Halford & Brough in the Morning - Canucks Fans Are Handling This Well (Seriously)

Episode Date: March 13, 2026

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they talk last night's big come-from-behind Canucks OT win over the Predators (3:00), plus they discuss the latest around the upcoming World Cup with The Athletic FC's Adam Crafton (26:17). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Whoa, wait a minute. Huh? Hold up. What? Oh, okay. Did we just lose a fucking Canucks? Da-na-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. You're listening to Halford and Brough.

Go shoot Tull up. Left in the third. But they wouldn't quit. It was great. Everyone was super excited, and we had a fun win song, and everyone was having fun. That's a big one, Trigger-old. Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend. Good morning, Vancouver, 601 on a Friday.

Happy Friday, everybody. Sweet, sweet, sweet Friday. It is Halford and his broth. It is SportsNet 650. We are coming you live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning.

Adog, good morning for you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford, and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Do you have CRA debt? If you do. Sands and Associates could cut your debt by up to 80%

with no upfront fees. Visit them today at Sands dash trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal recycling, they recycle. You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver.

We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studio. Step Strong, Halford. Okay. With orthotics and footwear from Kintech. I can do that. I'm going to step right into the Duick Morning Drive. It's our morning guest list brought to you by the Duick Auto Group. Big show ahead on a Friday. It begins at 630 this morning. Yesterday's proposed 630 guest, Adam Crafton, writer for the athletic FC, is going to join us in a make-up hit today. Adam has been covering the build-up to this year's World Cup from a

number of different perspectives, including the financial one. And now this morning, we can also talk to him about the future of Iran's participation in the tournament. We'll talk to talk to Adam Crafton from the athletic FC at 630 this morning. 7 o'clock, it's AJ from AJ's pizza, a $100 gift card to AJ's for the best ask us anything today. Start getting those in now. Hashtag him, I'm AUA. Put a pizza emoji into your text. Dunbar Limer text line is 650, 650. The best one will win 100 bucks to AJ's. After AJ this morning at 705, Mike Benton is going to join the program. Radio host for the Seattle Cracken Audio Network. That sound you hear in the background right now? No, it's not static. That's the Cracken choking their playoff chances away.

Blowout loss last night at home to the abs. And now the Cracken are coming into Vancouver this weekend to take on the red hot Vancouver Canucks. They have the one game winning streak. Mike Benton's going to join us at 7.05 this morning. 7.30, Yesper Sorensen's going to join the program. White Capp's manager, hours after a bad and quite frankly shocking loss. Three nil at home to Seattle in the Conca Cance. Champions Cup. One of the worst defeats, home defeats of the Yesper Sorens and Aaron Vancouver. But now much time to sit and stew on it.

Caps are back in action on Sunday. Yesper's going to join us at 7.30. 8 o'clock, it's Rick Dollywall. I don't need to throw to Jason here. We're going to talk about Canucks culture with Dollywall, Nils Hoaglanders Future, NCAA free agents, what the Canucks are going to do on July 1.

And some background info on Curtis Douglas, the 6'9, nice skater for the Vancouver Canucks and how he got here. Dollywall is going to join us at 8. We've also got a Golf Town giveaway, our final giveaway this week. That's going to be at 8 a.m. as well right when we get Dollywall on the show. That's a $250 gift card to Golf Town. I'll remind everyone later on in the show about the giveaway and the call.

Got a lot to get into, not going to run the guest list in reverse. Without further ado, Laddy, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was. We know how busy your life can be.

What happened? You missed that? What happened is brought to you by, the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies investing tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at BCCSA.ca.ca. Philip Hironix scored the tying goal with just over a minute remaining in regulation. And the Canucks won four three in the shootout against the National Predators at Rogers Arena on Thursday. Yeah, it was a bit of a roller coaster game.

The Canucks got off to a great start. they dominated the first period. It was one of their best starts all season, and it included a goal by Brock Besser and a couple of breakaways that were stopped by UC Soros, but the Canucks couldn't take that one-nothing lead into the intermission. The Preds scored late in the period

on just their third shot of the night, and the game was tied. Not the best defending from Vancouver on that goal, but you know what they say? You can only hope to contain the dynamic duo of Justin Barrow. Justin Barron. Barron and Tyson Jost.

Still, it was promising stuff from the Canucks, especially by the line of Rossi between Besser and Ogren. More about those guys later. Jost scored again, five minutes into the second, and the Canucks were back in their natural habitat, and that is their natural habitat is trailing at Rogers Arena. They love trailing. It got a little...

