Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Dan Hunt, president and co owner of FC Dallas. Always
Speaker 2: great to have you back here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, great to see you, Julie.
Speaker 2: Also, I want to talk to you being co chair
Speaker 2: of the organizing committee in North Texas. I know this
Speaker 2: has been a long, long venture for you being involved
Speaker 2: with this. How do you feel going in?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm excited.
Speaker 1: I'm about to enter month one hundred and seven working
Speaker 1: on the World Cup and it has finally all come
Speaker 1: to fruition, and it's so great to get that first
Speaker 1: kick coming up in a couple days.
Speaker 2: Dallas Sports Commission has estimated more than a one point
Speaker 2: five billion dollar economic boost to the area, up to
Speaker 2: over two billion dollars. Does that come to fruition, Yes.
Speaker 3: I believe it will come to fruition.
Speaker 1: If you think about Super Bowls, the average visitor comes
Speaker 1: for less than three days, and we have nine Super
Speaker 1: Bowls with nine games in Dallas.
Speaker 3: But visitors are in a World Cup come for just under.
Speaker 1: Ten days, and so they'll be staying hotels, spinning at restaurants,
Speaker 1: buying gas, going to retail. So I say a huge
Speaker 1: economic boom for our area.
Speaker 2: Talk about now it's Dallas Stadium. We know it as
Speaker 2: AT and T Stadium, but it's certainly Dallas Stadium now.
Speaker 2: FIFA estimates that it will hold more than ninety thousand
Speaker 2: people for World Cup Games. If you do the math there,
Speaker 2: that's more than eight hundred and forty five thousand for
Speaker 2: the total nine matches. First of all, what do you
Speaker 2: think of those numbers?
Speaker 1: I mean, the scale of this is so massive, and
Speaker 1: I don't know that we'll be in the nineties for
Speaker 1: World Cup Games. We're raising the pitch at AT and
Speaker 1: T Stadium by four or five feet, which we'll have
Speaker 1: some seat kills associated with that. But you know, if
Speaker 1: you even think about it, between seven hundred and eight
Speaker 1: hundred thousand tickets as a huge number. Frankly, I need
Speaker 1: for there to be more tickets with the number of
Speaker 1: ticket requests that I've had over the last couple of months,
Speaker 1: and so it's great in this entire tournament there could
Speaker 1: be over seven million tickets available.
Speaker 2: Do you think the games in Dallas will sell out?
Speaker 2: There's been a lot of questions about sellouts period.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the games in Dallas will sell out.
Speaker 1: If you think about the matches that we have five
Speaker 1: great group stage games with powerhouses like England, Croatia, Japan,
Speaker 1: Holland Argentina with MESSI.
Speaker 3: I think those games will sell out.
Speaker 1: When you get into the later games, the opponents aren't
Speaker 1: defined right because those are elimination games and they're coming
Speaker 1: out of their different groups.
Speaker 3: But this is a sports city.
Speaker 1: It has a gigant sports appetite, so I think the
Speaker 1: stadiums will be full.
Speaker 2: I'm want to talk to you about the ticket prices,
Speaker 2: and again I know those are set by FIFA. It
Speaker 2: does not go through the host committees. But there's a
Speaker 2: lot of questions about the pricing, how many were available,
Speaker 2: and the rollout. Do you think that affects attendance overall?
Speaker 1: You know, it's hard to say. I don't think it
Speaker 1: will affect attendance. The rollout is a little bit non
Speaker 1: traditional how we would do it in American sports, but
Speaker 1: FIFA has their way of doing it, and they've gotten
Speaker 1: some criticism over the prices and they went back and
Speaker 1: repriced some cheaper tickets. And what it would say, you know,
Speaker 1: is there's a market demand for this and the revenue
Speaker 1: they generate from the World Cup supports soccer globally. Their
Speaker 1: initial from grassroots to growing the men's game, growing the
Speaker 1: women's game, all the money associated with prize money, player
Speaker 1: money to clubs, and just in developing nations and helping
Speaker 1: the game along. And this is really their pinnacle, tent
Speaker 1: pole moment that they have every four years. And so
Speaker 1: I know there's it's a delicate balance, right. You want
Speaker 1: it affordable for fans because fans make the game, but
Speaker 1: you also need to be able to have, you know,
Speaker 1: the money to help support the game for the next
Speaker 1: four years.
Speaker 2: Soccer is obviously extremely important to you. You are actually
Speaker 2: a sponsor in Dallas for the World Cup. You are
Speaker 2: a personal sponsor. Let's talk a little bit about why
Speaker 2: you decided to do that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm proud to be a hometown supporter for Dallas.
Speaker 3: It was important to me.
