Episode 47: Dan Hunt (FC Dallas President) | Built To Last

Hi, I'm Radhika Zavari, host for my teaching podcast, "Podwalk", where I have candid conversations with industry leaders about brand purpose, leadership and what it really takes to grow in today's marketing landscape. After leading billion-dollar brands at companies like Nestle, I now serve as professor of practice at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where I champion diverse and real world learning. Take a walk literally or in spirit and join me on "Podwalk" as we explore how marketers are building soulful brands and driving meaningful change. These are the stories behind the strategies and the people behind the brands you love. Until you walk a day in somebody's shoes, you don't understand what they're going through and sticking out a helpful hand. That hand is being there to talk to them, to listen, to support. Maybe you do take them to lunch. Maybe you buy them a coffee. Maybe you help them solve problems. Maybe you show up to something that's important to them. But showing up is half the battle. It's not even half the battle. It's a lot of the battle if you just show up and then put the effort in. But that's all part of being thoughtful. Dan Hunt has served as president of FC Dallas since 2014 and serves as several leadership committees across major league soccer, including as co-chair of the board of MLS next pro. He has led Dallas's successful bid to host nine matches for the FIFA World Cup 2026, the most of any host city and now serves as co-chair of the North Texas Organizing Committee. Alongside his late father, Lamar Hunt, he helped develop Teoda Stadium and establish FC Dallas as a leader in youth soccer development. Dan also plays a strategic role across the Hunt family's portfolio, including the Kansas City Chiefs. Dan graduated from St. Mark's School of Texas and Southern Methodist University. And today's conversation is about how leaders build, how they build teams, build talent and build brands that last, whether it's on the field or in the marketplace. Dan, welcome to SMU. Well thank you. It's always great to be back. So we're sitting here in the Crump family auditorium at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. And I'd love to take you back to your own academic days when you were here. You graduated from St. Mark's then here at SMU. And I'm just curious about what do you think from your days in school and college shaped you to become the leader that you are today? Well early on I kiddingly say they might not have been very academic here but this is an extraordinary place and I'm so thankful for the opportunity to have gotten to go to SMU and St. Mark's was an amazing education. You know often people talk about the facilities and buildings at places but really it's the teachers and it's your fellow students that really make your experience. And I recently spoke at St. Mark's about I got that asked the question is it you know what you know or who you know in life and we talked about it really it becomes the who because in so many ways it's those connection points but it's also those kind of beacons throughout your life and I have a number of close friends here at SMU that we talk almost daily talk about business talk about those opportunities talk about life things and it's that connection. SMU much like St. Mark's does a great job of teaching you the process and how to learn but you go and work different jobs and they're so diverse and opportunity but you always find yourself coming back to the people. I'm a big people person and a big believer in that because if you have those foundational people in your life that you can trust that you can bounce ideas off they will help you grow personally and professionally and both of these you know schools these institutions had unbelievable professors. That's awesome that's such a great way of putting it that it's not just learning but it's also the relationships the networks that you build the peer contacts and some of these things start much earlier than we think but they stay with you through your career. So let's talk a little bit about your career and early days of your career. What got you to professional soccer and I'd love to hear about perhaps your first day when you started that adventure and what finally led you to FC Dallas. Yeah we'll go back even further so I graduated here from SMU in the class of 2000 and I went to New York to work for a technology firm called Phone Free which was an earlier voice over IP company and you know if you're familiar with Vonage this was generations before that and so I went there and unfortunately I was there during 9/11. I actually office down by the trade towers. I officeed as you know as they were coming down I was evacuating our building and started that long walk back as ad and it was it was really one of those moments in life that you look back to and you want to so thankful for all the people in your life the opportunities sorrow for what happened there but it really shaped me on a lot of levels but I came back to Dallas after and I was living at home in about one week into that my father said you're going to start showing up to the office. He was not going to and he was a proud Mustang and so many levels my father Lamar loved this school and was so passionate about SMU. Said you're going to come back and you're going to work and at the time you know we you know we were in the soccer business football basketball other business mining real estate and I was a jack of a lot of trades but I'm not sure I did any of them really well but my very first day of employment true employment we were in Kansas City in the chiefs offices there and it was my father Lamar my brother Clark also another grad John Wagner the head of our sports company at the time myself and we were sitting in a vice presence office taking a MLS league call in November of 2001 and MLS went out of business on my very first day on the job my brother Clark we were sitting on a couch looked at me and said congratulations you been hired and fired on the same day it's a very exclusive club it's not really a club you want to be part of but my dad true to who he was that sort of persistent nature that he had that never say diamond tality which is one of his defining characteristics he was able to rally fillet and shoots a robber craft and the three of them took ten MLS teams so we wound up taking Dallas which had no owner the Dallas burn at the time playing the cotton bowl we had Kansas City we had Columbus and the league handed us the keys on January 1st 2002 because on that Monday after that first call they were going to the federal courthouses in New York to bankrupt major league soccer and effectively setback professional soccer ten or fifteen years but my dad understood the importance and fill and robber did too and I mean there were league meetings where we sat around what looked like a folding table and now we're thirty teams strong with thirty owners a lot of soccer specific stadiums some in NFL stadiums I think you'll see some of the markets that are maybe going to move from their NFL stadiums to the very own same which is really exciting but I mean the growth is unprecedented because you couldn't give away these things today you get five hundred million dollars and then you're in for another three or four hundred million five hundred million for a stadium. Wow that's incredible and what an incredible story. Well and you