Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Blue Jays Are The Best Team In Baseball

Episode Date: July 28, 2025

In hour two, Mike & Jason chat with Sportsnet Blue Jays reporter Shi Davidi (1:07) ahead of the MLB Trade Deadline, and if the best-in-the-league Jays might make any big moves ahead of July 31, plus they speak with Sports Business Journal MLS analyst Alex Silverman (25:01) on the latest off the pitch. 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.

Music 702 on a Monday. Happy Monday everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you 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 sans-trustee.com. We are now in hour two of the program. Sportsnet MLB reporter Shai Davidi is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off hour two. Hour two is brought to you by Jason Hominuk at Jason.mortgage. If you love giving the banks more of your money then don't let Jason shop around to find the

perfect mortgage for you. Visit him online at Jason.mortgage. We are coming live from the Kintec studio, Kintec footwear and orthotics working together with you in step. To the phone lines we go, the Power West Industries hotline. Shai Davidi joins us now on the Halford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650. Morning Shai, how are you? All right, how are you going guys? We're good, thanks for taking the time to do this. So we prefaced your hit today by saying Shai will be joining us unless something big breaks

because we are just ticking seconds and days away until Thursday's MLB trade deadline. Jay certainly seem as though they're primed to make a move of significance. They've got the best record in baseball. I checked fan graphs this morning. They got a 97% chance to make in the playoffs. So what are you hearing? What are you anticipating with regards to the Jays making moves ahead of Thursday's deadline? Well, I think they're definitely trying to do something significant, but there are a lot of market forces at work right now. And in just even talking to some people last night, some of the picture, especially around

pitchers, is still pretty muddied because you have some clubs that are sort of on the fence who have pitching and, you know, will they deal, will they not, you know, the, the Seth Lugo extension last night from the Royals, you know, a team that teams that other clubs, you know, thought had a good chance to sell, but instead, you know, they add Randall Gritchock, they lock up someone who would have been, you know, one of the prime starting pitchers available on the market. You know, they're, they're staying in it. And so, you know, there are a lot of situations like that, that are sort of

complicated things. So I think the Blue Jays will address their pitching in some way, shape or form, but expect a couple deals probably to bolster that in some regard, but what they get, who they get, I think a lot of that is still up in the air as teams are figuring out what prices are real, what's going to move, who's going to be available. A lot of that is still a moving target. Are there any players out there that the Jays could target that are team controlled players so that it's not just a rental situation because the Jays have done that before? not just a rental situation because the Jays have done that before. Right. I mean, that's the dream scenario for all the clubs, right?

And there's been a lot of talk around what are the twins going to do, right? With like, say, Joe Ryan or Griffin Jackson or Joanne Duran. You know, what will, you know, the Marlins have Alcantara who is going to be in play and is presumably going to be moved and he comes with some additional control. But starting pitching in particular, there doesn't seem to be a lot of volume of, you know, the relievers, there seem to be a little bit more out there. Cleveland's flirting with the idea of moving some of their players, but, you know, there's various opinions on whether they will or not. You know, when one person I spoke to says essentially they spend the, the trade deadline data mining you to lay the groundwork for what they might do in

the off season. Other people think they are going to make a move or two before the 31st comes and goes. Yes and no. So I think the Blue Jays will try, a lot of other clubs will try. That's obviously the preference. It's difficult. Teams typically in that spot are looking for these grand slam deals and contenders are looking to not give up that grand slam return. So that tug of war continues and the closer that we get to the deadline, the leverage starts shifting from the sellers to the buyers because if you hang on, then the value of the asset diminishes.

We're speaking to Shia Dvd, Sportsnet Blue Jays reporter here on the Haliford and Breff Show on Sportsnet 650. Okay, I want to park the trade deadline stuff for a bit because we still got a few days for the market to sort itself out. Where the Blue Jays are at right now after that series win over Detroit, it's the best record in baseball. For the first time in over 30 years, the Jays have the best record in MLB this late in the season.

Shai, I know you've been on this beat for a while. You've been doing this since 2011 for Sportsnet. So you saw some really great Jays teams, the 2015 and 2016 ones, but there's never really been anything like this, this late in the season for an awfully long time. Do you still have those kind of like pinch me moments or I can't believe this is happening when it comes to this iteration of the Jays having the best record in all of baseball

I think what's so unique about this team is The way they've gotten to this record sure right like if you told me that they were in first place and Vlad and Bo were like one and two in the mvp race and You know gosman and Barrios were having peak seasons. Max Scherzer had found the fountain of youth. Anthony Santander was on track for another 40 home run season. Andres Jimenez had rediscovered his 2022 All-Star form. I'd be like, sure, I get that.

