Speaker 1: Hey, y'all, welcome to another episode of Soccer for US.
Speaker 1: I am Bart and on this episode we are talking
Speaker 1: about the home stadiums of the US men's national team
Speaker 1: and why it's a problem that they are concentrated to
Speaker 1: a certain group of not just states, but also cities.
Speaker 1: But before we get into that conversation, I need to
Speaker 1: ask two phases of you. First, Soccer down Here, the
Speaker 1: network on which I put out my podcast, is a
Speaker 1: finalist for the Football Content Awards as a best media organization.
Speaker 1: We're in the category of broadcaster or media rights holder.
Speaker 1: We are just a collection of folks who love soccer
Speaker 1: in the South and would greatly appreciate your support going
Speaker 1: up against actual professional broadcast media rights holders. So if
Speaker 1: you can take a second to go vote for Soccer
Speaker 1: down Here at Footballcontentawards dot com slash voting, So that
Speaker 1: would be awesome. And also, don't forget you can follow
Speaker 1: this podcast on Twitter at Soccer for US pod and
Speaker 1: support us at Buy Me a Coffee dot com slash
Speaker 1: Soccer for US pot. All right, now that that said,
Speaker 1: let me introduce our two guests for tonight. You know
Speaker 1: one of their voices very well. He's been a partner
Speaker 1: with me on this podcast for quite some time now.
Speaker 1: It is the greatest historian on usmn T Twitter. Thomas
Speaker 1: aka US Keeper Thomas. Good evening, He and Bart, how
Speaker 1: are you? You know? I am recovering from some refereeing
Speaker 1: this weekend, but I am great. Always fun to be
Speaker 1: able to be involved in the game.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: Sounds good. Glad to be here.
Speaker 1: And also joining us. A new voice on the podcast
Speaker 1: is but someone who is not a stranger to having
Speaker 1: his voice not just on a podcast, but also in
Speaker 1: press conferences for US soccer. It is Lawrence Dockery from
Speaker 1: the Memphis Night to One podcast, Bluff City Media and
Speaker 1: a lot of other outlets. Lawrence, Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2: Hey, thanks for having me on. I appreciate it that. Yes,
Speaker 2: I've made my voice heard in a press conference before
Speaker 2: it it did set the internet on Internet on fire
Speaker 2: for about two days, which was fun for the first
Speaker 2: day and by the second day I was or not
Speaker 2: from it.
Speaker 1: Well, glad to have you on here. And as I
Speaker 1: kind of said, we are talking about US men's national teams,
Speaker 1: but just men's national team. We'll talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about the women, but we're focused on the men's national
Speaker 1: team stadium selection. So you may not know, but we
Speaker 1: are heading into October of twenty twenty four, the US
Speaker 1: men's national team has four more matches remaining, two of
Speaker 1: those at home, and to play those matches, they're returning
Speaker 1: to two stadiums, two cities, and stadiums they have played
Speaker 1: in within the calendar year. Actually, I mean they played
Speaker 1: with these stadiums at least within the last thirteen months.
Speaker 1: Those stadiums, cities and stadiums are Austin's Q two Stadium,
Speaker 1: which is set to host its fifth men's national team
Speaker 1: match since opening in just twenty twenty one, and then
Speaker 1: Saint Louis's City Park is going to host its third
Speaker 1: match in just two years. Most people on US Soccer
Speaker 1: Twitter recognize this as somewhat of a problem. The problem
Speaker 1: being that US men's national team fans feel that US
Speaker 1: Soccer is I don't know, not selecting abroad enough or
Speaker 1: a diverse enough array of cities and stadiums. And while
Speaker 1: we all agree that friendly confines helped teams win, familiarity
Speaker 1: can often breed contempt. And I think it's safe to
Speaker 1: say that right now US men's national teams and women's
Speaker 1: national team fans feel that US Soccer is a bit
Speaker 1: too familiar with certain locations for their matches, and that
Speaker 1: is definitely selling resentment. Simply play US Soccer isn't letting
Speaker 1: the nation see the national team. Thomas, I'm going to
Speaker 1: start with you, because I you have a spreadsheet that
Speaker 1: I'm looking at right now that breaks down all time
Speaker 1: locations and then you were kind enough to group it
Speaker 1: for me by decades since the turn of the century.
Speaker 1: The question, I think has to be set asked, is
Speaker 1: this a new problem that US Soccer seemingly has just
Speaker 1: you know, a handful of states and cities that they
Speaker 1: select to play matches in.
Speaker 4: I don't think it's a new palm bar I think
Speaker 4: I think they get comfortable. I mean, if you go
Speaker 4: back to you know, two thousand to two thousand and nine,
Speaker 4: you look at you know, the states they played in
Speaker 4: the you know, and that you know, they play a
Speaker 4: lot in California and a lot in Massachusetts Foxboro specifically,
Speaker 4: and you look at their success in Massachusetts and California
Speaker 4: during that decade. I mean they've lost they lost one
Speaker 4: match in each of those states, and they played you know,
Speaker 4: you know, one played uh twenty two matches and neiell
Speaker 4: one played sixteen matches. And so when you're losing one
Speaker 4: match in those in those you know, venues in those states,
Speaker 4: in those areas, you know, US Soccer gets.
Speaker 3: Comfortable with that.
Speaker 4: They say the team's comfortable, that the players are comfortable there, right,
Speaker 4: so so why not continue going there?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 4: And so there is a pattern of that, you know,
Speaker 4: that far back, and probably that's you know, I mean,
Speaker 4: they could be even further, but that's really when things
Speaker 4: started to try to change for them and making the
Speaker 4: players comfortable, making the situation comfortable, for set up and
Speaker 4: how they roll it out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Lawrence, that's a good point that Thomas makes as
Speaker 1: a success maybe at certain locations. Look, since twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: Texas has hosted ten matches, Ohio has hosted six, Florida five,
Speaker 1: Kansas of Florida five, California five, and then Kansas five,
Speaker 1: Missouri four. Now I'm gonna play with the numbers a
Speaker 1: little bit there and say Missouri has host Missouri has
Speaker 1: hosted nine because let's be honest, it's Kansas City, Kansas
Speaker 1: is basically Missouri. But they've been fairly successful, especially when
Speaker 1: you look at a lot of those choices were made
Speaker 1: with both World Cup qualifying and Nations League in mind.
Speaker 1: So you know, yes, US Soccer wants to go play
Speaker 1: in facilities that they feel they will have success. But
Speaker 1: is that really the best way to choose a friendly
Speaker 1: location which we've seen is you know, this year maybe
Speaker 1: a little bit more diverse, but still this fall it's
Speaker 1: not very diverse at all.
Speaker 2: No, And so it's I do understand the concept of
Speaker 2: when you have a home World Cup qualifying game, you
Speaker 2: want to ensure maximum hold field advantage, which, let's be real,
Speaker 2: has historically until probably the beginning of the you know,
Speaker 2: early two thousands, when they started playing games at what
Speaker 2: is now known as Historic Crew Stadium, you know, home
Speaker 2: field advantage was not something we ever enjoyed on a
Speaker 2: regular basis. So I do I understand the desire and
Speaker 2: perhaps the necessity of playing in places where you can
Speaker 2: guarantee home field advantage. We are in the middle of
Speaker 2: a cycle now where we don't have to worry about
Speaker 2: World Cup qualifying, we're the host nation, and yet we
Speaker 2: continue to cycle through Children's Mercy Park in Kansas City,
Speaker 2: TQL Stadium in Cincinnati, Q two Stadium in Saint Louis,
Speaker 2: and I'll bet my bottom dollar at some point next
Speaker 2: year they'll end up at Exploria Stadium in Orlando. And
Speaker 2: this is not a knock on those venues. This is
Speaker 2: not a knock on the support the team has gotten
Speaker 2: in those venues or the results they've gotten. But as
Speaker 2: you said, this is the national team the nation. You know,
Speaker 2: that's the keyword there, and that's the key that the
Speaker 2: root word of national is nation. The national team needs
Speaker 2: to be accessible to, maybe not the whole nation. You know,
Speaker 2: I don't think we should be playing a game in
Speaker 2: Alaska anytime soon, but you know, more people need to
Speaker 2: be able to see this team and that and that's
Speaker 2: that should be a fundamental tenant. But especially now more
Speaker 2: than ever, that you are hosting a home World Cup
Speaker 2: in less than two years, and if you want it
Speaker 2: to be as big of a success as possible, you
Speaker 2: need to get as many different nooks and crannies and
Speaker 2: and and and small towns and mid sized cities across
Speaker 2: the country excited for the World Cup. Because one thing,
Speaker 2: it's this is not to suggest that the World Cup
Speaker 2: will be a disaster if the US men's national team
Speaker 2: doesn't play friendly the year before in Louisville or Memphis
Speaker 2: or wherever it's the World Cup, it's going to be
Speaker 2: a success. It would take just disaster beyond comprehension to
Speaker 2: make a World Cup not a success. But one of
Speaker 2: the things that gets talked about about the nineteen ninety
Speaker 2: four World Cup is, yes, it's still the most attended
Speaker 2: World Cup of all time by a wide, wide margin,
Speaker 2: and it did incredible amounts for the game in this country.
Speaker 2: But what you what you hear, and what you don't
Speaker 2: necessarily think about until somebody brings it up, is yes,
Speaker 2: the crowds were great, and we've you know, we haven't
Speaker 2: seen had never seen crowds like that before and really
Speaker 2: to an extent, haven't seen many of them quite like
Speaker 2: that since. Then.
Speaker 1: That was it.
Speaker 2: It was the crowds were big, and then everybody went
Speaker 2: home at the end of the day. You know, this
Speaker 2: was not you know, like that was. It was a
Speaker 2: big deal in like six cities, and not every city
Speaker 2: in this country is hosting games. Not every city is
Speaker 2: getting fan fests or or warm up friendlies or any
Speaker 2: of that. So US Soccer it's in their mission statement
Speaker 2: to grow the game, taking the national team to a
Speaker 2: place where you either have not been in a long
Speaker 2: time or have never been. I feel like is a
Speaker 2: great way to go about growing the game, and I
Speaker 2: will point out a contemporary as in within the next
Speaker 2: month example, local media attention is everything, and the US
Speaker 2: women's national team is playing a game in Louisville next
Speaker 2: month at Lynn Family Stadium, one of the premier soccer
Speaker 2: specific stadiums in the USL Championship. The US men's team
Speaker 2: has never played in Louisville. The US women's team, I
Speaker 2: think has played there three times, and not since two
Speaker 2: thousand and four, and they played at the University of
Speaker 2: Louis's Football Stadium, playing in a soccer specific stadium which
Speaker 2: has hosted club friendlies. The NCAA Final four National Championship
Speaker 2: game was in Louisville last year, so like it's a
Speaker 2: the city is a potential base camp for a team
Speaker 2: at the twenty twenty six World Cup. I've got a
Speaker 2: lot of family there, I follow a lot of media
Speaker 2: outlets there. And when US Soccer said the US women
Speaker 2: you just won your gold medal, You're going to play
Speaker 2: in Louisville, local media and Louisville went wild for three
Speaker 2: or four days. Like Wall, the wall, NonStop interviews with X,
Speaker 2: Y and Z, and so if you're a person in
Speaker 2: Louisville that doesn't know a whole lot about soccer and
Speaker 2: you see all of this, that's what gets you interested.
Speaker 2: That's what brings you in, and you're like, oh my god,
Speaker 2: we're hosting a World Cup in two years and then
Speaker 2: we've got the Olympics here two years after that. Like
Speaker 2: that's how you grow the game, as you take the
Speaker 2: game to people who don't normally get a chance to
Speaker 2: see it.
