MonoTown FC is a brick football team in the fourth division of builders Liga, one of the top professional football leagues in the world, representing MonoTown the last coastal Lego City, the marauders are competing in their inaugural season, hoping for promotion. This show is presented by MonoTown TV, follow the club at MonoTownFC.com. Or for more information about the city of MonoTown, head over to MonoTown.tv. All right, welcome back, everybody to Sports Talk
Live WMTR MonoTown radio. And as always, I'm joined by Coach Andy, who's dialing in from the United States. We're here in Edinburgh, in Scotland at our studios, and a lot to talk about huge news over the last couple of weeks and days. MonoTown is getting a football club. And this is something that was not even on the cards until it was announced. Frankly, I don't think anybody was seeing this coming. So plenty to talk about
there. And you know, Coach Andy, what are your thoughts about this, we've got a team from the builders Liga, which is clearly one of the dominant leagues and professional football, we have a city that until a couple of days ago, we had never conceived of being able to have a football club anymore, because we just don't have the space or the resources to build out a field. And now we've got a floating stadium, a Premier League team coming to the city. And it's all a bit much to process, frankly.
I mean, what are some thoughts? Absolutely. Well, when I think about all of that, that is happening, I just I want to just give all the credit to Colin kinsmen, the chairman of MonoTown FC. We need to have visionaries in the world citizens who just believe in in the community in such a way and are willing to make things happen. I think about when the Indianapolis Colts came to Indianapolis in 1984. There were civic and community leaders who made it happen. And in fact,
it's kind of funny. When the team came from Baltimore to Indianapolis, they came on Mayflower trucks. And so that as a as since I live in Indianapolis, I immediately made that connection. And when I when I think about though, if if this idea didn't exist in Colin kins man's mind, the team would not be here. And we would not have the opportunity to celebrate as as a community, this kind of excitement because there is something that changes in a community when you have
professional football. It just, it brings people together and after 50 years to finally have something that's going to bring the citizens of MonoTown together to have this is our team, our club. It's going to be awesome. Absolutely. I mean, I couldn't agree more. And, you know, this is like always a tricky subject, I think, billionaire owner of a multinational conglomerate now has a new toy is maybe one way to look at it. And I think that would be the apprehension of a
lot of folks potentially. The other way to look at it is there have been a number of examples in the English premiership, for example, builders league itself, other leagues, where you have really, really good visionary owners, like you're saying, and it becomes this touchstone of the community. And I guess, like, you know, what do we think about I mean, we're thrilled with his decisions, are we worried that he'll get bored?
You know, we're coming in with a franchise that was literally bankrupt just over about 1218 months ago. It's not, you know, it's, it's yet to be yet to be seen how much investment is going to be required to get this team up? In his open letter to fans, he put out that there's a four year plan here that's following a model that we've seen very successfully before, but you know, what are the pitfalls and how, what are what are our thoughts? Is this a good thing? He's, he's taking the
helm himself. Seems like a good guy has been very successful in business, obviously very successful in this particular deal. But there could be risks and there's always unknowns.
Yeah, when I think about all of this, the thing that comes to my mind is that when American business people have come into the UK and purchase clubs like the Glazers pit purchase Manchester United or John Henry purchased Liverpool FC, they were taking over clubs that were so deeply connected to these communities into these cities and there was apprehension that is this just going to be something that is just kind of a trinket that you get To show off and you're not really going to
be invested. Are you going to care? I mean, the Glazers also own the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the American Football League. They just won the Super Bowl. Do they tick us? Yeah, exactly. Do they care about the fact that Manchester United has been struggling and is not, you know, lived up to their achievements under Sir Alex Ferguson. But but the thing I see here that's a little bit different is MonoTown FC has not had a team for over 50 years. And Colin has brought
the team to us too. And as a result, I think that he's going to be more deeply invested. And he's going to be willing to make the connections in the community to try to rally everyone together in the United States. We saw what happened. This is a changing sports. But when the Seattle SuperSonics, left Seattle, and came to Oklahoma City and became the Oklahoma City Thunder, Seattle lost something, right like the town, there was a hole in that
community. And so when the Seattle Sounders came to mLs, it was almost like there was a built in passion for sports that was just sort of lying dormant in that community. They had the Seahawks, of course, they had the Seattle Mariners and baseball. But but there was a sense of like, we want to be all in for a team. And so the Sounders have set, you know, records for the MLS, just with attendance through the years.
