Pablo Torre Finds Out - America Signed Up for the World Cup. FIFA Stuck You with the Tab.

Episode Date: June 11, 2026

The biggest party in global sport is underway, and soccer's governing body stands to profit nearly $9 billion. How did FIFA squeeze U.S. taxpayers with so many hidden costs? The Athletic's Adam Crafton crunches the numbers on wasted public money, as Pablo dissects comically absurd demands upon host cities — from "clean" stadiums and super-V.I.P. treatment... to a pop-up jail.• Take the PTFO audience survey• Subscribe to Pablo's newsletter• Subscribe to The AthleticFurther reading:• "The U.S. signed up for the World Cup — and its host cities are paying for it"• "U.S. states waived taxes to host World Cup"• "The $25.8m Kansas City 'World Cup jail'"• Rahm Emanuel Q&A: 'The numbers don't work'" Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Pablo Torre finds out. I am Pablo Torre, and today we're going to find out what this sound is. You expect me to treat the Chicago taxpayers as the dumb money at the table? You've got to be kidding me. Right after this ad. Can we talk about your green card? Is that? Is that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You have a green card, Adam Crafton. Congratulations. Thank you very much. Yeah, no, that came through in the mail last week. So that is a huge relief. And it also now means, I don't know if people know this, who look.

live in America, but once you're in the process trying to adjust your status from non-immigrant to immigrant, you can't leave the country during this process. So if I would have gone home for a birthday or to see some friends or whatever, then you have to start your entire application again. So I thought it was going to take, we expected it to take between three and 12 months, and thankfully, it's come through super fast. So thank you, America. You're welcome. I wanted to start here because I wanted to congratulate you on apparently being trapped with us. Trapped in the best way. And you moved here because of what's happening right now, which is the World Cup being

a New York, New Jersey joint. Exactly. So I moved March 24 and the idea was to develop contacts, build relationships, start to get stories in the lead-up to the World Cup. It was a good chance to kind of actually get here, get feet on the ground, start to get to know people, get a sense of what the challenges and the storylines we're going to be. And I guess that leads us nicely into where we may go. Yeah, I mean, you are, for those not initiated.

You're the guy I've been turning to to help me understand what the fuck is going on in now our country. You are the two-time reigning sports journalist of the year in the UK. Thank you. I mean, I'm just stating facts. And you're on loan from the Athletic FC to help, I think, more than anything, today, bring me a folder of documents. I have a folder. An entire folder of documents.

Do you want them? Am I keeping them? I think I... It's a lot of documents. To convey the tabs and the color-codedness and all of this, and just the sound, which I think our microphones can pick up, as I... That's the sound of American exceptionalism. I guess in figurative and also perhaps literal ways.

Well, it's also FIFA exceptionalism in terms of much... of that are contracts that cities have with FIFA and all of the different reasons why my money, your money, is being spent on this tournament. So from a big thousand-foot view, I should say, I got to cover the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and I got a sense on the ground of what I had heard from afar, which is there is a lot of money sloshing around here. FIFA for those not initiated is the apex predator of notoriously corrupt sporting organizations. We should say historically corrupt at this point.

At this point, I think FIFA would push back strongly on that. But this story, as much as people may think, okay, yeah, you're talking about FIFA, corruption, Johnny Infantino, the head of FIFA, and President Donald Trump, we see them all the time exchanging golden objects. We start with our sports lead. President Trump finally has his Peace Prize, no, not the Nobel Peace Prize, which is the world's most prestigious, and one that President Trump has long coveted.

This one is the FIFA Peace Prize. Mr. President, this is your price, this is your Peace Prize. There is also a beautiful medal for you that you can wear everywhere you want to go. I'm going to wear it right now. Okay, let me hold. Fantastic. Excellent. Such an honor to be with Johnny. I've known Johnny for so long. He's done such an incredible job. And I have to tell you, you've set new records on ticket sales. And that is an amazing thing.

The numbers are beyond any numbers that anybody, even beyond what Johnny thought was possible. If you think of Trump in the most basic terms, he seems to be someone who is impressed by big, by bold, by eye. catching numbers by numbers that are sometimes inflated. So I think, you know, if you put in front of him, things that are gold, things that are glitzy, things that sound large, he tends to be impressed. And it tends to be less about, is this good value and more about, wow, that's huge. And Infantino is very, very good at presenting large numbers. Just the numbers on this in terms of how much FIFA is spending, we're looking at, again, just the basic math of it, operating budget, $1.12 billion

that projected revenue, $11 billion and Inventino is saying it's $30.5 billion in terms of what the U.S. economy would get. I mean, the economic impact only in the U.S. is around $30 billion. It's around 200,000 permanent jobs

which are created. As far as we are concerned, we have 5,000 employees working only on this. We'll have around 300,000 people. We will have 6 billion people in the planet watching the World Cup. This is absolutely incredible. It's 104 games, 104 matches in 39 days. It's like 104 Super Bowls.