So comfortable there. It got a little chippy and scrambly after that. The Canucks had a couple of decent chances. that they couldn't convert, and that allowed the Preds to make it 3-1, when Nanaimo's Matt Wood, they call him Woody over a Nanaimo, I don't know, bounced one in off of Liam Ogren. Wood had a bunch of family friends at the game, so that was nice for them. Now, the Preds would take their 3-1 lead into the third,

where it looked for most of the period like they were going to easily put the Canucks away. But not so fast, Nashville, the Marco Ross. Scy line struck again with around four minutes left when Rossi himself banged in a rebound off a Liam Ogren shot. That made it three to two. Are you keeping up, Halford? I'm there. The Canucks would pull the goalie with two minutes left, and after some extended zone time, future captain, Philip Hironik, ripped one past Saros to tie the game. It was Bedlam in Rogers Arena. It was loud. Well, maybe not Bedlam, but the fans were pretty excited. Anyway, the overtime was pretty terrible until the closing moments when

Elias Pedersen had two golden opportunities to win it. One, he ripped just way wide. And the other, he failed to convert a deke on Soros. Ah, Pedy. So off to the shootout, we went, Ogrin missed, O'Reilly missed. DeBrus

scored. Forsberg miss. And with a chance to win it for the Canucks, well, Pedy missed. But Stamco's also missed, so the Canucks won anyway. With the win, the Canucks improved to 720 and 5 at Rogers Arena while the Preds blew a valuable point in their quest for a playoff spot. Yeah, those nights, and I know a large portion of the postgame show and the listeners were

bemoaning the fact that the Canucks got two points. And at slightly... Yeah, it doesn't matter. Those nights that they had last night, even though the game was choppy and scrambling and everything else. Probably a lot better than some of these other nights that we've seen at Rogers Arena, which is evident of the fact that they are 7, 20, and 5 at home this season. There's still 11 points back of Calgary for 31st place. There's a... Okay. I didn't want to go... You're allowed to win a few games here and there. I don't know

if any of you guys are watching what St. Louis is doing. They're like on fire right now. I didn't want to be this guy because I don't want to dump on anybody's content. But there is an extraordinary amount of effort and energy being paid and spent towards tracking the Canucks chances of finishing dead last in the national hockey league folks they got it it it's locked up right put a bow on it put a stamp on it and send it it is they're fine we don't need to go through this and you know they're going on a 10 game win streak you realize right you just jinxed it well whatever if they do to be hilarious they could go on a 20 game win street oh don't say it they could win they could win out don't even put

out there. They could win out. Halford, they will do it despite you. Okay. This is also coming though. Adag, you got to meet you. This is also coming from someone and you set it countless times that even if they do finish dead last, they're still going to somehow not get the lottery luck anyway. Yeah, I know, but still, don't just, it's, it's, that's try our very best to help in the end. Stop being so weak-minded. They're, they're terrible. They're a bad team. Yeah. They needed to pull the goalie to get that last goal and get it to a shootout.

and then they won the shootout against not a very good team. If they go on a Winstreet guys, I tell you. Okay. Well, it would be interesting if they do, wouldn't it? You'd be interesting. Then we can be like, oh, some of these young guys are playing. Yeah, but you know what? It was a fun night at Rogers Arena.

I was listening to Brock Bessor's post-game remarks, and he was also talking about the bedlam, as you somewhat tongue-in-cheek put it earlier in the notes, that the crowd, I will say this about the crowd at Rogers Arena this year. they have been enthusiastic. At times it's been a bit tongue-in-cheek themselves, but for the most part, they have shown up and cheered on a good effort

when a good effort has been put forth. I think the fans in this... And even an entertaining loss. Yeah. I enjoy the way you want the cup chance. See, that's funny. That's one of my favorite parts. That's a bit of self-awareness,

understanding what you're cheering for. I'm sure the players hate it, but whatever. It's their fault. Some of them might be like, that's pretty good. I'll tell you how you change it, you go win that big shiny mug. But until then, I'll say this, and this is a tangent I didn't expect to go on this morning, but I actually have been pretty impressed with how the fan base has handled this season. Because...

Me too. You know, and we'll talk about Toronto in a minute and the absolute hatred and loathing that they have for that group of players. And I know part of this season has to do with shipping a lot of guys out. but the paying customers that have showed up at Rogers Arena and the fans that have still dutifully checked in night after night after night and tracked this team and hoped for the best and wanted to see these young guys make some growth in a lost season. It has been impressive and I know that the fan base gets a rough ride here

and I know that a lot of the enthusiasts are considered crazy but it's been overall a pretty decent performance from the fan base in a year where the guys on the ice, You give that fan base a lot to cheer for. Yeah, let's just call it. Look at their record at home. Right? Even if they were missing the playoffs with a good home record and an awful road record,

that's a different dynamic than going out and posting seven home wins. Like we were joking about the fan blogger from Detroit that we play in the intro that did we just lose to the F and Canucks. Between them winning on like a random Friday and then losing on a Saturday where we don't get to play them on a Monday, I think we've played them four times this year. Maybe. Also forgetting a couple times. And we've forgotten a few times because we were like, what? Yeah, well, yeah, they won.