And I think that's what's going to happen with MonoTown FC with the Marauders, because I think the citizens of MonoTown, they've been waiting, and waiting and waiting, and now the opportunity has come. And because of that, I think they're going to be willing to give Colin the benefit of the doubt. Yeah, that's fair. And I mean,
it has been brutal, right? I mean, you've got just by the numbers, you've got huge TV ratings for the builders league within MonoTown, you have an extensive fan base that is usually supporting other teams, we're like the reverse Florida, right, you know, we're always traveling to go support another
team. And this idea that, you know, that we could walk down the street, well, not literally, because we're gonna have to take a boat or a monorail to this, this new floating Stadium, which we'll get to in a bit, is is a game changer, for sure. You know, he says it in his letter, we deserve a team to call our own. I thought that was interesting. And, you know, he felt he's on the other, I quote, I felt that the absence of sport rivalry and shared experience was something we should look to fill.
Absolutely. And, and let's just be honest, there is this element of just that goes along with what you're talking about, and even some fans apprehension, you know, this is the fourth division. And so this is not the highest level of, you know, of football, that's going to be played. But you know, sports are just like almost anything else in the world. If you have enough money, you have a pretty good chance to move forward. And
Colin has a lot of money. And so I anticipate that when he talks about this four year plan, I think, you know, MonoTown fans should be very disappointed if right off the bat. They're not successful within the Fourth Division and are on track for, you know, promotion. So I'm looking forward to it. And I just have to say, there are some initial signs that I feel like the money is being well spent. I really love the uniforms. I love the crest, I just I feel like it speaks to the culture of
MonoTown. And I think that's great. And then for them to hire someone like Scott Perry to be the first coach for him to come down to the Fourth Division at speaks to he has, you know, obviously, he's getting a lot of money. And so, you know, he believes, though, that in Collins vision for going forward, so I think that there's some really promising science for fans of MonoTown FC. Yeah, well, that's absolutely true. I mean, that's a record
setting salary. And what is it a 232 year deal with an option for another two? That has, I mean, really blown. Anything else in Division four, I mean, we're going to be having a coach that has been involved in multiple national teams and at the highest levels, and we're going to be going up against teams that are playing and effectively fields, dentists and farmers and so forth. So I mean, I yeah,
you're absolutely right. These already the first major announcements have been, we're spending 2 billion MonoTown pounds in MonoTown pounds on a stadium with a billion of public money on top of that, and then this massive hire was Scott Perry. So it's good. And even if the team is initially struggling with success, I have every expectation that the civic leaders in MonoTown are gonna be able to work with Colin to bring you know special events to the
stadium. I mean, concerts or just other like, community gatherings, I think it's gonna be awesome. Because some of the stuff that I've seen in some of these designs I'm just blown away with, and I just can't wait. Not, of course, I'm most excited as a sports fan to see that the team on the field, but I'm just looking forward to seeing just how this just grows, the global impact of and stature of MonoTown itself, because I think when people see this, they're gonna be like, Wow, that's impressive.