That's a lot of billions. It's a lot of billions, right? And what is economic impact? And how much of that economic impact is additional to what a city would already get, you know, in an unusual summer in the United States, when you have concerts and festivals and all different stuff that goes on in New York and L.A. and Miami and all of these different places.

So how much of that value is additional and can really be attributed to a World Cup? Well, I want to bring us to what is different about this World Cup because this event is different from the ones that you and I have covered in the past. Yeah, and it's really on an operational level. So historically, FIFA would have a local organizing committee for the host country. So in Qatar, it was kind of the slightly Orwellianly named,

Qatar Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy of the FIFA World Cup. Great merch, the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy. Right, like, you're desperate to buy that baseball cap, right? For this one, FIFA have kind of taken it in-house. So they've opened up offices in Miami, in New York City. They have an office in Trump Tower. I wonder how that came about.

Dear coincidence, sure. Sheer coincidence. And as a result of that, it gives them a lot more control over the operations, the revenue. But as part of that, they've created these host agreements and host committees, sort of subsidiaries, in each of the 16 host cities across Canada, the United States and Mexico. And there's 11 in the United States. And it gives FIFA a hell of a lot more control. Well, part of FIFA's American experiment is the understanding, we can't just deal with Trump alone, actually. It may seem like Trump is the key to everything because that is his own self-image and also

what these videos suggest. But part of what you are learning as a legal immigrant to this country is that, wait a minute, these states and cities, you got to go through them too. And this is something that I myself didn't really think about until I started reading your reporting, which has been, I mean, at this point, quite endless. And that has created real challenges for FIFA, because it means you need agreements and buying and investment. not just from the federal government, but from states, from cities, from mayors. I mean, infamously now in Foxborough,

which is the little town, the Gillette Stadium, near to Boston. Yes, home of the Patriots. The little town was refusing to give a license to FIFA for quite a while in the lead-up to this tournament because they were being asked to kind of front the bill. FIFA has less than two weeks to convince Foxborough town officials to let them host the seven matches, at Gillette Stadium.

The town says it won't issue a required license to organizers until it gets nearly $8 million up front for security. They basically said until someone else, whether that's FIFA, Boston, or the subsidiary host committee commits to covering this, we will not give you this entertainment license. Yeah, one of the glories, it turns out, of sports federalism is local.

It is the whole idea of the final. We're culminating this thing in New York slash New Jersey, which is a concept that has now been formalized in terms of signage. Oh, this has been crazy. So even going back to the bid, I mean, if you're looking back 2017-2018, that's when the US won the hosting bid. At that point, it was put forward as, and this was the order, New York, forward slash New Jersey. Do you say forward slash in the US? We've been invaded enough by you, Brett, that now we do. I won't say anything else about invasions. So it was New York forward slash New Jersey.

And that was how it presents in the bid. That's what it's been for the last few years. But as the tensions have increased between FIFA, New Jersey, New York, New Jersey is hosting four teams during the tournament as base camp. So Brazil, Morocco, Haiti and Senegal will all be training in New Jersey. And New Jersey's put a hell of a lot of money in. It's around over 300 million, according to local reporting. and that has created a sense of, well, why is New York's name first?

So that has led to one of the more, can I say, petty request? One of the most New Jersey requests. Right, one of the more New Jersey requests. They would say it's just representing what we've put in. But the sign on the stadium, because remember, and we may get into this as well, the sponsor name stadium, so the naming rights on the stadium are not allowed during the World Cup. So MetLife Stadium is not MetLife Stadium.

during this tournament. It will say New York, New Jersey Stadium. And the signs have even been changed, physically changed. But there'll be two signs. And now, on a request from the governor's office, one of them will say New Jersey, New York Stadium. So these are just some of the little kind of vignettes anecdotes that give a sense of the local and national dual challenge

that FIFA have got. Which is to say that there are lots of local, regional brands, identities, and they are not all thinking about this the same way. Yeah, I think it depends a little bit who you speak to. However, the frustration has been mounting. There's a lot of disagreements. There's a lot of challenges that they've encountered. You know, some of the terms that I've heard used,

terms like pigish to describe FIFA. Others have used terms like they've great negotiators. And at times they've been better negotiators than their American counterparts. There is even a clause in that host city contract where it just want to read this right so it includes a clause that host cities must coordinate with FIFA on any public announcement, statement, and or public and private press briefing

relating to a World Cup or a host city. Now, most cities have not coordinated with FIFA on private press briefings, I would say, given some of the conversations that I've had with them. I was going to say, yeah. But it does give a sense of the control they try and exert and not only that they try and exert, but the control that the host cities themselves signed up to.

And that is always worth remembering in this. As much as FIFA may be cast as the kind of the bad guys in the room or being unfair, they signed the deal, right? Nobody had a gun to their head and forced them to sign this deal. And this is why I'm so excited to do this episode and examine this folder of documents, because this is not FIFA saying, with a weapon, sign this or else. This is how the American World Cup gets made.