Speaker 1: For the record, my grown is because my team West
Speaker 1: Virginia lost in the semi finale club in Louisville. I
Speaker 1: had tickets purchase for that championship game. Thomas, I think
Speaker 1: what Lawrence is talking about, and you and I have
Speaker 1: talked about both on and off air, is bringing the
Speaker 1: game to the nation. Obviously, you know the idea of
Speaker 1: using the men's national team to drive not just hype
Speaker 1: for the World Cup coming up, but then to help hopefully,
Speaker 1: you know, plant seeds of not just support for the
Speaker 1: men's national team, but soccer as a whole in some
Speaker 1: untouched areas. So I'm gonna go through some more stats
Speaker 1: because I think this goes to our point, right, I said, Texas, Ohio, California, California, Florida,
Speaker 1: and Kansas, Missouri, right, whatever which way you're looking at it. Well,
Speaker 1: all but Ohio are hosting World Cup matches, right, So
Speaker 1: there's that. And Ohio is not a stranger to getting
Speaker 1: big time US men's national team matches or even big
Speaker 1: time you know, they're hosting Club World Cup in Cincinnati
Speaker 1: next summer. They get a lot of cup matches.
Speaker 2: They hosted the two thousand and three Women's World Cup.
Speaker 1: And they did they did. Yeah, So Thomas, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think that that's kind of the point we're talking
Speaker 1: about here, right, is the places we're playing the most
Speaker 1: are gonna be the ones who are highlighted and showcased
Speaker 1: during the World Cup. And of course they're probably going
Speaker 1: to continue to get you know, soccer games and hype
Speaker 1: and all these things for not just the men's national
Speaker 1: team but for soccer. But can you find a way
Speaker 1: to grow the game with the men's national team? And
Speaker 1: I think that it's kind of the issue here, and
Speaker 1: I think is kind of a historic issue for US
Speaker 1: soccer is the places that soccer is big is the
Speaker 1: only places they seem to go to play.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's true.
Speaker 4: And I think now it's an opportunity to hey, we
Speaker 4: got a new manager, you know, big name, you know,
Speaker 4: maybe you know, if there's a fear that you're they're
Speaker 4: not gonna make the revenue or bring in enough players.
Speaker 3: Look, they fail all the time with that. I mean,
Speaker 3: you know, it's like, the.
Speaker 1: Only sellout this year is the one they played in
Speaker 1: San Antonio, which was a new stadium in city that like,
Speaker 1: they haven't played in San Antonio for damn yeah, and
Speaker 1: that was a new stadium. So Thomas right, Like, it's
Speaker 1: not like they're selling out everywhere they go. I mean,
Speaker 1: they had decent enough crowds for Copa America, but you
Speaker 1: only sell out as a eight thousand stadium, Like, well.
Speaker 3: That's probably that's the problem.
Speaker 4: I think US soccer has an issue when you talk
Speaker 4: about the ability to maximize revenue and maximize attendance, and
Speaker 4: so fans want that experience.
Speaker 3: Players want that experience.
Speaker 4: So if you're not able to do that in these
Speaker 4: bigger stadiums, then maybe and you're going back and it's retreads, right,
Speaker 4: Like fans are like, I catch it next time, and
Speaker 4: so now you have a little bit more of a
Speaker 4: draw with the coach, and I think that's something that
Speaker 4: they have to leverage, you know what I mean, leverage
Speaker 4: that bring that soccer to different areas, see what you
Speaker 4: can pull into it because they're missing out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, look, it's it's worth noting that the
Speaker 1: two friendlies in September, both in Kansas City and then Cincinnati.
Speaker 1: Kansas City had nine thousand, a little bit more than that.
Speaker 1: Cincinnati had about fifteen and change, well below those venues capacities,
Speaker 1: but it is you know, you can understand a little
Speaker 1: bit that maybe not everyone's wanting to go see a
Speaker 1: substitute teacher lead a group of guys who brought grouped
Speaker 1: at the gold at the Copa America. But at the
Speaker 1: same time, you had just played in Kansas City like
Speaker 1: a month and a.
Speaker 2: Half literally the game before literally right.
Speaker 1: Watch this team lose to Uruguay and get grouped at
Speaker 1: the Cope of America. There is a NWS Kansas City
Speaker 1: current game going on across the river the same day,
Speaker 1: I think that same afternoon actually even and then for Cincinnati,
Speaker 1: I mean we talked about it. It's not like there're any
Speaker 1: stranger to it. They've hosted four matches since twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: and to be fair to Cincinnati, a lot of those matches,
Speaker 1: you know, have been somewhat important matches and to try
Speaker 1: to pitch you fifty bucks for a ticket to see
Speaker 1: a team without a coach is a little unfair. Now,
Speaker 1: I do have to say that so far are we
Speaker 1: on track this particular decade to be the most if
Speaker 1: you will, diverse array of stadium selections the century. Now, Thomas,
Speaker 1: your point about playing in California Massachusetts one, Foxborough was
Speaker 1: a beloved location because you know, I think it's fair
Speaker 1: to say Robert Kraft is a great supporter of soccer,
Speaker 1: and then California has tons of soccer stadiums but also
Speaker 1: great weather. But Lawrence, we have twenty three, twenty four
Speaker 1: or soccer specific stadiums now in MLS, plus as you
Speaker 1: mentioned Louisville and some others in USL some that are
Speaker 1: being built, so you have a lot more just infrastructure
Speaker 1: to pick from. You know, you don't have to go
Speaker 1: to Cayle State Fullerton to play a soccer game because
Speaker 1: it's you know, the only thing that has a wide
Speaker 1: enough pitch. You have locations to choose from. So when
Speaker 1: you look at yes, it's it's a little bit more diverse,
Speaker 1: if you will, but it seems like they're still not
Speaker 1: really leveraging all the resources they have in you know,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: And one thing, one thing that you mentioned that I
Speaker 2: do want to touch on that we that is this
Speaker 2: weird bizarro notion from US Soccer that if it's not
Speaker 2: a US Soccer controlled event, then it just it just
Speaker 2: did It wasn't real, It didn't have happened. Right, we talked,
Speaker 2: We just talked about them playing a friendly in Kansas
Speaker 2: City right after they played, like literally right after they
Speaker 2: played a COPA America game in Kansas City. And US
Speaker 2: Soccer will tell you, well, we didn't pick Copa America
Speaker 2: to go to Kansas City. No, but after you had
Speaker 2: your COPA America group stage schedule, you still picked Kansas
Speaker 2: City to host a friendly. Like, did that COPA America
Speaker 2: game just not happened? I know Thomas is up in
Speaker 2: the New England area right. The US men's national team
Speaker 2: has not played at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough since twenty fifteen,
Speaker 2: a friendly against Brazil. They hosted a Gold Cup game
Speaker 2: against Haiti a month and a half. Two months before
Speaker 2: that friendly, against Brazil. Obviously, US Soccer will tell you
Speaker 2: we don't pick the Gold Cup venues before. If we
Speaker 2: were to just pick that apart, I think we might
Speaker 2: lose all cabin pressure for them. But like it's it's
Speaker 2: quite frankly, it's asinine from US Soccer to act a
Speaker 2: like they have no saying Gold cut venues, but be
Speaker 2: to sit here and say, hey, you know, yeah, this
Speaker 2: game that we just picked today is the same city
Speaker 2: as this other event. Is this other event that we
Speaker 2: didn't have any control over, but like look at the calendar, guys,
Speaker 2: it's really not hard. You know, you may not have
Speaker 2: picked Copa America or Gold Cup or World Cup, which,
Speaker 2: by the way, does anybody remember Greg Burhalter after coming
Speaker 2: out and saying, yeah, we told FIFA we're gonna play
Speaker 2: in La La and Seattle and FIFA said.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he said, they wanted to say West Coast, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2: Like no, Like can you imagine, like FIFA is the law.
Speaker 2: They They're like you, it's our way or the highway.
Speaker 2: And US Soccer got to pick the World not just
Speaker 2: friendly the World Cup venues that they wanted, and people
Speaker 2: was like, yeah, sure, go ahead, So you mean to
Speaker 2: tell me that you have no sway at Common Bowl
Speaker 2: or Conca Calf and you you have no control over
Speaker 2: where those venue get picked, which is why you always
Speaker 2: happen to play in venues that you always want to
Speaker 2: play in any way. Uh, but it's it's as nine
Speaker 2: to say we don't have any control over this, but
Speaker 2: then you put a game right there right after the fact.
Speaker 2: They did that, like I mentioned like Copa America and
Speaker 2: friendly this year, gold Cup and friendly and foxbro in
Speaker 2: twenty fifteen. And one of the things about that that
Speaker 2: drives me crazy is you mentioned, you know, we've already held.
Speaker 1: On they met that in St. Louis last year.
Speaker 2: They did that exactly. I can't mean the.
Speaker 1: Two they got the Gold Cup and then they had.
Speaker 2: And the friendly later exactly exactly.
Speaker 1: People filled it up that I mean that that's the point,
Speaker 1: right we.
Speaker 2: We You mentioned it specifically to Cincinnati, where they've hosted
Speaker 2: some big games. Why am I going to spend eighty
Speaker 2: five dollars to go to a friendly with an interim
Speaker 2: boss And we see this happen on a micro Yeah,
Speaker 2: we see this happen on a more micro level with
Speaker 2: the US women's national team again, Conka caff controls the scheduling.
Speaker 2: We don't have anything to do with it. When there
Speaker 2: is Olympic qualifying or World Cup qualifying tournaments played for
Speaker 2: the women's team here in the US, and the women's
Speaker 2: team will play three group stage games in the same
Speaker 2: stadium in the space of seven days.
Speaker 1: Which was definitely chosen by CONCA CAF. I think that
Speaker 1: is like Conka Kaff wants to minimize that because they're
Speaker 1: cheap and they.
Speaker 2: But what why would you go to the Wednesday night
Speaker 2: game when you know you can make the Saturday afternoon game.
Speaker 2: So you're playing too many games in the same space
Speaker 2: in such a short period of time. You're going to
Speaker 2: pick one or the others.
Speaker 1: You're not going We saw the most recent w Gold Cup.
Speaker 1: By the way, right the best attended game was the
Speaker 1: USA Mexico game, because of course it was. I mean, Thomas,
Speaker 1: you've got a daughter. If you if they were to
Speaker 1: play three games in Fox, well actually you would probably
Speaker 1: take your daughter all three.
Speaker 3: Games, but a normal human.
Speaker 1: Would pick one. But that's the point, right, like we
Speaker 1: we look at you know, to build on that. You
Speaker 1: you look at what we just had this year specifically,
Speaker 1: so we opened the year in San Antonio, fine, whatever
Speaker 1: new stadium I get it from. Like, also, it didn't
Speaker 1: turn out this way, but in theory the weather should
Speaker 1: have been a little bit better for a January friendly.
Speaker 1: You don't want to play no offense, Thomas, You don't
Speaker 1: want to play up in Portland, Maine for a camp
Speaker 1: Cupcake friendly, but you know, I get that. But then
Speaker 1: you you played two matches in Arlington because cocka cap
Speaker 1: chowse that for Mexico the Nations League finals, right, and
Speaker 1: then you got yeah, well yeah, and which by the way,
Speaker 1: then it's sell out those either And then you played
Speaker 1: in Arlington, Texas again for your opener for CO of America,
Speaker 1: which I don't have a problem with. Look, it's a
Speaker 1: big stadium, centrally like whatever. I understand why it's chosen
Speaker 1: and why it's going to be there for those types
Speaker 1: of games. But then you choose to come to Austin
Speaker 1: in October, and that's I think that's the issue that
Speaker 1: we're getting at.
Speaker 3: Is that.
