YouSaid · the spoken record

Sam Borden

lines on the record: 31
first: 2026-06-09
most recent: 2026-06-09
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“The beauty, I think, of modern sports is that watching it on TV and HD with your friends and your family or in a bar is a pretty great experience too. If you've never watched a game, go to a sports bar, find a friend or group of friends who are watching it. I have a feeling your opinion of soccer will change.”
2026-06-09 · Masters of Scale · World Cup kickoff: Goals, greed, and geopolitics, with ESPN’s Sam Borden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, you know, sell your car? I don't know. I mean, I think getting in is going to be very difficult, and it sounds like the cost, even just to get to the game, you know, to take a train from the city out to the stadium is like $100 for a trip that usually costs like $12. So the price gouging has even hit, you know, mass transport.”
2026-06-09 · Masters of Scale · World Cup kickoff: Goals, greed, and geopolitics, with ESPN’s Sam Borden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“a couple of hours or a couple of weeks or a month everybody just wants the same thing i don't know maybe that's overly simplistic or cheesy i find some beauty in that and i i like the simplicity it offers”
2026-06-09 · Masters of Scale · World Cup kickoff: Goals, greed, and geopolitics, with ESPN’s Sam Borden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To me, the World Cup is, in a lot of ways, the great equalizer among the massive disparity that exists in the way that people live day to day around the world. For a month, everybody wants the same thing. Everybody just wants a goal. Everybody wants a win. Everybody wants to dream another day of how far they could go. I mean, there are some countries competing where the living situations are horrific, you know. The most fans, you know, in Haiti are dealing with real life issues that far surpass anything that you or I are dealing with. But when Haiti plays, they just want the same thing that every other fan wants. And like there's something simple about that that just really appeals to me, you know? Obviously, it doesn't paper over the real problems that exist in the world, but I like imagining a thing where for”
2026-06-09 · Masters of Scale · World Cup kickoff: Goals, greed, and geopolitics, with ESPN’s Sam Borden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think that's definitely possible, Bob, but it's also one of those things that sometimes fate decides. I mean, this World Cup was awarded in 2018. Organizers imagined would be the global profile of America right in this moment in time, but also how could you have possibly predicted where we would be right as this kickoff is about to happen? I mean, even six months ago, a year ago, would anybody have predicted we'd be in the middle of a war with Iran? Like I'm not sure, you know, that's something that was on anybody's radar at that moment.”
2026-06-09 · Masters of Scale · World Cup kickoff: Goals, greed, and geopolitics, with ESPN’s Sam Borden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Team in the Amazon that would ever play a game that would draw 40,000 spectators. And so what happened at that stadium, I think it became a bus depot. And then at some point it became a prison, like a private prison, at least in America, we are not going to have any of those sort of massive expenditures that are unnecessary in real life. No upside necessarily the same as these other countries in terms of Visibility and making your profile bigger, but also no downside in terms of like, man, we had to spend all this money on these things that have no use once the month long tournament is over.”
2026-06-09 · Masters of Scale · World Cup kickoff: Goals, greed, and geopolitics, with ESPN’s Sam Borden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Certainly Brazil and definitely South Africa, this tournament required almost no infrastructure change. All of these stadiums are NFL stadiums. They're all built to host these kinds of events. You know, the stadiums in Qatar, several of them were literally built and then torn down. One of them was literally made out of shipping containers that were then, I mean, I don't think it's happened yet, but the premise was it was going to be taken apart and then, you know, repurposed as shipping containers. I did a big story for the New York Times before the 2014 World Cup about literally how do you build a stadium in the Amazon. There was a stadium that was being built in Manaus, which is sort of the capital of the Amazonian region, and hosted, I think, like five World Cup games. And they had to on boats, you know, bring in rebar and concrete and build this 40,000 seed stadium. Once the World Cup was over, there is no professional...”
2026-06-09 · Masters of Scale · World Cup kickoff: Goals, greed, and geopolitics, with ESPN’s Sam Borden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There are real bonuses for hosts who take an Olympics or a World Cup in terms of raising the public profile, the global profile of the country, whether it's tourism or just general awareness, travel opportunities, international diplomacy. Like that's not something that America generally struggles with. I think that from a corporate standpoint, there's no question that companies like Budweiser, Nike, Visa, some of these companies that have been on board with US soccer and FIFA, it's a huge opportunity monetarily brand activation opportunity wise corporate hospitality for sure. It's on a different level here than elsewhere. But what I think is really interesting is that this tournament, unlike Qatar or Russia or”
2026-06-09 · Masters of Scale · World Cup kickoff: Goals, greed, and geopolitics, with ESPN’s Sam Borden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm actually very curious to see when Iran was drawn into the group that they were drawn into and their games were assigned where they were going to be playing a couple of games in Los Angeles, obviously there's a massive Iranian diaspora in Los Angeles. I think the expectation is that it's going to be a pretty cold reception for the Iranian national team. A lot of Iranian Americans who live here see the football team as a symbol of the regime, whether that's fair or not, and are looking forward to the opportunity to boo them.”