And it's with consent, or at the very least, some understanding that this is all going to be worth it. But there's a hell of a lot in there that I think many of them now regret signing up to. So I want to open this folder up because you and the Athletic FC are colleagues there. When you examine the accounting here, it does make sense to just explain. So American cities are agreeing to pay the foot. the bill for the World Cup. And I get that with the Olympics, you know, like, interaction governing body comes in, town cleans up,

built a new stadium, the stadium, who the f***s what happens to it, tourist come, tourist go, it's sort of this ghost town, this like once sort of like sports Pompeii kind of vibe. FIFA's model, though, what they are selling is its own, is its own distinct package.

How would you explain what's folded inside of? I think the easiest thing is to say the things that FIFA get revenue-wise and the things that the cities have to pay for. If you think about the things that FIFA will take the revenue from in terms of the big revenue levers of any major sporting event, so broadcasting, so that's your TV rates, sponsorship, so that's your Coca-Cola, Qatar Airways, lots of different Saudi entities, a lot of money in terms of their concessions in the stadium goes to FIFA. parking, the car park spaces, which in America I'm learning is a lot of money. Under FIFA it's even more money. It's getting up to $200, $300 per parking space per game.

And most of all, the ticket prices. So all of the revenue from the tickets goes to FIFA. Maybe some hospitality, there's some joint ventures in there. Then think about what the cities not are getting what they're paying for. Right. So cities being expected to provide transportation. Initially, that was meant to be free. It then became watered down to be at cost. So not supposed to be making any money on it, essentially, whatsoever.

Even with the New Jersey Transit price, New Jersey Transit claim, they won't make money on that $98 ticket. More than $100 for a return trip from Penn Station to MetLife if you're riding NJ Transit this summer. The 18-mile journey, which takes a stop at Sikauka's Junction normally costs just under 13. To lower fares, school buses are going to be used. What else do cities carry the financial burden for? Safety, security, protection, fire, police services, traffic support, medical services. But the thing about that to think about is this is not just around a venue because the footprint of FIFA during a World Cup,

it's transit hubs, it's fan festivals, all of those areas of town that become more busy as a result of soccer fans being in the place for that four or five week period. So Times Square, for example, I imagine it's going to be full of soccer fans parting. That's going to need more police resources. And that means a lot of these police departments are going to be doing a lot of overtime, probably stopping their officers going on vacation so they can cope with the demands. And that all costs a lot of money, particularly in America. Airports as well. Huge mouth. Right. And on some level, like I get, like, security, very important, very expensive. But the reason I'm opening my folder here to this first massive file,

is that this is something that speaks to one of the terms that you mentioned, which is traffic support. And the notion of traffic support, it turns out codified in the host city agreement, I'm reading from the front page, between Federation, International de Football Association, this is FIFA based in Switzerland,

and not only the United States Soccer Federation, but the city of Seattle, parentheses, quote, host city authority. And in this, how would you explain what gets detailed? Pretty much everything is detailed. But I mean, if we just take that example, I mean, you talk about like traffic support. The host city authority shall support police escorts for the ground transport of team delegation members and referees on match days. Right.

Nobody's going to argue with that. What people might argue with a little bit is the same should also be provided. for the FIFA president, other VIP members of the FIFA delegation, and further V-V-IP members identified by FIFA. Now, nobody can really tell me what is a VIP compared to a V-V-V-I-P. I was going to say V-V-I-P is a level of V-that I wasn't familiar with. And how offended would you be as a VIP when the V-VIPs are getting whatever they're getting? As offended as the state of New Jersey, I would imagine.

And that's very offended. I would say on that, I think there's probably an argument that the FIFA president has become so high profile that maybe, maybe you can make that case. He's the emperor. The emperor of the World Cup,

the king of soccer, Johnny. However, what the cities are now saying to me is these terms are very vague, right? What's to stop FIFA from saying there's 10,000 people who we consider to be VIPs? Who is a VIP? Are we just designating people

who Johnny's won't broken up and decided, oh, he's very important and he needs a police escort. And it's not just the VIP, it's also you've got these traffic lanes as well, these kind of express traffic lanes, which may have to be shut off for these people. So the cities are now sort of coming to terms with some of these asks, which are very, very expensive and just logistically difficult in some cities to create these lanes and these pathways. One of the things that I've been fascinated by, though, is like, what has it been like for the head of a major American city to be approached by Johnny Infantino and his band of V and VVIPs,

who are demanding all this stuff, when America, I would have imagined, isn't as desperate as countries that don't have the built-in ego, I would have imagined, or resources. Particularly on the back of Qatar and Russia. So Qatar was a nation-building project. and Russia was, I guess, a nation furnishing project in some ways. And therefore, these places really wanted this tournament. They were desperate for it. It was a real national event.

Now, I'm not saying America doesn't want the World Cup, because I think many people in the States do want the World Cup and will enjoy the World Cup, and the soccer will be fantastic, and it'll be great. However, they don't need it in the same way as some of these. other places. And even within the states themselves, like Kansas City maybe needs this tournament more than New York or L.A. or Miami. You then come up against cities who are saying, hang on, who do you think you are? And this was crystallized in a meeting that I was told about, which took place at Sofai Stadium, the stadium near Los Angeles in Inglewood. And this would have been

when all the cities were doing their kind of pitches to FIFA and FIFA were pitching to them. and it would have been late 2021. And you had all the big sports leaders or representatives of the big sports teams in a room at SoFi Stadium. And you had FIFA executives. And FIFA were setting out, this is how it works. This is what we get. This is what you get.