Yeah, for sure. And there's another financial element, which had to have been absolutely critical to this deal. And that is that MonoTown TV, brokered the sports package where all four divisions have actually, as all five divisions, a builder's Liga, will get carried by the channel, in addition, other TV rights, and that's an unprecedented thing as well. I mean, you're talking about, like, we said, games with dentists, and, yeah, farmers and
so forth. And now they're gonna have a full TV crew out there, and it'll be available for the whole world to enjoy. And that's a financial commitment that, you know, I don't know. But I think it would be a good bet that VHT Colin kinsmen, himself, or either himself or his company is somehow bankrolling that decision, because I cannot see, you know, we work for MonoTown TV, and I cannot see them, shelling out that type of
commitment. I mean, this is like, it reminds me actually, kind of like a reverse ACC network deal. Where what was that like a 15 year deal or something is unheard of with ESPN. And, you know, I think that has gone very well for maybe ESPN and very badly for the ACC, but I think so that's why it's a reverse. But, you know, when when you look at the the access that people are going to have now to the builders Liga, I think that's massive for this league, it's probably
unprecedented. I can't think of any other league that has the access that the builders league is going to have. And it takes the league from basically being on the brink of insolvency to some degree. And because of COVID-19, and a whole bunch of other reasons, to probably in a position where they can write their own ticket from from here on out. Yeah, I think that one of the things that's just fascinating is, and I know that we're we're sports enthusiast, and that's
what we're about. But the reality is, we live in a world in which the economics of sport are inextricably inextricably connected to the sports themselves. And it's clear this that a man like Colin kinsmen, has a vision for taking a product on the field on the pitch, and carrying it into something that is going to be a revenue producing sport, or revenues, revenue producing, you know, thing and in sort of his global portfolio of companies
and everything. And I just based on his track record of success, I am looking forward to seeing what's going to happen for MonoTown FC, and really, for the builders, Leaguer Liga overall, now, one of the things, John that I think that we need to talk about is what's going to happen as Coach Scott Perry takes over this roster, because, I mean, when, when they were the Mayflower pilgrims, the amount of money that was being invested in this club, you know, there were people who were taking
weekends off, because they were like the best man and a wedding like they weren't showing up. And that's just not going to work. I mean, a guy like Scott Perry is going to demand commitment. And he has the financial bankroll to demand that kind of commitment. And so we're going to see, you know, some of the players, that they're just not going to be able to move forward, they aren't gonna have the ability, maybe they aren't going to have
the commitment. But I think it's going to be interesting to see, are we going to look for veterans, you know, sort of players who are playing out the string, I'm reminded of when David Beckham came out to the MLS and was playing for the Galaxy out in Los Angeles. And it was sort of recognize he was still incredibly talented. But this was kind of the end of an era. And so he was he was just, this was an opportunity to make
some money. Same thing. When Wayne Rooney came, there have been, you know, other players who have done those kinds of deals to come to America just to
make money. It's a lower level of competition, maybe you're able to have a little bit more success and still get paid, MonoTown FC in the fourth division has an opportunity to sign some veteran players who could end up having a pretty good impact on on the league could be, you know, leading scorers could get some, you know, press coverage, notoriety, those kinds of things, but that's totally unheard of in the
fourth division. These are You know, MonoTown FCS vision is for people or for is for a soccer team or a football team that is made up of dedicated professional players. And so one of the questions I have is how many of the players on the current roster make it to day one with MonoTown FC? Absolutely. I mean that that right now, we it's been tight lipped. We don't have any players announced. You got to think to are you gonna move your
family across the ocean? Yep. To this the city that you may have never been to? Because why would you need to go there? If you're, if you're a football player? Yeah. It's a global city is very dense. It is not like Mayflower, England. That's that by any stretch. And so yeah, that's, I think that's a huge question mark. And, you know, it's like, like you were saying, I can't even think of a single division for player in the builders Liga, except for Muldoon of FC
Brixton. And of course, he led the league and goals and was the reason basically, that they got promoted. So but that's it. I mean, in You're talking like one profile piece, probably at the end of the season, once they were promoted. It's just these
are nobodies in general. Even if they had the, the roster announced today, we would we would be sitting there Googling, and we wouldn't find anything, frankly, no, it's been said that, oftentimes aunts and uncles don't even know that their nieces or their nephews are on the team. You know, it's these are not well known. These are
not household names. But here's the thing, if a player is able to play at MonoTown, for MonoTown FC, in this initial season, they have the opportunity to almost instantly become a legend. Yes, they're taking a risk, there is a chance that none of this is going to work out. But I think that it is, and you know, the stadium, we're hearing reports that it's going to have an initial
capacity about 35,000. And if you think about that one, that's there's no other, you know, you know, stadium in the in the fourth division, that's anything remotely of that size. But I mean, just think about the the numbers we were hearing over 10,000 people showed up just to see the crest, you know, unveiled. They were they were downtown, they were they saw this, there were I was talking with a dad who brought his three year old son, just he wanted to say I was there when they
unveiled that. And so it was this cool ceremony. People were buying shirts, they ran out of supplies, it just it far exceeded that. And I think that just speaks to this is a community that wants to get behind the team. They want to get behind the club. And if you come and if you get to be in the starting, you know, like roster on day one, you could, you know, drink off of that for the rest of your life. I mean, that's something that's going to be special.