2026-06-09 · Masters of Scale · World Cup kickoff: Goals, greed, and geopolitics, with ESPN’s Sam Borden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“From Tucson, which was where it was originally scheduled to be, to Mexico, because they want to be spending as little time as possible in America. So they're going to be trading in Mexico and flying in the day before the game to Los Angeles or Seattle where they're playing their group stage games and then going right back to Mexico. To your question about the reception.”
2026-06-09 · Masters of Scale · World Cup kickoff: Goals, greed, and geopolitics, with ESPN’s Sam Borden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, from a sporting perspective, this is like a once in a lifetime opportunity for many of the players in the team. I would understand why they want to compete in a World Cup. And by the way, just for showing up and qualifying for the tournament, the Iran football federation receives somewhere around $13 million, which is no small thing for a country that, you know, is, as you say, actively at war. There have been visa issues. We've seen a number of countries, I think the Democratic Republic of the Congo is one that also had some issues. Obviously, FIFA has worked with the US government and has gotten assurances that ultimately the people that need to be here for the World Cup will be allowed in. But as we all know, government red tape is a reality of the world. And I think the World Cup competitors are experiencing that. One of the things that I think is interesting is that Iran chose to move their training camp.”
2026-06-09 · Masters of Scale · World Cup kickoff: Goals, greed, and geopolitics, with ESPN’s Sam Borden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Responds to that, and just sort of how the news media in America treats what I would imagine will be a fairly steady stream of criticisms of what's going on in this country at this time.”
2026-06-09 · Masters of Scale · World Cup kickoff: Goals, greed, and geopolitics, with ESPN’s Sam Borden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, it's a month long tournament with 48 teams. There's a lot of press opportunities, right? I mean, before every single match, there's a press conference with generally the star or captain of the team and the coach from that team. And as much as FIFA might like to control the press conferences, there are going to be questions asked where players from international teams are going to be offered the opportunity to speak about the United States. In the same way that players on the US team were asked about Qatar's lack of tolerance or attitudes towards women. And I know that they were because I was in those press conferences and heard those questions asked. I would imagine that there's going to be no shortage of opportunities for foreign players to take shots at America, our president, our government, our policies, our immigration approach, whatever. And so I'll be really curious to see how FIFA.”
2026-06-09 · Masters of Scale · World Cup kickoff: Goals, greed, and geopolitics, with ESPN’s Sam Borden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Field of play. And there were rules handed down about if you wear a rainbow armband in violation of our rule, you will receive a yellow card during the game, which is a big deal, you know. And so ultimately some kind of compromise was worked out and there were some very generic language put on the captain's armbands that were not rainbow, but said like, you know, peace for all or whatever the generic problem you could imagine is what it was. To your point, they're very strict about political statements on the field. If somebody were to lift up a jersey and there was a t-shirt underneath that said free Palestine, for example, there would be serious ramifications for sure.”
2026-06-09 · Masters of Scale · World Cup kickoff: Goals, greed, and geopolitics, with ESPN’s Sam Borden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Have very strict rules, and the protocols around uniforms, I mean, even something small like this, Bob, I'll tell you about it. It was a controversy in Qatar at the Last World Cup. One of the issues that got a lot of attention in Qatar was the intolerance towards the LGBTQ community that existed in Qatar in many countries in the Middle East. And so a number of teams, I remember it started, I think, with the captain of the England team, Harry Kane, wanted to wear, instead of the typical armband that a captain would wear that says like captain on it, he wanted to wear a rainbow armband in support of the LGBTQ community while the World Cup was being played in Qatar. And that was a huge controversy. FIFA said, look, we are very focused on having no political statements anywhere around our”
2026-06-09 · Masters of Scale · World Cup kickoff: Goals, greed, and geopolitics, with ESPN’s Sam Borden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Not a America only problem. I think what makes it a little bit different in the circumstances is that A, America is the most visible country in the world and the sort of media presence here is greater than anywhere else. And then B, America is, I think, a little bit like more on the fulcrum of what instability, you know, the sort of Western world feels, generally speaking. And so it's different when you see another protest in Brazil versus when you see it happening, say, in downtown Los Angeles.”