know at that moment in time and I continue to work in my family office for a number of years I liked what I was doing and it was interesting and amazing to work alongside my dad I mean those final years he passed away in December of 2006 this final years of his life and spending that time with him it's priceless. I spoke in Asia actually in 2019 for any C Corp in front of a thousand people with only five percent English speakers and the thesis of my speech was what is the most valuable currency in the entire world it's time because once it's up it's gone and you cannot replace it and so to get to spend that time with him and I talk about this all the time I took over an FC Dallas in November of 2012 our CEO had an issue had to leave and I went there thinking okay I'm gonna do this but I want to support Columbus because I really enjoyed the people there and Kansas City you know at our team there there's now been renamed Sporting KC it has new ownership but I said I'm gonna do this but I want to be mindful of that relationship I realized after one week that was the greatest job in the entire world and I wanted to stay there and be passionate about it so. But it's such a great story and so many interesting nuances in it between turning crisis into an opportunity and with resilience that's just a fantastic learning lesson in itself but also that time doesn't come back so making the most of your time whether it is doing something spending time with someone I think all of these are just so resonant to our young folks are listening to the spot cast so thank you for sharing that so let's bring it back to today. It's only a little bit going on today. So we are sitting here in May of 2026 and the workup is fast approaching, FIFA's fast approaching and so much happening at FC Dallas so much happening in North Texas and for North Texas soccer with all of this going on what feels most exciting to you in the moment. The first kick of the tournament in Dallas. This has been month 106 now for me working on the World Cup for Dallas being part of this and it has been an unbelievable journey taxing. Yeah emotional, exciting and something I'm really proud of. I'm proud to represent our city and our state to have nine World Cup games in Dallas is just phenomenal including a semi-final to have the International Broadcast Center which should have its grand opening very soon, exciting to be a base camp home for Sweden and Chekia to have those two teams, one at Toyota Stadium, our soccer stadium for FC Dallas, and one at our brand new $88 million or third division stadium in Mansfield. So we've been working on it very hard and yes, it was important to me as part of this legacy. You can rest on your rolls and have great things. If we had just gotten nine games and they had the International Broadcast Center, that would have been great. But for me to have a couple teams have their base camps here was really, really important to bring that culture to our community and look, they say that we have Argentina playing twice. They say we'll have a hundred thousand Argentinians in Dallas. Wow. Which is just amazing. The Dutch are amazing the way they travel. So this has been a long, long journey, but it's so exciting for us and to have all of these things swirling around. It just says Dallas is a global city and also SMU is going to be a match training center. That's awesome. That's just going to announce a few days ago and I was so excited to hear that. Right. Tell us about that. How does that work? Well, so SMU and the Cotton Bowl will be match training centers. So visiting national teams that are not based here, which there is only Sweden and Chekia based here, will either train the day before the match at SMU or the Cotton Bowl. So there's a chance that Argentina is here, that England is here, Croatia, Japan, Holland, Sweden does play one game. So they'll be based out of our stadium here. Jordan plays here Austria. So you have a number of top national teams and obviously you have Leon Elmessi, the greatest player in the world. Maybe one of the best two of all time. Not maybe. One of the best two players of all time. I can say that. He is past Maradona and his greatness. And so it's just another wonderful thing for our community. And again, what SMU means to our family, this is so special. Thank you. And this is so great. I mean, it's so great for us, for our students, even though they can't be on the practice field. It's just the fact that they're on campus is very, very exciting. So needless to say, it's exciting all over. Let's talk a little bit about how that culminates into your brand and your team, because so many eyeballs on the brand right now on FC Dallas, on the team. What does brand identity mean to you? How have you formed it? And how do you ensure that the players actually live this brand identity and not just hear about it? So when we, let's start talking about FC Dallas overall. I try to instill one word in everybody at the organization. They were to ask, you know, if you ask any of my co-workers there and they don't work for me, they're my co-workers. That's part of my leadership style. I don't believe in that creates barriers because you're all working together in the common direction. Yes, I have to make decisions, but where co-workers were friends. But if you ask the players, if you ask the staff, I think they would use the word family to describe us. That's beautiful. We are truly a family business, my brother Clark and I are equal partners in the team, but we consider everybody that we get to work with a member of our family. And that ethos lives through the chiefs, through our family office. I think you would hear that a lot. And because you wind up spending more time with your co-workers, then you do with your family. That's just the reality of the role we live in now. And so if we have this family environment, I think we're all pulling in the same direction. For us, this has been a really interesting squad in 2026. FC Dallas is very famous for developing our own talent. Local talent, homegrown talent, that is the ethos of the club. I mean 42% of our workforce at FC Dallas is interns who we, you know, took on during college and provided job opportunities. And then we stayed in touch with and hired after because again, they understand what our culture is. So many of the players come through or come from the academy. And right now, you have between three and four starters on the team that were in our academy at some point. So, you know, that's you've got Michael Clodey, Nolan Norris. You've got Shaq Moore and Chris Capys. Those are four major contributors to and they understand what this club is about. This squad in 2026 is really unique because it looks like we already have two guaranteed roll cut players, one for Haiti, Don Deetson, who's probably one of their best two or three players. And then Petar Musa, who's the star of FC Dallas, was named a croix on Monday. It looks like Hermann Johansson, who's the first alternate for Sweden. So player 27, they take 26. They may be added potentially. We hope. You know, we'll see how this all goes and plays out. But if we have three roll cut players, that's almost as many as any major league squad. Yes. Plus the fact that we have homegrown players. Plus when you look at the US national team, you know, the Ricardo Peppies, the Chris Richards on the national team, Weston McKenney and Tent Testament, you may have four former FC Dallas products playing for