3rd Degree the Podcast #338

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:00:09] Speaker B: Third Degree, the Third Degree NEP Podcast. [00:00:14] Speaker A: Third Degree the Third Degree N Podcast. Third Degree the Third Degree N Podcast. [00:00:22] Speaker C: Third Degree the Third Degree Ned Podcast. [00:00:26] Speaker A: Well, hello there, DFW Soccer Curious. Welcome to another episode of Third Degree, the podcast on the docket today, Dan Crook. Howdy, Dan. [00:00:36] Speaker B: Hello. [00:00:36] Speaker A: And your hero, my hero, everybody's hero, editor, founder of thirddegree.net and the original soccer influencer, Buzz Carrick. Come and Buzz. [00:00:46] Speaker C: Hello, fellas. [00:00:47] Speaker B: How are y' all doing? [00:00:47] Speaker C: As the holiday season is almost upon. [00:00:50] Speaker A: Us, you clearly made it back safely from your cross continent, your cross continent trip. [00:00:57] Speaker C: Yep, yep. [00:00:58] Speaker A: All right, good. Any, anything, anything noteworthy happen on the way up or back that you'd like to share with the curious? [00:01:05] Speaker C: When I was going through Wyoming and into Montana, there was a really crazy wind situation that came up. You know, I don't know if you know anything about i80, but the wind pick up there and it can be so windy that they'll. They'll shut it down for trucks because they'll blow them over, you know. And I was hauling my casita, so. Oh, I was like, I was right on the borderline of what they considered okay to go. So I was like. But it was a little bit fun, a little bit scary for a minute, you know. [00:01:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:01:33] Speaker A: Did you get to see the northern lights? [00:01:36] Speaker C: The day that the northern lights hit? I was actually in a hotel in a city, so I, you know, I was in Salt Lake City that day so it was super bright up course of the city. I couldn't see spot, so that sucks. [00:01:47] Speaker A: All right. [00:01:47] Speaker C: I looked out my window to see if I had a good view of the mountains or anything. I had a view of a industrial park, so that didn't work out. [00:01:55] Speaker B: So. [00:01:55] Speaker C: But the hotel. [00:01:56] Speaker B: Oh yes, the natural beauty. [00:01:58] Speaker C: Yeah. Hampson ended it was clean and that was worth a lot of sometimes, you know. [00:02:03] Speaker A: Well, good times. Well, glad you made it back safely. It is an off week obviously for everybody because it's the international break and before we get into talking about stuff that did at least happen news wise in the last week, I just wanted to comment that it is interesting to be a Dallas fan and enjoy the fact that in the international breaks we get to see some of our guys do stuff and important stuff. And Peter Musa scoring the game, the, the goal that essentially sends Croatia to the World cup after not being called up for two years, is both a thrilling thing and if I'm being honest as a fan, a concerning thing. [00:02:40] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Goals like that, you know, like we always say, you know, you should have done your scouting before a big cup or a big tournament or a big international game. But it doesn't matter that when you get in front of a bigger audience, people might see you and score a goal like that and have them go, you know what? That is the guy for us. I mean, you use an FC Dallas analogy. I don't think the Deedson was going to get across the line necessarily if he hadn't scored that goal against the United States for Haiti, you know. So anytime you see Musa scoring an international goal in front of a European audience, you have to think, well, you know, price just went up a little bit. [00:03:15] Speaker A: Nice gold, Dan. Well taken. [00:03:18] Speaker B: Very well taken. And apparently I didn't get to see it today, but apparently he had an assist earlier. [00:03:24] Speaker A: I heard. Yeah, I heard he had an assist. [00:03:25] Speaker C: Yeah, it went off the post and rebounded to the other guy who put it in. But they counted as an assist. [00:03:31] Speaker A: Oh, you know what, I asked Andy this on the radio show, but since you guys are actually my kit nerd friends. Are we pro or con? The larger checks. Shirts for check for the Croatia. [00:03:43] Speaker B: Disgraceful. [00:03:44] Speaker C: Yeah. General principle. We like the smaller ones, but yeah, this. This version of the big one, I think, you know, is a decent enough. But we definitely like the smaller over bigger, for sure. [00:03:54] Speaker B: Nice. [00:03:55] Speaker C: I've seen worse bigger things. Yeah. [00:03:58] Speaker B: Because it looks like it's trying to be a quarter shirt, but it's not. The greatest shirt I've ever had was the 90s, the Euro 96 one by Lotto that had like the. I don't know, the checks weirdly went off the shirt in a. In a strange way. [00:04:11] Speaker C: Oh, they had kind of a warp to it. Yeah. [00:04:13] Speaker B: And. [00:04:13] Speaker C: Well, it was just the pattern, I mean. [00:04:16] Speaker B: Yeah, well, the pattern was like its normal pattern. It was just kind of off and to the side. It was okay. It was like the rare. What can you do with checks that aren't stupid? I guess. [00:04:28] Speaker A: All right, well, I'm glad we've settled that debate. Very good. I also am in great admiration that Dallas, by the time we get around to the World cup, there's going to be a pretty significant flavor to this national team with some Dallas in it between Weston McKinney, who I think or. [00:04:47] Speaker C: Assume is going to make the roster. [00:04:50] Speaker A: Chris Richards, Ricardo Pepe, and I'll be damned, Tanner Testman is turning into an absolute unit. I thought he was one of the best players on the field the other night for the United States in their win over Paraguay. Man, I just love his confident play. It is really fun to Watch. [00:05:10] Speaker C: Well, he's been a grown ass man for a long time, so it's just nice to see him. You know, I, I think it took him playing at a, in a team at a really high level a bunch and getting comfortable at that higher level, you know, for him to now go into the national team and look the part, you know, but he definitely looks the part, so I'd love to see him make it too. That'd be fantastic. [00:05:29] Speaker A: I thought the best moment of the game for Tanner was. I think it was about the 70th minute when some Paraguay little dude tried to tackle him and he literally bounced off Testman like a rubber ball. It was great. And fell on his ass. Tanner just kind of looked at him as he dribbled away with the ball. [00:05:48] Speaker C: It was fantastic stuff. He's. He's great in the middle. I, I still have always held out that if you could have converted him to center back, he'd have been worth 100 million-plus because of his passing. Just like Richard's passing is amazing. Tanner's passing, but she long passing is amazing. And with his size. Yeah, it was a center back. [00:06:06] Speaker A: Imagine a 96 US men's national team with a center back duo of Tanner Testman and Chris Richards. [00:06:12] Speaker C: Right. Crazy. Or an FC Dallas with that. But that was, you know, that's an alternate universe where those guys still play for FC Dallas for sure. [00:06:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:21] Speaker A: Well, it was a good performance and it is fun just to see Dallas players, you know, doing things at the national team level. Lots and lots of fun. [00:06:29] Speaker C: If you ever, if you ever want to have a fun hour, sit down with the ex se dollars players and think about like if you lived in a universe where the AN F owner would not sell anybody and just keep them and pay them a lot of money. How bonkers good FC Dallas would be. [00:06:45] Speaker A: Let's. [00:06:45] Speaker B: Let's quickly play broke FC Dallas would be. [00:06:48] Speaker C: Well, no, that's why I said it's got to be an alternative universe where the Hunts, you know, we're just willing to spend money, silly money on non players. But it would be fun. [00:06:56] Speaker A: All right, so Ricard Ricardo's up top. Who's your tacking mid? [00:07:00] Speaker C: You have, you know, your Jesus Ferrers, you have your Zen Dejas, you know, you have, you know Reynolds, you have Canton, you have. I mean this is just a boatload of Acosta at one time. Obviously he's a little, not off of it a little bit now, but you have guys coming through like Paxton and his heyday. You have Weston. You know, it's just. It's incredible the team you can do. [00:07:23] Speaker A: Okay, well, as I said, not much Dallas, specific stuff happened this week. They didn't end up. What any reason we have a. Any idea why they didn't do the cuts this as last week. [00:07:35] Speaker C: We know why. Dan, this is your info. You go ahead. [00:07:39] Speaker B: They didn't have all the players back. They still had players out online. [00:07:43] Speaker C: Yeah, the. The short version is. Is that Pondeca was still alive in USLC with New Mexico. Oh, in the playoffs. [00:07:51] Speaker B: I see. Yeah. [00:07:52] Speaker