Halford & Brough in the Morning - How Will The World Cup Go In Vancouver?

Episode Date: July 30, 2025

In hour two, Mike & Jason chat the latest football news with NFL.com's Nick Shook (1:22) as preseason is about to get underway, plus the boys look ahead to and discuss their expectations for the World Cup in Vancouver next year (30:07).  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.

Thank you. 7-1 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sports 9-650. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal could get you on the road to being debt-free in just two weeks. Visit them online at Sands-trustee.com. We are now in our two of the program.

Nick Shook from NFL.com is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off Hour 2. Hour 2 is brought to by Jason Homanock at Jason Dominock at Jason Domble. mortgage. If you love giving the banks more your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online at jason.morgage. We are coming to you live from the Kintech studio, Kintech footwear and orthotics, working together with you in step. To the hotline we go, the Power West Industries hotline, Nick Shook from NFL.com joins us here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. We're in Nick. How are you? Fantastic, guys. We are, what, one day away from an actual NFL free season game. It is

upon us. Jason learned this morning that Trey Lance is one, a member of the Los Angeles Chargers and two, going to start the Hall of Fame game tomorrow. It was a big day for you. It's a big start for him.

Big morning for you. Big day for Trey Lance ahead. Well, parked that one for a sec, though. All due respect to Trey Lance and the Chargers. I do want to whip around to some of the bigger stories from training camps thus far. The big one yesterday, and I guess today is that the Cincinnati Bengals got

their house in order. Shamar Stewart, that was an earlier one. That got resolved. and now NFL sack leader, the reigning defensive stalwart, Trey Hendrickson, is going to be back in camp. How do you see this one playing out, Nick? I mean, it's not a guarantee that the Hendrickson deal gets done now, but it is more movement on the matter than I anticipated.

Although, I mean, if we're being completely honest with ourselves, and in the current state of affairs across the NFL, it's rare that you get a legitimate holdout that lasts pretty long. Right. Because, well, these guys under the CBA are able to be fine, on a daily basis for not being in camp and Terry McLauran showed up and what they end up becoming is more

of a hold end. So that's why it's not a guarantee that Trey Henderson gets a deal done with the Bengals. But if their dispute is over, you know, the amount of guaranteed money that's in a contract, then that means that they are relatively close to getting something done because they've gotten to the point where they're

talking about guaranteed money. That's what Ian Ravaport had reported last week is that you know, that was the big issue that they can, you know, hang up with them. So it's, you know, it moves the needle. It definitely advances the story, but I'm not necessarily sitting back thinking, okay, it's going to happen, you know, the next 24 to 48 hours. But at the same time, if it does, I wouldn't be surprised either.

Not to, you know, kind of play both sides of the fence here, but I wouldn't be surprised either because, you know, this is a player that they desperately need on this defense. This is a team that spent a ton of money offensively, and their best player on the defensive side who has 35. Sacks combined over the last two years is not, you know, signed. So not signed beyond this season, and it's going to be a vital part of their defense that was a huge problem with them last year.

So they need to get it done. I don't know if they're going to get it done as quickly, but it is a positive sign, at least, that he is now in camp. What's your outlook for the Bengals this year? Because they're coming off consecutive nine and eight campaigns, both in which they missed the playoffs. And this comes after, you know, two years where they went to the Super Bowl, and then they went 12 and 4 and went to the conference championship.

So what's your outlook for Cincinnati this season? You know, it's kind of a difficult question to answer because they have all this firepower offensively, but a lot of what has defined them over the last few years remains, which is I don't really know if I entirely trust their offensive line. Their defense didn't get me better. They did change defensive coordinators, which was out of necessity given the fact that they lost,

I believe, four games last year in which their offense scored, 30 or more points and the defense couldn't do enough of a job to keep the opposition off the scoreboard and they end up losing all those games. But they're also a team that starts poorly under Zach Taylor. I think five of the last six years, they've started 0 and two or worse with him as their head coach. They just, they're like the worst team in the NFL are getting out of bed on time and starting the season.

And I think that needs to change because the last thing you want to do is bury yourself and then force yourself to have to try to mount this crazy run just to get into playoff contention, which is where they've been in the last couple of years, and they tried to get there without Joe Burrow two years ago, and so you could excuse it to the injuries, but last year there was no excuse it. I just didn't get there. If you want to excuse it, it could be the defense. So, and they didn't get any better on the defensive side of the ball, at least in my opinion. It's a team that, you know, has invested in the draft in defensive players, and they did

it again this year, but they went with traits guys, and they have. gotten production from most of the guys they've drafted over the last few years defensively. They fired Lou Anirumo. They have replaced him with Al Golden. All the pressure is on that side of the ball to get the job done because you know what you have in the offensive side. So, you know, a long answer to this because, you know,

you're in the same division as the Ravens. What are the Steelers going to be? They wouldn't, they shouldn't have to be worried about the Browns. But there's a lot of pressure there. And I feel like Zach Taylor sees warming up. So it's, they should be. As good, it's not better than they were last year, but there's a lot of pressure on that team. This is a wide open question.

