Hello and welcome to Episode 170 with Ed de la Fuente, also known as the Itinerant Fan. Ed is my friend who I met at TravelCon last year and he comes on to talk about his passion for sport and travel. He loves to mix the two, and it is a great way to kick off 2025. Check out the show notes below.

In this engaging conversation, Ed, known as the itinerant fan, shares his unique journey of combining sports and travel. He discusses his passion for visiting every major sports stadium in America, the cultural insights gained from attending international sporting events, and the dynamics of college sports in the US. Ed reflects on memorable experiences, including Olympic hockey games and college football rivalries, while also providing travel tips for sports enthusiasts. The conversation culminates in predictions for upcoming sports seasons and a discussion on the future of soccer in the US, particularly with the influence of stars like Messi in Major League Soccer.

A footnote here: this was recorded in June 2024, so some references may be out of date, but you will get to see if Ed's predictions and mine were correct for the sporting events we discussed.

Ed - The Itinerant Fan

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Cheers, James.

Hello and welcome to this week's episode. I'm joined by Ed Darafuente, who's also known as the itinerant fan through his website, newsletter and social media. Ed works in sports media and he's been doing that for quite a while with Fox Sports, ESPN and other outlets. I met Ed at the recent TravelCon event in Portland and I wanted to get him on the show to talk about sports and travel.

Ed loves to combine both. So we're to talk about his sporting life, travel life, some favorite cities that he likes going to, his stadiums. favorite sports teams, travel destinations, events, and how maybe he can help you plan an event and maybe some predictions for some upcoming seasons and events in the sporting calendar. Ed, welcome to the show. How you doing? Great. Thanks, James, for having me.

real pleasure to be on. Bit of ropey intro there, so I have to tick some out. But where are you based right now? I'm in Los Angeles. I wasn't born here, but I grew up here, moved away for a little bit and then came back. And now that I'm back, probably won't ever leave. So yeah, pretty strongly identified with LA. And where were you born originally? Chicago. But I moved away, my family moved away when I was six. I, you know, it's...

of my life I don't remember a whole lot about except for the snow and some other things like that. And so I never really got into sports until after I moved to LA. So I don't follow any of the Chicago teams. So even though I get that a lot, as soon as people tell me, as soon as I say, oh yeah, I was actually born in Chicago. Oh, so you must like the Cubs and the Bears. Chicago Booms, Yeah. I've moved away before Jordan happened.

Is that bad timing? I don't know. Sort of, Your name last name, Delafrente, is obviously made in Spanish. So where's that coming from originally? Yeah, it's Spanish, but I'm 100 % Filipino. So, yeah, so, know, there's a mix of Spanish blood in there, think, ancestry wise, but yeah, both of my parents are first generation Filipino.

They met in Chicago. So that's where they met and married in Chicago. And that's, I was born there. That's how my family wound up there. And then at some point they made the decision to move to California. Philippines got an interesting history with, I guess, colonization, which is not great or good really, but sort of melting pot of different cultures there, I think. Like unusually so. mean, you probably get like one almost like dominating colonizer, if you like, but

seems to me Philippines got like a bit of a mix of going on. It's like lots of different people there. Yeah, for sure. You know, it's become such a huge travel destination over the last maybe 15, 20 years or so. Like, you know, people discovered their beaches and everything. know, sadly, I hate to admit this, but I haven't been back in probably more than 20 years. Right. Just because adulthood got in the way. And, you know, I have a lot of families still there. Sneak preview, I actually working on a family reunion.

which hopefully will take place next summer. by I, should say like I'm on the fringes of planning. Somebody else, other people are planning it, but if it happens, I'm definitely gonna be there. So that'll be my first trip back in more than 20 years. And even if it doesn't happen, I'm gonna make it, figure out a way to get back. I do know what Philippines on my list. I think it's the only country I've not been to in Southeast Asia. So it's a bit of a hole, but the gap in my Southeast Asia list and the beaches and the food.

And the culture looks amazing. Just, yeah, underrated as a travel destination. I mean, there, there, there are lots of folks now who have been there and we'll tell you just how incredible it is. But like, I think it's like more that people rave about the beaches and stuff, but it's like a lot, about a lot more than that. So, yeah, you know, definitely get into the cities a little bit and, food, food is making it, uh, uh, you know, us and Canada, like it's, it's having its moment, you know, as far as like,

culturally, like people are discovering Filipino cuisine. So yeah, it just looks like a bit different to maybe what you might get in the rest of the region. Right. So I think that's what appeals to me down there. And you can fly direct from Vancouver, I think to Manila. So no excuse really. There you go. For sure. Yeah. Okay. We're to talk about your backstory a little bit, but travel in there, but sport in there. So we're going to probably ignore this cargo bit because you don't remember too much from that. So LA.

So it's a melting pot of and travel. mean, what a transient place for both, right? So growing up in LA, were you aware quite early doors that you liked a few sports or was that quite a late burner, do you think? No, probably around elementary school, third, fourth grade, somewhere around there, I started really getting into sports. know, what's funny is my first, probably real favorite team was the Lakers because of they were, know, Magic Johnson jeans, they were those people, were women champions.

and all that. And all my friends were into the Lakers. Even my mom, who's just not into sports at all, was following the Lakers. so I started following them. At some point, my first ever sporting event was a baseball, angels baseball game when I was nine years old. We literally at the very top row of the stadium.

And I think like just the whole idea of like, know, 30,000 people being around 30,000 people and like watching this game and everything. There was something about it that kind of like struck a chord with me and like, and started, started kind of developing from there. Throughout my teenage years, I started to kind of follow other teams and started to really like dream about, you know, what it would be like seeing all these other

stadiums on television. And you know, when they do broadcasts of games, they always show like parts of the city too, like they're in like some sort of slice of, know, Seattle, they'll show like the people throwing fish at Pike Place, for example. You know, just like little snippets of the city, right? And so like, okay, that's interesting. Like, I wonder what that city is really like. And so when I started getting into, I would say,

When I got to college and I started getting like, had a little bit of money to like just fly somewhere. I would go somewhere, see games. want to, I have a cousin who lives in Toronto. So I went there, visited her for spring break. Saw Maple Leafs game at the old Maple Leaf Gardens, which was a trip because like, first off they were playing another Canadian team so that they didn't play the American national anthem. They only played Canada. And then, you know, just the whole tiny historic

arena and then just how people in Canada get into hockey is just mind blowing that like, know, this is, was really like, this is a real foreign environment to me. So this is like, you know, a little transformative experiences like that. And they just kind of all revolved around sports and just, you know, desire to get to see different stadiums. And so at some point I formed this whole, what it'd be like to see every stadium

in each of the major sports in America. you know, that's baseball, basketball, football, and hockey. you know, now, but this was back in the nineties. And so there's not quite as many teams as there are now, but now there's 124 teams across those four sports. So the goal. So I formed this goal at some point. I don't know how long it's going to take, but at some point I'm going to try to get to every single,

or see a home game for every single team in each of those leagues. And so here I am, I'm now 10 away from that goal. Completed two of the four leagues. And then some, so I have five teams left in the other two leagues, which is the NFL and NBA. I'm endeavoring to complete both of those in the next year. So most of my travel is gonna be focused around that. But at some point in...

At some point I realized, okay, people are actually reading this, you So I tried, started turning it more into, you know, writing guides to different stadiums and things like that. And so here I am, like, so it's been more than 10 years, which is kind of mind blowing to me how long I've been at it. It's probably the longest I've done like a specific project in my entire life, you know. So most.

mean that I actually care about and I'm passionate about it. And where does travel fit into this? So where's the interest growing up maybe because you mentioned about the, the foreign efficiency at all. So was that an element of you growing up also like wanting to see also these cities, maybe like slightly different culture in America, you know, in America, like what goes on there and stuff like that. So to me, sports is kind of the window into, seeing the parts of the world that you're interested in.

Yeah, I feel like most people, whether they like make it a big deal or not, they travel because there's some sort of little goal in mind. Whether they want to see, you know, could be stadiums, it could be national parks, could be, you know, I want to see all these different great works of art. could, you know, I want to see like, try these types of foods in different, you know, for traveling for food, like a...