We do that. I forgot. I heard it. I was like, what the hell is that? Okay, let's run through some of these other stories in the National Hockey League last night. There was some good Shadenfreude for some of the other Canadian teams who had very rough nights on the ice. Where do you want to start? Do you want to go to Edmonton first? Because it was a bad night for Edmonton and Dallas. Or do you want to go to Toronto? Because it was a bad night for Toronto in Toronto.

Well, Toronto's game was first. So let's go to Toronto first. And, you know, you also just mentioned. that fan base hates that team. The media hates that team. Craig Barubi, their head coach, hates that team. Maybe explain the latest reason why. Maple Leafs Captain Austin Matthews crumpled to the ice

early in the second period of their game against Anaheim last night after a vicious knee-on-knee hit from Anaheim Ducks, Captain Radco Gutus. Goudis got five in a game, as you would expect. But the anger wasn't directed, just at Radco, Goodyce. The Maple Leafs, who actually came back to win that game and snap a pretty lengthy slump, they weren't upset just with Gudis.

They were upset with themselves. Nobody stepped in to do anything in the immediate aftermath of Gudis going knee-on-ne-k with Matthews, with their captain crumpled on the ice, writhing in pain, and Gudis actually looking around, assuming that someone was going to challenge him to some kind of fight.

Yeah, he's like, man, I just, I just need the hell out of Austin Matthews. I'm going to have to pay for this. And he was looking around. Anyone? Anyone? I guess, am I still in this game? No?

All right. Barubei was asked about the incident after the game and he said it's a dirty play. The league is going to look at it. Then he was asked if he had an explanation as to why his players did not immediately react in the situation. To which Baroube replied, no. Obviously, we should have four guys in there doing something about. it, but it didn't happen. So what is Barubei's purpose?

He was there, you brought in, they're not winning, and they're not playing with any extra snarl, why is he there? There is no coach that is more guaranteed to be gone than Craig Burubi. None. He is a hundred times more guaranteed to be gone at the end of the season than Adam Foote in Vancouver. I thought, and I still am wondering, because it's early in the morning back east still, I thought he might resign just right there.

Be like, you're going to fire me anyway. Yeah. This is a good time to walk away from this sad group of players. It's embarrassing. I want to play the audio. So J.D. Bunkis and Sam McKee, we've had both on the show before. They do our version of the Canucks Post game show, Leafs talk after every Leafs game. And to hear them, two very passionate Leafs fans in the aftermath of that display was

Chef's Kiss Good, if you're a big fan of Shadden for it. I want to play. It's about 30 seconds of J.D. Bunkus talking about how of all the lows that this group has had over the last nine, ten seasons, this might have been the lowest watching their captain get taken out by Radcoe Gouda Goudis and doing nothing about it. Here's J.D. Bunkus from last night's Toronto Maple Leaf Post Game Show. This is insanity that these guys did not just fly in there for their captain as he receives an unbelievable dirty hit and is just laying there on the ice and nobody's doing anything. It's one of the lowest moments for me of this entire Corps tenure. That's how bad I feel about this moment. Like it is putrid what those guys did allowing their captain to just lay there and watch Radko Goode to skate off the ice completely unscathed, completely untouched.

No sideshow, no circus. Now, some of the Leafs in the Post did try and take responsibility for what didn't happen, including Morgan Riley, who while not the captain is always. sort of been a leader, a guy that's looked upon because he's a veteran, because he's been there for a long time, and because he was on the ice, and he tried to own it. I'll let you guys listen to the audio now. It feels like a guy who knows that saying something in the aftermath isn't going to make up for it, but you got to say something anyway. Here's Morgan Riley after a 6-4 win for the Leafs last night against the Ducks, but a loss in a bigger way with the loss of Captain Austin

Matthews. Yeah, I didn't have a good view of it just because the puck was going the other way, It's on me for not responding earlier to Goudas being there. Obviously, it's a dirty hit. I didn't understand how bad he got him in the moment, but I take full responsibility for not being the first one in there or being in there quicker to respond. That being said, I thought our group played well on the third and was able to respond.

But ultimately, when your captain goes down like that on a dirty play, you have to respond as a group. But I also take responsibility for not being the first one in there after the hit. Okay, so that's the Leafs. Let's move on to the Oilers now because we've got a few things to get into. I also want to mention the Cracken because we've got a cracking guest today. And the Connects play the Cracken on Saturday. There was a lot of, you know, I tweeted out that I was enjoying the view from my glass house yesterday. Just chucking rocks at everyone else.