Who do you think is going to be the most improved team? You know, wide open is a good way to define that. But I think it's the New York Jets. The more that the time passes, the more I'm convincing myself, and maybe I'm crazy. But they have an adult in the room. a lot of it comes down to Justin Fields, the quarterback, but this is a franchise that has just not been handled well over the last decade, really.

I mean, even when Rex Ryan was coaching there and they were getting all the way of the AFC championship game, it still felt like there was a bit of a lack of professionalism there. They just had a really good defense, and they were coached by a very good defensive-minded coach. Now, that was years ago now at this point, well over a decade ago. but they've just kind of, you know, wandered in the abyss

and especially in the last few years with all the Aaron Rogers talk and everything else. It's just they didn't feel like a professional organization. And now, for the first time, it feels like they are. And I think that's going to go a long way because there is still talent on this roster. So that's one of the teams that I think is probably the most improved. And a lot of it elsewhere is just going to be, okay, because people want to talk about Chicago and everything, but I need that proven to me.

before I go anywhere. Everything else around the NFL is kind of a weird blend of, yeah, we expect them to be good or we expected them to be better than they were and they need to figure it out. Teams like the 49ers and such. So the Jets are going to be my pick in that area. But the Patriots could also make a claim, I think. I think they have more things to sort out.

It's going to take a little bit longer for them. As a Seahawks fan, I'm interested also in maybe for the first time in a while in the Raiders with Pete Carroll and Gino Smith, with Las Vegas now. Do you think that's going to work? The tone and that question is fantastic. I'm honestly like I haven't

been interested in it. And I think it's bad for the NFL. But the Raiders really, you know, I haven't thought about them much in the last little while. But I am curious to see, I mean, Pete had a great run in Seattle, but he's not a young guy

anymore. And I mean, there was talk in Seattle that the game had passed him by while he was here. And, you know, Gino Smith, I think he's, I think he's a good quarterback. He's prone to the big mistake, but I think he's a good quarterback. I'm just curious to see how they do. Yeah. You know, I think it's, yeah, it's not good for the league when they're bad because of the brand they are in their, you know, history of success, silver and black, you know, everything

else. But it's also bad for the league when they're playing in a really nice stadium and people don't want to watch that game because the team that calls that stadium home is not good. So, yeah, I agree with that. I do, you know, it's interesting because you're right about what people

said about Pete Carroll before he split with the Seahawks. They felt as if, you know, despite his youth and energy, his age and everything else, the way that he kind of went about operating things in Seattle had passed, it seemed like the game had passed him by.

But at the same time, he has a hell of a rip for being a coach, you can, you know, kind of put an organization on the right path. He can, again, be the adult in the room, right? So he gets the quarterback in Gino Smith that I think is probably the ideal pairing. At the same time, they're going to be watchable. Like, to boil it down to a short answer, they're going to be worth watching. I'm going to keep an eye on them. But I, this is not a team that I'm just going to hop on the wagon with and be like,

hey, you know what? I don't care what happens. I'm riding with you all the way at the end because I can see a disaster scenario in which their defense doesn't live up to expectation because of offseason turnover. And too much is on Gino, Ashton Genty and Jacobi Myers and Brock Bowers. It's going to be interesting, though, because I do think that this is going to be one of those teams that you don't see a lot of three receiver sets with because of Bowers playing that tight end and the lack of proven guys at receiver. And it's going to be interesting because how does Gino work with that? Because I think they're going to get a lot of two tight endsets there. And, of course, you have intrigue with Ashton Genty, but I'm not going to put a ton of expectations and I'm going to win a bunch of games. I do think they'll be much more watchable than they were in previous years. We're speaking to Nick Shook from NFL.com here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

Let's keep it on the West Coast. The San Francisco 49ers. So if you want to talk about teams that are going to improve year to year, at least in terms of record, one of the ones most likely to is the Niners who went a woeful 6 and 11 last year. Vegas has their win total set at 10 and a half for the over under. What are you anticipating out of San Francisco this year? I got to imagine that there's got to be some level of bounce back from, as mentioned,

a pretty rough 6 and 11 record last year. Yeah, 611 record that, you know, was built by injuries. They lost guys in all over the place. You know, Christian McCaffrey being one, but you can go down the list on both sides of the ball. It was, you know, Brandon and I, you've got all that money and then get hurt as well. And by the end of the year, it was, oh, God, you know, who is even left in this team? They cycled through so many running backs throughout that season. And defensively, they lost guys all over the place.

And at all three levels of the defense, they just, they didn't look like the 49ers by the end of the season, except for the fact that Brock Purdy was still playing quarterback. To put them at that win total, I think, is a little ambitious because this is a team that was headed toward an off-season of transition in terms of personnel. This is a team that had been in contention for the Super Bowl for the last five years. They reached it in the 2019 season. They reached it in the 20-23 season. They were close pretty much in the other three seasons in between.

And when you're that good for that long, and you eventually have the key contributors have to go because they age out or they want too much money, that sort of thing. That's why Debo Samuel's gone. He's far from the only one. And it really occurred on the defensive side of the ball, where most of their front seven, the contributors that you knew are gone.

Drey Greenlaw being one of them. You think about Javon Hargrave, the investment they made in him, and the back side of the defense as well in the secondary. They lost a lot of guys there, Tala Noah Hufunga, I'm sure of various ward, continue to go down that list as well.

