Latest / Brands, Beats & Bytes / Album 8 Track 18: What's Poppin? World Cup 2026

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Album 8 Track 18: What's Poppin? World Cup 2026 · Brands, Beats & Bytes

• DC: Brand Nerds, Brand Nerds, Brand Nerds. World Cup is upon us, LT. World Cup is upon us. Another episode of Brands, Beats, and Bytes, but this is a special What's Poppin' edition, and the subject is fútbol! LT: I love that intro, D. Yeah, thank you. You sound like Andras Cantor. Thank you. And World Cup is really upon us, man. Like, we're in the throes of it. It's, it's actually really cool. DC: It, it, it is, Larry, and you're, you're in, uh, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, so you got games there. I'm in the A. We've got games here. LT: Yep. DC: And it, it's an exciting time- LT: Yep ... DC: around the, uh, the country, North America. But Brand Nerds, in this special edition of What's Poppin' for Brands, Beats, and Bytes, a World Cup edition I might add, I have an acknowledgement. And the acknowledgement is I don't know that much about fútbol. LT: And I have that same acknowledgement. DC: Okay, yeah. So Larry and I, we are not fútbol fanatics. Like, you're not gonna get us on some history of what happened in the World Cup 30 years ago. Uh, although I do remember watching the Hand of God. I do remember watching that. Other than that, on the pitch, the pitch, I don't know that much. Larry does not know that much. So you're gonna hear us approach this show from the perspective of people who don't know that much about the sport, know a lot about branding, but the sport itself. And so we figure there are others that are listening to our podcast around the world who may be in the same position that Larry and I are in, and we are approaching this show by giving information that we thought was really interesting about, uh, the sport, and we hope you also find it interesting. So we'll do that to, to set things up. So we'll start with, um, the fact that 2026, that's when this is going down, uh, the FIFA World Cup here, and the last time that it was in North America, but esp- specifically America, was 1994, and Larry was working on Powerade during that time at the Coca-Cola Company. And a part of the launch strategy, the national launch strategy for Powerade was, in fact, World- World Cup. LT: Yes. DC: But we're talking... Go, go ahead, Larry. Go ahead, brother. LT: No, I was gonna say, while you and I, again, we are not fútbol experts, as you said, but we've been in the throes of, uh, of all kinds of sports marketing, and myself, really, it- we use- utilized the World Cup to launch Powerade. So it was all-encompassing and a huge thing back in 1994. DC: Dope, brother. So here we are in 2026, and the sites are the US, Canada, and Mexico. This is all North America. And, uh, and the finals are going to be July 19th at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Now, you're gonna hear something a little more about that later, because FIFA has demanded that stadiums change their names here in North America. Now, I don't know about what's going on in Canada. O Canada. I don't know what's happening there, or in Mexico. But in the United States of these Americas, we all know what these stadiums are. You can, you can try to change the names- Exactly ... but we know what the stadiums are. That'll come, that'll come out later. LT: Yeah. DC: So that's, that's the, uh, that's the setup here. And as Larry alluded, um, we don't know that much about the sport, but we know a lot about brands, and we are going to have a brand lens as we walk through this What's Poppin'. So before we, um- Uh, get into this, and Larry's gonna set up the structure of the show. Just a, a, a quick note about Brands, Beats, and Bytes in general. As is normally the case during the summer, we are going on hiatus. So there'll be a time during the summer where we will not be recording and, um, launching new shows. But we had an idea, and the idea is Larry and I, and Jade, our super producer Jade, have picked what we believe are some of our greatest hits, our shows, and we're gonna do a summer Brands, Beats, and Bytes playlist. Larry will have his, I will have mine, and Jade will be dropping them throughout the summer. So I wanted to give that programming note before handing the fútbol, Dribbling it over to you, my brother. LT: That's good, D, I love that. Okay. All right, thanks, D. So Brand Nerds, we are going to provide you some more context here. We all know the four Ps of marketing. That's in Marketing 101, even if, uh, if you've just taken Intro Marketing. And the four Ps, to remind you, are product, place, price, and promotion. Yeah. Well, we're gonna break down the four Ps of the 2026 World Cup. DC and I will go back and forth on this. I will start with the first P, which is product. Okay, so product. DC: A- Uh, uh, La- Larry, I'm sorry, before you go into it- LT: Yeah DC: ... can you tell the Brand Nerds again what the four Ps are? LT: Sure. The four Ps are, and we're gonna do it in this order, Brand Nerds, product, place, price, and promotion. DC: All right. LT: Thank you for making me break that down. DC: Mm-hmm. Yep, you're welcome, brother. LT: All right, so the first P we're gonna do is product. All right, as you know, the two most popular worldwide sporting events are the Olympics and the World Cup. The Olympics and World Cup each only come around every four years, and of course, at different intervals. Hence, I think a lot, large part of why they're so popular. There's scarcity there, Brand Nerds. In most instances, it is the absolute top of the sport for athletes to star and win a World Cup or an Olympic medal, and due to this, more than half of the world's eight billion people, about five billion globally, watched some of the 2024 Paris Olympics, and also some of the 2022 World Cup. Uh, dialing into the World Cup, according to FIFA, and we're gonna be very blunt. You know us, Brand Nerds, we're, we're, we're, we keep it real on this show. FIFA's a, the bit shady governing body of the sport. That's who rules. They're the n- international governing body of fútbol, as, as DC so w- says so well. For the 2022 World Cup final between Argentina and France, 1.4 billion people watched at least one minute of the match, that's according to FIFA, with an average live audience of 571 million viewers, meaning 571 million people were watching at any given moment. By way of comparison, this year's Seattle/New England Super Bowl had an average viewership domestically of 128 million, and globally the numbers are more difficult to obtain, but even with the 128 million domestic, it is still less than 200 people who s- who watched the Super Bowl this year. So that's just really about one-third of the World Cup audience, just to give it to you in, uh, in, in the perspective of, of us as, uh, as Americans. By the way, this year the betting favorites for the 2026 World Cup are France, led by Kylian Mbappé. I love that name, D. Mbappé. DC: Yeah. LT: Spain, led by Lamine Yamal, and England, led by Harry Kane. Now, this is real interesting story that's, that's, that's pop- popping up, and D, I'm gonna do what you usually do. We usually don't like to date this, but we're gonna so you understand. We're taping on Tuesday, June 23rd. Last night, Lionel Messi, 39 years old- You still gotta look at the defending