That makes sense. But, you know, it's been a very different route than that to this point with, you know, guys like Addison Barger and Nathan Lucas and Ernie Clement and Miles Straw and David Schneider and Eric Lauer and Braden Fisher and Mason Fleuhardy taking various star turns and helping carry the group to this point. And a resurgent George Springeringer who's the guy who found the fountain of youth. That's to me what's especially intriguing about this group and it's been really fun to watch. I don't know how to say it any other way. This is a group that gets contributions from somebody else at different points in time and it's never just one or two guys.

And, you know, those teams, they're, they're really hard to frame objectively. Cause you watch it and you're like, this doesn't fully make sense. Uh, but at the same time, you know, the, you are what your record says you are. And, uh, right now the blue jeez have been playing like the best team in baseball. And that's why they carry the record that affords them that that title. Well, the stuff tough to the tough stuff to always like quantify or try and figure out is when the team has an attitude and a certain style like the Jays have, that doesn't necessarily

equate itself to metrics, but you can still like it's the eye test stuff right and I watched so many games over the last couple weeks where you get so many of these you know glaring examples of it. Saturday's win against Detroit like that to me was one where that probably had more impact and was more reflective of the way that the Jays play and how successful it is like you know bows at, Bo's at bat, that 13 pitch at bat against Scubal, like grinding him down. Not necessarily getting run across the plate

when Scubal was on the bump, but making sure that he, you know, was burning through a lot of pitches and wasn't able to go maybe to the eighth inning. And they do all these sort of really grinding things collectively, it doesn't matter who it is. They all seem to kind of understand that, you know, I might sacrifice now for a payoff later down the road. And importantly, it feels like every guy is bought into that. And that's why they're having so much success right now. Yeah, I mean, that that's well put, right? And I think you look back to David Schneider's at that

versus Carlos Rodin last week against Yankee. Yeah. And then later that inning, the Yankees defense unraveling on them and how much of that is, you know, all the extra time they stood on their feet during what was essentially a five minute at bat or whatever, right? That there are a lot of examples of that. Nathan Lucas has had a couple of bats like that over the course of the season. And that's what this offense is. They're just, they're hard to beat, right? And you have to be really good and really precise to beat them. And that's where, you know, a team like the Yankees, which if they hit home runs, they're going to beat you. But if you can keep them in the ballpark or you can keep them close, they may very well make the mistake that opens the door to you. And the Blue Jays are really well positioned to take advantage of that.

And they put that pressure constantly on the other team. And so it's a formula that can work. The postseason you need guys who can hit home runs and the Blue Jays have done a better job of that since the opening month of the season where they've gotten some of the home runs and you know, the Blue Jays have done a better job of that since the opening month of the season where, you know, they've gotten some of the slug and they've gotten some of the big blows. But it's an interesting mix, right? Like these teams, you typically say, okay, this isn't what you would want in the postseason and this isn't how you maybe

get constructed. But occasionally they do really well, right? You think about the 2015 Kansas City Royals. It's not a direct comp, but there are some similarities there. Think about some of the Cleveland teams that have done well in recent years, some of the Rays teams have done well in recent years. This formula does on occasion work the Arizona Diamondbacks a couple years back. When they went to the World Series, these things do happen that you can't always quantify or make sense from an objective standpoint, but they have those ingredients which can make it difficult on opponents. So I, you know, then the hope obviously, as you mentioned earlier in the hit that they

haven't had these sort of quintessential seasons from Bo or Vladdy. Vladdy in particular, we had Dan Schulman on the show last week and he freely admitted he's like, look, Vladdy's just not right right now, but it doesn't mean that he's not playing well. I guess the hope would be that, you know, with all of these pieces that have connected and clicked going into August, that Vladdy will start to heat up. Are you seeing any signs of that recently or are you still waiting for something to fully pop off when it comes to Vlad E. Guerrero Jr.? You know, both, right? And I think his season is so interesting, right? Because one of the things that he's done this year is that he's walking at the highest rate he has in his

career. When he was at the All-Star break, it was the most walks he'd ever accrued to that point of the All-Star break before in his career. And that's to me a sign that he's sort of maturing a little bit and that he's not forcing it when, you know, maybe the opportunity isn't there. Now, I know some people who think that some of his walks aren't great walks, they're more passive walks as opposed to those types of walks that Aaron Judge gets. Those are walks because the other team is scared to death to pitch to you.

