00:00Is the U.S. ready for the World Cup?
00:02You know, Christina, thank you for having us today.
00:05I think we are.
00:06I mean, we have been working at this for about three and a half years.
00:10Government isn't working very closely with FIFA.
00:12I think the biggest challenge is that we have sort of a fragmented system here in the United States
00:17where we have 11 host cities where these events are normally run by one organizing committee.
00:21And the country is quite large.
00:22You can't just hop from one to the other.
00:24This is very true, and I think that's something that can also potentially propose some additional stress
00:30that might happen with transportation.
00:33What are the biggest obstacles you're seeing?
00:34Is it logistics? Is it transportation? Is it all of the above?
00:37I think it's all of the above.
00:39I mean, the logistics are certainly a challenge.
00:41I think individuals coming from different countries are going to recognize just how big the United States is.
00:45Just planning your trip.
00:47You know, if you have to go from Kansas City to Boston, that involves several flights.
00:50Then you have to figure out how you're going to get to the stadium.
00:53But Travis Murphy, your specialty is immigration in the context of athletics.
00:56So I'm curious, kind of at both levels, are you detecting more unease or trepidation among athletes
01:02about coming here in light of the heightened enforcement that Christina mentioned?
01:05Are you seeing that among fans as well?
01:06How much is that a concern, just the uncertainty surrounding immigration policy in this country as all of this unfolds?
01:11Yeah, it absolutely is a significant concern for individuals looking at traveling over.
01:17You know, FIFA has done a good job of creating a process for the teams,
01:21even some of those that are on travel ban lists to be able to travel to the United States.
01:25We're talking about the teams themselves, players, coaches, physios, the people behind the scenes.
01:30But the fans themselves, yeah, there's a lot of concern.
01:33And there hasn't been, despite calls for this, really any reassurances that there won't be a heavy-handed security presence
01:41who might be pulling people out of the crowd.
01:43And so I think there's, understandably, still a lot of concern.
01:47Your team helps handle some of those negotiations about those teams getting over, getting their visas.
01:52Is there concern still among members of the team?
01:56Have you heard reticence or concern that even though, yes, the paperwork is here,
02:00that that's not going to be the case once they get here?
02:02Or are you satisfied with the U.S. government's response?
02:04I think for the teams themselves, they're going to be fine.
02:06The fans are a different question.
02:08Because you're talking about fans coming over.
02:10And there's really two ways that fans can come over.
02:12There's those that can travel on what's called visa waiver.
02:14So that's 42 countries that are allowed to travel without going into an embassy.
02:18They just fill out an online application.
02:20And that's typically kind of Western Europe, South Korea, Japan, more developed nations,
02:25allied nations with high-level information sharing.
02:28But then you have visas, people who have to go into a United States embassy
02:32and apply for a visa to come to the United States.
02:34And there's been a lot of conversation around whether or not people will be approved,
02:39if they can get an appointment in time.
02:41But then you have this additional layer of complication or concern over what happens when we get there.
02:46As David mentioned, there's the transportation element, there's the logistics, there's the price hikes.
02:51And frankly, just the barrier to entry to even get a ticket into these games
02:54has been widely reported as being the most expensive sporting event in history.
02:58We were talking about that USA Paraguay game.
03:00It was like 1,500 minimum respect.
03:02This week, four tickets went on sale for the finals game on the secondary market.
03:08There were $2 million in tickets.
03:09Wow. Incredible.
03:11David, let me pull back a bit.
03:12We're talking about this in the context of the World Cup.
03:14But just since the second Trump term started,
03:16has it been more of an issue for athletes who live overseas to come here to the U.S.
03:20to join teams and play?
03:21Is it something that goes beyond the World Cup, the crucible of the World Cup?
03:25Yeah, I mean, certainly.
03:26The administration has added an additional layer.
03:29You know, there are things that, you know, exist in Trump 2.0 that didn't exist in the first term.
03:33So we have additional travel bans.
03:35There are visa waiver bonds that individuals that need to pay if they want to come to the United States.
03:41So there's an additional layer.
03:42And I think, you know, these federations are trying to figure out how they navigate those different processes.
03:48I will say this, the government is working and very communicative about what those policies look like.
