you said, I think some of the changes he made were relatively obvious. And then some of the things I think he's trying to do are either overreaches or they're just over complications, you know, or it's. [01:14:11] Speaker A: Or they're just bad choices or it's. [01:14:13] Speaker B: Just he's not doing anything and it's just completely like, whatever you guys want to do. I actually wondered, like, I wonder, since I went and looked at the first half of the game, is I actually wondered if it was one of those situations where they went and stood there like Coach had lined them up and the minute they kicked off that probably Paul is the captain just rearranged the whole lineup. Like, I know that that's happened here before. Like when you lose a locker room, a captain will do that, will go out on the field and say, screw that stuff. Coach said, here's what we're playing. Chad Dearing did that at least once that I know of. So, like, I really legitimately wondered if that had happened, you know, and, and, uh, went and tried to see if I could find any evidence of Paul immediately just changing it all. And I couldn't find that. It didn't happen until after show got hurt around the 33rd minute. But other than him going walkabout, which was just instantaneous, it just was all over the. [01:15:01] Speaker A: Well, I'm looking forward to Saturday night. LAFC Giroux and Carlos Vella and the whole crew are coming to town and, and they're in a bit of a battle now because they ended up drawing their game against Austin on Wednesday night and they're trying to get, you know, battle for position, so they're needing a win and so it'll be fun to see what that looks like on Saturday night at 730 at Toyota State. [01:15:27] Speaker B: Well, maybe Dan will have a little LAFC, but if we want to talk about Dallas real quick show, probably is going to have to miss because he's hurt. So, you know, you're going to have to drop legit in next to Yarmindy, depending on whether you rotate or not, of course. So seeking something can come back in. Otherwise, I don't know why you would change very much. Juan will go, I imagine will go. The question would be, is Velasco healthy enough to give him a start? Because if Alaska is healthy enough to give a start, then you can go with Velasco and Ferrara. That'd be kind of cool. And that actually makes a of sense with, for, with the legit probably having to drop it next year. [01:15:55] Speaker A: Oh, by the way, I think the other thing that we forgot to mention is that somehow you dug up some news on somebody being added to the season ending injury list. [01:16:05] Speaker B: Yeah, the, well there's two things. First, I did find out that Giovanni is in town actually, so he is here. Somebody knows that's you might as well. [01:16:13] Speaker A: Giovanne. Jesus. [01:16:14] Speaker B: Giovanni Jesus is actually in town because I wasn't even sure if he was in town. And then the MLS posted at a refresh on the official roster. Basically they copied the roster dance, you know, and then did their own version of it for every team and they just did a refresh of it. And lo and behold, on the season ending roster list other than Paxton is Liam Frazier. So we knew he was out for like two months or something, you know, but we thought there was a chance he'd be back from the end of the season. But apparently he's been slapped on the season ending list which is probably how they added Juan to the roster actually because show replaced Paxton and then probably officially, unofficially, Ron placed Liam Fraser, if that makes any sense. [01:16:53] Speaker A: Does that mean his, his time in Dallas is over? [01:16:57] Speaker B: I mean they'll depend on whether they think it was option or not, but probably, maybe could be. It depends how much you like him or not who the new coach is going to be. [01:17:06] Speaker A: Okay, so Dallas and LA 730, we'll see what happens. [01:17:12] Speaker C: Can I give you some hope? [01:17:14] Speaker B: Go. [01:17:15] Speaker C: Alright, so just real, real surface level stuff. LAFC hasn't won a game since July 20 in the league. [01:17:27] Speaker A: Really? [01:17:28] Speaker B: That's amazing. [01:17:29] Speaker C: Yeah, they, since July 4 they've won two games. In that time. FC Dallas has won four I believe. But uh, since getting back off uh, leagues carpet was they lost to Houston. They drew with Houston. They lost to the galaxy. They drew with Austin the other day. So uh, yeah, yeah. [01:17:53] Speaker A: Oh that's right. They went