champs, Argentina, who won in 2022. Messi scored two goals last night. He's got five goals in Argentina's two wins for the first two games, and he's broken the all-time World Cup goal scoring record. So clearly, you can't look ... You can't not look at Argentina. They're obviously still a really great threat. By the way, our US team is sneaky strong, and some feel may actually have a distance, distance shot. All right. In the US, the World Cup TV broadcasters are Fox for English-speaking and Telemundo for Spanish. Fox rights fees were 485 million, and Telemundo 465 million. Both were very controversial since there was no open bidding. Again, this is FIFA now. And most analysts feel rights would've gone two to three x of that, of those numbers. Clear winners are both networks, and especially Fox, since the 2026 World Cup has instituted a hydration break. And by the way, Brand Nerds, my sister was at one of the games in MetLife, and in the stadium it's a POWERADE hydration break because POWERADE's the official sports drink. So there's a hydration break for the players, uh, one in each half, at the 22nd minute in the first half and the 67th minute in the second half. This, of course, opens up a huge ad opportunity, and analysts see Fox gleaning around $300 million extra for these hydration spots, which should easily produce total revenue of more than $700 million for the 2026 World Cup for Fox. This means profits of more than $200 million, and those are conservative. Many analysts think they're gonna make a lot more. Interesting tell- interestingly, Telemundo is not airing ads during those hy- these hydration times. Most of the time they're not, and the fútbol traditionalists are very happy about that. Also, early domestic rating, rating returns are fantastic. So Fox, this is We only have numbers through, uh, uh, cumulative numbers through Sunday, June 14th. There's 6.7 million viewers per game. That's up 152% from the 2022 Qatar World Grup- World Cup group stage at the same time, where they would get ... Where Fox g- had about 2.6 million people. That's according to Awful Announcing. Telemundo and Peacock, Telemundo is separate, but they're also a part of Peak. They're, they're also have a tile on Peacock, so they're getting Telemundo both places. They're getting, and you're gonna hear this number, it's gonna sound crazy, and it's correct, 7.5 million viewers per game, capturing 53% of the total stateside World Cup audience, and they're up 234% from 2022. Yes, each and every Brand Nerd heard that right. The Fox audience is amazing. Yet with early returns, the Spanish Telemundo ratings are higher than Fox. D, that's crazy, don't you think? DC: It is. It is. LT: So couple more ratings comparisons just to put this in context for you. The US Men's National Team, and you'll see it a lot as USMNT, versus Paraguay in the first round Friday, it was Friday, June 12th. It was 9:00 PM, uh, Eastern Time at SoFi Stadium in LA. They had 18 million people watching that game, and the peak was 21 and a half million. That is the most watched Men's World Cup game in group stage match history in this country. And Friday, June 20th, um, uh, actually, yeah, Friday, June 20th, around 2:00 PM Eastern, they had, uh, m- almost 15 million people. It was 14.8, and the peak was 19.2 million. That was the most watched Friday afternoon telecast on any network since Black Friday 2022. Okay? DC: And that was, that was the US team versus Australia. LT: That's right, thank you. Sorry, I didn't say that. Mm-hmm. That was the US Men's National Team versus Australia, uh, uh, Friday, uh, this, this past Friday. Um, I believe that date, I, I, I wanna make sure I have that date. That date was, uh, Friday, June 19th. I had the date wrong in my initial read. DC: Oh, June 19th, okay, cool. LT: Yep. So okay, here's comparison, D. This is crazy. So NBA Finals Game 5, Saturday, June 13th in San Antonio, the Knicks beat the Spurs 94 to 90. Uh, D's not too happy about that, but that is my team of my youth. The ABC/ESPN numbers were 24 and a half million. That was the final N- Nielsen number. The peak viewership was 33 million And that is the most watched NBA Finals Game Five since 1998, since Michael Jordan. Good, man. So when you compare those numbers, the NBA Finals numbers are really great. The, these early World Cup numbers, while they're not up to the NBA, uh, Finals, they're close. So man, if the US keeps going, it's crazy, right, D? DC: Yeah. LT: It's, it's really crazy. All right, so just finishing out product, we also thought we'd share some cool human interest stories for, for, uh, the people that are coming from overseas to see the World Cup, to see their World Cup team. So this is really funny. About 50,000 Scottish fans traveled to Massachusetts to cheer on the Scottish national team across two group matches. And check this out, D. A direct story from these visitors, visitors came from the Samuel Adams Boston Tap Room, where the first weekend of the World Cup, that's June 11th to the 14th, they sold more than 4,000 pints of Boston lager, nearly 90 empty kegs for that weekend. That's four times what they normally move during a typical four-day holiday stretch like the 4th of July. Four emergency deliveries had to be scheduled, and the Scottish fans were basically only drinking Boston lager. They were like, "Let's drink what the natives drink." So that's a really funny story. Oh, no, that- Any thoughts on that, D? I, I got- I thought that would be a good one to share ... DC: That, that's a great one to share, Larry. And I gotta say, when a fan base gets a name You know you have a special fan base and those, th- th- that Scottish contingency, uh, contingent rather, they are called the Tartan Army, okay? LT: That's right. DC: The Tartan Army. All right, just wanted to say that. LT: That's awesome. A, a couple other quick things before I send it to DC for price. So another one, German- a German s- soccer fan known as FreddyLA7 has amassed hundreds of thousands of followers on X during his road trip through Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama, marveling at Waffle House, Buc-ee's, college football stadiums, and Southern hospitality. And the last one, Swedish fan Elsa went viral for her reaction to ranch dressing in Indiana. DC: Ranch dressing. Oh, nice. LT: This is, this is the explosion of what may be culture here in America. So that's, uh, that's product, D. You wanna hit the next one with price? DC: I will get into price. At Brand Nerds, we know some of you all are not marketers by trade. In fact, there's a, uh, there's, um, a friend of ours, uh, one of the best friends of my fiance, her friend's name is Renee. Shout Renee! So Renee is an attorney, and she listens to Brands, Beats, and Bytes. So for those folks, we're gonna g- go a little bit further on these Ps. So the product, Renee and others, is the stuff you're selling. LT: Yep. DC: So they're selling the sport of fútbol, so this is why Larry gave the, uh, the stats on product. Price is what is the price of the stuff you're selling? So that's price, and I'm getting ready to do price now. And we got some doozies of some information here. LT: We do. DC: Okay. So more context here. This is according to Business Today and NBC Sports. So they did some research, and they, um, they were looking at the LA Times report, like, back in 1994. So they're comparing 1994, uh, to current day, uh, dollars. And average, average, uh, ticket price in '94, 58 bucks. 