Speaker 1: To Thomas's or to Lawrence's point, it's yes, Conca, calf Commono,
Speaker 1: Baal FIFA definitely choose. They select the venues, right, they say,
Speaker 1: this is where these are the selection of venues we want,
Speaker 1: and US Soccer goes, well, we'd like to play here,
Speaker 1: and maybe that's you know, I don't know which part
Speaker 1: is the egg and the chicken, but you know, there's
Speaker 1: a collaborative effort of picking those venues for the US
Speaker 1: men's national team. So why don't we then go back
Speaker 1: to Texas? You know, in total we have played in
Speaker 1: Texas four times this year, five total matches, right, And
Speaker 1: that I just think where we're getting at is is, yes,
Speaker 1: there are some reasons behind the choices, but Thomas, it's
Speaker 1: like you could still have picked a just i mean
Speaker 1: different place to play, like the I mean, for example,
Speaker 1: the the friendly coming up in October against Panama at home.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I again, I go back to the fact that
Speaker 4: they're just comfortable with the process with probably with the stadium,
Speaker 4: how the setup goes. I mean, there was I think
Speaker 4: there was a video several years back about like the
Speaker 4: process of like that US Soccer goes through to when
Speaker 4: they get to the stadium, you know, because they've got
Speaker 4: to put all there, you know US Soccer stuff around
Speaker 4: the stadium.
Speaker 1: They've got to literally just like oh, you got the
Speaker 1: specs for the banners.
Speaker 4: Does that it, right, and so and so for them,
Speaker 4: it's easier, right, They've got they've you know, they probably
Speaker 4: have the people involved that know how to do that,
Speaker 4: and they just they do it very well. And so
Speaker 4: to them, they don't want to really want to put
Speaker 4: that extra effort in to that, you know, to it.
Speaker 3: And again I've said this for a long time.
Speaker 4: You have to make these friendlies, especially the ones heading into.
Speaker 3: The World Cup, a special event.
Speaker 4: I said, I was all for uh doing like, you know,
Speaker 4: a special edition in Jersey for every single one of
Speaker 4: these matches, right, you like, if you're worried about the revenue.
Speaker 3: You can get creative, you of soccer and and do
Speaker 3: this right, like.
Speaker 4: People want to spend money on unique kits from from
Speaker 4: you know, you know fifty years ago, one hundred, right,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean. And I suspect they'll do that
Speaker 4: for the you know, for the World Cup. But but again,
Speaker 4: but if you're not rolled out, now get that hype out,
Speaker 4: they get some you want some money.
Speaker 3: Now you can roll these things out.
Speaker 4: They're not that complex, you know, and you're only going
Speaker 4: to have so many sizes, so many.
Speaker 3: Colors for the venues.
Speaker 4: Just make it an event, you know, and that's the thing,
Speaker 4: you know, I think they're just missing. They're just missing
Speaker 4: an opportunity to to kind of like make the couple
Speaker 4: of days they are in that city an event for
Speaker 4: the fans, for the players.
Speaker 2: And to that point, if you remember during the home
Speaker 2: World Cup qualifying games for the twenty fourteen World Cup
Speaker 2: in Brazil, it may have just been the hex home games.
Speaker 2: I don't remember if it was the semi final round
Speaker 2: home games or two. But the night before each of
Speaker 2: those five home games, I don't know if you want
Speaker 2: to call it a PEP rally. I don't know if
Speaker 2: you want to call it a meet and greet. I
Speaker 2: don't know if you want to call it a get together.
Speaker 2: But Jurgen Kleinsman and select players would go to some
Speaker 2: venue in town and all of these fans flocked there
Speaker 2: and showed up and filled the place up, and those
Speaker 2: crowds looked and sounded great on TV, and they were
Speaker 2: great on paper, and that has that is something that
Speaker 2: has been missing. And to your point, Thomas, I think
Speaker 2: that would go a long way towards making it an
Speaker 2: event rather than just hey, we're here, come see us
Speaker 2: by we're leaving.
Speaker 1: Give us your money come to the stadium, in the stadium,
Speaker 1: and then yeah.
Speaker 2: And I think that can go hand in hand with
Speaker 2: what I mentioned earlier about local media in you or
Speaker 2: different cities driving.
Speaker 1: This, even if it's a stadium that you just haven't
Speaker 1: been to in a long time. Right, well, but those
Speaker 1: can still be exciting things, right. I want to run
Speaker 1: through some of the reasons, maybe they can be excuses
Speaker 1: if you will, that this phenomenon exists, not really a phenomenon,
Speaker 1: the situation exists, and then I'll let you to kind
Speaker 1: of pick it apart. So the first one that I
Speaker 1: actually do think has some legitimate reasons for why, you know,
Speaker 1: there's a half of the country basically don't pick is
Speaker 1: time zones and travel. West Coast often gets overlooked for friendlies,
Speaker 1: especially if they are you know, major friendly windows involving
Speaker 1: US or excuse me, Euro based players. And I get
Speaker 1: that because these guys are flying from anywhere from you know,
Speaker 1: London and Madrid to and Frankfurt, you know, so you
Speaker 1: are trying to reduce travel even once they get into
Speaker 1: the country. You don't want to have them then go
Speaker 1: across another country and three more time zones to it.
Speaker 1: So personally, you can disagree. I understand why for some
Speaker 1: why for a lot of the major friendlies, we don't
Speaker 1: go to the West Coast. Am I wrong for making
Speaker 1: that too much of an excuse or giving them credit
Speaker 1: too much? Well?
Speaker 4: I think, I mean, I think there's opportunities to do
Speaker 4: that in certain windows, right, So if you have a
Speaker 4: June window where it's just a friendlies, you know you
Speaker 4: could you could make it work, right because again, seasons
Speaker 4: are over for teams, so there's not that that real
Speaker 4: club concern to say, well, geez, you know, I don't
Speaker 4: want my players coming back exhausted.
Speaker 3: See, in the US would do like they.
Speaker 4: Were strategic for a long time, you know, and maybe
Speaker 4: just the way it fell. But but they did have
Speaker 4: World Cup qualifiers and they're like, Okay, we're gonna play
Speaker 4: Mexico in the second leg of this window. We're gonna
Speaker 4: play in Colorado, or we're gonna play in Utah, right,
Speaker 4: because we're gonna play in elevation. So they would use
Speaker 4: it to their advantage. But when you have friendlies, you
Speaker 4: don't need to do that. So they could going out West.
Speaker 4: I probably don't want them playing out there because I
Speaker 4: don't want to, you know, wait till eleven o'clock at
Speaker 4: night to watch the match. But but but I I
Speaker 4: mean there they could do that more often. Again, this
Speaker 4: is where cocking kaf could you know there is a
Speaker 4: partnership there.
Speaker 3: When they have these Gold Cup matches.
Speaker 4: You know, they're not scheduling a lot of West Coast
Speaker 4: type of matches either, you know, for the fans in general,
Speaker 4: so they're not gonna us is not gonna set up
Speaker 4: camp out there and be traveling out there unnecessarily because
Speaker 4: it's not gonna benefit them in the tournament.
Speaker 2: It's it's one of those things where you know, there's
Speaker 2: that old saying where there's a will, there's a way
Speaker 2: did it? Has either of you ever seen the second
Speaker 2: Sakario movie. They have the sl not not as good
Speaker 2: as not as good as the original Cincario. This is
Speaker 2: original Sacario ten out of ten. The second one I'd
Speaker 2: give it seven and a half eight out of ten.
Speaker 2: But there's a scene where Matthew Modine is the Secretary
Speaker 2: Defense and he brings Josh Brolin in to you know,
Speaker 2: discuss doing some some shady stuff. He's like, hey, when
Speaker 2: you were in you know, this region of the world,
Speaker 2: These tactics these underhanded tactics. They work for you there.
Speaker 2: Do you think they can work here doing what we
Speaker 2: want you to do here? And Josh Brolin says, if
Speaker 2: you want it to sir, and you have to want
Speaker 2: to do it, and the lack of effort and they
Speaker 2: you know they're where there's a will, there's a way,
Speaker 2: and when you tell me there's no way, that leads
Speaker 2: me to believe there is no will.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, I had on my less CONCA cap
Speaker 1: shoes as been's. We talked about that. But I do
Speaker 1: think now it's a great time to insert into this
Speaker 1: conversation the twenty twenty five old cut venues because I
Speaker 1: think this highlights again the issue that we talked about,
Speaker 1: where yes, CONCA CAF chooses the venues, but we know
Speaker 1: that US soccer is very much it's driving the selection.
Speaker 1: So you look at the twenty twenty five venues for
Speaker 1: the CONCACAF Gold Cup BC Place in Vancouver, US isn't
Speaker 1: playing there, obviously, Levi Stadium in Santa Clara, PayPal Park
Speaker 1: in San Jose, so kind of the same region. Using
Speaker 1: an NFL in an MLS stadium. Same in La you
Speaker 1: have so FI and then diagning any Health Sports Park
Speaker 1: aka the LA Galaxy Stadium aka Home Depot Center. And
Speaker 1: then you go down and you have Snap Dragon in
Speaker 1: San Diego, Allegiance Stadium in Las Vegas, State Farm in Glendale, Arizona,
Speaker 1: Slash Phoenix, then Q two Stadium in Austin, AT and
Speaker 1: T in Arlington, Shell Energy in Houston, Energy in Houston,
Speaker 1: Saint Louis City Park in Saint Louis, and US Bank
Speaker 1: Stadium and Minneapolis. Now, if I were a betting man, Lawrence,
Speaker 1: I would put big money on the US playing in
Speaker 1: Minneapolis at US Bank Stadium. Maybe not the opener, but
Speaker 1: whatever group stage weekend match.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say, I could see that happen on Saturday,
Speaker 2: the Saturday.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, if it's the Saturday, whatever the Saturday or
Speaker 1: Sunday game is, you know, if it's the opener or
Speaker 1: just the middle whatever that is, I'm going to put
Speaker 1: money on that being the location for the US plane there.
Speaker 1: But I think there's two other stadiums that end cities
Speaker 1: that like jump off the map literally that they're playing
Speaker 1: at as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah that's and the day they announced these, we had
Speaker 2: this discussion on Twitter, so I am I used to
Speaker 2: be a betting man. I haven't been able to be
Speaker 2: a betting man in the amount a year.
Speaker 1: I did win a bet this year. I bet that
Speaker 1: the US would beat Germany in the Olympics and I
Speaker 1: won twenty bucks.
Speaker 2: So okay, it's it's when you go back to Vea,
Speaker 2: when you go to the casino and you walk out
Speaker 2: with more money than you walked in with.
Speaker 1: I didn't walk out with one day. I won that bet.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, well I won that.
Speaker 2: I lost then and then and then Vegas took over
Speaker 2: and you gave it all that. Uh So they are not.
Speaker 2: If you're picking an NFL stadium, it's going to be
Speaker 2: the US or Mexico playing there, and they're not. They're
Speaker 2: not putting Mexico in Minnesota. Mexico is going to play Houston,
Speaker 2: Jerry World and Phoenix with their knockout round games in
Speaker 2: Vegas and so far that's that's how that's going to go.
Speaker 2: So Trinidad Tobago v. Costa Rica is not going to
Speaker 2: be at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, So that's going
Speaker 2: to be a US game which brings US back to
Speaker 2: the US has already played Minneapolis I think three times
Speaker 2: since twenty nineteen since Allion's Field opened up for Minnesota United, so.
Speaker 3: The other two was younger.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this would be the third time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think let's see three times.
Speaker 3: Is it open?
Speaker 1: You're right correct, Yes, this is yes.
Speaker 2: Yes, they played a Gold Cup game against Guyana. That
Speaker 2: was the one game where we all were all convinced
Speaker 2: that Tyler Boyd was the next big thing. Then they
Speaker 2: had a friendly and then remember they had the twenty
Speaker 2: five below zero World Cup qualifier there where Greg was
Speaker 2: Greg Borhalter did the totally staged selfie with the fans.
Speaker 2: I don't let's not go down that road. I'll get
Speaker 2: too upset. But you mentioned two other stadiums. Jump right
Speaker 2: off the map. What are the two remaining stadiums the
Speaker 2: US is playing in this year? City Park in Saint Louis, Q.