I feel like most people who travel avidly have some, or checking off countries, Like they have some sort of like little goal in mind. And that's the impetus. So that's what gets them out there. But then once you're out there, then you start seeing everything else about what the place that you're visiting and just like just eyeopening, like here's how people on the other side of the world live. Here's how people in this city live. And that's different from where, what I'm used to.

And that's, you know, sports to me is my jumping off point to see other parts of the world and experiencing what other people get to call normal. and, um, to me, that's like, that's, the most rewarding part of it. know, stadiums are great, but like seeing other parts of the world is, what like really is rewarding to me. And I think that's the message that I try to project through my site is like,

Yeah, go follow your teams, go see these stadiums and all that. But while you're out there, experience everything that there is to experience, because you might not go to this place ever again. Yeah. And where does international travel fit into that? Because obviously for American sports, I say there's the big four, they dip into Canada as well, which technically is abroad, but fairly similar, similar. But like you would have grown up with all these amazing sports in your own country. And I think for us in UK, we have the Premier League, which is great, right?

But there's big emphasis on England or Scotland or wherever you're from about following your team internationally because we have the World Cup. And as we are having now the Euros, right, which is always going to be mostly in another country, sometimes in your own country, but is every 20 years or something, right? So like, where did that fit into your thinking? Was there ever like an interest maybe, oh, maybe I could follow the US national team somewhere in an event. So I'm a huge, I really enjoy the Olympics. Yeah.

I wasn't living in LA, but I was living in Sacramento at the time. And I told my wife, like, easy trip. Like, we could go. I'm sure, you know, it'll be crazy expensive once we get there, but it'd be easy to get there. Well, life got in the way. things didn't work out. I didn't go. And so I always thought that was like a huge missed opportunity. And so I told my wife, next opportunity we get to go to the Olympics, we should go. No matter, like,

get we didn't even get to Russia we got to we got to Munich so so we were able to fly to Munich for free and then we bought flights to go to Russia for the rest of the way so he went to Russia for the Olympics and that was we saw all of Team USA's three they're three the way it's set up the Olympic hockey tournament set up is there three

They play, they're guaranteed three games. And then if they advanced to the middle round, go. So, so, we, we got tickets for all three of those games and one of them was against Russia. so at one of those, so, so we got to see the U S versus Russia in Russia. basically a road game amongst a bunch of, of Russian fans who, I'm not sure if they were taking it to us kindly or not. Like we were sitting, we were sitting with, you know, Russian fans on either side of us and like,

them yelling stuff that we couldn't understand and completely total mind blowing, like, probably the biggest, I can't believe I'm here experience. Yeah, Saru. So, so like, to go back to your original question, like, yeah, I think that I have kind of a focus on domestic sports, but like, you know,

All of these sports are becoming so international that primarily they're playing games in the US over the summer. The NFL plays games in London and now they're playing in Germany and they're gonna play in Brazil this year and they're gonna play in Spain next year. there's just so many more opportunities to do things internationally. The Olympics are in Paris and the next Winter Olympics are in Italy, which...

They're saying anyway that the NHL are gonna, they're gonna send their players to that one, you for the first time in like since the Sochi one. So I'm hoping to go to that one. And there just like so many opportunities, you know, to go to experience different things. I wish the Brazil game, the Brazil NFL game is Eagles versus Packers. And I know a bunch of people who are Eagles fans. I don't know if any of them are actually going, but I think they're considering it.

And it's just one of those like, you have an opportunity to do that. When is that ever going to come again? you might as well, maybe Brazil is not a place you've ever thought of as like, oh, I want to go do that. like, well, you can, you can go there, go to a place that's completely foreign to you, but do one thing that's, that's completely familiar, which is see your favorite football team play. So like, you know, a great jumping off point to me to, to, go see things like that. And it just opens up a lot of more, a lot more.

windows of like, you know, this is how the rest of the world lives. Me going to England a couple years ago got me more interested in like seeing like all these different grounds in the Premier League and like, or just, you know, football in England in general. And just, I just felt a lot more educated about, you know, the whole system of how soccer works in England, which is like completely different from

organized sports in the US. So very long winded. Sorry. Yeah, just think there's like this jumping off point, like, you like I said, that you get that one thing that you're familiar with, that brings you to a foreign place. And then from there, just like this whole horizon opens up for you. And like, you can just like, take that opportunity to experience a whole bunch of things that you're not familiar with. Yeah. And I think the best thing about it is your sporting event. So if you're going to watch the

NFL in Brazil, I mean, what the game's gonna last, I don't know, three or four hours, right? But then you're probably there for at least a week, I'd imagine, just to be there, right? So gives it all that other time to go and see all the things that Brazil are known for. So like, if they love their sports, they can go and play football or soccer, should I say, on the beach. mean, everyone does that in Rio every day. That's like a bit of a culture, right? A culture thing that involves a bit of sport as well. So Brazil would be a great place just to watch any sport because they love all sports, I think.

Yeah. And you did that, right? That was the because that was the World Cup. Yeah. So obviously Brazil is mad about football as in soccer and they probably rival England in that. mean, England's pretty crazy as well, hence the Premier League. But the experience was unlike any other. We based ourselves in Rio and we flew out to different games into different cities and then back again. So we had a bit of a base. there's things to remember here that like Brazil in a World Cup time is not

in quote, quotations like real Brazil because it's all set up and geared for football, right? Yeah. So you've got a lot of football fans around, but if you like, if you love that sporting side of it and that's all you're interested in, that's a great, great place to be. And then we, we absolutely loved it, but I didn't need to go back, I guess, in non sporting terms to see what it's like, right? Because I think there's two different things, but honestly Brazil was, was crazy. Like they love their football, their sports, they're really into it. Fan zones on the beach, good natured, lots of

colour and fun and drinking and you don't have to drink, like lots of stuff going on. Yeah. That's a good point because like, you know, when, a country hosts an event that large, they're, they're also putting their best foot forward and trying to like present themselves in the best light possible to the rest of the world. Yes. We went to Russia. we were a little intimidated and we had a lot of people here at home going, don't be careful. You know, just like this, this intimidation.

intimating that like, you know, something bad, you know, that we've heard all these bad things about Russia, so like, we got there and like, we weren't like, we weren't shy about, you know, wearing USA stuff and like, hey, we're American, you know, and people just came up to us and like, started talking to us in English, they whip out their phones so they could use Google Translate so they can talk to us. Yeah, have a ton of pictures of us holding Russian flags next to

Russian people because they wanted to take their pictures with us. But I also have no doubt that that's a unique thing. Let's put our best foot forward. Ignore all the political stuff that goes on. And for two weeks, let's welcome the world. But then when all of that's over, the real stuff, they go back to reality and it's not quite as pretty. So I do get that.

So it's not necessarily the exact, you know, accurate picture of what a country is really like, but you know, hey, it's an opportunity to do something that that's, you you know, it, what, I don't know if I'm ever going to get an opportunity to go to Russia again. once, you know, just having the opportunity to do that was, you know, and that's literally half, around the world for me. So, yeah, it's not, it's an interesting point in that because

My friends went to the Russia world cup, which was not long after your, your games and England made the semifinals and lost. but it was in Moscow, right? So they went in for like two days. It's quite close to UK, right? Four hour flight, special visas on arrival in and out. And they're just in red square, right? Just, just hanging about, getting some photos, England shirts on, you know, it's all well, well, it's all police, right? Quite heavily. Yeah. But they said this one guy just sort of crept up to them and

He's quite old and just said to him, I sort of whispered like, this isn't normal. Like this is not real life. So, and then he just walked away. That's it. Right. And they're like, Oh, what was that about? But it's exactly your point, right? During the, when you're there, it's going to be seemingly normal because obviously they want to portray that. obviously after the event's finished, it's going to go back to what it is. And unfortunately it's not as, um, pretty anywhere close to what you saw. Yeah.

But sport does bring people together in that finite moment of, I don't know, three or four hours of that game, right? There is really nothing else to talk about. You're just enjoying the event for what it is. And then obviously afterwards you go back to your lives. But like, it's quite nice in that moment that you get to share that sort of mutual love for a sport, I guess, even though it's a bit of rivalry there. Yeah. And I think like you can kind of forget about everything else and just focus on this. You know, the...

that USA-Russia hockey game I mentioned, the interactions I had with Russians, I was kind of like, okay, how are they gonna react? Because the US ended up winning that game in a shootout and we were walking out and I'm just thinking to myself, okay, how are people gonna be upset? Even in sporting events in the US, you get people fighting each other over the result. So will this be worse? I don't know. So we were walking out.