But knowing full well that, you know, I don't have much of a little. like to stand on, but still, it was funny. I mean, that was embarrassing for the Leafs. And man, I watched a lot of that Dallas Edmonton game, and that was embarrassing for the Oilers. So we made that our one to watch, brought to you by Limitless A.V. Yesterday, this Oilers

Stars game in Dallas, a rematch of previous Western Conference finals. Oilers come into this game off two great wins. They beat Dallas. They beat Colorado in Colorado. And then it all fell apart last night. Jason Robertson, two goals and two assists for the Stars, who raced out

to a five-goal lead before cruising to a 7-2 win against the Edmonton Oilers in Dallas. This one had a lot. I've been working on this guy's name all morning. Justin Ritzkovian. He's the guy, it's spelled H-R-Y-C-K-O-W-I-A-N. He's number 49 for the stars. The only reason I'm mentoring Ritzkovian is because he was under the skin of the Oilers all night to the point where he actually drew Connor McDavid

and lured him into the rare fight. And this is while the Oilers were surrendering those five goals. And what was an onslaught for the Oilers, their blue line, and specifically Tristan Jari. Greg and I were watching highlights of the game when we came in this morning. And Greg said, it feels like every shot that's going towards Tristan Jari is going in.

It's like they're just whipping it on net and they're being rewarded every time. Yeah, the Oilers, but they were also... They were also a terrible defensively. Disaster defensively. And they don't take care of the puck in their own end. But someone texted in earlier and said, do you think the Oilers would rather have Skinner than Tristanjari?

I'm kind of like, they might, yeah. I bet they have some regret over that trade. Look at this last few. Like he played 20 minutes against Colorado and was like fine. But full games, seven goals last night in Dallas. That's tough. Before that, five goals against Carolina. Carolina. Five goals against Anaheim. Four against Calgary. That was a good start.

That was good. Five goals against Minnesota. You know, you go back into January now. You got six goals against Pittsburgh. Like, his numbers are cratering. Yeah. And the Oilers, you know, I don't think, I don't think you can start, I don't think you can start Jari if the playoffs started today. There's, there's no way he'd be your starter. but then who does that leave you with? Well, Conor Ingram. Who's now hurt? But like, that's crazy. That's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, no disrespect to

Conor Ingram. But it would be crazy if the oilers started the playoffs and you're like, is there a guy? Connor Ingram. Well, they're going to, if the playoffs started today and both goalies were healthy, Connor Ingram's your starter going into the postseason. I don't even think it's a question, to be honest. You can't play Jari at this point because he has not proven. over a lengthy period of time

that he can put together more than one or two decent starts. And you rattled off those numbers. Like, he's not putting together any decent starts at this point. It's a minimum of four goals allowed per game and you just can't win in the playoffs. And the Oilers are a mess in front of them.

Just because, I don't know if it's because they don't trust them or they're just not very good defensively. But, man, this team better pull its socks up if it wants to make another run at the Stanley Cup. The Seattle Cracken are now out of the playoffs. Congratulations of the San Jose Sharks who are in. Yeah, the Sharks got a good win in Boston yesterday. And listen, the Cracken had a tough opponent in Colorado,

but they weren't even close in this one. They ended up losing at home 5-1. And this is a team that, you know, they wanted to do something big or they still wanted to do something big. All they ended up doing really at the trade downland was they got Bobby McMahon out of Toronto, which was fine as a nice pickup.

But, you know, they went into this season knowing that they, okay, we got no star power. We don't have much offensive punch. So let's play really well defensively. And they did, for the most part. And now they have lost four in a row. And if this team misses the playoffs, It's not like Seattle's going to be like, you know, falling apart as a sports city.

Seattle's still talking about the Seahawks Super Bowl win, right? And Seattle's into other stuff. But if the Cracken missed the playoffs, there will be even more pressure on this management group to do something big this offseason. Because the city will forget about the Cracken. I guarantee it. It's not a hockey city. It's just not. They have to make it into a hockey city.

And so far, they've had the one playoff series win against Colorado. And that was like, that was the peak. That's been the peak of the Kraken. That and people seem to like their uniforms. Love the unis. That's it. And, you know, I don't know if they've got any superstars coming. Do you remember how everyone was like, these guys are so set up.

Where they got beeneers down the middle, Shane Wright down the middle. And now they're like, oh, Shane Wright. is talking about getting, you know, people who were talking about him being traded. And Beniers is fine. Benares is fine. But he's not an elite number one center. There's nothing elite on this team. And I think they're really, really going to be under pressure to do something big.

If they can do it, though, right? They wanted to get Panarin. And then Panera was like, I'll go to L.A. actually. Who else are they going to get? We, of course, talked about Pedersen to the crack. I mean, maybe, but... Big showcase game this weekend for Petey when he takes on the Cracken at home. That's a pretty big risk if you want to take that on, you know, the Cracken,

if they miss the playoffs this year, like that's another, like, okay, another opportunity that the fans don't get to be excited about the team. Well, we're going to talk to Mike Benton, who's a radio host for the Seattle Cracken audio network. He's going to join us in the 7 o'clock hour. But what's happening right now is that the Cracken win into the Olympic break. playing very good hockey. As a matter of fact,

the playoffs looked like it was pretty comfortable at that point. They went in with a 4-21 over Dallas to put them at 27, 20, 20, and 9. Coming out of the break, they've won two games post-Olympic. And the worst part about this for the Cracken is that their last four losses have all come at home. When they had an opportunity to do something at the deadline

and take care of business at home, they did neither. They've got a four-game losing streak in regulation at home. They haven't even able to pick up a loser points. St. Louis, Ottawa, Nashville, and Colorado. So you might excuse them for the Colorado game, but they lost seven to four to Ottawa, lose to Nashville, lose to St. Louis.