So I think that expecting 10 wins out of this team just because all they had the offseason to get healthy is a little inflated. It also demonstrates a lot of confidence and Kyle Shanahan and the idea that Christian McCaffrey could have a bounce back year. I would put them a little bit lower than that, but also you can't argue with results. I think their big question mark is going to be their defense. It could be a group that either is an unknown that ends up underwhelming or it could be

a group that ends up producing really well. I mean, Robert Sal is back there as a defensive coordinator, and he had nothing but great things to say about Michael Williams their first round pick out of Georgia yesterday. They got Jared Brown back there. they invested in him a few years ago. So it's a complete boom or bust team to me, I think. And it is interesting that a lot of people expect to boom. Who's going to be the worst team in the NFL this year?

I'm assuming it's going to be like, wow. I think Tennessee is going to have something to say about that. But those are my two choices right now. Is anyone else in the running or is it going to be strictly between Cleveland and Tennessee? I think that that's probably your best bet is between those two. Oh, God. I also really hope that it kills me, but I really hope the Patriots take a step forward

because they were just so tough to watch last year. Pretty bad. I am also staying on the fence with the Jags. I know Travis Hunter's there. I know Liam Cohen's the coach there. Plenty of reason to be optimistic. I'm staying on the fence with them as well. Something about the way that franchise operates.

The Trevor Lawrence thing is getting into a weird territory. I know they paid him a lot of money, but he's been banged up in a lot over the last few years, and this is kind of a year in which I need than win more games and him to be on the field more often to really have a reason to be confident in them again. But yeah, I think it really does come down to the Browns and the Titans.

I just can't I can't see a scenario which either team is really that competitor this year, which is a bummer for them. It's a bummer for those markets, but that's what I think's going to happen. Oh, and you know what, let's add one more of the group. The Saints. Yeah. Look at their quarterback situation. Also not great.

New coach, big transition year for them. I think they could be one the worst teams too. Please give us the Cleveland Browns quarterback depth chart in order. You know, this, actually, this question reminded me that I have to respond to a text from a friend about this subject. And now I'm wondering, was it yesterday or the day before that I got this text? And now I feel bad about it.

Oh, boy. Here's what I thought was going to happen going into the season. I thought, can he pick it? would end up being week one starter. Joe Flacko is your obvious veteran backup. And then it's just a battle beat for, you know, the final position between Dylan Gabriel and Shador Sanders. Now that Kenny Pickett has dealt with his hamstring injury

and could be out multiple weeks, you know, could affect his availability for week one. I think your starter is now Joe Flacco. And week one, week one, not the whole year, week one. And then I think it's Dylan Gabriel and then Shador Sanders after that. and I if you're reading the reps it's hard to read the tea leaves when it comes to the reps because they're almost even

but I do think that this team still has more of a preference for what Dylan Gabriel brings to the table than Shador standards now I'm not in that camp so I can't tell you exactly what it is other than what I've seen him do in college but you know I think about a week or two from now we're going to know a lot more about why they like Dylan Gabriel or why they like

or don't like Shador as much maybe Shador passes him I know that there's a lot people on the outside who are pushing the narrative for Chador to rise up the ranks and everything else to fill their airtime and everything else. I don't think that that's 100% as realistic as it's presented as at this point. That could change in a couple of weeks. But I think it's week one as of now with Pickett dealing with the injury. It's Flacko and then it's Gabriel and it's Chidor and you're giving Pickett time to come back from being injured. Okay, excuse me if this is a dumb question, but is there a chance that Shadoura Sanders gets cut?

Yes, there is a chance. There's a chance that Dylan Gabriel gets cut. There's a chance that Kenny Pickett gets cut or traded, and there's a, I don't know, like they would cut Joe Flacco, which is crazy because the guy's 40 years old, but I think that they wanted to rely on anybody in that group, they would keep Flacko around. When all of this started, I thought that Pickett was going to get traded when they drafted their two quarterbacks and it was going to be Flacco and the two young guys. And that's how it is right now with picket's sideline by a hamstring injury,

which has more of a teenage mutant ninja turtles like Master Splinter and the Turtles thing to me than the actual football. But, yeah, KV4 quarterbacks is not unprecedented, but it makes the puzzling of, you know, the puzzle piecing of the roster a little bit more difficult. Andrew Berry did say the last few days that there is a scenario in which he could definitely see the Browns keeping all four. but I think when you are even contemplating the idea of keeping all four yeah there's a chance that you're going to cut one of them or put one of them on waivers he's also a fifth round pick like I know that the name and everything brings it you know into the spotlight

fifth round picks get cut pretty frequently if they don't end up you know making it in camps so yeah there's definitely a chance let's continue with some QB battles that are still ongoing what is going to happen with the Saints in New Orleans at quarterback you know it's funny because when you listen to the tone of teams and what they're saying in the early stages of camp when it comes to quarterback, you got to kind of read between the lines. And

nobody there has really said anything remarkable about Tyler Shuck's physical capabilities. It's been more about you know, he's got it. He's got the intangibles. He's winning his teammates over. He's being a leader, first in the door, last leave, lunch pill guy, gym rat, you know, gritty, sneaky

