Speaker 1: Yes, all right.
Speaker 2: Shout out to our good friends at beer Bar.
Speaker 3: Go to beer BARSLC dot com on remote there all
Speaker 3: the time. My guy Nick Romondo, Ty Burrell, close personal friend,
Speaker 3: no big deal, everyone's favorite TV Dad. You're home for
Speaker 3: all RSL watch parties and quite frankly, any watch party.
Speaker 3: If you want to go check out a jazz game
Speaker 3: or Utah football game or whatever.
Speaker 2: Beer Bar right down town, Salt Lake City.
Speaker 3: The construction over there is actually settling a bit, so
Speaker 3: you can find places. A park, beer bar, SLC dot
Speaker 3: com is where you go, all right. Special thank you
Speaker 3: to doctor Chris Hill live in studio for an entire hour. Earlier,
Speaker 3: Bill Riley voiced theut stop by Curtis of our friends
Speaker 3: at Handy and Handy.
Speaker 2: Our next guest. We've been working on this for a
Speaker 2: little while.
Speaker 3: Former RSL general manager and good friend Elliott Falls live
Speaker 3: in studio.
Speaker 2: Elliet, good to see you, man, How are you great?
Speaker 2: I'm great, great to see you.
Speaker 3: I know you're great now because we had a little
Speaker 3: Ed Sheeran bumping us in, so that's used Jeff.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh that was, I mean, and it was it
Speaker 1: was perfect. Good one's that's a banger. So for our
Speaker 1: listeners that have no clue. Elliot and I play golf
Speaker 1: together from time to time. He is a very good player.
Speaker 1: I've learned a lot just watching him play.
Speaker 3: And we both have our like speakers going to the
Speaker 3: same time, so it's like rival music. And we have
Speaker 3: pretty similar tastes in music. But occasionally I'll notice, like
Speaker 3: a shaggy song or something.
Speaker 1: I don't think you've ever heard a shaggy song. But
Speaker 1: that was when Trey's phone started ringing.
Speaker 2: It happened. Oh, that would be so sick if that
Speaker 2: was his rent town.
Speaker 3: But one day I'm getting ready to tee off and
Speaker 3: I'm like, is that Ed Sharon in the background? Castle
Speaker 3: on the Hill? And let me be clear, that's a banger.
Speaker 3: It's a good song. I just didn't know you were
Speaker 3: an Ed Sharon n.
Speaker 1: You know, you find us, you find some space, and honestly,
Speaker 1: when you're when you're out on the golf course for
Speaker 1: a while, you gotta you gotta change it up.
Speaker 2: You can't just have the same same old, same old.
Speaker 2: Oh this is true.
Speaker 3: And you can't give Trey the the control. You can
Speaker 3: never give Trey the control. Let's be clear about that.
Speaker 3: How good do you think you are a golf.
Speaker 2: Not very good right now. I haven't been playing well lately.
Speaker 2: That's not true.
Speaker 3: Like do you think if you allocated time and energy
Speaker 3: to just you get a great coach?
Speaker 2: You're playing every day, which you kind of do anyway,
Speaker 2: you're hitting balls all the time.
Speaker 3: Some people think so you're but but you genuinely try
Speaker 3: to be as good as you possibly can. Sure, how
Speaker 3: good do you think you could be? Because you're close
Speaker 3: to a scratch? I know you say you're not, but
Speaker 3: you are.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, I don't know. I think I could get
Speaker 1: to a plus handicap, but I don't. You know, certainly
Speaker 1: nowhere near you know, the the great players you see,
Speaker 1: you know in some places played I've played around. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's always humbling when you play with really good golfers.
Speaker 1: And I've played around.
Speaker 2: You know this.
Speaker 1: A few of us like to play the Nibley Men's
Speaker 1: League indeed, and Nibley's a fun place and you know,
Speaker 1: shout out to Andrew Meacham and he the pro there.
Speaker 1: He does an unbelievable job. It's a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: Cool men's league. Fridays we go out in the club Championship.
Speaker 1: None of my friends played with me, so I had
Speaker 1: to play. I got paired up by myself for a
Speaker 1: couple of us to have jobs. Elliott, it was a
Speaker 1: Saturday and Sunday. Your job does but to qualify for
Speaker 1: that have to play on Fridays.
Speaker 3: And I did the best I could. I'm not even
Speaker 3: talking about you. You're okay, well, I think friends. I
Speaker 3: hurt my feelings, but you retired early and we'll get there.
Speaker 3: But anyway, as you were a club.
Speaker 1: Championship anyway, you know, I got paired with a couple
Speaker 1: guys and you know, they they clean the clean my
Speaker 1: clock in the club championship. I mean, you know, And
Speaker 1: I've actually played with him a couple of times since.
Speaker 1: And you know, the one guy went out and shot
Speaker 1: five under this week at Nibbley.
Speaker 2: Who are these people? They're just good golfers, like college guys.
Speaker 1: College They're they're about my age.
Speaker 2: See.
Speaker 3: It always depresses me every time I feel like I'm
Speaker 3: improving a little bit to hear that there are so
Speaker 3: many people that are so much.
Speaker 2: Better at this.
Speaker 1: There's yeah, there's there's there's a lot of good golfers
Speaker 1: out there.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of good golfers in the state of Utah,
Speaker 2: there is.
Speaker 3: I'm better now than I was when we first started
Speaker 3: playing together. At least give you that certainly. Okay, you're
Speaker 3: not a bad golfer. I don't think I'm a bad golfer.
Speaker 1: You're a good golf Sorry, I should I should be
Speaker 1: I should be more clear you were a good golfer.
Speaker 2: Well, that's kind of you to say.
Speaker 3: But you know, just when you think you're good, you
Speaker 3: play with somebody like our guys steal the Walt my guy.
Speaker 2: Sure. Yeah. And did you play against him when you
Speaker 2: were a Judge? Yeah, no, I think no, I think
Speaker 2: he was the same.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think I think we over I mean,
Speaker 1: I only played two years at Judge, but I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 2: Because he went to Park City. I'm ninety nine pretty sure.
Speaker 1: I think we overlapped at least one year, if not, okay,
Speaker 1: if not both years.
Speaker 3: It was wild watching him play and watching and watching
Speaker 3: you like watching golfers like him like problem solve It's yeah,
Speaker 3: they think of things that you would even would not
Speaker 3: even consider.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's so many aspects of the game that are
Speaker 1: to challenge you, right, and like that, if you're if
Speaker 1: you're not proficient at you're you're gonna fall apart. Like
Speaker 1: you if you sure you can have a great swing.
Speaker 1: If you can't chip a ball, you're done. Yeah, if
Speaker 1: you can't make a five footer, you're done. You you
Speaker 1: undo all the good work you do get in there.
Speaker 2: Yeah. It's a tough game, man. It humbles you, it
Speaker 2: really does.
Speaker 1: And you know, at least for me, and I think
Speaker 1: this this goes for most golfers. As soon as you
Speaker 1: as soon as you feel like you've found something you've
Speaker 1: you lose it. You lose whatever it is, or you
Speaker 1: lose something else. I mean, it's it's a it's a
Speaker 1: tough game, but that's what makes it fun.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's it's quite a challenge.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: This weekend, I was back in Indianapolis with my brother
Speaker 3: and we played this great track. Four of the holes
Speaker 3: are actually in the Indy five hundred racetrack.