But at the same time, I like that he isn't forcing things and I think that he's found different ways to be productive. Now he hasn't gone airship carrier mode and he could still go into airship carrier mode. And I still expect him to go into airship carrier mode at some point this season. And I think that's what people keep waiting for him to do that. But I also think he's been better than people appreciate at a time where, you know, he is still the guy that opponents don't want to let beat you. And he's just said, okay, I'm just going

to get on base and let other guys do the damage. Where does Beau Bichette enter in all this calculus? I think he's another guy having a really underappreciated season. He's just, I think he's another guy having a really underappreciated season. He's just, it's a tough at bat every time. He's always dangerous. He doesn't always get the results. He maybe he's had some slug, maybe not quite as much slug as you might've wanted, but the scubal at bat on Saturday, when he's doing that, that's a sign that, okay, he's locked in.

And he has had so many of those at bats over the years where he just wears out the opposing pitcher, just keeps fouling off pitches. They just can't, they just don't have an out pitch for him. Uh, and then, and then he finds one and then he gets, it does the damage, right? Like that, that's when Bo's at his best. And so I think he's been working to get to that point. He's still been really good, even though he hasn't sort of reached peak. And if this is him entering into peak for the final two months, you know,

you think back to what he did at the tail end of, was it the 22 season, or he just had an unconscious August in September? You know if he gets to that point and does that for this blue jays team, but you know They're gonna be really well positioned to overcome any regression to the mean that may come on other parts of the roster What about in terms of his his future with with the Jays? I'm not suggesting training him as a rental to somewhere because he's pretty important part of the adjusting, training him as a rental to somewhere, because he's pretty important part of the lineup. But does the fact that he could go somewhere else, does that affect the Jays plans at the deadline,

considering he is an important player on the team? What do people think is going to happen here, I guess is my best question. My read at this point is that both sides have kind of punted this to the off season, right? That they're in contact with one another, there is mutual interest there. I've been saying this for a few years, I do feel that both of them need the market to help frame the value a little bit, to just see like how other teams are envisioning him. You know, that is he,

you know, is he getting a Danzbe Sponson contract, a Danzbe Sonson Marcus Simeon contract? Does he push closer to a Zander Bogertz type of deal? Like, what's the range? Is it going really short term and then re-entering the market down the road, you know, I think to some degree you can make a case for any one of those approaches. And so I think with the way the sides are looking at it right now, they're like, look, we've got something going here, we're having a really good season, we've had talks, we kind of know roughly how the other side sees it. Let's play this out and let's deal with it when we get there. And that to this point is really where I feel that

they're at. I mean, I could be wrong about that. That's my assessment. And in terms of like, what do you do with the deadline? You know, if the J's are in a different position and you know, they're maybe looking at recalibrating their assets, we're having a very different conversation. But you know, he's been a big part of what's happening. And you know, I don't know, I don't foresee there being some sort of, you know, Nomar Garcia, Pahro Orlando Cabrera type of deal out there. I can't imagine the Blue Jays trying to swing that. So, you know, I think that they're gonna go,

gonna play this out and see where it goes. We're speaking to Sportsnet's Shai Davidi here on the Haliford and Bruff Show on Sportsnet 650. Okay, earlier in the hit, Shai, you mentioned like, the Jays don't have an MVP candidate. You mentioned Vladdian Bo. They don't have a guy that's right at the top of the Sia Young race. Interestingly, they just beat a Tigers team that does have one in Tarek Skubal and

a guy managing the Tigers that a lot of people think is one of the front runners for manager of the year in AJ Hinch. So I got to ask you, in light of all this, that they don't have any of these sort of classical single trophy type guys on the roster, how much consideration should Schneider be getting right now for AL manager of the year? Yeah, I think you should absolutely be getting a lot of consideration and could be even considered among the front runners. To me it's an interesting award because typically it gets voted to someone who does the most with

a team that was expected to do the least. Yeah, the turnaround guy. Yeah. Right. That kind of guy or a person who's kind of deemed to have gotten the most out of their group. And look, Hinchin the Tigers, like there's certainly a case there. And especially if you factor in sort of what he did from the second half onwards last year. I mean it kind of gets lost but you know the Tigers traded Jack Flaherty at the deadline last year because they were like yeah we're excited to happen for us this season and then you know they end up winning around to the playoffs and pushing the Yankees. So you know baseball is weird and dumb in that way but Schne Schneider, I think if you're

thinking about managers who have really rung the most from their rosters, I think it's tough to look at the Blue Jays and make a case against someone having done more than that. Joe Espada has done a really nice job with Houston Astros, they trade Kyle Tucker and they know they're right back in it and it's weird too like I'm of the mind that you know managers who have to deal with like last place clubs you know sometimes that's a harder job keeping that from from going crazy you know I mean uh in the Will Venable with the White Sox like that's that that's a dreadful job as well. So I think you can do, you can look at it a few different ways,

but you know, John Schneider deserves a ton of credit and the coaching staff deserve a ton of credit for the way things have played out this season for the blue Jays and sort of keeping everything, everything humming for such a long period of time. The Jays are back in action tonight, this afternoon here. 335 first pitch in Baltimore against the Orioles, the last place team in the AL East, taking on the first place team in the AL East.