And then the head of the LA Sports Commission puts her hand up and says, sorry, can I just check what exactly are we getting out of this? And the answer that she got was essentially this will put Los Angeles on the map. And that's fascinating, because it gives you an insight into how FIFA perceive themselves

that this is the biggest thing in the world and soccer is the biggest sport in the world, right? Absolutely. And it does have a huge reach and a huge... There's a globality to it that enables these places to reach new things. But then, you know,

I spoke to someone who was in the room for that meeting and they're saying, hang on, we're the place of... the Oscars, the Grammys, the Emmys of Hollywood, of the Dodgers, the Lakers, and FIFA are going to put us on the map. Yeah, I believe the quote in your article, in The Athletic, was, what did he just fucking say? I think that's it. It's that sense of, you know, we're Star Town.

We don't need you guys. You need us. Or we need each other. But we don't owe you in the way that perhaps some of these other places that have been bidding for World Cups, may have that sense. And something we really prize on this show is, to whatever extent possible, getting an unvarnished accounting of ego. And so one of the people that you talk to is someone who I want to introduce to our audience

in case you weren't familiar with his line of work. So I guess, first of all, if we just go back to the beginning of Adam and Eve. Yeah, of Adam and Eve. I'm Adam. You can be Eve. may help me win the Democratic primary. It may do. It may do. Maybe we can get on to that. Rahm Emanuel, former U.S. Congressman, White House Chief of Staff under Barack Obama, who is kind of unsubtally interested in potentially becoming the President of the United States in 2028. Also, most crucially here, the mayor of Chicago from when to when?

From 2011 to 2019. So it would have been during the period in which cities were in conversation. about potentially hosting the World Cup. Right. And he has been, I would say, sports curious for a long time, although his background is in ballet, which just gives an excuse to show this photo. But this is also the guy who got the NFL draft leave New York,

got the NHL draft to Chicago, got the NBA All-Star game. He very strategically wanted these big sporting events for his city. I remember they said, well, this will be a great marketing for the city. I said, I don't need you. for marketing. I just had the NFL draft. I said, I don't need you. I said, you think Chicago needs you for marketing? I said, not happening. And I can't monetize marketing. You're taking cash,

and I get a marketing dollar of some intrinsic value. I said, I don't know who you talk to, who you negotiate with, but I said, I'm not doing that. I'm not like the smartest businessman. I said, but I've passed eighth grade math and the numbers don't work. I should clarify that we hear a Pobitori finds out a podcast supported by advertising. Loves marketing. We love it.

But if you're the guy leading Chicago and you're getting this sales pitch and you're saying, we need something more concrete than the promise of brand value, it feels like that would be a hard sticking point. And it wasn't just

what he just said there about marketing. I mean, he goes on to explain there was lots of other challenges that Chicago had when they were looking at the deal. It involved potential commitments to what is described in FIFA's contracts as stadium overlay and kind of FIFA reserving the right

to ask for adjustments or modification to the stadium. But what he says they asked for was something pretty unique and pretty hard to imagine at what is a historic venue. which is Soldier Field. I was trying to work my way to a yes, because I too was lured by, this is one of the biggest events in the world,

a sporting event, it would be a big thing for the city. Then they said in the contract that they had the right to request a dome being built over Soldier Field. And I said, well, I'm not, I said, you got to take that out. They go, well, we never exercise it, but it's something we ask everybody. I said, I don't care if you've never exercised. There will always be a first. Take it out.

And also, you know, we can work through the other issues. And they said, we're not going to, we can't take it out. I said, if you're not taking this out, that was kind of like the straw that broke the camels back. I said, uh-uh. You can't have something in there that at least the city and the taxpayers exposed. So I just said, no. I said, if it's not out, we're out. What's so interesting is that for Rahm Emanuel, this was a line that he cannot cross.

And I get it. Like putting a hat on Soldier Field is crazy. but at the same time, other cities, they're letting FIFA play around with their buildings. The NFL is giving way to soccer in ways that are comically tangible. There is this concept that we find, as we get to page 126 in this, again, the host agreement case study that we have in this folder, we have this thing called the Clean Stadium Obligation.

Can you explain, Adam, what this is. means. Yes, the clean stadium obligation. Well, this is a great one because this is something which I think is, it's pretty common with kind of mega sporting events, actually, but I don't think it's very common in America. And it sounds a bit insane, I think, to Americans. This is basically the idea that all of these stadiums around the country, we know them for the sponsor name. So in Atlanta, it's Mercedes-Benz Stadium. It's Sofai Stadium in L.A. It's MetLife. It's 8.5.000. AT&T Stadium in Dallas. Yes.