on a three game winning streak at the end of June until they beat LA, the galaxy on the 5 July. And since then the only game they've won is that road game at Seattle back at the end of July. [01:18:09] Speaker B: Hmm. That's crazy. [01:18:11] Speaker A: Yeah. So lost to Columbus five one, drew at home against Salt Lake, beat Seattle on the road, drew a loss to Houston at home then turn around and tied Houston in Houston. Lost to LA just the other day for two and then drew Austin last night. [01:18:32] Speaker B: Wow. [01:18:33] Speaker C: I guess on the flip side of that they did just bring Carlos, Carlos. [01:18:39] Speaker A: Fellas back and I. [01:18:40] Speaker B: For like $5. [01:18:41] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean that's the most ridiculous. I somehow, some way we're all going to find out how they. Have you heard the story that he didn't even bother cleaning his locker out? [01:18:51] Speaker B: No. [01:18:52] Speaker A: Yeah. He was so convinced he was going back to, he was going to end up back up at LAFC. Somehow. He never even bothered to clean out his locker. [01:18:59] Speaker B: Wow. [01:19:00] Speaker A: So it's like this whole thing that they've, you know, they've probably had in the works forever and ever. And the, you know, the, the quote unquote air quotes of talking to San Jose was just, you know, nothing. He was always going to just wait until the last minute and resign with LAFC. [01:19:15] Speaker B: He just wanted a little break. Yeah. [01:19:16] Speaker A: You know, for some pass at the buffet down in the vip lounge underneath the stadium, so. [01:19:22] Speaker B: Right, right. [01:19:23] Speaker A: Unbelievable stuff. Yeah. All right. And then. So Dallas after that as the week off and has the poppy comes to town on the 28th. They go to the earthquakes on the second, Portland. So there's four. I don't know, Buzz, what's the point situation? I mean, this is, it's done and dusted. They're not making the playoffs. [01:19:48] Speaker B: Well, the problem is, is they're like, what, five or six behind Minnesota. But if you still follow the target plan of trying to get a 44, there are ten points out and they got five games left. So you probably need to win four of your five left. So that's, that's a tough call. [01:20:03] Speaker A: All right, so let's do a little Dallas Trinity talk. [01:20:09] Speaker C: Okay. Go, Dan, was it? Well, they got their first win. That's, that's awesome. Six two. Fantastic win over Lexington Sc. I. That keeps them in second. No, that puts them in third place in division. Now, as one of the few teams who actually win a game, we got to see the first multi goal game braced by Chomo Iwagu. And then the first hat trick in league history by Ali Thornton, which makes it Ricardo Pepe getting the first League one hat trick in Frisco and then Allie Thornton getting the first Super League hatch down in Dallas. That's a pretty nice yay DFW sucker thing. [01:20:52] Speaker A: Man, that Lexington team is rough. [01:20:56] Speaker B: Shut up. [01:20:57] Speaker C: That's not the point. [01:20:58] Speaker A: Okay, sorry. [01:20:59] Speaker C: I mean, it's kind of the point, but yeah, yeah, a couple of defensive route is a couple. Well, I say a couple of poor goals. The long shot they had was an absolute banger. Long ball from the goalkeeper winger just let it run across her body and they just half volleyed. It clipped the underside of the crossbar. I think it was. Yeah. Spent. Absolutely spectacular shot. But it was, it was funny. Last game, I asked coach about Ali Thornton. Because she just really wasn't getting involved at all. She was really struggling to get into the game. And he said, you know, she's a player I've known for a long time. She's gonna get one and then it just start coming and. Yeah, yeah. She went and scored a perfect hat trick. [01:21:45] Speaker A: Well, good for them. Do we, do we want to bother talking about the attendance for the game? [01:21:52] Speaker C: Yeah, it was pretty rough. [01:21:53] Speaker B: It was pretty rough. [01:21:54] Speaker A: Yeah, it was 20 announced, 28. I think it was probably less than that. Based on. [01:22:01] Speaker B: Well, we discussed last week and whether 5800 would be viable and I'm not even sure that right now it's sustainable. They have some work to do in the market. [01:22:09] Speaker A: Well, I do think scheduling games on Friday nights while was interesting counter programming to other things. I do think it's going to struggle against