Speaker 2: Two Stadium in Austin. You keep all three. Those are
Speaker 2: all three in the central time zone. You're not all
Speaker 2: over the map, and you ensure happy coincidence. Conka caff
Speaker 2: just happened to give US soccer venues that they love
Speaker 2: playing in. Uh So that's that's how that's gonna happen.
Speaker 2: I'm I can see your three group game games whatever, Order,
Speaker 2: Minneapolis at US Bank, Saint Louis City Park, Austin at
Speaker 2: Q two Stadium, and I'm sure one of the knockout
Speaker 2: round games will be at snap Dragon in San Diego,
Speaker 2: because that's that's one that's it's big enough. That'll be
Speaker 2: a good, big crowd, but it's not so big that
Speaker 2: thirty five thousand people get swallowed up because one, one, fun,
Speaker 2: one fun, little nugget. Shell Energy Stadium in Houston has
Speaker 2: since it opened in twenty twelve, will have played host
Speaker 2: to every single Gold Cup in that time.
Speaker 1: Which I will say it's a great venue. I've been there.
Speaker 1: It is a nice stadium in the city. It's a
Speaker 1: nice stadium, right, I'm not saying it's great, but like
Speaker 1: it's downtown. You can walk there from the downtown area,
Speaker 1: you can.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: It's it's on the whatever fake public transit line they
Speaker 1: have that doesn't even go to the airport. But it's
Speaker 1: there though. But you know who doesn't play there a lot?
Speaker 1: The US, The US. And that's the other thing is
Speaker 1: they choose Austin all the time, you know, and and
Speaker 1: not Houston.
Speaker 2: Well, Austin's the shiny new toy. I know, it's I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't.
Speaker 2: It's it's one of those things, this the cynic and
Speaker 2: you wonders what promises are made.
Speaker 1: That's that's the point coming up. That's the point coming up.
Speaker 1: But Thomas, this is also an issue that when you
Speaker 1: look at this list of the stadiums, it feels like
Speaker 1: it was copy and pasted from the twenty twenty three
Speaker 1: Gold Cup, which I think is the other underlying issue
Speaker 1: that isn't necessarily a US Soccer problem, But cocka Cap
Speaker 1: hosts a damn tournament every it feels like three months,
Speaker 1: you know, So when you're playing a Gold Cup every
Speaker 1: two years with a for a region that is just
Speaker 1: you know, very since you know, located and most of
Speaker 1: the fans are coming from Central America. Just put it
Speaker 1: that way, right, that's where most of your teams are located,
Speaker 1: the teams that are qualifying, obviously Mexico being the big draw.
Speaker 1: So well, I mean I feel like, except for like
Speaker 1: PayPal Park, all of those stadiums were in US Bank,
Speaker 1: you know, all those stadiums were part of last year's
Speaker 1: around twenty twenty three's Gold Cup, and that that is
Speaker 1: also kind of but the problem that we get into
Speaker 1: is we're doing this all the time.
Speaker 3: Well, not the thing.
Speaker 4: It's a rinchwatch repeat for for for Cock gaff right.
Speaker 4: I mean, there's a reason why the United States, you know,
Speaker 4: the primary host of a Gold Cup forever pretty much, right,
Speaker 4: And so it's because that's where the numbers are, right,
Speaker 4: that's where the venues are.
Speaker 3: So it's so they're not gonna be overly creative.
Speaker 4: They're gonna, you know again, they're gonna they're kind of
Speaker 4: gonna set the tone for the United States and Mexico.
Speaker 3: Here, here are your venues, you know.
Speaker 4: Here, we're gonna kind of set it up because that's
Speaker 4: really the match up most people probably want to see
Speaker 4: at the end of the day in the final. So
Speaker 4: it's again, it's become a scale kind of tournament. Maybe
Speaker 4: this one if it does include different you know nations,
Speaker 4: who knows it's going all over place.
Speaker 3: You know, maybe it's a little bit more exciting.
Speaker 4: But but you have to make it more of an
Speaker 4: event as supposed to just like, yeah, we got one
Speaker 4: in two years, you know what I mean, it's going
Speaker 4: to be the B team or the eighteen you know playing.
Speaker 2: In it, and I think it better be the next year.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: But but but Yeah, that's the thing, like he just
Speaker 4: the whole thing is just kind of it's become a joke, right,
Speaker 4: It's become a joke because it's really, you know, it's
Speaker 4: you know, it's not the premiere tournament anymore for Cocker
Speaker 4: Calf And you can kind of see it from even
Speaker 4: their venue selections a little bit. You know, in general,
Speaker 4: they're just you know, they're kind of just going back
Speaker 4: to what works for them. And I get that, I
Speaker 4: guess if you get in the you know, the fans
Speaker 4: and stuff, and but and.
Speaker 1: Don't forget we have the Nation's League Final in March,
Speaker 1: because we have to play that every year. And if
Speaker 1: I were a betting man again I'm not really, but
Speaker 1: I would pick one of the big NFL stadiums that
Speaker 1: has a roof to be the location for the semi
Speaker 1: finals and finals of the CONCACAF Nations.
Speaker 2: Where are there a lot of Mexican fans NFL stadiums.
Speaker 1: With Houston, Arlington, Vegas, LA. That's that's you know, maybe Phoenix,
Speaker 1: that's the outlier. Possibly Phoenix. They haven't played there yet
Speaker 1: for the Nation's League Final. It wouldn't surprise me if
Speaker 1: they do.
Speaker 2: But they had the new and elite Continental Classico there
Speaker 2: last year they did do that. I think one complicating
Speaker 2: factor at least this year, which is not to suggest
Speaker 2: that Conca caff us Soccer in the FMF would you know,
Speaker 2: branch out radically in their venue selection, is we've got
Speaker 2: the Club World Cup here next summer at the exact
Speaker 2: same Yeah. The other issue, which I'm stoked about because uh,
Speaker 2: you know, that gives you another big, high level tournament.
Speaker 2: We'll see how high level, but another big tournament to
Speaker 2: get people excited for the twenty twenty six World Cup.
Speaker 2: And you know they're you know, you know, obviously they
Speaker 2: picked Seattle because the Sounders have already qualified. And they
Speaker 2: picked La because outside of the United States, people think
Speaker 2: La is the only city in the country.
Speaker 3: There's three.
Speaker 2: You have La, La, New York, and if you're from
Speaker 2: South America, you include Miami.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaking of those venues, are Mercedes Been Stadium in Atlanta,
Speaker 1: TIQ Well in Cincinnati, hard Rock in Miami, Giotis in Nashville,
Speaker 1: MetLife in New Jersey, Bank of America and Charlotte Camping
Speaker 1: World in Orlando, and Are and Coast Stadiums formerly Explora
Speaker 1: Stadium formerly Orlando City Stadium in Orlando, the Rose Bowlin
Speaker 1: up in La Lincoln, Financial Field and Philadelphia, Lumen and
Speaker 1: Seattle as you pointed out, and then Audi Field and DC,
Speaker 1: so a little bit more diverse and we're normally used
Speaker 1: to seeing. I mean, Charlotte has hosted some matches, but
Speaker 1: like as you pointed out, we wanted they obviously wanted
Speaker 1: to keep for the most.
Speaker 2: Part, m.
Speaker 1: The Club World Cup mostly on the East Coast because
Speaker 1: you're bigger audiences are Europe, you know, as well as
Speaker 1: South America, which really lines up more from a time
Speaker 1: zone perspective with the East Coast. And then you kept
Speaker 1: West Coast for your Gold Cup because that's where a
Speaker 1: lot of the fans who will be attending the Gold
Speaker 1: Cup have, you know, either immigrated to or exist already Slash.
Speaker 1: It's just easier for them. Also for time zone for watching,
Speaker 1: because Mexico and all those places are more aligned with
Speaker 1: the Central and Pacific time so that is another. Obviously
Speaker 1: an element to all of this is that conc CAF
Speaker 1: host tournaments, like I jokingly say, every three months. But
Speaker 1: like last year we had the Nation's League Final, we
Speaker 1: have another Nations League Final this year as well upcoming
Speaker 1: this year, we have you know, Gold Cup again next year.
Speaker 1: Like they just do this all the time because they're
Speaker 1: an organization that pretends to want to help soccer and
Speaker 1: these small countries definitely not lining their own pockets. That's
Speaker 1: never happened in this region ever before. We talked also
Speaker 1: about this region this reason, and I do think that
Speaker 1: there is value to this idea, but I'm going to
Speaker 1: spin it in a different way. So we talked about
Speaker 1: the familiarity with venues and facilities. I'm just gonna say
Speaker 1: that it's more about to me, Yes, there are some
Speaker 1: that they like, but it's good to play in soccer
Speaker 1: specific stadiums, not just to promote the newly built stadiums
Speaker 1: and the new clubs, because I think we all know
Speaker 1: that that is a big reason. But Thomas, I think
Speaker 1: there is value in playing in a stadium built for
Speaker 1: the sport you're playing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the atmosphere, the atmosphere is completely different. I mean
Speaker 4: it's it's it's more intimate. It's just designed for that.
Speaker 4: It's great for the fans, it's great for the players.
Speaker 3: I mean I think that.
Speaker 4: I mean I don't think the players really care all
Speaker 4: that much, but maybe there is a say may the
Speaker 4: players like, yeah, we love playing in Minnesota. If you
Speaker 4: can get it there, great, you know, we'll play there.
Speaker 4: Like there may be an element to that as well,
Speaker 4: right because we've been successful, we're comfortable that because think
Speaker 4: about that. The player might say, hey, geez, you know what,
Speaker 4: we want to go to this venue because you're like
Speaker 4: a restaurant there or something. Who knows, But there could
Speaker 4: be an element that exists where the players are having
Speaker 4: being why.
Speaker 1: They keep them out of Atlanta because we got too
Speaker 1: many restaurants I might like want to go into.
Speaker 4: But but there may be something there thinking, hey, here,
Speaker 4: here are the three venues we're considering over the next
Speaker 4: three windows. Any of them interest you?
Speaker 1: And that's that's a good point because look, we knocked
Speaker 1: Burhalter for it, but that's a good point. Thomas he
Speaker 1: mentioned specifically in the twenty twenty two qualifying cycle about
Speaker 1: Columbus having a venue they liked and like having facilities
Speaker 1: they like, and I get that. You know, if they
Speaker 1: have really good you know, from practice facilities to their
Speaker 1: training table room as great and as an easy walk
Speaker 1: from the locker room to the tunnel that you walk
Speaker 1: out of like I can understand that at for competitive matches.
Speaker 1: So the problem though, as you hit, is but why
Speaker 1: do we keep going back to you know, it's a friendly,
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter. We don't need to have that type
Speaker 1: of familiarity.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I think I think that's and that's the problem, right,
Speaker 4: I think that's where they lose it a little bit,
Speaker 4: is that that competitive match piece of it, right, like
Speaker 4: where you talk about all the other stuff when it
Speaker 4: comes back to us like, well, these are competitive matches.
Speaker 4: Why can't we try something new? And I don't know,
Speaker 4: you know, logistically, you know, is it more challenging to
Speaker 4: get certain venues in this you know September, October, November
Speaker 4: one because of football season?
Speaker 3: I don't know. I'm sure there's something there for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like Los Angeles, Seattle, Foxborough aren't going to have
Speaker 1: a lot of open days.
Speaker 4: You're right about that, right, But but to me, that's
Speaker 4: just another excuse. They could make it happen in other.
Speaker 3: Windows that the March or the January window.
Speaker 1: To they have played many games back to back, I
Speaker 1: know this for sure, at Landing United on a Saturday
Speaker 1: and a Falcons one pm on a Sunday.
Speaker 4: So right, it's want to do it right, and I
Speaker 4: don't think they want to. I just don't think they
Speaker 4: want to go through the you know the challenges of
Speaker 4: doing that necessarily.
