SoccerWise - Todd Dunivant (Sac Republic) Jäegermeister Cup Preview, Pro-Rel, New Stadiums & Youth Development

Episode Date: October 3, 2025

On the eve of a cup final for Sacramento Republic their President & GM Todd Dunivant sits down with David. They talk about the buzz around the big game, and their first Jaegermeister Cup experiences. Then they hit on a bevy of topics from losing academy players to MLS clubs, how their new stadium can change the city, how USL has changed in the last decade, and so much more!

All right, well, it is a big week in American soccer and here at kickback, we have been covering it all. We were so excited about the U.S. Open Cup final. A ton of coverage around that, but it's not the only final this week. And while the U.S. Open Cup is a cup, the other one has its own liquor involved. So you don't even have to choose what to put in the cup. We have the Yeager Meister final in the U.S.L. We've been covering this tournament since it started. And to celebrate the final coming up on Saturday night,

we have the president and general manager of the host, Todd Dunevin, with us of Sacramento Republic FC, to talk all things Yeager. Todd, is this your expertise? I did go to college, so I have a little bit of a little history with Yeager. But this is just as fun, you know, definitely way more fun than back then. I, uh, I, I tasted it a few months ago as the tournament was starting to be like, you know, your taste buds age, they change. Maybe, maybe I've shifted on it and it's pretty

similar. Yeah. I mean, when you, you got to do the full thing. You got to do the Yeager bomb if you're going to do it. And that's really the only way. So, um, it depends on whether you win or lose. And we, you know, we've won our last two knockout games. So they taste very good after that. Most things do. Have, have you guys done it as a tradition? Is that the good luck, charm going forward? Yeah, you have to. You've got to get into the spirit of it. But no, it's been a great tournament. I mean, honestly, I think something, you know, very unique to our league and a way to differentiate some games, break things up a little bit from the monotony sometimes of the season. And, you know, we've had one game a month, you know, really throughout the season. And it's

been a great opportunity, you know, for our fans to kind of get behind another trophy, get excited about it. And certainly our players. I think this is something we love it. Our club thrive. on tournaments and cups, and it's typically where we shine the best. Yeah, obviously, for many people, they will remember your run to the U.S. Open Cup final. A couple of years ago, the first lower division team to do it in over a decade. And then, of course, it's a club that has success in history in U.S.L playoffs. How does this tournament experience the run, the energy of it, the in-and-out? How does it compare to those other runs that you've been a part of?

Well, it's fantastic. I mean, I think it's given, you know, guys' opportunities. who maybe haven't had them. Our goalkeeper, Jared Mazzola, is behind Danny Vitielo, who's been the best goalie in the league for the last three years. And Jared has stepped up in six games, given up one goal. I mean, just an incredible record, done very, very well. You know, so it's opportunities like that.

It's opportunities for younger players. I think we've looked at it as a league. More opportunities for guys under 18. So it's played a lot of different roles. But I think for me, as you're getting towards, you know, the business end of the season and towards playoffs, just having these matches, these games, gets you in that mindset,

gets you in that winning feel. And it certainly, you know, leads you in a good direction as you get down to those playoff games. One of the things I was find fascinating about people in your role is, like, we all talk from the outside of, like, big games, have to have depth, star players, all of this. But you have, like, sort of hard numbers in accounting of, like, this is what our roster is capable of

and this is what we're adding on. How did this competition? account into your roster build for this season and how you sort of set yourself up, you know, for the 2025. Yeah, I mean, the league designed the, you know, the tournament so that it mixed in with our season. It wasn't an add-on on top of our season. So, you know, you really didn't have to heavily rotate.

Some teams dead anyways. But you're, you know, we looked at it as, you know, why would you completely blow up your lineup and give guys a weekend off where they, you know, two weeks between games. So for the most part, we put out, you know, strong sides and felt that was the best thing for our club and our team, but we have given opportunities to some guys who have stepped up and really taken it. So, yeah, you get into those knockout stages, though. Those are additive games, quarterfinals, the semifinals, and now the finals. So that's just something that you are going to have to expand your roster and use as many of the guys as you can.

For Saturday, is there anything special the club is doing? Is there anything you're most looking forward to besides the chance to win a trophy? It's fantastic. I mean, we can't wait. The city's buzzing. There hasn't been a final hosted in any sport in Sacramento since 2014 when the Republic hosted, you know, in their inaugural season. So it is special.

