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00:00Dan Hunt, president and co-owner of FC Dallas, always great to have you back here.
00:04Yeah, great to see you, Julie.
00:05Also, I want to talk to you being co-chair of the organizing committee in North Texas.
00:10I know this has been a long, long venture for you being involved with this.
00:15How do you feel going in?
00:16Yeah, I'm excited.
00:17I'm about to enter month 107 working on the World Cup,
00:21and it has finally all come to fruition,
00:23and it's so great to get that first kick coming up in a couple days.
00:27The Dallas Sports Commission has estimated more than a $1.5 billion economic boost to the area,
00:33up to over $2 billion.
00:35Does that come to fruition?
00:37Yes, I believe it will come to fruition.
00:39If you think about Super Bowls, the average visitor comes for less than three days,
00:43and we have nine Super Bowls with nine games in Dallas,
00:47but visitors in the World Cup come for just under 10 days.
00:50And so they'll be staying at our hotels, spending at restaurants, buying gas, going to retail.
00:55So I see a huge economic boom for our area.
00:59Talk about now it's Dallas Stadium.
01:01We know it as AT&T Stadium, but it's certainly Dallas Stadium now.
01:04FIFA estimates that it will hold more than 90,000 people for World Cup games.
01:08If you do the math there, that's more than 845,000 for the total nine matches.
01:13First of all, what do you think of those numbers?
01:15I mean, the scale of this is so massive,
01:17and I don't know that we'll be in the 90s for World Cup games.
01:20We're raising the pitch at AT&T Stadium by four or five feet,
01:24which will have some seat kills associated with that.
01:27But, you know, if you even think about it, between 700,000 and 800,000 tickets is a huge number.
01:32Frankly, I need for there to be more tickets with the number of ticket requests that I've had
01:36over the last couple of months.
01:38And so it's great.
01:39In this entire tournament, there could be over 7 million tickets available.
01:43Do you think the games in Dallas will sell out?
01:46There's been a lot of questions about sellouts, period.
01:48Yeah, I think the games in Dallas will sell out.
01:51If you think about the matches that we have, five great group stage games with powerhouses
01:55like England, Croatia, Japan, Holland, Argentina with Messi, I think those games will sell out.
02:02When you get into the later games, the opponents aren't defined, right,
02:05because those are elimination games and they're coming out of their different groups.
02:09But this is a sports city.
02:11It has a giant sports appetite.
02:13So I think the stadiums will be full.
02:14I want to talk to you about the ticket prices.
02:16And again, I know those are set by FIFA.
02:18It does not go through the host committees.
02:20But there's a lot of questions about the pricing, how many were available, and the rollout.
02:25Do you think that affects attendance overall?
02:27You know, it's hard to say.
02:29I don't think it will affect attendance.
02:31The rollout is a little bit nontraditional, how we would do it in American sports.
02:35But FIFA has their way of doing it.
02:37And they've gotten some criticism over the prices.
02:40And they went back and repriced some cheaper tickets.
02:42And what I would say, you know, is there's a market demand for this.
02:47And the revenue they generate from the World Cup supports soccer globally.
02:51Their initiatives from grassroots to growing the men's game, growing the women's game,
02:55all the money associated with prize money, player money to clubs, and just in developing nations and helping the game
03:02along.
03:02And this is really their pinnacle, you know, tentpole moment that they have every four years.
03:07And so I know it's a delicate balance, right?
03:10You want it affordable for fans because fans make the game.
03:13But you also need to be able to have, you know, the money to help support the game for the
03:18next four years.
03:19Soccer is obviously extremely important to you.
03:22You are actually a sponsor in Dallas for the World Cup.
03:26You are a personal sponsor.
03:28Let's talk a little bit about why you decided to do that.
03:32Yeah, I'm proud to be a hometown supporter for Dallas.
03:35It was important to me.
03:36I mean, I can put my time and effort behind this, which, like I said, has been almost 107 months.
03:42And it also shows, though, my enthusiasm for it to put financial support.
03:46I want this to leave a lasting legacy.
03:49And that support will go to help creating mini pitches and communities around in areas that need fields,
03:54safe spaces for kids to play soccer.
03:57And it also will help support our local organizing committee.
04:00I mean, putting on a World Cup is incredibly expensive.
04:03And also we have this gigantic fan fest at Fair Park for those that aren't going to World Cup matches.
04:08We'll have 35,000 people a day at Fair Park.
04:10You've not specified how much you have put in personally.
04:13Is it over a million?
04:14It's a multimillion-dollar investment, and I'm proud to do it.
04:18This is me supporting soccer and also supporting the game I love so much.
04:22I want to take a step back here.
04:24Your father, when you look at it, just instrumental in beginning Major League Soccer in the United States.
04:29What's so interesting to me is he, too, served as a co-chair of the Dallas Host Committee.
04:33That's back in 1994.
04:36Emotionally, what has this been like for you?
04:39It's been an amazing journey is what it's been like.
04:41So many of the similarities, the hard work that goes into it, the countless meetings, speaking engagements, raising enthusiasm, fighting
04:50for the International Broadcast Center.
04:52He was so proud of that in 1994, having it at Fair Park.
04:56We get to have it again here in Dallas at the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center.
05:00This is where the storytelling of World Cup 2026 will take place, broadcasting back to almost 200 countries.
05:06And that was so important to him, and I see it now as I'm more an older adult and experiencing
05:13this.
05:14And being able to share those commonalities, it really is that connection.
05:18My dad's been gone for a long time now, but it just touches the heart.
05:23It really brings you back to so many happy memories.
05:25He was so proud to bring the World Cup to Dallas in 1994.
05:30You were there, and you've been to every World Cup since.
05:33You just kind of went through a laundry list of all the games you've been to in all the places.