athlete. You continue going down the list, right? so it's that's kind of in the tone of what they've been talking about when it comes to shuck I think that they are still intrigued by Spencer Rattler and I think Jay Canner is simply filling a roster spot there um so I think it's going to be shuck in week one and hopefully by then we can all agree on how to properly pronounce his name because I've heard it as shuck I've heard it a shook I've heard it somewhere in between um the latter makes me you know rattles me a little bit because it's spelled so differently from my last name but I would like he saw to get on the same page before week one if he ends up winning that job which i think he will

that's like half of my name and half of your name because my last name is brough b r o u g h and i get a lot of like bro but it's yeah so that is i think i would react that way too yeah if i if i made you for the first time and on paper i'd be like brow bro oh bruff oh okay that one got me we're speaking to Nick Shook, S-H-O-O-K, straightforward pronunciation here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Before we let you go, I got to ask about this. So, Bruff learned this morning a couple of things like Trey Lance is playing for the Chargers. I learned something this morning while reading some of your most recent articles on NFL.com. The Protector of the Year award.

Brough, did you know this one? No. They're giving out award for the first time this year to the league's top blocker and best. offensive linemen. I think this was like Andrew I'm surprised they don't have one of these already. I know. They had one in college football, right, Nick? They don't have one. They got one for every damn position. Really? All five.

They got one for best long snapper. They have one for best interior line men. Oh. Oh, yeah. Yeah. There's run through the list there. Pick up the new college game if you want to the video game and run to the list on there. It's quite extensive. Okay. So this is cool that the NFL is doing this because for the amount of time that we talk about the offensive line.

especially when we're covering the Seahawks. I bet it won't be a Seahawk. Yeah, there's zero guys in the running for this right now. It's actually surprising that we don't talk about the individuals more because there are elite guys at this position like every other position. Is it kind of understood right now that the best offensive linemen, regardless of position in the NFL right now is Penae Sewell? Or are there other guys in the mix for that top billing?

I think that I would put two more guys in the mix right now. I would probably put Trent Williams. there. Yeah. A guy who missed a lot of time last year at the Niners and due to injury and kind of fell out a little bit of the consciousness, but those who have watched offensive line play closely really over the last five years still know that he's a fantastic incredible lineman.

And I'd probably put Lane Johnson there too. I mean, we had a top 10 list there. And the reason is I'm so glad that I got this reaction from you guys because this is the exact intent of me writing that was, all right, we're about a month and a little bit over a month out from the start of the regular season. Let's remind everybody that this happens. when they were busy watching hockey, you know, in the winter. And so it's weird, though, because I feel so torn about how this is going to get handed out.

You know, it's offensive lines the hardest position to judge in the entire film because there's no real stats to track, no real metrics that, you know, the average fan could just go, well, he had 850 receiving yards on top of 1,200 rushing yards. Of course he should win the award, that sort of thing. He had 20 sacks, that sort of thing. We don't have that. We could track pancakes, but it's just such a. it's an ambiguous position to really properly judge

unless you know what you're looking for. So oftentimes these sorts of awards end up going to the team that happen to have one of the best running backs and they also won a lot of games. The good thing is both of those Eagles tackles, Lane Johnson and Jordan Milata, are really elite players and are deserving of consideration for this award.

But when you move to center and you move to guard, sometimes it gets even more murky and just uncertain and all that stuff. So I think that we're going to end up seeing you know, if Detroit continues to be as good as they are over the last years, which made no mistake, Penasual is a fantastic tackle. But you're going to see, you know, he's going to be linemen from the best teams in the NFL,

not necessarily the best performing offensive linemen. And I think back to the days of Joe Thomas in Cleveland when the Browns were terrible, but he was clearly the top left tackle in the game, I feel like he might, he would have probably not gotten recognized as many times because it just feels kind of like this is going to go to an offensive lineman, the best offensive lineman on one of the best teams. which I guess it's fine, but I don't know. I could go on about that all day.

The NFL preseason officially kicks off tomorrow with the Pro Football Hall of Fame game. Nick, you're the best, ma'am. Thanks for doing this today. We genuinely appreciate it. We're on vacation for a few weeks now, so we'll bid you farewell. We'll call you again in late August, and we'll be that much closer to the start of the regular season. Vacation. Who says you can take a vacation?

I'm going to be in Canton tomorrow, and you're going on a vacation? How dare you? It's hockey country up here, man. Thanks, Nick, enjoy Canton, buddy. All right, guys, see it. Nick Shook from NFL.com here on the Halperton Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650. Only three weeks of the preseason. I don't count the Hall of Fame game.