03:54And so it's a challenge, but we're working through it.
03:57It's not ambiguous.
03:58They're willing to engage.
03:59That's correct.
04:00Yeah, they're willing to engage.
04:01But when you're dealing with, you know, MLB, NHL, hockey, these big sports firms,
04:08and they recruit people from all over the world, are athletes, I mean, this is where athletes, for the most
04:13part,
04:13are getting the best gigs, the highest-paying gigs.
04:16When they're looking at that risk-benefit analysis, are you hearing any kind of pullback
04:20that people are reluctant to even take those slots, not like the really high-paying level, but the lower level?
04:25Is that part of the conversation and the thought process for these athletes,
04:28whether or not they want to live the next couple years of their lives in the U.S.,
04:31whether they get their families here, whether this is something they want to deal with?
04:33You know, it's a tough choice, but I think, you know, the benefit that the United States has
04:38is that we have the best leagues in the world.
04:40You know, these players want to come here.
04:42They understand that that cost-risk analysis is that coming to the United States
04:46can open pathways and avenues from a commercial standpoint, from a sponsorship and branding.
04:51So I think they're willing to take that risk.
04:53Travis, let me ask you about sports diplomacy, which is a phrase we hear around the World Cup.
04:57We heard about it during the Olympics a few months back.
04:59You were in the Foreign Service, Foreign Service Officer before.
05:02What does it mean today?
05:03How vibrant is sports diplomacy at the moment when we've seen, obviously,
05:06the U.S.'s diplomatic footprint retrenched under this administration?
05:10Yeah, there's a strange dichotomy here that sports diplomacy, I don't think,
05:14has ever been as widely utilized.
05:17We hear it a lot, as you said, in kind of news.
05:19And here in Washington, D.C., there's a lot of different entities that are trying to now
05:23figure out how best to engage in sports diplomacy.
05:26But it means different things to different people.
05:28And we're doing this in an environment where diplomacy isn't necessarily the top priority
05:33of, you know, the administration.
05:35I do think that there is a – we're in a unique situation in the United States in that
05:40we're one of the very few countries in the world that doesn't have a ministry of sports.
05:43Most other countries you go to, including Canada and Mexico, have a federal-level coordinating
05:48body that coordinates sports and, you know, sees sports policy as integral to their engagement
05:54with foreign countries.
05:55We don't have that in the United States.
05:56And it's not like the NBA, NFL are looking for more federal government involvement in
06:00their day-to-day operations.
06:01But at the same time, I think when we look at this landscape of events, the World Cup
06:06this summer, the World Military Games next year, the Olympics in 28, and on through the
06:102034 Winter Games back in Utah, we just – we're seeing this disconnect between widespread
06:16government coordination at a sustainable pace.
06:20We have a task force in place for the World Cup, but doing a task force for each individual
06:24event is obviously pretty inefficient.
06:26So one of the things we've been working on is how do we elevate the conversations around
06:31sports where we see that as a real policy tool, get away from this idea of soft power
06:35and more towards this idea that sports is, frankly, one of the most influential, you know,
06:42aspects of our culture and our society that we have to reach the world.
06:45David, to that point, very quickly before we have to go, what does success look like?
06:50If the U.S. wants a sports diplomatic win here, what do these events, the World Cup,
06:54the Olympics, what are they looking for?
06:56What does that look like?
06:57I mean, first off, it has to be secured.
07:00Logistically, I think people need to be able to come and go.
07:02I think the athletes need to be able to perform without any distractions.
07:06And I think, you know, again, we have 11 host cities in the United States, all of them
07:11pulling equal weight because I think the tournament's success is only going to be as good as our
07:16weakest link.
07:16So we want to make sure that L.A. is just as good as Boston and Boston is just as
07:20good
07:20as Dallas.
07:21Do you think we're going to pull it off?
07:22I think so.
07:23I have a good confidence.
07:24Same here?
07:25Yeah.
07:25No, it's going to be a great event.
07:27You know, inevitably, there will be headlines.
07:29There will be hiccups.
07:29You can't have six million ticketed fans coming in for games and not have a few issues.
07:34Thank you, ma'am.
07:34OK.
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