the US national team program. So I would say we've seized on this moment in so many ways. And we got really aggressive. You talk about branding, you talk about marketing. I have a TV show that I did with Gina Miller called The Kick. And so we did that with Fox. And it's been an amazing journey to do. I mean, advertisements everywhere, engagements, ticket opportunities for our fans of the roll cup. We have tried to tether ourself in a way to the roll cup. And obviously its beef is intellectual property. Yeah. Right. That's a big issue that we've had to deal with is, you know, you almost can't say roll cup. Yeah. You know, you have to be careful around all their their guidelines. But we've tethered our self as many ways as possible. And I think this is going to work out far better than we expected. They say the statistics show that if your national team has a successful roll cup that the domestically attendances rise by 30%. Well, if domestically attendance rises by 30%. This will kick us into the next gear of soccer. Other exciting things that happened because the roll cup was apple moved majorly soccer in front of the paywall. So you no longer have to have a subscription. So if you're watching Ted Lasso, which is amazing show and Jason today says he's unbelievable. He's a die hard cheese fan and gotten to know him. What a neat person and what that show has done for soccer. It's made it so approachable for non-fans. Relatable and approachable. Because people are afraid of rules and culture things they might not understand. But that is I told Jason I said I got to thank you one for so many laughs. But I also have to thank you for making the game. I love so much approachable for people. But now you can get Emma Osaka alongside that. And then the other big thing that happened because the roll cup was we've now moving our season schedule. So starting in August of 27, we will go to the traditional European calendar. Okay. Meaning we play August 27 to May 28th and then go on break. Much like you see at the EPL France, Italy, Scotland, you picked the league Spain. Right. And I think this will be a massive push forward for our business. So they put you on par. But the puts you on par from it. It's the association of oh this is how soccer is done globally. But also from a player business standpoint too. Because most of the major transfers in soccer happen in the summer. Yeah. And that was not our case because that was the middle of our season. So you didn't want to be selling your best players. And and buying was always hard because the marketplace was really crowded at the time. So now I think we'll get a higher value for our transfers. We'll be participating in the global market. You'll have fewer players leave in January. So the quality of the league stays consistent throughout. And so you have all those things happen. And the one thing that I was surprised that was really missed, which I harped on majorly soccer, a lot of the big clubs around the world have stables of players. They have so many players that they paid so much money for. Well, they loan them out to clubs all over the world. It was almost impossible to take a player on loan immediately soccer for six months. Because the agent wouldn't let you do it. The coach didn't want it to happen. You know, to get assimilated might take six months in a culture. Now we share the calendar. I think we're going to have so many inbound players. That's going to escalate the quality of the opportunity of bringing in the right players. So talking about the players, that's been a core differentiator for you guys because you'll have been known for developing from within. So as you think about player development, how do you recognize early potential? And what do you think differentiates folks that sort of go through your system versus those who don't? Well, one of the big differentiators is my brother and I really care about this. And I know a lot of owners say they may care, but we know most everything about our top youth players. They're alive. What happens? Schooling everything that that you could imagine back to family like back to family because we help raise them. And that's not just our top players. There's a lot of players in the club, boys and girls that we know and why our girls program has really taken off. And we produce so many youth national team players now and teams that are national champions. And we have when the NWSL had a draft, we started having a lot of top five picks in the draft, which was really exciting to see, but that draft no longer exists in the format. But you know, when you think about these players, they're all technically and tactically very good because they've gotten that requisite 10,000 hours. If you've read the book outliers, great book, read it. They've gotten a whole lot more than that. We have top coaches training them all the time. But each one of them has at least one thing that's really special to them. And that's everything from leadership to speed. to ideas, to workrate, to the ability in front of goal to put the ball in that. It looks easier than it is. It's really hard. I was gonna say that. It looks easy, but it's really hard. You have so many talented players who can get in front of goal and never put it in. I can pick on Ricardo Pappy for a second who's hopefully make the US World Cup squad as a striker. The first time I ever saw Ricardo was, he was 12. When they asked me to come outside, it was one of his first days training and I went to a scrimmage he was playing in a half. He scored a hat trick against our U-14 team. I said, "Well, that one's going to be different because our U-14 team was very good and he's done nothing but score goals in FC Dallas, in Europe for the US national team program." Recently, somebody was asking me about a player who remained nameless but was a contributor and they asked me the why on him. I said he has the requisite athletic ability. He is tough, but his leadership skills are so astonishingly high. By the way, they've been like that since I knew him when he was 11 or 12. That's about recognizing potential. That's recognizing potential early so we cultivate those things. The great players have a basket of those, but those won't have been some of the very best players in the world. You look at them and they're just different. They really are, but you have to recognize those special things, cultivate them and then you've got to fill in the gaps. It's the same thing going into the workforce. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. It's not just potential. It's that preparedness, the consistency, in the mindset because when you talk about culture, it's that fit into the culture and that feeling of family that goes both ways because that's really what fans are looking for as well. They want a sense of belonging which you are providing in a sense by the culture that you are working towards as a team. That's really that sense of belonging that people are looking for as well. It's the connectivity of all of it. Yes, the connectivity. The connectivity to the club, the fans, the connection. I got to tell you one of the coolest things that is happening at FC Dallas right now is our second round draft pick from last year in Sam Sarber. He is a cult hero already. Last four games, he scored three goals, critical goals. This game this last Saturday, he won the game against San Jose where we had won in a dozen years. He has been celebrated around the globe because of his post-game celebration and you can go check it out online. It's amazing, but the fans are so connected to him because they look at him and say that could be me. But Sam has this unique ability. Two things that stand out is his passion for it. It's truly do or die for him and his commitment to it, but also he's got that extra bit of speed and he's able to put the ball in the back of that in front of goal. I tell this fun story about Sam. He wrote a letter last year to our third division coach John Gaul when he didn't make the professional team the first team. He's a third division professional and it was all of his deliverables. He's a team mate, personal deliverables and then his goals for the team and him individually. It was one of the most unique letters I've ever seen. It was something so special that he finished with this one line and there and it always will stay with me. I thought it was one of the coolest things I've ever heard. He said, "Lastly, I want to get the staff promoted." He wasn't thinking about himself. He was thinking about his bosses. I'm going to work so hard I want to get the staff promoted. That goes back to family. It is that feeling of, it's not just about me, it's about all of us and that collaboration that brings it forward. This is so awesome when you talk about mindset and preparedness and just the ability to have the resilience to go through hardships because there's always hardships, no matter whether it's sports or it's business or your student. If you had to relate it back to the SMU students as they are getting ready to be seen in the careers as they're getting ready to be chosen in the careers just like your players are. What would you say to them? Look, I mean, there are so many ways to sort of connect and be prepared and everybody has their spin on it. I give this example with my brother, myself. My brother who has been so successful at the chiefs, he is so organized and so detailed oriented and from an expense area, his ability to manage a budget. That's his God-given ability to negotiate, manage that. I'm much more of a sales personality than him and I like to focus on the revenue. I may be more social although he does. He's a lot of fun to hang out with and such a great guy. I'm so proud of him too. He was here recently. He was and he is such, obviously he's a trustee here and the pride that he has for SMU and such a great representative of this school. It's something I'm so proud of him for. But as you get ready for it, I think you've got to look at it and you say, "What are my differentiators? What are those things that make me special?" Talk about me. I'm one of those big believers that you get there early, if you need to stay late, stay late and I'm a big believer in die trying. I think if you work that hard and put the effort in, there always be people who are smarter or maybe always. It's just the reality. I would have taller or faster. Any of those things. One hundred percent. But so much of life is about effort. Also I will say this and my mother really hit on it. My mother was my superhero. She was the amazing person school teacher. Rotary scholar. My dad actually saw his first soccer match because he was visiting my mom in Ireland as a Rotary scholar. She was a University of college double and this is something both my parents had on it is thoughtfulness. Being thoughtful of others and it's on so many levels. It's as simple as opening a door for somebody. It's as simple as respecting someone's time. It's as simple as writing a handwritten note to somebody that you interview with and caring about your co-workers, caring about the company. If you can transmit that, that puts you way ahead of everybody else. But, you know, grades are a big part of what people look at now but they also want to make sure that the people they hire can be great teammates. Very few instances in the world is in an individual, I'm going to call it a sass and that is off on their own. You have to be collaborative. You have to work well. You have to represent the company. You have to be thoughtful. And the workplace continues to evolve. Again, this school is really special on so many levels. You know, if you think about it, it's not a huge campus. So it kind of has that family feel. A lot of great opportunities here, a lot of activities around, great teachers, great facilities, all those things. I think puts the students the right place. And when you look at it and people say, "Oh, you went to SMU," that is a definer. That already puts you ahead. If you went to the coq school business, that's a big defiant. And look, you heard me say this earlier before we were on camera. I was a meadows minor. I was a art history minor. And I was just going to get to that story. That's a different plastic story because how many times do you hear a finance major say, "Oh, my minor was, art history." You know what I mean? So how did that come about? Oh, my parents and their passion for art. I mean, I started traveling the world with them when I was 10. In fact, that was my first World Cup in Mexico in 1986. The number of museums and churches and opera houses around the world that I was in and my love for art. Their love for art was amazing. But that was really fun for me because I'll never forget my junior year. I'm sitting in a finance class and professor ass. You know, okay, what is everybody's major? You had a cowling and economics and you have everything else. If I was in a meadows minor, I'd raise my hands and myself, art history. So it was great. I love it. And I love it. And I love it. And in this institution, the meadows museum. Oh, I mean, I was just there yesterday. I was just telling you about that. I was there yesterday. I can't believe the collection that we have. It's one of the largest collections in the country of Spanish art. And it's absolutely breathtaking. It's stunning. It's stunning. Actually, last night I was talking to a Dallas family. And they were looking for something to do. I said, "Good, meadows museum, that's the view." It was fun. I was having that conversation last night. Yeah. Something to go see. I just took my out of town family and friends there yesterday because they're here for my son's graduation. And so, you know, where do you take them? Well, we're certainly great museums and this being on top of the list. Yeah. Absolutely. So Dan, in your role, you're constantly prioritizing. And you are balancing the pressure of short term performance, the wins versus long term brand building, team building, team development. How do you decide when to focus on one versus the other? You can almost never, especially in the sports world, be a winner if you take a short term approach. It just doesn't work like that. We've seen it in the NFL. You've seen it in soccer, basketball, we saw it with our investment in the bulls, and all those great championships. We had to build our way into championships. And when people make quick, short snap decisions in sports, business or team wise, they usually get hurt. Now you reach that pinnacle and if you want to try to preserve it, you do have to make some short term decisions. Generally, player-related, occasionally there can be a marketing gimmick, if you will, or ticket sales that you can capture, and it may not be a gimmick, it may be that opportunity to mark up your ticket prices. Cell sponsorships build a new building. But if you take a short term approach, and you're going to have a chance to get a chance