Shai, thanks a lot for doing this today, man. We really appreciate it. I enjoy the upcoming series. We'll do this again soon, I'm sure. All right, appreciate it guys. Have a great day. Yeah, you too, thanks. That's Shai Devite, Sportsnet Blue Jays,

and MLB Reporter here on the Hal for the brush show on sports net 650 Just so everyone knows spoiler alert summer Macintosh won another gold whatums of someone Was recording that a PVR in it. Have we not learned from our foibles earlier you have to have a spoiler alert Okay, sorry summer Macintosh won her second gold. That's. You have to have a spoiler alert. Okay, sorry. Summer Macintosh won her second gold. That's how you have to do it.

It doesn't even seem like there's much like surprise in this though. Like, oh, she did it. It was like, everyone's like, yeah, yeah. Take that, Kate Ledecky. She just captured the 200 meter individual medley. That was a dog's event. No, he was the butterfly.

Sorry. I was a butterfly. You're always one of a breaststroke guy. Well, I'm all around amazing swimmer. I'm not going to lie. You're, you're a real medley yourself. Yeah. So next up for summer Macintosh at the Worlds in Singapore

is the 200 meter butterfly, A-Dog's event. Yep. The final is on Thursday. The semis are on Wednesday. I think she's gonna qualify. No jinks. You ruined it. 800 meter freestyle on Saturday.

And then the fifth targeted gold is the 400 meter individual medley. And that's on Sunday. Uh, I think that the 800 will be the toughest one for her to get. Bend over. That's not her specialty.

You know of what you speak, right? Yeah. It's also just so long. You know, it's almost a kilometer. You don't get bored. Right? Back and forth. Yeah. And you can't hear anything. The know, it's almost a kilometer. You're not getting bored, right? Back and forth. Yeah.

And you can't hear anything. The cowbells stop after the 200 meter mark because people are just getting like, I don't know, my hands are getting sore. If anyone's wondering what's the significance of five, the only swimmer to have won five individual gold medals at a world championship is Michael Phelps. So that is a class of one.

So summer Macintosh, not just joining rarefied air. It's the most rarefied of air because there's only one other swimmer in history to do this at the world. So hot take summer Macintosh has the potential to be a top five Canadian athlete all time. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Might be on the podium.

And the LA Olympics. No pun intended. Coming up. All time. Oh yeah. Yeah, for sure. Might be on the podium. In the LA Olympics. No pun intended. Coming up, I mean, we're gonna be excited about summer Macintosh at those Olympics. We're gonna be excited about Canada basketball at those Olympics. Assuming they qualify, right?

They'll still have to qualify for that. Right? I believe. I'm putting on a lot of thought there. I thought they did because of the FIBA thing. Yeah. I have no idea. No know you know what the right the qualifying is weird FIBA World Cup Qualifies you for not just the forthcoming Olympics, but the second one as well if you finish high enough

I want to say and I think they're yeah But again, they're perfect the way feeble works like their performance of the Olympics might have like negated that they're like now you're out I don't know. I don't know how it works exactly. By the way, can we also point out at the worlds? I was reading about this as I did diligent research on swimming. There's a 12 year old that's apparently competing and just missed out on a metal. Yeah. In the She was racing summer.

It's crazy. Yeah. 12, 12 at what age? What age do we like? This is too much. 12 feels like the, I mean, I guess if you can do it Sorry that grade 7 that would be grades a sixth grader summer going into grade 7 if I'm not mistaken Which is ridiculous just missed out on a metal finished for so just missed out on the podium at 12

She's also dialed on her multiple occasion tables. Like she's like seven times. seven times 63 right away like boom right away It's really great. You know who else is dialed on his Table eight times seven fifty six boom. It's pretty good now get in the pool swim Like your 12 year old life depended on and they count Did you did what rough to the multiplication table really eight times nine? It says 72 72 He won't learn I know you went to the University of Toronto