2026-06-09 · Masters of Scale · World Cup kickoff: Goals, greed, and geopolitics, with ESPN’s Sam Borden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Sounds like there certainly will be an ice presence around World Cup cities and venues. The government has said that there won't be active targeting, there won't be active activity. I, like many journalists or people, you know, you sort of take all of that with a grain of salt. There's a little bit of a like, I'll believe it when I see it, you know. And so will there be ice activity? Will there be protests? Will there be standoffs between law enforcement and fans? Like my gut tells me yes. And for what it's worth, Bob, I mean, I covered the World Cup in 2014 in Brazil. And there was incredible civil unrest amongst protesters in Brazil at that time. And I was in Sao Paulo when there were anti-government protests and police were firing rubber bullets on the day of matches. It happens everywhere. This is.”
2026-06-09 · Masters of Scale · World Cup kickoff: Goals, greed, and geopolitics, with ESPN’s Sam Borden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think it's real. I was fortunate to live in Europe for many years, you know, working for the Times. And so I have a lot of friends who still live in Europe or around the world and who talk to me about, okay, well, what is the experience like about coming to America? Let me tell you about what it was like to have my phone searched when I arrived in America as they're looking at my social media history. What is it like to be here when there's an ice raid in the city where I'm staying? How does that feel to be around that? And so I do think that it has a material impact.”
2026-06-09 · Masters of Scale · World Cup kickoff: Goals, greed, and geopolitics, with ESPN’s Sam Borden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Has been waited his entire life to see his team in the World Cup and now may or may not be able to afford to even see that happen. To me, to be honest, it's the thing that bums me out the most about all of the stories that we've seen in the run-up to this event because it really is, it kind of cuts to the heart of what makes the World Cup special.”
2026-06-09 · Masters of Scale · World Cup kickoff: Goals, greed, and geopolitics, with ESPN’s Sam Borden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, if you've never been to a World Cup match, I'm not trying to tell anybody how to spend their money, but like it is a really amazing thing. It is different than going to a Super Bowl. And so when I see stories and or when I hear from fan supporter groups who are saying, I mean, even the American outlaws who have been so devoted to supporting the U.S. teams, you know, they're not sure how many people they're going to be able to get into the building, how many tickets they're going to be able to get from FIFA, from US soccer, if they can afford it, if their members can afford it. Like, it's just a bummer. And that's U.S. fans in their home country. You know it's going to be even more difficult for a fan coming from Uzbekistan.”
2026-06-09 · Masters of Scale · World Cup kickoff: Goals, greed, and geopolitics, with ESPN’s Sam Borden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's a total shame because one of the things that is amazing about the World Cup, every World Cup that I've been to, whether in Brazil, Russia, Qatar, or here, the fans are what make it what it is. The fans are what make it special, not just the atmosphere in the stadium, but just the cultural mixing, you know, walking around the Souk in Doha and seeing Moroccans going crazy in one direction and Argentines coming in the other direction and you've got Colombian. I mean, like it's just, it's such a wonderful sort of moment of connection that people all over the world A World Cup that is spread quite as widely as this one is from Canada to Mexico and all over the United States is that you're not going to have those moments. There's not going to be that same kind of crisscrossing of culture.”
2026-06-09 · Masters of Scale · World Cup kickoff: Goals, greed, and geopolitics, with ESPN’s Sam Borden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, it doesn't. As much as I'm proud of the reporting that I and my colleagues at the New York Times did in 2015, and for sure it led to some material change certainly for the people who were involved. I'm not sure that it makes a huge difference in the overarching sentiment around soccer. It's by far the most popular sport in the world. The men's World Cup is by far the most popular tournament or event in the world when it comes to sports. And I think that it's going to take a lot for that to ever change and certainly some rich guys getting richer for most sports fans. I'm not sure that's going to resonate, you know?”
2026-06-09 · Masters of Scale · World Cup kickoff: Goals, greed, and geopolitics, with ESPN’s Sam Borden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Is because the awarding of the 2018 and 22 World Cups to Russia and Qatar, those votes were largely bought. Since then, I would say that FIFA's structure has changed considerably. A number of the allegedly corrupt politicians either went to jail or faced serious ethics violations and penalties within kind of global sport. So there are a number of new people that are involved. But there's also no question that FIFA and the way that it operates is still among the most murky global organizations you would ever want to know about. And I think we're seeing some of the ramifications of that. They do largely operate with impunity. They own the World Cup and they want to set their ticket prices at whatever they want to set them for. They can. They want to make hard rock stadium in Miami be known as Miami Stadium. They can.”
