3rd Degree the Podcast #315

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Third Degree, the podcast is brought to you by our fans, those that Support us on Patreon.com thirddegree if you like what we do on covering SC and Alice and all the other professional soccer teams in the DofW Metroplex. If you like what we do on thirddegree.net right here on the podcast, you should thank our Patreon supporters, because without them, there'd be a whole lot less there to be the podcast. Now let's get on with the show. [00:00:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:00:25] Speaker A: Oh. [00:00:31] Speaker C: Third Degree, the Third Degree. Net podcast. [00:00:35] Speaker B: Third Degree, the Third Degree Ned podcast. Third Degree, the Third Degree Ned podcast. Third Degree, the Third Degree Ned Podcast. Well, hello there, DFW area soccer curious. Welcome to another episode of Third Degree, the podcast. With his laser light, he is shining into my face via the miracle of the video chat conferencing recording system known as Riverside. It is Dan Crook. Howdy, Dan. [00:01:06] Speaker C: Thanks. It's a laser measuring device. [00:01:10] Speaker B: Those are cool. Where'd you get yours? [00:01:12] Speaker C: Actually, Tamu. [00:01:16] Speaker B: Is it accurate? [00:01:17] Speaker C: It actually is. [00:01:18] Speaker B: It's right. Yeah. Those are surprising, aren't they? Yeah. Yep. You measure your junk with it yet? [00:01:24] Speaker C: No, that would be weird. [00:01:29] Speaker A: Family podcast. [00:01:32] Speaker B: Your junk drawer, Buzz. You know your junk drawer where you keep all your junk in the kitchen? [00:01:37] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:01:37] Speaker B: You need to measure it so you can put a proper liner in the bottom of it. [00:01:41] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't need to measure mine. [00:01:42] Speaker B: It's full. I'm sure it is. And there he is. Your hero, my hero, everybody's Hero, Editor, Founder, 3rd Degree, and the original soccer influencer himself, the good Buzz Carrot. Come in, Buzz. [00:01:57] Speaker A: Yeah, so, Peter, I'll need you to quit bringing up that there are video cameras, because every time you do that, I get 15 people asking me when the video version of this is going to be available. [00:02:06] Speaker B: I told everybody when everybody wants to pay US$500 each per episode, we'll let them watch the video recording of this. [00:02:17] Speaker A: It's a steep price, right? [00:02:18] Speaker B: Somebody pony up some cash so we can make some real money off this thing. Well, yeah. At all. Make any money off this thing. We will be glad to give everybody a video feed of this so everybody get the crowdsourcing and funding put together. All right, Buzz. Well, Dallas had the weekend off. It feels like it's been a bit since football club. Dallas has played a game now they have Sporting KC this weekend. And I. I feel like this is an ongoing, repeatable story of missing pieces because Eric will be missing pieces this upcoming weekend. [00:02:57] Speaker A: Yeah, Kaik got himself a yellow card. That doesn't help FC Dallas very much when they're thin in the midfield. On the upside, you know, Sebastian Legette was on the bench for the last game and when you have two weeks off, a guy like that will be, you know, probably pretty close to being 90 minutes game fit. So you know, Sebastian Legette is probably a player that you can just start and not have to like raise a minute. [00:03:23] Speaker B: You think? [00:03:23] Speaker A: Yeah, because if he was, if he was fit enough to be on the bench and then you had him in full training for two weeks and I imagine that training was probably pretty full steam. It wasn't probably going to be like. And maybe they gave him a day or two off but then they probably went pretty hard knowing that they would have like a whole week and a half before they played. So I would imagine that you, that they probably could start him, especially because you're missing cake for a game. So why not put him in there? You know, your alternatives are Paxton, who's not ready to start and we know is even if he's cleared from his knee knock that they're claiming that he has, you know, that doesn't mean you can start him because we've, we've not seen him go past like 30 minutes without a problem. So then you're talking show and Delgado, which you know, this is okay. But you know, when you're, when you're Quill and you're, you only have one win in 10 games, you know, why wouldn't you go with a million dollar player who probably is completely fit now you're probably not going to get 90 minutes out of him. But you know, you would have assumed that like the first game in he might have gone 30, which would have been this weekend when they didn't have a game. Almost always when Dallas doesn't have a game, they play a simulated game. Maybe it's an inter squad game, maybe it's against North Texas who also didn't have a game. Maybe it's against some sort of combination of roster. So you get like, you know, two full elevens out of your team and you play a simulated game, maybe bring in a couple of players from North Texas or the academy. So I would imagine that they probably got a really good run for Legit this weekend. And I think there's a really good chance that you just put them in. [00:04:55] Speaker B: Dan, when was the last time, what was the game that Legit got hurt in? When was his last appearance? Does anybody remember? [00:05:01] Speaker A: Christ, it's over two months. [00:05:05] Speaker B: So did he play? He wasn't there for the Miami game. Was he. [00:05:09] Speaker A: No, Legit last played against Atlanta. [00:05:14] Speaker C: You beat me to it. [00:05:15] Speaker B: Okay. [00:05:16] Speaker A: The. The draw. [00:05:17] Speaker B: All right, so they. Yeah. So while Legit was playing, they won three of their four games. And since he's been out, they've lost everything except the game against. They've not won with the exception of the Miami game. Right. [00:05:31] Speaker A: When I calculated this three, the Seattle game with LeGette, they were three, two and two with 11 points. And then without him, they were two, five and two for only eight points. You know, so more games and less points. So, like, that's bad. [00:05:46] Speaker B: You're so much bad. [00:05:47] Speaker A: That is so bad. [00:05:49] Speaker C: In the last. What we've counting the Philadelphia game since he was on the bench. [00:05:55] Speaker A: Well, no, I was so. Well, that's fair. But anyway, that would be. [00:05:58] Speaker B: He didn't play. It's. [00:06:00] Speaker A: It's a draw. It would still be 3, 2, 3. It would still only be 2 losses. He didn't get in. So even though technically he was on the bench, maybe that's why it's fair to leave it off. My calculation that I made back, maybe. [00:06:10] Speaker B: Those abs of his are such a positive vibe, being on the bench. Just this presence of his abs. [00:06:16] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:06:16] Speaker B: Brought. [00:06:17] Speaker A: Depending on whether you want to count being on the bench or not, it's either 3, 2 and 2 for 11 points or it's 3, 2 and 3 for 12 points. Whatever it is, it's frigging better with Sebastian Legette. So, like, why not just put it in? [00:06:27] Speaker B: I was going to say maybe his abs presence were worth a goal unto themselves, but that game ended up 00. I don't know what the ABs did while sitting on the bench against Philly, but they did something. [00:06:37] Speaker C: Crunches. [00:06:38] Speaker A: Certainly he's a player that's good enough that it's not going to be worse if he plays, you know, surely you can get half out of the guy. Yeah, it's, you know, I would think, like, especially like you, the people. I didn't come in against Philadelphia just because the game wasn't, you know, necessarily a situation where you felt super comfortable with him and when he hasn't played in a while. But honestly, when you have, like I said, two full weeks of training and probably an inner squad scrimmage, you probably feel really good about it, you know, certainly compared to, like, if your other two choices are show and. And who. We don't even know who's back in the country, frankly. And Delgado, you know, why not just go with Legit? [00:07:19] Speaker B: Well, Kansas City comes to town, and the last time we saw them was the game here where Dallas won. It also happened to be Peter Herman Munster Vermese's last game as the longtime manager of Sporting Kansas City. And since then they have won the four games they've won this season. So this new regime is running on a. Essentially a 500 record. And in fact they're actually in pretty. This is going to be decent form. In their last five, they've tied 311 and lost the loss coming in their last game against LAFC 3 to 1. But they also tied San Diego, who Dallas has gotten crushed by and they beat Houston. So we'll see. It'll be interesting how this turns out this weekend. [00:08:08] Speaker A: Well, as far as we know, IR will still be out. We're anticipating that'll be a bit of time. [00:08:13] Speaker B: We have no, we have absolutely official the club. [00:08:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:08:18] Speaker B: I'm telling you, man. [00:08:19] Speaker A: Well, in order for them to list him as out with a hamstring, that means it's not just like a little ting, you know, and then you're talking like probably just from our experience with these things, a month or two. If it's a mild hamstring, like you can rip a hamstring and be out six months. [00:08:35] Speaker B: Yeah. If it's a. I always forget if, if the grades Dan, you probably remember is grade three the worst or grade one the worst should be three, I think. Yeah. So if. Even if it's a grade one, that's easily at least a month. If it's a grade two and it bruised and stuff, it's six weeks, six, eight weeks. [00:08:53] Speaker A: So Abubakar is still out because of his red card because they've been off a week. So you have to make some complicated decisions in the back. Now Norris will be back from the U20 World Cup. His last game I think is either is either tonight or it's tomorrow. I think it may be tonight because I'm recording this on Traveling, by the way. Tuesday, Monday night. Yeah, that's right. So you could do something like have Faran at center back. We know he's somewhat capable of that. With Norris at left back. You can leave Norris, you can leave. Sorry, Farfan, left back. And you can do something like play the 19 year old Portuguese kid who. [00:09:29] Speaker B: You told us last episode not to do that Buzz, that's a terrible. [00:09:33] Speaker A: I know because he proceeded to go out for North Texas and play like half a game and not do very good last Wednesday. It was pretty. [00:09:40] Speaker B: Maybe he was just nervous for his start. [00:09:44] Speaker A: I mean he should be the fifth center