And I mean, what I think about it, I don't think I've ever lived in a city that got a new franchise, at least that I can remember. I was in the Fort Lauderdale area, but that Miami FC was after that. Yeah, it's just, there's something about that new franchise smell apps that that people love. I live in Indianapolis. And when the Indy 11 came, it was a brand new franchise that it was it was something that was just
electric. The Carroll stadium was built for the Pan Am Games, the Pan American Games, you know, several decades ago. It's on the campus of IUPUI here in Indianapolis, and it was full, and the brickyard battalion, just immediately they were all in for just this new team. And they they were so involved, so engaged, there was people marching, parades, those kinds of things. And we're seeing so many of these same things with
in MonoTown. And I love it. I mean, I don't know what the traditions are going to end up being. If they're how they're going to engage with the Marauders, that name, you know, when we think about the supporter section, and what they're going to be known as some of that stuff is yet to be determined. But we're seeing communities like just this is not some astroturf campaign that
Colin kinsmen made happen. This is an organic thing where fans are coming together and they're saying we are in we want to be a part of this. And I think that's the kind of thing that is going to guarantee success going forward. That and a lot of common kinsmen is money. Yes. And I guess the other kind of unique thing that we have going for us is this is going to be I'm sure for a while a one
team sports town, right? And we've got a we got millions of people that are not split by multiple teams like you'd typically have. That's that is huge. It's it may turn out that this could be a very, very smart decision financially, in in addition to the romanticism that Uh, that's going to happen. And talking about that stadium, I think it's I think it's very smart to start off with that 35 to 45,000. Size, which is huge,
obviously. And but the plans are to get it up to 90,000 over the next couple of years, kind of in tandem with promotion if that if we can pull that off. That's a very smart thing. I don't know if I've ever seen that happen in terms of state, maybe maybe Soldier Field in Chicago. But I can't think of a whole lot. I mean, I know, there are some stadiums that have had been rebuilt and expanded. But this idea of kind of a two phase is interesting. And they certainly
better get to work. I mean, they would they claim they've been working in secret, which, you know, that's another interesting thing about this deal. We had no idea that a floating Stadium was being built off the coast of the city, because nobody is, you know, boating around that area, or at least not not many of us. So, you know that the season is only a few weeks away. And they're they're saying that they're going to, you know, open the doors and be ready and on
time. It's it's, it's amazing, frankly, yeah, you know, one of the things that I find interesting about this, is that in the United States, there are American football stadiums that have capacity of over 100,000 seats, whether that's the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles, or I guess I should say, Pasadena, or the Ohio State Stadium, the horseshoe in Columbus, Ohio, the big house in Ann Arbor, Michigan, all of these seats,
over 100,000 people. But what's interesting is those those stadiums, you kind of referenced this, John, but those stadiums grew up over time, it was you know, they've been playing football in these communities for such a long time. And the demand caused those stadiums to get bigger and bigger and bigger. And of course, there's ego involved, right? They want to have the biggest stadium, in the conference or whatever.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. But when when you think about that sort of thing, that's something that took a long time. But Colin kinsmen 's vision is he says it's a four year plan to get the height to the highest level of football, and he wants to get this stadium to be something that is recognized internationally as a landmark. And we haven't even seen it,
right. Like, I when I think about the expandability of this sort of thing I'm thinking about in 2022, the World Cup is in Qatar, there are stadiums that are being constructed that are going to then be disassembled and sent to Europe to be reassembled over there. And we've never seen anything like that either. And so I'm just sort of flabbergasted by what is the the plan because there absolutely has never been