Speaker 2: And this summer would have been the perfect time to
Speaker 2: do that. I mean, I didn't I didn't mind the
Speaker 2: uh the artist formerly known as FedEx Field in Landover,
Speaker 2: Maryland outside of d C, the little awage du Well,
Speaker 2: that one. Yeah, that's that's uh, that's why they didn't
Speaker 2: get World Cup games. But I didn't mind that venue selection.
Speaker 2: That's a stadium you hadn't been to since twenty twelve
Speaker 2: in a city in the area, like at all, except
Speaker 2: they did it back to back and they did it
Speaker 2: twice in twenty nineteen at Audio Fields. In the back sense,
Speaker 2: it's both those crowds stunk.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 1: Audi is a terrible stadium, but great location. Terrible stadium.
Speaker 2: But you didn't need to play Brazil in Orlando. I
Speaker 2: understand there's a lot of Brazilians in Florida. I get
Speaker 2: that part of it. But you've played Orlando at whatever
Speaker 2: the Inner Miami, not Inter Miami. But yeah, that yeah,
Speaker 2: that one. Why why you picked the name of a
Speaker 2: company that shares a name of another team in your state?
Speaker 2: I don't understand. Uh, you know, money, but uh, you
Speaker 2: didn't need to play at the Citrus Bowl at Camping
Speaker 2: World Stadium. You could have gone somewhere else. And it's
Speaker 2: not like it's not like because you were it was
Speaker 2: close to d C where you just played, or it
Speaker 2: was close to Dallas where you were playing your Copa
Speaker 2: America game. No, you just picked it because you like
Speaker 2: Orlando and there were Brazilian fans there. You know, that's
Speaker 2: a game that could very easily have been played in Pittsburgh, like,
Speaker 2: like I would love to see the US men's national
Speaker 2: team play game in Pittsburgh. The River Hounds are one
Speaker 2: of the more successful, more well supported teams in the
Speaker 2: USL Championship with their own stadium. I understand it's turf,
Speaker 2: and we'll touch on that later. It's a smaller stadium, yes,
Speaker 2: but you could play at Hines Field in June. Well
Speaker 2: it's not Heines Field anymore, but you could play there
Speaker 2: in June. The US women's team in twenty fifteen drew
Speaker 2: forty five thousand people. You don't think people will be
Speaker 2: going bokers to see the US men's national team play.
Speaker 2: But right before Copa America, the big possibly successful summer
Speaker 2: of soccer.
Speaker 1: You know that.
Speaker 2: That's again to Thomas's point that what you could have
Speaker 2: found a way to go somewhere new for one of
Speaker 2: these summer friendlies if you wanted to play an NFL
Speaker 2: stadium that you hadn't been to. Last I checked, the
Speaker 2: NFL isn't playing games in their home stadiums in June,
Speaker 2: so like like, like I just picked Pittsburgh. You mentioned
Speaker 2: Charlotte getting club World Cup games the US men's national
Speaker 2: team and never played in Charlotte, and they played a
Speaker 2: Gold Cup game last year and drew forty two thousand
Speaker 2: people for it, So like, this is not We're not
Speaker 2: We're not all three just making this up.
Speaker 3: This is like this is real.
Speaker 2: Like when people finally get an opportunity to go see
Speaker 2: this team, they go see them.
Speaker 3: Correct.
Speaker 1: One of those to build off that is another excuse
Speaker 1: or a reason is that you know, US Soccer may
Speaker 1: put out a request for proposal RFP, and who knows
Speaker 1: which stadiums and cities are responding, right, we don't know,
Speaker 1: and so it's it's maybe an excuse, but it's definitely
Speaker 1: a reason that you know, not every stadium is bidding
Speaker 1: to host games. I can say, for example, in talking
Speaker 1: with The Atlantic and added Beat reporter Doug Roberson that
Speaker 1: you know, I was asking him a point blank comes
Speaker 1: to the bar that I watched soccer at a lot.
Speaker 1: I said, well, why doesn't Mercedes Bens get any games?
Speaker 1: You know, why don't we get a US game or
Speaker 1: even you know, Gold Cup. And he's like, well, they
Speaker 1: haven't did for it. They haven't required you know, they
Speaker 1: haven't put in the bid proposal. And you know, to
Speaker 1: be fair, they hosted some Mexico friendlies and some Premier
Speaker 1: League friendlies. But you know that is also a reason.
Speaker 1: You know, these stadiums do have to want to bid.
Speaker 1: But yeah, is that really, like you said, where there's
Speaker 1: a will, there's a way.
Speaker 2: To me, it is incumbent upon US Soccer to make
Speaker 2: them interested in bidding on the on these games, to
Speaker 2: tell them this not only is this good for us,
Speaker 2: but it's good for you because it may be a
Speaker 2: case where they don't, like we talked about earlier, the
Speaker 2: people in the city in whatever city might not know
Speaker 2: the national team is there until they've picked up and
Speaker 2: left town because they were just like, hey, we're here,
Speaker 2: come see us, and they're not making it an event.
Speaker 2: So you, as US Soccer need to reach out to
Speaker 2: these people and like in all these various stadiums. It
Speaker 2: could be I have floated the idea because somebody floated
Speaker 2: it to me several years ago. I don't remember who
Speaker 2: it was, so I can't credit them. But you know,
Speaker 2: I would love to see in the run up to
Speaker 2: the twenty twenty six World Cup, the US men's national
Speaker 2: team play a bunch of friendlies in college football stadiums.
Speaker 2: You know, we saw Mexico play Brazil at Texas A
Speaker 2: and M Stadium the summer. We saw Liverpool and Manchester
Speaker 2: United play each other at South Carolina Stadium. This summer,
Speaker 2: we saw Manchester City and Chelsea play at Ohio State.
Speaker 2: We saw Celtic and Chelsea play at Notre Dame. Notre
Speaker 2: Dame hosted Liverpool and Dortmun a couple of years in
Speaker 2: twenty nineteen. That's something, is US Soccer. You need to
Speaker 2: get on the ball and get ahead of this and
Speaker 2: be like, hey, in May, you know, late mid to
Speaker 2: late May, early June, would you be interested in hosting this?
Speaker 2: Let us know what you think. If you're not picking
Speaker 2: up the phone and calling all of these people and
Speaker 2: asking them to bid. They're never gonna bid because they
Speaker 2: don't know that the event even exists, like like it
Speaker 2: would not. How many times do people in any walk
Speaker 2: of life not do something until somebody had, you know,
Speaker 2: relaysed them, Hey, this is something you should look into.
Speaker 2: I can't believe I never looked into this before. Why
Speaker 2: did Why did it take me so long to do this?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 2: That's that's as US soccer. I feel that it is
Speaker 2: their responsibility to try to get I understand if if
Speaker 2: if they call them say hey, what do you want
Speaker 2: to do? What do you what do you need from us? What?
Speaker 2: We don't want to do it? Okay, if they don't
Speaker 2: want to do it, they don't want to do it,
Speaker 2: but you need to pick up the phone. And I
Speaker 2: know they haven't picked up the phone because when report,
Speaker 2: you know, when these discussions happen, they get leaked, reports
Speaker 2: come out, and there are no reports about the US
Speaker 2: calling Boise State to play on the smurf turf. There
Speaker 2: are no reports leaking out about you know them that
Speaker 2: you know, they're not calling the Steelers to play in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 2: They're not calling the Riverhouse to playing Pittsburgh. They're not
Speaker 2: calling who like these this this stuff would leak out
Speaker 2: and it doesn't. They're not doing it. They need to
Speaker 2: do it. It would be good for them, it would
Speaker 2: be good for the fans, it would be good for
Speaker 2: the venues that host. I would I would say Indianapolis
Speaker 2: is one they should be on the phone with all
Speaker 2: the time. Ay Indi eleven is one of the best
Speaker 2: supported teams in the USL Championship Lucas Oil Stadium. Like
Speaker 2: the town of India is a big time sports town.
Speaker 2: You wouldn't think it, but they've got an NFL team,
Speaker 2: They've got an NBA team. I just mentioned, they have
Speaker 2: USL Championship team. They have one of probably the most
Speaker 2: popular team in the w NBA right now. They've got
Speaker 2: you know, they host, They've hosted a Super Bowl, they
Speaker 2: host the Final Four, every fives, they host, they host
Speaker 2: the National they hosted the National Championship Game. They host
Speaker 2: the Big Ten Championship game every single year. I feel
Speaker 2: like I heard you mentioned one time they and I
Speaker 2: know they did this. They hosted swim Olympics swimming qualifiedly,
Speaker 2: are you telling me the US men's national team wouldn't
Speaker 2: draw twenty five thousand people to Lucas Oil Stadium. I
Speaker 2: think it would probably be a lot more than that.
Speaker 2: So US Soccer needs to get on the stick here
Speaker 2: and start making some phone calls.
Speaker 1: And Thomas, I think the word that Lawrence used a
Speaker 1: lot was event, And that goes back to your point
Speaker 1: of if you make this an event, more studies and
Speaker 1: stadiums will want to host it because they'll see the value.
Speaker 1: Indianapolis will see the value of bringing the US men's
Speaker 1: national team to Lucas Oil because they can say, oh man,
Speaker 1: we're gonna get forty five sixty thousand people and Lucas
Speaker 1: Oil for a soccer game. Sounds awesome, all right.
Speaker 4: I mean you look at what they've done with the
Speaker 4: you know, presenting these you know, player capped jerseys to
Speaker 4: the older players, right, yeah, well they're doing they're doing
Speaker 4: that presentation to the players, like like there's an opportunity
Speaker 4: there to bring it to the fans, right, Like, you know,
Speaker 4: the players there, Hey, you have an event, right, the player.
Speaker 3: Would be happy to do that. You know, they're happy
Speaker 3: to help support that. And I think that's the thing.
Speaker 1: You can make it.
Speaker 4: You can make it at least a too, you know,
Speaker 4: a two evening event, right, obviously the match night, maybe
Speaker 4: you have watch parties around the city. You're like think
Speaker 4: of like, it's not that difficult of a concept. But they,
Speaker 4: I don't know if they're just again, you get the
Speaker 4: city on board, it's gonna bring influx money. People want
Speaker 4: to be around the events, even if they can't go
Speaker 4: to them. They want to be around that, and they
Speaker 4: won't want to be around those soccer fans because it
Speaker 4: is an awesome environment either if you're at the match
Speaker 4: or you're at a bar watching it, you know, with
Speaker 4: other supporters.
Speaker 3: It's awesome. So I don't know, it's to me, it
Speaker 3: just seems almost too simplistic for them not to do it.
Speaker 4: But yeah, the event piece of it, to me, it's
Speaker 4: a no brainer. You can you can make that and
Speaker 4: make it just an awesome environment. I mean, look look
Speaker 4: at all these soccer fests that they have, you know
Speaker 4: that they're bringing around, right, I mean, you're promoting the
Speaker 4: World Cup and doing it in this moment, right, So
Speaker 4: why to me, it's just a it's a no brainer.
Speaker 3: They're just maybe they're just not that creative.
Speaker 1: I don't know, Well, they might not be, you know,
Speaker 1: I think it's fair a little bit fair to say that.
Speaker 1: You know, US soccer is not necessarily running like a
Speaker 1: Fortune five hundred company. They're not the most robust full
Speaker 1: time staff. But there's still opportunity to get people together
Speaker 1: and come up with ideas and say, Hey, where do
Speaker 1: we want it, Like, I mean, at their AGM or
Speaker 1: you know, whatever meeting they're going to have. And at
Speaker 1: the end of this year, why why aren't you pitching? Hey,
Speaker 1: give me five cities that we haven't been to in
Speaker 1: a while, you know, and that we haven't been to
Speaker 1: in the past ten years herever that we should go to,
Speaker 1: you know, and like you said, Lawrence, like Pittsburgh. Hey,
Speaker 1: they've got a sixty thousand seeds stadium, a city that
Speaker 1: loves sports. I mean that is a sports crazed I
Speaker 1: haven't been there. They've played in Philly or in Pennsylvania
Speaker 1: a lot in Philly. They've played in Harrison or Harrisburg.
