Is this Fred Durst on the radio program today? Is that what I'm hearing? Is this Fred Durst? Of course, so this must mean so Scott Mitchell was supposed to join us a segment. But if you're playing Limp Biscuit, Oh no.
This is Scott Mitchell. It's his walk up song.
This is Scott Mitchell's walk up song. So okay, a couple of things here. Tell Scott Mitchell he's dead to me? Please, will you please pass that message along?
No, I'm serious. Tell them say you are dead to Spence. Spence says you're dead. To tell him he's going to be sleeping with the fishes.
There's gonna be a horse's head in his bed when he wakes up.
You be careful what that's a big guy. I ain't afraid. Harder they fall. Everyone.
Everyone has a plan till they get punched in the face. Scott is a big guy. Our next get you know what I'm not.
That's cheap.
That's cheap, and I'm bigger than that. Okay, I'm not going to do that to our guy because I did it enough last week. Because we love our guy. We love our guy. We're gonna get back to some college football. But there is a little RSL news, the Nunky Calf Champions Cup or whatever the hell they're calling it.
The draft took place. They signed a new player.
The historian, the unofficial historian, the Wikipedia wiki tray, Senior VP.
What's your title? These days? I always lose track?
Yeah, VP of Communications, But I've answered a pretty much anything.
Yeah, but don't be pretentious now that you're a VP. Oh, nobody wants to hear that.
It's not a new thing, just to you. I guess.
Trey Fitzgerald is our guest on a Friday. I kid because we love him. Happy Friday, buddy, how are we doing?
Happy Friday? That is the best intro song I could have ever imagined. That's behind blue Eyes. What a great lymp Biscuit track.
Don't know what the name is, and don't say that it's great, but I you know, I probably shouldn't give you too much of a hard time, because, as you admitted, lymp Biscuit got you through your second divorce.
The first, not the second.
Oh what which which horrible pop artists got you through your second divorce?
Rihanna not horrible? All right?
Biscuit gets him through his first. Rihanna gets in through a second. Any prediction as far as what will get you through third.
There will be it's third. Man.
I don't know, Man, I don't know. And look I can't talk. But let's move on from it quickly before we get ourselves in trouble, all right, fill us in. It was and look, I'm a I didn't know much about the CONCA CAF stuff until our first experience back in the day two thousand and nine to ten or whatever, and what I experienced and I'm like, this is this is a.
Really cool tournament.
So I'm excited that RSL is back in Conca calf What do we know?
What do we need to know about the draw?
Yeah, honestly, Spence, this has been rejuvenating. Obviously disappointing endo the season with the penalty kicks, shootout losses against Minnesota kind of go into a dark time when you take your foot off the gas, uh, But you gain perspective, and we did have a very successful twenty twenty four season with the points and the goals and the home wins. But I think the tangible success piece is earning a CONCACAF birth and getting back into continental competition for the
first time in eight years. So we had the draw on Tuesday and Real Salt Lake is matched up with the Costa Rican club named Herediano, and we will play down there in Costa Rica against Herediano on February nineteenth, and then they turn around and come back and play up here at America First Field in Sandy on February twenty six and we are so excited to be back
in that competition. We're able to get out of those two legs against Herediano, we'll go and play a two leg series in the round of sixteen against La Galaxy that just won MLS Cup last Saturday. So now the pieces are kind of starting to fall into place so we can plan for next year.
Didn't you tell me at one point the Galaxy were too soft to win MLS Cup this year?
I did it, knows how little I know what I'm talking about. You know what, they were harder without Ricky Pousche on the field, and that's why they won MLS Cup. They're not soft anymore, just.
Their best player. Yeah, okay, yeah, all right, fair enough, all right.
If we expand our horizons and RSL goes and potentially either wins this tournament or shows very well, what are the benefits for the club should they make a good run in CONCA CAF.
Yeah, first and foremost money. You get hundreds of thousands of dollars for playing in and then advancing from each round. You win CONCA CAF Champions Cup, you get five million dollars on top of that, and then you get a berth in both the Club World Cup for FIFA and
then a new tournament called the FIFA Intercontinental Cup. I don't know exactly what that means and what that is, but hey, to get to get into two tournaments where you're potentially playing against Manchester United or Real Madrid with trophies and money on the line, that's pretty cool.
Speaking of MLS Cup, and I know I'm going to get the tray spin on this, and that's fine. But according to Sports Business Journal, the linear audience was down massively and c K and I were debating and the number we put was five hundred k and it ended up four hundred and thirty one thousand people watched MLS Cup.
Now that's obviously not a great number, of course, streaming, Apple TV, whatever, But what's the league stance on a number for the biggest game of the season that didn't have a great viewing audience according to Sports Business Journal.