Yeah, three non-playoff teams at home where you're supposed to pick up points. So we'll talk to Mike Benton about that in the 7 o'clock hour. We've got to go to break right now. Coming up on the other side, we're going to shift gears a little bit, talk some footy, but specifically the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Adam Crafton, writer from the Athletic FC, is going to join us coming up next. We'll talk to Adam about everything surrounding this tournament that doesn't necessarily have to do with the actual teams on the pitch. Will they even get there? What about the surrounding events, the money, the funding, the fan fest, the ticket prices, all of it. Adam's been covering this very thoroughly for the athletic.

Excited to talk to him next on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet, 650. It's Canucks Central on SportsNet 650. From exclusive interviews to insider scoops and post-game breakdowns, we've got it all. Tune in weekdays 4 to 6 p.m. on radio and on demand through your favorite podcast app. Hey, Friday. Happy Friday, everybody, Halford, Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brub of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associations. Do you have credit card debt? If you do, Sands and Associates could cut your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees.

Visit them today at sands dash trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program. Adam Crafton from the Athletic is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off hour one. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal recycling, they recycle you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. Our next guest is a,

journalist with the athletic FC covering the world global football landscape, but specifically what's going on as we get closer and closer to the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Joining us now, Adam, Here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Adam, how are you? Good morning. How are you guys? We're well. Thanks for taking the time to do this. We appreciate it. I wanted to start with the hottest of many hot-button issues going into the World Cup, and that is Iran's participation, which seems to be hanging in the balance.

the Iranians qualified for a fourth consecutive World Cup earlier by topping Group A in Asian qualifying last year. Much has happened since then. Can you walk us and the listeners through where we are currently at with Iran's participation in this year's World Cup? Yeah. I mean, where do we start? So Iran qualified for the tournament, as you said, last year. As we know, there's been huge geopolitical tensions for a very long time now, Iran and the United States and also Israel as well.

And this all came to a head a couple of weeks ago, of course, when the Ayatollah was taken out by a combination of the Americans and the Israelis. And since then, there's been a series of retaliatory strikes from the Iranians in the Gulf region, targeting U.S. bases and allies of the United States. and that has led to a situation whereby there's been major questions over whether they can participate or not and really a series of conflicting statements that have been coming out of the Iranian Soccer Federation, the US White House, FIFA itself, I mean only last week, President Trump was asked by Politico whether he would like, you know, the Iranians to be there.

He said he couldn't really care less, whether they play or not. then a couple of days later you had the Iranian sports minister coming out saying it would be difficult for them to participate you then have the FIFA president Gianni and Fantino claiming he'd spoken to Trump who had said that the Iranians would be welcome

and then within 48 hours Trump had come out and said he thinks it would be a threat to the safety and lies with the Iranian players if they were to come and play in the United States which is an extraordinary thing really for the leader of a host country to be saying.

But then last night, Trump came out again and said it would be the safest World Cup ever. So if that all appears confusing, it's because it is. How much is this have to do with Infantino, at times, cozying up to the American president, and then the American president doing what the American president often does and issuing a variety of statements, one that kind of conflicts the previous one, and leaving everyone in a state of we're not sure what's going to come

next, the unpredictability of it all. How much of that does Infantino own right now? Yeah, I mean, certainly Infantino's approach to handling Trump has been, you know, it's been really to suck up and to cozy and to, I guess, at times, kind of sacrifice his own reputation to a certain extent at the altar of preserving Trump's good graces. And, you know, we've seen that in so many ways, most vividly. at the World Cup draw in Washington, D.C., at the Kennedy Center, when Infantino awarded Trump, FIFA's kind of specially created Peace Prize,

which had been dreamed up shortly after Trump didn't receive the Nobel Peace Prize. So that was kind of the most vivid representation of it, but it's been incredibly frequent, really, over the past year. You saw Infantino attend Trump's inauguration. He attended a pre-inagoration rally, even wearing a red tie, most commonly associated with Republicans. He was wearing the Trump baseball hat

at the Trump Board of Peace meeting a few weeks ago. That was a meeting that was of course shunned by many of America's NATO allies amid these tensions. At that time, you know, the possible annexation of Greenland, which feels a lifetime ago now.

And, you know, it's true to say, Infantino has had more public appearances in the Oval Office than any world leader over the past year. And I think Infantino's calculation is being, you know, if you appeal to Trump's vanity, then you will escape some of the, I guess, tremors and trauma that a Trump presidency at times inflicts upon other stakeholders, I guess.