C: Yes, he was still playing. [00:07:54] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:07:55] Speaker C: So they were. They had to. They have to wait for the season to end so that his loan ends so that then they can notify everybody what's gonna happen. [00:08:02] Speaker A: Makes sense. [00:08:03] Speaker B: I still have to do like exit interviews, exit physical, all that stuff. So. [00:08:07] Speaker C: Yeah, I, I knew there had to be an exit interview. I didn't know if Pandemic would need an exit physical or not because he wasn't with them. But he definitely needs an interview. Dan, if you know for sure he had to do a physical, I'll take your word for it. [00:08:16] Speaker B: Oh, I don't. But I mean, you know, obviously teams have to deal with an insurance component. Everything else. [00:08:21] Speaker C: Yeah, fair. That's legally. Yeah. So it might take. It might be by Wednesday then. Possibly. [00:08:27] Speaker A: Okay. Well, obviously with that aside, there was some significant news in major. The world of Major League Soccer. So significant that we actually took time to discuss it on the kick around this weekend because it was. [00:08:40] Speaker C: That's a big deal. [00:08:41] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:08:42] Speaker C: If. [00:08:42] Speaker A: If we're bothering to talk about MLS stuff, it's significant news because you know, Andy, like you Buzz are originals and I. The question I asked Andy was did you ever imagine that you'd see MLS shift to the FIFA calendar? And we had an interesting conversation about it. But I'm curious about what you guys reaction is to the news. Just that component. Because there's really three big headlines that the league announced over the week. But the biggest one obviously is that in 2027 they'll shift to the other calendar and start playing in August and ending in May. [00:09:18] Speaker C: Yeah, I think it's a fantastic move by the league in general and I think it's particularly good for FC Dallas. Now the great misnomer here is that there's not that significant of a shift in when the games are going to be played in terms of warm weather, cold weather. You know, there's only the season. Well, the, the session that's in the cold weather only adds like one weekend more in the cold part. And the. But the Key for FC Dallas is there will now be a gap that will coincide with everybody else around the world. Not everybody else, most teams that we care about in Europe in particular. But they'll, that'll align with, you know, international tournaments and stuff, which means that FC Dallas, while they still will have to play in, you know, late July, August, they'll, they'll now have time off in May, June, July, early July, which is some of the, not all of the heat going away, but it's a good chunk of the heat going away, which will be really good for this team. [00:10:09] Speaker A: Oh, hold on a second. Okay, now see, you're breaking news to me. I thought this was the season didn't start till later in August. And the hottest months of the Dallas summer is July and August. It's not June. [00:10:22] Speaker C: It starts the end of July, but it's still pretty damn hot in end of May, June and first half of July or most of July. It's. It means that you go from six months of blistering heat to like just two or three months of blistering heat. It's going to help. It's not the cure all, Peter. But it's better. [00:10:39] Speaker A: No. Well, the other funny part is, is that you're now they're going to get sucked into the, you know, the harder parts of Texas win. Know they don't get January in there, but it still gets pretty effing cold these days in February. [00:10:53] Speaker C: Well, yeah, but there's not going to be any more February games than there already is. Then there already is. They already start in basically late February. There might be one more game in late February maybe, but you know, that's it. At most, you know, we already starting. This is second, two, three years in a row now that we've started in mid, mid to late February. The season has. It's like, it's like 92% of the games they said will be in the exact same months and dates that they are now. The difference is those dates that vanish in the summer. [00:11:22] Speaker A: My reading comprehension is poor because I walked away from all this thinking Dallas was going to avoid its most extreme summer temperatures. And now I'm finding out we're essentially just blowing off the end of spring and early summer, which seems like a rook job for Dallas. [00:11:38] Speaker C: Well, no, that's good for Dallas because they will play more games in the colder times of the year and colder is relative. And there'll be less games in the hotter time of the year, so there'll be less burnout. I mean, how many years have we talked about the heat burnout here and how the team collapses into August into September. Like this should help with that. It should be better. It's not going to be perfect because the way we have weather variants here is never going to be perfect, but it's going to be a lot better. You're going to add one more cold game and you're going to add, you know, it doesn't seem like it, Peter, because FC House often doesn't make the. Not often. Occasionally they don't make the playoffs, but they never go very deep. So they don't play into mid December. Like, like you would if you made a Cup run. [00:12:18] Speaker A: Sure. [00:12:19] Speaker C: So like that's still going to happen. You're still going to play into mid December and then stop until end of February. So that's basically what it is now. [00:12:27] Speaker A: Okay. All right. If you're happy, I'm happy. [00:12:30] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:12:30] Speaker B: I think the effect on the preseason is pretty nice. You know, right now it's find a warm weather training venue which is, you know, the last couple years has been Spain. Your, your off season opposition is Nordic countries, kind of lesser leagues, Eastern, you know, Eastern European leagues. Now you're lined up more with everyone. You know, you can take advantage of teams tour in the us you can stay local. You can go to go back to Marbella and, and pick up, you know, EFL championship teams, Premiership teams, La Liga, Bundesliga, whoever. Just the, the quality of opposition and the chance for, you know, collaboration, which is something that Nico Estevez used to try and promote, you know, not, not sure how Quill is with regards to that, but it's, it's there. [00:13:28] Speaker A: My read on other stuff from other comments and everything was the big driver for the owners was the desire to put themselves in a better position for sale buy in the more traditional windows sense. And that is a big deal. [00:13:44] Speaker B: Yeah, it's huge. I think one of the things that's been cited in the past is having the offset window kind of keeps the, the value of your own players down. But when you also want to try and buy people on your primary transfer window, which is everyone else's secondary, that drives those players up. [00:14:03] Speaker C: We've always talked about there being more players available for MLS teams in the middle of the summer because that's when they're available from everybody else. That's when everybody else is trimming rosters and cutting people and adding new people. So it's a much bigger market. And it was always harder for ML teams to do business in that window because they're in the middle of their Season. [00:14:20] Speaker B: Go ahead. [00:14:20] Speaker A: I'm sorry, Dan. [00:14:21] Speaker B: I was saying, you know, you're bringing those players in in winter when they're, they're already on half a season, they're coming straight into the end of preseason, like Uruguay. He basically played, you know, a full year, a full calendar year before his hamstring went and then he was out for a little bit. Whereas, you know, since he only got two weeks off the entire time and that was for his visa process, you're going to have players whose contracts actually line up because it's a difficult situation. You've gone through your entire career, your contract ends on June 30th, to then be asked to shift it by six months and then you're considering, well, you know, if MLS isn't a forever thing, how does this affect my earnings after that? I think it just, yeah, it seems to line everything up pretty nicely. [00:15:11] Speaker A: I was really surprised at the. I guess I shouldn't be because people love to be outraged, but the amount of criticism from the northern markets about how negatively it's going to impact ticket sales because people don't want to go to games when it's, you know, 17 degrees outside. But Dallas, markets like Dallas have been selling tickets for games when it's 105 for 30 years. [00:15:33] Speaker C: Yeah, I think that one of the things that got the deal across the line was explaining to those northern teams with the. In keeping the winter break so that they're only, like I said, was only that one added weekend of cold weather game for everybody, you know, and what it, what does change is that your playoffs are going to