I think for the most part people were just like, you know, all right, well, that sucks, but you know, hey, we're at the freaking Olympics. let's just enjoy ourselves. I felt like that was basically the vibe that I got. That was probably, you know, that was a one-time thing. I don't know if that's, you know, totally representative of how people act at international events, but like, you know, for that one, like it was...

It's pretty eye opening that, know, how people were, people were intense, but not like quite as intense as I thought they would be. so that's maybe my own expectations being higher than they needed to be, but, like more, uh, worried than I needed to be about the whole situation. like, know, I I wound up like pleasantly surprised at how the whole thing went down. Oh, nice. Okay. Yeah.

And we'll go back to your stadium thing as well. There's like one in UK because as you said earlier that sports in UK is set up differently to US, right? We don't have franchises. We have relegation and promotion, right? So football, for example, or soccer, you have the Premier League, which probably everyone knows, but then there's three leagues below them, And there's a challenge to visit every stadium in those four leagues. So people take this challenge on, I think it's about, my maths is gonna be wrong here. I think it's 92, something like that.

I could be wrong something in that. I think there's 20 Premier League 24 and championship probably 24 in League one Masters going by there, but about 26 maybe in the leader could be wrong something like that, but It the weird thing is it changed every year right because at the bottom level The fourth division there's still relegation right so like teams drop out of there and then new teams come up and sometimes they're new teams right so you have somewhere new to go all the time and but yeah, it's normally a challenge for a lot of people to do and

It's quite cool because the UK is quite small, so you can achieve it pretty easily on the trains or on the coaches, right? But US or Canada, if you're trying to do those four sports, mean, that's long distances to complete, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, for sure. So I went to England. My interest in the Premier League is fairly new. In the US, probably in the last 10 or 12 years that they start showing games regularly on TV.

they were available, you know? And so it's one of those like, I'm interested, I'm kind of, to see what this is all about. You know, friends who are super interested in it. So like, it's a cool thing to do on Sunday mornings to just turn on the TV and there's a match on. so, you know, I got to know the little history of some of the more, the more popular teams and everything. So, you know, I felt like, you know, casual fans knowledge of,

scheduled this trip around. My wife was with me. So of course she wanted to do a bunch of different things also, but I was like, I'm going to try to see as many matches as possible while we're there. so the schedule comes out and I realized, okay, okay, can see, I can see Tottenham, I can see Arsenal and I can see Manchester United. Now I was like, I know Tottenham and Arsenal are like huge rivals. like, was like, is it?

Is it, you know, pardon me, my own naivete about this whole thing is I was like, is it like kosher for me to see both of those and want that, you know, like, are people going to frown upon that? You know, so it's not like an advertiser or anything, but you know, it's like, again, we'll see how this goes. So, you know, you go through this whole process of getting tickets and that because these clubs are so popular.

you have to buy a membership just to be able to have the opportunity to buy tickets. So for that season, I was both a Spurs member and an Arsenal member. Yeah, that's not too loudly here. Yeah. Well, like, I don't know to me, yeah, like if I'd probably get revoked by both of those. I was a member of the other two, right? But yeah, I took some two in the morning wake up calls to, you know,

buy tickets and some pairing, I was able to get to both of those stadiums, which was really cool. And then Manchester United was like, my friends who in the US who know football in England were just like, whoa, you went to Manchester United? That's amazing. And so that's kind of how I got, I was just like,

Even though there's like a huge effort involved in that, want to be able, and now I know those are like three of the biggest clubs out there. And yeah, I'm sure there are lot of people would be like, well, what about some of these other like less popular ones? And to which I'll say, I'll get to those. But, you know, I do want to make it sort of a regular thing. I do think the Premier League is becoming more and more popular in England. Some of the other European leagues, think less like, know, Real Madrid and Barcelona are super popular.

Byron is popular, felt like because of Mbappe and Messi that PSG was becoming popular. like well known in the US to where like people are thinking about it as sort of a destination. And so that's part of what I wanna, you know, from a content perspective, that's what I wanna be able to provide to my audiences. Like, okay, well.

here's how I managed to do this. And it was pretty hard, know, and like lay out the difficulties behind it, but like, you know, you can do it too. And the more popular clubs, you know, want to go through like the difficulty of all of it just to lay out truthfully, like this is how you do it. part of the fun is in the chase, you know, like it's in the like,

getting the tickets sometimes was super difficult. But when you actually get them, you're like, yes, I actually pulled this off. yeah, definitely want to go. I've been to England twice in the last two years and I'm hoping to go again maybe in a couple of years and just keep trying to get to as many stadiums possible. And do you base yourself in London? that your go-to? Yeah, usually. mean, that's the easiest. I did want to...

And so we went to, it was Houston station. So we get there and at like seven in morning, we're like, we're going to take an early train. The match is at three, 3pm. We can get there super early. We get there 7pm. The place is already crawling with Manchester United fans. And then we realized there's no assigned seats on these trains. it's literally when they call, like we need to make a mad dash. like, so they made, they called this such and such train.

literally three quarters of the waiting room, boom, like we're talking probably a couple thousand people, boom, like started running down the, I was like, oh man, we're not gonna, and sure enough, we didn't get on this for like, we decided to, there's like one other train we could, if we waited 45 minutes, let's try our luck on the next train, which was like probably the dumbest thing we could have done because we went back to the waiting room and then here comes more.

the waiting room gets filled up even more with fans. then the next thing, so we're trying to position ourselves to be like at least in a better position when the mad dash happens and we got there and we still didn't get any seats. And so I ended up in the vestibule the entire ride. My wife ended up in a sitting in like one of those baggage holders. She wasn't happy with me, but we got there.

It turned out great. know, we went to the match Manchester United lost. Everyone was at home. Yeah, they lost to Brighton. so, right. Okay. Yeah. And so we heard a lot of how can we be losing to Brighton with swear words in there? Yeah. But that was fun. was, you know, sometimes travel mishaps, once you survive them, you can

a funny story about it later and that's definitely like what happens when now we can tell people like if you're if you're trying to go from London to Manchester or Liverpool to see a match don't go don't take the train the day of the match like that's no because the transport UK is disgrace I mean it's expensive it's slow and it's unreliable right so but then the problem we have with that is if you want to go to Manchester United the day before you've got to stay somewhere right I guess the hotel costs would be expensive as well so

You can't really win. think it's one of the complaints about, especially football these days is it's quite expensive to really plan it. It's not really working class sport anymore in terms of money. It's definitely more middle-class because you need a bit of money to commit to it, especially for kids as well and the whole family. Yeah, definitely for sure. Yeah, think a cost was a consideration. I think we saw the hotels in Manchester were like, okay, let's save and go the day off. And now I can say from experience, don't do that.

spend the extra money go the night before. Okay. And we've kind of danced around some stories. I haven't actually asked you a pretty quite important question. Which sports do you follow closely and which teams do you follow closely as well? So I guess I'm asking you, who do you support in any sport? Yeah. my big number one team is the Los Angeles Kings, the hockey team. were my first, well, I

you the about the Lakers. I don't actually support the Lakers anymore. I just don't really follow basketball much. I think I only like the Lakers because they were winning championships at the time and all my friends like them, but I don't really follow them anymore. So the Kings are number one. And then I started following them during the Gretzky days when I was a kid and just continued to like them over the years. They've obviously had some ups and downs, but they won

championships about 10 years ago and continued to follow them. I try to see a couple of road games a year. So I'm pretty passionate about them. I went to college at USC, so I support their football team pretty strongly. And then the LA Chargers, which is, yeah, no, they're not too many. They're not too many diehard Chargers. mean, there are diehard Chargers fans.

like just, you know, compared to some of the bigger teams in the NFL, like, you know, there aren't that many of us. And that's really it. Like, I don't really have a baseball team. I don't really have a basketball team, but I do like appreciate those sports and just being able to go see those live. Like not having a team, not having, not being a fan of either team makes you able to just go to the games and enjoy them, which is kind of nice.