These don't come around often. And so not only to be in a final, but to host it, really fantastic opportunity for our city to shine. And we're going to sell out. it's going to be a great night and just one of those memorable ones. You have been around finals as an individual fairly often as a player and in front offices and, you know, parts of clubs. What is it about a final? Like, what is it about that day that makes it special?

And do you have a tradition or anything you're allowed to tell us that you're going to do on the day for good luck? You know, I love playoffs. I love finals. It's, you know, ever since. even go back to my college days and college cup. You get in that time of year in the fall, and there's just something a little bit different in the air.

There's a little chill. There's a little different kind of energy, and I think that's what is so fun about finals. You don't know what to expect, so you have to be ready for anything. You don't know how the day's going to go, but it's ultimately where, you know, as a defender, I like to, you know, really to just make sure that I did my job,

let the stars be started. ours and get out of the way, right? I think that was the biggest thing for me. But, you know, for our team, for these types of moments, it's really about preparation leading up to the final and treating it in the way that you need to, focusing on being present and not looking to be on the game. It's hard that part, which, you know, a lot of people say that, and then I realize in what I do. Like, we come in, we're asking for a thousand interviews. There's a media day. Sometimes you have to travel into a championship game early, like all these things. Now, this one a little different because it sits in the season, but how hard is it to keep things normal going into a

final? No, it's a challenge. There's a lot of, you know, distractions. Families coming into town, like you said, a lot of different media requests, a lot of different things that, you know, are a little out of the ordinary. It's part of the excitement, but it's something you've got to manage. You know, Neil, our head coach has done a fantastic job of that. And, you know, making sure that the guys are focused. We also have a game, a league game, you know, midweek, so leading up to it. So I think that's breaking up the week a little differently for us. We don't have kind of the full normal week of training. So for us, we're focused on that game and leading into the final, you know, we'll obviously refocus and get ready for that. But trying to get a lot of the logistics

out of the way early in the week and make sure that those types of things are handled tickets. You know, and itineraries and all those are handled early. On the bigger picture for the Yeagermeister Cup, the work you do inside the league as well as with your club, this is the first iteration in this setup USL League 1 as well as USL Championship, all in a group stage into those knockout games. You mentioned, do you see this continuing as a competition and in the same format, or do you see changes coming in the future? No, we like it.

I think there'll be iterations, and we'll see how it evolves. but ultimately this was a success. This has been a very good tournament. I think, you know, when you had championship teams thinking about playing league one teams, would that affect your attendance, your gate? And it really hasn't, you know? I think that was good to see.

I think for a lot of teams, it's, you know, how many teams are going to qualify? There's questions being asked about that. Do we increase that number? Do we keep it the same? But in general, I think, you know, this hit the mark on what we were trying to achieve as a league and certainly something to build upon. I'm wearing a kickback media t-shirt literally says play the kids on the back. So let's talk

about what you mentioned, which is this tournament was an opportunity for you to play a lot of your young players. Sacramento Republic has been one of the best top-to-bottom academy systems in the U.S. over the last few years. You were one of the few that had every single age group in MLS next. You had teams that made the semifinals. I've called some of the games that editor has coached. and they're fantastic soccer, the quality that they play. Talk a little bit about the work you've done to build a pathway from top to bottom and one that I think is fairly unique in the U.S. system. Well, I love that you shout it out, Eddert Kintania.

He is our academy director and has been an absolute stud for our club for many, many years now, and just produces great players. We are blessed with our geography here, and so we have a great, you know, talent pool to choose from. But we also have a great system, and that comes from our lead. and Edder. And currently we have three players. Two of them are 18 on our first team, Chibiu-Kibu, Blake Willie, both featuring with youth national teams. And then you've got Davian Kimbrough, who's 15, featuring for the U.S. national team and the Mexico national team doing incredible things, you know, was the leading goal score at the U-15 Conccaf tournament for Mexico

as they, you know, won the whole thing. And he scored, every single game and all six games. So impressive stuff and, you know, continues to grow. We're so excited for his future, for really all their futures. And, you know, their ability, you know, speaking to Davion, right, he's 15. So we're not, you know, going to put him in a position where he's not going to succeed. So, you know, between training with our first team, getting those reps against season pros guys more than twice as age, you know, but then also getting those youth national team reps, getting, you know, occasional reps with our. academy teams. It's just really good for his development. We're starting to see the