be when it's warmer and they'll be not against some of the other biggest sports in our country. And it means that everybody will have to start, you know, together in August, but at the same time, like, you know, only having like a tiny bit of like one weekend added more to a northern team. Oh, man, that's okay. No, no, no, we can do that. We can handle that. The idea that they were going to have to add like two and a half months of winter games was a terrible idea. They hated that idea. Everyone's like, this is stupid. Well, it's not how it's going to be, the winter break that many, many countries have winter breaks. So, you know, it's not. Some places they just call it an aperture and a glassura instead of just a single season with a winter break. But it's the same thing, you know, so it's something everyone's used to around the world. [00:16:33] Speaker B: It's also a big Example of, of a disconnect between the fan base and the team. It was, it was fans that was out were outraged with teams. It's like, yeah, we, we deal with this as part of the market. [00:16:44] Speaker A: Well, I, I'm, once it becomes more and more clear to everybody and they just don't assume that you're playing through. You know, people see you're moving to the FIFA calendar and you assume you're playing through Christmas and January and they just make that, you know, they jump. [00:16:56] Speaker B: They leap to them. [00:16:58] Speaker A: Conclusion. So. [00:16:59] Speaker C: Well, it does mean that like, you know, as it is now, only the teams that are winning in the playoffs go deep, go into mid December, but now everybody will. But that's, you know, at the same time you just do a little bit of creative scheduling and just don't have, you know, home games in Minnesota for those last three weeks in December. [00:17:16] Speaker A: You know what? I think MLS could enjoy some orange ball snow games or more than they already get. [00:17:23] Speaker C: Dallas will be happy to give up some August home games to play some, you know, early December home games. You know, yeah, let's go do, let's go to those first three or four games on the road up in Minnesota where it would be delightful in August. [00:17:35] Speaker A: One of the knock on effects that I think will be interesting to watch is the fact that MLS's best and most consistent trading partner, you know, client sales, client South America, are now going to be out of alignment because most of those leagues play the same calendar that MLS has been playing for 30 years. And you know, somebody brought up that, well, they're already used to buying and selling against the European calendar. But what I do wonder which will be interesting to watch is, is currently MLS teams I think get, I think, I assume get an advantage over the fact that the market isn't as, it isn't as good for European teams with South America as it is for an MLS team. And now that MLS teams will have to be competing in the same sense that European leagues do, how that will change their ability to buy and sell to South American leagues moving forward. [00:18:34] Speaker C: Yeah, that's an interesting question. We'd love to see how that works out. The funny thing, what to me was that, that particular quote, it was given without an attached name, just somebody from our front office. It sure sounded like Sonata to me. It's like, oh yeah, we deal with that in Brazil all the time. Don't worry about it. It's like, you know, oh, okay, all right. You know, I, I, I don't discount that idea. You know, the, the, the Selling and buying culture for South American teams is heavily ingrained. So I buy that a little bit. But. But you're right now, MLS teams now have to compete head to head with European teams in the same windows for those players. So that will be a slightly different example. [00:19:13] Speaker A: So if, if the Lucho situation had happened in the new calendar, would Dallas have been as successful or maybe more successful? Found it easier to sell him in. In. At the. In what would have been the middle. The middle of their season versus everybody. You see what I'm saying? Because it would have been the end of a South American season. [00:19:35] Speaker C: I mean, it's an interesting question, and I'm. I'm not. I don't know nearly enough about how South American teams go about their business. We'll tell you the answer to that question. It certainly was. It seemed like it was something that came off because it was the preseason for the team he went to. Right. Correct me if I'm wrong on that. So, you know, it's. It's an important question you ask. And I don't know that we'll know the answer till we see how it shakes out. Any prediction we make is going to be us guessing because I don't think any of us are, you know, well dialed into the Brazilian Argentina. No, you know, transfer, more market. You know, I mean, that's a good question. [00:20:11] Speaker B: It's probably an ignorant comment, but the, The Brazilian football calendar just seems batshit crazy. Just with the State Cups and everything else going on that, you know, mls, it's a single season. It's. It's pretty easily defined. [00:20:25] Speaker C: Yeah. Sometimes I find it hard to tell even in what leagues, teams playing down there because they play in a couple each, really, because of the state leagues and then the National League and the, you know, and then Copa America and everything else. [00:20:38] Speaker A: Well, everything. Yeah. Everything I have heard from people and talking to people this week is it. Is that by and large, teams in the league are super excited to be on even footing in those two windows. And so. [00:20:52] Speaker C: Oh, man. People at FC Dallas has been talking about this for over a decade. Like Oscar was talking about it when he was coach, how badly it needed to happen. And that was over 10 years ago now. So it's like, it's definitely something that the more progressive teams, the teams that are really into buying and selling, of which FC Dallas is one, have really wanted this to happen. The teams that were more domestic maybe won't care as much. [00:21:13] Speaker A: All right, now I also want to go ahead and publicly reveal that it was longtime Burn fan Mark Spence who spoke this into the universe. And so if this actually happens, it is his fault and he is to be blamed because you can already tell it is destined and pre written into the book of MLS soccer that that new many 2027 season, the shortened set 14 game season which will be treated like a full on MLS season with an MLS cup and everything will be one by one football club, Dallas Byrne. [00:21:54] Speaker B: Can'T wait for the asterisk above the crest forever. [00:21:57] Speaker A: Forever for the asterisks. Yeah, you don't get a star on your shirt, you get an asterisk on your shirt. You know, if la, if the Galaxy win it, nobody cares because they've already won 17 other MLS Cups. But if one of the MLS teams that has never won it or has only won like Colorado wins their second, it'll always come with the asterisk. You know it will really. [00:22:18] Speaker B: It should just be a three way tournament between New England, New York Red Bulls and FC Dallas. [00:22:23] Speaker C: Should. [00:22:26] Speaker A: It? It should just be a tournament with the MLS teams that have yet to win MLS Cup. [00:22:30] Speaker C: Cheese it Cup. [00:22:31] Speaker B: No, no, forget the new ones, just. [00:22:33] Speaker A: Oh just the OGs. [00:22:35] Speaker B: Yeah, like your team has to be legally able to buy liquor and have not won an MLS Cup. [00:22:44] Speaker C: Here's a question I haven't had somebody ask yet. What happens with the Open Cup? Does it stay in a calendar year cup or does it go, does it. [00:22:52] Speaker B: Shift the U.S. presumably it stays. Right. Because that's U.S. soccer. It's not MLS. [00:22:58] Speaker C: It is. But would they align to fit the U.S. the number one domestic league season? Because otherwise you'll be, you'll have it mismatched and then halfway through the cup is like preseason and you're starting with a new team after. [00:23:12] Speaker A: I would assume they will. [00:23:13] Speaker B: I mean that's what they do in the early rounds now, you know, you're in the USL teams. [00:23:17] Speaker C: But it would happen, you know it would happen. Right, because of the Open cup ran February to November, like and. And then MLS championship is in May. You've played like two rounds. You have ML championship and then everyone takes two months off. And was there a gap in the Open Cup? Do you have to play a game in that window? And now you're in preseason for the rounds, three, four in the championship. I mean it's out of alignment. This is. So what happens? I don't, you know, who knows what your soccer will do, but it will be out of alignment. And how quickly will other leagues follow? Will USL follow and shift their calendar? [00:23:49] Speaker A: I would think almost certainly since, I mean eventually usl, USLSL is already doing it. I'm sure that's what they're going to do with USL Premiere when they finally, when they finally do it, they almost to do that. [00:24:01] Speaker