00:00I'm curious to get your take, first of all, on the renegotiated media deal that Major League Soccer has done with Apple TV.
00:07What's your take?
00:09Well, I think we have a major change has been actually the schedule also that the MLS is going to be doing to equate with the FIFA world schedule.
00:19I think that's going to be a definite plus.
00:22I think sports is an asset that's going to grow in the United States.
00:26And that's why we took a lead and invested in San Diego.
00:29And the third point is San Diego is just the markets, an amazing market for us.
00:34So as an asset class, I believe this is going to be a very good investment for us over the years to come.
00:40And if you look at the returns, you can see that the MLS, the valuation of a lot of the clubs, Scarlett, has almost doubled in the last four years or five years.
00:49And I expect that that will happen over the coming years, especially with the World Cup coming sometime in June and July of this year, which will be a game changer.
00:57Yes, I'm so glad you bring that up, too, Mohamed.
00:59How can the MLS, how can San Diego FC maximize the impact of the World Cup?
01:06Well, by, you know, the American fan base increasing.
01:10It's already, by the way, not many people know this, but the American fans, the fan base, last year was 12.1 million fans that watch the games.
01:20This is second only to the Premier League.
01:22So having the population that you have in the United States and the athleticism in the country and the sportsmanlike, I think it's going to be, I think we're at the tip of the iceberg.
01:33And I think sports will increase in the United States.
01:35Soccer will increase in the United States.
01:37And that's why we're investing in this amazing city of San Diego.
01:41And by the way, San Diego Football Club to come out number one in the Western Conference has been, you know, nobody predicted this.
01:49We're an expansion team.
01:51Yeah.
01:51And we, everybody was saying we're going to be number 30.
01:54We're number one in the Western Conference.
01:56Love it when that happens.
01:57One thing that's different about American soccer versus those soccer in Europe is that there is no promotion and relegation.
02:03And when do you think MLS will add promotion and relegation?
02:06And do you think that would be a good thing for the MLS?
02:10I don't think so.
02:11I think the way the MLS is structured now is great.
02:14I think a lot has been done over the 30 years, the 30 past years with Don Garber as the commissioner.
02:20And I think the MLS will grow over the coming years because interests will grow.
02:25The clubs have, you know, are improving year by year.
02:29And the fan base is improving year by year.
02:31For us as an expansion team, for example, we were getting an average of 28,000, you know, fans that attend our games on the average.
02:40In the last four games, it's been sold out.
02:43Nobody ever expected this.
02:44I didn't expect this.
02:46But we have a great team, a great, you know, unity, resilience.
02:51And, you know, the players are doing an amazing job in the management too.
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