Interestingly, I was talking with a bunch of my St. Mark's friends recently about this. It was my 30th reunion a couple weeks ago and it was great to get together and we're talking about everybody's career paths and talking about business decisions and generally speaking the missed financial opportunity if you don't nurture these things over longer periods of time, you maximize your financial opportunity. Occasionally there'll be a windfall but typically the windfall that happens, you say, "Wow, that was quick." There was a lot of stuff that went into that. It wasn't as quick as people always think it is. I mean, recently we were looking at a transaction that was done and they thought, "Oh, this is a windfall from nowhere. We own the property. I don't know how many years." And it wasn't super long but it wasn't like, "Oh, we flipped it in a year." So I just, I encourage people, "Don't do it for the now." Yeah. I mean, be thoughtful, build. Because if you have that foundation, you'll have a lot of years of success. And I'll point to what my brother has done at the chiefs. That is a lot of years in a success in a true salary cap system where everybody basically has equal resources to spend. And we've had a dynasty and that was building into it and we made very few short term decisions. There, once we got there, we had to make some to stay there and we made a lot of the right decisions. So that's been a special moment in time. Yeah. Just being in there for the long game is so important and seeing beyond the scoreboard, which takes me to success as you think about success beyond viewership, beyond the eyeballs that are on the game and even beyond the economics. In your mind, what is success to you and what is it to the community, do you think? Yeah. It's a couple levels on success, right? This is a global commercial for Dallas. This is, we want more businesses coming here, we want more residents here. We want, you know, obviously we're in the football business having a Super Bowl here, having an MLS All Star game here, having other All Star games, having the National Team Chip Football game. This is us showing that we can pull off the biggest event and be very successful. Most importantly to me, this is us showing FIFA and US soccer. We're ready to host the Women's World Cup Final in 2021. Yes, in 2021. Yeah, that's. And your family has been working hard towards that for a while. It's important to you. Yes, it is. We've been working on it. We will go into full gear in August of this show on Women's World Cup, 2021. So it'll be another four years or five years of working on that. And I'm so excited to be part of that. I want to show my daughters. I have two young daughters who are 10 and 7 and I want to show them that anything is possible with hard work and opportunities that are out there and you have to put your mind to it and do that. And also that I'm a big believer in women's sports too. People often ask, when are you going to do this? And maybe at some point we own part of a women's soccer team, but that team needs to have its own identity, its own leadership. My brother and I are stretched pretty thin in our other siblings. And so if there's an opportunity, maybe one day that works that makes sense, we're supportive. We're supportive of the game of soccer. We want to see it grow. And so this is just a great moment. Other things I want to happen. I want family and friends to create lifetime memories. Yes. That's a big one for me because I've been to every World Cup since 1986 in Mexico and the memories with family and friends, they're priceless. Yeah. And that's beyond soccer. That's beyond sports. It's beyond. It's really about. It's life. It's wonderful. It's life. It's wonderful. And so many fond memories. I look forward to the memories we create this summer. I hope that we have a Michael Jordan moment. I called it our Michael Jordan moment where we inspire a kid who's going to play basketball or play football. Who's that world class athlete who says, you know what? I saw the World Cup and I want to represent the US national team program. I'm going to come through the FC Dallas system. I want to play for our national teams. I want to, you know, win a World Cup and we will one day produce the best play in the world. It's coming. I don't know when it is. But we have the population. We have the facilities. You know, we have the technology that goes with. So I hope it inspires a person. There's so many hopes for this. And look, I wanted to elevate soccer at all. But that's how it starts. Sure. That's how it starts. So you're talking about the relatability of the players of the brand. That's the inspiration. If you can see yourself in that player, that's the hope as it continues to build and grow forward. So lots of hopes, but a lot to come as well. And what a great start. I mean, there's so much energy right now. There's so much happening. FIFA's right around the corner. Right? I mean, there is, I mean, clearly in the next couple of weeks, there's a lot happening. So let's talk a little bit about that. First of all, congratulations on the nine games. We're hosting more than any other city here. Yeah. And you were able to bid. That's incredible. Yeah, it was a pretty special moment to get nine. I mean, outside of, you know, I mean, Qatar was a really interesting World Cup because of the close proximity of everything. But this tournament is so much bigger. 104 matches, but we got nine. So we got almost, you know, close to 10% of the tournament is right here. International broadcast. And that alone is the economic impact is $400 million. And my dad back in 1994, when he was the chairman of the World Cup, Ben here in Dallas, with Jim Graham, none of the Dallas side kicks, who was quite a character and a really special guy. And they were super close. But my dad kept saying to me, he goes, I'm so proud to have the IBC here at Fair Park. As a teenager, I didn't really understand what that meant. And it was, and it was big, right? I mean, a lot of media and those things, but as I've traveled around and seen broadcast centers, this is where the story telling of World Cup takes place. 100%. It will be broadcasted back from downtown Dallas and the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center to almost 200 countries. The story of the World Cup will be told, and that's coming right from Dallas. Yeah, think about the magnitude and the scale. There's nothing like it. Yeah. There's nothing like it in the media landscape, I think, from a sporting event. I mean, Olympics, I'm sure, has something super well. But this is the global gain. Right. And there'll be more eyeballs. And again, it's going to be coming live from Dallas. Right. And that is-- That's the T'Lan Mark moment for Dallas. Oh, yeah. It's such a landmark. And by the way, we stepped up. I mean, we stepped up in a big way to do it. Yes. That's-- people ask me all the time about our organization, our L.O.C. Ask me what the wise of things. And I want to take a minute to recognize Monica Paul from the Dallas Sports Commission. And the head of our L.O.C. I'm the co-chair with Neen Ivaca, who's a local entrepreneur who I admire so much. But Monica is the person that really makes it happen. And she's a big reason why we've had all these amazing events in Dallas over the years, all-star games that goes on and on national championship. She's able to bring community together. All these different cities together, all these entity safety, security, the