I mean, it's a game. Yeah, yeah. I'll probably tune in just to get that tiny dopamine hit, that fix of football being back. And then I'll remember that it's the Pro Football Hall of Fame game. I'm kind of interested to see Trey Lance play. He's quite literally fighting for his career. He said as much prior to getting a starter in this game. starter in this game. I hope he invested his money wisely and spent it wisely because he made like,

he was the third overall pick, right? So he made like probably 30 million bucks. Like is he probably made that much? I will tell you. Yeah, Google up is Google up Tray Lance's career earnings. 34 million in career earnings. Right? That includes. And how many games is he played? How many games is he played like 20? I can tell you that too. The Google machine will tell me everything. So who do you play for. He played San Francisco and where did he win here? Dallas. He played in Dallas, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So as you played like... San Francisco, Dallas, Los Angeles has a

grand total of 12 NFL appearances. 12 starts. Sweet, that's awesome money for him. He should just be like, you know what? I made $30 million. They shouldn't have drafted me third overall, but they did.

So I got that rookie contract. You know, of all the crazy things that happened. Life is amazing. Of all the crazy things that happened during COVID, I wonder if the Trey Lance pick and the trade to get him was the craziest of them all. Remember that? Yeah.

That, that, that, that, he was out there playing against, like, Simon Fraser University in college. He's so athletic. Yeah, he can do stuff. He's 6'4, he's 226. You know, when Nick was talking about the, uh, who's the Saints quarterback? Tyler Shuck. And he was like, he's sneaky athletic. I'm like, I bet he's white.

Don't you know Tyler Shook? No. No. No one did, really. He's a second round pick. Sneaky athletic is always guys like, I don't know, us. By the way. You know what? Sneaky athletic.

He was one, okay, so he sits in a chair most of the time, but sneaky athletic. Phil Kessel. I mean. Oh, he's not sneaky athletic at all. It's kind of crazy. It's kind of crazy to call Tyler shook sneaky out. He's 6-220. Like, he's, I mean, I don't know.

But that's his size. I know, but he's not. Like, if you were to look at him, I've seen him play. Yeah, yeah. Because he was in college for like, he was Van Wilder. He was there for like 20 years. He played it. Oregon.

Do you remember in Oregon? Yeah. Yeah. Oregon, Texas Tech and Louisville. Mm-hmm. And he's... I don't remember him that. Oh, okay.

I didn't know who he was. Well, so you know how with the transfer portal and the extension from a lot of the COVID redshirt years? Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's going to be, he's a rookie. He's going to be 26 in September. Like, that's crazy. He was in college for a long time.

He was in Oregon in 2018. Like, his college career lasted a long time. And now he's going to be the starting quarter. back for the New Orleans Saints. Okay, we've got an open segment on the other side. So text in to the Dunbar-Lumber text line 650-6-50. Any questions or comments you have Metro Vancouver's trusted choice for contractors and renter warriors for over 50 years, visit them at one of their three locations to serve

you or online at Dunbarlumber.com. You can think about this as a mid-week. We're desperate for content. ask us anything if you want or I can provide you with a topic and it's something that we were talking about earlier in the show because we were talking about how we're going to get World Cup tickets and how difficult it's going to be and how expensive it's going to be now I don't want to hear from anyone who's like I'm not interested in the World Cup this is only for people this topic in particular who are excited about the World Cup coming to Canada and also

the United States and Mexico, what are your expectations for how you're going to enjoy this? Do you expect that you'll go to a game or do you expect that you won't? Because I've expected that I'm going to go to a game, maybe multiple games. But now I'm doing the math and going, you are a sports radio guy, not a hedge fund manager. So I'm going to have to wait and see on ticket prices. I really don't know where these things are going to settle. So I'd love to hear from our great listeners on what their expectations for the World Cup are. Jason Brough won't be able to go, but Jason Brough, maybe.

Yeah. He made smart decisions with his career. You're listening to the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. 735 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody, Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. This is one of those just hitting random buttons on a keyboard song. The boop, boop, beep. Yeah, you got a bunch of buttons.

in front of you just start hitting them all. Meep, beep, boob. Very European. Who's a painter that just threw stuff of the wall? Jackson Pollock. Yeah, exactly. It's a Jackson Pollock dance mix. You are listening to the Halifred Inbrough show on Sportsnet 650.

Throwing stuff with the wall. Very appropriate recap of our show. Basically this entire week. Let's just try it. That's been our motto every night when we put the notes together. Let's talk to the guy that talked to Adam Sandler. Should we just try it? Should we just try it?

He just called you? Adam Sandler? Really? How many times did it ring? Are you nervous? Did you do the Shabbadoo? Zabadoo! All right.

You're listening to the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought you by Sands and Associates. B.C.'s first and trusted choice for dead help with over 3,000, five-star reviews. Visit them online at sands dash trustee.com. We got the son of the guy that plays Huggy Bear on next segment, too, by the way. Seriously. At this point, there are no bad ideas. There's bad ideas executed.

routinely, but there's no bad ideas here. We are in hour two of the program. We're the midway point of the show. Hour two is bradded by Jason hominock at Jason.orgage. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online at jason.morgia. So we asked the listeners to text in with their expectations for the World Cup

and how they're going to enjoy that World Cup as fans. Lance texting in I live in Central BC I'd love to go but I don't understand how people afford this stuff you guys are radio famous you could start a meme coin

oh yeah we could I guess following the line of our ill-fated NFTs which never really took off they never really took off today it's like Jason but he's a monkey he's wearing sunglasses please give me a thousand dollars

one from Comox says I've been saving up for five years even though I know it's not going to be cheap I plan on going for at least two games first of all won great job saving up for five years can't do that massive respect that's commitment to the game that's discipline

as opposed to the one guy who texted it and said I'm just going to hit a fat parlay and buy tickets that's the way to do it that's my kind of guy that's the plan sick bro you hit that

fat parley. So basketball, Ben, you had a question of us while we were off air. Repeat that question. Just curiosity and wondering, what do you guys expect the prices to kind of be? And it could be for a regular game between two non-Canadian countries, or what do you think it's going to take out of someone's wallet to get into the building to watch Team Canada play? Just to get in. Let's talk. Addo, calm down. Five grand. Calm down. That's not unrealistic.