Yeah, and he didn't get a chance to go to you a tee okay, I didn't get a chance Yeah, my brother went there. I didn't know Did you visit? No, they wouldn't let me Do a multiplication test and I failed Sir, please leave we got to go to break. We're at the midway point of the show We still got a lot to get to when we come back Alex Silverman from the Sports Business Journal is gonna join us We're gonna talk about the business of MLS Stadiums as it pertains to the white caps their stadium situation

What the future has in store for a league that continues to grow. Eight o'clock, JC Abbott is going to join us from Three Down Nation to talk about the Lions, a very entertaining but disappointing loss to Hamilton yesterday at BC Place. You're listening to the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. I'm gonna be a good boy 732 on a Monday. It's an 80s Monday here on the Halifton Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Halifton Brough in the morning is brought to you by sans and associates. VCs first and trusted choice for debt help with over 3000 five star reviews. Visit them online at sans-trustee.com.

We are in our two of the program. We're at the midway point of the show. Alex Silverman from sports business journal is going to join us in just a moment here. Our two of this program is brought to by Jason Hominick at Jason.mortgage. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit him online at Jason.mortgage. To the Power West Industries hotline we go, Alex Silverman from Sports Business Journal joins us now on the Haliford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning Alex, how are you?

Hey guys, doing well. Thanks for having me on. Thanks for taking the time to do this. We appreciate it. So I want to start with the Apple TV MLS deal for a variety of reasons. One, whenever we talk MLS and Whitecaps on the show, inevitably at least one person will text in complaining

about the inability to watch Whitecaps games with regularity. And then the other reason I wanted to bring it up is because the commissioner, Don Garber, at the recent MLS All-Star game, a rare moment for the league and for Garber actually gave us a peek behind the scenes as to what the Apple TV numbers look like from a viewing perspective. So two-parter for you, for our listeners here. One, can you let us know what Garber had to say? And two, what are some of your takeaways? From the sort of sort of first public findings about the Apple TV MLS deal

Yeah, like you said my I definitely perked up when I heard a number associated with Apple viewership for MLS games It's been very secretive since they sign this deal. They're now in year three Garber said that they are averaging 120,000 unique viewers per match, which, you know, it's great to have some transparency, but it's sort of a number that raises more questions than gives us answers in the sense that, you know, typically when we're talking about viewership

for sporting events on television, we're talking about average minute audience versus unique viewers. We don't really know what the threshold is for a unique viewer, whether it's they click on and watch the stream for a few seconds or they're watching for at least a minimum amount of time. But it's something and I think it's not a super strong number, but it's not necessarily, I think, as bad as some people had feared.

When there's an absence of information, I think people assume the worst. And I think that's probably why Garber thought it was a good time to finally come forward with some numbers. Have you gotten a sense beyond those numbers if MLS is happy with how the deal has gone since it was struck?

Publicly, they have said they're happy. I think you have definitely gotten a sense that they feel like they need to do more to increase accessibility to it. You mentioned earlier that you guys have heard from some of your listeners that it's not the easiest to access in the sense that it's a $15 a month US subscription just to watch MLS, which is considerably more expensive

than other sports leagues where you might be paying that same price but you're paying for an entire, you know, a peacock package or a ESPN Plus where you're getting a whole kind of suite of different sports. So yeah, I think them being behind that paywall, I think they realize that that has maybe limited their exposure to everyone outside of sort of their most hardcore fans. And I think they're trying to address that by striking a variety of different kinds of partnerships with Comcast and DirecTV and T-Mobile to try and give subscribers to those

services free access and that sort of thing. But he talked about in his press conference about evolving the Apple relationship. So I'll be curious to sort of see what that means. Could they eventually become just integrated into the main, you know, Apple TV Plus service? You know, that's sort of speculative, but a possibility. So yeah, kind of in terms of whether they're happy,

I think, you know, I think they're still trying to kind of optimize it. I wonder how Apple feels. Do you know anything about that? Because I mean, they want this to work as well. And I'm sure they plan on being pretty big players in the sports media landscape, assuming this goes well. Yeah. They're also involved in, uh, you know, um, the NFL and everything.

So like, I'm curious what they think of this. Yeah, it's interesting. I think MLS, when they agreed to do this deal, my feeling is that they probably expected Apple to be a little bit more aggressive in the sports space. I mean, right now their sports, live sports offerings are pretty much just MLS and a weekly Friday night baseball game. So you're not necessarily going, you know, if you're a sports fan, just looking for a game for something to watch, you're not going to Apple TV. There's been reports reports including by one of

my colleagues at Sports Business Journal that Apple's looking at the Formula One rights here in the US. I think that would definitely bring more sports fans into the Apple TV ecosystem. So as far as whether Apple's happy with it, I don't know exactly but I think by having more sports, they would, you know, it would probably sort of, you know, help them, you know, just, yeah, they'd bring more sports fans into the ecosystem and improve viewership.