Speaker 1: I mean I can put my time and effort behind this,
Speaker 1: which like I said, has been almost one hundred and
Speaker 1: seven months, and it also shows them my enthusiasm for
Speaker 1: it to put financial support. I want this to leave
Speaker 1: a lasting legacy and that support will go to help
Speaker 1: creating mini pitches and communities around in areas that need
Speaker 1: field safe spaces for kids to play soccer, and also
Speaker 1: help support our local organizing committee. I mean, putting on
Speaker 1: a World Cup is incredibly expensive. And also we have
Speaker 1: this gigantic fan fest at fair Park for those that
Speaker 1: aren't going to World Cup matches. We'll have thirty five
Speaker 1: thousand people a day at fair Park.
Speaker 2: You've not specified how much you have put in personally.
Speaker 2: Is it over a million?
Speaker 1: It's a multimillion dollar investment, and I'm proud to do it.
Speaker 1: This is me supporting soccer and also supporting the game
Speaker 1: I love so much.
Speaker 2: I want to take a step back here. Your father,
Speaker 2: when you look at it, just instrumental in beginning Major
Speaker 2: League soccer in the United States. What's so interesting to
Speaker 2: me is he too served as a co chair of
Speaker 2: the Dallas host committee. That's back in nineteen ninety four. Emotionally,
Speaker 2: what has this been like for you?
Speaker 1: It's been an amazing journey, is what it's been like.
Speaker 1: So many of the similarities, the hard work that goes
Speaker 1: into it, the countless meeting, speaking engagements, raising enthusiasm, fighting
Speaker 1: for the international broadcast. He was so proud of that
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety four, having it at fair Park. We
Speaker 1: get to have it again here in Dallas at the K.
Speaker 1: Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center. This is where the storytelling of
Speaker 1: World Cup twenty twenty six will take place, broadcasting back
Speaker 1: to almost two hundred countries. And that was so important
Speaker 1: to him, and I see it now as I'm more
Speaker 1: an older adult and experiencing this and being able to
Speaker 1: share those commonalities.
Speaker 3: It really is that connection.
Speaker 1: My Dad's been gone for a long time now, but
Speaker 1: it just touches the heart. It really brings you back
Speaker 1: to so many happy memories. He was so proud to
Speaker 1: bring the World Cup to Dallas in nineteen ninety four.
Speaker 2: You were there, and you've been to every World Cup since.
Speaker 2: You just kind of went through a laundry list of
Speaker 2: all the games you've been to in all the places.
Speaker 2: Is there anything that specifically stuck out to you?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 3: I mean, there's so many memories.
Speaker 1: I've been to every World Cup since nineteen eighty six,
Speaker 1: seeing over one hundred and thirty World Cup matches.
Speaker 3: Here's what sticks out to me.
Speaker 1: And this is my big hope for our visitors and
Speaker 1: guests and the locals going to games, that you create
Speaker 1: lifetime memories with families and friends. There have been so
Speaker 1: many great memories, so many great experiences, experiencing cultures. I
Speaker 1: hope our visitors get to experience this Texas hospitality. We
Speaker 1: do it bigger and better than anyone else.
Speaker 2: Your family's invested so much into Major League soccer over
Speaker 2: the years. It's the most popular sport in the world,
Speaker 2: but here in the United States, it's not football, basketball, baseball.
Speaker 2: Why do you think it's taking this long for soccer
Speaker 2: to really make those inroads.
Speaker 1: Well, if you really think about Major League Soccer, we're only,
Speaker 1: you know, thirty one plus years old.
Speaker 3: Now, if you think about the game in Europe, a
Speaker 3: lot of these leagues and teams.
Speaker 1: Are over one hundred years, so they have this unbelievable history,
Speaker 1: much longer than anything we've seen so far in soccer.
Speaker 3: And if you look at where Major League Soccer.
Speaker 1: Has come from nineteen ninety six to today, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just a monumental shift. So I think we're on
Speaker 1: this unbelievable trajectory. Yet it's not the NFL, it's not
Speaker 1: the end. But my father was a big believer that
Speaker 1: in fifty years soccer could catch those leagues.
Speaker 2: One area where soccer is growing exponentially, and you're very
Speaker 2: involved with youth.
Speaker 3: Sports, youth sports it's right. That is the lifeblood of soccer.
Speaker 1: The rest of the world develops a lot of their
Speaker 1: own players and those players go through to the professional teams.
Speaker 1: We do it an amazing job at FC Dallas of
Speaker 1: doing that. If you look at the US men's national team,
Speaker 1: you'll have four FC Dallas players on the team, Ricardo Peppi,
Speaker 1: Weston McKinney, Chris Richards.
Speaker 3: And alejandras In Dejas.
Speaker 1: All four of those players came from the FC Dallas
Speaker 1: youth system. And that's how the game is blade globally.