Yeah, and it looks it's disappointing, right, It's fifty percent less than MLS Cup was on Fox the year before. I think what kind of gets lost in some of these top line conversations is we don't know how many people were able to watch on Apple on top of that, and obviously now we are two years into training people to go to Apple for MLS. I believe the previous Cup had almost two million viewers on Apple on top
of that Fox number. So you know, it is a disappointing Linear number, But I would I would imagine two two and a half million people probably watched streaming on Apple last Saturday. So that would lead you to say, okay, we have a break even audience between English, Spanish, Apple and Linear. So look, the Apple thing's a hard thing, right,
because the production quality is great. I think it's really cool that Alex Catranas and Matt Crooks and Chico's families all over the world they can watch their games live. But you know, we have fewer households that watch us in the state of Utah than we did when we
had a three hour infomercial on KMYU. And the hard thing with I think the Apple deal financially, you know, it's a two and a half billion dollar deal for this league and teams benefit from that, but having it behind not only an Apple TV Plus paywall, but then an MLS Season Pass paywall on top of that, it makes it hard for casual fans to find your product. And that's something that certainly Messy has helped with during his year plus in MLS and in the Apple ecosystem.
And there are Board of Governor meetings yesterday and today back in New York where the owners and the presidents and the CBOs are all getting together trying to figure out, Okay, how do we keep growing this thing, how do we take advantage of Messy? How do we get ready for the World Cup here in North America in twenty twenty six.
Is there a a place where I can go to reference this two to two point five million viewers on Apple?
Is there a reference point?
Now? Oh? Oh, they don't have data.
Well, okay, so let's see seventy million people watched MLS Cup on Apple TV. If that's if that's the they don't release data, how are we supposed to analyze anything.
Well, it's for your protection, Spencer. You don't want the FBI get into your Apple stuff.
But if there's no reference point, we can just make up whatever number.
Yeah, I agree with you. It's quite a conundrum.
No, it's more than a conundrum. It's straight up dishonest. It is intellectual dishonesty. And I will not stand for this.
Gerald.
I applaud you and your efforts and your commitment.
To the bit making MLS great again, the Tray fitz Gerald story.
Just making up numbers on the fly. Goodness, gracious? All right? For real?
How how the Apple television situation? You reference the local stuff and RSL was one of the RSL. I mean, I give you a lot of guff, but RSL, mostly thanks to you Trey, was able to carve out a local broadcast footprint that actually did pull good numbers locally. But I believe what I read when the release and I guess now whatever, let's just make it up, was like four or five local teams really benefited. RSL was
one of them. From a league wide standpoint. What are the returns after a couple of seasons with the partnership with Apple, and you think it's just the new normal period moving forward.
Yeah, I think we were probably one of the four or five teams that were really hurt locally by that deal. But you have to you know, MLS is up to thirty teams now with San Diego coming in next year, and with the way the media models have broken and are breaking, especially regional sports networks, there were several MLS teams that really had nowhere to put their games. I think the last non Apple year while we were in
doing the success that we were on KMYU. You know, Dallas and DC United are putting streams on their website and it you know, so when you think about it from a global standpoint, if your only you know league, you know how leagues look at these things, and if you're only as strong as your weakest link, you had
to do something. Now, there are people, especially with the Fox numbers coming out over the last five six days, there are people that are saying, Okay, it was a smart idea for MLS to bet on Apple, the most innovative, you know, internet company in the world, But did they commit themselves to that model too early? Because we're kind of in this purgatory and now you see, like what Ryan Smith is doing with the Jazz and Utah Hockey
Club and what the Phoenix Suns are doing. There are a lot of NBA and NHL teams that are now doing what we did for eighteen years on free over the AIRTV here with RSL, and everything's a trade off. You know, we lose sponsor opportunities and partnership opportunities by not having that local television over the air, even cable presence. But cable's breaking down. I can't tell you where it's
going to go. I do know Apple and MLS have committed to each other for ten years, so there is a sense that, hey, we're going to grow this thing together. I think the Apple Friday Night Baseball deal has come under you know, kind of mixed emotions. There are people that really love it, there are people that think it's too limited and it needs to expand more. And I guess if you went to any non NFL team and looked at their local or regional television deal, fifty percent
are probably really good and fifty percent are lacking. So I think we're just kind of in this purgatory where journalism has declined. Media ecosystems are changing, but no reliable or beloved model has emerged from all that, so hopefully
MLS and Apple can figure it out. I do know that everybody in and around MLS is begging Apple on a daily basis to give us data and analytics and numbers that we can use, one to get better, two to increase our audience, and three to help inform the public and celebrate what, on many levels is a great, great partnership.
Well said straight out of the playbook. I wouldn't have expected anything less stray well done. All right, there have been some I'll just call them minor roster additions. We're gonna try this Forrester a Yago a Yago.
Yago Yago. He's a twenty three year old Ganayan striker. We get younger there because right now our number nine is are Chicho and Anderson Julio, who are both in their you know, upper twenties. I think twenty seven to twenty nine. So just a flyer MLS re entry draft basically kind of a free agency draft. And you know, I didn't know his name until Kurt told me about
it a couple hours ago. So there are Nashville fans that think, while yes, he may be a raw somewhat youngish player that they maybe gave up on him a little too early. But you know how it is, Spence. Sometimes it's all situational, and a player can find himself with a certain locker room or certain coaching staff and the switch gets flipped and things start to make sense. So you know, he makes us deeper and younger and maybe he'll thrive here over the next couple of years.