You get the gist. And there are a few things more American than just internalizing corporate branding. Completely. This is exactly the thing we also love. Completely. I mean, I guess one of them that wouldn't have been is Soldier Field. Yeah.

You know, that doesn't have a sponsor name. However, when FIFA take over these stadiums, you have to wipe all of this branding from all official communications, even, I mean, this is an extraordinary thing. I don't know if the city have actually done this, because it sounds too insane to do. From 14 days prior to the start of the first game for each city,

you have to get the directional signage in a place to be the new stadium name. So in what would ordinarily be a sign that says towards MetLife Stadium, it has to now say New York, New Jersey Stadium. New Jersey, New York. Right. I mean, God knows what they're going to do there. But that just gives an impression. And the host city has even signed up to say that they,

will basically do their utmost to ensure that official government communications about a stadium will use the FIFA name rather than the standard name. This is FIFA saying, when the World Cup is happening in America, we are a universe that is consistent across this legal language. The stadium authority shall make any room, area, building, facility, or section belonging to the stadium available for the competition according to the above requirements, which for the avoidance of doubt includes the entire premises. These requirements include no advertising, signage, or other commercial identification of any kind on any stands,

scoreboard, seats, seatbacks, time clocks, staff uniforms, accreditation passes, fences, or elsewhere inside, surrounding, or in the airspace above and around the stadium. Other than that, which is installed by or the direction of FIFA. I mean, airspace above and around the stadium. I mean, I'm not sure what

would be in the airspace in any case. Try and fly a plane. Right. And we can even watch Kansas City, remove the name of, typically, what is known as G-E-H-A field at Arrowhead Stadium where the Chiefs play, here is a crane taking away the A. The last... I mean, it's just when you watch that, it just feels like it's sort of a satire documentary, right, of some sort. I was hoping they would just have it as A Field. Right.

It is a field. Here it is. It's what you wanted. And it then became even more controversial because one city got an X-M-E-E-E-E-Lead. And this was Atlanta, Mercedes-Benz Stadium. And that's because the position of the stadium made it simply physically too hard to cover up. I mean, they did all the recies and checks to see if it would be possible. And the conclusion was they actually couldn't fix this without doing damage or costing a completely absurd amount of money. However, the other cities didn't know about this until it was reported by my colleague Henry Bushnell. And then I started getting calls from some cities saying,

well, if they're not doing it, we're not doing it. I just think that as a solutions-oriented podcast, we could have been helpful in pointing out that you just draw one more line on the Mercedes-Benz insignia, which is on the hood of this stadium. And, you know, suddenly you have a peace symbol, Adam. Just a little graffiti. FIFA, of course, have done a partnership with Trump's Board of Peace.

So it could have been... We could have made money. We all could have made money on this. We don't make money from... paste. We would never do that. Never, never, never, never. So just from the level of control,

I'm just thinking of like, now putting all the characters in the same room together. I'm thinking of Rahm Emanuel. I'm thinking of Johnny and Fantino at a table and what that powwow might have sounded like. I said, I don't know what any other mayor

or governor's doing, but you expect me to treat the Chicago taxpayers as a dumb money at the table? You've got to be kidding me. I said, I'm not giving you taxpayer money. The taxpayers are going to be on the line for 100% of the risk. I said, I'm not signing it. And I was supposed to pay for 100% of what they wanted. I didn't even do that on my first date with my wife.

One of the things we saw other states do... Hey, can you take that out? No, I'm joking. So, Rahm, in the end, Chicago, really, in the end, they said, no. They said no in the end. They had the reservations over the sponsorships, the stadium issue with the dome,

about dropping sales tax on ticket admissions. And it all basically led the city of Chicago with the impression that they would be left in debt, that they would lose money by doing this. So they said no. But the way they said no was actually quite fun and mischievous because FIFA had said to them, you know, when they'd sent over documents,

they said, red lines, we just want the signed version. Of course, we're not negotiating. Just here it is. So what did Chicago do? They signed it. No blemishes, no red lines. But they put an asterisk underneath.

And it listed out all of their concerns, knowing that FIFA would never agree to those terms. So technically, Chicago did sign the documents and didn't withdraw, per se, because I guess FIFA would have been the final party in that to say no. but they presented it in such a mischievous and complex way that it was never going to be accepted. Right, which is to say that Chicago in the end said,

we'll play by your rules, but also go fuck yourself. I'll let you say that. And I should say FIFA declined to comment on all of that. Very good. Hello, it's me, Pablo. We have been very interested in what you guys actually like about this show. And so in the show notes, there is a survey.

You'll find it magically as a link somewhere down there. And you can tell us what you want more of, what you want less of, what annoys you about me, and potentially all of my friends. We will use this to improve the show. It takes like 30 seconds. So please fill it out. And we will make this better, allegedly. I want to turn us to Dallas.

Because Dallas, I mean, in the NFL and American sports, this is the biggest thing. Jerry Jones, the Cowboys, all of that. But what FIFA is getting from this city is pretty remarkable, Adam. Yeah, so when FIFA go to a place, they need, not unreasonably, they need what they call their kind of international broadcast center. So that's where your TV, your radio, your digital media will spend a lot of time. And that venue, it's like a 24-7 access for thousands of people during that time. But who do you think paid for it?