C: Maybe, maybe they can appeal to being out of alignment. They can appeal to people or some, some way. I don't know. [00:24:08] Speaker A: You know, it would be. So the league that has promotion and relegation is the one that's playing in the wrong calendar format. [00:24:16] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. [00:24:17] Speaker A: I mean, there'll always be something to fuss about. [00:24:19] Speaker C: We'll see. I mean, who's to say? I mean, we don't know. [00:24:22] Speaker A: Yeah. Now, I said earlier that there were three big announcements that the league made, the second of which might be the most interesting of the three, which is MLS is reformatting once again both the regular season and the playoffs and they will be moving to a quote unquote single table. Now don't get your pants all too crazy, soccer fans, because it's not the single table format that you know and love with the rest of the world. Yes, a single table, most points ends up winning it. But it's not a balanced schedule. What they're going to do is they're going to break the 30 teams up into five groups of six based on geography and. And then you will play the team, the other five teams in your division, once home and aware twice, once home and away. And then you'll play every other team from the other four divisions once a year and you'll alternate between home and away with them on every other year, making up a full season. Dan Crook, do you like this? [00:25:33] Speaker B: I really don't know. The whole. We've obviously been going back and forth in discord trying to figure out what the alignments are going to be. There's the notion of teams that you've played twice for donkeys years. Suddenly you're. You're guaranteed a game against everyone but teams that there are somewhat rivalries with. You're no longer guaranteed two games with Buzzard. [00:26:02] Speaker C: Well, I like the elimination of the east and west, the conferences. I like the elimination of that. I like the idea that there's only going to be one table. I think that's fun. Unfortunately, unless you cut 10 teams, it's impossible to play, you know, home and away complete, you know, single table. Because you need to get down to 20 teams or less to make it work. You know, to get the right number of games with 30 teams, that's what, 58 game season if you do that ridiculous. Whatever it is. No, it doesn't work. So unless you're going to get rid of 10 franchises. It's not going to work. So, you know, given that context, I like getting rid of the east and west and having a single list. And if the way to do it is to make these five divisions and then play everybody in your division, what was it, three or four times, and then everybody else, I mean, I'm okay with that. You know, there's a problem in terms of the geographical balance, as you mentioned, because there's one too many teams on the west coast and there's. And there's one too many teams in the Upper east, right? Yeah, yeah. So otherwise it's really easy. But there's also your problem where you have the three teams in Texas or you have like two or three teams in the Midwest that one way or another are going to be grouped into funny ish groups because there's not enough teams just there. Because if you bring a couple of Midwest teams down to play with the Texas teams, then you end up with lightning West Coast. And then how do you fit Colorado or RSL into any particular group since they're far away from everybody? Since the idea is partially. And having these geographic centers just to save a little bit money in terms of the distance you're traveling and that kind of thing, These are exactly the way they divide the conferences in MLS Next. I'm sorry, not. Yeah, MLS Next. The kids. Now, I know you don't say, well, you don't take your pro team and follow what the kids do. Well, the kids are at a kid level. They're trying to save money and travel and expenses. That's how they do it. Is that's one way they do it. So you can look at those models and think maybe that'll lead you towards what might possibly happen in that case, Weirdly, the Texas teams are paired with the Florida teams. They're in the same conference with Orlando, Miami, Atlanta, like, which seems like a little bit of a weird pairing, but that's like a couple hundred miles closer than California, so who knows what they're going to do? It's going to be crazy. [00:28:14] Speaker A: Yeah. So the most common graphic that I see has Dallas aligned with Austin, Houston, the two LA teams in San Diego, that's the most common one. That means they're not playing Salt Lake or Kansas City or Colorado more than once a year, which would be a significant change for the club. And a lot of that, to Buzz's point, is because you've got San Diego kind of screwed all this up with their late addition because now San Jose is in a Northwest division with Salt Lake, Colorado, Port, the cast, the three Cascadia teams that would. [00:28:50] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. The other thing to remember is that in broadcasting, time zones matter and there's, there's a, there's a news drop which you're going to have in a minute, which will affect this idea that maybe time zones are really important and maybe you want to have more games against teams in your time zone. Like we watch the Texas Rangers play those California teams all the time. It's annoying when these games are playing like at one in the morning if you're a kid's Ranger fan. Right. Because the game started at 9 or 10pm Central. So, like, it makes more sense to have Dallas be the Texas trio, be with maybe Colorado in the Mountain or maybe Kansas city or your St. Louis. Like, keep those time zone matches for broadcasting. Because you guys know in the real sports world, the broadcasting is the money right now in MLS is not. But they want it to be. [00:29:38] Speaker A: Yeah. Because the central time zone teams, along with Texas would be Minnesota, Kansas City, St. Louis and Chicago. I think Nashville is East coast time. Is that correct? [00:29:50] Speaker C: It's. It's right on the board. I don't remember which one it is. [00:29:53] Speaker A: I can't remember. And then everybody else from there is all east coast. So there's, you know, Nashville is central. Oh, Nashville is central. Okay, so that would screw it up too, because there. Now there's too many Central time zones. [00:30:06] Speaker C: Yeah. So like, does Nashville want to stay close to St. Louis or do they want to stay with Atlanta? You know, so then you get some weird divisions, someone's going to get hosed because the teams aren't exactly right in terms of pure time zones or pure geography or whatever. [00:30:18] Speaker A: But, you know, just, just to make clear, just to make sure everybody understands, they've announced nothing other than the fact that they're going to divide everybody up, but they haven't announced any division clarity as to how these five divisions are going to be divvied up. And there's, you know, I've probably seen 15 different variations of this, of this map, but the one that I see the most has Dallas playing with the two Texas and three SoCal teams. [00:30:46] Speaker C: But I don't think it makes sense to break up the west coast, just punish one of those teams that no one gives a crap about and leave the other six together. [00:30:54] Speaker A: Well, but then that means you're breaking up either the four California teams or the three Cascadia teams. And you. Do they really want to break up the Cascadia you, you break up. [00:31:03] Speaker C: You. You host San Jose, because there's three teams in the LA area and three teams, Cascadia and San Jose. Okay, so San Jose with RSL and Colorado maybe, and the three Texas teams. I don't know. I mean, I don't know how you're gonna do it. Yeah. But, you know, does it make sense to have all those west coast teams have to travel to the center part of the United States or to the. Or like, if you, if you do north and south, then you get Cascadia with Minnesota. [00:31:26] Speaker B: Right. [00:31:26] Speaker C: Like, that doesn't make any sense. You know, so, you know, the, the idea of, like, what's worse, having one team being a weird conference or have all those teams have to go two time zones and 1500 miles four or five times a season. You know, we always talk about one of the reasons MLS always had really high home field advantage was the distance of the travel and the length of the travel and how far everything was. So keep it close, keep it the same time zone. [00:31:50] Speaker A: Right. [00:31:51] Speaker B: Any problem with hosing San Jose in that situation is they lose the Cali Classico and that's worth a lot of money. [00:31:59] Speaker C: Yeah. Like I said, nothing is pure. Like, you have a problem on the east coast too, like, how D.C. d.C. United is like, yeah, an hour from Philly and, and New York and New England, and yet they're getting stuck in the. Most people stick them down in the Southeast. Like, listen, it's D.C. is in Virginia. [00:32:16] Speaker A: Right. [00:32:16] Speaker C: That's quote unquote, the South. But it is way closer to those Northeast