Speaker 1: Sorry Harrison, Harrisburg.
Speaker 2: Did you play in Harrisburg?
Speaker 1: I feel like they did. I don't that I could
Speaker 1: be wrong.
Speaker 2: That must have been many moons ago.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying it with three cents, ah, I feel
Speaker 1: like that anyway, you know, whatever they've played in Philly
Speaker 1: a heck of the time. But to the office side
Speaker 1: of the state, that state, that state is long big.
Speaker 1: You know that that seems to be what we're asking
Speaker 1: here is just to be slightly more prop in bringing
Speaker 1: the national team to the nation. All right, So I
Speaker 1: want to close up with some solutions. So I'm going
Speaker 1: to pitch a solution to this problem. I'll have Thomas
Speaker 1: pitch a solution, Lawrence pitch a solution, and then we'll
Speaker 1: talk about future sites that we would like to see
Speaker 1: them at. And not not very future, we're talking like
Speaker 1: in before twenty twenty six. So my solution is leverage
Speaker 1: the soccer specific stadiums you have in this country. And
Speaker 1: while this may not get you to new soccer markets,
Speaker 1: it at least brings the team to new regions. For example, Portland.
Speaker 1: I know that it's turf, figure it out, but Portland
Speaker 1: is a wonderful stadium with twenty five thousand seats that
Speaker 1: are begging to be filled for a US men's national team.
Speaker 1: Right now, there are twenty twenty two total MLS soccer
Speaker 1: specific stadium to the US, plus a couple in NWSL
Speaker 1: and USL, and by twenty twenty six, we're going to
Speaker 1: have at least four new soccer specific stadiums, one of
Speaker 1: those being by the way in New York City, which
Speaker 1: we haven't played in and god knows how long have
Speaker 1: we played there. Ef for Thomas, I feel like you've
Speaker 1: mentioned we've played there, but like never maybe we haven't
Speaker 1: played there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was yeah, it was me just say, I'll
Speaker 3: bring it up real quick.
Speaker 1: This is before we cared about actually the stadium size.
Speaker 2: Yeah didn't they didn't. They play on Staten Island in
Speaker 2: like the early eighties.
Speaker 1: So they played talking about here, right, like when they
Speaker 1: were playing in small stadium.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they played in Yankee Stadium in nineteen fifty three
Speaker 4: against England and got six lost three to six. And
Speaker 4: then they played nineteen sixty eight against Israel at the
Speaker 4: Yankee Stadium, so they.
Speaker 3: And they played.
Speaker 4: They played in Brooklyn, and they played in h Ransdale Island,
Speaker 4: so I mean they've they've played.
Speaker 3: But it's you know, a lot eighty.
Speaker 2: Five before anybody in this country cared about soccer, right.
Speaker 4: I mean yeah, I mean they just played there, you know,
Speaker 4: and mostly I think England twice, Canada twice in New
Speaker 4: York you know city area, right, Like it's just yeah,
Speaker 4: it's it's not really a venue they've frequented very often.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's just my solution is levers the soccer
Speaker 1: statings you have. I know they're not new. You know,
Speaker 1: it's not like it would be new if the US
Speaker 1: men's national team played in Dick's Sporting good Park in Denver, Right,
Speaker 1: but maybe that's an opportunity to not just reach fans
Speaker 1: in that area.
Speaker 2: But well, I don't I don't think. I don't think
Speaker 2: they've been to Dick Sporting Goods Park since twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1: They haven't been there. They haven't been there in a while.
Speaker 2: I agree that they did. I'm saying, you know, they
Speaker 2: did have the Nation's League Final in Denver in twenty one,
Speaker 2: but it did empower field. Is that is it called
Speaker 2: empower or it did they switch.
Speaker 3: That mile high?
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna call it meyer.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: You know one that they don't play ad enough in
Speaker 1: my opinion is is Red Bull Arena. I mean I
Speaker 1: know that again, US Soccer wants to manipulate the crowd
Speaker 1: so that it's a pro US crowd. But for a friendly,
Speaker 1: I don't care.
Speaker 2: You can play there are no you're not qualifying for anything.
Speaker 1: You're already probably I don't carer Like you want to
Speaker 1: play in the New York area, go play it red
Speaker 1: Like those are just some just ideas that are like
Speaker 1: they exist. You have the soccer stadium play there. So
Speaker 1: that's my solution here is just use the soccer specific stadiums. Lawrence.
Speaker 1: I think you talked maybe a little bit about college football.
Speaker 2: Is that Is that your solution that And again this
Speaker 2: is this is all just in the short term up
Speaker 2: to twenty twenty six. Obviously, once we get past the
Speaker 2: twenty twenty six World Cup, I wouldn't necessarily mind a
Speaker 2: reversion to the mean as much. But yeah, like that
Speaker 2: because I think that is something that on the clubs,
Speaker 2: on the European club side, they're starting to figure out about,
Speaker 2: you know, because I feel like the passion of college
Speaker 2: football mesh would mesh very well with the passion of
Speaker 2: high level international soccer, and so that it is a
Speaker 2: that is a great way in my opinion, to be
Speaker 2: able to take the national team to New fans because
Speaker 2: these cities and towns, you know, they're not big. You know, Auburn,
Speaker 2: Alabama or Tuscaloosa, Alabama is not a big city, not
Speaker 2: by any stretch of the imagination. But yet they get
Speaker 2: one hundred, one hundred and one thousand people in there,
Speaker 2: you know, seven times a year in two months, so
Speaker 2: you know, you know, and that would allow you to
Speaker 2: go to places that you otherwise probably wouldn't allow yourself
Speaker 2: to go to because you need it to be a big,
Speaker 2: major metropolitan area. Like you know.
Speaker 1: I'm going to put this out there as well. We're
Speaker 1: in the year, we're in the era of nil, and
Speaker 1: I tell you who also benefits from nil soccer players? Hmm,
Speaker 1: there's an opportunities there. I'm just saying. I'm just saying, but.
Speaker 2: Think about it. The United States has the men's national
Speaker 2: team has never played in the state of Nebraska. You
Speaker 2: can go to Lincoln and play at Memorial Stadium.
Speaker 1: Isn't that funny? The birthplace of literally the birthplace Omaha
Speaker 1: or of Lincoln, Nebraska, the birthplace of the American Outlaws,
Speaker 1: the largest supporter group in this country for the US
Speaker 1: Benz that or for the US actional teams. They've never
Speaker 1: played in that even state, let alone that city. So
Speaker 1: you could get or eighty thousand for a volleyball game,
Speaker 1: which I understand why you can make it something happened
Speaker 1: for soccer, but you.
Speaker 2: Know, and you could and this isn't quite college football,
Speaker 2: but this is the one NFL stadium that I feel
Speaker 2: like matches call the things that make college football stadium
Speaker 2: special go to lambeau Field.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that I mean that is you haven't played
Speaker 1: in Wisconsin and god knows how long.
Speaker 2: And the last time they played in Wisconsin they played
Speaker 2: the was It's been so long since they played in
Speaker 2: Wisconsin that the man who was the American president is dead.
Speaker 2: The country that they played is no longer a country,
Speaker 2: and the stadium they played in has been gone for
Speaker 2: a long time.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying they played in the Milwaukee Yeah.
Speaker 2: The old, the old, old old Brewers Stadium. Yes, they
Speaker 2: played East Germany and George H. W. Bush was the
Speaker 2: President of the United States. Holy cowly. But lambeau Field
Speaker 2: is grass, which again, in the short world touch on
Speaker 2: this in a minute. In the short term, I don't care,
Speaker 2: but it is grass. It is a large venue, and
Speaker 2: you get people from all over the world going to
Speaker 2: Green Bay Packer games all the time, like those are
Speaker 2: tough tickets to get. You want to talk about event,
Speaker 2: the US men's national team playing somebody like Germany at
Speaker 2: lambeau Field would be would be huge. And you know
Speaker 2: they've hosted soccer Manchester United, no excuse me, Manchester City
Speaker 2: and Bayern Munich played a game there and drew eighty
Speaker 2: two thousand people. A fun little tidbit you can you
Speaker 2: can see by my shirt here that it says Mississippi
Speaker 2: Soccer Referee Association. For those that don't know, I've been
Speaker 2: a referee for eighteen years. A fellow Mississippi referee had
Speaker 2: the whistle for that game. He's a guy named Matt Thompson.
Speaker 2: He was the USL Referee of the Year two years ago.
Speaker 2: Ask him about it, he said, he's not gonna lie
Speaker 2: a little bit nervous, never been in a state, never
Speaker 2: done a game in a stadium that big or with
Speaker 2: that that level of player, but.
Speaker 1: Even the backups who are playing in that game, that's
Speaker 1: all guys.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I don't know if this is like going to college football.
Speaker 2: It's it's it's fun to talk about, and I understand
Speaker 2: there are probably some complications with that, but I'm a
Speaker 2: huge college football fan. Obviously I'm a huge soccer fan.
Speaker 2: I feel like the marrying of the two would make
Speaker 2: me personally a very happy camper.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't disagree. I think one that I legitimately
Speaker 1: does make sense is Lincoln, I don't like. I think
Speaker 1: that would be a great way to get to Nebraska
Speaker 1: in that area. You know, we talked about Indianapolis. Another
Speaker 1: one could possibly just be going to Notre Dame, you know,
Speaker 1: go up to South Bend and playing Notre Dame Stadium.
Speaker 2: I'm a Notre Dame football fan. That would make my
Speaker 2: heart very happy.
Speaker 1: I mean, but I know, you know, I don't want
Speaker 1: to get too much credit Notre Dame. They ruined my
Speaker 1: beloved Big East Conference. So you know, there's also I mean,
Speaker 1: think about we haven't played in Detroit in forever because
Speaker 1: there's not a quote suitable location. But like you have
Speaker 1: East Lansing, which is like what ten miles outside of that,
Speaker 1: which has an eighty thousand seat stadium for the Spartans.
Speaker 3: And then how many.
Speaker 2: Times we've seen one hundred thousand plus crowds at the
Speaker 2: Big House every like three or four summers in a row.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's in that situation I think US doesn't want
Speaker 4: to get See the problem is this they these bigger stadiums.
Speaker 3: I think they're nervous they won't sell, right, I don't
Speaker 3: care if.
Speaker 1: You won't sell out.
Speaker 3: I don't think I don't care, you don't care. But
Speaker 3: they care, right, they care about it.
Speaker 2: They're not selling out the fifteen thousand seats I know anyway,
Speaker 2: I know.
Speaker 3: But they're comfortable with it. They trust me.
Speaker 4: They're just a weird like you know, security blanket around
Speaker 4: you know what they're selecting.
Speaker 3: I mean, they just don't want to.
Speaker 2: I just it makes no sense that to we're all
Speaker 2: rational people. I don't know that anybody's ever seen.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean to me, if you are soccerware to
Speaker 3: come out and say, hey, we can't do this because
Speaker 3: x y Z right, you may not believe like you
Speaker 3: may not believe it, but at least they're coming out
Speaker 3: and saying, you know what, this is why we're not
Speaker 3: playing at college Stad's because it's challenging for us to
Speaker 3: get you know, you know, them interested in doing this.
Speaker 4: We get that, but they're not even doing that. They're
Speaker 4: just blatantly just ignoring it. And and there's a lot
Speaker 4: of noise you know around you know, venue selection.
Speaker 1: Thomas, what is what is your solution to this problem?
Speaker 3: Then?