58 bucks, and this is, uh... And then if you, if adjust that for inflation, that's $111. So if you say 58 bucks in 1994 is $111 today. So keep this in mind now, $111. This was, uh, this, if you wanted to get a ticket in 1994 to a FIFA, uh, game in the US around World Cup, you were gonna be out of 111 bucks. So then the, the range was, now this is from group stage all the way to the finals. If you're early on group stage, which is w- where we are now, 25 bucks. 25 bucks, right? But when you get up to the finals, it was in the Rose Bowl, $475. That's not inexpensive. That's not inexpensive. And then when you get to, uh, when you get to the top end, inflation adjusted for today, for 1994, you were roughly spending, this is like the top, the top of the top games, 1,050 bucks. That's 1994 dollars adjusted for inflation. Now let's go to 2026. Sit down, Brand Nerds. Just, just have a, have a seat for a second here, okay? The range is stupid. So the first round of, uh, mat- matches, which is where we are right now, was from 140 back in 1994, adjusted for inflation. LT: No, this is today. This is 2026. DC: Oh, okay. Oh, oh, I'm sorry. Okay. So my, my bad. Right. Okay. From, from 140, which is at the high end in 1994, but today to $2,735. Okay, tickets for the final, when we first announced it as getting close, they initially cost between $4,185 and $8,680. So that was before FIFA raised the price. So they got a hydration break. They also got- ... they raised the prices in the highest price category to $10,990 in April. And then they have this thing called dynamic pricing. This is, this is when we go buy, uh, airline tickets here, Brand Nerds. Anywhere you go, they have th- this, what they call dynamic pricing. And this says, "Some US team group stages matches ran well over $2,700 for many seats." This is the group stage, the first round, if you will. Group stage. Yeah. $2,700. The average price to attend three round, uh, of 16 matches in 2026 is around $1,200, roughly what it cost to attend the entire 1994 tournament for a typical fan. But wait, there's more. But wait, there's more. For the World Cup final, now this is, like, everybody plays, started with 48 teams. We're gonna come down to the last two teams who will vie for this year's World Cup trophy. New Jersey Transit is charging $98 from Penn Station to MetLife St- uh, Stadium, a journey that normally cost- 13 bucks. Okay? $12.90 round trip, okay? You can't get on the train unless you produce a World Cup ticket. You have to show them a ticket, Brand Nerds. You can't just, just rock up to, to, to the train. You gotta show them a World Cup ticket. By the way, there is no parking available at the stadium. You cannot park. There is a lot close by, and you can get into that parking lot close by, you're still gonna walk, for the bargain basement price of 250, okay? 2- 250. So what you could have spent in 1994 to go to the, the latter stage games and get a great seat, you can now have your arse on the seat of a bus- ... okay, from the parking lot to the stadium for 250, okay? 250. And for shuttle buses, it's 20 to 80 bucks depending upon where you get them. Uh, some of them might be in Rhode Island, okay? But okay, but 20, 20, 20 to 80 bucks. So that's what's going on with price. It's just ridiculous, Larry. The d- d- like, the difference in the excitement around it. So you can't, you can't charge this price unless someone decides it's worth the price. LT: Yeah. And th- and I saw something s- D, I think I saw the other day that the, uh, these stadiums are 99% filled. So- Wow ... hey man, these prices sound entirely insanely crazy, but they're getting them, right? DC: Yeah, and to, to your point about, uh, FIFA, speaking of price, I just had a Father's Day meal with, uh, my middle daughter, Lauren, and we went to, um, the Garden Room, which is in the St. Regis Hotel here in Atlanta, and it happened to be on the same day that Spain was playing Saudi Arabia. So, uh, we were, we were in there, and then we come out, and there's, like, all of this kind of activity and energy, and, and they were like, "Oh, yeah, yeah. W- w- the, the teams just left on the bus to go to the game." You know? Wow. They get, they get ready to play the game. Right. And I'm, I'm thinking, I'm thinking to myself, uh, this the St. Regis Hotel. They're staying at the St. Regis Hotel. They're making money, brother. They're making money. LT: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. DC: All right, Larry, give it to you for place, and explain this to the Brand Nerds who are not necessarily those who grew up- LT: Yes, so- ... DC: Brand Nerds ... LT: we've hit, we've hit you with, uh, product, um, which again, as DC said, that's the product that, that is out there that, um, people are consuming, the pricing. And now we're gonna get you to place, and, and it's, it's obvious by the name of what it is, so let's get into it deeper. And, uh, you- it's, it's pretty fascinating what's going on. So as mentioned before, the 2026 World Cup will be played in the US, Canada, and Mexico. And again, in 1994, it was just in the US, so they're using FIFA's designated this a North American World Cup. So in 2026, there are 16 unique locations with 104 matches across 39 days with 48 countries. By way of comparison, in 1994, again, the last time and the first time the World Cup was played in the US, uh, there were nine unique locations with 52 matches across 32 days with 24 countries. So in essence, the 2026 event is double the size of 1994 in virtually every way. Also, one of the interesting things happening for the World Cup that really gets into our brand and marketing arena is that FIFA is literally making all the venues with a sponsor name, and all the ones in the US have sponsor names, Brand Nerds, such as Levi Stadium here, Mercedes-Benz, where D's in, in Atlanta, and MetLife in New Jersey, cover up the sponsor names. So D and Brand Nerds, there's two really funny asides. The first one is Levi's has taken to social media, and it's mostly on IG, and is having a ball with their brand being covered up at Levi Stadium, since of course, even with a tarp over it, the shape of the Levi's logo, people know it as Levi's. It's the logo that they have on the butt of their jeans, you know, the red logo, and that's what's on the stadium. So they have a, a white tarp over it, and you can still see the Levi's imprint and the shape of the logo. Everybody knows it's Levi's. Gillette has followed Levi's lead with their own social media post with shaving cream over their logo at Gillette Stadium. They, they, uh, they, I think got a kick out of what Levi's did and say, "Hey, we might as well- Yeah take advantage of this too." Um, and D, may I say, these guys may be earning more media this way versus if FIFA simply kept their brand names on the stadium. DC: I agree, Larry. I agree. LT: So good on Levi's, right? Again, Brand Nerds, this is one of those making, it's not really lemons, but you could say making lemonade out of lemons. You know, uh, Levi's put their name on Levi Stadium for 30 years, uh, with the, with the premise of and the promise of having their name for, on every event that's ever there. DC: Every LT: event, yeah. Every event. So, right? I think that's really cool. Uh, another interesting aside is, Dee, as you