proof of concept, you know, with how well he's doing in the international stage. As someone on top of all of it, how connected are you and how connected is the academy to the first team? Yeah, it's very connected. I mean, we have several players that train with our first team. Like you said, we are fully built out from U-13s all the way up through U-19s. We have six teams at the youth level, and we have a great coaching staff and a great you know, foundation to build upon. So we're excited about the three that we have in our current first team. We want to build on that and we'll see who that next crop is. How necessary or important is a reserve team to a, or a second team, whatever phrase you want

to use to a pipeline, do you think? Yeah, it's always a challenging one, right, at every level. How do you find that balance of guys who are not quite able to get all those minutes, but you want to get them game time. So that's a challenging one. I think it's a challenge for USL, MLS. It's a challenge for, you know, really all the top teams in the world because there's tradeoffs. Either you're getting minutes, but are you playing in a high pressure environment, et cetera? There's so many tradeoffs that go with it.

So it's difficult and it's difficult to justify that from a business standpoint too, right? So all those things you have to weigh up. I think for us, we're fortunate to have the accountability. Academy is our pipeline. And we're going to continue to tap into that as we, you know, build out future teams. You mentioned how blessed you are with geography, how good the talent is in your area. But one of the things that I've experienced, I'm sure you know this, well, better than me. And maybe it will cause some frustration when I bring it up is I've broadcast like Generation

Adidas Cup, top level competitions. You go into a game. And both coaches of an MLS Academy team are like, well, we're actually really excited about this player. They're a Sacramento Republic player as a guest player. And it'll be like both teams will have them facing off against each other. How have you experienced trying to deal with the landscape of everything and do what's best for kids, what's best for the club, and figure out where you sit inside of all of this? Yeah, it's a great question.

And it's something we talk about a lot. And we're trying to educate our parents more and more. I think MLS in general has, you know, and soccer, the used landscape changes, you know, every single month, let alone every single year. It is fast moving. There has been an increase in players being recruited all over the country and pulled around. Some of that's, I would say, a very small amount of that is good. A lot of it is not good. And ultimately pulling players from, you know, a top club like Sacramento to go to another academy across the country when they're 15, 16, 17 years old,

losing connection with their family, losing their childhood in a way, right? like their friends, their family, you know, it's one thing if you are in the middle of nowhere, if you're in South Dakota, and there's not that youth competition, but that's not the case with us. And so I think there's, you know, sometimes the wool is pulled over these families' eyes in terms of what is being promised. You know, they see shiny facilities. They see these promises made. And we have some stats that we shared with our families of playing time, minutes, and maybe the grass isn't always greener. So it's something that we deal with quite a bit. You know, most of our kids that are in our academy are going to go to college and should go to college. That is a great pathway that we

have here. You know, the select few will make it to the first team right away. We hope that the ones that go to college have a great experience and maybe come back and play with the club at the end of that journey. But if not, they've got a college education, right? That is the beauty of the American system. So, you know, all this plays into all this plays into it. but it is a tricky landscape and something that we're, you know, continuing to try to educate families on. Yeah, it's one of those things where, like you said, some people are in areas where there's not options,

but having a fully robust pathway and a club that's competing for trophies and in front of massive crowds doesn't seem necessary to pull a player away from that to send them somewhere else, and that's kind of the frustration I have expressed to a lot of people where it's like, yeah, I understand, but Sacramento is doing a good job, and it feels like that player could have a really good future. there. And it's one of the fascinating things. I think a lot of people don't know that that's happening. And I think a lot of times then the players in an academy for two years, they come through as a homegrown, quote unquote, and then people only hear that side of it. So I wanted to ask you

about that. But on the first team side, the success you've had, you talked about Neil, bringing him in Neil Collins as a manager. You are a club that has had continued success. There have been ebbs and flows, but it feels like within every two-year window, you were pushing for a trophy. What has been the key to keeping that stability to this club? Yeah, stability is a hard thing to find in pro sports. And, you know, I've been fortunate to be here now for, this is my eighth season. You know, we had a really good run with Mark Briggs and accomplished a lot. I think the one thing we didn't end up with and what we're looking for is trophies, right?

And so now we're setting ourselves up this season. We're in a final this week. And we're in second place in the Western Conference, pushing for playoff seating and pushing for a trophy there. So I think for us, it's putting ourselves in position for as many opportunities that a trophy as possible. And that is who we are and what we want to be. And for our liking, for our taste, it's been too long since we've hoisted and hoisted a trophy. Hosted and hoisted. It's been so long that you stopped using that word.