Moving over to the ever popular half day Major League Soccer trade window.
What a dumb league dude. I didn't even know this was a thing.
RSL has acquired Tyler Wolf, who is and Porter hop on the mic here. Tyler is best known as essentially being Josh Wolf's son. Porter please remind the audience what the official stances of the drive on Nepotism.
Yeah, nepotism, no patience, thank you.
Yeah, I can't win with them soft. So ultimately, that's all I know about Tyler Wolf. But ARASL acquires him during the half day Major League Soccer trade window back on December ninth, because of course, tell me about this young man.
Well, the trade window is mandated by the collective bargaining with the players.
Stop it, it's silly.
And you know it is, Yeah, Tyler Wolf, twenty one year old left back. Again, somebody that makes us younger, Somebody makes us deeper. Somebody that played sixty games for Atlanta the last few years, including some as a teenager. Also played almost sixty games with Atlanta's kind of Monarchs B team level. So again, somebody that we think is a raw young player, he's too mature to be called a project. But somebody that can make us a little deeper there on the back line, especially on the left side.
Any other potential you know, it's interesting because I think, you know, Elliott and then Elliott and then Kurt obviously taken over for Elliott, seems will put together a pretty young and talented, exciting roster that if given time, you know, to grow together, probably feels like the best route. You made a lot of summer transfer acquisitions, of course, Diogo and Dominic and a lot of exciting talent that simply
just needs time, I would imagine. But any other potential additions coming up, either in the transfer window or the half day whatever the hell they call it, whenever you're allowed to do it, Potentially any other you know, talent acquisitions on the way.
Yeah, I think Kurt and Tony are working the phones. And to your point, there are several different MLS mechanisms between now and next which next Friday is like the college draft. There are a couple other like re entry and free agency mechanisms. Certainly, the trade window is now wide open for all the teams, and then you have the international player market with MLS and RSL starting pre season January eleventh and getting ready for a February eighteenth
Conca Calf game. I think Kurt is feeling the pressure to try to give Pablo as complete a roster on the ground as he can here in three weeks. So you know, like you said, we did a lot of shopping late last summer, especially with Diego and Dominic. But you do, especially if you're going to make a Conca Calf run and balance countercaff on top of a league's cup, Open Cup and the season. You want to be healthy, and you want to be deep, and you want to
be ready. So I would not be surprised at all if we didn't add four or five more players to our ross. Sure in the next couple of weeks and they're look, we might have say goodbye to some guys that we love because you can't always acquire an asset without giving up something either. So it's going to be an interesting time between now and January tenth.
Would one of those players who potentially could be on their way to something different be moon Boy?
Oh, excuse me, moon Man?
After the growth this year, what's the latest on the potential departure of Diego?
Yeah, Diego Luna twenty twenty four MLS Young Player of the Year. I think. Look, there are rumors of European teams kicking the tires on Diego. It's funny the way the world works now because it's like we are exploring the possibility of potentially making a call, but we haven't made a call yet. Look, if somebody you know made us an offer we couldn't refuse, I'm sure we would go to Diego and say, hey, do you want to
go do this? And if he said yeah, we would make the sale, similar to what we did with Andre's. But right now, all expectations are the Diego will be here for the twenty twenty five season, especially the first half, and he's got an opportunity maybe if he gets called into the US national team January camp with Poachattino and does well there, and then does well in concer cap
and has a good first half of the season. Then I'm sure there'll be a lot more people looking at him next summer with much bigger wallets.
All right, before I say you loose, I'm noticing that you tweeted at me earlier, because I'm never on this dumb thing. What did Donny have to say? Did I catch him? Did I catch him? Strays from Donny today that I'm not aware of.
It's the standard. When Donny talked about his post playing career and how he got into media, he takes liberties with how poorly you and I were doing the pregame show, and how he basically says, if you guys want somebody that knows what they're talking about, you should just throw me on the mic. And you know, that's ultimately what it happened. But I think I think he enjoys taking shots at us, and you know all the things we've tried to do to grow soccer in this great beehive state.
Oh so you're saying Donny per usual his whimsicle that I'm the hero of my own drama memory yet is always an accurate is reflecting once again. Did he happen in this article to talk about how I badly petitioned to get him on that show?
Or did he leave that part out?
No, he left that part out.
Oh yeah, shocking, good old Dunny whimsy. Yeah, fun, yet get accurate.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Well yeah, I mean, and I guess seventeen billion people watched MLS cup on Apple too, So what's real anyway?
Uh?
All right, Trey, good chatting buddy. Let's get a golf trip on the calendar.
Okay, let's do it. Thanks Bence.
All right, there he is Trey Fitzgerald. Little RSL.
A lot of RSL news kind of comes and goes when we're pretty football and basketball centric, so I figured we do a little RSL on the program today