Speaker 2: I've heard of that. It's really cool.
Speaker 3: Front nine and I'm not sure I've ever done this before.
Speaker 3: I birdie two of the first five holes. All right,
Speaker 3: then we're on a par three. We're about one seventy
Speaker 3: eight out. I wrote my seven iron. I'm like, that
Speaker 3: is it? Hit it within three feet? I'm like okay,
Speaker 3: this could be your third BIRDI in the first six sols.
Speaker 3: I don't know that I ever shouldn't have thought that correct,
Speaker 3: because what I did was I pulled a two and
Speaker 3: a half foot or for Birdie tapped in for part,
Speaker 3: and then I melted down. I think I shot a
Speaker 3: I think I shot a thirty eight on the front
Speaker 3: and then a forty eight on the back because I
Speaker 3: was in my head about that Birdie putt.
Speaker 1: It's yeah, it's I mean, the best thing you needs
Speaker 1: impossible to do, but certainly all the time. But the
Speaker 1: best thing you can do for your score is to
Speaker 1: not know what your score is. I mean, it's if
Speaker 1: you know where you are, that's when it gets in
Speaker 1: your head and you start playing defensive and yeah, your
Speaker 1: toast and like like you said, you got a three
Speaker 1: footer and you're like, oh man, I just got to
Speaker 1: make this day, and it's you know, and you know what,
Speaker 1: you know, what's what's crazy about it is we talk
Speaker 1: about this and then you watch the pros on.
Speaker 2: The weekend some of them do the same thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and like we talk about how going out, you know,
Speaker 1: you end up playing with a with a great player,
Speaker 1: don't you think all the PGA forre guys who end
Speaker 1: up getting paired with with Scotty Scheffler these days feel
Speaker 1: the same way. Yeah, it's like I'd feeling good about myself.
Speaker 1: I just won a tournament. Oh now I gotta play
Speaker 1: Scotty Schefler.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: No, it's funny you referend Scotty because I just pulled
Speaker 3: this up because you know, I didn't used to.
Speaker 2: Well, I never played golf growing up.
Speaker 3: I got into it over the past few years, and
Speaker 3: playing with people like you and getting better equipment and
Speaker 3: taking lessons has helped.
Speaker 2: But I never really covered it either. But it's such
Speaker 2: a behemoth.
Speaker 3: Now if you're in this space, you better become familiar
Speaker 3: a little bit at least with what's going on in
Speaker 3: the world of golf. And so I cover it in
Speaker 3: a way that I used to, and I bring it
Speaker 3: up in this context. I didn't cover it when Tiger
Speaker 3: was Tiger, which honestly depresses me because I've read I've
Speaker 3: read the book, and I've watched the documentary like ten times,
Speaker 3: and if the Golf Channel ever shows like hey, Tiger
Speaker 3: Highlights coming up, I'm recording it and I'm watching all
Speaker 3: of it. I really wish I was watching and covering
Speaker 3: it when Tiger was Tiger, But because I didn't, and
Speaker 3: now I'm covering it in a different way, I do
Speaker 3: this thing where I'm like, it feels like Scotty's having
Speaker 3: this Tiger like run, and then you pull up these stats.
Speaker 1: So I was gonna say something like, you're going heading tours,
Speaker 1: go ahead, well, and.
Speaker 2: I actually honestly want your thoughts.
Speaker 3: So Scotty just became the first golfer since Tiger to
Speaker 3: have two straight seasons of five wins or more on tour. Sure,
Speaker 3: and it's only Scotty and Tiger over the past forty years.
Speaker 3: So Scotty has done it once, Yeah, twenty twenty four
Speaker 3: and twenty twenty five. So I heard like, oh, first
Speaker 3: since Tiger. Okay, well, then he's having this Tiger like run.
Speaker 3: Tiger did it in ninety nine, two thousand, two thousand,
Speaker 3: two thousand and one, two thousand and one, two thousand
Speaker 3: and two, two thousand and three, two or two thousand
Speaker 3: and two, two thousand and three, two thousand and five,
Speaker 3: two thousand and six, two thousand and six, two thousand
Speaker 3: and seven. He did it six times. He's back to
Speaker 3: back seasons with five or more wins on tour. Tiger
Speaker 3: did it six times, Scotty's done it once. They're the
Speaker 3: only golfers in forty years to do it.
Speaker 1: If you want to, if you want to, if you're
Speaker 1: feeling good about yourself on the golf course, go read
Speaker 1: some Tiger stats and you will really humble yourself. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I mean they're just the most unbelievable, the one
Speaker 1: about you know, Scotty's been number one in the world
Speaker 1: for what three straight years that nobody's even coming close
Speaker 1: to him, right, He'd have to be number one in
Speaker 1: the world till like twenty thirty six to match Tiger's streak.
Speaker 2: That's just wild.
Speaker 1: It's I mean, Tiger, you know, did you see the
Speaker 1: shot Scotty hit yesterday to win the tournament yeap effectively
Speaker 1: on seventeen. You sit there and you're like, that's one
Speaker 1: of the greatest shots you've ever seen, And then you
Speaker 1: think about the natural like comparison is Tiger's shot on
Speaker 1: sixteen in the Masters in like yeah, yeah, and and
Speaker 1: like that shot makes makes Scotty's shot look like a
Speaker 1: three foot pott Yeah. And it's just the things Tiger
Speaker 1: was able to do and what what's crazy about Tiger
Speaker 1: is he's probably the best iron player of all time.
Speaker 1: Like he so he come, he comes into golf right,
Speaker 1: and he hits it a mile, and he's overpowering courses
Speaker 1: and like everybody's heard it. You know, oh, a Tiger
Speaker 1: proof golf courses. That's why they started lengthening them. All
Speaker 1: this stuff. It's not even close to what the best
Speaker 1: part of his game was. He was maybe the best
Speaker 1: iron player of all time. His short name is outrageous,
Speaker 1: as displayed by the you know, the shot on sixteen
Speaker 1: that the Masters, among a million other shots, and then
Speaker 1: he was probably the best potter maybe to ever live. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I saw stat recently where it was like
Speaker 1: in I'm gonna I'm just making this up, but it's
Speaker 1: something like this where he had he had like eighteen
Speaker 1: hundred putts inside four feet in two years, and he
Speaker 1: missed two of them.
Speaker 2: It's just unfathomable.
Speaker 1: Now you give me eighteen hundred puts inside four inches,
Speaker 1: I think I'd missed two of them.
Speaker 3: I mean, it blows the mind in a different way
Speaker 3: when you actually try to be good at it, when
Speaker 3: you try to play the game and then you realize,
Speaker 3: like how hard it is to be good and consistent,
Speaker 3: and how wild it is that he did what he did.
Speaker 2: Now he's not gonna get Jack's record.
Speaker 3: Injuries and then proclivity for Perkins waitresses and such kind
Speaker 3: of threw him off the rails.
Speaker 2: But do you think he's the greatest that's ever done it.
Speaker 2: I think he's the greatest that's ever done it.