know, the Mercedes logo is embedded in the roof design of the Mercedes Dome, and there was nothing they could do to mess with it. S- against FIFA, just, uh, uh, to be crystal clear, Brand Nerds, FIFA made all the stadiums put signage over the brand name of the stadium to cover it up. That's what they did. And so the Mercedes emblem, the logo, is actually embedded in the roof design. You can see it when they ha- when, uh, when they have games on flyover. It's actually really cool. Mm-hmm. And because it's embedded in the roof design of the Mercedes Dome, there was nothing they could do to mess with it, since it could actually adversely impact the actual structure of the dome, so they couldn't cover that up. So that's the only pa- only logo of all these stadiums that's not being covered up Do you have any thoughts on this? DC: I do. I wonder if Arthur Blank and his team knew World Cup was coming to the US before they made the decision to embed the roof with the, uh, Mercedes logo. I have no idea, but if they did, that's brilliant. LT: It is. DC: That, that, that's brilliant. And good for Mercedes-Benz. Uh, I now wonder with other, um, sponsors and partners of stadiums, are they going to insist that they be represented somehow in the actual architecture of the stadium? So I'll be watching that moving forward. LT: Yeah, so true. Lot to learn from that. Really cool. DC: Yeah. LT: So before we finish, uh, uh, place, some more interesting nuggets from Henry Bushnell's article in The Athletic dated June 8th of this year. There's a quote, "In North America, FIFA's dealing with businesspeople and democratically elected local officials. Some of them see indirect benefits but aren't willing to write blank checks or offer unlimited taxpayer money. This push and pull has been a main source of the 2026 World Cup's messiness. The cities all signed contracts promising FIFA all sorts of s- facilities and services. Each will spend upwards of $100 million to accommodate the World Cup, multiple people familiar with their budgets have told The Athletic. Many are determined to balance those budgets, but that's proven difficult. To help, FIFA designed a, quote, Host City Supporters program that essentially allows each city to sign up local sponsors. The problem: FIFA hasn't given the cities many assets to sell to sponsors, and it won't let them sign deals, obviously, with companies and industries where FIFA already has its own sponsor, such as McDonald's or Coca-Cola. Food chains, drinks, sportswear brands, cars, airlines, and more than a dozen other types of potential host city supporters are off the table." So that's what some of the interesting things that are happening. And, and, uh, and by the way, also, FIFA actually told the cities that they couldn't charge sales tax, and cities like Kansas City listened to them. The cities in California and New York and, and Boston, and I, I'm not sure about Atlanta, they just didn't listen to FIFA. They, they charged sales tax. So that's how much FIFA con- tries to control everything about the location. So that's place, D. Any thoughts before we segue to the final P, which is promotion? DC: I am, uh, impressed that FIFA has an iron fist with regard to how they handle their sponsorships, partners, and what is in legal terms called excluded categories. It, it, it, it really is, uh, remarkable how they're able to do it. Uh, unfortunately, and I'm not wanting to defame FIFA, the organization has a long storied history- LT: Yes DC: of corruption, where money just comes in, uh, it goes directly to those that are voting, uh, most notably for the location- LT: Yep ... DC: of World Cup. So, so where, where World Cups happen every four years is a highly, highly politicized thing, and there have been many, many, uh, high-ups inside of this organization at corporate and some of the places around the world who have done, shall I say, some nefarious things- LT: Yes DC: and, uh, to be influenced for a vote On where, o- on what place, where this thing takes place LT: Thanks for adding that. DC: You're welcome, brother. Shall I go on? LT: All right. You wanna hit promotion? DC: I do. LT: Last, last, the last P. DC: The last P. So promotion, uh, Brand Nerds, is the marketing, the promotion of, the make people aware of. LT: Yep. DC: Brand partnerships, social media, linear TV, out of home, all of these different marketing tactics to promote. So here we are. This is, uh, this is going to get, we hope, very interesting, 'cause we're getting into consumer data. Uh, David Fizdale, he used to be an assistant coach in Miami. He went on to be the head coach, I think, at Memphis for a little while. LT: Yes, Memphis. DC: And when he was the head coach at Memphis, he was, uh, at the podium post the game. He did not get the calls from the refs that he wanted, and he has this, uh, he has some data in front of him in, in paper. I think it was paper at this time. Yeah. And he's reading it, and he doesn't like the disparity in the calls that his team didn't get and the calls that the competing team did get. And he just loses it for a minute, and he's reading off the stats, and he slams down the piece of paper, and he's saying, "Take that for data." Okay. That's right. So here we go. Take that for data. Here we go, Brand Nerds. Starting overall. According to a report from CBS News, nearly half of Americans, 47.5%, expressed interest in the 2026 World Cup, including more than a quarter, 25.9%, who say they are very interested. Right? So this is the top two boxes. However, we are here in America, so there are a lot of people that don't have a clue as to what's happening here, even with the World Cup, and that would be the 38.7% who remain disengaged. That's a pretty high amount. Yes. That's a pretty high amount disengaged, but still lower than it used to be. I'll keep going here. According to consumer data and technology company Numerator, 30% of US consumers plan to watch 2026 World Cup, up from 26% in a similar survey fielded just in January of this year, showing meaningful momentum building as the tournament approaches. There's something in that today versus January, and from January, 26%, to as we were approaching World Cup, 32%. Americans just don't focus on stuff until it gets close. LT: Yep. DC: Yeah, it has to get closer. All right, next data point. This is from the Harris Poll. 45% of Americans say their interest in soccer is increasing, up 17% from 2020. 70% of fans say they are more excited about 2026 specifically because it's being held in North America. That's the place, uh, P, that Larry covered. Two key data points from YouGov. 