But I think this weekend, Fantino has discovered that, you know, his priorities and Trump's priorities are not always in alignment and ultimately the interests of the Trump presidency will all. always come first. Adam, wasn't this supposed to be like the safe World Cup? You know, you go to Qatar and Russia and even Brazil was controversial because people said like, here's a country they can't afford to spend the millions of millions of dollars on hosting a World Cup considering their economics. We'll go to North America. What can go wrong with Canada, the United States, and Mexico and now, you know, Canada-U-S relationships are not good, historically speaking.

There's been cartel violence in Mexico and the United States. Well, pick your topic there. What do you think, what do you think FIFA's thinking right now about hosting this World Cup? Because, you know, I would add on that, you know, security for this World Cup, especially in the United States. I mean, all the pressure is on whoever's responsible for security because of what's going on in the world right now. I mean, for sure. And I think you're right that FIFA had viewed this as this was the World Cup that was meant to be a bit easier.

You know, as you say, coming off the back of Qatar, which was really a public relations nightmare for FIFA. And that, by the way, is not to play down to make out FIFA with a victim. terms of that tournament because the human cost, particularly to migrant workers, was pretty shocking in the lead-up to that tournament. And I think FIFA really viewed the North American one as an amazing opportunity, you know, the one where they were going to be able to charge a lot more money, make a lot of money, huge amounts of dollars to reinvest into global soccer, and also, you know, be able to kind of appeal to three different markets.

because Canada, which is still kind of very much emerging and developing the sport, the United States with all this promise of unlocked potential when, you know, when soccer finally becomes the number one sport in America. I think that's how FIFA to be it anyway. And then Mexico, which is kind of an incredibly passionate soccer nation. So the idea, I guess, was to bring these three together. You know, I would say that the bid was won during Trump's first presidency. So, you know, while I don't think any...

thought at that time that Trump would be empowered by the time it actually came around. Like, it can't have been a complete shock in the sense of, you know, this is what it's like, this is what it can be like dealing, you know, with challenging presidents in the United States. In terms of like what FIFA are thinking right now, I think in some ways, I think FIFA kind of tend to think everything would always be all right in the end. And I think that's probably what they're thinking right now. to be honest, that they have a product that is so popular, so successful, where, you know, they claim that there is this unprecedented demand for tickets.

You know, from a financial perspective, at least, Infantino was talking a couple of weeks ago on US television and saying that FIFA in line to make over 11 billion in revenue from the tournament alone. So on that metric, it is a success. But as you say, there's all sorts of security questions. safety visa processing, some of which is being addressed, some of which we are waiting and seeing how that plays out over the next few months. And, you know, I mean, you mentioned the security risk for this World Cup.

The reality is for any World Cup. It's the most popular sporting event in the world. The security threat slash demands on it are very, very high, and it requires a huge amount of alignment between federal, state and city organizers and a major. emergency services in order to safely put on these events. And I think everyone is hoping that any tensions that there's been between the administration and the states and the cities is able to be put aside to make sure that participants and visitors are able to enjoy these events safely.

Well, for the record, I am still very excited about the World Cup coming to North America. I really am. And, you know, I've been covering sports long enough to know. whether it's the World Cup or it's the Olympics, there are always pre-event concerns. And for the most part, these things go off well. There might be a hiccup here and there, but for the most part,

as soon as the games actually start, people's focus are on the games. But this one, I'll say I'm extra curious about, just because I want to know what the atmosphere is going to be like in the United States. And I'm wondering, what the interest level is going to be. I mean, you mentioned the record ticket prices.

Do you have an inkling on what the secondary ticket market is going to be? Because I know a lot of people are still like they didn't get tickets in the lottery, and they're kind of waiting to see how that develops. What do you think ticket prices are going to be like when the game start? Yeah, I think that's a really interesting point. And what we also don't know yet is, I think we know that the demand, I mean, FIFA have claimed that there's been like over 500 million ticket requests, which, you know, is clearly a very, very big number which suggests unprecedented demand. I think what is likely is that there are some games, you know, some key games and some very exciting matchups, perhaps host nation group games, which do have huge, huge demand.

but what we don't know is quite the breakdown between is that is everyone applying to like the category three tickets that are a little bit cheaper is everyone applying for five or six different games does that leave some of the you know remember there's a hundred and four games

during this tournament and many in the group stages does that mean that some of those games are undersubscribed I think that's what we're still trying to work out you know do people want to pay and there's 300 US dollars for game in San Francisco between Qatar and Switzerland, we will see. And I think there's a lot of questions like that during the group stages. In terms of the secondary market, I mean, FIFA has its own resale platform where, you know,

I mean, again, they are taking 15% on the buy side and the sell side. They always get to sell the tickets repeatedly. It's pretty extraordinary in that sense. And so, I mean, the other factor is the pricing is dynamic. at least in the US market, which means that if the stadiums aren't filling up, they will have to drop the prices. And that was what we saw at the Club World Cup in the US last summer,

where it ended up being for the semi-finals that you could pick up a ticket for like $11. Such was the kind of lack of excitement or lack of desire to overspend on an unproven tournament. Now, that's not going to be the case for World Cup, semi-finals and finals. But I think it could be the case for some of the groups, stage matches where the horses may be able to pick up tickets at a slightly cheaper rate.