Yeah, it's quite nice to be neutral sometimes. Yeah, not being like upset when when your team and they lose, you know. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. The weird thing about American sports, and I think a lot of people knew it will definitely attest to this is how big the college scene is. And I think an example of that, that I couldn't believe the other day is there's this is NBA. So I thought it NBA the most American sports, right? Some of my sins are wrapped as fan, which has been a tough few years.

But I've seen winning a championship though, that's quite rare. the Lakers, as you mentioned, they're chasing this guy who's won the national championship two years in a row. And he turned them down. You think that that's really hard to comprehend in UK sports. is like, that's like a reserve team. There's a reserve team league underneath the pro leagues, right? That's like a reserve team league manager saying no, it's like Manchester United. And but the difference is in the US, he's paid like millions a year.

at that level, at college level. And he's like, nah, I'm going to turn it down. Like Lakers, arguably one of the biggest NBA teams for sure. Like, if not the biggest, right? I just, it just blew my mind. Couldn't believe it. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of, you realize how much money there is in college sports and, know, like, and until the last four or five years, all of them, all of it has been going to the coaches.

And so finally, like the players are getting a big piece of the pie. like, the whole amateurism debate in college sports is an interesting one. know, college fans, obviously we get a ton of enjoyment from watching these teams and we live and die with them and all that. the players, you know, haven't been getting a piece of the pie until recently, which is interesting. That's probably a topic for another day.

Yeah. But I think that the whole Dan Hurley thing kind of showed just how, how much money there is in college sports and how big of business it truly is. So yeah, it's huge. and, um, cultural balls is, is its own animal here in the U S you know, just, and the, the, the, the passion of fans and everything. I've probably been to more road USC games than, than, you know, as far, uh, definitely been to more road USC games than road Kings games.

as far as teams that I follow. There's something to following your college. You don't even need to have gone to the college to really support it, but it's there's something, because it's more than just a team, it's an institution. Then you start talking about, we're better academically and all that. And you start doing all these other weird debates about college. There's something about it that's

I mean, it's probably a little closer to the whole idea of a club in Europe than a professional franchise in the US because most clubs are, they don't just have the soccer team, they have like other things going on, College is kind of like that. Yeah, think the clubs in UK, they're more traditional and tribal, right? They've been around for over 100 years.

I mean, how long ago was that? 150 years ago. They've been there as a part of the community for that long. That is kind of deep rooted anyway. So if you're into your football, that is deep rooted in tribalism, which can be good and bad in some ways. And I guess the weird thing to think about is that we somehow all come together to support the national team like now in the Euros, right? And then once that's over, you sort of filter back into your tribalism into your teams. like

that there's a small element of violence and sport, right? It always has been. So like two weeks ago or three weeks ago, they could be fighting each other over a club game, but then they come together in a game now for the national team. It's a strange, weird thing. Yeah. And it's all about where you're from. You can certainly flip on and off your like or dislike of a team based on dumb things like who certain players, that team beat my team.

a month ago, so therefore I hate them now, you know, the time I don't care. You know, so for example, the Stanley Cup final, I was rooting for Florida because Edmonton beat my team in the playoffs. They've beaten them three years in a row. Oh, yeah. I rationally, I can acknowledge that Edmonton has been the better team by far each of those years. And they were a true contender. But in the finals, I go Florida because I didn't want to see them win. So that's like

You flip this light switch on and off, based on like, you know, just things that happened recently and stuff like that. And, know, I have no reason to root for Florida otherwise. I mean, even here, think they, the Canucks arguably, you could even say they're better in the, in the series against the audience, but they lost in the end. I think it's come back from work. They, it got to three, three or was it, can't even, it might have been the decider. I can't remember. And people were not happy.

Yeah. So I'm intrigued to see if people here would have supported them or the Florida team. But what's really weird about Florida is this is hockey, ice hockey. You don't have ice in bloody Florida. I don't understand. Crazy. Okay. I've got some more questions before we get onto like the last section, which is going to be like predictions and some competition stuff. Sure. So

question here is what are some of your favorite cities to travel to to watch sports? So the sporting event happens, I get it. But like, is there some cities in the US or even in Europe, or around the world where he's loved being there, as part of the whole thing, not just the sporting event, but like, you know, love to chill out in coffee shops, or whatever you do when you travel, is there any that comes to mind? Yeah, you know, off the top of my head, I would Chicago is a great place. And I don't say that because of the

because I was born there, I just think Chicago has this, they're super passionate about their teams, but there's also that Midwest nice attitude of fairly welcoming to the outsiders and all that. you can get into like, it's intense without being angry. So I've really enjoyed trips to Chicago.

Canada's different, know, I loved going to Montreal for games. I'm old enough to where I used to go to baseball games there when the Expos were there. At that time they were about to move and the outside narrative was nobody in Montreal cares about baseball. I'm like, that's incorrect. People...

love Montreal. It's just that they saw the writing on the wall and were just jaded about the whole situation, but they loved baseball. I would love to see Montreal get a team back. But beyond that, Montreal is just an amazing city to visit. It's like going to Europe without having to cross the Atlantic. The food's amazing, just the culture.

I don't know if I would say it's my favorite city in Canada because I also like Toronto and also like Vancouver. But Montreal is like a great sports city. If you ever get a chance to go for a sporting event, that to me is a great jumping off point to experiencing everything about Montreal. And I'd say I've grown to really enjoy London as a sports destination. I haven't seen every...

stadium around there yet or every club that, you know, just taught them an arsenal so far. and I got to see West Ham. the Olympics Stadium? Yeah, that was fun. know, that Olympic Stadium is pretty cool. they use that when they have baseball games there, they use it for that too, because they have that bigger footprint because it was used for track and field.

So that was a fun experience too. But yeah, like I was actually, so I was there, my last trip was around the time of the Carabao Cup final, which was at Wembley, but too expensive for me, so I didn't go. But I ended up watching part of the match from one of those, know, pretty, I guess stereotypical, if that's the right way to put it, but like, you a pub, like a bunch of fans cheering for one or the other.

there was and didn't bother anybody, like, you know, just kind of seeing it like, like it was the same as far as a sports bar experience, but, a little different. Yeah, it's a little different. Yeah. Yeah. Just the whole atmosphere. Like, you know, it wasn't hostile by any means, but it was like intense in a good way. And I'm probably not describing this like accurately enough, but like, you know,

as an outsider, go, okay, this, you know, as long as nobody like comes up in his, in his hostile toward me, like, and I'm good, you know? So, so it's kind of cool being like a neutral observer, just watching people go, watch this pretty big match. So, you know, I definitely want to experience more of that. I want to throw one other city out there, Mexico city. wow. Okay. I actually saw, the NFL has been playing games in Mexico city for the last.

are actually pretty friendly from the experiences I had. Just, and then that whole hustle and bustle, the vibe of, you know, everything that's going around in that city. couldn't say enough good things about that. I would definitely want to go back some time soon. It's great to hear. actually off there in November for the first time. So, yeah. It's actually at the end of my trip. So that is going to be my last Port of Corbel before I fly back to Vancouver. But yeah, I just hear so many good things about Mexico City.

pretty buzzing to go and check it out. I'll give you some food racks if you want. Yeah, I need them. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. There's two key things sports and foods, right? Yeah. I've got also for your just quickly for your stadium and thing in London. An easy one to go to I think a lot of people would agree if you're a sports fan is Fulham on the in southwest London, because they have a neutral stand. It's the only stadium I think in UK that has a neutral stand definitely Premier League anyway.

where you do get the fans mix because they're kind of considered like a nice club. Not much trouble in their situation in Chelsea. Well, next to Chelsea, right, it's Chelsea and Fulham together, but they're not really, I guess they are rivals, but not serious rivals, right? It's not like a big Tottenham Arsenal thing, right? It's nothing like that. But tickets are pretty easy to get on the day. I don't think you even need to be a member, I don't think. So that could be a nice one to tick off. And it's right by the Thames River and you can probably get like a nice little drink by there.

A lot of popular thing away fans do at Fulham is they get the boat along the Thames to the ground, right? You can rent or pay to go on a boat that starts like maybe in East London and works its way west along the river and it stops at Fulham and you just get off and then go to the game. It's pretty cool thing to do. Okay. Yeah. had, I knew somebody who, the first time I went to London, he asked about Fulham and I was like, I haven't thought about that, but you know, I'll take a look and I did.

from a proximity standpoint, was like, yeah, like this is something I should consider. So that's great to hear. Like, I think I definitely want to start exploring more of the less popular or the less, you know, the ones that the American, the casual American fan wouldn't think of too much, you know? Yeah, There's stadiums that are just dotted in areas that are not central London, right? So it's quite a...

