Astead Herndon
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
So the host cities, the 11 host cities in the States, have needed 625 million, I should say, worth of federal security funding for the tournament.
Now, in normal circumstances, you would say, this is an international global event.
Of course, the federal government's going to provide that.
But actually, you don't quite know if they're going to provide that, right?
Recently, and amid all the immigration policies that have been going on, FIFA secured what has been called a FIFA pass, which means that if you have bought a ticket for the World Cup, you will get an appointment wherever you are in the world through a visa interview in your country, they're saying within six to eight weeks.
So there are these kind of concessions that FIFA have got.
But at the same time, you now have four nations, Haiti, Iran, Senegal, Ivory Coast, whose countries have travel bans, which mean their fans can't travel to the tournament.
So there's some wins and there's some losses, but I think FIFA are wary of, at some point, someone in the White House might turn around, look at FIFA and say, hang on, they are a kind of a global organization.
You know, if I'm thinking in like MAGA speak here, a kind of global organization that get tax breaks from America, that get all this revenue from putting on a tournament on our soil,
And we're not getting a cut of the ticket revenue, of the parking revenue, of the broadcast, the sponsorship.
Why are we helping these guys so much?
And actually, does a Peace Prize go some way to just making sure that's always on his desk and reminding him FIFA's great?
The games and the jeopardy mean this is an event that cannot fail, right?
You know, this is an event that cannot fail.
Now, this time around, what's different is the prices.
FIFA have come to North America and to the States in particular, and they have adapted to what is their new favourite word, their new favourite phrase, I should say, which is local market conditions.