I know you're based in New York now, but I'm sure you know what's going on in England. What are the England fans thinking about traveling to this World Cup? Because we're both England supporters here. And, you know, one of my bucket list items is to see England play in the World Cup. You know, they've got a cool matchup against Croatia and Dallas in the group stage. and then there is a possibility that England plays Mexico in Mexico City in the knockout stage. I don't have tickets to either of those yet, but I'm kind of taking a wait-and-see notion. Are the England fans going to be out in support like they usually are?

I think they are. I think, you know, the England supporters, sort of representative groups have been very, very critical of FIFA's pricing. I mean, it is expensive for people in the United States. It's incredibly expensive for people in Europe. You know, when you factor in flights, hotel prices, which are through the roof around the games, the tickets, etc. And then also, this isn't an easy tournament to follow your team. I mean, Qatar, for all of its criticisms,

with a very easy tournament to attend in terms of, you know, you could follow your team because all the stadiums were like in the space of 50 miles. one another. Whereas, you know, this is going to be, if you want to follow England all the way to the final, if they get there, not being presumptive, then you're going to have to go, well, you know, down to Dallas, you're going up to the northeast of the United States for games in New Jersey, and then I think they've got one in Boston. One in Boston, yeah.

One in Boston, and then you have to kind of work out where all their other games are going to be through the tournament. say it could be one in Mexico as well. That just becomes a level of expense that most people just can't even put on a credit card. So I imagine the way people will do it is they'll almost pick and choose one or two games or maybe they'll choose two or three games in the area in which they are, and maybe not even just watching their own team. Because I think for most people it's just not pragmatic to follow their team all the way.

Is this going to be the World Cup where we hear, where by the end of the World Cup, we're going to be sick of terms like premium experience and that sort of thing. Like it's going to be, you know, we all know how sports is already trended, but, you know, in North America, we're now used to paying these crazy ticket prices

and for average people to kind of get squeezed out of games. Is that going to be a storyline in this one? I think for sure. I mean, if I'm talking, I know, obviously we talk from Canada as well, but when I think of the United States and the soccer experience in the United States, it is largely an immigrant experience of second generation, maybe third generation as well, and that doesn't always lend itself to the people with the broadest wallets. And I think that would be a shame if the people who are most passionate

about the game are just really excluded from it, particularly in a tournament that FIFA keep telling us, is the most inclusive tournament of all time, which they say at a point where you've got four countries facing travel bands from the United States, as it is already. So, yeah, I think you're right. You know, the premium experience aspect,

the hospitality aspect, is huge in North America. But, I mean, even in Qatar, I remember walking down, the streets and you'd see these lines. It wasn't VIP, it was the VIP, which I think is a term that FIFA have unlocked for themselves, which I hadn't seen before.

So that kind of gives an idea and clearly it's a huge revenue stream and there are companies and people who want to entertain around these games. But even with the hospitality, I'm curious to see outside of the big showpiece venues

and games how well taken up that inventory is as well. We're speaking to Adam Crafton from The Athletic here on the Halperdon Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Would you want to ask you a Tottenham-related question before you go? Yeah, we got to end on something funny. Yeah, but before we get there, just because you mentioned the sort of immigrant experience and the travel bands, has there been any clarity or any potential endgame for the visa backlog and the travel bands, which, as far as I understand, are still very much in place?

Yeah, so if we take the issue of the travel bands, first. There's four countries who are qualified for the tournament whose nationals currently face travel ban for the United States. The first thing to say is there are exemptions for federation officials and for participants, players, and I think maybe one family member. Okay. If I remember that correctly. But the average fan who is not already in the United States and who isn't a dual citizen or anything like that, it isn't able to enter. So that That's the situation for Iran, Haiti, Senegal, and Ivory Coast. As of now, that is the situation.

In terms of the visa backlog, this is an interesting thing because it's been a, it's been an issue for the United States actually predating the Trump administration, even in the final year and a half or so of the Biden administration. It was a bit of a fallout from COVID, really, where embassies, probably weren't working as they should have been for a period of time and then a backlog built up. The Biden administration put in about $50 million, it must have been maybe late 2024, mid-20204,

to try and enhance these processes ahead of the World Cup. And that has helped. The wait times have gone down in many countries that do require visas for people who don't know for the United States at least there's a lot of countries particularly European countries I think Japan, South Korea as well

where you just need what is called an Ester which is like a visa waiver which is very routine really for people to be able to get visas but a lot of other countries place like Brazil Argentina a lot of the Middle East a lot of the South American countries