parts and pieces are unbelievable. But you have to have a leader of that level. And she is an exceptional leader doing it. And her gift is her detailed nature. That's what I found is she will take the most copious notes and then go execute. So literally from conversation and idea to paper to execution, and she gets these communities to work together. Which in a gigantic city, it really can be hard. I was told recently that I'm meeting there were up to 108 local entities that were involved in this meeting. And I just thought about that. It's hard to get individual councils or mayors to work. But yet our community has rallied in a way around this that I've never seen before for everything. And that comes with a lot of responsibility. When you have that level of visibility not just here in the United States, but globally that comes with a lot of responsibility. So what would you want changed if anything within the Dallas ecosystem as we're going through this? And I don't know that I would want anything changed. I think we've done an outstanding job. Obviously, I wanted to host the final here. And FIFA was not prepared to not do that in New York at this moment of time. But I think that we're going to show that we're ready to host. I don't know that we'll ever have an Olympics here. Our climate is pretty tough in the summer. And that's a little bit of a bummer from that standpoint. But we'll have a million other great events. When you think about all the parts and pieces, I think maybe the biggest thing is it's been kind of this long process. And then you're immediately in that window to make it happen. I wish we had gotten to do some things earlier. I wish we'd gotten to maybe sell tickets earlier in the tournament. And I wish we had gotten to do sponsorships maybe a little bit earlier in certain ways. But all in all, it's been really seamless. I'm so thankful for FIFA. They have been great to work with. I mean, they have their way of doing it though. They are very Eurocentric and they have their way of doing it. And it's been so successful for so long. But our sports landscape is so different in this country. It really is so different and so unique. There's no market like it in the entire world. And the revenue that can be generated. This will be the most financially successful World Cup of all time. But there's always a butt in that. We need to be mindful of the fans. Right. Because you don't want to price fans out of being able to go. But there is an appetite for this. But this is the world's game. And I say this all the time. My father was inducted in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1972. He accepted it on behalf of the football fans of America. He understood that the fans make the game. I know we all know this. But it's something we always have to be mindful. My dad was on both Clark and I about this all the time. Be mindful of the fans. Making the game accessible. to the fans and again there's a lot of accessibility to this and and you know, but working through tickets, I mean, here's the other thing that I would say, and FIFA has executed on this really well. This is almost seven and a half million tickets or seven point four million. I don't know what the final number will be. Prior world cups were 3.2, 3.3, 3.4 million. So if you think about that, it's more than double, right? And yet they've executed on this, they've got everybody doing what they're supposed to be doing, allowed us to sell 10 local supporter sponsorships, which is the first time ever. And here's why this is important. And I say this, and you know, if you watch this and feel the need to contribute to the world cup, the money that we raised, that we don't spend the leftover money, this is gonna be the money that we need to help bid for the 2031 world cup. A little known fact is, we actually had money left over from the Super Bowl that was in Arlington back. And that was a little bit of the money we used to get our bid going. The proceeds of this that will be left over, that'll help us in our efforts to get the 2031's. I ask everybody to support. - And 2031 is right on the corner. It's not that far. It seems far, it's really not. - Oh, it's really not. It's coming so fast. And it's a neat, neat interesting. I think it's gonna be US, Mexico. Sounds like there'll be games maybe in Jamaica and in Costa Rica. FIFA's starting to spread the world cup around. And I actually think it's a really great idea. - Yeah. - You know, because I can remember the days of one country, then two countries, we're now a tri-country bid. Now you're going to see them spread around even further. The men's world cup in 2030 is really gonna be spread around. This is good for the game and growing the game. But I think they have done an excellent job of executing on the grandest sports, maybe ever. Maybe sports enterprise ever because it's 104 matches spanning 39 days. And doing it in 70 and 80,000 person buildings. - It is incredible. Let me just think about that scale. It's incredible. - Yeah. - But you know, at this moment, it's hard to believe that it will pass because we're right in the middle of it, but it will pass. And the attention fades after a while. The tournament ends. After that, what would you want to leave as a legacy? - Well, I mean, there are multiple things. At the FC Dallas Foundation, we build community pitches, so we've done 15. Everything from resurfacing a tennis court to building a full-size field in underserved areas, right? Where kids, this may be the best thing in a kid's life that happens if having a field to go to. 'Cause I've been very blessed in life and a lot of people have been as well, but for some, maybe getting that two hours or hour and a half on a field is the single best thing in their life. Because they may not know where their next meal is coming from. - 100%. - Whatever the hardship might be, they may have a coach in their life that changes their life. - That changes their life. - Some of our fields have as many as 10,000 kids a month go through, which is amazing. I hope we're able to build a number of community pitches for this. I know there's a lot of arts projects going around this. Again, this is the foundation for Women's World Cup 2031. I hope this puts us in a spot where we can execute and show the world that Dallas is ready to host a World Cup final. The biggest, and in the women's game, is frankly, it's the biggest men's game at this point. - Yeah. - I'm sure that we can do this and we're ready for everything else to come our way. And so those are the hopes for legacy. I hope it inspires young people to want to go play soccer. So fewer professional athletes, but if there can be part of a team. I think-- - And that's so important, because that's what sports brings to you, is the desire and the learning that comes from being with the team, the collaboration, the leadership, all of that stuff that you talked about. - The earliest sales job in your life will be part of a team. - Yeah. - A sports team. You have to convince your parents. You gotta convince your teammates. You gotta convince your coach. Right, you're selling yourself in what you can do and that you want to do it. Right, and it's also how you interact with each other. And I think it's an important life lessons that stick with you know, so funny. I got a text this morning from one of my childhood soccer teammates I played club soccer with. You know, he's gonna come up to Dallas. He's in Houston. He's gonna