It's quite an interesting trip if you try and get some of those in. Like West Ham used to be, right? Back in the day, but now the Olympic stadium is quite central-ish and it's quite commercialized, right? But the old ground, Upton Park, used to be like in amongst the working class area. So that's now gone, unfortunately. But you find a lot of English clubs going that way because they're trying to upgrade their grounds. So they're getting built, either rebuilt on the same spot, but more than not moving to another area. In the same area, but like just...

rebuilt into these new stadiums. Tottenham's a classic one. You probably went to the new one, right? The new stadium, guess. Which is, I think, one of best in the world now, but it's on the ground of where the old one was. And I think lot of complain that sometimes you don't get that old feel anymore. But I guess that's moving with the times. Right. Yeah, I did. Actually, that match, I was talking to somebody who was kind of a longtime fan and was saying, kind of had that same sentiment, like, awesome.

stadium is great. I'm glad we have it. It doesn't have the same vibe as the old place. Yeah, yeah, because I think people move around, right? You get these long, decades long season ticket holders who stay in the same place. And I guess the atmosphere is great because they will know each other, right? But then these new stadiums come along, you get dotted around and you kind of break up that almost like that community feel, I guess a little bit. Yeah, that's interesting. Price of progress. Yeah, yeah. And then my team has made it to the Premier League for the first time in 20 plus years. So two

consecutive promotions from League One to the Premier League. It's quite unheard of to do that. Only a few teams have done it. And it's unheard of because effectively the team that's gone up is actually a third division team because they started two divisions ago and it's gone straight up and then show up again. So now they'll be playing against Man City and like two years ago they're playing against, I don't know, Oxford. It's really low down, right? So it's going to be a...

It's going to be an exciting, but also a bit worrying season because we could get a few bad results this year. So yeah, got to look out for that. But that's Ipswich town. Yeah. They're back and we have about 30,000 our stadium holds. So are you from that, uh, that area? I'm controversially from Norwich. So, you know, you said earlier about tribalism, huge rivals, Norwich and Ipswich, right? Big rivals. Um, but there's a story to it, but yeah, I'm actually in.

Ipswich fans are my sins really. All my friends are Norwich fans. So that's a bit of a weird dynamic. But those two clubs are rivals and they're actually known in the UK sphere of football as being rivals. It's quite obvious because they are one club counties, if you know what mean. like Norwich is in Norfolk, the county, Ipswich is in Suffolk. They don't have any other teams in that county. Whereas someone in Sheffield could support Sheffield Wednesday or Sheffield United because they've got two teams in the same city.

So it's quite unique. It's area against area, not just like little bits of a city against the city. Gotcha. But there you go. Yeah. It's only a 45 minutes from London, going east. So if you want to go to Ipswich town, it'd be quite a place to go. I wouldn't check out the town. It's not very nice, but the stadium would be good. OK. Yeah, don't think I've ever ventured that direction. So I've only gone north from London.

Yes, so you know, and one time went went west, but yeah, so yeah, the West doesn't really have will know that be careful. I say here, I say, not too many big clubs. But they do have big clubs, but maybe not Premier League clubs, right? Yeah, South Coast's got some but like going west. No, I can't think of any Premier League. So yeah, you wouldn't go there. And if you're gonna stick to Premier League. So there you go.

What have I got here? Some questions. I think that will... Yeah, that's it for that section. I think I'm gonna go into this like section three. I called it the fun section. Because I want to hear what you think about these maybe seasons coming up, the current events. If you think, if you've got any opinions on who's gonna win. So I've got a couple of reflections first actually on your sports. So NBA, the Celtics won it this year. Quite easily, to say the least.

have grown to really dislike Boston because their teams win at everything. Like they have the Patriots for a long time. had the Red Sox have won four times in the last 15 or so years. And then the Bruins won one, just the one against Vancouver that one time. And now the Celtics have won a couple in the last. So like Boston in sports, I don't know if it's the same around the world, but in America,

You can't be too successful. Otherwise like people start to really dislike you It's the same Across the world. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I guess that's a jealousy thing which which totally understood but let yeah like So I understand why people in LA are upset about the Saltz's win But but the fact of the matter is from the games I saw they were just too good like they they steamrolled everybody. Yeah Yeah, so, know the the Maddams had a pretty good season but like

I'm not surprised that that series went the way it went because just Boston was just that dominant all the way through. you know, it'll be interesting to see if they sustain the success and win like a couple more championships. Tatum and Brown are just, you know, they're in their primes and you can see them like being that dominant for least a couple more seasons here. So, depends on the supporting cast, I guess, but like.

Yeah, think they will. Wow. Yeah, they're kind of up there for a few seasons, right? The Mavs come out of nowhere. And that's a bit different. But when the Celtics are just like, they're kind of hanging around, right? They've always got to like Eastern Conference finals. I don't know if they got to a conference, and then the MS finals, I can't remember. But they've always been up there in the Eastern Conference for like two, three, four, five years. There's always a matter of time, which is a sign of a good team. Whereas the Mavs, I'm worried about, that's a one off. And it depends who they can get to back up, Luca and...

and Kyrie, right? So yeah, I hope they do, because I quite like the mouse, but I'm not optimistic. Sure. Yeah, they're a team to watch. I'll give them that. Luca's a real fun guy, player to watch. He can just totally light it up from any given game. Yeah, yeah. OK, I've got NHL, your favorite. I mean, the current series is crazy. OIL is 3-0 down.

Yeah, very fond, probably one of my top sports memories. Yeah, that entire playoff series was crazy because the Kings went to seven games in each of the first three series. And so they had to win game seven on the road, each of those three series. And they managed to do that. was one of the hardest playoff runs I've ever seen. they managed. the harder the journey is, the more rewarding the

by taking Florida win. But yeah, objectively speaking, Edmonton is a super strong team. any team that's got McDavid is going to be one to reckon with. I don't think we've seen the last of them. Florida will be interesting because they have all these free agents coming up. So the team that comes back could look really different.

And then since then, it's been a bunch of new teams that have won. So, a bunch of different teams are getting that experience of winning it all. So, I think that's good for the sport in the long run to have that kind of parity. You kind of think that like, every year you actually have a decent shot if your team is good to have it. And I think like, hopefully the Kings are one of those teams that that's gonna be a contender next year, but we'll see. But yeah, I think it would

could really be anybody's championship next year. And hopefully my team is a part of it. But that's the fun thing about the NHL is going to different stadiums over the course of the regular season. You're almost guaranteed to see a game and an interesting, if not both teams, then at least one of those teams is going to be interesting in the playoff race and all that. So that's part of what I enjoy about going around seeing it.

different NHL games. Yeah, I think for NHL that is really the only sport here. I mean, I don't think Vancouver is a sporting hub. But the professional teams we have, we have hardly any, right? We've got the Whitecaps and the MLS and we've got the Canucks, which are by far the biggest team here, out of anything. We used to have NBA, but no more, of course. So what's interesting about that is the Football World Cup, we'll come to football, soccer in a minute.

But just quickly, have a game, they have the games here as one of the three Canadian cities. So at least they've got something in the future, right? Which in a couple of years time, but in general for sport, not a great place to be. Great city though. Yeah, yeah, cool city. Yeah, yeah, obviously. Yeah, yeah, it's great. But not if you're maybe an avid sports fan. You can dip down to Seattle, I guess, maybe. Yeah. I've got like two sports here that I don't really follow and I assume you might be the same as

Major League Baseball and NFL. I know that baseball was currently ongoing now and the season started and NFL is not. Do you follow them anything at all or just on a periphery a little bit? Yeah, no, I follow both pretty closely. I don't have a favorite baseball team, but I follow the sport pretty closely. do. Yeah. And from a travel standpoint, think baseball is the easiest sport to get into because I was told people...