Speaker 1: You develop your own talents and we lead that whole area.
Speaker 2: On the business side of this, in terms of your
Speaker 2: growing brands, broadcast rights, what are your thoughts on Leono
Speaker 2: Messi and revenue sharing ownership rights? Is that the future here?
Speaker 3: MLS was modeled after the NFL.
Speaker 1: My father was really the father of Major League Soccer
Speaker 1: and he borrowed a lot of those revenues sharing models
Speaker 1: from the NFL. And so yeah, having Linel Messi play
Speaker 1: in the league has been an unbelievable uptick there. But
Speaker 1: working with Apple too, this is this amazing change we're
Speaker 1: about to have. This year, we moved in front of
Speaker 1: the paywall, so you can watch ted Lasso and watch
Speaker 1: FC Dallas without having to pay extra. But we're also
Speaker 1: changing our schedule to a traditional European calendar next year,
Speaker 1: and I think that's going to really be a boost
Speaker 1: for the league.
Speaker 2: What do you hope comes from this World Cup? Then?
Speaker 1: A couple of things, Like I said, lifetime memories for
Speaker 1: family and friends. I hope it inspires the American MESSI
Speaker 1: open it inspires a young person who wasn't going to
Speaker 1: pick soccer to wind up picking Major League Soccer, picking
Speaker 1: FC Dallas developing here.
Speaker 3: I think that would be great for the game. And look,
Speaker 3: they say one of the biggest statistics is hosting.
Speaker 1: Nations of World Cups, that their national team has a
Speaker 1: successful tournament, their average attendance increases by thirty percent after
Speaker 1: the World Cup. So I hope that for all professional
Speaker 1: soccer in America.
Speaker 2: Women's World Cup in the United States in twenty thirty.
Speaker 3: One coming, We're going to start working on it in August.
Speaker 3: We've already started, but really.
Speaker 1: Going in August of this year, my stated goal is
Speaker 1: to bring the final to Dallas in the Women's World
Speaker 1: Cup in twenty thirty one. I'm so excited for this.
Speaker 1: I have two young daughters that are soccer players. I
Speaker 1: want to show them that anything is possible and to
Speaker 1: get to share more of the beautiful game with local
Speaker 1: citizens or my fellow Texan. It's going to be an
Speaker 1: incredible honor a and welcome more global guests to Dallas.
Speaker 2: I want to know what keeps you up at night
Speaker 2: as you put this bid together.
Speaker 1: You know, honestly, it's the scale of it. When you
Speaker 1: think about the number of people that are coming.
Speaker 3: To this market.
Speaker 1: We are a spread out community, and you know, I
Speaker 1: think my biggest surprise and all of it, and the
Speaker 1: thing I'm maybe most proud of is how our entire
Speaker 1: community has worked together. Dallas and all the suburbs have
Speaker 1: worked together in such a great fashion. Transportation is obviously
Speaker 1: a big issue that a lot of people talk about
Speaker 1: safety and security, but we have come together in a
Speaker 1: great way. Monica Paul has been an unbelievable leader for us.
Speaker 2: I mean, you have been everywhere in the past two years.
Speaker 1: Really, Yeah, it's been quite a travel around talking about
Speaker 1: World Cup across the United States and specifically here in
Speaker 1: the Metroplex. It's great to share the story, but it's
Speaker 1: different than nineteen ninety four, so few people knew the
Speaker 1: World Cup was coming in ninety four. Everybody knows it's
Speaker 1: coming in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2: Speaking of looking past the World Cup, we do have
Speaker 2: an inordinate amount of subscribers from Buffalo, New York to
Speaker 2: the Texas edition. And what do you think about playing
Speaker 2: on Thanksgiving against the Bills in our new stadium, which
Speaker 2: I just do want to let you know is supposed
Speaker 2: to be much better with Lake effect wins.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know what. That has turned into a fierce rivalry,
Speaker 3: and it really is.
Speaker 1: And you've got two top quarterbacks there and two great teams.
Speaker 1: My brother recently toured the stadium before it opened and
Speaker 1: he said it's going to be.
Speaker 3: Really impressive there.
Speaker 1: So I'm hoping I have a happy Thanksgiving and maybe
Speaker 1: not the same for you, but.
Speaker 3: You know, it's going to be an exciting football season.
Speaker 1: I mean, the NFL is an amazing product, right and
Speaker 1: the way these quarterbacks are driving these teams, I can't
Speaker 1: remember a generation in the NFL of having better quarterbacks
Speaker 1: and that on field product is unreal.
Speaker 2: And I'm looking forward to seeing that one Well, one
Speaker 2: of us is going to have a great Thanksgiving, But
Speaker 2: wishing you the best month and thank you so much
Speaker 2: for being with Ustan.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you, Julie,