After all the conversation we've had, who do you think might have paid for it? Who paid for a 500,000 square foot command media center? I'm going to guess the city of Dallas. Wow, you're getting good at this, right? You're starting to catch up. I'm an investigative reporter. Right, tell me about it.

With a document that now can helpfully point out that on August 15, 2025, this is a city of Dallas insigniaed piece of paper, memorandum across the top. Two, honorable mayor and members of the City Council International Broadcast Center, IBC, will serve as the hub of television, radio, and digital coverage for the tournament from January 14th to August 24th, 2026. The venue will operate under FIFA's exclusive control,

providing 24-7 access for thousands of international journalists and technical staff. The City Council and city leadership have committed to capital improvements, including roof repairs, drainage enhancements, climate control upgrades, and infrastructure modifications to meet FIFA's technical and and operational requirements. An investment capped at $15 million.

Which everyone will be relieved that it's only $15 million, right? I'm glad it's capped at $15 million. I was worried, man, can we at least keep it below $15 million in public money? And FIFA itself invested how much of this? FIFA did not thump as far as I know any of this. So it's pretty remarkable, really. And I mean, the best bit is what do you think happens to this after the world? cup, this thing that's being constructed for a cap of $15 million.

I am hoping it becomes some sort of mall, some sort of... Some beautiful community center, somewhere where people can come together. Exactly. A sculpture that lets us remember the friends we made along the way. No, it's getting knocked down. Perfect. So that's that, really. I'm not sure what more we can kind of add to it. But you spin around the map here and... the wrecking ball of FIFA coming for the things that they are demanding to be constructed. I do want to go to the Midwest now because Kansas City,

they've got to be the smallest of the 11 host cities. I think population-wise, yeah, around just over 2 million maybe. A proud soccer legacy. Proud soccer legacy. They call themselves a soccer capital. They do have kind of an MLS team. They have the Kansas City current, don't they as well, in the NWSL. they built a fantastic stadium actually in Kansas City

for the women's team. I think it was the first women's specific facility that was built. And they also appear to have fantastic training facilities because Argentina, which is the current holders of the Men's World Cup, England, who are not the current holders of the Men's World Cup, but maybe the future wins. One day. It's coming home eventually. It's just on a long...

Like me, it's on a long... Yeah, it's on loan. It's on loan to every other nation in the world, seemingly. So, Argentina, England, the Netherlands, and Algeria will all be using Kansas City as their base. But nonetheless, amid these six games, Kansas City Stadium, excuse me, is hosting. You know, they might get the quarterfinal, they might get Messia and Ronaldo. This is, I get it. That's the upside.

I should jump on that because this could be actually one of the most extraordinary World Cup games ever. Messi and Ronaldo have never played each other at a World Cup. will be their last World Cup. I mean, to be fair, he's like, Rinaldo just refuses to retire, so who knows. But you'd expect... He might be seeking yet another term as well. Yes, absolutely.

Like Gianni and potentially someone else. But we think it'll be the last one. It'd be the first time they've ever played each other. It relies on both teams, winning their groups and getting through to the quarter final. But if they do so, the roots, the brackets, which Americans love, I'm told, a bracket. Love bracket.

means that they would meet in Kansas City, which is an absurd kind of idea, right, that these kind of two gladiators of soccer would eventually meet in Kansas City. So that would be an amazing game. And so what did the public pay for the possibility, the privilege of hosting such matches? Well, I mean, this is just what is public,

just what the host Camilla has said to us. So this doesn't include private donors, which would also be a very big number, I would imagine. So, 42.5 million from the state of Missouri, because Kansas City is in Missouri. That's right. Which is not easy to understand. There is a Kansas, which is separate. Yeah.

But then the state of Kansas has also given $28 million, $14.8 million from Kansas City itself, and another $1.5 million from other public sources. So that brings us to almost $87 million public investment just from the state of Missouri, the state of Kansas, Kansas City. Then there's also 60-ish million from federal security assistance, which was signed off by the Trump administration,

and also 13.3 million in federal grants towards transportation costs. So we're coming in there at least 175 million-ish. That's just what's being disclosed at this point. That's a lot. Right, that's a lot of money. $650,000 visitors is what

the tourist board of the region. Visit KC, that's what they're saying. But I should say, just to interrupt on that, visit KC have said 650,000 visitors, but actually I think 80% of hotels who were surveyed recently by the hotel association were saying they are seeing lower than expected Buckings.

So there is a lot of skepticism at the moment in Kansas City that they will hit that target. But speaking of accommodations, there is a particular big ticket item funded by taxpayers in Kansas City that, again, required a bit of a pop-up construction here, Adam. Yeah, I mean, this is, of all the stories, I think, in the lead-up to the World Cup, this is one of the more bizarre ones, a modular jail. So it feels to me a bit pop-upy in that sense.