Yeah. No, that's right. So, you know, I think we're hungry. We're excited for the opportunity. They don't come around often, but we want them to come around more often. And Neil is a proven winner. You know, as we were out in the market looking, you know, Neil stood out above everyone else. It was just, and you can see why.

You know, now that you hear the stories, you know, in the process of the interviews, you hear a lot of things. But then now working with Neil for almost a full year, he is so good at his craft, at what he does, his work ethic, showing up every single day, the consistency, you know, tell him players where they stand, communication, all the things, he's fantastic and just inspires confidence. Were you surprised at all that he wanted to come back to the U.S. and U.S.L? Because I was actually on the call, I believe, on the game where he moved from player to coach back with Tampa. And then, of course, he goes off and has a unique career in that he goes back to England

and coaches at a high level. Like, what was the feeling when his name came into the process at some point? yeah a lot of excitement you know he wasn't on our radar and when he got put on it uh it was oh that that's a possibility that's great um you know and we jumped all over it so you know he he his reputation in our league and in this country is speaks for itself but i think you know like you said he he had some fantastic experiences uh in the UK between england and scotland and you know it's made him a better coach and so being able to bring him back he you know certainly appreciates the U.S. game and the setup here. And I think there weren't a lot of places that

he probably would have gone to. And I think that was also something that we, you know, took pride in that there was, that it was mutual. And it's not like we had to drag him by the year to come back. This is something that he wanted for himself, for his career and for his family. And that's why it's worked. Luckily, he won't listen to this because he's busy. So he won't hear me say back to England, even though he's Scottish, which I'm sure he will hate. As I have learned from all Scottish people. You mentioned eight years that you've been in this role helping build from the sporting side, especially this Sacramento team. I'm curious how the job has changed and how the league has changed in what you have to do and what this team has to build, the level of players, the work

that's done over that time as USL has grown. Yeah, it's evolved, no question. I mean, USL has gotten bigger, stronger, better. Recruiting has intensified. You do it earlier now. it's matured, and that's the game in general in this country continues to mature. People don't give a credit for how young it is, how young the sport is in America. So I think from that standpoint, USL continues to evolve, and it's been really fun to be a part of. I think there's such a great competitive landscape. There's a lot of parity within certainly the Western Conference. I think the Eastern Conference you've seen two teams really rise to the top.

But in general, there is no easy games like there used to be. There used to be you could kind of pencil some wins in. You had some B teams or some second teams that were, you know, you could pretty reliably pencil in three points. That doesn't exist anymore. And even the teams at the bottom of the league now are, you know, they're not going to last there and there are not perennial losers in our league, which is great. That's what you want.

You want that. competitive balance and you're starting to see it more and more. I'm curious from your point of view and the way the league has grown, it feels like for many teams the first step was investment in that first team and real invest in the roster, then it felt like a lot of the experience of coaches started to come up a notch where the level you need to be at just to get higher, got higher. And now it feels like the next frontier in USL is front offices. It feels like that's the next push for clubs, unlike yours, that maybe didn't have people

in full-time positions on top of the sporting side or building out scouting academies. Is that what I'm seeing from the outside feel correct on the inside of that big push to help grow USL? Yeah, you need the business needs to be able to support it first and foremost, right? And if you have the revenues, if you have that money coming in, you're able to invest more in the infrastructure of your club, whether it's personnel, facilities, youth, all of those things come as a result of that success. So as more teams are making more money or increasing their revenues, that's when you'll start to see it grow. I mean, we've already seen player salaries. That's kind of the first thing that has increased and started to really improve, you know, and certainly more than doubling,

you know, in the last eight years in terms of where that's gone. So that's continuing to rise. And you're seeing more and more big players come to the league. That's exciting. It's, you know, the bottom continues to rise. There's a CBA going on that's going to continue to increase the product. So there's a lot of positive momentum, but you really do need that underlying business revenue to be able to justify and pay for that infrastructure, whether it's human capital or physical infrastructure. Hearing that number double, I think is really exciting for fans over the years you've been around it. What has you most excited about the future of USL?

Yeah, I mean, I think it's really fun what we're talking about in terms of the pro rel. I think that that is an exciting opportunity within the USL ecosystem that's very unique. Certainly unique in American sports that doesn't exist. And the concept is something that is easy to get behind because now people are, you know, obviously soccer people know that. Soccer people know that. But your average fan will be interested in that. They'll be interested in watching two teams.