So the get... Five grand for a ticket is... That's a lot for an opening group stage game. No, I just mean like to get in. Yeah, the get in price for a Canada... Canada is going to play at least two games at BC Place. There's three games in the group stage. We don't know which teams that Canada is going to be in the group with,

but expect probably one high profile country and maybe two that aren't so much. But who knows? Who knows? the first game's going to be in Toronto at Bimo and then the next two are going to be at BC Place 54,000 tickets or seats are going to be available at BC Place that's what on FIFA the FIFA World Cup page says with a seating capacity of 54,000

yeah so there you go some of those will be allocated to whoever the team is Canada's playing sure so we'll take let's say it's I don't know let's say it's 45,000 okay Does get in price reach four figures? I think that's possible.

Right now. The quote unquote conservative estimates as laid forth from the documents that were made available after the World Cup bids were put out. This is a while ago, but this gives some framework of it. But I'm not talking about face. I know, but we're starting.

We're just getting a starting point here. Like an actual factual bit so we can build off it. Okay. So the estimate laid out in the World Cup bids, category one, which is the lowest level entry, potentially nosebleed, potentially obstructed view. It's coming in at $323 U.S. dollars. So is that what they're going to charge for it? Or is that what it's going to be on the secondary market? No, that's what it would be from FIFA when they release the tickets and the subsequent lottery bids that you have to get in to try and get those tickets.

So face is $300? Yeah. Okay. That's not the $90 ticket they were offering a Qatar. Right. It's more. Now, things will fluctuate because you got to remember with an expanded field in the World Cup, there's more matches. Also, it's worth pointing out with the more matches, 75% of them are going to be played in the U.S.

The majority of that 75% is going to be played in stadiums that hold upward of 80 to 90,000. So there's going to be more tickets available for some of the matches. So you're going to see some fluctuation at the lower end. However, let's get back to what you were talking about. BC Place, 54,000 tickets. If it's a Canada game, you could say I probably easily double that $323 conservative estimate. And that's in U.S. dollars. You might be right.

Was it over, it was over a thousand to get in the door at Taylor Swift, right? Yeah. So you might be right. It might be in the neighborhood of $1,000 or is A-Dog's math, $5,000. And let's say, let's conservatively say, conservatively say. What's a banana cost? $10? You don't grocery shop, do you?

Let's, let's say it, four figures. Groceries, it's such a, such a traditional word. Such an old-fashioned word, we don't use it that much anymore. Groceries. Peter and Cloverdale. Actually, one banana is close to $10 now. I know. It's true.

Soon that joke will. I know, it's not even a joke anymore. It's just appropriate pricing. Peter and Cloverdale Texan, my plan is to go to a lot of viewing parts. and enjoy the atmosphere downtown. I did this a lot during the 2010 Olympics. I plan to do the same for the World Cup. If I do end up finding tickets, I'll do it,

but I won't pay these high prices. Okay, so here's another question I'm throwing out there and I don't know the answer. The FIFA fan zone, I know this, is going to be at the P&E. Yep. They are redoing the amphitheater there and that's where the fan zone is going to be.

to be. So you can go there every day and watch games. If Canada is playing there, I'm sure it's going to be tougher to get in. How much for those be do you think? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Try not to try not exactly right? Five thousand dollars. Yeah. Don't get us off track, A dog. Here's the question that I do have because I too at the 2010 Olympics, I wasn't prepared and I didn't get into the lottery for tickets or however they allocated them. I ended up getting like, as I said earlier in the show, I was like, I panicked. I was like, okay, I'll go see Russia and Latvia. I just wanted to go see some stuff. And I saw the curling and that's, that's it. That's all I did. And I enjoyed the various parties. They weren't

necessarily called viewing parties, but there, you know, there was one I went out to. It was like a Dutch party in Richmond, right? It was like the Heineken house. Yep. That was fun. And I had a great time doing that. But that wasn't about watching the games. That was just about going out and partying. How many watch parties, big watch parties do you think will be hosted downtown? Because the 2010 Olympics went great in terms of the atmosphere downtown. One year later, however, there was a slight incident. You don't remember Halford and Brough, back when we were the curtain blog, we had a curtain

blog branded watch party for the first game between Canada and the U.S. won the U.S. won. Well, will the watch parties be restricted to restaurants and pubs, or could they have a possible, like, alternative viewing area where people can go downtown and watch these games? Or do we, do we, do we not have that? Do we not have that for everybody will have to come to the Halfrid and Bruff World Cup watch parties? Where are we going to have it? We're going to need some sort of outdoor, because there's going to be so many people will need some sort of like outdoor facility. I got to think that.