Now, it's also worth noting that this is also a pretty small line item for a company as big as Apple. So I don't know that it's the top priority. Yeah. I mean, I, I, I, I erred there. I, I for some reason thought that they had an NFL, but I probably thinking about Amazon. It's interesting what you said about, um, MLS. I also wonder if they thought that Apple would be a lot more aggressive and be part of this.

So that you would have this, you know, would have this, maybe there's an Apple sports package that you can pick up because it is one baseball game. I don't think that's drawn a ton of people. They really are on an island and I wonder how many changes they can make to this deal though. Is it pretty locked in or have you heard that if there might be any changes because it feels like it's not working as well as everyone had hoped. Yeah, in terms of whether there's the possibility for changes, I mean they have been able to kind of implement some of these different partnerships and making games available directly through like Comcast, their cable platform here in the US. So I think Apple is willing to work with them to a certain extent. So yeah, I mean I think there's some level of flexibility. They also reportedly have an opt out option after five years. So if they decide in 2027, I believe it would be that it's not working as well as they thought

it would be, they could potentially, I guess, go back to the market and look at, you know, a more, you know, just just other options. So I think they have a little bit of flexibility. But, you know, the other there, they've kind of put a lot of chips in on Apple. Yeah. Sorry to keep harping on this. But is there a way? And and Alfred you would know this is there a way where you can just watch your team because MLS to me doesn't seem like a league where it's like the NFL where even if you're a Seahawks fan you also want to watch the Chiefs game or something like that and most leagues to be fair aren't like the NFL but I would be much more prone to buying this package off Apple if it was cheaper just to follow my one team.

Give me all the white caps games because I am not going to watch, I'm going to be like, I'm not going to watch Columbus. I'm never going to watch San Jose unless they're playing the white caps. I can jump in. So right now they don't have an a la carte menu. Okay. Okay. Yeah. They just got MLS season pass. And I think Alex, you can maybe confirm this or not,

but my understanding is they just kind of keep decreasing the price of the season pass as the incentive, but there's no different versions of, yeah, I want to pick and choose my menu. I want to purchase individual games. Like, is there anyone in Columbus that wants to watch a Whitecaps game? Like I can't, I can't see how that's possible at all thoughts Alex

Yeah, they they haven't offered, you know a team-by-team Option You know, it's something they've been asked about and they've You know essentially said that they you know, I guess want to make their league more like You know what you're talking about with the NFL where people are NFL where people are kind of interested in not just watching their own team, but watching everything that the league has to offer. I think they have prorated the pricing. If you subscribe later in the season, you can get it at a discount, but they've really

been pretty firm in terms of short of different promotions that we mentioned like T-Mobile free for their subscribers. They've been pretty firm with that price point. I think it's, like I said, 15 bucks a month for non-Apple TV plus subscribers and then 13 a month for Apple TV plus subscribers. So they haven't shown a lot of flexibility there in terms of the actual sort of offerings quite yet. We're speaking to Alex Silverman from Sports Business Journal talking the business of majorly They haven't shown a lot of flexibility there in terms of the actual sort of offerings quite yet. We're speaking to Alex Silverman from Sports Business Journal talking the business of Major

League Soccer here on the Halford and Breff Show on Sportsnet 650. I do want to take this time to switch over to the Lionel Messi factor of all of this. Obviously the league grew both in terms of exposure and business when Messi joined Inter Miami and we saw that here in Vancouver finally when Messi and Inter Miami came to play earlier this year. It always feels like the league is balancing between treating Messi like a product, a promotional vehicle, but also treating him and Inter Miami like functional members of the league where they're subject to things like discipline, where Lionel Messi was suspended a game for

skipping the MLS All-Star game. Now the owner of Inter Miami was not happy about this. It drew a lot of ire and attention throughout the league when Messi was suspended. What were some of the ramifications that you guys covered at Sports Business Journal after the MLS decided to suspend Messi for a game after missing that All-Star appearance? Yeah, I mean this is such a juicy story in terms of, like you said, you have MLS basically put into a position where they have to either suspend the

most important player in the history of their league for missing, you know, what is an exhibition game or basically making an exception and basically saying, Inter Miami and Messi are more important and get special treatment. They decided to stick with their rule, which is a one game suspension for anyone who skips the All-Star game when they're not injured. And like you said, Jorge Mas, the owner of Inner Miami, was pretty vocal saying, you know, Lionel Messi, whether you like it or not, is different. He has changed the economics of MLS.