Speaker 1: But I also think, you know, some day, I mean,
Speaker 1: he he may never have this conversation, who knows, but
Speaker 1: like he probably has to reckon a little bit with
Speaker 1: the fact that it was him. It like the injuries
Speaker 1: were even him in a lot of ways because of
Speaker 1: the swing change. Yeah, okay, the swing stuff is wild
Speaker 1: to me. I mean, he went out and he won.
Speaker 1: He won the Masters in record breaking fashion. He won
Speaker 1: he won the US Open Upebble Beach by one hundred
Speaker 1: shots whatever it was. I mean, and you know that story, right,
Speaker 1: I mean that one's unbelieve he won that tournament by
Speaker 1: thirteen strokes or something like that. And then he goes
Speaker 1: out and completely changes his golf swing because he's and
Speaker 1: it's what God him where he was. So I also
Speaker 1: understand how this like this is the mentality of an athlete, right.
Speaker 2: Like, there's this.
Speaker 1: There's this pursuit of perfection, at least at the very
Speaker 1: top ends of sports, where you're never satisfied. You never
Speaker 1: think you're good enough, you never And of course the
Speaker 1: irony is like you also go out and you believe
Speaker 1: you're the best every day you're out there. So it's
Speaker 1: this weird, you know, dichotomy in your head. But he
Speaker 1: thought there was something to fix, and so we went
Speaker 1: out and completely read it as golf swing, and you know,
Speaker 1: I think that led to some of the injuries. Obviously
Speaker 1: there's other things that happened, but like he was winning
Speaker 1: majors by fifteen strokes, Like what do you need to
Speaker 1: go change?
Speaker 2: Just go do it again, just keep at it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's interesting you bring it up because I listened
Speaker 3: to an interview or you know what this is actually
Speaker 3: during one of the golf channels, like, hey, this is
Speaker 3: when Tiger was Tiger broadcasts and they interviewed Wyndham Clark.
Speaker 3: I'm trying to think when Wyndham said his swing was
Speaker 3: at when Tiger swing was at his best. Is there
Speaker 3: an era where you felt like his swing was in
Speaker 3: the best place and he never should have touched it.
Speaker 2: I think it's hard to argue against that.
Speaker 1: Like you know, early twenty ninety eight to two thousand
Speaker 1: and three, kind of like winn he won the Masters,
Speaker 1: the first Masters, that that Pebble Beach US Open, when
Speaker 1: he had the Tiger Slam where he held all the
Speaker 1: majors at the same time, you know, I mean. And
Speaker 1: but by the way, we haven't talked about his amateur career.
Speaker 1: You know that, right, You know that he won three
Speaker 1: consecutive US Junior Amateurs and then won three consecutive US Amateurs.
Speaker 2: Like that's mind blowing.
Speaker 3: In and of itself. It's mind blowing, mind blowing. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that he did that. And also and again, yes, his
Speaker 3: career was derailed as a result of some poor personal
Speaker 3: decisions and the health as your referenced with his.
Speaker 2: His swing change.
Speaker 3: But what the other thing it's interesting about this sport
Speaker 3: to me is how many great young golfers get derailed
Speaker 3: by fatigue, sure, or not wanting to live. It was
Speaker 3: interesting talking to Steele about this because at the media
Speaker 3: tournament prior to the Utah am they paired me with him,
Speaker 3: and they did that intentionally because he's a pro now
Speaker 3: he's an amateur now, because he's trying to qualify and
Speaker 3: I'm learning all this stuff in real time, like can
Speaker 3: you qualify for the Masters in the US Open in
Speaker 3: the amateur route? And Steele has a very successful career.
Speaker 3: So he referenced how like money was immateial to him.
Speaker 3: He didn't need to grind to make the money. But
Speaker 3: he was telling me about the lifestyle. The grind to
Speaker 3: just get your car go to Q school is interesting.
Speaker 3: And I said during Q school, who was the one
Speaker 3: golfer that you played with or against that you felt
Speaker 3: was to ad He said, Xander said it was Xander
Speaker 3: when he ran in his Ander He's like, Okay, that's different.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure that I can ever be that. But
Speaker 3: there are myriads of different things that derailed these golfers
Speaker 3: before they ever even touched their apex. And again Tiger
Speaker 3: was derailed, but after an incredible a like the fact
Speaker 3: that everything fell in the line the way that it did.
Speaker 2: It's one of the most remarkable stories in the history
Speaker 2: of sport, it really is.
Speaker 1: And then and then by the way, the twenty nineteen Masters,
Speaker 1: like are you kidding? The comeback? And then watched that
Speaker 1: live it was unbelievable. Yeah, it was unbelievable, by the way.
Speaker 1: You know, you know our friend Matt who plays off
Speaker 1: with us, he was there.
Speaker 2: Oh, he was at that.
Speaker 1: He left on he left on Sunday morning, so he
Speaker 1: wasn't there for the final round, but he was there.
Speaker 1: Do you remember It's actually funny, do you remember the
Speaker 1: shot where Tiger hit a ball out of the trees
Speaker 1: and had to had to curl it around and together,
Speaker 1: and he had the gallery around him, and and that
Speaker 1: I believe it was Ah, it was one of the
Speaker 1: security guards comes running by and slips on the wet
Speaker 1: grass and almost takes Tiger's leg out. In the TV
Speaker 1: shot you can see Matt. Oh really yeah. And that
Speaker 1: was Father's Day too, by the way, right, I believe
Speaker 1: no Father's Day is us open?
Speaker 2: Oh, yes, he's right.
Speaker 1: It might have been something about no because his father anyway, Yeah,
Speaker 1: but there was something something about it. It was an
Speaker 1: unbeliev I mean, just an unbelievable tournament.
Speaker 3: Well, and then the relationship with his dad is so
Speaker 3: fascinating to me. It's yeah, you know, because the fact
Speaker 3: of the matter is he's not Tiger without earl. But
Speaker 3: there was still, you know, a lot of things about
Speaker 3: that relationship.
Speaker 2: It's not hard to make an argument it was an
Speaker 2: unhealthy relationship.
Speaker 3: Well, and you just wonder how much of Tiger's ultimate
Speaker 3: downfall was learned behavior, right like all of the things
Speaker 3: we learned about his dad later on in the womanizing
Speaker 3: And anyway, all right, before we catch a break, I
Speaker 3: wanted to have you in studio for a while now,
Speaker 3: and coming up next, I want to talk about you know,
Speaker 3: where you feel the club is at now, what it
Speaker 3: was like to build what I perceived to be for
Speaker 3: about eighteen to twenty matches last year is the best
Speaker 3: team we've had here. I truly believe that. But before
Speaker 3: we catch a break, let's get to know you a
Speaker 3: little bit. For our listeners who don't local kid, Judge
Speaker 3: high kid, you tak kid.
Speaker 2: Yep, and you're not You're a little bit like me.
Speaker 3: You're not just like a soccer guy like you love
Speaker 3: Utah football, you up loving.
Speaker 2: The jazz like Oh.
Speaker 1: I was listening to you with with Doctor Chris Hill
Speaker 1: today and you were talking about hiring Urban and the Muss.
Speaker 1: I was in the Muss. I was in the Muss
Speaker 1: for both undefeated seasons. I'm real, like literally brought chills
Speaker 1: to my down my spine.