teams than it is to Atlanta, Orlando, Miami. You know, the same problem on that side. So somebody on each coast is kind of going to get hosed. [00:32:27] Speaker A: Should we, should we vote to kick Canada, the Canadian teams out and make them go play in their own league since they've got a league up there that fix anything? [00:32:36] Speaker C: No. No. [00:32:37] Speaker A: Okay. [00:32:38] Speaker B: All right. [00:32:39] Speaker A: Well, that's the, that's the second piece of news and I guess very much TBD on how that all rolls out. But the other one was the news that the deal between Apple and MLS is cheating, changing significantly. And I think the big positive change is that the MLS season pass as a. An additional subscription cost is going away, meaning that if you currently pay Apple TV for Ted Lasso or Pluribus or severance or whatever, you will now get the entire MLS season at no additional cost. And that's a big deal. The other big part of this is that the, the term of the deal has been shortened. So initially it was a 10 year deal. Now it'll only go for an additional three years until after the World cup and then MLS gets to figure out how they want to renegotiate this deal or go shop around for a bigger deal. And again, like everything else, I don't know why I read the comments. I don't know why I bother because I just always get very frustrated with how everybody reads all this stuff and immediately everybody thinks this is an indication of failure and how bad it is and what a stupid idea it was to begin with and all that stuff. And I just keep, I just want to poke everybody in the eye, tell them shut up because they don't know what they're talking about. [00:33:56] Speaker C: Yeah, I think the opposite is true. I think this is a great indication that's going well because to bring it inside the wall of Apple TV meant that somebody probably Apple TV and thinks that there's enough value in it to make it part of what they're selling. Yes, Dan knows Andy is not Indy. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Dan, not Indy. My bad. Formula One is coming to Apple. So those are both things that you can sell on like a worldwide basis. Like hopefully get some cross promotion. That's all really good. Adds value to Apple tv. That's all excellent stuff. Shortening of the deal also in my opinion, very good. Because it means that MLS can play off of the World cup bounce where they'll be, they'll, they'll enter negotiations with whoever it is, whether it's Apple TV or whoever's next coming out of the back of the World cup when you should see adjustment of the calendar, a bounce from the World cup hype and things like that. Like, so I think all that, MLS is taking a little bit of a bet on themselves by having done that. But I think it shows that they feel really good about what's happening with their broadcasting, that they think that has more value than they were going to get from the rest of the Apple TV deal. [00:35:04] Speaker B: And they've. Apple's given up their right to pull out after 2027, which is, you know, I think that that's a big concession itself. Not only is it, hey, we don't have enough Apple TV subscribers so we want to use MLS as a carrot to get people to subscribe. But hey, we're going to just like completely give up every, every advantage that we have in this deal. [00:35:29] Speaker A: Yeah, we've talked for years since this thing was announced that this was always an exc experiment for Apple and them trying to test the waters of how they get into sports streaming and MLS was a guinea pig. And at the time that the offer was on the table, the Apple deal was without question a no brainer. That's the thing that you pick. You don't, you don't take a crappy Fox deal or ESPN deal for pennies on the dollar. You go for the $2 billion over 10 years with a tech giant like Apple and yeah, be their guinea pig. And, and I will concede that maybe they didn't get as many subscriptions as they hoped to, but the fact that they were able to do three years of this, take a reassessment of how it's going and figure out how to find some compromise and realign on what makes most sense for both the league and Apple moving forward, I think is a huge testament as to how much they both think this is working for both of them. And, and the fact that with F1 coming in that they decided to roll F1 into the exact same thing. They didn't say, hey, F1, we need to tie. That's part of the experience we learned with mls. We can't sell an extra subscription. So here's the added value for everybody. [00:36:43] Speaker C: There's this really smart F1 news channel I watched Peter just said exactly what you just said was like what they learned from the MLS deal, they, they applied to the Formula one negotiations. And that's part of why MLS is changing too was because as you mentioned it was, it works better as on the inside. And that's why this MLS was a test for the billion dollar contract. That's F1. [00:37:04] Speaker B: Well, you can see the parallel of it too. You know, mls, it was, hey, we're going to take Christ. I can't think what it used to be called. MLS kick, live MLS kick. But that was the DirecTV one. There was another one that you paid like $15 a month for. We're going to take that and we're going to host it on apple effectively with F1. They took F1 TV Pro, the higher end subscription, and they've put that entire package inside of Apple tv. So you can see exactly that. The lesson they learned about having external as opposed to internal and the other. [00:37:39] Speaker A: Thing is that now everybody can enjoy the beauty of games produced at 10 and broadcast in 1080p because watching MLS playoff games in 1080p and just then flipping over and watching your random NFL game is such a difference. It's just so much better. It's amazing. I know there's a lot of the, the production qualities and broadcast qualities about the MLS stuff that people are still frustrated by. The hosts, the studio show, whatever. But just the visuals of it and the audio quality of it are quite good and I dig it. [00:38:15] Speaker C: So that's one of the things that, besides about the Apple TV deal being all streamer, is that you don't have to deal with the. Some of the broadcast networks that are a little bit outdated. Like, you know, the reason why not every NFL game is 1080 is because some of those networks are 720, you know, because they deal with the air stuff. Yeah. Over the air stuff and local news stations and like they have to fit their hundred stations, they have contracts with and all these kinds of things all affects it. Whereas, you know, that's one of the beauties of having this singular Apple tv. Now you're going to have to deal with MLS still. They are building out their own facility and you're still going to have a lot of Remy's, which is where most of the production is done remotely. But you know, if it means the cameras can be 1080 on site and they're saving money and that's where they can spend money on the 1080, that's beautiful. And that makes for good pictures and that's what matters most. [00:39:03] Speaker A: Very good. Well, that is the. The trio of big league news that happened over the last week since we last talked to you. And you know, I think in summation of it, it is all outstandingly good, positive news. And for those fans that are just so eager to see this gene this league change, how it allows its clubs to spend money, I think this is the kind of stuff that leads to that. And so everybody. I know, I know patience is not everybody's virtue and I know we've all been patient for a long time with this league, but this is the kind of stuff that leads me to believe that other things are coming down the pipe. Maybe tied with league MX or whatever. I don't know or I assume that's going to happen. But I think the spending thing is the next big thing to come up. You know, in terms of announcements. [00:39:54] Speaker C: You know, when I, when I was a younger man and this league was launching, everybody always asked me all the time, man, is this thing going to survive? And my answer always was, it depends on the business model. You know, the North American Soccer League creator, because there was such a disconnect between their very biggest team, the Cosmos, that were spending $100 million or whatever it was, versus the everyone else in the league who was spending $5,000 and it just. And they, and it turned out that you actually need a league to play in. You need to have some level of parity for it to be entertaining product. So from the beginning of this league it was all about the business model and they were really smart and really slow in their, in their build and now they're going to a point where they're getting quite successful and you got some new owners that want to really push the envelope. And then you have of course owners like Clark and Dan Hunt who are holding it all back a bit. You know, they're not the only ones. There's other teams that are involved in this old school owners who don't want to go crazy. And the Hunts were there when their dad saved the league. They remember. So what, what we