come up to Dallas and maybe see a World Cup game. He's, you know, work on getting tickets and you know, wants to catch up and connect, which is just really special. Right, because the game brings us together. Like sports do. It brings us all together. So I'm so excited. I'm so proud of our community. I'm proud of everybody that I get to work with. It's been an honor to work with FIFA. They've done such a fabulous job. And I really think this has been the very, very best of the Metroplex of Dallas and Fort Worth and Plano and Arlington and Frisco and all the other communities raising their heads and we're all in on this and we're gonna do this together. Yeah, and it just brings people together, which is one of the most fantastic parts of all of this and bringing communities together. Yeah, for sure. Do your girls play soccer? How they do. They do. So both of them play for a hockey day team. Yeah. And then both play for FC Dallas teams. I might coach my little one's hockey day team. I have a very difficult relationship with the game of soccer. My love and my passion and my excitement and my anxiety. And so I have to be really, really careful. And it was interesting. This was an interesting parenting lesson. My stress of all of it on my little one was really bothering her. And after a game about two and a half months ago, I sat her down and I said, okay, I said, I see how upset you are. 'Cause I'm kicking every ball. I'm winning every tackle. I'm trying to score every goal. You know, the on the sideline parent, trying to control myself, I said, there will be only two things I ask of you going forward. First thing, have fun. Second thing, be a beast. And so, so that's what-- I'm gonna have to remember that. And that's what we say to each other. And I try to tamp down my yelling a little bit. But it's always we go back to those core values of have fun and be a beast. And my older one loves the game as well. And she plays it in a different way. They both are, this is the coolest thing. They're best friends. But they couldn't be any more different. But they love and adore each other. And you see it in athletics, how they go about at all too. So it's fun. It's, I have as much anxiety over their games as I do FC Dallas games. And it's so cool to be part of it. - Yeah, well, you're so passionate about it that I can clearly see how that must happen. Now that's wonderful. Well, we've talked about so much and we have reflected on your career and your times from your time in college and school and from developing players to the World Cup. So we've sort of gone all around the world really. And I'd love to ask you a leadership question on what do you believe great leaders consistently notice that perhaps others miss, especially when they under pressure. And you're under just a little bit of pressure right now. - Yeah, I mean, effort. I'm gonna get an effort. I think that a lot of great leaders either see the effort recognize it applaud it, celebrate and cultivate it. Or they completely miss how much effort people put into things on a daily and you disenfranchise your workforce doing that. And I think being able to celebrate those wins and sometimes I get so buried in it that I miss it. And then sometimes I try to go to the other extreme and celebrate people doing special things. And it's also bringing people together. I get asked this question all the time, describe your leadership style. - Yeah. - And I wanna be the leading assist getter at FC Dallas. That's why I tell everybody, I don't care about scoring goals. If I'm getting assist, it means my teammates are scoring goals and having professional and personal success, we will win as an organization. And so I just try to rack up assists. - That's a beautiful mantra. - And it's fun for me to see them have that success and the excitement because I'm as excited getting an assist as they are getting a goal. - No, that's fantastic. If you had to leave lessons learned for the SMU students and we've talked about so many leadership lessons already, what would you say one thing might have been that you would have hoped you focused on more while you were here at Atcox? - You know, I learned a lot of the skill sets at the time. I mean, spreadsheets, this is early on, right? I mean, class of 2000. - Class of finance major. - Class of finance major, look, I was an art history minor, but having the accounting base too, along with the finance major, might have been really helpful. The number of financial statements I look at now, or it's a lot, every week, different entities, multiple times a week. I think that you need to really hone in on these different major areas and the tools that are accessible to you. I think that's it. I was adequate at a spreadsheet at the time that I'm still somewhat adequate doing it. And now with AI and the things that you can achieve with it, it's unbelievable. You'll see, I feel like a dinosaur a lot of days, but I would say being an expert in these tools because the faster you can crank out a presentation, the faster you can run through financial statements, the faster you can run through a contract, a legal contract, and come back. And AI allows you to do every one of those things. And so I would be an expert in that as much as you can be. And then taking that tool and transferring it to each of these individual areas. We now use AI to scrub legal contracts nonstop. And it saves us days. weeks of time. And so I think that's what it encourages. There are a lot of tools at your hands, become a master of them. Yeah. And it's also like you're also a big fan of interdisciplinary learning. I'm not just learning your field, but also learning fields that interest you like you did with with art history. Sure, sure. I think if you spend too much time on one thing and not give yourself a break, yeah. I think it becomes a little complicated, right? So I have the soccer business that I'm so proud of, but I also have a real estate business. And I've been a sort of passionate investor over time, but not even at the level I am today. I'm really enjoying that. And it's a nice respite from some of the soccer stuff. It gives me something else to think about again, love collecting art, hobbies, things like that. I'm a big sports card guy actually. So I have a very famous football card collection with a partner who's a close friend that's at the pro football hall of aiming. Can't know how. So don't just be a jack of one trade. Enjoy life. Enjoy the opportunities. Experience things. Right. No, that's very sound advice. Thank you for that. Are you ready for some rapid fire? Oh, oh, oh, these are the best. I did this recently. And one of my answers was a mombo taxi at Mekasena for for it. It was for a sports gas. It was really fun. Okay, I'm ready. All right. Okay. What should students focus on in this digital age? AI. I mean, I focus on and learn it. Use the tools. Understand what they are. There is a we have an issue. And there's going to be a social issue. AI will take a lot of jobs. So being an expert in that space will differentiate you above and beyond everyone else. We we now are to the point of asking an almost in every interview, how do you use AI? Yeah. How do you think about it? The good, the bad. And then also the safety and security around that learning. Yeah. What is and that's two words, by the way, I'm sorry. One one. Anyone. Okay, maybe this one will be one word. Let's see. What is an undervalued leadership scale? Well, I've said it