Speaker 3: So tell us about your path, like and then we'll
Speaker 3: get to the RSL stuff on the other.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you know, like you said, local local guy,
Speaker 1: grew up you know, right within walking distance of Rice Ecles,
Speaker 1: going to games as a kid, huge jazz fan as
Speaker 1: a kid. I mean, you know, the the Stockton to
Speaker 1: Malone pick and roll in the and the you know,
Speaker 1: the ninety six ninety seven finals runs are sear to
Speaker 1: my brain. I mean that's like, that's that's sports fandom
Speaker 1: to me. Like that is, and then and then the
Speaker 1: utes going to the to the final four and then
Speaker 1: the championship match and or championship game. There's this there's
Speaker 1: the soccer guy, you know, and you know, falling short
Speaker 1: against Kentime. I mean I literally like I remember where
Speaker 1: I was getting ready to like watch those games, like
Speaker 1: that was.
Speaker 2: You know, that was my fandom.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I grew up, grew up playing soccer, played
Speaker 1: golf in high school too. You know, I would say
Speaker 1: it wasn't great at either one of them. I've I've
Speaker 1: gotten better at golf since then because I worked. I
Speaker 1: worked up at Mountain del for seven years and it
Speaker 1: was you know, I tell people the best job I
Speaker 1: ever had. Uh it's tough when the best job you
Speaker 1: ever have is the first job you ever have. But
Speaker 1: but yeah, so, you know, grew up in the area,
Speaker 1: went to went to the U again, you know, was
Speaker 1: was a student for both undefeated seasons, so that was
Speaker 1: that was a special time. Got my degree in economics
Speaker 1: and was looking for an internship this summer before my
Speaker 1: senior year, and and got connected, you know, with with
Speaker 1: rs L. It was interned for Trey, which is just
Speaker 1: a lot of coffee rooms. I mean, yeah, he still
Speaker 1: owes me money for I'm sure twenty to thirty of them,
Speaker 1: but you know, it is what it is.
Speaker 2: But no.
Speaker 1: Got in at such a fun time at RSL. So
Speaker 1: I started in April of two thousand and seven. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know that time really well, and it was It's
Speaker 1: wild to see what the club and what the sport
Speaker 1: and the landscape is now compared to back then.
Speaker 2: It's just that you can't even compare it.
Speaker 1: I mean it was you know, we were in our
Speaker 1: offices and at Trolley Corners and there had been groundbreaking
Speaker 1: of the stadium, but it was still you know, and
Speaker 1: you were right in the heart of it. You know,
Speaker 1: your dad getting you know, just making things happen, and
Speaker 1: the number of times that that was on the verge
Speaker 1: of falling apart, and obviously MLS was a totally different
Speaker 1: landscape then. So just got to be a part to
Speaker 1: that and grow up in that. And then you know,
Speaker 1: got lucky and was hired for a full time position
Speaker 1: at the end of my internship.
Speaker 2: And and where was your first full time Was it
Speaker 2: team admin? No? It was PR?
Speaker 1: So I so I came on the PR team full
Speaker 1: time January two thousand and eight, and uh did that
Speaker 1: for two years.
Speaker 2: So I was.
Speaker 1: I was on the PR team through the through the
Speaker 1: title run.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 1: In fact, I don't even know where I this is.
Speaker 1: This is a bummer to say I don't know where
Speaker 1: it is. I'd have to go, I'd really have to
Speaker 1: dig and try to find it. But I was in
Speaker 1: the locker room with a video came around my shoulder
Speaker 1: when David Beckham came in after after the final to congratulate,
Speaker 1: to congratulate the guys, And I mean I had it
Speaker 1: on video as far away as.
Speaker 2: You really wow. Yeah, I don't don't. I don't the
Speaker 2: I don't know where I ended up. But I feel
Speaker 2: like I've seen that footage.
Speaker 1: It's I think it's somewhere like I don't think it's gone,
Speaker 1: but I would not be that easy to find. But
Speaker 1: someday I probably should because it was. It was a
Speaker 1: cool moment. But yeah, so was on the PR team
Speaker 1: and then and then Garth brought me on as the
Speaker 1: team admin the next year, and then worked as a
Speaker 1: team admin for several years and worked my way up
Speaker 1: from there. When Garth left, Wibel took over. Wyble brought
Speaker 1: me in his assistant GM and did that while Wives
Speaker 1: was there, and you know, started the Monarchs and it
Speaker 1: was the first GM of the Monarchs and and got
Speaker 1: to got to you know, dip my toe in those
Speaker 1: waters there. And then when when Wives left.
Speaker 3: Got jam the GM you're the guy and that and
Speaker 3: built a really good club and we'll appreciate it. We'll
Speaker 3: leave it there for now and we'll do more on
Speaker 3: this coming up on the other side.
Speaker 2: Elliott is live in studio.
Speaker 3: Elliott fall Is live in studio, former RSL General manager.
Speaker 3: All righty, so we talked about kind of your path
Speaker 3: before the break that led you to be coming the
Speaker 3: GM and for the kids out there, Uh, it is
Speaker 3: quite a story. In turn two thousand and seven general
Speaker 3: manager or climbed his way up the up the ranks.
Speaker 3: What was your reaction when de Lois at the time
Speaker 3: told you, like, okay, Gig's yours. Were you intimidated, were
Speaker 3: you surprised? Were you grateful? Were you nervous? What were
Speaker 3: what were those emotions?
Speaker 1: I don't I don't know if I've ever said this publicly,
Speaker 1: I might have told you I said, I don't want it.
Speaker 2: Initially, you pushed back a little bit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, interesting, I I said, you know, look, I appreciate
Speaker 1: it the loy but you know, I I would love
Speaker 1: to have a conversation about expanding my role, you know.
Speaker 1: But you know, i'd i'd I'd like to look at
Speaker 1: what it's like in a slightly different capacity or something
Speaker 1: like that. And he said, no, that's not that's not
Speaker 1: what we're talking about. I said, you know, and look,
Speaker 1: I obviously I had been the GM of the Monarchs.
Speaker 1: I was the assistant GM of RSL. So it's not
Speaker 1: like it was a job that I didn't understand. Like
Speaker 1: I knew what the job was.
Speaker 2: I knew.
Speaker 1: I knew the demands of the job. And but truthfully,
Speaker 1: I think part of it was. I also knew that
Speaker 1: when you take that job, you're starting a clock on
Speaker 1: your position. Yep, and you you you don't necessarily know
Speaker 1: when that clock ends, but it's going to end. And
Speaker 1: I don't know. That's not what I was. You know,
Speaker 1: I didn't necessarily want that. I wanted.
Speaker 2: You know, I wanted to be at the club long term.
Speaker 1: So uh, all that said, I mean I said I
Speaker 1: don't want it. Was there ever any part of me
Speaker 1: that wasn't gonna take it? No, of course, like I was,
Speaker 1: I was going to take the job, and I was
Speaker 1: excited about that. I mean, I loved the job. It
Speaker 1: was fun.
Speaker 2: It was.
Speaker 1: I think it's a dream job. It's it's you know,
Speaker 1: millions of people want that job.
Speaker 3: No, you started as a coffee runner in two thousand
Speaker 3: and seven, you worked your way up to GM and
Speaker 3: the team.
Speaker 2: It's a wild I.
