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Speaker 1: FC Dallas recently announced its roster for the upcoming season,

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Speaker 1: as the league seeks to build engagement with fans in

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Speaker 1: a competitive live sports market. Please to say Dan Hunt

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Speaker 1: is joining us right now in studio. He's the president

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Speaker 1: of FC Dallas and chairman of efforts for the twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty six Dallas World Cup. Let's actually start off on

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Speaker 1: the here with that, and Dan, I'm curious about some

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Speaker 1: of the efforts first of all, with FC Dallas and

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Speaker 1: the new season you guys are coming off. It was

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Speaker 1: a pretty decent year and there's been a lot of

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Speaker 1: improvements and the fan engagement has improved overall for MLS,

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Speaker 1: and I'm wondering, what do you anticipate for the new

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Speaker 1: season that is going to be an improvement over what

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Speaker 1: we saw in the most recent season.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, we had two really big things in MLS

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Speaker 2: to share, and it was Lionel Messi and Apple TV.

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Speaker 2: And what both of those things did for Major League

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Speaker 2: Soccer was remarkable, and you see the benefit we're experiencing

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Speaker 2: in Dallas. Our season tickets right now are at the

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Speaker 2: highest level they've ever been going into a new season,

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Speaker 2: and also our viewership number for the highest they've ever been.

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Speaker 2: In the twenty twenty three season, I mean when Lino

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Speaker 2: Messi signed, Apple added one hundred and ten thousand subscribers

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Speaker 2: that day, and it basically made MLS a global name

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Speaker 2: in the soccer markets.

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Speaker 1: Now that also brings us to the World Cup that's

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Speaker 1: going to be here in the US. Obviously a big

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Speaker 1: chunk of that will be in Dallas. And I am curious.

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Speaker 1: I remember when I was a kid and they had

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Speaker 1: the World Cup I think was in when those of

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Speaker 1: Los Angeles or somewhere, and it really kind of created

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Speaker 1: this sort of upswell of interest in soccer, which, of course,

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Speaker 1: for the rest of the world everyone was familiar with.

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Speaker 1: I'm wondering, given how much progress we've already made here

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Speaker 1: in the US and getting soccer into the sort of

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Speaker 1: the ethos here, how much is the World Cup going

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Speaker 1: to matter and sort of building that base even further.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, the nineteen ninety four World Cup was in

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Speaker 2: the United States. It was all over Dallas, had fabulous games,

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Speaker 2: the final was in LA Major League Soccer was born

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Speaker 2: out of the ninety four World Cup. Actually, the league

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Speaker 2: was supposed to have started in nineteen ninety five, but

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Speaker 2: started nineteen ninety six but the United States wasn't really

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Speaker 2: ready for the World Cup.

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Speaker 1: Cup.

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Speaker 2: Now we're a soccer crazy nation and it's going to

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Speaker 2: be a North American bid. So games will also be

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Speaker 2: in Canada and Mexico, and we're going to have the

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Speaker 2: largest tournament ever. It'll be over one hundred matches played

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Speaker 2: with forty eight teams. And I guess people always ask

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Speaker 2: me what my biggest hope is, and my big hope

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Speaker 2: for it is one. I want the United States to

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Speaker 2: do well. I think we're well suited for it. But

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Speaker 2: there is a whole generation of players that are zero

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Speaker 2: to sixteen that will be watching the World Cup having

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Speaker 2: that experience, and I hope it allows the United States

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Speaker 2: to produce the next Lionel MESSI.

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Speaker 3: All right, I'm going to pivot here. I'm going to

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Speaker 3: go from soccer to football because I really want to

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Speaker 3: talk about Taylor Swift. You, of course, are the co

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Speaker 3: owner of the Kansas City Chiefs and Romain. I don't

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Speaker 3: know if you heard, but Taylor Swift is dating Travis Kelce.

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Speaker 3: What has that meant for football? The fact that you

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Speaker 3: have really the biggest pop star in the world dating

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Speaker 3: obviously one of the Kansas City players.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, Travis is an all time great guy. And

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Speaker 2: you're right about Taylor Swift. I mean, she is amazing.