The difference between baseball and the other sports is that you can go to a baseball game, spend however much on a ticket and not watch a second of the game and still feel like you're getting your money's worth because you can, you it doesn't matter where you're sitting. You know, there are places where you can stand, have a beer, like, you know, see a bunch of stuff around the ballpark, like do a lot of different things as kind of a leisurely atmosphere and all that. So, so.

know, if you're not into baseball, like I wouldn't, I would like actually suggest like just going to one and you know, you don't have to care about the result of the game. You can just like kind of be there as like, it's a social, it's truly like a social event. So as long you're with friends, of course, but like, can treat it as that and not really care about the whole who wins the game and everything. So one match, so one game. And I don't know if you players and teams because I do for very loosely.

But I Bryce Harper hit a couple of home runs in San Francisco. Okay. And that was pretty cool. So I think with the way the ground is, I mean, please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think if I left hand, if you're hitting a home run, there's potential to hit it out of the ground into the water. I think you have a thing there, right? Yeah. So, um, and I know he's one of the best paid, biggest players in the baseball league, right? So yeah, that was a cool thing to see, but

The problem is with baseball from my point of view is if you don't follow it, are so many stats and things you have to keep an eye on if you want to try and track the actual game. It's quite overwhelming. I have a friend who gets like Google out like what is that stat? What's happening here? You the three strike thing. On TV when they throw the ball, you can see the square that the umpire says is a strike or not, but on live you can't. yeah, a lot of things to consider.

For sure. It's kind of a thinking man's game, for sure. But yeah, it's leisurely, it's enjoyable. It's a day at the game and you can just have a good time versus football, American football. get people super intense in the... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Every play they live and die with. So, take advantage of the leisurely part of it and just have a good time at the game.

But yeah, like to go back to your question, like, you know, I'm here in LA and the Dodgers are playing well. So they're a super interesting team because they got Shohei Otani, who's like kind of one of those, one of the few baseball players who transcends the sport. you know, you don't have to follow baseball to know who he is. And he is really an amazing player to watch. And he's not even pitching this year. So, but he's mashing balls on the ball.

Every home run he hits is just a mammoth home run. It's pretty wild to see how strong he is. the Dodgers fans here in LA are always kind of, you know, they're cautious because they've made the playoffs 10, 11, 12 straight years, but they've only won the championship once. I think people are just kind of girding themselves to be disappointed again until they actually break through. So Dodgers, think the Phillies we mentioned, I think are also very

interesting team to watch. And then the Yankees are, I think, the best team right currently by record in the American league, which, you know, people love to hate the Yankees. So when they're playing well, get the Yankees fans who are super happy and then the people who hate the Yankees who are irrationally angry about the Yankees playing well. that's always a good combination. So it's shaping up to be a pretty interesting baseball season, I think. And like the playoff could be.

Um, pretty entertaining if all those teams get in and, and, and, and perform pretty well. Who do you think will win it? Just finally on that. If he's picked a Um, it's funny because in baseball is one of the sports where the best team rarely actually wins. You know, um, cause it, it, it, the, the, system in baseball is, is interesting because they play 162 games, which is a lot of games. Yeah. It's chaos. Yeah. And then.

And then you get put in a five game playoffs series. you could be the best team hands down for 162 games. And then if you don't perform well in three out of five games, you're done. Doesn't seem fair. But that's the way the system is. So it's like, it's not really if you're the best team over the course of the season, it's whether you're playing well at the right time, which is September, October when the playoffs come around. So it's really anybody's guess. I'm one of those like,

Because I live here in LA and have a lot of Dodgers fans friends, I would love to see the Dodgers win it. It's one of those like, I wouldn't get broken up about it if they lost, but I'd be sad for my city. So let's say the Dodgers.

Yeah, that's pretty safe prediction. Yeah. But that's a non-committal committal. Yeah, yeah. That's fair enough. No, that's basically where are. And NFL, I really don't know too much about NFL. I find it, I've got my notes here, a bit of a frustrating sport to watch because it's so stop and start and I can't really get into it. But I've got a few friends who love it. So it goes to London for a year, right? So they go and watch that. So it's getting bigger in the UK. I think it's the biggest...

growing sport for US sports, I think for sure. Yeah, they play three games in London every year. contractually, think they're least this is going to keep going for at least a few years. They play two games at Tottenham Stadium and one at Wembley every year. And the game at Wembley always involves the Jacksonville Jaguars, which is interesting. I think because the owner has some sort of tie to, I believe he's British and has some sort of tie to

to London in some fashion. don't quote me on that. But yeah, you know, even if you're, you're don't know much about the NFL, I'm sure you know that one of their one of the players in the NFL is dating Taylor Swift, right? Oh, yeah, we all know that. Yeah. And he won. He won. Right. That's one of those like moments where like, you know,

The NFL has recognized that they have something where they can tap into, you know, people who wouldn't normally care about it and like, for all it's worth. that's fine. And it also helps that that guy, it plays for the team that has won three championships in a five year span or whatever it is. that is Patrick Mahomes, isn't it? No, no, it's Travis Kelsey, the tight end. Yeah. I mean, I mean, quarterback who plays his team.

yeah. Yeah, I know that because he he's like the start. He's like the court backs the star player. Right. So I think if you don't know much about NFL, you might know some court bats. Tom Brady's example. Right. right. Yeah. Patrick Mahomes. Yeah, I know him. And obviously, definitely revolves around the quarterback. So, you know, it helps that they have a star quarterback and everything like that. You know, it's hard to bet against the Chiefs again this year. They're probably going to be like

one of the top teams again, then again, I don't know, I don't believe an NFL team has ever won three straight Super Bowls. So I'm pretty sure that that hasn't happened. So there's a chance that they'll stumble. mean, there are a lot of teams that, just like when the Patriots were super dominant, there are a lot of teams that are really good. They just kept running up against the Patriots all the time. you get, there are a handful of teams that...

keep running up against the Chiefs like the Buffalo Bills have contenders the last few years, the Baltimore Ravens. As a Chargers fan, they hired a new coach, Jim Harbaugh, who just won a national championship at Michigan. So people are kind of excited for that, but I don't expect them to be actual contenders for a couple of years. I think they will eventually, but this year's probably a little too much to expect. The expectations probably.

not, probably shouldn't get our hopes too high up about that. So I think it'll be somebody new, like, we'll see who, know, 49ers have been strong too, but I think it's one of those like, a team will come out of nowhere. You know, back when the Chiefs won their first Super you can kind of say they came out of, not really came out of nowhere because they were contenders for a couple years before that, but like when they won the first time, you know, they'd

That was their first championship in 50 years. so like, yeah, we didn't like, okay, well, that's cool that that team broke their, their drought and one, and then five years later, like, ah, chiefs again, god, cheese. It's now a dynasty. Yeah, it's funny how, it's funny how that term gets brought up, especially in NBA night, they, start saying, oh, is this team a dynasty and they're not even won a championship yet. But you've got to win one first. Right. So this Celtics team, for example, it might be like the chiefs, right. They've won it for the first, and there's been slightly less time, but like,

they won ones, are they now going to be a dynasty like the Chiefs where they're going to win three or four more? Yeah. Like the Warriors, guess, in NBA. Yeah, for sure. Like them too. Like the Warriors are the thing, like same thing, where like when they first won, like, that's awesome. They won, you know, for the first time in however many years. That's great that they broke that drought. And then four years later, like, God, I'm tired of seeing the Warriors win all the time. There you go. Yeah. That's the of football. Yeah.

Same in football. think that's why Manchester United, it's weird in football, right? We come to football next as well. In UK in the Premier League, Manchester United are not liked, right? A lot, especially by my generation, because we grew up with them winning everything. But if you spoke to our parents' generation to football, they wouldn't like Liverpool because they won everything back in then, But I don't have a strong opinion on Liverpool really, because they're not really been in it since I've been alive really. And now I guess if you're a...

It feels like England has been underperforming, even though they won the group. Which is one of those, you see that's how high the expectations are, you know, hey, they got the job done, they won the group, right? But two draws, I'm sure people are pretty disappointed about that. Not happy. Spain has looked pretty strong so far, from what I've seen.

That Italy match where they scored a goal in the final second was probably my favorite moment of the tournament so far because that was just like, is the term buzzer beater in soccer. like that was. Yeah. I mean, that was literally the last kick of the game. I you blew for the whistle light as soon as they started, right? But there was that minute in that game when Modric missed the penalty for Croatia. So a really good save from the Italian keeper.