Speaker 1: Was tearing down downsizing banners at rice Ecles you know, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know we were, but like, you know, for free,
Speaker 1: that's what I was doing. And then it, yeah, it
Speaker 1: turned into what it turned into, and it was it
Speaker 1: was unbelievable. It was an incredible ride. Like I wouldn't
Speaker 1: trade a single bit of it for anything. But yeah,
Speaker 1: so that was kind of my initial reaction that said,
Speaker 1: you know, I was also really excited and it was
Speaker 1: it was fun to get to to lead the soccer
Speaker 1: side of the organization, and and uh, you know, it
Speaker 1: was it was a good time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you can be a mediocre senior VP of comms, temperamental,
Speaker 3: emotional angry and stay with the club for twenty years.
Speaker 3: But if you're the GM or the coach, you are
Speaker 3: hired to be fired. You just are. That's pro sports.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, And and and look I knew that, I
Speaker 1: get it. It's it is what it is. So it's
Speaker 1: also and and this may I certainly hope that this
Speaker 1: doesn't come off as I don't I don't know exactly
Speaker 1: what you'd say it comes off as, but in me
Speaker 1: complaining or anything like that, but it's a it's.
Speaker 2: A really exhausting job.
Speaker 1: And uh I I gained a real perspective and and
Speaker 1: a real understanding of why, you know, people who are
Speaker 1: in those jobs don't stay in those jobs forever. It's
Speaker 1: just it's it's it's all consuming. So uh it was, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was. It was a blast. It was unbelievable ride.
Speaker 1: But I, you know, I think it also.
Speaker 2: It worked out and we'll get there. We'll get there
Speaker 2: in a moment.
Speaker 3: What was what was the first major decision personnel wise
Speaker 3: you made? You remember the first big decision you have
Speaker 3: to you had to make personnel wise?
Speaker 2: You remember what that was?
Speaker 1: Selling Sabrena. I think, I mean we so I took over.
Speaker 1: It was like August or September or whatever it was
Speaker 1: of twenty nineteen. Obviously there wasn't much to do at
Speaker 1: that point. I mean, you know, we were a good team,
Speaker 1: made the playoffs, made a little bit of a run
Speaker 1: in the one a game in the playoffs. You know,
Speaker 1: I think we lost to Seattle that year on the road.
Speaker 1: So so I guess so then yeah, so then fast
Speaker 1: forward to the next offseason, which of course turned into
Speaker 1: the COVID season, which was its own wild, you know situation.
Speaker 1: But we had we did sell Saw before COVID hit.
Speaker 1: So I guess, I guess I would say selling sava
Speaker 1: As was my first major decision as the GM.
Speaker 2: I was, you know, I that said, I.
Speaker 1: Was involved in you know a lot of major decisions
Speaker 1: before that. But like with my with with my name
Speaker 1: on the line or my you know, my name in
Speaker 1: lights whatever you want to say.
Speaker 2: It was. I think it was selling Sava, so you were.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to do the time I do.
Speaker 3: I don't remember what added for breakfast this morning, but
Speaker 3: I'm trying to do the timeline here I do.
Speaker 2: It was an uncrustable because they're so good, They're amazing.
Speaker 3: You were named the GM prior to the COVID Deloye
Speaker 3: Drum Okay, oh yeah, okay, okay, okay, because I was
Speaker 3: wondering if any of your reservation was steeped in the
Speaker 3: information that the league was about to run the team
Speaker 3: and what that was like. But you were the GM
Speaker 3: prior to that. Okay, okay, So let's move over to
Speaker 3: that timeline now, Okay, yeah, so we.
Speaker 1: Might need our own we might need several shows set
Speaker 1: aside for this, for.
Speaker 3: Sure, and you're welcome back any time, as you know.
Speaker 3: But it's wild because I can remember. So this show
Speaker 3: just turned six last week. We've been doing this six
Speaker 3: years now, which both feels like yesterday and forever.
Speaker 2: It's hard for me to quantify.
Speaker 3: But when I first was back on air, a lot
Speaker 3: of people ask like, do you think Elliott's up to
Speaker 3: the task, And I said, well, only results will tell
Speaker 3: the story, because that's the way this thing goes. I mean,
Speaker 3: it is more than almost anything else or results orientated business. Obviously,
Speaker 3: if you're in other areas of commerce, you have to
Speaker 3: sell to make money or whatever. But if it's a
Speaker 3: good team and they win, then he's the guy. And
Speaker 3: if they go the other way, then it was the
Speaker 3: wrong call. But within three or four months of this
Speaker 3: show starting, Deloyde goes on X ninety six in the
Speaker 3: morning and says what he said, And there's this moment
Speaker 3: in time where RSL employees are furloughed, MLS is canceled.
Speaker 3: They have the MLS is Back Tournament, which is a
Speaker 3: name they actually came up with and somebody approved, like
Speaker 3: the dumbest name in the world. But suddenly we were
Speaker 3: gonna have an RSL game.
Speaker 2: We know the deal.
Speaker 3: That was a summer of real racial unrest and social
Speaker 3: justice and people express themselves in a very specific way,
Speaker 3: no matter what side of the aisle you're on.
Speaker 2: That was a hot time in our country.
Speaker 3: It was a passionate, heavy time where everybody was on
Speaker 3: edge for a myriad of different reasons, whether it was
Speaker 3: the person you didn't want in the White House, being
Speaker 3: there a pandemic potentially killing people, or you know George
Speaker 3: Floyd situation where everybody was really everything was heightened.
Speaker 1: Okay, so you want to throw you want to throw
Speaker 1: the earthquake in there too, because it happened right around then,
Speaker 1: two earthquakes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm living downtown, man, I thought we were all dying.
Speaker 3: So delay goes onto X ninety six. You know I
Speaker 3: should rewind. RSL game is canceled.
Speaker 2: Okay. Players decided to protest, right, Yeah, to be clear,
Speaker 2: every game of the league.
Speaker 3: Yeah, RSL, along with every other team in the league,
Speaker 3: decides to stand in solidarity with the message, and we're
Speaker 3: not playing. Deloy takes that as an affront, which, by
Speaker 3: the way, I understood at the time.
Speaker 2: I get it.
Speaker 3: You know, all the work they put in to make
Speaker 3: this event happen, bringing employees back the were furloughed goes
Speaker 3: on X ninety six.
Speaker 2: This expresses his disappointment.
Speaker 3: My phone blows up in a way that it very
Speaker 3: rarely blows up, and then an hour later it's decided
Speaker 3: he's coming on this show to apologize, and I'm like,
Speaker 3: all right, I mean he owns the station, he owns
Speaker 3: the team.
Speaker 2: If this is the deal. This is the deal. Unfortunately
Speaker 2: damage was done at that point.
Speaker 3: Did the best I could to give Deloy the space
Speaker 3: to express himself, which I thought he did in a
Speaker 3: very deloy way, to try to walk it back a
Speaker 3: little bit, but the damage was already done. And then
Speaker 3: Deloyd decides, this is something that's been lost in history.
Speaker 3: He was not forced to sell the soccer team. He
Speaker 3: decided he did not want to have the headache anymore,
Speaker 3: and also was in an equity position to make some money. Okay,
Speaker 3: so he made a calculated decision to say what you
Speaker 3: want about to Laurie's not dumb, Okay, sure, as far
Speaker 3: as his business acumen goes.