anything quite like this. If we think about the San Francisco Giants and baseball, their stadium is right on the water, you can hit players could hit a home run, and there it goes into the bay. And when you see that happening there, there are people on kayaks who are chasing the ball, and there's something but this is an actual stadium out on the water. And that's like the whole thing is out there. I've just never seen anything like it.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, so questions, right, that people we've seen going around on social social media and the like, you know, is it gonna feel like it's on water? Now, we've been told that there will be kind of like, maybe like a cruise ship, there'll be no sensation of the stadium floating. I don't know. I mean, that sounds good. The other questions around, you know, the stadium is gonna be open air. So unlike a lot of English stadiums, no roof for the fans, but you know, our climate is a
lot less English as well. So that's probably not an issue. Transport seems to be a heavy thing. But that's also
interesting, right? Because you You're, you're essentially going to have to funnel 45 To 35 to 45 to 90,000 people out a couple of corridors, whether it's ferries, whether it's the monorail, whether it's you know, helicopters if you if that's the way you roll, so there's just a lot of these questions around the design of the stadium and also I mean, like, we don't really want to talk about this but it would just hit the elephant in the room there have been a number of security and
you know, kind of threats being made terrorism threats and so forth with the city and a lot of its infrastructure you know, this is this has to be a focus for folks that might want to disrupt But all that said, you know, one of the key things that was you so we got a we got a chance to peek at the the letter that was sent to the builders Liga. And basically was like kind of the first overture made
by by Colin kinsmen. Yeah, and he he He pointed out that that investment in the community and investment in a Academy would be key among, you know, bring basically football resources to monetize in the communities was a key part of his plan. So, you know, while he will, inevitably, you know, just throw down huge amounts of his own money, there's, there's going to be some sort of pressure very quickly to define players and develop players and sell players. And, you know, we know
how that goes. Absolutely. I think, though, that when, when I, when I see a letter like that, I'm immediately thinking about, this is a guy that knows what he's doing. I think he's not just some Johnny Come Lately, you know, guy who wants to sort of just, you know, make a name for himself and be in the
in the press. This is a guy who recognizes that even though he has a lot of money, he can't just spend all of his money, you know, on transfers, to bring in players, he's gonna have to develop them on his own as a club, they're gonna have to develop a team. And that's, that's the key, right? Whether we're, we're talking about Barcelona or Manchester United when they were at their absolute
peaks. There's a lot of players who grew up in in their academies and MonoTown FC is going to have to create some sort of similar culture. We know that Scott Perry likes to play an aggressive offensive style of play. But is that how they're going to plan for the future? Is that how they're going to try to develop Academy players? We don't know those things right now. The team has not yet appointed a technical director
to oversee the academy. But when when we talk about this sort of thing, it's exciting to me to just feel like Colin kinsmen, he might not be what we think of as the traditional like, all in, you know, soccer football fan. But he is somebody who recognizes there are things that he knows and things that he doesn't know. And he's going to get help. And he's going to be able to accomplish and do the things that are required to be successful.
Let's maybe spend a minute or two talking about react with like, as thrilled as we are here in MonoTown. New new football stadium, new club, four year plans, all that great owner, there is there's a huge group. Well, as huge as maybe the town of Mayflower could be in England, who are despondent, slash, disgruntled, hurt, enraged in certain negative
emotion there. And, you know, as much as it's going to bolster our community, destruction for their community, and I think that's probably the, the one criticism that you could lay at the feet of Chairman kinsmen, if you would, which is there's been a lot of this, this is very American kind of type of comments. And, and I get it, I mean, he is an American. Now now a dual citizen, has been in MonoTown for most of his life, but his business is very international always has been.