Central American countries do need a visa in order to go into the United States and the wait time for that had been in some cases like over a year just to get an appointment. Now, what FIFA have managed to negotiate with the US State Department is, they've called it a FIFA pass,

which is an accelerated process by which if you've bought a ticket for the tournament, you can actually get a expedited appointment. But that was a concession of sorts, amid the climate of the Trump administration. We're going to wait and see to see how that develops, but it doesn't really help. I don't think people who, for example,

just want to go to America during the World Cup to take in fan zones or be in the city, which can be a big part of it, or even just come and see whether around the games they can pick up a ticket here or there. So, you know, I do think the tourism aspect, which is a huge part of the economic impact goals of this tournament for the United States,

there's a lot of question marks around that. And they do increasingly suspect whether, you know, that may be a little bit of a calculation is being made, the appetite for major sporting event within North America is such that maybe you don't need that many tourists to fill the stadiums. That might be, you know, a view that they sort of come to think about, but I know that the host cities, you know, who want the revenue that's associated with hotels rooms and meals and entertainment and everything that comes with it, the reality is that, you know, a family of four from Atlanta, attending a game in Atlanta, aren't going to spend as much money in Atlanta as a family of four who are visiting from Brazil

or the UK on the trip of the lifetime, and that's where the difference comes. Okay, real quick, Tottenham. This is a massive club, one of London's largest, with a relatively brand new, billion-dollar stadium that could very well, conceivably, given the odds-makers,

be on their way to relegation and down to the championship. They got thrash-mid-weigh. week in Champions League. The recently appointed manager is under fire. What comes next for Tottenham now, Adam? What comes next for Tarantnam? There's a game at Liverpool on Sunday. Oh, good.

So good luck to Tottenham, and then they've got to play Athletico Madrid again in the Champions League. I think it would surprise a lot of people if they don't change the coach again, which sounds crazy after four games, but he's lost all four games. They're in a perilous situation. in the Premier League.

It is unthinkable, really, the Tottenham who have never been relegated from the Premier League, I don't think. That's a forgetting one. And it would be mad, really, given what they spend on salaries and the stadium for them not to be in the Premier League next season.

So my expectation is almost that they let their current interim coach, Igor Tudor, almost take the hit of the next two games against Liverpool and Athletics in Madrid, and then they get in a new coach, unless results change dramatically, for the final run of games in the Premier League, where they do have some fixtures where on paper you think they've got a good chance of winning that. They've got a huge games against Nostk and Forest at home, Leeds at home,

teams who are in and around them, they still have to play wolves away, Sunderland away. But those are games that look winnable. at least on paper, but Spurs, spurs are a real mess. You know, they've lost over 40 games since the start of last season and they're a clubbing a cycle of negativity

and for anyone who watched the first 20 minutes of that game against Alesska, Madrid in the Champions League this week. I mean, it was a real, it was like driving down the highway or the motorway and there's a pile up and you're not meant to look, but you can't stop looking,

because of how surreal the scene is and how alarming the scene is. And that's how watching Tottenham at the moment unfortunately feels. Adam, this was fantastic. Thank you very much for taking the time to do this today. We really appreciate it. No problem. Thanks for your time. Take care. You too, thanks. That's Adam Crafton from the Athletic FC here on the Halpert & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

Before we go to break, I need to tell you about Jan Pro. Reliable cleaning, clear communication and service you can count on. That's Jan Pro. Start Clean, stay clean. and visit them online at janpro.com. Do you think you'll go to a World Cup game? Yes, 100%. Yeah.

What are you going to target? Whatever I can get. No, just getting in the door and getting in. Doesn't matter where, doesn't matter how, just get to a match. I've got a very low bar. So that's a low bar. Do you think you'll see Canada? Yes, I do.

Okay. Well, that, I mean, that's more than just. I hope I do. Let's put it that way. Well, I mean, hope is not a plan. Are you going to make it happen? If I don't make a Canada match happen, I will see a match in Vancouver 100%. I'll do whatever it takes to see a...

I just want to say that I saw and I was in attendance for a World Cup match when it was hosted in Canada. Now seeing Canada play, I really got... But that's a very big potential price difference. Correct. I would be willing to travel to certain places depending on how I'm feeling at the moment. But yeah, it's... How your wallet is feeling at the moment ago?

That's true. There we go. Yeah, I think I do think that it's going to be a soft secondary market for certain matches. I don't think people quite understand at the end of the qualifying round, the opening round and that stage,

how flat some of those matches are, if it's two teams that are the minnows of their group that are on their way out and they don't have a chance of advancing and maybe they're from regions of the world that didn't have a huge traveling conditions, contingent. The group stage is going to be exciting for us in Canada because we're going to want to see if Canada can get out of the group stage.

I think the group stage on the whole, though, is going to be... Hey, I'll say it. It's bloated. There's a lot of teams. We've never had this many teams at the World Cup before. The group stage, there's going to be a lot of matches that are going to be, quite frankly, forgettable. We've got to go to break. When we come back, 7 o'clock hour on the horizon, AJ from AJ's, Pizza's going to join us. Mike Benton, radio host from the Seattle Cracken Audio Network.

and Yesper Sorens and Whitecaps manager all in the 7 o'clock hour. You're listening to The Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650.