Speaker 1: But by the way, this is not to take us
Speaker 1: on a tangent, but this is this is something like
Speaker 1: the scenario you just laid out is actually not really
Speaker 1: indifferent from nearly every team in every professional sport that
Speaker 1: where the owner has been seemingly pushed out of the league.
Speaker 1: Like people, people perceive the owner to have been forced out,
Speaker 1: they almost always make that decision on their own.
Speaker 2: It's so so so.
Speaker 1: Difficult to force somebody out in these situations, right, It
Speaker 1: just it almost never happened.
Speaker 2: I don't even know if it ever has happened.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but I think that was the narrative, like, oh, no,
Speaker 3: it is that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he said some things that hurt some people's feelings
Speaker 3: and MLS said, okay, you have to sell the team.
Speaker 2: That's not how it went down.
Speaker 3: And I sat with him before he decided to do it,
Speaker 3: because we were talking about some other things.
Speaker 2: He walked me through the process, totally understood.
Speaker 3: You know, was again in a position to make some
Speaker 3: money and he has gone on to do some other
Speaker 3: things with his life as opposed to dealing with, you know,
Speaker 3: owning a soccer team, which comes with its own headaches.
Speaker 2: Yeah, which I am uniquely familiar with.
Speaker 3: Sure, But how was that situation digested by the front
Speaker 3: office of the club when all that went down, and
Speaker 3: when you realized that there was going to be an
Speaker 3: ownership transition and for a moment in time, you were
Speaker 3: going to report to the league because they were going
Speaker 3: to operate the team while Deloy found a buyer.
Speaker 2: What was that like for you because delay gave you
Speaker 2: your shot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, certainly, And and look to take a step back
Speaker 1: on the on the Deloyte side of this, I mean
Speaker 1: I am not like, I'm not defending the things that
Speaker 1: you know that deloyte said.
Speaker 2: I'm not.
Speaker 1: I they weren't they weren't things that can be said.
Speaker 1: But I also kind of, like you alluded to, you
Speaker 1: understood where he.
Speaker 2: Was coming from.
Speaker 1: It's it's I I'm not saying I understood where he
Speaker 1: was coming from. But I think Deloy. I think Deloy
Speaker 1: was a very complex Uh, He's a very complex person.
Speaker 1: And I think you know, he said things that I
Speaker 1: have no I've never spoken to him about it. I
Speaker 1: don't know if he would. You know, I don't know
Speaker 1: what he would say about what he said at this point.
Speaker 1: But again, things that that, yeah, you can't say and
Speaker 1: shouldn't have been said. But I also think that there
Speaker 1: were you know, he he wanted to do right by
Speaker 1: people at you know, a lot of the time. I mean,
Speaker 1: he he he did a lot of hard work for
Speaker 1: a lot of people. And so it's it's it is
Speaker 1: a complex situation.
Speaker 2: So I I that was.
Speaker 1: A wild That mean, that dynamic in and of itself
Speaker 1: was was kind of wild. And and to your point,
Speaker 1: having been given a chance by Deloy and all of
Speaker 1: those things, and you know, so obviously I had I
Speaker 1: had a relationship with de looiy the that said. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was the wildest time I can remember.
Speaker 2: In my life.
Speaker 1: I mean it was that that forty eight hours or
Speaker 1: whatever it was. I mean, it was sleepless, it was
Speaker 1: you know, on the phone, constantly talking to people, like
Speaker 1: trying to trying to even get a grasp for like
Speaker 1: what how to handle it, what to do. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just such a unique situation that there's no preparing
Speaker 1: you for that. There's you know, the kind of the
Speaker 1: firestorm of it all. And uh, it was. It was
Speaker 1: a it was a wild experience. I don't I don't
Speaker 1: even I don't know how else to say it. I
Speaker 1: It's not something I'd never want to go through again.
Speaker 1: I mean it was, it was emotional, it was challe lenging.
Speaker 1: And so yeah, did he tell you personally that he
Speaker 1: was selling.
Speaker 2: Yeah, to get that information. Yeah, he yeah, he did.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: There was also and and I don't remember kind of
Speaker 1: sequentially how things happened, but there in addition to you know,
Speaker 1: I had I've probably like I probably had one conversation
Speaker 1: with Deloye after the you know, that day, but it
Speaker 1: was a conversation where he you know, kind of walked
Speaker 1: me through what was happening. And then uh, there was
Speaker 1: also the league was stepping in, so the league was
Speaker 1: also kind of giving us information and and that's when
Speaker 1: John Kimball came in and and so getting information from John.
Speaker 1: So I don't remember kind of which, Yeah, I don't
Speaker 1: remember what order it happened in, but you know I
Speaker 1: heard it from from all those sides.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and Lloyd compartmentalized in a very interesting way.
Speaker 2: I mean when he was done, he was done.
Speaker 3: You know, he's at my time, and now it's time
Speaker 3: for somebody else and I'm going to go on and
Speaker 3: do some other things of my life, which he's done.
Speaker 3: So then you're reporting to the league. Prior to the
Speaker 3: artificial transition, what was who were you talking to and
Speaker 3: when you went to make a decision? How did that
Speaker 3: mechanism work? We weren't really talking to anybody.
Speaker 2: You were just doing your thing.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean the edict was essentially, here's you know,
Speaker 1: here's your budget. Your budget is. It was basically here
Speaker 1: your budget is what it was. We're not changing things. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it was. Yeah, if there's a major decision that needs
Speaker 1: to be made, like we want to be clued in.
Speaker 2: And that was.
Speaker 1: More or less directly like with the Commissioner's office. It
Speaker 1: wasn't with you know, Don himself, but with his office,
Speaker 1: and you know he works very closely so for me,
Speaker 1: like on the player side, you know.
Speaker 3: The.
Speaker 1: Todd Durban who runs the player side of of MLS.
Speaker 1: I had a few conversations with Todd here and there.
Speaker 1: But again it wasn't they were they were great, and
Speaker 1: they they let us do our thing. They did, let
Speaker 1: us just execute and in in some ways it was
Speaker 1: the most rewarding time I had there because and this
Speaker 1: isn't I really I don't really mean this as a
Speaker 1: shot at any any of the ownership situations that we had,
Speaker 1: but it was the one where we it was okay,
Speaker 1: go ahead, do your thing like you guys. You guys
Speaker 1: have a plan, you have a process. Go ahead, execute
Speaker 1: the plan in the process, and you know, we'll let
Speaker 1: you know if anything's gonna change. And that's what we did.
Speaker 1: And if you remember, you know, we made a run
Speaker 1: to the conference finals, so you know, and there were
Speaker 1: ups and downs. I don't I'm not pretending that it was,
Speaker 1: you know, the easiest thing ever, but it was. It
Speaker 1: was rewarding. Then to have those successes and that was
Speaker 1: a lot of fun.
Speaker 3: Had to be a little bit liberating, not to be
Speaker 3: micromanaged too, but right, maybe like have a little freedom.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, no question about it.
Speaker 1: I think I think I learned a lot from that time,
Speaker 1: you know, about what it takes to successfully.
Speaker 2: Lead as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And to your point, it is in a lot
Speaker 1: of cases to step away and to say I hired you.
Speaker 1: I hired you to do this job. Go do the
Speaker 1: job and let me know if you need anything. I
Speaker 1: don't need you to tell me every step of the way.