back. You're missing a starting center back so, you know, you could, like I said, you, you, you maybe can, if you're desperate, you put him in there and just cross your fingers because he would be on the right and you'd put Ibiaga on the left and then he would be between Iaga and Shaq Moore, which makes me pretty nervous, you know. Or you could do something absolutely crazy like make Delgado play center back. You know, it's not unheard of to have a guy with that kind of physical. He's not tall, that he's got some heft to him. Like he's a strong on the ball kind of guy. So he could hit guys a little bit. It's not a good situation. I think the most likely outcome is to play Norris and Farfan. You know, with Farfan as A center back, 510 center back is not ideal. And Norris and sorry, Farfam will get dominated on headers, but he knows how to play it other than the headers thing. So you don't. And then you have in front of them, you have Romero and maybe legit, or maybe it's show and Delgado. Unless you're using Delgado as the other center back we talked about. So Quill's got some fascinating choices to make when because he's 100% hamstrung by the lack of the correct number of center backs on this roster. You know, he's short. [00:10:59] Speaker B: I just want to say for the record, I think the idea that Marco Farfan is 510 feels a little bit stretched. Do you think he's really 5 10? [00:11:10] Speaker A: I think that's what they list him at. You know, whether he's actually 510 or not is a hard to say. I think Delgado is a legit 5 10, so I'd have to see them. [00:11:18] Speaker B: Yeah. Delgado to me feels like he's 5 10. Marco to me feels like he's a 5, 8 guy. 5. [00:11:25] Speaker A: I mean, Nolan's actually 6ft tall, so, you know, you could put Nolan in the middle and he has played some center back so it wouldn't be completely unheard of. He is left footed. And then you could put Ibi on the right. I mean, maybe that's better than playing Augusto, who I think is an absolute disaster. If you put him in there. He's not ready to play at an MLS level. He's barely ready to play at a. [00:11:45] Speaker B: North Texas Chapter 1997 of Things you should have heard. Listen to Buzz about when he starts on Saturday. Right? [00:11:53] Speaker C: I know. [00:11:54] Speaker A: So the other, the other flyer is Momo Sise, who's the left footed center back at North Texas who's on a straight North Texas deal. So you'd have to do one of those short term signings with him if you really felt like he was the right choice because he's a lefty. But wait, I think he's actually more. [00:12:13] Speaker B: Robin, I was gonna say, if you don't like a gusto, I can't imagine you think this guy's ready to go. [00:12:18] Speaker A: No, I think Momo's more raw even though he's a little bit older, which might, maybe that part would be why you could. Because Momo's got a really bright, upbeat, positive personality. So maybe he might deal with the pressure better. But you know, he's a a bit of a mess too. So neither one of those guys is a good solution. [00:12:38] Speaker B: His name is Momo and I dig that. [00:12:40] Speaker A: It's Muhammad but everyone calls it Momo Momo. So he's fun, he's a great personality. He really like fills the locker room, you know, with his joy. Just great guy to be around if you've ever been around or even just seeing him on video how much fun he is. So there's a lot of really tough questions for Quill to ask about his center backs this week. I mean it's going to be a mystery. [00:13:04] Speaker B: All right, well that game is on Saturday. I'm assuming it's the 7:30 start. [00:13:11] Speaker A: It is a 7:30 start at Children's Mercy park up there in Kansas City. North of Kansas City. [00:13:18] Speaker B: All right, well we'll see how that plays out for football club Dallas. Unfortunately we had a season come to an end this weekend as Dallas Trinity went into the playoffs. They went down to Florida Tampa Bay and ended up losing their semifinal in a one game knockout setup which I kind of appreciate from the USL for doing that. And Dallas is out as Tampa Gay Tampa Bay progresses. They lose to the Sun 2 to 1. [00:13:49] Speaker A: Yeah, the Dallas really struggled. You know, unfortunately Tampa had in one of their, their not first choice keeper who fumbled one of the early balls. They really should have just tried to pepper her because I think she would have given up another gaffer. But they didn't just create, they didn't create enough chances. They spent too much time struggling to get through midfield. This has always been the problem for them. Tampa's field is narrow. It's a high school football field basically. So it's not wide enough. Certainly not wide as the Cotton Bowl. And so Dallas really, Trinity really struggles to play through midfield. St, you've heard this before, particularly when they went with a 442, you know, and Brooks is in there with Gracie Bryan, who is not a distributor and connector and doesn't have the range that some of the other choices have. But they're so depleted by injuries that they really just couldn't get through there and they couldn't get enough opportunities going. You know, it just isn't. It was not ideal in terms of their ability to play and create and they just didn't get enough real chances. At the end of the day, Dan. [00:14:49] Speaker B: You paid a lot more closer attention to this than I did. What, what's your overall kind of assessment of how the debut season of Dallas Trinity went down? [00:14:59] Speaker C: Depth has been a real issue. That, that, that's kind of defined the whole season. There's been an inability to get the ball forward at times. [00:15:12] Speaker B: If let me ask you this question. If Lexi Missimo hadn't had this season ending injury that she had shortly after starting with the team, would they have progressed further? Would they have made it to the final or they. Would they have finished higher in the standings? Was she losing her that big of a deal? [00:15:30] Speaker C: But she hadn't really integrated into the team a whole lot by the time she was out? [00:15:36] Speaker A: I think so though. You know, they built the team around the idea of having Mesa in the first half and her in the second half to be the fulcrum in the offense. Like they would have finished a second instead of third. It would have made a big difference. [00:15:46] Speaker B: Did I see that Sam Mezza, despite only playing a half season, ended up in the top 11. [00:15:51] Speaker C: She was the only Dallas player. [00:15:53] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. The. Keep in mind that the, the 11 that was put out and the young player, the award that was put out by the players, that was like the USL Players association voting. That's not the official league voting. That's like other people, other players voted her into the best 11. [00:16:11] Speaker B: Like a popularity contest. [00:16:12] Speaker A: For me, yeah, it is. You know, I mean like Spokane missed the playoffs and had three players in the best 11. So it's like, I mean, you know, Ali Thornton won the golden boot and wasn't in the best 11. Brooks, who's Dallas's best player, you know, was not even and didn't get. They ended up having four midfielders and like one of the defenders was the person that finished like first in assists was on the. As a defender. I mean it was really weird list. So I, I don't put too much weight in that. But you know, as Dan said, death is an issue and it, it was particularly notable to me that for most of the season when they were missing a player, when they needed a body, they would go to the academy kids. We saw several academy kids have big impact in the first half and second half of the season to a bigger and better extent than the players that were their normal reserve players. But as the season wound down, they started losing those players because the playoffs were rolling around for academy or they got call ups and at the end of the. [00:17:09] Speaker C: By a couple of them going to college early. [00:17:11] Speaker A: Yeah, a couple of months of college. And so players that were more impactful through the bigger part of the year were all of a sudden not available and they were stuck using these players that they had signed that are like backups in the second tier, basically. [00:17:22] Speaker B: So, so this makes me, this is what makes me ask questions about this entire USLSL setup, which is how, what's the investment as a fan into a team if this is going to be how the roster construction goes? I mean, I'm assuming this is just kind of the reality of their situation and it's going to take several years for them to establish rosters of 24 or whatever it is where they're not bringing in kids from local high schools or colleges and then losing those kids to college or high school playoffs or. Or whatever it was this particular year. [00:18:01] Speaker A: Well, at some point you're right, it is that way. Like the early days of the MLS too. Same thing. Early days of any league, like you don't have the depth. [00:18:09] Speaker C: That's what I was about to ask you about since USL League one was exactly that was MLS that way? [00:18:15] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, MLS was worse than that. Like he would have four or five players that were legitimate and then you just have a boatload of dudes that were just duct taping the thing together, you know, and, and that's Super League actually is better off than that. And I imagine that they'll be, at some point they'll can. They'll sign some kids out of the academies instead of like if they want to be viable within wsl, you're going to have to sign some of these young talents instead of college. You're going to continue to grab girls out of college. They'll work on their death and they'll get better at it. You know, it is a brand new league. So, you know, there'll be changes over the summer. I'm sure the roster will be strengthened. They had a player retire who's 26, you know, Walker, Gianna Walker, who got married early in the season. So, you know, is that a factor? I have no idea. She's injured again, so maybe she doesn't want to fight through that again. I, who's to say why she's retiring? But she seems to be moving. [00:19:04] Speaker B: Interesting. So I'm curious, just kind of recapping and thinking about the Trinity season and, and the, the decision to play their season at the Cotton bowl and this is going to become a larger talking point here in a little bit with something else. I'm just curious for you guys. What, what was the positive and the negatives of that ended up for Trinity by them playing at the Cotton Bowl? Was there any negatives or any positives? I don't, I don't. I mean the attendance, I think, I mean I, I know they had a fairly decent attendance for their last home game of a little over 5,000, but I think, think I'm saying correctly, their average attendance was lower