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Speaker 2: She's a global superstar and what she's accomplished. We had

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Speaker 2: her at two tour dates at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas

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Speaker 2: City and just the economic impact to that was amazing.

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Speaker 2: The really cool and amazing thing, though, is it's sort

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Speaker 2: of activated a whole new viewership audience for US specifically,

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Speaker 2: which is young women age nine to seventeen. And I

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Speaker 2: guess the social side of it, which has been really

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Speaker 2: fun to experience. The amount of dads that I've had

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Speaker 2: say to me that, hey, my daughters are now interested

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Speaker 2: and they're watching Chiefs games with their dads. I think

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Speaker 2: it's really kind of a neat aspect of this. Obviously,

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Speaker 2: the economic impact is unbelievable, but the social impact I

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Speaker 2: think will be measured out over a long period of time.

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Speaker 2: But these are building lifelong fans for the NFL.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it is pretty amazing to watch, and you're talking

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Speaker 3: about little girls there, But I will say a lot

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Speaker 3: of millennial women too that I know, just anecdotically speaking,

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Speaker 3: are watching more football games than they have in the past.

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Speaker 3: But bringing it back to soccer. Does soccer need a

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Speaker 3: tailor's to unlock a broader audience or is Lionel Messi

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Speaker 3: probably enough?

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Speaker 2: You know, Look, I don't want to say Lionel Messi

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Speaker 2: is Taylor Swift. I think there are two of a kind, though,

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Speaker 2: the two of the biggest global superstars, and we're so

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Speaker 2: thrilled to have him here, and we're filled to have

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Speaker 2: Apple as our partner. I mean, we couldn't have picked

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Speaker 2: a better partner to show those games and broadcast the product.

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Speaker 2: I mean, the FC Dallas experience is so much better

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Speaker 2: now with Apple TV, and we continue to grow our

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Speaker 2: own fan base, and I think every MLS team is

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Speaker 2: doing that. And we're going into a new season with

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Speaker 2: unprecedented momentum, and you are excited about the new players

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Speaker 2: that are coming and excited about the national team players

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Speaker 2: that are being developed as we head towards World Cup

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty six.

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Speaker 1: Talk to us about I guess the competition for eyeballs.

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Speaker 1: I mean there's a lot more I guess major sports now.

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Speaker 1: I mean years ago you kind of had baseball, NFL football,

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Speaker 1: and then of course the NBA here, But now you

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Speaker 1: have soccer, you have other sort of secondary sports that

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Speaker 1: have just really risen in popularity year, does that become

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Speaker 1: I guess is there enough space? I guess for all

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Speaker 1: of those leaks.

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Speaker 2: Look, I think viewership is different now and how people

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Speaker 2: consume media. There was so much of a push into

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Speaker 2: social media and getting your highlights on a Twitter or

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Speaker 2: other spaces. But again for US, Apple was the right

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Speaker 2: time and the way Eddie Q thinks about things there

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Speaker 2: at Apple and the whole team and the constant innovation.

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Speaker 2: You look at all the ancillary programming that they've come

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Speaker 2: up with and all the new standards that they're adding.

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Speaker 2: I mean, it's just an exciting time. But you're right,

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Speaker 2: we are in a crowded marketplace and you know it's

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Speaker 2: not just sports, it's you know, entertainment like Taylor Swift.

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Speaker 2: I mean she alone was a boost of the whole

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Speaker 2: US economy this year, or the global economy, I should say. So,

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Speaker 2: you're in constant competition and you have to reinvent yourself

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Speaker 2: every single year or you will lose those that viewership

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Speaker 2: following you.

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Speaker 3: All right, Dan really really enjoyed this conversation. Great to

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Speaker 3: see you on set too. That is Dan Hunt. He

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Speaker 3: is FC Dallas president and the chairman of Dallas's twenty

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Speaker 3: twenty six World Cup efforts,