Brough's backyard? With the city of me Stay up the lawn Where do I go? I would think that You know how we saw During COVID when There were the temporary patio

Remember patios were everywhere Well they still are They're still on like the street Not as many Yeah They were like taking over the street Yeah Yeah

I wonder if like some sort of Temporary Rezoning or reapplication To have more outdoor based Because that's what you're going to want You're going to want A big screen outside so you don't

But it costs money for the city to it costs money for the city to put on the big watch parties so maybe what they do in order to make the money is they offer that opportunity with a special kind of like zoning or licensing you have to apply for it. But then you've got to worry about security

sure right you absolutely like that when you have a lot of people gathered and unfortunately we saw with the the tragedy a few months ago you got to have you got to prepare for all this We just, we were in Calgary, what, three weeks ago, four weeks ago for Stampede. And one of the things, one of my takeaways, having gone to the actual fairgrounds

as opposed to just the tents that surround the city, the fairgrounds on the Saturday was the volume of people that were going through and how it was very orderly. And I know some of it probably has to do with the vibe around the event. And we also went during the day. Maybe it hadn't gotten to the sort of like rowdy or late stages. But I mean, it was a, it was a sea of people. You can attest to this as well, right? So there is still a way to do this and to have it in a calm and orderly fashion.

I think one thing was like... But the city's budget is stretched in Vancouver. I mean, the one thing that I noticed about the, especially the stampede grounds is it was so vast. Like it never felt like you, it never, there was never a claustrophobic moment. No. And I think in downtown Vancouver, maybe in the porta potty's a couple times. Right.

That was getting pretty tight. But the rest of it, the rest of it was... Maximum three per person. Port-a-potty people. The rest of it was pretty cool. You got to go smoke. The best place to do it isn't a port-a-potty. However, I don't advocate for that, by the way.

It'll be very curious to see what you're talking about. Because there's going to need to be, or I think they might just pop up and like, you may as well try and control it. Large gatherings outdoors of people because you, I don't think anyone can truly prepare for the crush of people that are going to be making this a summer vacation, right? Especially when the groups are announced and especially when you see who's going to be playing at BC Place, you're going to have throngs of people, not just

going to follow their national team, but I think, and you've mentioned this before on the show, a lot of people are going to consider this a destination World Cup, because a lot of people are going to be, especially Vancouver. And Vancouver is going to be like... Vancouver in the summer is such a tourist destination to begin with. Imagine throwing in the possibility to see your national team play a World Cup match. Couldn't there be watch

parties right outside BC Place as well? Like, big screen... Andy, they can do them anywhere. I don't... It's not that... But who pays for it and who makes sure they're properly secured. The city. Oh, okay. Yeah. It's a foot in a big bill.

Yeah. What's that coming out of your taxpayer? It's a big event. It's a big event. Lots of people coming in. Oh, okay. A lot of money, a lot of revenue will be generated from all the tourism and all the people coming into the city.

You should run for city council. So do it right. Or you should do that. I'm just saying, it's not a crazy thing to suggest. No, I know. But like, you know how the city raises money, right? Yeah. How?

How. Watch parties. We've discovered a flaw in your campaign platform. Sean with an ask us anything Do you guys see a scenario where fewer sports fans buy the crazy expensive tickets that Canucks are selling

in hopes of saving their pennies for the chance of a World Cup match that's the boat I'm in I can't do both I won't be going to Canucks games this season in hopes of watching a Canada match I also want to jump in here with the astronomical

and also normalized prices of live sporting events this comes in an era where watching games at home has never been better. The technology for televisions has never been better. The broadcasts have never been more robust and more informative. And I've seen countless people being like the home theater that I've built for myself would far outweigh any, you know, live sporting event. This is a bucketless thing for me.

But I'm just saying like you would think that with all of these technological advance and the ability for people not to have to go out public and spend these money. And I mean, how many people do you know that are like, I wouldn't go pay that money? I'll just sit at home and watch it on my 80-inch 4K TV that I got from Costco for $600 or whatever. That's where I'm out with the NFL right now.

I have really have no interest in making the trek to Seattle to go to watch the Seahawks game. I'd rather just watch all the games at home on TV. All day. And the NFL's built for TV as well. It's just actually a way more enjoyable experience. to watch a football game at home. But yet...

Plus watching sports in 4K is amazing. Yeah, right? It's better than watching it for the first time the other day. I'm like, oh, my God. I took a friend of mine to an NFL game one time and they were blown away at how much time was spent not playing football. Because when you're in the stadium, there's no commercials. They don't cut to, you know, Terry and all the other guys in the studio.

You just sit there and watch, you know, guys throw the ball on the sideline or them move the change. Like, there's so much downtime when you're in the stadium. stadium for an NFL game and the viewing experience I'm not going to lie especially for the NFL not great not great yet ticket prices haven't come down as a matter of fact they're only getting higher people seem to be like okay that's just the way that's how we live our lives now we just pay more money to go watch these sporting events live like I think for me I just want to be able to experience it and say and not brag about it but just be like okay that's something I've done and I want to know what it's like I've never been to the Super Bowl you know like

No, I know. But for the World Cup, sorry to cut you off. For the World Cup, would you want, we go back to our earlier conversation, would you want to go to any match, right? Not really. Kazakhstan's taking on New Zealand and a mean nothing match. Like, are you going to go? If it's 50 bucks, I'd go.