Did you know that Kansas City has not had a jail since about 2009? And does that surprise you? It is surprising because we live in America. Right. I was going to say, if something America I thought could do, I thought it would be a city with jail. Yeah, we do incarceration. Right.

So they've not had a jail since 2009. That has been sort of something that's been spoken about in the city for a while. There's been some pressure from local businesses. Now, some of the city council members started to get the feeling of, well, we're going to have a World Cup and we could have 650,000 visitors. And some of those smaller petty crimes could really start. to ramp up, because what they do at the moment is transport people

over 50 miles out of town to jails in kind of neighboring places. So they said, we need a jail. And they said, we need a jail quickly because we might need it during the World Cup. There could be a streaker. There could be. Who knows? A guy in a wolf costume could turn into a bank robber again. Yeah, and I think it was maybe based on perceptions of soccer fans that some people would argue, well, fair and actually.

that other people would say are typecast and a little bit outdated. Yeah, despite your accent, hooliganism is known to us here. Right. Well, you've not seen my hooliganism yet. There's still time left in the show. So there could have been issues, whether it's, you know, people consume a lot of alcohol, if there's games between, I don't know, I don't know, I don't think Brazil and Argentina would play in Kansas City against each other, but, you know, where there's rivalry games. Bloodfews, geopolitical conflicts coming home to roost inside of,

A field. Exactly. Or even in the broader city, fan zones, etc. So they said we need this temporary jail before we can build our long-planned bigger jail. So $22 million was committed to building this. And then a further $3.8 million was signed off in January with the aim of trying to ensure the construction of this jail, which would have had, I think, just over 100 beds or so ahead of the World Cup. This is now 25.8 in totality. He pays for $4.5.5.5. that. The funding comes from something called the public safety sales tax, which is essentially quarter cent sales tax. From what I can see, that's around 24 million that that brings in a year. So this is essentially over the year's budget in order to do that. I should say, there was also

a city council meeting in March at City Hall in Kansas City of the Transportation, Infrastructure, and Operations Committee. Good morning committee. And chair. I'm Roxana Reyes, a city architect with general services. I'm just going to go over a brief construction update on the front street detention center, formerly known as the temporary facility. And the city architect gave a construction update in which she provided some of the images for this jail. You both see that. Those are like ice to church in it.

It's a big building. It's 200 by 200. 50 feet. That's just what those pre-engineer metal buildings look like. Right there, that little bump out is a sally port. That's where vehicles will drive in, drop off, and then drive out. No windows. And in case you thought you heard a city councilwoman say,

it looks like an iced detention center, like whispering it? You are correct. She did say that, and it does look like that. Adam. As we see also the observation at the end, no windows. Yeah, and I should say, I mean, Melissa Robinson. Good morning, Melissa Robinson, third district vice chair. Who is the council member who said that, actually voted to approve the project. So this was silly council members, I guess, seeing the fruits of what they had voted for.

I mean, this is like the worst episode of House Hunters. It looks like a nice detention center. We love it. What have we done here? It's a storage unit. It looks like a warehouse. I mean, it is functionally a warehouse, the kind that you retrofit into a detention center.

Right. And I think the architects subsequently said that kind of skylights would be cut in to the building somewhere to give some natural light. But, yeah, not great. Yeah, and look, as much as I can follow the logic, the part that jumps out to me is that this is public money

going towards the construction of this, modular jail that is being built by a private contractor whose previous work is also worth noting here. Why is it worth noting, Pebbler? Well, because the company's name is KBR, and you may know them from previous detainee facilities, such as the one at Guantanamo Bay. Which is, again, just like, great. Glad we got the Guantanamo Bay guys, Kansas City. I'm glad the World Cup has brought us all together in this global village.

and just the construction, the completion date of this, it said May of 26. This is the catch of the whole thing. The World Cup jail is not ready for the World Cup. So the anticipated completion date of May 26, it's not ready. A spokesperson for the city manager's office told me detainees will now not be housed at the centre join the World Cup at all. They kind of said it is ready.

but it's not operational. So that, to me, would suggest it's not ready. They blamed the manufacturer delivery schedule, staffing delays. And while they said, and this is a quote, the World Cup was referenced in the ordinance and legislative process as part of the timing and urgency around the project, the purpose of the facility is broader than the World Cup. We were always trying to do this pop-up jail

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And this brings us to the thing I got to illustrate before we let everyone go here, before we free you from our private prison, the studio. Because Johnny and Fantino at the start promised $30 billion. And people have been complaining about ticket prices. And now, it seems there was this solution. FIFA was going to do something quite generous for the public, actually, because they agreed to waive what? Sales taxes on tickets.