Speaker 4: I said it earlier and I'll go back to it
Speaker 4: I again, especially leading up to the World Cup, making
Speaker 4: an event, give some of the some sort of incentive
Speaker 4: special edition jersey if the players will were that that
Speaker 4: you can only buy at.
Speaker 2: That match, right, like make like rally towels or something.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but you know what I mean, make it making
Speaker 4: an event for for that and say wow, this is
Speaker 4: I've got to get to this match, like I've got
Speaker 4: to get to I want this jersey that's only going
Speaker 4: to be worn one time, you know, in this match,
Speaker 4: and you can only get it, you know, at this match,
Speaker 4: or you're gonna get some triple extra large you know
Speaker 4: online when they you know, try to get rid of
Speaker 4: the rest of them whatever it is.
Speaker 3: But they can make a limited edition and special edition.
Speaker 4: They've done that in the past, and I think that
Speaker 4: would help the you know, the die hards and other
Speaker 4: fans say hey, let's just go, let's try to get there,
Speaker 4: and they would maximize revenue too. I think they could
Speaker 4: really benefit for that. But again, too much, it's too
Speaker 4: much work for them.
Speaker 1: I think, Well, we have been talking a long time,
Speaker 1: but we're going to continue to talk because we feel
Speaker 1: very passionate about this. And I think again. We all
Speaker 1: agree that the goal in the short term and the
Speaker 1: long term, but the short term goal specifically is driving
Speaker 1: hype and growing like, not just hype in the cities
Speaker 1: that are going to host the World Cup, but making
Speaker 1: sure the entire country feels the hype for the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty six World Cup and specifically feels the hype for
Speaker 1: the men's national team, because that is how they'll stick,
Speaker 1: not just as you as men's national team fans, but
Speaker 1: hopefully soccer fans and participants in the sport in this country.
Speaker 1: So this is the exercise we're going to do now.
Speaker 1: You both have written great articles talking about this problem,
Speaker 1: right Lawrence, you wrote one back in twenty twenty two
Speaker 1: for World Soccer Talk where you write a lot about, Hey,
Speaker 1: the US just hasn't branched out and played in a
Speaker 1: lot of states. You know recently, certainly they've been playing
Speaker 1: a lot, but the same states over and over again.
Speaker 1: Book haven't gone to these states. Thomas, you did another
Speaker 1: one for Chasing a Cup more recently, exploring the states
Speaker 1: they have, you know, where they've been regionally and on
Speaker 1: all that, and then how do we get to new
Speaker 1: places and specifically some places we've never been before. You
Speaker 1: both made lists, and there is an overlap of ten
Speaker 1: that I want to talk about. And what we're going
Speaker 1: to do is I'm going to read the ten cities
Speaker 1: and then I'm going to have you pick two from
Speaker 1: that list that you want to see the US play
Speaker 1: in before twenty twenty six.
Speaker 3: So here we go.
Speaker 1: Birmingham, Alabama, Little Rock, Arkansas, Honolulu, Hawaii, Boise, Idaho, Indianapolis, Indiana, Louisville, Kentucky,
Speaker 1: New York City, New York, Buffalo, New York, Albuquerque, New Mexico,
Speaker 1: and Portland, Oregon. So Thomas, from that list of ten,
Speaker 1: give me two cities you need the US to play
Speaker 1: in before twenty twenty six.
Speaker 4: My first is in the end. I think Lawrence spoke
Speaker 4: to it earlier. But it's it's a venue that you know,
Speaker 4: or an area specifically that's very passionate for soccer in
Speaker 4: this country. We have I think we the national name
Speaker 4: has never played there.
Speaker 3: They played.
Speaker 4: Olympic qualifiers there I believe in ninety two seven and
Speaker 4: in America Stadium, yeah yeah, and then then a Pan
Speaker 4: American Games in eighty seven as well, they had they
Speaker 4: played there. So like I think that's for me one,
Speaker 4: and I'm going to go a little bit, you know,
Speaker 4: further north.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna go Buffalo, New York.
Speaker 4: I mean I think that's you know, I mean, I'm
Speaker 4: thinking more that my piece in it was based on
Speaker 4: their new stadium that they're building. But I think, you know,
Speaker 4: that's a spot that's you know, still within the US
Speaker 4: soccer comfortability range in terms of you know, East Coast
Speaker 4: in our central area. So it's in that area. Hey, look,
Speaker 4: they like playing in the cold. They did it in Minnesota,
Speaker 4: why not you know, why not do it again in Buffalo?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: Can you imagine the Bill's Mafia at a US men's
Speaker 2: national team game?
Speaker 3: Oh boy?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah.
Speaker 4: I mean they've got passionate I mean, there's got to
Speaker 4: be passionate soccer fans up there.
Speaker 3: There has to be.
Speaker 4: I mean, it'll only suggests it would be with the
Speaker 4: football crazies that are there.
Speaker 1: Lawrence. So we have Indianapolis and Buffalo off the list.
Speaker 1: What are two of your cities that we need to.
Speaker 3: Go to.
Speaker 2: Off off of the list where we've got the overlap.
Speaker 2: I'm going to be selfish and pick the two. And
Speaker 2: I'm going to preface this by saying we both picked
Speaker 2: these same city. We both have them on our list,
Speaker 2: So I think this is not who slighted any of
Speaker 2: these other cities because we're both already on record saying
Speaker 2: they need to go here. I'm gonna be selfish and
Speaker 2: I'm going to pick the two that would benefit me
Speaker 2: the most as I'm in the Memphis area, So I'm
Speaker 2: going to pick Birmingham and I'm gonna pick Little Rock.
Speaker 2: I have covered a game at the new Protective Stadium
Speaker 2: in Birmingham. The venue itself is very nice. The problem
Speaker 2: is the people running the show down there for the
Speaker 2: Legion or whoever runs the stadium don't know their elbow
Speaker 2: from their asshole. It was a mess. But the US
Speaker 2: men's national team played a World Cup qualifier against Guatemala,
Speaker 2: I believe in two thousand and five at the old
Speaker 2: Legion Field. Legion Field was old and outdated the day
Speaker 2: they opened it, and by two thousand and five was
Speaker 2: just a hell hole. And they still drew thirty one
Speaker 2: thousand people in Birmingham, Alabama in two thousand and five.
Speaker 2: So I think that's a place you need to go
Speaker 2: back to.
Speaker 1: And then.
Speaker 2: You know that's in the Central time zone. That's a
Speaker 2: place you've never been before. I have been to war
Speaker 2: Memorial Stadium one time. It is a little bit of
Speaker 2: an old venue. But again, Mike, this might be the
Speaker 2: best place for me to say this. In the lead
Speaker 2: up to twenty twenty six, we are with the whole
Speaker 2: discussion of this as we are hyper focused on taking
Speaker 2: the national team to as many new and different places
Speaker 2: as possible. I don't care about turf. I don't care
Speaker 2: about baseball fields. I don't care about field dimensions. I
Speaker 2: don't care about stadium size. I don't care about any
Speaker 2: of it. I understand long term, that's not a pot
Speaker 2: that's not a viable solution. I understand that I am
Speaker 2: talking for the next year and a half.
Speaker 3: Don't care.
Speaker 2: Go wherever, and I believe war Memorial and Little Rock
Speaker 2: and Birmingham are both turf. Don't care. You can put
Speaker 2: sod down, you can just play on the turf. Again,
Speaker 2: this is the ensuring the growth of the game is
Speaker 2: much more important than playing one game in front of
Speaker 2: the scary thurf monster. So for me in the Memphis area,
Speaker 2: it's three hours to Birmingham, it's two and a half
Speaker 2: hours to Little Rock. Yeah, so if they were to
Speaker 2: do like a back to back in the two I would,
Speaker 2: I would, I would just like I just I just
Speaker 2: pass out and I was mym.
Speaker 1: I will say too about specifically Birmingham is it's a
Speaker 1: forty two thousand seat stadium, which is it's basically the
Speaker 1: same type of stadium, but modern as what you saw
Speaker 1: in Connecticut at whatever Bratt and Whitney Stadium at you
Speaker 1: know whatever it is now. We played there last year
Speaker 1: against Germany, and I'm telling you Protective and Yukon are
Speaker 1: very similar types of venues right there. They're college venues.
Speaker 1: They're not big, but they're big enough to have a
Speaker 1: good sized crowd. And we saw the passion when they
Speaker 1: finally played in a French slearer field. That's what it
Speaker 1: used to be called, not fracken winning. We're gonna call
Speaker 1: it by its o G name, Rynchlairfield, and that, I think,
Speaker 1: to your point, would would be really nice, right, Like
Speaker 1: I love Thomas talking about Indianapolis getting the big stadium.
Speaker 2: Absolutely right, we could.
Speaker 3: That would be great. You can get a lot of if.
Speaker 2: You would not hear me complain if Indy got a.
Speaker 1: Game, yeah, well obviously, but like you could, you could
Speaker 1: do Indianapolis for the I mean we're talking, you know,
Speaker 1: get the big opponent, bring them in Indianapolis. But like
Speaker 1: you know, maybe that same window you're playing, for example,
Speaker 1: Germany and Ghana. Right, okay, well Ghana play them in Birmingham,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean.
Speaker 2: Right down sixty.
Speaker 1: It's a good point. See, we're making solutions already. All right,
Speaker 1: my two. I mentioned one already. It's Portland, Oregon. I
Speaker 1: don't know why we feel the need to be scared
Speaker 1: of Portland in the turf Monster, as you said, that
Speaker 1: could be a stadium you easily put sod in for
Speaker 1: a game, and that is in my opinion, they are
Speaker 1: historically and still to this day, the most passionate group
Speaker 1: of fans. And I'm not talking just the supporters. I'm
Speaker 1: talking fans period in American soccer. So I think we
Speaker 1: need to go to Portland. The other one that I
Speaker 1: know we all would agree, and I understand the stadium
Speaker 1: is not as big. Go to Louisville. The women are
Speaker 1: playing there.
Speaker 3: Go to Louisville.
Speaker 1: You know, this is where I don't mind rewarding a
Speaker 1: team for building a soccer stadium and building an ice club.
Speaker 1: We got this with San Antonio earlier. This year, it
Speaker 1: was great, go to Louisville. I don't care if it's
Speaker 1: a you know, cupcake game, that's fine, and that.
Speaker 2: Would be the perfect time to go to a smaller stadium.
Speaker 2: Is a January camp game, yes, when ticket sales have
Speaker 2: already proven at all these other stadiums that you know,
Speaker 2: how many times have they drawn nine thousand people to
Speaker 2: Dignity Health Sports Park for a January campaign?
Speaker 1: Right? You know?
Speaker 2: I remember Greg Burholter's first game in charge, they drew
Speaker 2: eight thousand people at State Farm Stadium in Phoenix. Uh,
Speaker 2: go to like and I think I'll give you a
Speaker 2: soccer credit here. I think they might be starting to
Speaker 2: figure this out. Maybe they finally gotten coaching hires. Right,
Speaker 2: so that's what that's one box checked. Now they need Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: now they now they now they need to Honestly, I
Speaker 2: think probably the next most important thing they need to
Speaker 2: figure out is Open Cup and then uh and then
Speaker 2: uh stadium selection.
Speaker 1: And we could do a whole podcast.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I cover a USL championship team. Don't get
Speaker 2: me started, I know. But I think this last January Camp,
Speaker 2: I think we maybe kind of saw them start to
Speaker 2: acknowledge maybe we should play these types of games in
Speaker 2: smaller stadiums because.
Speaker 1: The largest Let's play Jamaica and Chattanooga m before the
Speaker 1: soccer city. I mean that was a twenty thousand seat Finley,
Speaker 1: but like yeah, it's like, yeah, we know this is
Speaker 1: a smaller city in stadium, but like it was a
Speaker 1: January camp game. It was very cold. There are very
Speaker 1: places in this country that it wouldn't be cold in January,
Speaker 1: and like la is one of them. So all right,
Speaker 1: let's move on to the next part of this. The
Speaker 1: wild card wasn't maybe it wasn't on that list of ten,
Speaker 1: but your wild card, tamis of where you think the
Speaker 1: US should play before twenty twenty six.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm wanna go South Carolina. It's one of the.