don't. Yes, it's time to grow. Yes, it's time to have more spinning. Yes, it's time to get rid of some of the roster rules. But you can't just take the reins off completely. You know, you can't just go, hey, 30 years in, we're successful, let's go crazy. The NFL has a salary cap. The biggest league in the world, biggest pro sport league in the world with the most money in the world, they have a salary cap. So you have to be smart about this. You can't just go wheels off and expect MLS to survive in this country yet. [00:41:13] Speaker A: Yeah, but it is, it is clearly a sandbox that is bulging in certain, at the seams because you've got, you know, Inter Miami who have three players combined making more money in salary than a lot of MLS teams are spending in total. [00:41:27] Speaker C: Yeah, no, it's definitely time for some more change, some more incremental change, you know, especially because you're, you're about to have a competitor in the division one market and you want to keep separating yourself. [00:41:36] Speaker A: Right. [00:41:37] Speaker C: As a league if that's what you want. So you know, I, I think it is time for some more incremental adjustment. But they, you can't just, there's some people that have proposed like just have a completely open 100 roster with just a salary cap and that's it. Yeah. You know, and still keep, think the ideas of dps that you can spend over on the certain guys and some people even have said just go 100% open man a lot. No, those are terrible ideas. Yes. Let's simplify the rules a lot. Let's open, let's, let's keep raising the salary cap. Let's, let's continue to take smart steps forwards as a league because Peter, you and I are old enough to remember when we didn't have a league here. We didn't even have pro indoor. There was a gap. Remember when. When pro indoor died, you know, and then we had nothing until ML came back around? [00:42:18] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. Well, I don't know, man. We'll see how it all plays out. We need to get through the rest of the season. This is the other advantage of what's happening with, with all of the schedule change is the fact that we won't have this happen, which is going on currently, which is MLS playoffs, having to stop down for an international window and creating a lot of boredom between games. I'm really excited to see that Vancouver LAFC game and I'm. The fact that I'm having to wait a week and a half for it to happen. [00:42:52] Speaker C: Right? [00:42:52] Speaker A: Ridiculous. It's so stupid. So, all right, let's move on to some other things. Let's see. Let's look at the famous red crayon run sheet. Trinity went up to Spokane. That stupid old Spokane Washington team up there. [00:43:09] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:43:09] Speaker A: Who likes those that team. [00:43:11] Speaker C: Only people that live there. [00:43:12] Speaker A: Only idiots like that team. [00:43:15] Speaker C: My in laws are not idiots. [00:43:17] Speaker A: Oh, sorry. Oh, that's right, your in laws live up there. Yeah. [00:43:21] Speaker B: That's the nicest thing anyone's ever said about in laws. [00:43:24] Speaker A: I know. [00:43:25] Speaker C: They're lovely people. They really are the loveliest. Yeah, they don't listen to this podcast. [00:43:29] Speaker A: I'm have. I'm having fun and. And Trinity got a big win. The kids came. [00:43:34] Speaker C: Came huge win. Well, two things happened. Well, actually three things happened. Number one is the keeper, Riley Foster got her job back and played great. She made multiple big saves and probably is the player of the game. And they probably don't win if she doesn't have a great game. And she had a quote in the post game stuff about the last week was a wake up call for her and she looked inside and figured some stuff out and came out and she played great and that was fantastic. Number two was they. They put Amber Wisner into the back line because. Oh gosh, was it Hutching who Dan. Who had the red card? [00:44:09] Speaker B: Do you remember on brave farting, Maya McCutcheon? [00:44:12] Speaker C: Yeah, McCutcheon had the. Okay, I think I did have her. Right had the red card. So she was out. So they put Amber back there and of course, you know, you did a shutout. That's nice. Well, again, part of that shutout was because Foster was great. It's a nice solution to be able to just put Amber wherever you need to, to shore up that section. But long term you really can't. I don't think you can really just sort of abandon your midfield except that Celia Strawn started as a sort of a 10 underneath and played fantastically. And then more rail Moore came in and got a late goal. And so your two 18 year old academy players both scored to win that game. You know, so if you can, if you can have strong become a good piece in midfield and if you can get Missimo back in midfield, you know, maybe you can afford to leave Amber Wisner in the back or maybe you can bring her into the middle. And your midfield all of a sudden is really good when it wasn't very good at all. So some interesting things were happening in that game. They've got off the schneide now. They got three straight home games going forward. And I wrote this into the, the format because I actually have a question for Dan. Dan, do you know of anything that would prevent FCD House, look at me. [00:45:16] Speaker B: I know a lot. Why FC Dallas? [00:45:18] Speaker C: Yeah, why Trinity can't just sign strong and more to professional deals rather than letting them or allowing them to go to college or you know, allows probably not the right word, talk them out of going to college and playing for the league. [00:45:33] Speaker B: Oh, see this? Drawns committed to UNC. It's a huge program. Rio Moore is 16, so that puts a spanner in those works. [00:45:43] Speaker C: Well, she just signed with USC though. [00:45:45] Speaker B: Oh, she, she's committed to usc. One thing you remember is that the. Unless you're Lexi Misimo, the value of those contracts probably doesn't outweigh like a USC education and the potential for nil money and everything else that can come with it. [00:46:03] Speaker C: So I mean because it's at times it sure seems like those two players might be two of their best three or four players and it would be really nice to be able to just sign them. I mean NWSL teams sign girls instead of going to college. Young ladies. Excuse me. So why can't USL Super League? Because certainly like yeah, that's the thing is the money. [00:46:25] Speaker B: Right. And one thing with more as well is she's. She's not from Dallas. She's. She's from California. She's going back to California for college. Dallas was just an opportunity to get James at a good level. [00:46:38] Speaker C: No, I get that. But like if they're better players than you have, why wouldn't you try to sign them? [00:46:42] Speaker A: But isn't this a side effect of the larger thing that we're kind of watching with nwsl? The Big story this week about Trinity. Rodmans deal is about to be up and she can go over the overseas and make way more money than she currently can under current spending rules in NWSL. And USL's league is, you know, a few tiers lower than that in terms of this. You know, the available funds, I mean those clubs are not pulling. I mean, is there. What's the largest average attendance team in uslsl? [00:47:16] Speaker C: It was Trinity last year. [00:47:17] Speaker A: Oh, okay. [00:47:18] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:47:19] Speaker A: Well, okay. Danger Will Robinson. You got a money problem. [00:47:25] Speaker C: We. Part of, part of it is, when you've talked about this too, is that NWSL has been expanding and with the Super League, like there's, there's just not enough good players at the highest level that yet, you know, you need to develop a greater pool of players. And one of the ways you develop a greater pool of players is by playing these academy kids. Well, then it behooves you to sign them. Right. At some point you need to make your pathway better than college, which is where we are with MLS next. Right. Those now kids passing up college to stay pro and play MLS next because they're getting home run deals. [00:47:52] Speaker A: But the problem is in our new universe of collegiate sports, the difference between women's soccer and boys soccer is still significant. Like there's not guys signing deals to go play college soccer with a big check along with it. I assume there are women who are signing to go play at universities that are doing so and not NWSL or USL deals. Because to Dan's point earlier, the value of the education plus whatever NIA deal or booster check they're getting is probably worth as much, if not more. [00:48:27] Speaker C: Yeah, there's some guys in men's college soccer that are getting nil. It just depends on the school and how big a program it is in all that kind of stuff. [00:48:34] Speaker A: But it's not, it's not as ubiquitous it is for the women. [00:48:37] Speaker C: No, not, not. Well, there's a way, way more women's programs than men's because of title nine and probably some