05:38Is there anything that specifically stuck out to you?
05:41Oh, I mean, there's so many memories.
05:43I've been to every World Cup since 1986, seen over 130 World Cup matches.
05:48Here's what sticks out to me, and this is my big hope for our visitors and guests and the locals
05:54going to games,
05:55that you create lifetime memories with families and friends.
05:58There have been so many great memories, so many great experiences, experiencing cultures.
06:02I hope our visitors get to experience this Texas hospitality.
06:05We do it bigger and better than anyone else.
06:08Your family's invested so much into Major League Soccer over the years.
06:12It's the most popular sport in the world, but here in the United States, it's not football, basketball, baseball.
06:19Why do you think it's taking this long for soccer to really make those inroads?
06:23Well, if you really think about Major League Soccer, we're only 31-plus years old now.
06:29If you think about the game in Europe, a lot of these leagues and teams are over 100 years.
06:33So they have this unbelievable history, much longer than anything we've seen so far in soccer.
06:39And if you look at where Major League Soccer has come from 1996 to today, I mean, it's just a
06:46monumental shift.
06:47So I think we're on this unbelievable trajectory, yet it's not the NFL, it's not the NBA.
06:52But my father was a big believer that in 50 years, soccer could catch those leagues.
06:57One area where soccer is growing exponentially, and you're very involved, is youth sports.
07:04Youth sports, it's right.
07:06That is the lifeblood of soccer.
07:08The rest of the world develops a lot of their own players, and those players go through to the professional
07:13teams.
07:14We do an amazing job at FC Dallas of doing that.
07:16If you look at the U.S. men's national team, you'll have four FC Dallas players on the team.
07:21Ricardo Pepe, Weston McKinney, Chris Richards, and Alejandro Zendejas.
07:25All four of those players came from the FC Dallas youth system.
07:28And that's how the game is played globally.
07:31You develop your own talent, and we lead that whole area.
07:34On the business side of this, in terms of your growing brands, broadcast rights,
07:38what are your thoughts on Lionel Messi and revenue-sharing, ownership rights?
07:42Is that the future here?
07:44MLS was modeled after the NFL.
07:46My father was really the father of Major League Soccer, and he borrowed a lot of those revenue-sharing models
07:52from the NFL.
07:53And so, yeah, having Lionel Messi play in the league has been an unbelievable uptick there.
07:58But working with Apple, too, this is this amazing change we're about to have.
08:02This year we moved in front of the paywall, so you can watch Ted Lasso and watch FC Dallas without
08:07having to pay extra.
08:08But we're also changing our schedule to a traditional European calendar next year, and I think that's going to really
08:14be a boost for the league.
08:16What do you hope comes from this World Cup bid?
08:18A couple things.
08:19Like I said, lifetime memories for family and friends.
08:21I hope it inspires the American Messi.
08:24I hope it inspires a young person who wasn't going to pick soccer to wind up picking Major League Soccer,
08:30picking FC Dallas, developing here.
08:32I think that would be great for the game.
08:33And, look, they say one of the biggest statistics is hosting nations of World Cups, that their national team has
08:39a successful tournament.
08:40Their average attendance increases by 30 percent after the World Cup.
08:44So I hope that for all professional soccer in America.
08:48Women's World Cup in the United States in 2031.
08:51It's coming.
08:52We're going to start working on it in August.
08:54We've already started, but really get going in August of this year.
08:58My stated goal is to bring the final to Dallas in the Women's World Cup in 2031.
09:03I'm so excited for this.
09:04I have two young daughters that are soccer players.
09:07I want to show them that anything is possible.
09:09And to get to share more of the beautiful game with local citizens or my fellow Texan, it's going to
09:15be an incredible honor.
09:16And welcome more global guests to Dallas.
09:19I want to know what keeps you up at night as you put this bid together.
09:23You know, honestly, it's the scale of it.
09:25When you think about the number of people that are coming to this market, we are a spread-out community.
09:31And, you know, I think my biggest surprise in all of it and the thing I'm maybe most proud of
09:36is how our entire community has worked together.
09:39Dallas and all the suburbs have worked together in such a great fashion.
09:43Transportation is obviously a big issue that a lot of people talk about, safety and security.
09:46But we have come together in a great way.
09:48Monica Paul has been an unbelievable leader for us.
09:51I mean, you have been everywhere in the past two years, really.
09:55Yeah, it's been quite a travel around talking about World Cup across the United States and specifically here in the
10:02Metroplex.
10:03It's great to share the story, but it's different than 1994.
10:06So few people knew the World Cup was coming in 94.
10:09Everybody knows it's coming in 2026.
10:12Speaking of looking past the World Cup, we do have an inordinate amount of subscribers from Buffalo, New York to
10:20the Texas edition.
10:22And what do you think about playing on Thanksgiving against the Bills in our new stadium, which I just do
10:27want to let you know is supposed to be much better with Lake Effect wins?
10:29Yeah, you know what?
10:31That has turned into a fierce rivalry.
10:34Their best rivalry.
10:35It really is.
10:37And you've got two top quarterbacks there and two great teams.
10:40My brother recently toured the stadium before it opened, and he said it's going to be really impressive there.
10:47So I'm hoping I have a happy Thanksgiving, and maybe not the same for you, but it's going to be
10:54an exciting football season.
10:55I mean, the NFL is an amazing product, right?
10:58And the way these quarterbacks are driving these teams, I can't remember a generation in the NFL of having better
11:03quarterbacks, and that on-field product is unreal.
11:06And I'm looking forward to seeing that one.
11:08Well, one of us is going to have a great Thanksgiving, but wishing you the best month, and thank you
11:13so much for being with us, Dan.
11:14Yeah, thank you, Julie.
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