27% of the US population currently considers themselves a soccer fan, a relatively low percentage, but accounts for 62.2 million people. That's a lot of people. LT: Yep. DC: Since mid-20, uh, 2022, the share of Americans who say they actively follow soccer has increased from 8% to 12%. And Brand Nerds, I can tell you, in cities where there is an MLS team- LT: Yes ... DC: like, th- they are really, really into it. Like, Atlanta United games here- LT: Yes ... DC: they have the same number of people s- in that stadium, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, as Larry talked about in place, as the Falcons games. All right, so in, in the cities where these, uh, where these teams are, it's even higher. So according to- LT: Indeed. W- I just wanna interject one thing. DC: Yeah. LT: MLS didn't start until 30 years ago, 1996. Hmm. L- you know, the World Cup last time was 1994. Yeah. So that was momentum from the World Cup. So before that- Mm ... soccer wasn't embedded in, in the culture. There was some NASL in the '70s, but MLS has really grown, I'd say, from the ground up. And, and a lot of people saw it as, quite honestly, as a joke early on. It's no joke anymore. Messi plays for the Miami team, and MLS is, is, is certainly, like you said, I think really, uh, enhanced fandom of, of fútbol, or shall we say soccer, in this country. DC: Great, great add, Larry. And who owns the Miami team? That'd be Beckham. LT: Yes. Yes. DC: That'd be Beckham. That'd be Beckham. More on that later. LT: David Beckham. Sir David Beckham. DC: Sir David Beckham. Sorry. Sorry. LT: It- DC: According to a recent Nielsen study, the willingness to give up time to follow the World Cup has nearly doubled compared to pre-2022 levels. 14.4% of Americans said they would give up time to follow in 2026, up from 7.6% before the Qatar tournament. That's overall consumer, American. LT: But by the way, D, those are big numbers, man. DC: Th- th- it's almost, it's, like, double. LT: Doubling is a big deal, Brand Nerds. DC: Yeah. That, that's what you call statis- statistically significant- Yeah ... difference. Yeah, that, that's big. All right, we, that was overall consumer. Uh, now we're going to the yout. The yout. Going to the yout. The youth and the generation story. So YouGov again, going back to YouGov, 76% of US soccer fans are either Millennial or Gen Z. Whew. The two demographics that advertisers, they just, uh, frothing at the mouth to get to. LT: Yep. DC: In 2026, the share of 18 to 34-year-olds who say they actively follow soccer is 22%, which is way up from 13% in 2022, and also makes soccer one of the only two major sports, alongside basketball, that is more popular among young adults than among the general population. So amongst the group that advertisers covet, 'cause this is the new Baby Boomers, if you will. That used to... The Baby Boomers, we used to be the thing. Now it's this, we, let's call them Xennials, uh, Zillenials, um, Z- Gen Z and Millennials, and they are, like, really getting into this at 22%. From Civics, uh, Science, there is a Millennial spike from 24% planning to buy tickets in May of 2025 to 35% in May of 2026, that's just before the, um, the, the, the matches begin, which is the largest single year increase in any age group, suggesting the approaching tournament, which is now here, is converting casual awareness into active intent among 30 to 44-year-olds, many of whom are parents introducing their children to the sport. Really healthy amongst young people. Let's go with another segment. My Latino Hispanic brothers and sisters. Now, we know what it is there. You heard Larry talk about the ratings on Telemundo. You ... That ... So here we go. Given that fútbol is the number one sport in most Latin Amer- Latin, uh, Latin countries, the data for US soccer fans who are Hispanic will not at all shock you. The early T- Telemundo ratings are clear evidence, too. According to Nielsen, 22% of US soccer fans are Hispanic, with 47% reporting an incre- expected increase in World Cup interest. That's 47%, y'all. According to Youth Sports Business report, 55% of Hispanic Americans identify as soccer fans, compared to 31% of White adults. And from Business Wire, four of 11 US host cities have expan- have Hispanic populations exceeding 40%. Miami 70%. M-I-A-O, sh- uh, shout Rick Ross. Uh, who is not Hispanic, by the way. Los Angeles at 47%, Houston at 44%, and Dallas at 44- 42%. These numbers are incredible, Larry. They're just incredible. LT: They, they are. DC: Now we're getting into- And so- No, go ahead. Go ahead, Larry. Go ahead. E- LT: just b- just quick, quick aside before you get into ... The, the, the, the bedr- the foundation of interest, and by the way, would you rather that rather be soccer and FIFA and MLS or MLB, because it's much older. The f- the, but the, the bedrock of interest is so there, everyone. Yeah. DC: It is. It's young, and it's growing. LT: Yep. DC: All the arrows are pointing up. LT: Yep. DC: Now we're going to FIFA 2026 World Cup sponsors. So this is where the money is, y'all. This is, this is how FIFA makes their money. So there are several tiers, a one, two, and a three. Let's go through the tiers, starting with tier one, and talk about these partners. So tier one, you get global rights across all FIFA competitions, a multi-year cycle, and commitments for, are, are for at least a full four-year cycle, with estimates at 70 to $100 million annually. Annually And they have seven partners. Adidas, Coca-Cola, Hyundai Kia, Visa, uh, Aramco, Lenovo, and Qatar Airways. Now Larry, some of these have been FIFA tier one partners for decades. Yeah. Decades. All right, that's tier one. Tier two, global rights to specific, uh, uh, t- th- 2026 tournament, and they are estimated between $65 million and $95 million per deal. So they don't get access to everything, but they get some things. And these sponsors are InBev, Anheuser-Busch InBev, so that's Budweiser and Michelob Ultra; Bank of America; Frito-Lay, which does Lay's; McDonald's; Unilever, does Dove and, uh, and Men, uh, Plus Care; Verizon; and DoorDash. $65 to $95 million per deal. When, in 1994, when Larry launched Powerade, uh, for World Cup, that was only in America, there was no DoorDash. No. DoorDash did not, did, DoorDash did not exist. All right, tier three. So he g- you call an official tournament supporter. See, regional, you get category specific rights, and these are Home Depot, Johnnie Walker s- uh, slash Smirnoff, Airbnb, and American Airlines, and American Airlines. These are the tiers Now we need to talk about the two icons of the sport in America. Now, they are icons of the sport outside of America, but as it relates to what went down with the growth, Larry talked about the, the coattails that were, that were written on 1994 for MLS, uh, then launching couple of years after that. Lionel Messi- ... and Sir David Beckham, the effects. Messi. This dude, this is 2026 now. How many different brands has he been associated with in promoting World Cup? That would be 18, y'all. 18. What'd you say, LT: D? How many? DC: Eight- 18, y'all. 18 brands. All right, and here are some of the ads, uh, and brands that he's represented. Adidas, Lays, Lays, Lego, Duracell, Beats by Dre, Dick's Sporting Goods, Hard Rock Cafe, Michelob Ultra, Pepsi, and Adi- uh, oh, we gotta talk about Adidas. Yeah. Okay, so Beckham. Now, Beckham doesn't even play, y'all. Beckham has not played in quite some time. Bended like Beckham. He has not been bending it for quite some time. Beckham has, is in the advertising, uh, and marketing for 11 brands. 11 brands. That's in 2026, right? 2026. 