He brought up, you know, you mentioned the game where, in Vancouver, where he filled that stadium, the game that he happened to be suspended from was a home game for Miami, but if it was a game, like one of the various road games that they've had where they moved it to a bigger stadium in a different market and had, you know, 60,000 tickets sold, would they have made that same decision? I mean, it would have been would have been a lot harder for them to make that same decision. So I mean, yeah, there were it's a really, they were putting a really tough spot. And then you also have sort of the factor where, you know, I mean, yeah, they were putting a really tough spot. And then you also have sort of the factor where, you know, Messi is talking about an extension, his contract's up at the end of this year. Obviously he could go play in any number of leagues around the world. And you know, Jorge Mas was basically asked, do you think that this will have any impact

on him resigning? And he said he hopes not, but Messi's not happy with this decision. And he thinks that these are the sort of decisions that players, not just Messi, but players in general, kind of, they think it reflects poorly on MLS that you would suspend someone for a regular season game for missing an exhibition game. So it's a really interesting situation. I think Garber felt like he had to make a choice that reflects well on the competitive integrity of the league.

But yeah, there's a lot of factors. I believe we lost them. We'll get them back because I want to talk about stadiums. But yeah, there's a lot of factors that... I believe we lost them. We'll get them back because I want to talk about stadiums. Yep. And while we get them back, I want to throw out a question to you that maybe we can talk about later. Sure.

And I wonder if you discussed this last week. Do you think the Whitecaps might be mostly just angling for a better deal with BC place as opposed to really set on building a new stadium? So when Garber addressed the media and it was a hard Joe Hall from daily hive who asked the question, um, at the MLS All-Star game. I thought the wording was very interesting. And I thought what he because he talked about the need for a new state. And you pointed this out to stadium situation.

Yeah. Yeah. And he talked about we want to get a new build. And the city has been very receptive over the last few days about the potential of a new build. But there was also the added element of or we'll find some other place or way for them to play. So it left open this sort of like very open-ended kaleidoscope of options that were available. Do we have Alex back on the line now? Okay, we've got Alex Silverman from Sports Business Journal back on the line now. Sorry, Alex, we lost you there mid-messy, but I think we were coming to a conclusion on

that one anyway. We are kind of shifting gears here to talk about the stadium situation in Vancouver. And then I guess there's a larger scale conversation here about how big the league is getting, how the business of MLS is changing and how a team like Vancouver that is decidedly small market team by MLS standards and also has a stadium situation at hand, how this is all going to play out. Maybe it's worth looking at like a historical context because MLS has had some other teams that have had less than terrific stadium situations that eventually got resolved without relocating

and Vancouver kind of finds itself in that type of conversation where they have a home, they would like to build a new one, but they've also got the current day to worry about. Your thoughts on the situation in Vancouver as it pertains to the Whitecaps and maybe where they stack up to the league as a whole, a league that's growing in larger part because of the messy acquisition. Yeah, you mentioned them being a small market team. As far as them, you know, staying put, I think I would still be optimistic for a variety of reasons. MLS is a pretty good track record, like you said, of keeping teams in their markets. Since 2002, when they contracted two teams, they've only had one

team, you know, go under and then that was Chivas USA, which is like the second team in the LA market and they were quickly replaced with LAFC, which is now one of the most successful teams in the league. So they have a good track record on this front and Garber expressed a desire to keep them in that market. I also don't really feel as though with the league being as big as it is now, there's not that kind of great market that you can point to and say, oh, well, if we don't get this done here, we're going to go to X market. You have sort of top candidates, maybe are Las Vegas and Phoenix, but it's very expensive to build stadiums in those markets because they essentially have to be indoors and climate controlled. Those roofs are some of the most expensive parts of stadium projects.

Sacramento was in the running at one point, but they lost their kind of lead owner. That's not the biggest market in the world where it's a decidedly decided upgrade from Vancouver. Indianapolis has expressed interest in a team, but again, it's not, you know, I just don't feel like there's a market where there's an MLS is saying we have to be in this market that would make anyone super excited about moving, you know, Vancouver and yeah, I would be optimistic. It's just a tricky situation because you're looking for a new stadium at the same time that you're looking for new owners. And the new owners are going to have to foot a decent portion of the bill for the new stadium

and lay out the money to buy the team. So it's a big expense for whoever comes in. I think there's two things that concern Whitecaps fans. One is the obvious that the team moves, but the other one is also that the team kind of gets left behind in an MLS that's changing. Now there are rumors right now that the Whitecaps might be adding Thomas Mueller to their team.