than three. [00:19:45] Speaker A: Oh, no, no, it was. [00:19:45] Speaker B: Oh, was it? [00:19:46] Speaker A: Okay, it was between three and five. Yeah, they, they grew fairly steadily. Like the first game was like 38 and then it dropped down to about three and then it develops pretty steadily over the course of the season pushing towards that 5. Dan was there more than me, so why don't we let Dan give a shot? Like what did you think of the Cotton Ball game for them? [00:20:02] Speaker C: I think it hindered them more than it helped them a large part because Fair park just seems an absolute arse ache to deal with the organization. You know, they would change the, where the players could park, where the fans could park. They would change up entrances and different parts of the stadium that were available and unavailable and not tell anyone. You know, I wouldn't, I couldn't, you know, wouldn't, wouldn't want to know the, the inner workings of what the, the Neils and Tony Fey PR and and you know, anyone else had to deal with from, from Fair park because the stuff that was kind of public facing just seemed like an absolute bitch. I think Tampa is a really great example. Similar sized crowds. One plays in a 5,000 seater stadium, one plays in a 92,500 seater stadium. They look vastly different. The atmosphere is vastly different. It just allows things to be a lot more cohesive, you know, I think season two may be a lot different. I know there was a lot of organization, organizational change in the winter. The league kind of gathered around with the clubs and talked about what everyone's successes and failures were and tried to share the wealth of knowledge a little bit because you know, these are a lot of the team owners, first time team owners, you know, a lot of them don't have a background. They might have a background in sport, but not in the business of sport, which, you know, the Neil's are one of those, I think, you know, going from that expectation of, you know, obviously Charlie had gone on the kick around at the start of the season and I was talking about getting 12,000 a week. Well, USL Championship doesn't get 12,000 a week. The highest average is 10,000 in that league. So Super League was never going to get 12,000. Dallas Trinity at like 3ish is, I think, second highest. [00:22:12] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, they were. They were second with an average of 3546. Their high was 58, 84 and their lowest attack attendance was 1662. There was only one game all season throughout the entire league that had at least 10000 people in attendance, which was at Carolina. Carolina had the two largest attendance games at 10, 506, 300. Dallas had the third and fourth most attended games at 58 and both of them essentially at 5,800. [00:22:44] Speaker A: Well, I certainly would hope that the Cotton bowl was deemed a stopgap for them. And I think you can't undersell the idea of the city of Dallas paying for a lot of the operational costs for three years. So that probably is a huge savings for a young team trying to get off the ground to not have to do all the game operations. [00:23:01] Speaker B: I've thought a lot about this. Yeah, I've been wondering this in the idea because women's soccer is such a big deal in the Dallas Fort Worth area. If this team was playing at a different location, and I don't know what that location is like, I don't think I can just say playing on a plot of land somewhere in X, it's tough. I'm just going to say it out loud. If they were playing at Toyota Stadium or they were playing at the women's facility for TCU in Fort Worth, or they were playing at Westcott at smu. Not that they could legally play at any of those places. I'm just in an imaginary hypothetical world. How much, how different do you think the attendance numbers would be for this team? [00:23:53] Speaker A: I don't know that it would be. That was different. I think it would feel different. The atmosphere would be very different. You know, and you have a stadium that holds six or seven thousand people and it's got three, four, five thousand people in it. That feels amazing. [00:24:06] Speaker C: I've got a real smart ass answer though. [00:24:08] Speaker A: What's that? [00:24:10] Speaker C: Westcott and TCU both only hold 2,000. [00:24:14] Speaker A: Oh, they're that small. I mean, I can think about. I can think about Open cup games that have been played at SMU for FC Dallas when that place has been packed out with what is, you know, 2,000 people, but it feels cool because it's full. [00:24:28] Speaker B: Right? Right. [00:24:28] Speaker A: So if you have, you know, I think there's, I don't think anybody would look at the cotton ball and think that's the viable answer. We've done that bit. MLS did that bit and it didn't work. Right. But the answer doesn't need to be Frisco either. Like, there needs to be something else. And right now I'm not sure there's a viable alternative. Like, because we've talked about why you can't play at a college. You know, I don't know of another stadium that holds that's as wide as a soccer field needs to be, that holds seven to 10,000 people in this. In DFW in Dallas, you know, you could play at Choctaw, it's just as bad. That's the reason why North Texas SC FC House is building something for North Texas SC down in Mansfield. So these other two clubs are in the same boat. And I'm sure we'll talk about this a lot when we, as we get into the athletic part, but it's like everybody knows this isn't viable. There's a reason why these deals only are the Trinity deal. It's only three seasons. Why they only have two more seasons to go because they, they weren't planning to be there past middle of the 27 in their case, you know, so. [00:25:35] Speaker C: I think there's a, there's a big, a big lesson to be learned. And, you know, obviously we've heard for years, ah, you know, if FC Dallas played in downtown Dallas, if it was accessible by public transport, all these, you know, people throwing out excuses for why they don't go to, to this or that. And I, I think we've always kind of said, you know, there's always going to be an excuse. A lot of people, for a lot of people, A lot of people view soccer as a TV show rather than a live spectator sport. And that's, that's fine, that's totally valid. But I think there's a degree of Dallas Trinity overvaluing the idea that being in downtown Dallas in somewhere that is accessible by public transport would trump everything. And, you know, I think that's going to apply to what we'll talk about later on, too. I will say the, the one midweek game they played was the worst experience going through Downtown Dallas traffic to get to the Cotton bowl on a, on a Wednesday. That was awful. [00:26:38] Speaker A: You brought up the Tampa sun situation. You know, they had to put, I don't know how much a couple mil into that thing. I mean, it was a high school football stadium. It still is a high school football stadium. So they had to put a bunch of money in it to make it presentable as a professional soccer stadium. But it is too narrow, you know, and that's. In some ways that's even worse than the idea. Look, it's down there on the river. It looks cool. It's a fun little idea. But even it's not what you want. So like if. [00:27:06] Speaker B: And it's turf. [00:27:08] Speaker A: I think it is. [00:27:10] Speaker B: That was the place they played their first game of this year, right? That was. Yeah, yeah, I think it was turf. [00:27:15] Speaker A: But for whatever reason, the broadcasting there is made out of toilet paper and chewing gum. It's the worst crap I've ever seen. For some reason the field is too narrow, as you say, it's turf, if I remember correctly. So like we'd all be blasting that if they had done that. So I don't think, I mean that's, that's, that's another short term solution or maybe in their case that might be their long term solution and then I'd be really upset. You know, I mean, fingers crossed. We're looking at eventually a legitimate 7, 500 seat stadium for Trinity. That's what would be appropriate. Maybe 10,000 even. But that's a lot of money. Like I know somebody that's involved in stadium stuff. They were telling me Union Omaha, which is a USL1 team, has draws really nice crowds up in Omaha. They're building their own stadium. I believe it's even downtown. It's going to hold 7, 500 people. It costs $65 million. Stadiums are expensive. [00:28:09] Speaker B: And what did the original Pizza Hut park cost? Was it 45? [00:28:14] Speaker A: I don't remember. [00:28:15] Speaker B: It was 45, I think, I think it started in the 30s and by the time all of the changes happened and the delays, I think it ended up at 45. [00:28:24] Speaker A: And Sacramento Republic is building a stadium that I think is going to hold like 15 for USL. You know, like they're gonna do. It's 160 something million, 140 million, something like that. So it's like, you know, this idea that like you're just gonna Whip up a 15, 2010s stadium for a couple mil is like. No, no. It's like if you get a free place to play for a couple Years almost regardless of how crap it really is, if it's better than nothing. So at some point you just got to do it. [00:28:51] Speaker B: All right, well pour one out for the Dallas Trinity season real quick, Buzz. Give them a letter grade for the whole thing. [00:28:58] Speaker A: I'd say that they got an A minus and because I thought they did a really nice job of putting together that roster. They had a lot of really solid pieces, made it out of nowhere. The thing that caught them in the end was, was the, the, the depth and most specifically the injuries. I think that's mostly because their roster is predominantly made up of players who aren't used to being professionals. They aren't used to a long season, they aren't used to training every day, whether they're out of college, whether academy kids, whether they're girls, ladies that have been playing in second divisions or semi pros. They just weren't. I think as a collective league, but for Trinity specifically, I think that was their issue. But I'm sure they will get better at it. So I give them a solid aim on us for, for what they put together and what they achieved making the playoffs, you know, and just got caught by that depth injury issue. If they had no injuries, they would have been, you know, number two, number one team fighting all year and would have been tops of the league. [00:29:49] Speaker B: Dan, you'd like to provide a letter grade for Dallas Trinity's debut season? [00:29:54] Speaker C: Yeah, can I, can I break up in two parts? [00:29:57] Speaker B: Yeah, of course. [00:29:58] Speaker C: On, on field A, Chris Pritchard Selly. Fantastic, fantastic, fantastic signing. Obviously securing players like, like Amber Brooks, you know, bring it in. Pauline McDonald and her staff. I think great move off the field. I definitely feel like there's, there's a lot of room