Right, but it's not going to be the same. No, I want to see Canada or England and preferably both. Yeah. Because that, I mean, this is, this is not going to happen again in my lifetime, a World Cup in Vancouver. Imagine a Canada versus England game. What are those prices looking like? Yeah, that would be.

At BC Place. At BC Place? Oh, yeah, it would be astronomical. Yeah. I'd be very curious to see who we're going to get Canada adjacent at BC Place. Germany. Could you imagine? Thomas Mueller.

The draw. The draw is retired from international football. I just announced the draw is going to be in Vegas in December. Yeah, there you go. Okay. Yeah. And there's also all the other things that come along with, a FIFA event coming to your city.

The only people were, like, the delegation, the FIFA delegation is like the size of an army. Like there's a million dignitaries and everything else. They've also got to set up the media center. You talked about the fan experience. So it's going to, like it's going to take over the city, even though it's only here for a handful of matches.

And then, I mean, again, with an expanded tournament, it's going to take about 18 months to play. Like, it's going to be, it's going to be the 2027 World Cup. Maybe tickets will get cheaper as the tournament goes along. because people will just, like, lose interest.

It isn't going on forever. Kevin, the traffic guide, actually asking a question, which I was just thinking about, what are the lions and the white caps do during this period of time? Down Garber mentioned the white caps, and he said, you know,

in addition to all the stadium issues that we have, we also have to be cognizant of the fact that we're going to lose access to that stadium. What about the lions? What do they do? They're not playing. The same thing, road trip, road trip. Road trip, yep.

Yeah, yeah. Imagine if they play right in the middle and just screw up the field. Right before England and Canada. There's a guy rolling down car. carpet on top of the grass. They're like, please don't wear cleats. Wear running shoes, if possible.

Please don't ruin this for us. We really like it. How big is that end zone anyway? Yeah, they're going to be on the road. It'll just be like, go to Hamilton and never leave. You're going to play a bunch of games. That would be interesting. I wonder if they'll get a quote-unquote home game on the road

or if it'll just be a road trip. Yeah, I don't know. But it's going to be challenging for the lines for multiple reasons because let's say they go out for eight straight on the road. Then they're going to have to have at some point in the summer. Eight straight at home. You know what? I don't even care what it looks like

because I'm so looking forward to next summer. You know a big reason why. It's because I'm currently experiencing this summer. Like this summer has been brutal. No big events. None. None. And this is meant as no disrespect to the Toronto Blue Jays.

Who we have made the lead story like two and a half weeks in a row on a daily basis. We've kind of been spoiled over the last, I'd say four or five summers. maybe not going all the way back to COVID, so maybe three or four, but there's always been at least one or two big, significant signposts where you could just say, this is what we're talking about in the morning, right? The Olympics are on, World Cup, Euro, take your pick. There's always been something. And then this summer, it's just been real slow.

Combine that with an NHL offseason, which has been wildly underwhelming. Has anyone been at all excited about what the NHL has given us this offseason? No. The story in Vancouver played out in so many different markets. And we were going to play some audio, but we ran out of time. I mean, we at least got a significant trade and a significant freak out for me. But even that. That was some content.

Yeah, but even that, in the grand scheme, it only had like a handful of days of life because there wasn't anything more to it than they got them. And now it's like wait and see. Yeah. You know, and you go around the league and you talk to a lot of different people who cover a lot of different teams and everyone's in the same sort of holding pattern of when's something going to happen. Well, it's July 30th. I mean, we were going to play audio out of Edmonton and we ran out of time. Maybe we'll do it later in the show.

People are starting to get antsy about the lack of a Connor McDavid extension. And the general. That's so predictable, though. The general consensus from the insiders. Yeah. Well, the insiders in Bowman who talked about this yesterday on the Mighty Chuddy. I think, if I'm not mistaken, he said, we still have another month.

Like, the summer's not even halfway over. We still have all of August to do this, which doesn't make anyone, like it doesn't appease the fans who want to see this deal get done. It just makes them realize the summer can really grind when there's nothing going on. Didn't dry settle get done around training camp?

I think dry settle got done in August prior to. Okay. But it sounds like the McDavid ones going to be done earlier in August, but we can get into the audio later maybe. On the other side of the break, We are going to talk to Kevin Woodley from NHL.com and Ingole magazine. He did his off-season capsule, the review of what the connects have done.

And I want to ask him, like, sitting down and taking the 10,000-foot view and looking at what the team has done or the lack of things that the team has done, did it crystallize anything for what's to come as training camp is set to open in about six weeks. So we'll talk to Kevin Woodley next. And then at 8.30, we're going to do what we learns, ask us anythings, all that stuff. Dunbar-Lumber text line is 650, 6-6-50. get yours in tell us what you learned over the last 24 hours in sports it's your chance to be on the radio you're listening to the halford and breath show on sports net 650