11 brands in 2026, and they include Lenovo, Pepsi, Lays, The Home Depot, Boss, Stella Artois, Artois, McDonald's, Verizon, Bank of America, Adidas, EA Sports FC 26. Estimates have them each earning around $70 million for 2020, in 2026 for endorsements, with Messi earning 140 million when you include his playing salary. Beckham earned a reported 25 million in a single month, March of 2026. During his peak playing years, his total annual income from salary, total from salary and endorsement combined was approximately 40 to $45 million. That's when he was playing. That's when he was playing. Okay. LT: He's making almost twice that not playing. DC: He's almost twice that now. Uh, so that's it on, uh, promotion. Larry, anything you wanna say on promotion before we now start to get into questions? LT: Uh, n- the, it, the only thing I'll say is that there's nothing bigger than World Cup. I think y- Olympics is, and, or World Cup are on sort of the same playing field- Yeah as it relates to the marketing world, D. That's what I would say DC: Yeah. Uh, I, um There's a joke that is said about, uh, my fellow brethren and sistren in, uh, America. And the joke goes like this. If you speak three languages, you're trilingual. If you speak two languages, you're bilingual. If you speak one language, you're American. That, that, that's a joke that I've heard in my travels around the world. LT: Yeah. DC: And, um, in all seriousness, what that means is we Americans are not that familiar with what's happening around the globe. We're just beginning to become familiar with fútbol here. But around the world, y'all- LT: Yep ... DC: this has been the most dominant sport for a very long time. LT: Yep. DC: A very, very long time. And as, in our business, in branding, as brands seek to become global brands, they're not... Th- th- there are two options that you can go to for global marketing, and that is the Olympics, and now here we go with, uh, with, uh, FIFA's World Cup. And I would dare say that FIFA World Cup is hotter than the Olympics right now, man, summer or winter. LT: I think you could really make that argument because of the, uh, the worldwide just hu- huge fan interest, and it's only, uh, it's only going up, like, again, in, in this country. And, and to your point, uh, here it's nothing compared to worldwide. DC: No. All right, brand nerds, so we've done the setup here. Thank you for indulging us. And here we are now to open it up for questions for Larry and I to kinda kick around. So Larry, I'm gonna pick up exactly where I left off on promotion with our brothers Messi and Sir David Beckham- Hmm ... and all these brands using them. Your, your thoughts. LT: Yeah, you know, it's interesting because they are huge. Like, it- they're es- I think especially in this country, Beckham, because he's made his home here for it seems like 30 years and, and, you know, um, I think he's really known to people. Messi is more, you know, since he, since he, uh, started to play for Miami, I think he's known better. And of course, the, the fútbol fans know him in a huge way. Mm-hmm. Um, so, uh, obviously you see from a brand standpoint why you would glom onto one of them. Yeah. But when you're one of 18 brands in Messi's case, one of 11 brands in Beckham's case, I feel like you sorta can get lost in the wash. Like, from Lays to, you know, Adidas to Bank of America, you know, to, to all these brands. And if you really want... One of the things, Dee, you and I have always talked about, we've talked about on this show for many years, is that you wanna do something that's memorable for your brand. Yeah. And so when you're now not only trying to be memorable in your category, uh, but then you also are wanting to be memorable in the, the sea of World Cup ads, it's sorta hard to do that, I think, if you're using one of these guys, as great as they are. That, that's my take. What do you think? DC: I'm in violent agreement with you, Larry. Um, as you know, and, uh, I'll announce this to the Brand Nerds now, there'll be more coming on this later, I was, uh, invited to appear on a panel here in Atlanta, uh, around, uh, World Cup. And the panel was put together, it was a day of panels and meetups. It was put together by an organization called Goodie Nation. And, uh, shout Joey Womack. Joey Womack is the head of that organization, um, based here in Atlanta. Uh, Jeff Hillmeyer, um, he is a, um, uh, on the board there. And so, uh, they invited me out. It was a panel, Larry. It was, uh, hosted by Mike Popowski, and, uh, myself and Shannon Watkins, a, a good friend of ours who's been on our podcast as well. We were the panelists. And the name of the panel was Beyond the Logo: How Iconic Sports Campaigns Became Memories. Okay? Th- that, that was the, the name of the panel. And so in, in my preparation for that, Larry, I thought w- w- what makes an iconic campaign memorable in sports and beyond? And so there's a rubrics that I thought about, Larry, I'm gonna share with the, uh, uh, Brand Nerds here, and then come back to the Messi, uh, Beckham question. Three things typically exist for these are for the campaigns, the iconic campaigns that one remembers. LT: Break it down. This is great, D. DC: Yeah. Thank you, man. The first is you gotta be able to move culture and commerce, both of them simultaneously. Um, most brands choose one of those two. The best brands don't have to They, they don't have to choose one or the other, they can do both. The second is when you're watching this campaign, or whatever the marketing tactic happens to be, you can sense from the people who have put this thing together two things, creative judgment and taste. LT: Ooh, big. DC: Yeah, creative judgment and taste. It is, Larry. And brand nerds, this is something that AI cannot do yet. LT: Yep. DC: It, it, it cannot do. The taste is the accumulation of experience and knowledge where you know something's on the way up or something's on the way out. Your taste tells you this. And then the creative judgment is when there are options in front of you to determine which is the best to exercise and represent the taste, you can pick it. The, the, these are two central skills that AI cannot do. And- Can LT: I dare one quick thing to add to that? DC: Yes. LT: Yeah. Y- AI can't judge authenticity. DC: No. No, it cannot. Can't do that. It can read about it, but it can't. LT: Nope. DC: The final of the three, so you got creative, uh ... You got culture and commerce, and you got creative judgment and taste. The third one, but not the least important of them, is originality. LT: Mm-hmm. DC: Originality. And it doesn't mean, Larry and brand nerds, necessarily doing something that's never been done before. LT: Right. DC: It's like, how do you do this thing at this time- Right ... and in this moment differently? Mm-hmm. Like, that's also original. Mm-hmm. That's also original. Now let me come to the question about Messi and Beckham. Because of all the brands that use them, and they have appeared, both of them, in the same ads, it's not original. LT: Yep. DC: It, it lacks originality. It didn't take taste and creative judgment to decide to put the, either one of them or both of them in an ad. It just took a quick perusal of social media. Who's most popular? That's- Okay. Well, then, then it must be Messi, it must be, it's, it must be, uh, Sir David, uh, Beckham. So I'm unimpressed with it because it reminds me of something that Sergio Zyman used to say to us, "Lazy marketing." LT: That's right. DC: It's lazy marketing. That's my take on that, brother. LT: Yeah, no, I think that's, that, that's really true. It's, it... How could you be that third one? How could you be original if you're one of 11 brands or one of 18 brands? You just- Yeah ... you can't do it. DC: Very difficult. LT: Yeah. All right, D, that was great. Do you mind me hitting up another question? DC: Please, man, please. LT: Okay. So- Well, I'd love