So that's exciting for the fan base and the team is playing very well. But when you have all these teams playing in soccer specific stadiums, playing on grass, so that's gonna be attractive to players that they hope to sign or recruit. But also they control these stadiums in their new stadiums. And and the white caps, you know,

they've got, yeah, they've got ticket revenue and they've, and they've got, um, and they've got TV money, but they don't have any concessions. They don't have any parking. There's no real estate play. And some of the teams will have real estate plays around their stadium. And I'm just wondering what you think about where that puts them in terms of a disadvantage in a league that is growing and I think a league that has its

sights set on not next year, but eventually becoming one of the top leagues in the world. Yeah. I mean, well, I think under the current, the way MLS is currently operates, obviously I think Vancouver the current, the way MLS is currently operates, obviously, I think Vancouver has shown that they can be successful on the pitch. They're having a great year. They have been on the up for the last couple of years.

So under this current system where teams are fairly limited in terms of how much they can spend on players. Vancouver is fine, even in their stadium situation, you know, maybe not generating as much revenue as some of these other teams, they're still able to, you know, spend fairly commensurate with the rest of the league. If some of you know, there's been a lot of talk, Garber talked about MLS 3.0 in his address last week at the All-Star game and that, you know, will likely include a switch to the European calendar and a loosening of some of those roster regulations with an eye on allowing teams to spend more money on players. And, you know, based on that,

becoming more competitive globally, that is something that would likely reduce parity in MLS, lead to teams that are willing to spend a little bit more being, you know, kind of a cut above the rest of MLS and being able to compete, uh, globally against top teams in, in other countries. Uh, so that, you know, if, if, if Vancouver isn't able to sort of grow revenue long-term could see teams like Vancouver and other sort of smaller market teams or just owners that aren't willing to kind of spend at that next level, uh,

could see those teams sort of left behind. Alex, great insights today. Thank you very much for joining us and rejoining us as well. Enjoy the rest of the summer. This was great. Thanks guys. Appreciate it. Thanks, Alex. That's Alex Selvimer from Sports Business Journal here on the Halford and Bruff Show on Sportsnet 650. When it comes to MLS 3.0 and apologies if you talked about it. Friend, we can reset everything from last week.

It's fine. So there's three parts to MLS 3.0. The first one will be flipping the calendar to a fall spring format. So. The European. Aligning with that and that has all sorts of challenges for MLS, weather related. Yep. Although they got weather related issues right now. Yeah, yeah. I'm in favor of that even though they're going to be going up against a lot

of the big leagues that right now they don't have to. They can't have another year like this. This year was so interrupted with international. It was ridiculous. Anyway. The second tier is the competition itself. And I think they're going to put like the rest of the world, more emphasis on the regular season. Yep. They don't need 18 side competitions. Well, I wonder if they even need playoffs.

At a certain point. They can have the side competitions like England does. They have the FA Cup and a couple other things. They have too many right now. The leagues cup still exists. The white caps aren't in this year. But the way, and the white caps have to do their domestic competitions in the conference competitions, right? They have to do the Canadian championship. They have to do the CONCACAF Cup. Maybe they get rid of the MLS Cup. Well, playoffs, like maybe they do. We don't have a lot of time to discuss this. I want to get into the third one.

And the third one, and this is the most important one, and Garber called it a review of our entire roster strategy. Yep. And that is intended to allow it to truly compete in the global market. And guess who one of the chief complainants is in terms of how. Miami. Yeah, it's Miami.

Miami's been very vocal, very vocal players, manager, owner about their inability to spend as freely as they want to build the type of team that they want. They've, they've been shorthanded at times to see they're down to their third keeper because the schedule is very taxing. They have an old team and a lot of the guys,

especially the Barcelona guys that have come over, like Suarez and Messi and Alba and Busquets have said, when we were playing at Barca, when we ran into a tough time at the schedule, we would go buy players. That's how it works, right? When you go to the transfer market, you're like, we need this, we need that.

And the power teams would do that. It's a very interesting conversation. The evolution of MLS. Um, we'll have to continue it later on because we got JC Abbott joining us next on the Halford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. It was an exciting game. Lions, Thai cats at BC place yesterday, but, uh, it did not end well for your BC lines and the defense yikes

we'll talk to JC about that and what the Lions are going to do as it looks tougher and tougher for the Lions to be able to host a home playoff game this season lots of the season left but man it's not looking good right now you're listening to the Alfred and brush on sportsnet 650