And then there's a bit of play, a bit of chaotic play. And then he scored a rebound, which he never does. Modric never scores in the box. This is not his game, but somehow for some reason he's there in his box. Ball comes in, gets rebounded to him. A real tough finish into the top corner. Cause Donnarumma in Italy goal was massive, right? He's like six foot, five or six or something. He's huge. And that minute of football was like, I think arguably the best of the tournament so far, like two colossal players.

And yeah, and it ended with just the most dramatic classic Italy, think. Yeah, Italy, they got that in them. That's what they do. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know enough about the whole World Cup qualifying thing to understand why Italy hasn't qualified for the last two World Cups, but won the last Euro and now has probably a pretty good shot to win this one.

I don't know enough about that to understand that, it seems, it seems wild to me that that's possible. Yeah. Cause you go through qualifying periods, right? And sometimes you just might come up against a playoff game. You've finished second in your group and you go through a playoff to get to the world cup. You might just come against someone who defends well, goes to penalties and lose. Right. It's just, it's a bit like your baseball analogy. You could be pretty decent in that sort of like year and a half in that qualifying period of time.

You might finish second because there's an unbelievable team finished in first. So the Euros example would be England finished top of that group. That's why they went to the Euros and then Italy had to go for a playoff to get to the Euros. Right. Yeah. But then you can come up against someone who's just inspired on a day. It's just all that one off, one off game to get through. And sometimes it doesn't go your way. Um, which can happen in actual tournaments as well. When it goes to penalty shootouts to win the whole thing. I think it's quite brutal. Like England, for example, my team lost. Did they last time on penalties? Yeah. mean,

everyone can take a penalty. So it's just matter of Yeah. But it does seem like, you know, I do feel like it's this, this tournament is up for grabs that there's maybe four or five teams that I can like truly say they have a shot at winning it. Yeah. I think, I think for me, I've got before the tournament starts, cause you obviously have your team before. it's based on previous form players. said France, because I do think they got the best squad.

But if you're basing it on how well teams have played so far, I France finished second in the group, I can't say France really any longer. England, who are probably my second favourites, are not anymore because they've been awful. I would probably plump for someone a bit underrated, which I didn't really consider at the start. I'd probably go for someone like Spain now because they just look so comfortable. And it's a bit of a cop-out, save Spain, because they won three games and it's like obvious choice, but they haven't really looked troubled.

And I think Germany with home advantage could come to the fore as well. But I don't know if you've seen that from today. I don't know you've seen the tech, the way it works is that you have two sides of the draw that goes to the final, right? And one side is really lot heavy with like all the big teams. Like there is, it's lopsided with pretty much everyone, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal on the same side. So England's on the other side. And now like we're awful, but we've got like the easier side.

Right. So we should get to the final bet. But by the way, we're playing with no chance. What do you think that is? Because I know I've been reading about how, you know, like there's all this criticism on Southgate and like, I mean, is it tactics? he using his players correctly? Like what's your thought on why? Both of those things. Yeah. So I mean, everyone's got an opinion, right? Everyone's a pundit at home.

But there's a combination of things. He's always been a bit negative as a manager because he's a defender back in his playing days, right? So there's another ex-footballer who made a good point that he's from the age of eight until now, he's always done defensive style tactics, right? Because he's a defender, it's safety first. And you can't really argue with that with the results because we only concede one goal. So defensively, we've been pretty good, but offensively awful.

So like trying to fit players in their best position. We're in this weird position where we've got a load of good players sort of in the same position and you can't quite fit them in. This doesn't gel. I don't think we've ever had that before. And you've got Phil Foden from Man City and Bellingham from around Madrid. They both had unbelievable seasons, but they both played the same position effectively. unless you drop one, which is a big call, what you're going to do, you're going to try and fit them in the teams. It hasn't really worked defensively.

The problem is we pay pretty lowly teams in terms of rankings in our group and we're scored, well, we scored one. That was the first 20 minutes of the first game. So we're not really doing that well. I guess the upside is it can only get better. But we'll see on Sunday. There you go. Yeah, don't know. I think he'll go after this tournament. I think there's enough people who don't want him there anymore. Whether he wins or not, I think he'll be going.

Even if he wins, huh? Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. It sounds like just been reading so much about the criticism. It's defiant too. Like, it seems like trying to tune it out. Yeah, it's a tough one because from his point of view, and the way he is as a football manager and a player, they've done all right because they can see anything. That defense is pretty solid. But for the rest of the people who

recognize the talent going forward is great. Not scored any goals. So like, it's like, which side are you? I mean, I guess if you're, I don't know. I actually don't know which way is better. You'd rather not obviously concede goals. That means you're going to be at least going to penalties in the games now, right? You're going to be having the chance to go through. If you're scoring four goals and conceding three, I think that people would be a bit worried, but I don't know. I don't know what the answer is. I don't think we'll win it though. I think it'll be, like I said, Spain.

or Germany and France got Mbappe so obviously they can win it because he's got the best player in the world.

Okay. And have you been watching or taking notes of copper America? That's kind of kicked off at the same time. Yeah, I've been following that a little bit also. Yeah. You know, it seems like I can't say I know that much about some of the lesser countries or not lesser, you know, more, you know, all the tensions on Messi and like, in Argentina and

Brazil seems to have like a pretty young team. they didn't, you know, they drew Costa Rica yesterday, which seemed to sound like a real, yeah, real disappointment. Sound like England. But I'm just interested to see how the US does because like, know, I know, I don't think they'll like win by any means, but like, I think a strong showing there will like.

kind of, because on paper it seems like that team has really improved and even though they brought back their manager, which I think most fans weren't happy with, but it just seems like from a talent standpoint that the US has more talent now than almost at any point in the whole. So it's...

It'll be interesting to see how they do against, you know, strong competition. They've got Uruguay in their group. So, how they play against them. it's hard, it's hard at this point, to, to say like, you know, Argentina won the last one. They won the last world cup. like, still have their favorites. Yeah. Yeah. Most, I think most of that, that, that squad that won the world cup, most of them are back. like, it's hard to not to bet against them.

Don't think well, it's been very long times as anyone won World Cups back to back, right? So another bit of history could make there if he wanted to. He never commits, does he? He always says, I would see how it goes. But I think he must, in his mind, know, right? And I think he will, because I think he just isn't in a much easier league now to not push himself too hard. But then the difficulty is you get to like the top games in the World Cup, they are really like high level, right? So I wonder if he can raise it. But I think for Copa America,

If they don't win it, I'll be very surprised. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, we just seem to see, mean, Ronaldo's 39, right? And he, yes, I feel like from what I've seen, he's looked pretty good. Yeah, yeah. Desperate to score, isn't he? Desperate to score. Yeah. And so, you know, they talk about the rivalry between those two. Like, I'm sure you wonder if Messi has it his mind. Well, if Ronaldo is doing it, then I got to do it. You know, like, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's two years younger as well, Messi, right? So.

Yeah. Yeah, I do wonder how much that has a part in it for each of them. I'm sure they'll definitely say no, that means nothing. I think for Ronaldo, I mean, he's going to be the highest scoring person ever, I think, because he's just quite far ahead. But I think Messi winning the World Cup probably irks him quite a bit. So I think he's probably just wishing he gets to another World Cup in two years time. And then hopefully he can win it Portugal.

Because otherwise, if he doesn't, then he's always going to have the asterisk next to his name because everyone's going to say, well, Messi won the World Cup and he pretty much carried pretty much Argentina, right? I mean, if it's a debate about who's the best, I don't think there is any debate at the minute because Messi's got that World Cup under his belt, which I can't believe still actually. Because that Argentinian team, they're decent. They've lost like three and 40 games, right? But it is his team. Whereas Portugal are a much better team individually, right? In terms of the players, like they're much stronger. Yeah.

Yeah, we'll see.

Yeah, definitely excited. mean, you hope that the two years from now, because the World Cup is here. Yeah. You know, definitely try to go to a few of those matches. know, this generation, the talent, you just want to see the best players and like the having a chance to, know, soccer is kind of having its moment in the US, like

or recognizing and messy coming to MLS is like kind of a watershed moment too. it's legitimized MLS is like this is actually like a league that international stars wanna play in. like, so it's legitimizing the sport for I think a lot of American sports fans. And now when the world cup comes, I think the interest will have built up to where it's higher than ever. it would be a letdown if

If Messi at that point says, I'm not going to play in that, you know, quite surprising, right? Yeah. Yeah. I'd be very surprised. He he just needs to keep playing. He's not, he's not gonna move anywhere. He's in the, he's in the same country. Um, he's getting used to the conditions and I assume he's learned a bit of language, but it's not really a big thing, but like, yeah, I'd very surprised if he doesn't. I guess the only thing that could happen is a bad injury, but I can't, he's never been injured in his career. Really. I he's never had it. Um, I don't think he's that type of player. So.