Speaker 1: Obviously as things go, I want to just know what's happening.
Speaker 1: But I don't, you know, And I think that is
Speaker 1: how really successful organizations in any in sports, in in business,
Speaker 1: in anything are built. That's that's that's how you you know,
Speaker 1: that's true leadership to me. So I learned a lot
Speaker 1: about it, Yeah, a lot. All right, I thought we
Speaker 1: might get long winded.
Speaker 3: So we got a couple of minutes here, So it's
Speaker 3: a couple of different things. It goes fast when you're
Speaker 3: talking about interesting things. So let's move over to the
Speaker 3: space of the club that you built. And it's interesting
Speaker 3: soccer fans are just miserable people.
Speaker 2: They just are.
Speaker 3: And you know, I think you took a lot of
Speaker 3: flak from people that wondered if you were just a lackey.
Speaker 2: I wondered if you were up to the task.
Speaker 3: And I know you're not like actively on social media,
Speaker 3: but an acdotally and I went to watch an RSL
Speaker 3: game a couple of years back after after you were
Speaker 3: let go, and we went into beer bar and they
Speaker 3: started booing, and I wondered if they were booing you
Speaker 3: when we walked in. It turns out they were booing
Speaker 3: the game, But I'm like, wait, did they Yeah? I
Speaker 3: honestly thought they were booing you. But you took a
Speaker 3: lot of flat during the course of the roster construct.
Speaker 3: But really what it culminated in is and best laid
Speaker 3: plans aside, because sports is so fickle. For a moment
Speaker 3: in time, you may have built the best team we
Speaker 3: had here, and I truly believe that to be true.
Speaker 3: And I can remember when I heard about the chee
Speaker 3: cho stuff and I went, damn it, Like I had
Speaker 3: this gut feeling that this could derail it, like derail everything,
Speaker 3: and in retrospect, it kind of did.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: And obviously that's nothing that you could control or new ownership.
Speaker 3: Dave Blitzer, Scott Chrace, Ryan Smith. Nobody was able to
Speaker 3: control the mitigating circumstances. But what was it like to
Speaker 3: build that team that last year for a moment in
Speaker 3: time certainly the most entertaining soccer we've seen here and
Speaker 3: had a chance to be really really special if things
Speaker 3: just would have kind of stayed clean.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, honestly, it's a really kind of complex
Speaker 1: set of emotions because on the one hand, it's rewarding
Speaker 1: to look at it and say, yeah, like, look at
Speaker 1: the decisions we made and and and while I was there,
Speaker 1: I think we were able to You don't get every
Speaker 1: decision right, there's no there's no chance, of course, but
Speaker 1: I think we were able to, you know, to hit
Speaker 1: for a really good average and and put ourselves in
Speaker 1: a position where, you know, we got a few major
Speaker 1: decisions right, and and it felt like it was starting
Speaker 1: the snowball and then, you know, to your point, especially
Speaker 1: at the beginning of last year, it was looking really good.
Speaker 1: But there's the flip side of that, which was, yeah,
Speaker 1: but I didn't get to be there for for a
Speaker 1: part of that. I mean, I was there for part
Speaker 1: of it. It's not that I didn't get to experience
Speaker 1: any of it, but I didn't get to be there
Speaker 1: for for a part of it. And and that was
Speaker 1: you know, that's it's kind of hard. But it's also
Speaker 1: sports miss the way it is. It's it's fine.
Speaker 2: Yeah it was.
Speaker 1: It was complex, but it was I I'm proud of
Speaker 1: what we did while I was there. And and I
Speaker 1: don't have too many regrets. I don't have, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not. I'm not bitter about it. I had I
Speaker 1: had great experiences. I had a lot of good times.
Speaker 1: And you know that chapter is basically over. Do you
Speaker 1: have any regrets about the cheat show stuff? Because the
Speaker 1: interesting part.
Speaker 3: Of it is there there was some baggage there, right,
Speaker 3: I mean, in fairness, there was.
Speaker 2: Some baggage there.
Speaker 3: But when he was dialed in, when he was when
Speaker 3: he was fit, when he was committed, when he was
Speaker 3: doing I mean chee show things, you can the talent
Speaker 3: is so obvious. So two part questions, do you have
Speaker 3: any regrets about the chee sho thing? And where were
Speaker 3: you when you heard the suspension was coming? And did
Speaker 3: you feel the same way I did, like this could
Speaker 3: be a really ominous thing. Do I have any regrets? Well,
Speaker 3: I'll answer the other question first, because that one's a
Speaker 3: little more start forward.
Speaker 2: I don't. Actually I don't remember where I was. You know.
Speaker 1: It's you know how sports are, like it's all fickle
Speaker 1: and and you never know what can kind of derail things.
Speaker 2: So to be completely.
Speaker 1: Honest, I wasn't paying close enough attention or dialed in
Speaker 1: enough to you know, and I didn't. I still don't
Speaker 1: really know what happened, Like I don't, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I just know kind of what has has come out publicly,
Speaker 1: and so I you know, I would be lying if
Speaker 1: I told you I knew why. I had a really
Speaker 1: great feeling about what was going to happen. Either way,
Speaker 1: as for regrets, like, no, I don't have regrets. I mean, look,
Speaker 1: you say there was baggage. I don't even kind of
Speaker 1: don't even know what baggage you're referring to. Like when
Speaker 1: we did background checks, when like he was fine, like
Speaker 1: you talked to he talk to LAFC guys like they
Speaker 1: adored him. There were locker room issues, There weren't behavioral
Speaker 1: issues like that. Wasn't that wasn't something that that wasn't
Speaker 1: something that came up really at all. You had conversations
Speaker 1: with him, he was engaged. Yeah, he's a personality and
Speaker 1: a lot of guys are, and you know, respectfully, like
Speaker 1: that's where that the league is headed. Like, as you
Speaker 1: get better, you deal with bigger person Like. That's that's
Speaker 1: the nature of sports, you know, when when you don't
Speaker 1: have the top guys, you also don't have the top
Speaker 1: egos and you don't have the top you know, personalities.
Speaker 1: So yeah, no, I don't have regrets. I mean I don't.
Speaker 1: You're never gonna get everything right and like, but I
Speaker 1: look back on it, and I think we we checked
Speaker 1: as many boxes as we could all.
Speaker 3: Right before I say, you loose all end on this,
Speaker 3: And there's a lot of meat on this bone we
Speaker 3: haven't even touched for sure. They elected to kind of
Speaker 3: break it down brick by brick, and I'm sure they
Speaker 3: have their reasons, I think, andres was proof of concept,
Speaker 3: so you go get your check.
Speaker 2: I get it.
Speaker 3: But you know, chi Cho, Matt Crooks and oh, like
Speaker 3: the majority of the best attacking players were let go
Speaker 3: and the majority of the money was not reinvested in talent. Now,
Speaker 3: we don't need to get into MLS as a single
Speaker 3: entity to educate our listeners as to what that means.
Speaker 3: So it's not necessarily Yeah, I don't think that has
Speaker 3: anything to do with it.
Speaker 2: But they did.