for growth just because it's a first year organization built on the back of friends, family, goodwill and volunteers that, you know, that, that goes so far. And I mean I say that I, you know, worked a decade in non league in England where it's very much the same but you know, you only go so far without someone plowing a bunch of money into part time and full time stuff. And I think that, you know, as the league grows and you know, you don't want the league to necessarily grow too quick. NWSL was under US Soccer ownership for, you know, a very long time. But they're going to hit a point where there's a, there's a crossroads for a lot of these teams and Dallas as one of the major metropolitan areas is definitely going to be included in that. [00:31:15] Speaker B: Dan, you sound like A guy that is trying to avoid giving a really bad grade by dancing around and giving a lot of excuses. [00:31:24] Speaker C: Yeah. I just didn't want to say, hey, yeah, like it's an A. But there's these glaring things. But yeah, I think A for effort on the field has been fantastic. You know, bad luck with. With injuries. [00:31:43] Speaker B: We love the branding. We love the colorway. We love all that stuff. The merchant. [00:31:49] Speaker A: Keep the mismatched socks thing. Yeah, that's huge. [00:31:51] Speaker B: The what? [00:31:53] Speaker A: The mismatched socks. Keep that. [00:31:55] Speaker B: Oh, oh. When you say mismatch socks, I make. It feels like somebody's wearing a red sock on one leg and a blue sock. Yeah. You mean. [00:32:03] Speaker A: Yeah, like Chelsea. It happened by accident, but whatever the reason, keep that. Make that your thing. That's cool. And. And by the way, before we move off from Trinity, Amber Brooks shared on Instagram that this was. That the Brooks era was over, thankfully. What she meant was that she's getting married and she said she's going to play one final season with Weisner, which is going to be her married name. So if you see. If you see Wisner, 22, on the field, that same person, you know, so congrats to her. And she says one more season. So get out there and watch her. Watch you can, because she's first. [00:32:33] Speaker C: Worth. One of the funny things always about women's soccer. You know, you watch the women's national team and you've got. Got Mallory Pugh and Lindsay Heaps, and. [00:32:42] Speaker B: You know, it completely throws me off every game. [00:32:46] Speaker C: So Rachel Pace. [00:32:48] Speaker B: Who? [00:32:49] Speaker C: Rachel Pace. She. She got injured very early in the season, I think did acl, and she. [00:32:55] Speaker B: Changed both her first and last name. [00:32:57] Speaker C: Well, she. She'd got married before, so USL actually had her down as Rachel McCarthy, but she'd been Rachel Pace from day one, so it was always really confusing. And then Jenna Weinbrenner becomes Jenna Walker, and it's like half a frizzy. And like, who the are these new signings? [00:33:16] Speaker A: I was like, who is that? Yeah, my bad. [00:33:19] Speaker B: Well, congratulations on what was largely a very successful season for Dallas Trinity, and may there be many, many more to come, and hopefully in their own stadium somewhere conveniently located for the rest of us. Okay, very good. So we'll move on. We'll get into some other things here real quick. North Texas is back in action on Saturday versus Austin Buzz. Anything we need to know about that? [00:33:45] Speaker A: Well, not against Austin. I mean, that's just, you know, rival game. That'll be fun. The thing to know about North Texas is they're Going to play apparently. And they. They send this to every season ticket holders. I don't know that it's been announced yet other than all the ticket hickers gold. It's got it. So we found out about it. It's called the MLS Next Pro Invitational and it sounds like golf playing. It's a friendly. Yeah, they're playing CD Temp Tampa. I don't know that club. They're from Mexico. They're apparently they're the Chivas reserve team but they won the Liga BBVA expansion MX League, whatever that is. So they're. I guess they're the reserve division champions there, as I can tell. And they're going to come play North Texas at Toyota Stadium, not at Choctaw. And I believe tickets are 30 bucks, 29 bucks or something. So unless you're a season ticket holder, then you get it one comp. But you know, whatever. I mean it's. It's an exhibition game against the Mexican team up there at Toyota. So I mean hopefully they'll stream it so we can. I'm gonna. I'm gonna drive up there for that game on the Internet. Yeah. Somebody said that the tickets are 29 in our Discord. [00:34:58] Speaker C: 100% banking on cheerless fans. The same way FC Dallas used to do with Cheers USA with every random youth team friendly that they would have in the stadium. [00:35:11] Speaker A: So I didn't say this, but the game's July 26th, so if you want to see North Texas versus the Chevis Reserve. [00:35:17] Speaker B: Reserve friendly game for 30 bucks. [00:35:20] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, crikey. [00:35:21] Speaker B: Okay, whatever. [00:35:23] Speaker A: So you know July 26th, what's going on that day? FC Dallas plays on Friday that week for whatever reason, maybe to accommodate this game. So they're playing nycfc. So there you go, Frisco kid. So that's. Yeah, that's what you need to know about North Texas sc. Other than in their last game, it's fascinating. They started like eight teenagers, which actually is great. I mean they lost of course two nothing. But I applaud the fact that there were so many young. They're like two players 20 or older. Sarver and then Momo Sise like everybody else was like a 19, 18, 17. So that's what it should be. That's good. You're not going to win as many games that way, but that's what it should be. [00:36:08] Speaker B: Well, goodness gracious. Texoma won their first game on the road at Richmond Kickers. They are unbeaten in four again. Got their first road win in club history. And their. Look at the. Look at the little things. They're up to eighth place. What is their mascot? Is it the mockingbird? [00:36:27] Speaker A: It's. It's those two birds that are around the river. They call them the birds or you. [00:36:31] Speaker B: Know, so they just call themselves the birds. [00:36:34] Speaker A: They call themselves the birds the other day, which I thought was fun. I've called them the red birds, you know because their logo has two. [00:36:40] Speaker B: I like the birds. Yeah, makes sense, right Dan? [00:36:44] Speaker A: The birds you like. You like the logo story. So the logo story is that there's two birds that live on the one on the north side and one on the south side of the river and that's the two birds. [00:36:51] Speaker B: Do they flip the birds to each. [00:36:52] Speaker C: Other from across the river and it's the. The northern mockingbird. And a scissor tailed fly catcher. [00:37:01] Speaker A: Scored. Teddy Baker scored. Asmir Spangler, who's their best player had two assists. So good on them. They're actually, you know, they brought in Bram Padilla who showed him how to play and then since they brought him in and then he left like. But he was. I actually think he triggered their revival. And they've the back end of the season, they've just gotten better and better. As we talked about before they dropped, they stopped caring about possession. They started winning games. [00:37:25] Speaker C: They finally got their team in with visas. [00:37:28] Speaker A: That too. [00:37:30] Speaker B: Well, congratulations. It wasn't a lot of fun to talk about. That's good stuff. The League of Leagues FC Dallas U23 team is mowing everybody over. [00:37:40] Speaker A: Yeah, I remember there's like four other teams in the area that are in that league. But the one we care about is the one that's the progression pathway to the professional team. SCFC Dallas U23 is under the coaching of Zach Lloyd. Although right now he's at the TST tournament. So he had. Not anymore. Well he was. He has assistant coach the last game but they beat the first place team and they were. They were in second place. The 23s were by the number of games they had played. So they had less points. But even though they both were basically on four the amount of. Same amount of win. Sorry. They were on less points because they played less games. But having then beaten that first place team, they've now tied them on points and they're. But they're. They have less games played. So technically now the 23s are in first place and there's a bunch of kids on that team that are the ones that Dallas will be targeting. FC Dallas will target in the draft or as homegrown signings out of college over the next couple of seasons. So if you care about the developmental pathway, try and go watch that team because it's guys that, you know, have a good chance to someday be on the squad. You know, I wrote about them and put a thing on the roster on the website. If you're curious, you can go look at. All. [00:38:48] Speaker B: Right, well, let's get into this, which is the big. This is going to end up being the big talking point for the day, despite the fact that we've already done everything else in 40 minutes is the weird noise that has, I don't know man, this spun up fast and I don't know where it came from or how this came to be, but obviously a couple weeks ago. [00:39:11] Speaker A: Well, it's because the city. [00:39:12] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I guess that's what it was. So we, we knew that Atletico Dallas had changed their plans in terms of Garland being the stadium location. And then out of the blue, because the city of Dallas release, the Dallas Morning News wrote a story or somebody wrote a story announcing that there was a chance Athletico Dallas would be playing at the Cotton Bowl. And then some sort of noise started popping up about Atletico Dallas taking over control of Moneygram park, which is the fields over kind of on the west side of the city, right off of Walnut Hill. And I 35 and lo and behold, now featured prominently on the Atletico website, and there is a story in the Dallas Morning News is the fact that on Wednesday of this week, on the 11th, the city of Dallas council will vote in part to approve all of this stuff. And I guess that if it goes through and I in the vibes seem to be that this is going to happen is that Atletico Dallas will not only start playing in 27 at the Cotton bowl, but they will also be given the rights to take over management of MoneyGram park because FC Dallas's contract expires, I think it is at the end of 26 and that Atletico will then take over operations of the facility, which means they get the right to schedule it however they want to. And, and they have announced that they're hiring a third party, California based company who specialize in the operation of said types of facilities. So there's a lot to unpack there because this changes