Speaker 4: Of those places they haven't played ever or in a
Speaker 4: long time. It's one of the higher populations. And we
Speaker 4: just saw a match in South Carolina this summer with
Speaker 4: Liverpool and Manchester United that sold out.
Speaker 3: So you know that was that was played was played.
Speaker 2: I was played at Williams Brice, that South Stadium.
Speaker 3: Right, So to me, the venues there right.
Speaker 2: Now, we're killing two birds with one stone. You get
Speaker 2: the marrying of soccer and football, college football, and some
Speaker 2: place that you've never been before.
Speaker 4: Right, So you know what I mean to me, that's
Speaker 4: a no brainer. Like it, Yeah, checks the boxes. I
Speaker 4: want to see it there.
Speaker 1: I'll also say I love that idea because Charlotte and
Speaker 1: Atlanta are very close drives, so you're not alienating people
Speaker 1: from Columbia right like you can get I will drive
Speaker 1: to Columbia South South Carolina for I won't go there
Speaker 1: for many things, but I will go there for US
Speaker 1: soccer game. So I agree with that, Thomas. I love
Speaker 1: that pick.
Speaker 2: Also, the Charleston Battery are one of the oldest clubs
Speaker 2: in America. They had the original soccer specific state of
Speaker 2: the old Black Baud Stadium and the pub. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Man, The.
Speaker 2: Men's and women's programs at both University of South Carolina
Speaker 2: and Clemson University are both very well supported. I think
Speaker 2: when Clemson and South Carolina played each other in men's
Speaker 2: college soccer earlier this year, I think they drew like
Speaker 2: seven thousand people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that. So, okay, we got Columbia South
Speaker 1: Carolina's one. Lawrence, what's your wild card that you think
Speaker 1: that they should play before twenty six?
Speaker 2: I'm going to cheat and pick two cat selfishly Memphis,
Speaker 2: since I'm in the Memphis area. President of US Soccer
Speaker 2: Cindy Parlow Cone from Memphis. Tim Howard, the former US goalkeeper,
Speaker 2: was a long time it no longer is, but was
Speaker 2: a long time sporting director at Memphis nine on one FC,
Speaker 2: so the connections there. Richard mulrooney, head coach at the
Speaker 2: University of Memphis for the men's team, was a US
Speaker 2: men's national team player for some time, So I'll pick Memphis.
Speaker 2: They are renovating the stadium formerly known as the Liberty
Speaker 2: Bowl for Tiger football, and I think that's going to
Speaker 2: make it much more. There have been rumblings and I'm
Speaker 2: going to try to get into some people's ears about this,
Speaker 2: trying to get some sort of high profile soccer game
Speaker 2: in there once because the university now owns that stadium
Speaker 2: instead of the city of Memphis.
Speaker 1: A long story, Memphis is what three hours from Nashville. Yes,
Speaker 1: Nashville is three from Nashville, and Nashville is three from
Speaker 1: Memphis across I forty.
Speaker 2: Yes, it's one hundred and ninety nine miles down I forty.
Speaker 2: But on a more realistic note, I would say New
Speaker 2: Orleans for I mean the I understand Maurcio Pochettino's the
Speaker 2: new coach, but the vibes around this team are it
Speaker 2: feels like very close to an all time low. I
Speaker 2: still think October tenth, twenty seventeen is the all time low.
Speaker 2: But New Orleans is a party like world renowned party town,
Speaker 2: and my god, does this team need something of a
Speaker 2: party atmosphere around it going into twenty six.
Speaker 1: So play there back in what they.
Speaker 2: Played at the at twenty fifteen at the end of
Speaker 2: their victory tour after the Women's World Cup, I think
Speaker 2: they drew like thirty eight thousand people there for it
Speaker 2: like it was a yeah uh even they lost that game.
Speaker 1: By the way, maybe don't send Wes McKenny to that game.
Speaker 1: He will get into trouble, but everyone else is good
Speaker 1: to go. Maybe, but maybe Malik Tillman also apparently he's
Speaker 1: he's he's one to find trouble as well.
Speaker 2: Like New Orleans is another one. They host the Super
Speaker 2: Bowl and the Final Four very regularly. They have also
Speaker 2: at various points throughout time hosted the SEC Basketball Tournament,
Speaker 2: so they know how to put on an event. And
Speaker 2: and then that New Orleans is an Amtrak hub, so
Speaker 2: if people are wanting to ride the train, like right,
Speaker 2: I've ridden the trains from New Memphis to New Orleans twice.
Speaker 2: It was a blast both times. The city of New
Speaker 2: Orleans it was an Arlo Guthrie song, but no, those
Speaker 2: would be Memphis, just personally, selfishly, and then on a
Speaker 2: much more realistic note, I say New Orleans.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna pick two because I am the host and
Speaker 1: I can cheat like that. My realistic one, the one
Speaker 1: that I actually think we should like legitimately, as we've
Speaker 1: talked about it, is Pittsburgh one. I love that city.
Speaker 1: I think it's a vastly underrated city. But the fact
Speaker 1: that it is, like it's far enough away from Philly
Speaker 1: as well as far enough away from Cleveland and Columbus
Speaker 1: and Cincinnati where it's not the same but you can
Speaker 1: still pull from those people. Does that make sense? But
Speaker 1: you also have a lot of people in western PA,
Speaker 1: in West Virginia, in Maryland who you know, eastern Ohio
Speaker 1: who can get their way to Pittsburgh and play in
Speaker 1: a really cool stadium. One of the best settings and
Speaker 1: for sports is that all three of their stadiums you got,
Speaker 1: while you've got P and C. And you've got Hines
Speaker 1: on well, Hines is texting on the Ohio. But anyway,
Speaker 1: you've got P and C on the Alleghany, You've got
Speaker 1: Hines on the Ohio, and then you've got the Riverhound
Speaker 1: Stadium high Mark on the Montgalia River. So it's a
Speaker 1: beautiful setting. It's a great fun city. You have a
Speaker 1: lot of sports passionate fans, so I would I would
Speaker 1: say Pittsburgh is the realistic one, my wild card because
Speaker 1: they're building a new stadium that should be done by
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five Providence, Rhode Island. It's gonna be about
Speaker 1: eleven thousand, their new USL stadium there, and I'm just.
Speaker 3: Like, why not I like it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'd be happy with that. I can make that right.
Speaker 1: I mean it's one of those like where why else
Speaker 1: would you There's no other reason to play in Rhode
Speaker 1: Island less people, because there's a million other places in
Speaker 1: that area you could play, But like, that'd be fun. No,
Speaker 1: I definitely think Pittsburgh similar to you Thomas, like Indianapolis.
Speaker 1: It's like, why not put it in a big stadium
Speaker 1: in a city that has always been close to all
Speaker 1: the other places they've played right like Indianapolis, so close
Speaker 1: to Chicago, so close to all the you know, Cincinnati
Speaker 1: and Columbus. Give them their own thing. Let them be
Speaker 1: the host. And that's kind of how I feel about
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh is let them be the host.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, we've cut a hell of a promo
Speaker 2: for them.
Speaker 1: Brothers man, listen. Forman's has both been the cause of
Speaker 1: hangovers and the solution to hangovers. I had they opened
Speaker 1: up Formannis in Morgantown when I was there at w
Speaker 1: and yeah, I spent a good minute there. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, look, I also love Pittsburgh is a great
Speaker 1: food city. It's one of those underrated food cities in
Speaker 1: the country. I think it's a better sandwich city than
Speaker 1: like anywhere else outside of maybe New York. But yeah,
Speaker 1: that's I I do enjoy that city. I think we
Speaker 1: have officially solved all these problems. So I'm going to
Speaker 1: just cut and record and send this to JT and
Speaker 1: Cindy since they're now like my neighbors.
Speaker 2: Basically, he's been making the media rounds too, so.
Speaker 1: Hopefully, thank you both for this discussion. I know we
Speaker 1: went a long time. I mean we're almost at an
Speaker 1: hour and a half of recording. But this is just
Speaker 1: one of those topics of conversation that can't be covered
Speaker 1: fully in a blog, article, in a segment of an
Speaker 1: episode or anything. It is something that is not just
Speaker 1: a big problem now. It has continually been a problem
Speaker 1: throughout US soccer's history of just kind of focusing on
Speaker 1: a state or a city or a handful of those
Speaker 1: to play in the problem we have now, as we've said,
Speaker 1: we've got a World Cup coming up in twenty twenty six,
Speaker 1: and we have to maximize its impact because if we don't,
Speaker 1: we won't see this sport takeoff of this country the
Speaker 1: way we want it to. And we all love the sport.
Speaker 1: We all dedicate a lot of our lives to the sport,
Speaker 1: so we want it to do its best. Lawrence, tell
Speaker 1: the good folks where they can find all of your work,
Speaker 1: because you are you are busy, Let's put it that way.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's I am. Indeed, I am quite busy, but
Speaker 2: all of my just you can find me on my
Speaker 2: personal account at l doc nine three on Twitter. I
Speaker 2: write for World Soccer Talk. I write for Bluff City
Speaker 2: Media here in Memphis. I host the Not on One
Speaker 2: Soccer podcast. Which mostly covers Memphis nine one to see
Speaker 2: in the USL Championship, but will also occasionally discuss US
Speaker 2: US national teams or the program men's and women's programs
Speaker 2: at the University of Memphis. And then you can also
Speaker 2: follow over My joke that it's my burner account, but
Speaker 2: at nine on one Soccer Pod is the official Twitter
Speaker 2: account of the Not on one Soccer podcast. That's if
Speaker 2: you follow me personally, you'll get all sorts of movies
Speaker 2: and history and college football and all sorts of stuff.
Speaker 2: But if you follow then on one Soccer podcast, that
Speaker 2: is ninety nine point five percent soccer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, to do the same with my personal Like you,
Speaker 1: you don't want to come here for the ranting about
Speaker 1: w W football, but go to the US spot to
Speaker 1: get actual things you care about. Thomas, Uh, you have
Speaker 1: anything coming up that we need to be aware of.
Speaker 3: I don't. I had a request for an oracle.
Speaker 4: I've got to do some research on it, so we'll
Speaker 4: we'll see how quickly I can put all that together.
Speaker 4: That's the biggest part with writing oracles. It's the it's
Speaker 4: the making sure we have the fact check research and
Speaker 4: so that's sometimes you get down Rabbit holes into other
Speaker 4: things and it just you just can't finish it. So
Speaker 4: I'm working on something but nothing. That's uh, and that's
Speaker 4: I can hit the jackpot here in the next couple
Speaker 4: of days.
Speaker 1: Well, make sure you go to Chasing a Cup dot
Speaker 1: com for his work. That's where it is housed right now,
Speaker 1: especially the article about where the US should play. You
Speaker 1: had another one out about goalkeepers recently, so that's worth
Speaker 1: very much worth reading as we head into a very
Speaker 1: uncertain time for yours goalkeepers. By the way, and you
Speaker 1: can follow me again on the twitters at Soccer for
Speaker 1: US pod Thomas and I and maybe hopefully Caleb will
Speaker 1: be talking about a roster drop next week, so hopefully
Speaker 1: we will have more soccer US soccer content coming to you.
Speaker 1: But in the meantime, also please don't forget to go
Speaker 1: vote at Football Content Awards dot com slash voting vote
Speaker 1: for soccer down here for the best media organization. All right, well,
Speaker 1: thank you both for listening, Thank thanks for talking. Thank
Speaker 1: you el all out there for listening. I'm bart, I'm
Speaker 1: out