They might not even know anything about battle. out to stay up or to be promoted, you know, all those things, I think, just increase the jeopardy, increase the excitement. And it's, it's something that I think we can really do well. And again, we've got an ecosystem within USL of multiple tiers. No reason we can't have this system. And I think the owners are really getting behind it. Between the business side and the sporting side, how do you balance with pro rel the opportunity and then the jeopardy of like, you could be relegated? Yeah, you know, good question. I think on the jeopardy side, it's probably more on the sporting side than it is on the business side because there is, you know, for good

and bad in this case, there is not a pot of gold if you get promoted and you do not, you're not going to get your legs chopped off if you go down. We don't have a, you know, a hundred plus million dollar media deal that you get to tap into like you do another league. Which seems like a strength in getting this initiated. So to get it going, that's actually a strength. And that's that you don't have to, you know, be completely, you know, killed on the business end if you do go down. So it's more, you know, on the sporting merit and those things.

So I think from that standpoint, the owners really have realized that and understood, hey, you know, this isn't going to be as big of a risk to the business and the franchise value as maybe it could have been otherwise. You mentioned how long it's been since the city of Sacramento's hosted a championship, and that was Sacramento Republic. And I think for many people, when Sac Republic came into the league, put the fans in the stadium and then made that championship run in front of five, six thousand fans. That was really a starting moment of this movement of this is what USL can be. and this is what other people, the Louisville's and whatnot of the world, started to build towards. Now we're talking pro-relt and we're talking about Division I. What does Division I mean to the Sacramento Republic?

Yeah, I think Sacramento Republic has always in those, the first four games that the club, while they were still building, Heart Health Park, you know, played in front of 20,000 fans at Hughes Stadium in Sacramento. I mean, 20,000 fans in 2014. You could maybe name one or two. I mean, the Seattle Sounders were getting over that, maybe the galaxy. There wasn't much else that was getting over 20,000 fans, even in MLS. And in SAC Republic was Division III in 2014. So you put all that together, and it just, from day one, this city and this market has caught the eye, I think, of everyone

and seen itself as having the potential to be big and to be Division I. and that's never left. I think that feeling that ambition has never left the club. Obviously, we were admitted into MLS in 2019, you know, with COVID, the investor dropped out. But, you know, this club has never lost its ambition. Kevin Nagel has always, you know, backstopped everything and got us to this point. Now adding Wilton Rancheria to our ownership group has allowed us to move forward with the stadium and really just make that next step in the club's evolution.

So we certainly see ourselves as Division I. We have the ambition to do that, and we want to be part of it. Talk a little bit about the stadium because you broke ground. It's exciting. It's, you know, one of those things. I think we all see images and you get the pearly images, and it seems perfect. Take people a little bit inside of what it's going to be like

and what it will mean for the club. Oh, we're so excited. I mean, we spend a lot of time on it every single day. We've got a whole stadium team. that is solely focused on it, but we broken ground. This isn't, hey, it'll be cool when we are building the thing now. We are clearing the site. We have 31 acres downtown, which, you know, this doesn't exist, and I tell people this,

this doesn't exist in American soccer, a downtown location with that much land to be able to build, not just a stadium, but whatever else you want around it, a sports entertainment district, housing, hotel, retail, bars, restaurants, all those things. things, we have that. And when you are at the site and we felt this at groundbreaking and you look at downtown, you know, you're in the middle of downtown, it is, it is pretty remarkable. And I think people here are so excited about it, you know, fans, you know, who aren't even sports fans or, hey, when's the stadium going to be ready? We can't wait to go. And these are not even sports fans. So it is, it's a long time coming here in the city. The rail yards is 240 acres that sit in

downtown that have been undeveloped for decades, and this is the catalyst to really blow the roof off of that. And Kaiser Hospitals started construction. There's going to be in the central shops where the rail line used to end. There's going to be a concert venue, 3,000 seats. So there's all kinds of things that are being invested in, and that's going to be Sacramento's newest neighborhood anchored by the stadium, and it's going to be so exciting. You mentioned the push for MLS and getting in and then coming back out. And now we're talking, DeWan, how do you or the club sort of think about where is the right spot for Sacramento Republic? Yeah, I mean, part of us, I think, when that happened was, you know, this is a little bit out of our control.