Yeah, I really hope we get to see him one last time at a World Cup. I think what was key for him going to MLS is, he's always had the reputation, especially back home, he's like a money earner, right? You go to earn money at the end of your career, but he arrived as the best player in the world officially, because he was awarded it, and a world champion. I mean, you can't get any higher than that. So that's good for the MLS because it does legitimize the league, unlike probably be like Saudi Arabia, where there's paying so much money that people are going there to take a payday, right? Right.

It was a great race this year with Liverpool and Arsenal being in it. On the subject of fandom, I always have thought to myself ever since I started following them, maybe I'm going to start actually rooting for one of these teams. if it starts to happen, I want it to happen organically. And it hasn't really happened yet. So I was like, OK, well, the first team I see live will be the team I start following.

that turned out to be Tottenham. I really, I follow them, but not to point where I'm a huge fan. So as of today, I am still open. So I do not have a club that I support. But I think it would be nice to see somebody new emerge this next year. It's just funny how the last two or three seasons, there's always a,

Arsenal gets off to a super strong start and like, okay, someone's gonna break through and then at some point one of them stumbles and there's Man City right there, ready to take over. It's happened like that the last couple of years it seems and you can't ever let up. We'll see if Arsenal breaks through, it feels like they're on the verge of something.

Now it's depending on, know, if, if any players come and go, I don't know that it's hard to bet against Man City, right? Like, yeah, I can't see anyone else. Yeah. Does, I don't think they will not win it until Guadalupe Guardiola leaves. Right. So I think, yeah. someone, another pundit, actually the same pundit who's talking about, what's that a minute ago about.

was he talking about? Okay. But same pundit, he also said that Man City is just timing, right? If Arsenal last year were against just Liverpool, they would have won the league, right? Or a Man City team with not having Guardiola in charge, they probably wouldn't have won the league. They've got quite a lot of points, but they're just up against the best manager and the best team. It's just bad timing. So yeah, he's got one year left on his contract. So

He's talked about leaving. So maybe it was his last season. I'm not sure. Yeah. But Man City for sure. I mean, it was which one team we play Liverpool at home and Man City away in our first two games. mean, that's a, Oh, really? Wow. That wasn't, that wasn't kind of them. It's a backlash into the Premier League for the first time in 20 plus years. it? Yeah. So yeah, we'll see how it goes. Um, I can't see anything else other than defeats, but it'd be good to get back into it get them out of the way early.

You don't want those two games at the end of the season if you need a point, right? So, yeah, get them out of the way. Okay. And just gonna finish the episode. Can you talk about your brand in itinerant? Itinerant fan about what the website offers, how it helps people with travel and sports, and maybe like the website address and social media. If you can tell people that, that'd be quite cool.

Yeah, for sure. So my site is itinerantfan.com. Same handles on social media, mainly on Instagram. But I've been trying to get into this TikTok thing, but I'm just not a cool kid. it's hard to really get into that thing. But yeah, I think.

It's mainly about like inspiration. Like, I think there are lot of fans out there who, you know, they see their game, their favorite teams at home, but don't necessarily, you know, they probably want to, but don't for whatever reason, don't get out there to see their teams on the road. And I try to provide inspiration to people to get out and do that trip that they've been wanting to do.

well, and, and the, the motivation can start with wanting to see my favorite team play somewhere else. That's not, but, but I also wanted to, as we've talked about earlier, like, it'd be sort of a jumping off point to say, okay, well, there's a city I haven't actually been to that I want to really see whether that, whether that's something like, you know, Chicago or something, something that's, you know, fairly

I don't know what is normal as a like, know, tour, you'll see, something like super exotic, you know, my NFL team got sent to play in London or, you know, Brazil or like, you know, my NHL team got sent to play in Sweden or, or, or Czech Republic, you know, like go, why not go see them play? And so a lot of it is about providing that sort of inspiration through my own experiences. Like I mentioned, I've gone to see,

soccer in England, I've gone to see the NFL in Mexico City, I've gone to see the Olympics, seen baseball in Japan and like, all those were like transformative experiences. And so that's what I try to convey to people and, you know, provide that inspiration. And at the same time, I write a lot of guides to different stadiums. I've guides to every stadium in the four major sports. And, you know,

I'm trying to provide like, you know, not just information about the stadium itself, but like the surrounding area where good place to eat before the game, good place to get a beer, how to get there. That's not driving like, you know, public transportation, how you can get there, where it is in the city. If you're coming from the airport, how can you get there? That sort of thing. And just try to provide all this information as kind of a one-stop shop, because you can Google all that stuff for sure. But have it in sort of a one-stop shop for, you know,

And then and then a year later, they totally redo the stadium. And now you're like, OK, well, it's not the same. Yeah, yeah. But to that end, I went to Barcelona a couple of years ago and saw a Barcelona match at the Camp Nou. like and now but now they're renovating it. like I want to see it post renovation for sure. And I did not see a Real Madrid match, but they did renovate that stadium. And it looks really cool. like maybe Spain is on the

50-50 game, which is like as how many overs you bowl. It's a like an innings in baseball, right? So 20-20 is like 20 overs last about four hours. A 50-50 game lasts a whole day. And then you've got a test match, which lasts five days. So they're normally between countries. Like I guess it's what purists would call proper cricket. It's not just hitting the ball and hoping, right? It's a lot more tactical thinking, patience, demanding of the mentality of it, right?

I've been to Australia twice to watch cricket. It's been pretty good fun. You'll need some money for Australia for sure. Okay. I've got one final question before we wrap up. Tell me three favorite sporting occasions for you. Like, is there any moments that you've seen live that it looks like unbelievable? Yeah, definitely. Number one is that Olympic hockey game that I told you about. Yeah.

That's probably number one. Let's see. two is probably, I'm not sure if you know about the rivalry between USC and Notre Dame and football, but I went to one of the most famous games in that rivalry that is known. It's known as the Bush push game because of the penultimate play or the deciding play of that game.

was a running back named Reggie Bush pushing one of his teammates into the end zone for the winning touchdown. I can say any college football fan will know what that game is. I can proudly say I was at that game. A very historic game. And third would probably just be seeing a Barcelona match at the Camp Nou because that was the first European stadium that I'd been to and just the all like

100,000 fans being there. It was just a regular old match on a Sunday night. you know, just the whole, that was one of those, wow, I'm here in Barcelona watching one of the most famous teams in the world play in their home stadium. And that's like, you know, you can't believe that you're there. And so that's probably on the list for me too. Was that Messi or was that after him? It was the season after Messi. was so upset. Yeah, I missed him.

Yeah, so I've not I've seen Ronaldo live. I've not seen Messi. So I have to I'm the other way around. I've seen Messi but not seen Ronaldo. Yeah. My best sporting event live ever is Messi scoring the World Cup in the American in Rio. He scored for Argentina against Bosnia and I was at the end he scored at he dribbled around a few players and hit your box and hit it and I never heard noise like it and people go nuts and I thought that end that won't be beaten. Yeah.

Yeah, that sounds amazing. Okay. It's been a great chat. It's quite unusual for my podcast about sport, but I've really enjoyed it. I I should probably do a sports podcast. Um, but yeah, I really like hearing the relationship between sport and travel. think it's quite a cool one to have. It's quite purposeful in terms of travel. You're right. When people go and see sporting events, there's a bit of a purpose there alongside travel because travel sometimes can be a bit aimless. You just wander around, check things out. Right. But a sporting event adds a bit of a

a thing to it to aim for. So cool way to travel, done it plenty of times. Great to hear other people talk about their experiences and thanks for coming on. Yeah, no, thank you. I really appreciate this. was, was kind of fun. I can't believe an hour and a half went by and like, know how much fun was so yeah. absolutely. Cheers. They'd appreciate it. Yeah. Thank you.