the whole dynamic of what we thought Atletico Dallas was going to be when we all thought they were building a 10,000 seat stadium on a groovy little plot of land right off the bush in Garland, Texas. And Nope, feels like 1996 all over again. [00:41:16] Speaker A: Well, USL has really muddied the waters with their premier League thing because that changed the landscape for everybody, changed the landscape for Atletico Dallas. It changed the landscape for what would fit in the Garland's plot that they had set aside for their initial idea of a stadium and training facility. The training facility is still being progressed as a concept which may or may not include offices for Dallas Trinity and then that and that 2,000 seat stadium we talked about last year podcast, we talked about this concept. At the end of the day, Dallas Athletico Dallas needs a place to play for three seasons while I try and figure out their stadium deal. Now, I would say I would assume that a deal with the city of Dallas for the Cotton bowl and for a Moneygram may or may sort of be in part with the idea, as we mentioned with Dallas Trinity that we're going to give you a sweetheart deal for at the cobble for a few years with the idea that we're going to get a deal done for a stadium. Yet we also know that there's things still happening in Garland. We hear rumors or stories about locations that people swear they know is a done deal in Garland for a stadium. Well, rumors are rumors, you know, none of that is real, you know, and none of these things are officially passed by any city councils yet as far as I know. Obviously the one this week will be telling for Dallas in terms of the city of Dallas, in terms of use of the Cotton bowl and Moneygram, use of the Cotton Ball seems a foregone conclusion because just like we said with Dallas Trinity, where else is there to play, you know, other than trying to shoehorn yourself into some high school stadium, which will be awful, you know, you really need for USL Championship and certainly for Premier whenever that's going to happen, you need the full size, legit field, full width. So that really just leaves you with only one choice while you try and iron out all the Ducks that you're going to need to iron out for your own deal, you know, and the guys at Athletico Dallas tell us that like, you know, over the next couple of months there's gonna be a lot of things that are going to come through and a lot of things will be more clear. So we'll see. I, I think Garland is still in the mix, possibly for a stadium. Dallas clearly is trying to get in the mix on a stadium. So the fascinating thing as you brought up Peter, is the Moneygram thing, because that seems to have come out of nowhere. Yeah, I'm Renegade's already existing club. Do they feel they need more? [00:43:48] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, I don't think there's A club in the Dallas Fort Worth area that doesn't think they need more fields. Even FC Dallas probably feels like they need more fields. Fields for all the teams. They have Renegades, the youth club which is now Athletico Dallas's youth organization. They, you know, I, that thing, that club has grown so fast, so quickly. I could see why they would want to be part of this. I don't, I'm assuming like you buzz, that the reason why Dallas would throw Moneygram out as a carrot to encourage Atletico to play at the Cotton bowl is tied to some sort of long term deal that they're going to build a soccer specific stadium somewhere that makes the city of Dallas feel like they have some sort of, they can make some claim to it. Now if it ends up in Garland, that is going to confuse me a lot. Unless they're planning on making this team play at the Cotton bowl for a really long time. But that. We'll get into the Cotton Ball part of this here in a minute. The Moneygram part of it to me is a bit confusing and also very conflicting. You know, I don't think everybody fully tends to remember, recall the origin stories of Moneygram and how the city kind of built that thing. And then it kind of fell into some sort of financial problems when there was some environmental stuff that forced them to do make some, make major revisions to the plan. Remember there was supposed to be a 5,000 seat stadium there that got dumped because they ended up spending all the money and redirecting a creek or something. I can't remember what the story was but ultimately at the, at the end of it when it was completed, the city of Dallas said, hey, we need somebody to manage this. We're going to open this up to everybody. And for the amount of money Dallas wanted to do it, nobody would come to the table until FC Dallas and the Hunt showed up and said we'll do it. And they ended up getting a pretty sweetheart deal. Now the conflicting part of this is, is that, you know, within the Dallas Fort Worth soccer community, which dates back to when Lamar took over the team and they launched a youth team and kind of just walked into the existing youth soccer scene party and said, hey, we're here and now we're the big guys at the party and eventually just started running everything and you know, frankly stepping on a lot of toes in the process. Now we're in possession and control of the two significant athletic facilities filled with fields that everybody else needed access to. And I think over the years how they've chosen to manage that has rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. And I don't think I am out of turn in saying that if in fact, at the end of their deal, which I think happens in 26, if the city of Dallas just said, hey, we're giving this to somebody else, there's going to be a lot of people in the local youth scene. They're going to go, yeah, the Hunts got screwed out of that deal. But it's kind of funny. My question in all of this is why isn't the City of Dallas opening this up for an rfp, a request for proposal for somebody else? If in fact FC Dallas's contract is up and their term is up, why not put it out for bid for other organizations to take over, manage the facility versus just kind of like almost unil. At least what appears on paper and maybe this will come out more on Wednesday, appears to be on paper being used as a carrot to sell a new organization that has done literally nothing yet so far and is a few years off from doing anything, giving them the control and operations of the crown jewel of the City of Dallas's park and recreational facilities. [00:47:40] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean that's, that's the thing that to me leads back to the idea that it must be part of a greater thing. Because you're right, like you're giving to, to be fair to, you know, a club like Atletico, which now includes what is Renegades, you know, the, the thing in Garland only has like 5 or 6 fields. Know it has a couple of fields that'll be there, theoretically be their training facility for their pro players or whatever. Then it has like five more fields. So like it's useful to some part of that organization. But that's not like a Moneygram or a Toyota park which has like 30 fields. Those are very different things. So it probably is very appealing to. [00:48:16] Speaker B: Oh sure. [00:48:17] Speaker A: And Renegades is a combination like here's this huge complex with all of our teams can play there and you know, all this great, huge advantage. [00:48:25] Speaker B: A huge advantage not just from a, just from an operational and scheduling perspective, but from a revenues perspective. And apparently, you know, if they're going to bring in a third party vendor to operate it, I'm assuming these people know how to bring in tournaments and things that maybe FC Dallas chooses not to do or whatever. The question I have as a taxpayer is what is that going to do? I mean, already the access to MoneyGram is extremely, extremely limited for adult soccer. Dallas Soccer alliance has been running Thursday and Sunday leagues there for the last five or six Five years or so. But, man, the access that they have to those fields is really painfully limited. So much so that the guys that run those leagues are constantly out trying to play games in other places like Cox and up in Frisco and not Frisco up in Allen and all over the place. And their access gets limited, it feels like every year. So if somebody else takes over, are they just going to shut them out altogether? And now there's no adult soccer at the facility. Are they going to expand it and make it more available to everybody else? That isn't youth soccer? I mean, I got a thousand questions, but the fact that the city appears to just be handing it over to somebody else and not putting it out for bid, somebody's going to put up a fuss about that. I bet. [00:49:46] Speaker A: Very possibly. You know, a lot of these questions we don't have answers to. You know, I go back to when Trinity was announced and the mayor of Dallas came out there and talked about how they wanted to make Dallas this huge sports city. And we're going to get all the teams, you know, and we're going to get Trinity and we're going to get. You know, it seems pretty clear to me that they're jumping on the chance to get a men's Division 1 potentially team here and doing whatever they got to do to make it happen. Because it. They keep losing teams to the suburbs, you know, like, they had no chance to get the Rangers or the Cowboys or any of that stuff. You know, they're probably struggling to hold on to the Stars and the Mavericks at this point, even though the AAC is not that old, but, you know, it is these days, 10, 20 years, and teams are gone, you know, so it's like, you know, they probably would love to get their hands on Atletico Dallas, you know, and Dallas Trinity, both of whom very clearly want to be the Dallas team. Yeah, you know. [00:50:42] Speaker B: Well, it would make sense to me that between the city of Dallas and the Wings, Trinity and Athletico working together to find a plot of land probably somewhere south of 30 South Dallas, Pleasant Grove, that area, or all the way over in Oak Cliffs somewhere. You know, they've been talking about building a Wings practice facility over in Oak Cliff. There's places. There's lots of land in those areas. They're not the places. Everybody kind of wants things to be grown, but that's. Those are where opportunity is. And working with those three organizations to build a soccer stadium, a specific stadium, and a basketball, a smaller basketball arena seemed like huge opportunities to me for the city Of Dallas. [00:51:23] Speaker A: Yeah. I hadn't thought about the wings being. [00:51:25] Speaker B: You know, and building. What if you were to build like a sporting park area, like a mini Arlington where you've got a soccer stadium and a basketball arena, maybe you put a small baseball stadium over there and you invest money in that and you make access to it easy. I, that to me makes sense. [00:51:44] Speaker A: I don't know much about it, but there's a Texas Rangers development system complex just west of the Trinity. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've driven past it a couple of times and so I was like, oh, what is that? You know, so like they're, the city of Dallas is looking to do those kinds of things. [00:51:59] Speaker B: You know, I, it would be interesting. Now I, I have my, my impression is, is that the family that owns Trinity and the people, people that own Atletico have no interest in combining superpowers together. Like these are going to continue to be two separately operated and owned entities. But it does feel like it would benefit and behoove everybody to find a singular facility for both of those teams to play in. [00:52:26] Speaker A: Well, particularly because we think right now they play opposite seasons. [00:52:30] Speaker B: So because, and I, and I think this really is where it takes the conversation back to. We were all really interested in, really excited when we heard about a 10,000 seat stadium off the Bush in Garland, Texas. And we thought, oh, this is going to be really cool. Whether it's USLC or some vaunted uslp, it was going to be cool. But now that you tell me you're going to be playing in a 92,500 seat stadium in Fair Park. I've done this before, I've seen this and when I was doing it, it was a 75,000 seat stadium with about an average of, you know, 15, 16,000 people in it a game. And it felt really, really empty then. Considering the average USL game is currently running at about 5,200 attendance per game. 5,200 in a 92,500 seat stadium is going to be really, really squishy. [00:53:32] Speaker A: It'll be really fascinating to watch a USL Premier set of teams try and differentiate themselves from USL Championship to make themselves more like we're, we're playing at the MLS level. Whether it be players, whether it be money, whether it be draw, how you do that, that's going to be fascinating over the next couple years. And to be, and to, to put a marker on the cotton wool thing, three seasons is 27, 28 and 29. So you're not, you're looking at 30, 30 for a stadium for Athletico, because you're about to do, apparently about to do a three year Cotton bowl lease starting in 2027, which will be the season that Trinity ends, right? Because it's 24, 25, 25, 26 and 26, 27. So summer 27, Trinity will be done at the Cotton bowl and that'll be just half a season into Athletico's existence. If, if, if Dallas Trinity sticks on their three years, at least if they don't. [00:54:27] Speaker B: Extended 2030 is the most Jetson sounding thing I've heard anybody say in a long time. [00:54:31] Speaker A: Yeah, I'll turn 60. [00:54:32] Speaker B: I think I'll be, I think I'll be dead in 2030. Dan, you, you know, it's funny, I need Dan to chime in here because Dan, you're the guy that has spent your entire life dealing with non league, you know, lower league English soccer teams going in and out of relegation, promotion and liquidation, this, that and the other. You've. This must all be completely weird and freaky or is it just all very humorous to you? [00:54:56] Speaker C: I think it's par for the course. It's just a slightly different course. Every, you know, every year in the uk, teams are worried about new leases, getting kicked out of venues, the viability of, of different venues and how things are going to work out. So it's just, it's just on a slightly different scale. You know, I think it'd be nice if maybe people could see New York City FC and say, hey, maybe we don't want to do that. Maybe we want to have a permanent home when we start. But you know, it's, it's kind of like the, the player that moves around a lot of clubs and you wonder why. And it's, every coach is like, yeah, I can, I can do that, but I can do that better. I can fix that guy. Just don't do silly. [00:55:46] Speaker B: I mean, here's the thing. I love the Cotton Bowl. I love watching soccer in the Cotton bowl. But I'll raise my hand and say, I didn't make it to a Dallas Trinity game this year. Why? I don't have a really good excuse. It's my fault. I mean, I should have gone to a game there and seen a game for those girls, but I didn't. It just, I never had the pure urgency to do that. And when you tell me that you're going to launch a USLC or P team and they're going to play at the Cotton Bowl, I want to be excited about it, but I have a hard time honestly looking at People in the face and going, yeah, I think that's a good idea because I, I, I, but I, at the same time, I don't think there's a good alternative. Like what, what does Athletico Dallas do at this point to play in 2027? Where else is there to play that isn't a high school stadium? We just said this 20 minutes ago. There isn't a place for them to play. [00:56:42] Speaker A: There is. [00:56:43] Speaker C: I mean, your options are the Cotton bowl or it's sit out an extra couple of years and wait for the, you know, USL premiere thing to come about. [00:56:54] Speaker A: Somebody asked me why I don't just play it Toyota Stadium. When I was like, you're, well, the. [00:56:57] Speaker B: Hunts would never do that. [00:56:59] Speaker A: Yeah. If you think the Hunts will let you play another Pro Division 1, especially. [00:57:02] Speaker C: After all this Moneygram stuff. [00:57:05] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:57:05] Speaker A: They made North Texas leave. That's their own team, right? [00:57:09] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I, it is, probably is what it is. And I've always wondered if maybe somebody with enough money could come up with a cool engineering, architecturally interesting way of kind of like what they do at that stadium in Canada where they partition off the upper deck with the little panels, the BC place with the like fabric panels that kind of come down and kind of create like a, a, a, a faux roof over the lower deck. Like, if somebody could do that at the Cotton Bowl, I think that would be a really cool idea. But I, you know, I do, I, you know, I was, I was. When this news came out, it did dawn on me that there's a huge irony to all of this, which is there's an entire segment of people that are just so anti MLS and anti FC Dallas. And they all talk about the fact that they don't want to drive to Frisco. They want a stadium that is in downtown, that is near a mass transit stop, and they want them playing in a first division soccer American Soccer league that features promotion, relegation. And they're about to get that. Are they going to go watch this? Are they going to show up at the Cotton Bowl? [00:58:16] Speaker C: No, they'll find another reason. [00:58:18] Speaker B: Well, I know they will. I absolutely know they will. But there's no, I mean, if you've been bitching about Fs, everything, and I'm not even saying those bitches and those complaints are invalid. I think those are all absolutely perfectly reasonable reasons not to support FC Dallas, fine. Period. Here's the thing you've been asking for, for the last however many years. It's here, it's coming. Go support the team. [00:58:41] Speaker C: I Mean, unless Juventus, Barcelona, Real Madrid, teams of that ilk play that they don't care. It's just a TV show beyond that, Right? [00:58:52] Speaker B: Yeah, you're right. I, it. The Cotton bowl may be a fun place to go to once a year, but for those of US Back in 1996, we were hitting down at that place, you know, 16 times a year in the dead of the heat, when it was a billion effing degrees. I, I know what that experience is like. So it, I don't know. [00:59:13] Speaker A: Well, hopefully the renovation is done enough by 2027 that they'll be able to sit on the shadier side of the stadium. That'll. [00:59:19] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know what the, what the schedule is for the finishing out of the renovations. [00:59:23] Speaker C: It's supposed to be by the Red river game this year. Supposed to. [00:59:28] Speaker A: Oh, the money. Done for the money. Yeah. [00:59:31] Speaker B: And the crazy part is, is that the thing that really made the Cotton Ball the best part was the field. And the field itself is now not the same thing that it was back in the 90s. [00:59:42] Speaker A: Then get it back. Then get it back. You think there's two teams playing there, they can put some money in it, be fun. [00:59:48] Speaker C: Yeah, but the problem is who's going to put the money in? Because, see, yeah, I don't know, man. [00:59:52] Speaker B: I mean, I really want this Atletico thing to work. I want it to be successful. I want it to be a viable option for everybody in this marketplace. And now you, you know, and I think about those guys spending all this money, you know, Valentine and Morton and whoever else is involved in that thing financially, I, I, I really do wish them the best, but I also recognize they, I mean, this is essentially the same position that Neil family was in a year ago, isn't it? Or a year and a half or whatever it was like, hey, we talked ourselves into launching a USL team, but we don't have a place to play games. [01:00:28] Speaker C: I think they actually had a little bit of a better situation because there was a real sense of intrigue about a team playing at the Cotton Ball regularly. Well, you know, whether you like or don't like it as a venue, it was kind of, you know, there's a certain history there and it, and it hasn't served that purpose in, in 20 years, and it wasn't great as that. So now you've got, instead of that intrigue, it's just, how do they make chicken salad out of that chicken shit of a venue? Especially because everyone was really excited about the idea of that, that Garland Stadium. And yeah, Just having something different, having a real alternative. [01:01:13] Speaker B: Yeah. I think that's really their biggest problem is that whether it was a thing or not, the fact that the entire initial first impression of the idea of Atletico Garland or Atletico Dallas was their own stadium in Garland is now them playing the cotton ball is a. Is a big come. Weirdly, a massive comedown. [01:01:35] Speaker A: Yeah, well, they had to reset all their thinking because of the USL Premier thing. If that thing dies on the vine, there's going to be some gnashing of. [01:01:43] Speaker C: Tea in various places, which there's still a good chance of that, you know. [01:01:46] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, a lot of this is speculation. We don't know all the details. We're going off of things that have been printed on the Atletico website and on the Dallas Morning News and some other local media outlets that have been talking about this. I think the volume about that stuff is going to accelerate quickly in the next couple of days as it goes to the city council and I'm going to assume somebody in the media is going to point out, wait a second, how is this being done without going through a particular process? I'm sure