And, you know, we don't see the buying and selling of clubs, and we certainly don't see the moving of clubs in England or in the builders Liga. And this was kind of a desperation move, if anything by the by the League to say we're in financial trouble. And here's, uh, here's an airbag, or a parachute, or whatever. Yeah. And so I think that that would be a valid
concern. And I guess, to this mega investment or field of dreamstyle thing, you know, I guess it worked very successfully at Manchester City. I think it you know, it's probably mostly successful, like Tottenham, for example. But that, that probably is a bit of a mixed bag that, you know, they haven't won, you know, a cop in a while they got to a final. And, and so, you know, this big money, American style by the team relocate it? What are our thoughts? So I think that Colin kinsmen
deserves a lot of credit. And I mentioned earlier that I'm, you know, proud to live in Indianapolis. And when the Colts came, one of the things that was interesting is when the Baltimore Colts came to Indianapolis in the in the middle of the night, that the team was about to be taken, like eminent domain was sort of going to be implemented and Baltimore was just going to prevent Jim or say, as father, the current current owner of the Colts is Jim Irsay, his father bobbers,
say for moving the team. So they like they had multiple Mayflower trucks that all took different routes out of Maryland, you know, do that. But when the Colts came to Indianapolis, all of the franchise records all of the history of the Baltimore Colts sort of came over to Indianapolis. And that generated a lot of resentment because as much as we associate the Indianapolis Colts with Peyton Manning, the truth is, he's not the only Indianapolis Colts quarterback that's in the Hall
of Fame. Technically, if we just look at the going back, Johnny Unitas one of the greatest football quarterbacks of all time, he's he's in the Ring of Honor because he, he wasn't he was a legend. But he was a legend in Baltimore, he never played in Indianapolis. One of the things that I appreciate about Colin kinsmen, is that he's gone a different route with
this. Many years later, when the Cleveland Browns were their franchise was moved to Baltimore and became the Baltimore Ravens, the NFL and made it made a decision that they were going to just basically bank all of the records all of the the history of the Cleveland Brown franchise, and they would stay
in Cleveland. Even though the Ravens were moving became this new franchise, and we're coming from the Cleveland Browns, they were viewed as a new franchise starting and all of their records begin from when the Baltimore Ravens started play. That's the model that Colin kinsman has sort of adopted here, MonoTown FC has taken over the Mayflower pilgrims, but all of the rights to and all of the history stay in Mayflower and I feel like that's a kind of symbolic gesture of goodwill.
That yes, it that kind of moving franchises around is something that's much more American than something that happens in other parts of the world. But I feel like there was some sensitivity that like I'm making this move, but I'm not stealing your history. I'm not stealing your franchise in that way. There's going to be a time where in the Fourth Division, the Mayflower pilgrims will come back. And when they come back, they're going to have some of Colin kinsmen, is money supporting
them. Right. I mean, so I do think that this is this is something that he handled in about as good a way as it could be handled. Yeah, that's a really good point. And I mean, we've seen you know, that Charlotte is that's a good example in the NBA, right? They hadn't handled both both ways, actually, poorly. And then and then eventually, they got the franchise back. So interesting story there. So yeah, I guess it's never, never say never. So
let's see here. We've talked about the team being announced. Yes, huge outpouring of support. We've talked about builders Liga itself. And, you know, that that, that league, it's been interesting, because we have seen a number of reports on social media and so forth. Other Other teams congratulating Colin kinsmen congratulate the franchise, supporting it's been, it's been really interesting to see, because this is this is
also unprecedented, right? I think we had to get a waiver to basically be not an English club and still be in the builders Liga, from the FA and I mean, that that's unheard of, as well. So that was, I mean, that's one of the things you know, you sitting around and, you know, debating, would we ever get a professional sports team? Again, if anything that seemed like almost as big of a hurdle as we have nowhere to play or kick a
football? Yeah. So because there is no, there is no league that can be sustained in MonoTown right now. And that was always a challenge. So maybe, maybe some thoughts on that. And what does that what does that mean, for these leagues? You know, that it's been rumored for years and years that, you know, maybe there'll be an English premiership club that's in the US or something? I don't know. But like, what is and against the backdrop of all the Super League stuff, you know, these
multinational leagues? I mean, that's a tricky thing to navigate right now. Yeah, it's interesting. I live in the Midwest in the United States. And right now, a big topic of conversation is that the Southeastern Conference has just accepted and the opportunity for they've extended an invitation to the University of Texas in the University of Oklahoma to join their conference. There's really no way that you could ever say that in the United States, Texas and Oklahoma are part of the
southeast of our country. Yes. But it's about money. And so there is there's this sense that we're losing some of the traditional regional rivalries, and in my part of the country, all of all of the teams are basically in the big 10 and in our big 10 commerce are
basically in the Midwest. Until about, you know, a decade or two ago, we started bringing in teams that were on the East Coast, there's conversations that try to compete with the Southeastern Conference, the big 10 is going to start adding some teams from Los Angeles, USC, UCLA, they might bring in the University of Washington or the University of Oregon, those those, those colleges do not have any sort of historical connection to, you know, the big 10 conference in terms of just
affinity or anything like that, but it's about the money. And so when you're talking about this, John, one of the things I say is, so much of this is driven by TV contracts, and by the opportunity to generate revenue. Everybody thinks that the reason the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas are likely to join the SEC, the Southeastern Conference is because ESPN wants it to happen, because ESPN has a big contract
with the SEC. So I think that when you see these kinds of things, you know, I don't know what to predict, I just say follow the money. If you follow the money, you will end up seeing what's going to happen. And I think eventually, these kinds of super leagues that are not rooted in any one geographic region, but are rooted in a level of fandom a level of financial means that that's, that's where things are headed.