to talk about how World Cup marketing has shifted from '94 to 2026. Okay. Have you noticed a difference? Because we went back and looked at some ads from '94 to 2026. Um, you, you have any thoughts there? DC: I, I'd like you to go first. LT: Okay. My thoughts are, and again, we were involved, our team was involved in doing it in 1994, and we're gonna put this on social media, the ad that we had. We had Deion Sanders, and Deion was a two-sport athlete at the time, at the top of his game in both fútbol and baseball. And the culture, again, DC's point about culture, one of his three Cs, that first C, uh, culture and commerce, the culture overall, young people, wasn't the same in '94. There was a group of, of hardcore, uh, s- I'm gonna say soccer certainly in those days people, but most people weren't. So Deion was so embedded in the culture, and we used Deion to launch the brand. We were also, um, you know, a, a official sports drink of World Cup, which helped us launch the brand. But most people weren't as into soccer, so we were playing with the game of soccer as a foundation, but really it was a Deion show. Yeah. And we, we had Deion playing soccer, and he didn't really know the rules, and the, he does something where he touches the ball, and the referee hands him a yellow card, which is a penalty, and he looks at the referee and he, and he signs it like he's, he thinks the referee's asking him for an autograph. And so c- soccer was underneath it, but it was, it barely touched soccer. If you look at the ads today, they're all trying to out-authenticate one another of how much they know fútbol. Yeah. Because the culture now that DC went through with all the, the, the consumer data, there's a big part of the culture that is so into fútbol that they wanna make sure that they are currying that, that they are carrying that through, and they don't wanna seem as if they're not with what's happening. They don't wanna get caught with their proverbial pants down in 2026. So it's a huge difference in that standpoint, and again, I think MLS has a lot to do with it to the point that you made before DC: Here's a, here's what I've noticed, Larry. Some great points that you've made From a US perspective, 'cause I don't know what happened, um, in '94 in Canada, in, in, in Mexico, but just a US perspective, because there was a dearth of awareness and interest in World Cup, um, the strategy had to be different. LT: Yep. DC: So today you have Messi, you have, and you talked about this earlier- Mm-hmm ... you have Mbappe. LT: Love that name. Mbappe. Yeah, DC: Mb- yeah, you have y- you have Yamaha. LT: Yep. DC: And, and you also have Harry Kane. LT: Yep. DC: So you, you got, and not to mention Ronaldo. Right. Both Ronaldos. Both Ronaldo. LT: Right. DC: Not to mention those. So you, you have legit iconic figures with Q sto- Q scores that are probably through the roof. I haven't looked at them in, in a while, probably through the roof. LT: In America too, DC: just to- In, in Am- in America. In America. LT: Yeah. DC: So you can construct a campaign that runs here in America, and as we said, these are global FIFA partners, so they're running around the world as well- LT: Right DC: these campaigns. But you can run those in America, and you have recognizability. Yep. Like, you have Timothy Chamala. H- how do you pronounce his last name? LT: Uh, Chamalet. DC: Chamalet, Chamalet. He's in this Adidas ad and campaign, and it's got all the stars in it, you know? It's got- Mm ... it's got all, all the stars in it. Soccer stars, fútbol stars. LT: And, and Nike has their soccer stars. DC: And Ni- and Nike, Nike has, Nike has theirs. That, that is correct. Yeah. And, uh, and so today, 2026, you can use these people, but in 1994, you had to have a bit of a sleight of hand. LT: Yep. DC: Like, you used a star who was not a fútbol star, but was a fútbol star. LT: That's right. DC: And, and, um, and I think other, other brands did that. Shannon Watkins mentioned something interesting on the panel about, um, what Nike has done, uh, recently in some of their marketing. She talked about them going to the fans. LT: Mm-hmm. DC: And if you look at Coca-Cola's marketing around, uh, this World Cup, they are into their product, literally the Coca-Cola product- LT: Yep DC: and the fans. They have not- LT: Celebrating fandom ... DC: celebrating fandom. They have not taken the, the we must have Messi bait, Messi bait. So I think that's interesting, because it's like what's old is new. LT: Right. DC: So that, that's my, uh, takeaway from '94 to 2026. LT: Yeah, and it, and, and sort of, I love that. And segueing to, like, Brand Nerds, there's a ton of ads, but in, in '94, dare I say, if you weren't a World Cup sponsor, you weren't doing hardly anything of, uh, in, in, in, uh, fútbol or soccer. Today, all the brands, whether you have a World Cup association or not, so Pepsi is doing it, Coors Light, these are, these are brands, Gatorade, that are not FIFA sponsors, but they have soccer-centric ads. And dare I say that when you look at these ads, if you're a consumer, you can't tell that they're not World Cup. Pepsi has Beckham, and again, for all the things that we said about Beckham, but one of the things it's, it's also a fan-centric in, in, in the Pepsi voice, but- With all the things that they have in there, if people, I bet you if you ask people are they a World Cup sponsor afterwards, people would think they are- Yeah because of the way that, that- Yeah ... that, that ad is, is both, uh, produced and, uh, put forth, right? Mm-hmm. So th- that's also interesting to me because again, as a, as, as a brand owner, DC talked to you, it's 70 to $100 million a year for that- Yeah ... World Cup sponsorship, and it's not just about what ads you put out. You get more with that, but still, you look at that and go, "Damn, you know, my competitors are doing a soccer ad, and while they don't have the World Cup marks, they're sorta conveying, they're, they're als- leveraging the interest that, this great interest that DC took you through from a consumer standpoint without having to use the marks." So I thought that's really interesting as well. DC: It is. I agree with you, brother. LT: Yeah, and shout out, Coors Light has Andres Cantor, the dude that, the, the, um, the Latino announcer who everybody knows, the guy who goes, "Goal," that guy. Yeah. They have him in the Coors Light ad, and dare I say there's no way y- you would think that's a World Cup ad, right? DC: Yeah, you, you absolutely would, yes. Yes. LT: Do you wanna, before we say goodbye, do you wanna talk about Nike and Adidas because it's right in there- DC: Please. Yeah, please ... LT: in, in the heart of their... So Brand Nerds, Nike and Adidas both did short films, which again, is really interesting. This shows how important World Cup is to them worldwide. And what I find interesting about it is both of these brands, um, did it in their brand voice. Um, again, DC alluded to Timothée Chalamet. Uh, just a quick description, it's like he, he, the, the whole, and this is for, uh, Adidas, for Adidas, where, and again, they are a FIFA sponsor, where he has this, this, he pulls together this team of, uh, of, of course, of, of, of an all-star team to go against the, these guys in somewhere in probably in the Bronx or Harlem that are playing, like, you know, street soccer. Like pl- like playground