somebody's going to make a rattle a cage about that. So I guess we'll learn more and be able to talk about it more smartly and more educatedly in the coming weeks. [01:02:23] Speaker C: Yay. [01:02:24] Speaker A: Before we move off of USL and stadium and reports in newspapers, there was a report the last couple weeks about potential renovation of Farrington Field in Fort Worth. That was a major massive monetary project through some bond initiatives that includes mixed use at a bunch of other things. And if you're interested in a Fort Worth USL team, I would suggest you pay attention to that situation. [01:02:54] Speaker B: So is the, is the noise that somebody's doing something with the old LA Grave baseball plot no longer a thing anymore? [01:03:02] Speaker A: I think someone is finally cleaning that up. I don't know what's happening with that. That's. I. I don't hear stuff about that related to soccer. [01:03:13] Speaker B: Okay. [01:03:14] Speaker A: What the. The reason I'm suggesting that you pay attention to the Ferriton Field thing is I have heard some rumors about that and I think that's a more likely scenario because it's right there with the other major sporting venues over there with Dickies and the State Fairgrounds vaguely in that sort of neck of the woods. And they are looking to make a pretty major renovation. The city is defending the field, period, so that the ISD can do more with it. And all this mixed use stuff that everyone loves to incorporate soccer fields and stay soccer teams into. So I think that's a pretty good possibility to keep an eye on. [01:03:51] Speaker B: Okay, well, I know. Do we have any idea when whoever has made the purchase of the USL rights from Donnie Nelson, the old Austin bold thing, when they're going to announce what they're going to do with this for this, this plan? Do we have any idea? [01:04:08] Speaker A: I thought you would have heard something by now. I would have thought as far enough as they are along that you would have heard something. So I'm actually surprised you haven't. [01:04:19] Speaker C: I wonder how much of it. [01:04:20] Speaker A: So literally, like, sorry, I wonder how. [01:04:23] Speaker C: Much of that is. Is just kind of observing the, the other two USL teams we've had, you know, Atletico Dallas kind of jump in the gun and then it's, oh, actually now we're going to go to USL Premier and then that changes everything and we don't know where we're going to play and yada yada, yada. And similarly with Dallas Trinity, I would. [01:04:44] Speaker A: Imagine USL Premier has changed things for them too. You know, this is a big enough market that you could have both of those teams in one or the other or both. You know, I mean, just, just like Athletic Dallas. So I imagine that put a wrench in whatever that guy was planning, you know, and, and it may have affected whatever development plans he had too. You know, it's hard to really know. I'm. Like I said, I'm surprised you haven't actually heard anything about it. Like, so, you know, there could be a thing next week and I'd be like, oh, there it is. Or it could be Christmas or it could be, as Dan said, like, the whole thing could have taken a massive hit and maybe it's next year we hear about it or something. So, you know, I, I just, I think there are things happening with that franchise that mean at some point news will come out through other avenues. Just like the Athletico Dallas stuff is coming out. Not from Athletico Dallas. It's coming out because the city's doing stuff. And at some point that'll happen for the team in Fort Worth, I think, and that's when you'll start to hear about it. Okay, this is my guess. [01:05:41] Speaker B: Well, crazy. So much is going on. So much soccer stuff happening around here. [01:05:48] Speaker A: It's stupid. [01:05:49] Speaker B: And on top of that, now we got Gold cup and club, World cup and cup and we got Premier League teams coming to play in a friendly tournament in the, in the coming weeks. [01:06:01] Speaker A: And whole bit MLS All Star game, like five people will go to that. With everything else happening. Mls, the Academy Playoffs are next week or this week and coming up, too. So that's, you know, if you're into that stuff. [01:06:14] Speaker B: Buzz, I. I can't believe I'm saying this, but there is almost. It's almost as if there's too much soccer. [01:06:20] Speaker A: There definitely is. On the big international tournament front, like all the Copa America being here, Club World cup being here, all this gold comes being here, it's all diluting the waters with the World cup around the corner. I think it's oversaturation. I think they're not going to sell jack tickets to this club World Cup. I think the Gold Cup's gonna suck. [01:06:37] Speaker C: They've dropped the price by like 40 or something. Silly. [01:06:40] Speaker A: I know they're getting just destroyed. And I'm actually significantly worried about the World cup in terms of its performance on the world stage. I don't even get into the political part. Just like the oversaturation here. Like, does anyone give a crap anymore? It's like they're expanding the field. You're going to get games of this thing that are going to be like Angola versus, you know, Honduras and there'll be 5,000 people there or something. You know, it's just. Well, it's going to be. Parts of. It can be awful. I think we'll see. [01:07:14] Speaker B: We shall see. I trust that a World cup will always be incredibly popular, but I don't think the Club World cup will have a direct impact on that. I think if anything impacts the World cup, it'll be just access, you know, all the other stuff that's going on politically and so forth. But I also trust that at some point the government will recognize they're going to have to allow people to come in. [01:07:39] Speaker A: It's just so much saturation of stuff. It is like it's getting lost in the way. [01:07:43] Speaker B: But see, I think all of that stuff is related to people local and wanting to go to games locally. But when it comes to the World cup, people travel for that stuff. So assuming that I'm correct that all of the. The travel restriction stuff is. Is let go of for that particular six weeks to allow people to come travel, I suspect that'll be just fine. [01:08:06] Speaker C: I don't know how it'll be with fans, but certainly it's come up with the Gold cup since Haiti's on that whole travel restriction and Cuba, and that's considered a major sporting event that bypasses at least for people associated to the teams. [01:08:24] Speaker B: Yeah, they've written exceptions for the Olympics and for the Gold cup. [01:08:28] Speaker C: And if you want to see a Preview of an oversaturated World cup Dominican Republic versus Suriname AT&T Stadium on June 22nd. [01:08:40] Speaker B: Hell, how about this? The US versus Haiti on the 23rd. I mean, at and T stadium. I mean, I. I can already tell you that is going to be a miserably attended game. [01:08:53] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm looking to pick up some tickets the night before for 10 bucks. Yes, on whatever. Stop hover. [01:08:59] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. Okay, so the only thing left to discuss is the best part of this particular episode, which is celebrating one Dan Crook who once again has hit it out of the park with his. Smashed it out of the park. A dinger. Dan. We would call this a dinger in baseball vernacular. You did it again with your mock up of what you suspect the new Dallas FC Dallas slash burn throwback third jersey will be when it hits the marketplace in the month of July. [01:09:36] Speaker C: Much appreciated, chaps. So everyone gonna buy it if it looks like that? [01:09:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:09:43] Speaker B: Yes. Now, can we all agree that it has one part to it? I mean, it wouldn't be an episode of third degree and me if I didn't just point out one problem with it. Do we all agree. Am I being a bitch about this? [01:10:02] Speaker C: Nope. [01:10:03] Speaker A: Because of what you're gonna say. [01:10:05] Speaker B: It's the choice. So if you haven't seen the shirt, it's a black shirt with red horizontal stripes or hoops. Not really hoops because they don't go all the way around. [01:10:15] Speaker A: Pin hoops. [01:10:15] Speaker B: Pin hoops. [01:10:16] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [01:10:16] Speaker B: Very much in the style of what era? The 97 jersey. I would. Yeah, 97 to 99. The. The issue with the shirt is, is that instead of using the original third accent color, because back in the day, the burns colors were red, black, and what Andy Swift tells me was actually technically called asparagus green, not wasabi or guacamole green. [01:10:45] Speaker A: Asparagus. [01:10:45] Speaker C: Asparagus. [01:10:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:10:48] Speaker B: They decided to use yellow, a color this club has never used once, ever in the history of its. Ever. But that is the accent color on the shirt. So it's black with red pin hoops with a very slight yellow accent. And it is really cool. But it would have been cooler if they had gone with Dan's mock up version with the green as the accent color. [01:11:13] Speaker A: Yeah. Of the people that commented on the colors universally, people said should have gone with the wasabi green. Like, not a single person ever said the gold is better. [01:11:23] Speaker B: It's not gold, it's yellow. [01:11:25] Speaker A: Whatever it. You want to call it orange. You know, you're right. Whatever color it is, it stinks. The wasabi Green would have been better, but you know, it wouldn't be FC Dallas if they didn't have a decent idea that they did not have a good execution on. So should have been wasabi. It's a travesty. It's not wasabi. Sorry, Andy. Asparagus. Yeah. Universally was. Everyone agrees. I haven't found a single person just. [01:11:50] Speaker B: Because I don't want anybody to get stuck on this. I still will buy one of these shirts because that. It is probably the best shirt this club has come out with in the last. Alongside the baby blue Tornado throwback shirt. It's the best shirt this club has had in a really, really long time. [01:12:06] Speaker A: It's amazing. [01:12:07] Speaker C: If I. If I've got it totally wrong, then you're gonna be real mad then. [01:12:14] Speaker A: Based on the feedback I heard you have it pretty damn right. But that's part of the course. [01:12:18] Speaker B: I really do love the font you chose in the back, but I think we've been told that the font is not actually correct. [01:12:24] Speaker C: Yeah, that was last year's font, which just matches up so perfectly to the 96 jerseys. [01:12:29] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:12:30] Speaker A: Yeah. The word on the street is that there's a new font for the. The, you know, names and numbers, unsurprisingly. So I don't blame Dan for