And you can say it's a good thing or a bad thing, depending on it, how your team is affected by all this. But this is just the reality of the world we live in. So your you think you think that the it's inevitable for some sort of super Liga thing to happen? I do. And I think that I mean, I loved this past year seeing fans throughout Europe rejecting that saying, like, No, we, we want to support, you know, our local clubs and these regional rivalries, I think that's great.
But I think it's coming, it's coming, eventually, there's an amount of money that the owners will just say, you know, we were just going to assume that our fans, even though there'll be disappointed, we're not ever going to be able to do anything to alienate them to a degree that they won't come back and support the club. And so the, they're gonna, they're gonna cash those checks. And again, this is not something I'm a fan of, it's just something that seems to be a reality of the
world. Well, it's funny, you mentioned about that about the big 10. So, you know, college football. I mean, there's me one of my favorite ESPN 30, for 30 years is talking about the demise of the Big East, which is basically, you know, the basketball conference that could not stand alone as a
basketball conference. And, you know, I just saw just, I think it was just yesterday, speaking of the big 10, talking about the West Coast teams is this idea of the Atlantic Coast Conference, which had historically been, you know, Tobacco Road in North Carolina. And then it expanded about 10 1015 years ago, and became pretty much along the eastern seaboard if you can somehow say that Notre Dame is
on the eastern seaboard. And sure, yeah, maybe maybe, you know, you have to squint to say that Notre Dame is even part of the ACC. But yeah, there's a proposal of like, change this to just the the you have the Atlantic coast and the Pacific Coast Conference, and add, like, you know, 12 teams all along, you know, in California, Oregon, all that type of thing. And as dramatic as that seems. I don't know it, to some extent, when you think back to what the 19.
ACC was in the 90s. When I when I was growing up, and you know, these intense rivalries? Are you playing everybody twice, whatever those days are over, and I just don't even know if it matters anymore. From a college sports perspective. You're just trying to get to the tournament at the end of the day anyway.
Yeah, so Well, I mean, the thing that that owners have going is that on some level, when we support our local team, we're just cheering for laundry to sort of borrow a line from Jerry Seinfeld, we're just cheering for the guy who's wearing the jersey. And if he was wearing the other team's jersey, we
would hate him. You know, I mean, like, there's just the sense that we are from a community and so we're for our team, and we can like some things that the management does, and we can hate some things they do. But, I mean, that's the nature of being a supporter is we're committed no matter what. Yeah, for sure. It's probably a good note to end on. I think, you know, we'll be back at our normal time next week. And by that point, I expect roster
announcements to be happening. I expect a flurry of news around what Scott Perry is going to do. He's got he's got staff to hire. We've got games that are coming up imminently. And MonoTown is slated for a home opener, which is going to be an event that's August 7 at 3pm British time Now, you know, they're playing against blocks County. Frankly, I don't know anything about this team. And we don't know anything about MonoTown FC either. We're gonna have to do our homework. So plenty to talk
about. And as always, if if anyone's got, you know, comments, questions, things that they want us to cover, even if it's in the wider world of sports, not just you know, MonoTown FC. Feel free to send that in. My name is John. This is Andy coach Andy it's always a
pleasure. And we are we're looking forward to the season and to next week and to everything that kind of the the next few months holds absolutely what will see you and I guarantee the next time we get together, we are going to be able to talk about this Never Say Die attitude that MonoTown FC marauders like that's what they're about. That's what we're
seeing in the crest. That's where we're gonna see in the uniforms and we look forward to just being here for it and celebrating it and commenting on it every step of the way.