Friday night high school football, especially. [01:22:20] Speaker C: In those early weeks. So it'll be interesting to see what happens. Now they've got that run of away games or they got a week off or two first. Yeah, they play next Wednesday. They've got a month pretty much on the road. They've got one friendly that's scheduled for the last or the penultimate day of the state fair. And then just to see kind of once they finally get back into the swing of things, Carolina are sent who are top of the league. They're going to come here on the 25 October. I think they've got another one immediately after how things progress at fair park. Because it's, it's not the most user friendly experience right now or fan friendly experience right now with all the construction, the stuff that's fair park operations. And then. Yeah, the schedule is pretty rough. Right. The last couple of Friday games it's, I mean for me it's, I work those days from home and then immediately get in the car at 05:00 and hope the traffic's not terrible. [01:23:23] Speaker A: Well, you can always take dart, Dan. [01:23:26] Speaker C: I can, but the only problem for me is I'm lugging around crap to write with and then, you know, I obviously leave the stadium a lot later than fans do. Hmm. But I do intend to. They have, I think their second to last game is a, like a 04:00 kickoff or a 230, something like that. And then that's probably going to be me taking a dart. That. [01:23:50] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay, well maybe I can catch you on the red line or something. We can go down together. I'll meet you at the whatever that train stop by my house is. [01:23:58] Speaker C: Sounds wonderful. [01:23:59] Speaker A: Make it a train date. [01:24:01] Speaker C: Oh, I do like taking the dart it's my little experience at home. [01:24:07] Speaker A: All right. [01:24:07] Speaker C: Yeah, a couple things. Sound Mazers is absolute fucking quality. We say that every week. They've got a few issues defensively with injuries. The big thing that came out of that game really was the head coach, Pauline McDonald is in town. They were due to announced her coming earlier today. I don't think that ended up happening for some reason, but she was in a technical box next to the press box. Was going absolutely nuts all game. Really seemed to enjoy the play. And then where they had the little mix zone set up, she was kind of greeting the players afterwards. So this week they were starting that transition from Chris Pratt, going back to more of his GM role and less of the acting coach, and for her to come transition in. [01:24:59] Speaker A: Very good. Anything else that we need to talk about? [01:25:04] Speaker B: None of that much, really. [01:25:06] Speaker C: Something that's kind of linked there. Shout out to Emery Adames, who's just with the US under twenties. They just lost the semi final of the World cup yesterday to North Korea. They're going to play Holland for the bronze on Saturday morning. So she is Seattle rain player. She's scored a couple of goals now, I think 18 maybe, but she was. She was their first under 18 signing. Played for solar originally. Yeah. Cool to see more young players progressing. [01:25:48] Speaker B: One of the best academy coaches out in FCDL, Sas, Alex Aldez, was named USU 16 head coach. So congrats to him. Lost for the organization, but a phenomenal coach. [01:25:58] Speaker A: All right. There we have it. We've killed off 2 hours of just. [01:26:03] Speaker C: An hour and a half and a few brain cells. [01:26:06] Speaker A: Has it only been an hour and a half? [01:26:08] Speaker B: Yeah, at the start of the record, I'm sure. Probably. [01:26:11] Speaker A: Okay, we'll have fun editing that, sir. [01:26:14] Speaker B: Thanks, man. [01:26:15] Speaker A: All right. [01:26:15] Speaker B: That one might be easy. Yeah. [01:26:17] Speaker A: Dan, thank you so much. [01:26:19] Speaker C: Thank you, Buzz. [01:26:21] Speaker A: Will we see you out at the Toyota Stadium on Saturday? [01:26:25] Speaker B: Yeah, I'll be out there for this one. [01:26:27] Speaker A: All right, we'll see you there. Very good. And hopefully see you, too. FC Dallas. Curious fan. We will speak to you next week on another episode of third degree, the podcast. [01:26:37] Speaker C: Allegedly. There is a soccer game on Saturday. [01:26:43] Speaker A: The third degree nerd podcast. Third degree. The third degree nerd podcast. Third degree, never again. Third degree. Third degree. Never can.