going with the one from last year because the last year had that limited rental. Was it four or five? Team Dan, we thought would just be carried over. So that's. That was a fair. [01:12:42] Speaker B: So quick question for you too. Dan's mock up shows it with black shorts with red trim and black socks with red. Some red trim and bits on it. Is that what we would choose for those parts of the kit? [01:13:03] Speaker A: I would go with Red Sox as a nod to the third kit from the Athletica era, which had the black, black with the red socks, but with black shorts. Black shorts and black top. The Athletico third kit with the Red Sox. Red Sox. That's what they did back then. That's right. There's lots of pictures of it. [01:13:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:13:18] Speaker A: Yeah. So that's what I would do just to, you know, since you're. Since you're doing a burn throwback that's got little bits of all those things, including the black from that particular kit. I would include the Red Sox with it because that was part of. [01:13:29] Speaker B: What do you think, Dan? [01:13:31] Speaker C: I'd even say that. Or, you know, the, the like thin hoop socks from 96, 97 sets. [01:13:39] Speaker A: I wouldn't hate that. [01:13:39] Speaker C: Yeah, do that. But instead of in red and white, in like red and black. So it Kind of matches in that theme. But yeah, I think that. Yeah, the. The shorts and socks were a total guess I've had absolutely no information on whatsoever, but just kind of seems the logical choices. [01:13:58] Speaker B: Well, I thought it looked great, and I'm excited about it all the way around, for sure. So when do we know when they go for sale or when they'll get debuted on the field? [01:14:11] Speaker C: Supposed to be July 16th unveiling. FC Dallas has 90s night on the 19th when they play St. Louis. So that should. [01:14:26] Speaker B: Gnarly. Dude. [01:14:28] Speaker A: Wait, they say gnarly in the night? [01:14:30] Speaker B: Maybe that was an 80s thing. I don't remember. [01:14:32] Speaker C: Well, then that was. That was. [01:14:37] Speaker B: I made myself laugh. [01:14:39] Speaker C: Yeah, that's what matters most. [01:14:42] Speaker B: All right, well, good kick ass. Good stuff. I dig it. I like it. All right, anything else, boys? [01:14:49] Speaker C: We'll say one thing. I was having an absolute bastard of a time trying to find a pair of turf shoes for. For an indoor league over the weekend. But I did go to the Adidas outlet and they've got 50 off. Pretty much all of their soccer stuff jerseys are 40 off. So I picked up that FC Dallas travel hoodie, the one that's like modeled after the 2012 for. For $40. They had the reversible jacket for 40. I think that was 40 as well. And then they also had the. The current away jersey, the replica version for 50. So. [01:15:31] Speaker B: Okay. [01:15:32] Speaker C: Yeah, so yeah, some good stuff. There's some Man United stuff there for you, Peter. [01:15:36] Speaker B: I don't need any of that. [01:15:37] Speaker C: Yeah, sorry. No, and they have olden all the Mexico stuff as well. Plus that. That really cool Argentina throwback jersey. They've got that. [01:15:47] Speaker B: Oh, okay. I do like that one. Is that the one with the one racing stripe? The kind of the blue with the white horizontal stripe on it? [01:15:54] Speaker C: It's the. It's the fully striped one, but it's got like the gold trefoil. [01:15:58] Speaker B: Ah, okay. [01:15:59] Speaker C: All right. [01:16:00] Speaker B: Buzz, do you mind if I give the curious a wiggle butt soccer club update? [01:16:05] Speaker A: No, no, go ahead. [01:16:08] Speaker B: That's right up the butts. So, due to popular demand, I have designed. I've commissioned and designed a logo, a backstory and stuff. I've got shirts on order for samples because I'm really concerned about how some of this art. Because the it like the Atletico Dallas design, there's so much detail and shading in it in. In one version of it that I have no idea how well it will print. So the company that I use, I've got samples on order. I'll have them this week. And if they all look good, a Wiggle Butt Soccer Club storefront will launch with a variety of T shirts, sizes, colors, designs. Maybe a hat or two, maybe a coffee mug. Dan, can I interest you in a throw pillow? A Wiggle Butt up the Butts throw pillow. [01:17:02] Speaker C: The only thing is, my dog would steal it, which I guess would be kind of appropriate. [01:17:06] Speaker B: Would he hunt it? Would he hump it? [01:17:08] Speaker C: You know, she probably would have ptsd because a friend of ours has a corgi that is absolutely obsessed with her. [01:17:19] Speaker B: I was going to. I don't know. I have the. Where did I put this? [01:17:29] Speaker A: The story about the names. [01:17:31] Speaker B: Should I read it? [01:17:31] Speaker A: You put it in discord here, I'll read it. [01:17:33] Speaker B: Would you let me to narrate it to you? [01:17:35] Speaker A: Sure, man. [01:17:37] Speaker B: So I wrote this little backstory. This is the abbreviated version. There's a much longer version, but it goes something like this. Wiggle Butt Soccer Club began as Corgan Town Athletic, an unruly Welsh side that played long before formal football existed on bumpy sheep fields with a ball made from the molted fur of 1000 corgi. The club's chaotic matches, guided by barking dogs and no real rules, became local legend, and after arrival, mocked them as nothing but a chasing fluff bunch of wiggle butts. The name stuck and was proudly adopted in 1924. Today, Wiggle Butt SC honors its scrappy mythical origins with delightful defiance, muddy kits and a crest that howls back. [01:18:29] Speaker C: I like. You did that in your voiceover voice. [01:18:31] Speaker B: I did that for you in my voiceover voice. Pretty cool, huh? Do you like that, Buzz? [01:18:38] Speaker A: I do. [01:18:38] Speaker B: You like the backstory? [01:18:41] Speaker A: The best. Was the best part. [01:18:42] Speaker B: There's a way longer version of it. [01:18:45] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:18:48] Speaker B: And then I had. And then there's actually a Corgantown Athletic crest for the original version. And then. Yeah. So I've got a whole thing. I'm kind of like. I'm trying to figure out how much effort I want to. I want to figure out how much time and effort I want to put into this, only to find out that I might sell, like five T shirts and nobody else really gives a shit. But I have this in my imagination when I'm really dreaming of a jobless future, a mailbox money future, is that I. I successfully turned this into a viral thing on Instagram. And people who own Corgis from all over the world suddenly now want to own into Wiggle Butt athletics. So, yeah, my buddy, my entrepreneurial friend of mine, is convinced that if I was to build out a website for Wiggle Butt soccer club and sell essentially pre designed kits and essentially licenses so so that kids and adult teams from all over the country could be their local. Local wiggle butt soccer club team that I would. I'd probably sell more of those than you'd probably imagine. I don't know if that's true or not. [01:20:00] Speaker A: That might go. I might. That might be a little far. But people, people might. Corgi owners might get into the Wiggle Butt. Let's see. [01:20:06] Speaker C: I mean let me free up some time to make a website for you. [01:20:10] Speaker B: You are first on my list, sir. [01:20:12] Speaker C: Nice. [01:20:14] Speaker B: I. But I'm a little afraid to find out what the crook rates go for website design development. [01:20:22] Speaker A: I found them to be quite affordable jersey so far. [01:20:29] Speaker B: Well, hopefully those will be available within the next couple of weeks and everybody can let me know how much they can. How much how awesome it is by sales reporting. I'll find out real quick because I put a lot of things that I thought were really cool up on the kick around store to buy and I don't sell a lot of those. No, not at all. [01:20:49] Speaker A: Yeah, I've occasionally had somebody ask me to make a shirt and I make it and they don't even buy one. It's like, okay, lots of people will buy this thing and then they don't. [01:20:58] Speaker C: It's kind of like when we write stuff though, right? You know, you put all this time and effort and something you're like, ah, that's the absolute. No one reads it. And then you do something that's a complete throwaway and it's like that's more views than I've ever had on anything ever. [01:21:11] Speaker A: Well, like it's like my, my why why soccer numbers matter thing that just crushes every other piece of content I've ever made. Month after month. [01:21:18] Speaker C: I did that thing. Just frustration after watching the English game about all the things that weren't accurate and that has an absurd number. [01:21:28] Speaker A: It's got legs too. [01:21:28] Speaker C: And then I do something like the whole feature on Martin Paz and his story before anyone else did it and no one gave a crap. [01:21:40] Speaker B: Wait, is Paws out this weekend too? [01:21:43] Speaker A: No, I think he should be back. I mean the national window was over, right? They played two games. [01:21:46] Speaker B: Well, he didn't play in the first game. Yeah, we suspended the first game. Did they play their second game yet or is that tomorrow? [01:21:55] Speaker A: I don't know. I think it. He should be back. [01:21:58] Speaker B: All right. [01:21:59] Speaker C: Yeah, he's obviously done. Yeah, they're playing tomorrow morning in Japan. He's obviously done the whole get off a plane and get straight into the ground. [01:22:09] Speaker A: There's a goalie. It's not like he runs around, you know? He'll be fine. [01:22:13] Speaker B: Very good. All right, well, thank you for indulging me in that buzz. My entrepreneurial spirit. [01:22:19] Speaker A: I think it's fun. It will be there to be. The podcast is brought to you by our fans, those that Support us on Patreon.com thirddegree if you like what we do on covering SC and Alice and all the other professional soccer teams in the DFW metroplex. If you like what we do on third degree.net right here on the podcast, you should thank our Patreon supporters, because without them, there'd be a whole lot less Third Degree, the podcast. [01:22:41] Speaker B: All right, boys. Thank you so much, Dan. Thank you, sir. [01:22:44] Speaker C: Thank you. [01:22:46] Speaker B: And thank you, Buzz. [01:22:47] Speaker A: Hey, man, thanks for being here and hosting for us. [01:22:49] Speaker B: Love it. Fun to do. Always. And thank you, DFW soccer curious fans. We will speak to you next week with a lot more stuff to talk about on another episode of 3rd Degree, the podcast up the Buzz. The 3rd Degree podcast 3rd Degree the 3rd Degree podcast 3rd degree the 3rd Degree podcast 3rd Degree, the 3rd Degree Never Care. [01:23:41] Speaker A: Sam.