And so let's focus on what we can control. And for that, for us, that was the stadium. You know, let's secure the stadium. Let's build. Let's not wait around for anything. Let's move the club forward. we've done you know so we we now own and control those 31 acres we've we're clear in the site and getting ready to to start going vertical um you know that was our that was that was that was what we can control

everything else is a little bit out of our hands and so we're just trying to to mind our business do our thing uh you know win on the field put a great product out there for the fans um you know and build this stadium i think from there good things happen and and you know the future is going to be what it's going to be. But for us, you know, we're controlling our destiny in, in our facility and making sure that our new home is something that, you know, everybody in this city can be proud of. For this season, Yeager Meister Cup on Saturday. And then, as you said, second place right now in the Western Conference. Is there a conversation inside the club about winning a championship, making a playoff run? Like, how do you sort of word that through your club from front,

office into the coaching staff, into the roster. Yeah, no question. I mean, I think Neil's done a great job of giving that message to the team and being able to flip back and forth. I think, again, the way the tournament was set up, it allowed for that in a very cohesive way. It wasn't some, you know, different thing that you kind of play in midweek. It was woven into the season. So we've really woven this tournament into our season and put a good emphasis on it,

while also still, you know, like I said, being second place in the West and pushing for the best playoff seed we can get for the playoffs. I mean, those are all things that are important and trophies are what we're after. And it starts for us on Saturday. It's a golden opportunity. We're going up against a very good Hartford team who, you know, is playing as well as anyone in the league. We know that they're going to be a coming in hungry and ready to go. So it's going to be a tough night. We have a ton of respect for them and what they have done this season, you know, started a little bit slow,

but they have been on fire lately. And it's, you know, we're going to have to be at our best to beat them. Hartford loves to end of season hot. They are in there once again. But this is going to be a unique situation, a cup final and a big opportunity for Sacramento to host the whole thing. We cannot wait to watch it from afar. We're sad we won't be there, but maybe for a U.S.L championship in a couple months after this one,

we would love to go to Sacramento and hang out and watch soccer. Thank you so much for taking the time to join us. Good luck on Saturday, and let's do this again another time. Love to. Yeah, thanks for having me. Appreciate it so much. Well, thank you so much to Todd for taking the time to do that with us. And as I said, 10 p.m. Eastern time, Sacramento Republic hosting Hartford Athletic that is on the Golazo Network on CBS Sports. If you're in the area, try and get a ticket if you can because it is going to be an awesome event, Sacramento A team, like we talked about with Todd that has great history in knockout competitions and has put some of the great crowds that we've ever seen in U.S. soccer history in the building for some of their big matches.

And this won't be any different. I would like to mention Todd in the conversation we were talking about, he mentioned a new CBA being negotiated between the USL Players Association as well. well as, of course, the league. And that has been a hot topic over the course of this week, especially the president of the USL Players Association, someone I know very well, Connor Tobin, was on Jason Davis's morning kickaround. So I'd highly recommend going and listening to that interview about the way negotiations have gone. They've already gone through over 20 negotiating meetings, and they've still not come to an agreement at the USL Players Association as well putting out on social media that they, the account as well as all of the players' accounts

would be blocking all of the official league accounts and team accounts showing their frustration with what has gone on. And I think it's something that everyone should be paying attention to. You have a league talking about expansion. You have a league talking about growth, promotion relegation, adding a division one. You've added a women's league over the last two years in the Super League. You've expanded Division I. We have all these markets that we're so excited about, the Boise's of the world and growing in through Texas and Florida and all of that.

It's all built on the shoulders of the players. And even if the CBA goes well, these are still players who have a very small time window for them to make money in their careers. They do so with non-guaranteed contracts moving all over the country in completely different conditions because of the love of the game. And it's what allows the league to exist. what it's all built on. It's what we show up to watch. It's what we like to talk about. It's what we engage in is these players and their passion for the sport and their ability and their skills and everything else. So I am always going to be in favor of labor in any argument like this, but especially from what I know and what I've heard so far and from what I've seen. So I'd

highly recommend to hunt down that interview and go watch it and follow the USLPA and all social media accounts so that you can sort of stay up to speed with what's going on as it progresses. So we will be back next week with a ton of coverage, national teams, everything else going on. So thank you all for listening. Have a great weekend and enjoy your Jaeger Meister Cup. Thank you.