earlier, thoughtfulness. It's undervalued. Again, I always go back to my mom and dad. Their their ability to know everything about everyone, not just names, birthdays, children. Those were the things, anniversaries. Those were the things that I can't tell you how often I'm stopped. And people said, your parents have the ability to make me feel like the most special person in the entire world. That's a gift. And it's a gift. I promise you is an extraordinary gift. And they both had it in different ways. My dad had it with very few words. My mother was incredibly verbose and could talk you. You'd lose the time of possession every time you talk to her because she would outtalk you. But you walked away feeling like you were the most special person in the entire world. So being thoughtful. Yeah. I love that because I think people remember how you made them feel. They may forget the details. They forget the details, but they remember how they felt. And by the way, that carries forward in interviews. That carries forward in work environments and teams. It carries forward. And I say this a lot about picking up people. So often we until you walk a day and somebody shoes, you don't understand what they're going through and sticking out. I can help full hand. And that helpful hand is not giving them a bunch of money. Showing up is half the battle. It's not even half that. It's a lot of the battle. If you just show up and then put the effort in, but that's all part of being thoughtful. That's beautifully said. What is one habit that has helped you through life? Honestly, I live in this mentality. I say it a lot is the die trying habit. I mean, it's just like if I get focused and locked in on something, it's that persistence. And I think that's if you use one word, it's persistence is my habit. Because we have a lot of things going on. Sometimes I get distracted. But if there's something that I know matters or I've been alerted that matters and I need my attention is that persistence to get it across the finish line. Because again, unfortunately, I used to think as you've got older that life would get simpler. It's the exact opposite. I used to think during COVID the zoom was going to simplify our lives. No, in fact, I'm on zoom the whole day. Now, in fact, people get me at night or before breakfast on zooms, depending if they're calling internationally or whatever it is. But I think a habit for me is being persistent. Because details are always slipped through the cracks. And if you pay attention to those things, you work really hard on them and put that effort in. You can get things across the finish line. Am I perfect at it? No. I can be a lot better. I think of my dad and I talk about his persistence and his attention to detail. One of the great things he did was almost nothing ever slipped through the cracks. And I tell this story. I know we're winding down here. But my dad, his ability to detail thought and ideas to paper and then get people to buy into it was one of his God-given gifts. I mean, it was something so special and I'll never forget our old boardroom used to see 26 people. And in every single seat, there was a memo that he had written either by hand and there'd be different editions of it typed. His assistants would stand on either side of him and he would edit every single memo and he'd work all the way around. I fully ask him, why do they not just pass you the paper because it was my exercise getting up, saying that his squat is getting up and he would make laps around. But the tens of thousands of documents that he produced. And then after all that was done, he'd sit up all night long and autographed sports cards for fans that had written to him and he would respond to every piece of fan mail that he got. Hotfulness. Yeah. It's the thoughtfulness. But persistence, courage. I mean, there's so many things. You talk of your parents fondly. Oh, yeah. It is so beautiful to hear that. It's easy. I mean, I'm so lucky to have role models like that. I mean, their abilities were so special in the legacy they left. Again, how much my father loved this institution. Yeah. I wish he was here to see. I do too. You're sure so many fond memories of both your parents and and I'll tell you one of my own. My dad used to say, it's not over until it's over. And that lesson is true for sports. You keep trying until that last goal has happened or whatever sport you're playing or even in life. And I really carry that through. And one of the things I tell my students is the same thing is get the mentorship from your parents when they're telling you stuff, save it somewhere in the back of your head because at some point you're going to reach back in there and and grab that lesson. And it's going to be very valuable. Sure. My dad used to say it's not over until it's over. One other, you know, habit and it's funny to quantify it as a habit. But my mom used to say, don't cry over spilled milk to me all the time. And I used to think we're not living in 1800s mom. I used to be going through my brain. But that's been a habit for me is not to look back at things and stew over them. Because so many people look back and say, well, I could have done this or I should have done that. Well, that moment has passed. If you have learned that lesson, then you should be able to fix it in the future. But if you spend a lot of time worrying about that, it takes you away from being the best you that you possibly can be in that moment and going forward. And so that was that was really an important life lesson. And also, I think if you call that a habit is I don't spend I spend a lot of time thinking about the relationships, the friendships, my family in the past. But I don't think about moments that are either huge successes or massive failures. Because it takes away from what can be accomplished going forward. Yeah, absolutely. And these are all such great lessons. Thank you so much, Dan. No, thank you. For coming to SMU giving us your time, your perspective, the lessons learned. We are so excited about what is to come in the next couple of weeks. Really looking forward to seeing the game. And we really just appreciate you being there for our students as you have always been because you've come to campus so many times. So thank you again. Yeah, now I appreciate it. This is such a special institution. I think the best is yet to come here. The leadership, professors, the students. This really is a special beacon in our community. And I think the global impact that will be felt by the SMU student body and what they will do in the future is going to be really amazing. Thank you. Thank you. We really appreciate it. Yeah, thank you. Three key takeaways from this conversation. First, great teams are built, not just found. Whether in FC Dallas or beyond, success comes from identifying potential early and creating systems that develop people consistently. Second, culture only works when it is lived, not stated. A strong identity means little unless it is reinforced through behaviour, decision-making and accountability at every level of the organisation. Lastly, leadership is about long-term impact, not short-term outcomes alone. From player development to global events like the World Cup, The most effective leaders focus on building strongholds. that last beyond immediate wins and create a lasting value for communities. Thank you for listening to PODWOC. We appreciate you following us and also giving us a FI star rating. Until next time.