of them bigger sponsorships are probably with some of the women's teams too compared to the men's, which is weird way for it to be sort of. But that's what I mean. Like I, I question at what point do you try and make your program be more important than college? Because it's telling. Well, like it's not like it's your reserve team you're trying to make better than college. It's. It's your first team, it's your pro team, your Division one team trying to make more viable than college. So that's not the same as where MLS is, where they're trying to make their reserve team more viable in college. [00:49:11] Speaker A: Right. [00:49:11] Speaker C: I think it's an important question we need to try and see some answers for. If Dallas Trendy wants to build this thing and make it better, you need to sign these kind of players and not let them get away. [00:49:19] Speaker A: But, but I think the interesting fundamental problem with that is that the colleges aren't quote unquote, a business. They're essentially a charity organization getting funded by boosters. Trinity is a business and the only way they're going to raise enough money to pay players is either A, through ticket sales and sponsorships and. Or the owners taking cash out of their own pockets. [00:49:42] Speaker C: Well, it's a bit of a chicken and egg scenario then, isn't it? Because it is. [00:49:45] Speaker A: How do you get better? [00:49:45] Speaker C: You sign better players. Well, how do we sign better players? You get money. How do we get money from having a better product to appeal to people? Like at some point you got to invest in your game, you know, and a way to invest in your game is not to go sign some player off of a Division 3W team. It's to get the very best players coming out of high school and into college. Grabbing girls out of college, grabbing young ladies from the Solar. Solar is the big one. Obviously, you know, you need to start being able to keep, essentially you need a homegrown program, you need a way to pay them, to keep them like MLS does. Yeah. And it was highlighted in this game since the two goals were scored by a 16 and a 17 year old. [00:50:22] Speaker B: I do wonder as well how much of this is going to be. These are the teething problems this league. You know, the, the stability of the league, the ability to say, hey, yeah, we're gonna hand you a, you know, a four year contract worth X amount of money. We're not going bust. The league's not going bust. You're not just suddenly going to be left with, well, crap, there goes my NCAA eligibility and now I'm left searching for a European deal or to see if about getting on an NWSL team. [00:50:51] Speaker C: Well, let's think about where Dallas's place is in this league. Dallas, Trinity. That's got to be one of the very biggest markets in the United States that's in this league. D.C. is probably biggest, but that's not bigger than Dallas. Brooklyn. Okay, New York, New York's bigger, but other than that you're talking about Tampa, Carolina, which is, you know, a big Area, but spread all out, right. Spokane, Jacksonville, Fort Lauderdale, Lexington, none of these. Dallas should be one of the premier leading at the cutting edge in this league and pushing the envelope in this league, in this market, with this size, in this audience. So like if Dallas Trinity is not going to be able to push this envelope and sign these kinds of young players in this league, then no one is going to be able to. [00:51:33] Speaker B: We could say that about MLS though. [00:51:36] Speaker C: Yes, but they have different owners. I mean we do say about MLS styles should be and they're not. So that's the same thing about Dallas Trinity. They should be pushing the envelope in this way and they're not. [00:51:46] Speaker B: So yeah, you just, you just need that proactive ownership and that's. That's been the problem with Brooklyn is they can't figure out their ownership. [00:51:53] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:51:54] Speaker A: I think I do wonder a lot as we get closer and closer to whatever this USL First Division league is. Again, we'll just call it premiere for it is how much of how USL SL has rolled out over a season and a half is going to mirror what happens with USL Premier. And the different. While both being top tier divisions, it's going to be significantly behind MLS for a long time because they're just not going to have the revenue and everything to compete, you know, up front. [00:52:28] Speaker C: Remember too on the men's side that in addition to the stadium requirements being larger, they actually have market requirements. You had to have a certain amount of your league's teams be in certain size markets. So like they can't, you know, be adding Spokane and Jacksonville in the. On the premier men's premier side, it's going to have to be some larger markets. You know, maybe if you have pro. Well, maybe that has to be a question about whether you allow that. But in terms of founding the league, they're going to need a certain amount of big markets. [00:52:54] Speaker B: Yeah, it's like 75 of markets of a million people. They also have to fulfill the whole thing of having, well, I guess three time zones is pretty easy to do. [00:53:05] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, in a way, Fort Worth, Dallas having two franchises here, that gives them two. If both of them are indeed in as we think they are, that gives them two teams already in above million dollar towns. Because Fort Worth is now above a million people itself. And Dallas is too, of course. [00:53:20] Speaker A: Yeah. I assume they base it on TV markets, which just, just means, I don't. [00:53:25] Speaker B: Know, they Both count as 8 million then. [00:53:27] Speaker C: Yeah, then they both would for it as well. Whichever way you want to slice it, you know. [00:53:32] Speaker A: All right, so the win takes them up to seventh place. They now have three straight home games to finish off the first half of the season before their winter break. They don't play again until at home until the 6th against D.C. the 13th against Carolina, and the 20th against Lexington. [00:53:50] Speaker C: Yeah, and then after the win, the break, they start with a couple of home games too, I think, I think it's six of seven that are. Although it may have included. No, yeah, six of seven. That's right. So they even post break. They'll have a good stretch, but hopefully post break. Cross your fingers. We'll see Misimo come back. That'll be really important if they want to climb the sandings. [00:54:05] Speaker A: All right, as far as the other teams in the area between Atletico and etc. Etc. North Texas and whatever. [00:54:15] Speaker C: Rodeo, Rodeo FC Etc. [00:54:18] Speaker A: FC. Not much. Although Atletico did release today a new third shirt. So a team that has not kicked a soccer ball yet and won't for another 18 months has now released their third jersey for you to go out and collect. This is a nifty silver number. It kind of looks like the powder blue one, except it's all three are the same. Yeah, they're all the same design, just it's silver. And so the three together look really cool. They're not cheap. They're, you know. What, how much are they, Dan? [00:54:51] Speaker B: $90. [00:54:52] Speaker A: 90 bucks? Yes. [00:54:53] Speaker B: So basically you're paying full Adidas price for an imitation Adidas jersey, which is kind of the. The one downside. [00:55:04] Speaker C: Well, it's replica price. Right. MLS jerseys are. Authentics are much more expensive, aren't they? [00:55:09] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. No, but what I mean is like actually made by Adidas. It's a. It's like a knockoff of the Germany pinstripe jersey from a couple years ago, basically. [00:55:19] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a good looking shirt. I, you know, congratulations to them for another. Another product sale. I continue to marvel at the difference between what Dallas is doing and whatever, whoever this mysterious person in Fort Worth is biting his time or their time, I should say. [00:55:36] Speaker C: I remember the Athletico owner telling me that like this is maybe a couple months ago even that they were like, in terms of all USL clubs they were selling, they were the 14th highest sales of merch in all USL teams, which is pretty amazing for a team that's not playing for a year at least. So I give them some credit for whatever they're doing on the marketing or the merch side is if that part's working. But it is funny, Peter, that you're right that like we're a Year away from them feeling a team and they, and they're, they're just out there going, throwing everything to the wind that they can think of. They sort of to keep their name going. [00:56:10] Speaker B: I was actually really impressed. I, we were talking about like the jerseys and stuff and I went on their, their online shop and account and there was like 41 items that they're selling. It was just impressed. For a team that's not going to kick a ball for another 18 months, doesn't have a coach, team, nothing. [00:56:27] Speaker A: Something dawned on me the other day and wondering about when or if or how or how the, it'll get played out when they official officially ever announce their training facility. And it dawned on me. Well, they just essentially will we find out that their announcement is, is that they're going to build something over at Moneygram like it originally was planned since they have the rights to Moneygram. [00:56:53] Speaker C: Yes. [00:56:53] Speaker A: But I, there's, there's space over there to, to build a, you know, a locker room and you know, they could turn one of those fields into their, you know, like something. I bet that's what they do. [00:57:05] Speaker B: I still think they should, they should try and get that land that's next to it that got turned down for whatever it was a quarry or something. [00:57:12] Speaker A: Yeah, cement plant. [00:57:14] Speaker C: I talked to Sam about this. Sam's the one of the two co founders and I was talking to him about this idea and he was mentioning that Moneygram would be able to help them a little bit in terms of, but, you know, that kind of idea. But that, that wasn't the solution. The solution is something new because they don't, they need more than just a couple of fields. They need offices, they need, you know, locker rooms, they need, you know, workout rehab kind of stuff. It's not as simple as just like we need a couple fields. So it's a whole complex idea that they're trying to get going, you know, like they were going to have in Garland. And so that like, that doesn't make sense. The implication of what he was telling me is that that didn't make sense at MoneyGram because that's not where they're going to be. They want to be more East Dallas, you know, Garland, you know, out to Rockwell, up to Wiley. Like they don't think of the west side of town, like over by Irving as like their core. They think of more of Central to East as. So like, I'm with you. That, like, I remember that that is a 5,000 seat stadium in there or whatever, but I don't think they need a stadium anymore. [00:58:23] Speaker A: I'm not saying stadium. They just need to build a facility where they can have a training room and. And office facilities and things like that. And to Dan's point, there's plenty of land immediately around Moneygram. I'm sure somebody would be willing to sell some of it to them. [00:58:36] Speaker C: Yes, there is, but my. My takeaway from the conversation was that that's not the plan. The plan is something new. [00:58:41] Speaker A: It's just something thought about. [00:58:43] Speaker B: Yeah, I think your easiest thing. And yeah, granted, it's obviously not a plan, but there is that land that's over to the side on. On Moneygram itself. You could easily, you know, you could match FC Dallas's facility. A one building that's a rehab gym type deal, another building that's locker rooms and offices that would just match what's in the. What, the north east, and then the east kind of next, the Winners Club. And then that plot of land next door is kind of perfect stadium size. [00:59:20] Speaker A: All right, well, TBD on that as well. Keep an eye on that. Okay. Well, boys, before we go, just asking, has anybody heard anything else about the new Dallas home shirt for 2026? [00:59:33] Speaker B: It's got sleeves. [00:59:35] Speaker C: What? [00:59:35] Speaker B: And the collar. [00:59:36] Speaker C: No way. [00:59:37] Speaker B: There's a head hole and armholes. [00:59:40] Speaker C: Okay. [00:59:41] Speaker A: I keep getting all this sense that it's going to be wonderful and great, but I want it to get here faster. Dan, if you know something. When are we going to see the mock up, sir? [00:59:54] Speaker B: Well, hopefully before some dipshit streamer wears it. [01:00:01] Speaker C: That may be less likely to happen given the change in staff over there, maybe. [01:00:08] Speaker A: All right, very good. Well, I'm excited. I'm hoping. Fingers crossed. And I just, you know, as long as it's not purple. That's all. [01:00:15] Speaker C: I want to throw one little thing out. This is not necessarily news, but the Major Arena Soccer League begins their play, like, in 10 days now. We were. We were pretty sure, you know, they've made some announcements that both Outlaws and Psychics are, you know, on hiatus or whatever. So I just want to point out that it's kind of a sad moment for Dallas soccer fans that, you know, that there's no pro indoor team here now after, you know, such a long, long run of some going away and coming back, of course, with the Sidekicks, but, you know, the Outlaws, I don't really think of much of losing in terms of, like, any sort of sentimentality. But the Sidekicks is a great brand. It's been around here for a long time. It's a bummer to See the season roll around without a sidekick. Steam. So kind of a dark moment ten days from now. [01:00:59] Speaker A: Well, sidekicks are kind of Dallas's version of the cosmos. [01:01:02] Speaker C: Yeah. In a sense, in terms of brand. [01:01:04] Speaker A: Importance and significance and cultural, you know, value and everything. I mean, it's a. It's. It's a big deal, especially for our age. [01:01:13] Speaker C: Within the last 10 years, I'm telling you, I've been times where I've said, like, I've talked to people about what? Oh, what do you do? Oh, one of the things I do is I run a website about pro soccer in Dallas. And they go, oh, the sidekicks. And they don't think about Seattle's. They're like, no, that psychic is not. You know, that's still the brand people think of. [01:01:27] Speaker A: A lot of times, I'm sure that's all about the worm is about to turn. Because everybody will have their. They'll all just think about rodeo. [01:01:34] Speaker C: Yeah, Rodeo sc. [01:01:36] Speaker A: That soccer team up there called Rodeo. [01:01:41] Speaker B: Plus your heart. [01:01:42] Speaker C: Stop it. [01:01:44] Speaker A: What are you doing tonight, Mabel? I'm going to the rodeo. Go, team, go. Very good. All right. We did it. Another hour. Knocked out. All right, boys, I will see you in a couple of weeks. [01:01:56] Speaker C: Can I give you a teaser? Oh. [01:01:58] Speaker A: Oh. Yep. [01:01:59] Speaker C: Since both of y', all, Peter and Dan will not be around next week, I am doing the podcast with a special guest. Cheating on us Capologist, Roster expert. Come on. [01:02:11] Speaker A: The nerd. You're bringing out the nerd. [01:02:14] Speaker B: Bringing in the proud owner of 1010 Testman's game one Leon jersey. [01:02:19] Speaker A: Smelly jersey. [01:02:20] Speaker C: Cuts. The contract should have come out by then. So we will go deep, nerd. Deep on contracts, cuts and keeps and salary caps and all that good nerdy soccer stuff for y'. [01:02:31] Speaker B: All. All right. [01:02:31] Speaker A: You have to bet. You have to promise that you have Armen tell the story of him getting his game worn Tanner Testman jersey, opening it up and finding out that he had bought a chemical bomb that exploded in his house. [01:02:44] Speaker C: I love that. Yes. [01:02:47] Speaker A: Good lord, yes. You would think that when you buy a game worn jersey that it includes a washing, but maybe I've never bought a game. It doesn't. [01:02:58] Speaker B: Shouldn't that ruins it? [01:03:00] Speaker A: Okay. That seems like a biological hazard, though, Dan. [01:03:04] Speaker C: I. [01:03:05] Speaker A: The. [01:03:06] Speaker B: The Tamara Bolt one I bought, it's got some mud stains on it. [01:03:09] Speaker C: Yeah, my drew US men's national team game worn jersey has a grass stain on it. [01:03:13] Speaker A: Yeah, but does it smell the death? [01:03:15] Speaker C: No, no, but it has a grass stain. [01:03:17] Speaker B: Just smells like a locker room. [01:03:18] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:03:19] Speaker A: Okay, very good. [01:03:20] Speaker B: Wouldn't you be a little concerned if you paid all this money for something that somebody wore in a game and, you know, maybe did something important in it and it's like, oh, it smells like bounce. [01:03:29] Speaker A: I just didn't want it to. [01:03:30] Speaker C: That's how you know it's game worn. [01:03:32] Speaker A: I didn't want it to come in and make my house smell like a dead possum. [01:03:36] Speaker B: Just air it out. It's fine. [01:03:37] Speaker A: Okay. I'm sorry, Buzz. Were you about to say something other than that? No. Okay. [01:03:42] Speaker B: Very good. [01:03:43] Speaker A: All right. Thank you, Dan. Good stuff, buddy. [01:03:45] Speaker B: Thank you. [01:03:46] Speaker A: Happy Thanksgiving to you, Buzz. Happy Thanksgiving to you as well. [01:03:49] Speaker C: Yeah, Happy Thanksgiving back. [01:03:51] Speaker A: And we will see you. Well, Buzz and Armin will see you next week, Dan and I in two weeks on the another future episodes of. [01:03:59] Speaker C: Third degree, the podcast Play the kids, Pay the kids. [01:04:04] Speaker B: Third Degree. The Third Degree Net podcast. [01:04:08] Speaker A: Third Degree. The Third Degree podcast. Third Degree Degree. The Third Degree. Third Degree. [01:04:17] Speaker C: The Third Degree. [01:04:38] Speaker A: Sam.