soccer. And it's very, uh, very creative and very interesting, and also it's a b- Timothée Chalamet, if you've seen any of his movies, it's, it, it has an anxiety and an anxiousness to it. Mm-hmm. Um, it's very much in the Adidas brand voice and his brand voice. And Nike has also their own film, which is a slew of all N- the Nike stars, and is certainly in their brand voice. And dare I say, D, I'd love to hear your, your voice. I think both of them, and, and, and Nike, again, not a World Cup sponsor, but you would never know. Adidas is, Nike not, you would never know the difference 'cause they're leveraging the interest of World Cup. And I think both of them did really excellent films in their own brand voice, and dare I call that, uh, as they would call it in soccer, a draw. DC: A draw. A draw. They're level. They're level. Um, I do think they've both done it in their, uh, brand voice. That is an excellent observation, Larry. Nike, uh, mostly stays true to this notion of it is about the athlete, and they look at regular consumers as also- Yeah ... athletes, even fans as athletes in some ways. LT: Yep. DC: But, like, the athlete Adid- uh, Adidas, they're more about entertainment and culture Yep So that's why the, the lead in their movie was Timothy LT: Yep ' DC: Cause he's pulling the whole thing together LT: Yep DC: And, uh, he even says to, to Messi, like, "You were my backup." That w- that was a funny line LT: That was a funny line. And also Nike's oth- I mean, Adidas other voice. Adidas is very much into cr- individual creativity DC: Into, oh, you know, individual creativity. You're right about that, Larry. You're, you're right about that. So I think they both did what they needed, uh, needed to do Me too And, and, but to your point, though, Adidas has spent a lot more money for their ad. And by the way, uh, brand nerds, you all know this, it isn't just the production of the ad. You also have to make a media commitment LT: Yep, that's right DC: A minimum media commitment. So that happened on, uh, Adidas, whereas Nike, they could do what they, do what they wanted to do LT: By the way, in that 70 to 100 million, part of that is the media commitment to your DC: point Oh, that's, oh, the media, okay, great. Okay, cool. LT: Yeah. Thank you I'm su- I don't know that for 100%, but you and I know the way this is run G- DC: gotta, gotta be. LT: It- DC: Yeah, gotta be LT: That's part, part of the media commitment that they, that they have to put forth. Um- DC: Gotta be LT: So D, I wanna hit one thing before we, before we hit here. You know, in 2030, the, the, FIFA's taken a, an interesting angle. The, the North American World Cup's the first time I think they've ever done it in a, in a region, not in just one country DC: Mm-hmm LT: The, so they're taking that same, uh, they're doing the same thing in 2030, where the World Cup's gonna be in Spain, Portugal, and Morocco- Mm ... um, in, in that part of the Mediterranean. Um, and so do you think in the United States that the brand interest in 2030 will be... I, I, it's never gonna be as strong as it is on the shores. But do you think that, uh, where do you think brand interest is gonna be in 2030, when the World Cup i- is in Spain, Portugal, and Morocco? DC: I think it depends on entirely, uh, it depends entirely on- The, a US soccer star LT: Yeah DC: Pulisic- LT: And team, dare I say t- how- The team- This team could... If this team goes even to the finals or something, DC: like- Oh, yeah. That, that would be, that'd be big. If the team goes to a final, then we're gonna have a international star. LT: That's true. DC: Yeah, these, these two, these two things run hand-in-hand. LT: Good point. DC: But Pulisic, Pulisic is our guy, our star now. Right. He's not even ranked in the top 100 in the world. I think he's, like, 130-something, 132, somewhere around in there. So we don't have any players on the US, uh, Men's National Team, uh, that are in the top 100. Where some teams, they have three or four, like France- Right ... that, that, that, that are in the top 100. So I believe if we have, if we do well this year, to your point, we make it to the finals, I'd be happy with quarterfinals. I'd, I'd be happy with that. Right. I'd be elated if we go further, but quarters would be, in my opinion, a really good result for the, uh, for the US, um, uh, team. LT: Yeah, I agree with you. And I, I think, to your point, what- whatever the momentum is from this World Cup, and if, and, and if the team, you know, does do really well and can continue to, to thrive, uh, you know, that will be interesting to see where, where there's 2030. Suffice it to say, I, I think this is an easy thing to say, the interest in 2030 will be higher than it was in 2022. You know? I agree. Meaning that the, the, that the tide will come up. It, it, it, it... Can't imagine it'll be the same for 2026, but the tide will come up. And what I also find interesting, Alex Freeman is, uh, he scored a goal for us, and he is a few... Brand Nerds, if you remember, fútbol fans, Antonio Freeman, who played for the Green Bay Packers, it- that's his son. Yeah. So when you start... That's interesting to me, because now the best athletes in this country have played fútbol and basketball for the most part- Yeah ... in the last generations. But now you have somebody here, uh, you know, the son of a, of a, of a great fútbol player. He's not a Hall of Famer, but Antonio Freeman was really good. DC: Yeah. LT: Like, when you start to see that level of athlete come up, I think that's also gonna be interesting in, in, in how well our team does going forward. DC: I'm glad this athlete that I'm gonna mention played, uh, basketball, but I wonder what he would've been like as a, uh, as a soccer player, and that's Allen Iverson. LT: Oh, God. Right? DC: Mm. LT: Right. DC: Mm. LT: And, and again, we haven't mentioned this 'cause of the Men's World Cup, but our women's team is the best in the world. Oh, that's right. So that's also been the Alex Morgans, you know, um, w- who, who, you know, our, our women stars. And, and Tiffany Rodman, you know, Rodman's daughter- DC: Oh, LT: yeah is a great player. And by the way, a lot of these, Alex Morgan is in the Michelob ULTRA ad. Like, you know, that, that, that's also part of this. Again, we're talking Men's World Cup. We, um, uh, we didn't want... We don't mean to put anybody, um, you know, the ladies here on, on, uh, in, in a bad way, but that's why, because we're focused on the Men's World Cup. But dare I say, that plays a, a huge part in the fandom as well. DC: Great point. Great point, and a growing, growing fan base as well. LT: Yeah. Anything else we should cover, D, or- DC: Not for me, brother. LT: I think that's it. I, I enjoyed this. Again, for two non-fútbol experts, that was really fun to break down. DC: Yes, it was. It LT: was fun to break down. Okay, Brand Nerds, thanks for listening to Brands, Beats, and Bytes. The executive producers of Brands, Beats, and Bytes are Jeff Shirley, Darryl "DC" Cobbin, Larry Taman, Jade Tate, and Tom Dioro. DC: The Podfather LT: And if you do like this podcast, please subscribe and share. For those on Apple Podcasts, if you're so inclined, we love those excellent reviews. We hope you enjoyed this podcast, and we look forward to next time, where we will have more insightful and enlightening talk about marketing. And have a great summer.