Now, this was kind of part of the bid expectations from FIFA, that sales tax on tickets would not be applied. And many of the states actually push back on this. New Jersey is continuing to apply sales tax on tickets, Pennsylvania is, but three states agreed to do it, such was their, I guess, desperation or eagerness to secure the World Cup. So the state of Georgia, which is Atlanta,

the state of Florida, Miami, and the state of Missouri, once again our friends in Kansas City who are putting so much in to this tournament. And that sales tax, when you combine what has been left on the table by cities through waiving, particularly now that the ticket prices are a lot higher than anyone thought they were going to be. It combines to almost $60 million. Yeah, the sales tax for Missouri was going to be 8.85%, which, you know, again, the way tax works,

costs customers money, make it more expensive, but provide something back for the cities. And therefore, the public in terms of what the state had available to make back in terms of those cost and benefits. That's why people do it because it's almost a way of getting a slice of the revenue. And what's really interesting about this is if we just take that Missouri one. Yeah, let's focus on just one case study here. They did a fiscal analysis before this was approved, which you attached to the bill, the fiscal note, and it was done by the committee on legislative research in Missouri's oversight division. And they made some presumptions. Now, their presumptions were actually based on, well, they said they were based on the last World Cup in Qatar in 2022.

The reality is, and they actually made a mistake, they were based on the 2018 World Cup in Russia. So their presumption... Wait, I'm sorry. I just assumed that they had one job here, which was, can you just calculate this? And their calculation you're saying was wrong. Well, it was impossible to know. We should say that, right? You can't know in 2022 what FIFA are going to set as the price is in 2026.

That's where we should give some grace. Sure. However, they used numbers from 2018. Which is not 2022 for those scoring at home. No. And so what is the gap between what Missouri thought it was giving up versus what it was actually giving up by waiving taxes on ticket sales? I guess a couple of things we should clarify.

Firstly, when they were making these calculations, the actual number of games hadn't yet been awarded. They didn't know how many games they would get or which games they would get. Now, what they did was because if you were just applied their methodology of using 2018 prices to the actual games they were given, it would have come out at basically leaving $5.9 million on the table. However, of the actual prices,

and what we did was take an average of all of FIFA's ticket drops, which have been many, it comes out as 15.7 million compared to that 5.9 million. So that is a huge gap, really, in terms of what the expectation was. And a lot of money, really, that could have gone into a mixture of the state and local taxes based on admissions for the people of Missouri and Kansas City. And by the way, just to clarify, that is a conservative estimate. You're being very responsible because hospitality pricing, the secondary market. ticket resales, where FIFA is taking 15% from the buyer and the seller, that's not even

incorporated into the... Yes, so we were kind. We were really kind to these states, because we don't, what you never want to do in this case is grossly overestimate, and then they come back at you and say this is irresponsible or whatever. I would say gross overestimation is the thing we're all trying to avoid. Equally, we don't know at this stage if FIFA, we've presumed that FIFA are going to sell out. Right.

And there are some questions at this point as whether these stadiums will actually sell out, such as being the price point and some of the chaos that's been surrounding ticket sales. So all of this is to say that FIFA, in response to your reporting, in response to this folder full of documents, what do they say? They've not really replied for this collection of stories. So that's that. I guess they would say that they commit money through the $3.7 billion that they spend on the World Cup, but obviously a big amount of that is basically prize money for players and federations. And as I said at the start, nobody forced a city to apply for this. Nobody forced a city to agree to these terms.

And so there is one last document in your folder, which I want to read from, because this one acknowledges a bunch of what you just said in writing. And this one is dated November 17, 20th, 2025. It's to the CEO of the U.S. Soccer Federation. And I just want to read through what some of this says because it's signed by, yeah, a bunch of U.S. host cities, seven actual World Cup men's World Cup host cities for this summer, and then 21 potential U.S. host cities for the 20131 Women's World Cup, which is very interesting because what this whole document, the highlighted part we want to read here, is suggesting is that, quote,

as you are aware, many U.S. host cities are currently working through significant, operational, financial, and contractual challenges stemming from the terms of the existing FIFA World Cup 26th hosting arrangements. And so this acknowledges the complexity and the frustration that has been conveyed through numbers and through your, reporting. And what was the response when U.S. Soccer received this letter? Well, the great thing about this is they didn't send the letter. They did not send the letter.

They got it. They, all of these cities came. All of these cities came together in November because what FIFA wanted was to start getting agreement signed for the 231 World Cup before the 26 World Cup had even started. But to see it written down by the cities and signed by all of these city representatives. So all that stuff we've been talking about, naming rights on stadiums, local taxes, all of those topics. They say that we are firmly committed

to delivering a successful FIFA Women's World Cup of the United States, one that is financially responsible, operationally feasible, and positioned to create lasting legacy benefits. I mean, it's acknowledging the very thing that, of course, seems far harder to accomplish.

Yeah. And the reason they didn't send it is, because I subsequently saw some correspondence between the cities, which basically said it was for PR reasons. They were worried that the letter would get out. And of course the letter would never get out, would it, Pablo? This is, I should say, not only a great exhibit in journalism, but it is also a great exhibit in what it means to be American, Adam Crafton.

And if you want to stick around here, on behalf of America and also, and I will demand this, New York slash New Jersey, I do think I also should probably apologize on some level because this has been probably all harder that it should have been.

Thank you for having me. Appreciate it. This has been Pablo Torre finds out a Metal Arc Media production. And I'll talk to you next time.