Speaker 3: But they elected to break it down and get rid
Speaker 3: of most of the attacking players and in my estimation,
Speaker 3: did not do a good enough job at least to
Speaker 3: this point at bringing in reinforcements. We'll see what these
Speaker 3: new two players are able to bring, but there are
Speaker 3: two points below the line with eight matches to play,
Speaker 3: and it's going to be tough for them even to
Speaker 3: make the playoffs. So last thing, what do you make
Speaker 3: of where the club finds itself now?
Speaker 1: I you know, yeah, it's I mean, you never it'd
Speaker 1: be hard to say, oh, you got to feel awesome
Speaker 1: when you're below the line late in the season. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's always a hard place that we've been there. I like,
Speaker 1: I know how that feels, and you don't feel good
Speaker 1: about it. Kind of to your bigger question, yeah, I think,
Speaker 1: And again I'm not there.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know all the reasons for the decisions that
Speaker 1: were made. I don't you know. I can speculate just
Speaker 1: like anybody else can. But if I've learned one thing,
Speaker 1: when you're like when you work in a front office
Speaker 1: from the outside, you have ten percent of the information
Speaker 1: if you're lucky. Yeah, So like I don't I don't
Speaker 1: want to pretend to have information and be able to
Speaker 1: say definitively, oh, this was the wrong thing to do,
Speaker 1: or this was the right thing to do.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Andres one like that makes a lot of sense,
Speaker 1: and it is proof of concept. And if you can,
Speaker 1: you know, four x your investment in eighteen months, it
Speaker 1: is proof of concept and it allows you to go
Speaker 1: back and say, see, this is how we can you know,
Speaker 1: this is how we can make money.
Speaker 2: That that was the whole idea of signing.
Speaker 1: Andres was to invest when he you know, before he
Speaker 1: broke out and then and I think Chicho was a
Speaker 1: huge part of that return, because you know, a young
Speaker 1: guy like Andres who's dynamic, has to have a somebody
Speaker 1: to teach him how to be a pro on the field,
Speaker 1: and somebody to be demanding of him on the field,
Speaker 1: and on top of that, somebody to finish the chances
Speaker 1: that he's going to create. And so I think I
Speaker 1: think that was you know, to me, those are the
Speaker 1: things that that really kind of became difficult to replace.
Speaker 1: And and yeah, I guess you know, they haven't been replaced.
Speaker 1: I think all of those individual situations, yeah, in a vacuum,
Speaker 1: like they probably make some sense, but when you look
Speaker 1: at him on the whole, it's, yeah, it's tough because
Speaker 1: you need to then reinvest, and you need like Diego
Speaker 1: has been unbelievable, right, Like Diego's great, and you kind
Speaker 1: of knew when I was there we signed Diego, Like
Speaker 1: you could tell he had something different about him. Did
Speaker 1: you do you know he's gonna make it? No, but
Speaker 1: you know you knew that you knew there was something
Speaker 1: about him. So he's he's flourished. But in this league,
Speaker 1: like you, you have to keep investing, and you have
Speaker 1: to keep like the one thing I'll say is even
Speaker 1: the top teams across the board almost like it's still
Speaker 1: a league where it's hard to hold on to your
Speaker 1: best players. Like they move around the league, they move,
Speaker 1: they move to Europe. Like to be really successful year
Speaker 1: in and year out just requires you to be really
Speaker 1: disciplined in your decision making process. And you know, I
Speaker 1: think for any number of reasons. Those things can be challenging.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, it always starts at the top.
Speaker 1: It starts with ownership, and it starts with you know, investment,
Speaker 1: and then and then the structure underneath that. And and
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm not saying any individual part of that
Speaker 1: or collectively it isn't there. I don't I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm not in the building. Yeah, and like obviously it's
Speaker 1: a new ownership. I don't even know the new owners
Speaker 1: So it's you know, it's it's a it's a totally
Speaker 1: different place than when I left it.
Speaker 3: Yep, there's no doubt. Look, there's a lot more we
Speaker 3: could do, and we'll do it soon. So thanks for
Speaker 3: the time. Man, be good with chats. Thank you, Elliot Fall,
Speaker 3: former RSL general manager. We'll bring in Ryan from the
Speaker 3: Dish pros. Give them a call it eight oh one
Speaker 3: four two four dish, save a bunch of money and
Speaker 3: make the switch today.
Speaker 2: What's going on? Ryan?
Speaker 4: This is the best opportunity you've ever seen to switch
Speaker 4: a dish right now. And the offer that we have Listen,
Speaker 4: you get everything you want to watch college, you want
Speaker 4: to watch pro, you want to have a DVR that
Speaker 4: automat that records everything you want to pay less. Well, guys,
Speaker 4: this is what Dish has right now. You get this.
Speaker 4: They've got the two year promotion still, which is fantastic
Speaker 4: because you get credits for two years. The price is
Speaker 4: guaranteed to change. Guys, I'll tell you right now, if
Speaker 4: you have cable or direct TV, it's minimum thirty dollars
Speaker 4: a month less the next two years. But you know
Speaker 4: a lot of times we see it sixty eighty ninety
Speaker 4: dollars a month less than what you're currently paying. Just
Speaker 4: kind of call us. But I'm gonna throw a little
Speaker 4: extra on top. How about three months of service for free.
Speaker 4: So now we're going to talk about how you're gonna
Speaker 4: save thousands quickly just by a simple phone call. Plus,
Speaker 4: we're going to throw in the multi Sports pack, which
Speaker 4: includes my favorite football channel Channel of all. You get
Speaker 4: the NFL Red Zone free for the next six months,
Speaker 4: so you're dialed in there. We'll get you set.
Speaker 2: Up with that.
Speaker 4: Plus throw in Showtime and Paramount Plus. And yes I
Speaker 4: mentioned Paramount Plus. Because the hoppware system is completely integrated
Speaker 4: with all the streaming services. They're like channels you want
Speaker 4: to watch Netflix it's like a channel. You want to
Speaker 4: watch the NFL Sunday ticket through YouTube, that's like a
Speaker 4: channel built in one remote runs everything, and it's simple
Speaker 4: and simplistic and easy to use. Plus we'll throw in
Speaker 4: dinner at jcw S if you call and get set up.
Speaker 4: Remember two, we're like the Internet professionals NT. Right now,
Speaker 4: I have a half a dozen Internet providers at my fingertips.
Speaker 4: This will completely save you so much time. Instead of
Speaker 4: get on the phone and calling X y Z internet
Speaker 4: companies all the way down the line to find.
Speaker 2: Out if they even.
Speaker 4: Offer service or if what the price would be, just
Speaker 4: call us. We'll lay out everybody who has service available
Speaker 4: at your address and lower your built And there's a
Speaker 4: lot of stuff up at twenty thirty forty fifty.
Speaker 2: Bucks a month.
Speaker 4: So if you're spending sixty eighty one hundred bucks a
Speaker 4: month for internet, even if you have fiber and you're like,
Speaker 4: I'm not switching from fiber. I've got fiber, there's a
Speaker 4: really good possibility in your neighborhood is deregulated, which means
Speaker 4: you just can pay a different provider to use the
Speaker 4: same provider, same fiber and it's thirty dollars a month, cheaper,
Speaker 4: super easy calls today. Let us upgrade you, get you
Speaker 4: set up with the best TV system, best Internet services
Speaker 4: out there, and save you money, lots of money, thousands.
Speaker 4: You just got a call four two four dis