2026-06-09 · Masters of Scale · World Cup kickoff: Goals, greed, and geopolitics, with ESPN’s Sam Borden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Sure, it's actually funny here. I'll show you a little prop because I keep on my desk. This is a pen from the Boralock Hotel in Switzerland, in Zurich, which is where those arrests happened in 2015. And essentially what happened was a bunch of the highest level executives in FIFA were arrested and caught up in a DOJ Department of Justice investigation around corruption, bribe taking, vote trading, racketeering, all types of financial crimes that were rooted essentially in power and influence in global soccer. The reason that the World Cup was in Qatar in 2022 and the reason, for example, that Fox is broadcasting the 2026 World Cup at a fairly bargain price.”
2026-06-09 · Masters of Scale · World Cup kickoff: Goals, greed, and geopolitics, with ESPN’s Sam Borden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's correct. FIFA, despite being a nonprofit, is very good. And their president Gianni Infantino is very, very good about finding revenue opportunities, stretching a dollar, soaking or sucking as much financial reward out of any circumstances possible. And so to your point, the ticketing platform is run by FIFA. And not only are the face value prices, which are astronomical to begin with for these tickets, not only are those set by FIFA, but they have also created their own resale platform where they take a 15% commission on every purchase and every sale. Like they're taking a commission off both sides of these resales in addition to the commission they take off and the revenue they take off from the ticket being sold the first time and they're monetizing all of that”
2026-06-09 · Masters of Scale · World Cup kickoff: Goals, greed, and geopolitics, with ESPN’s Sam Borden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, obviously there's this unusual and as you said ever-changing dynamic in terms of like politics and trade that exists between these North American countries, there are also massive rivals in soccer. You know what I mean? The US's biggest rival is Mexico in soccer.”
2026-06-09 · Masters of Scale · World Cup kickoff: Goals, greed, and geopolitics, with ESPN’s Sam Borden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“For sure. And I think you've seen over really like the last 20 years, you know, the last generation or so, you have seen a very steady rise in terms of interest, TV ratings, but there's also no question that particularly for this World Cup where it's taking place in North America, how the US does will drive to what level of history it makes in terms of ratings and interest. If the US can get beyond sort of the typical they've done, which would be like a round of 16 appearance, if they can make a quarter final in a home World Cup, I think you're going to see some astronomical viewing numbers and engagement numbers. If they go out in the group stage, it's going to be a big bummer for the entire tournament. There's no question.”
2026-06-09 · Masters of Scale · World Cup kickoff: Goals, greed, and geopolitics, with ESPN’s Sam Borden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, no question. It's funny in meetings we've had at ESPN, we've talked a lot about what we're calling four-year fans. And I include like my wife and many of my friends in this category of like they're going to be locked in when the US is playing on Friday in Los Angeles against Paraguay. They're going to be locked in on that game. Like there's nothing else happening in the world. But if you were to ask them literally a month from now, hey, what about the US soccer team, the recall and the ability to speak intelligently about that team would not exist at all?”
2026-06-09 · Masters of Scale · World Cup kickoff: Goals, greed, and geopolitics, with ESPN’s Sam Borden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yet, no, I don't think I've seen that one, but it is really interesting to see how invested the business world gets in soccer every four years, particularly in this country, where for the intervening four years, it's a little bit like the Olympics, you know, it's like for a month every four years, it's the biggest thing in the world. You see all of these activations and, you know, corporate opportunities around this sport that For the other three years and 11 months oftentimes struggles to make the same kind of an impact.”
2026-06-09 · Masters of Scale · World Cup kickoff: Goals, greed, and geopolitics, with ESPN’s Sam Borden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, Bob, I would say that the big secret of my life that I'll share with you if you promise not to tell anybody else, despite being a sports journalist for over 20 years, I am actually not that big a sports fan. You know, I love the drama and the stories and the emotion that goes with big time sporting events and courage and overcoming adversity. But I have to say that I am not particularly invested one way or the other in what team wins or loses. I do have a little bit of a soft spot for France because we lived in France for a few years and my girls, you know, kind of got into the French national team. But generally speaking, I root for games to end on time and me to get home, me to get home as quickly as I can.”
2026-06-09 · Masters of Scale · World Cup kickoff: Goals, greed, and geopolitics, with ESPN’s Sam Borden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To me, the World Cup is, in a lot of ways, the great equalizer among the massive disparity that exists in the way that people live day to day around the world. I like imagining a thing where for a couple of hours or a couple of weeks or a month, everybody just wants the same thing. Everybody just wants a goal. Everybody wants a win. Everybody wants to dream another day of like how far they could go. I find some beauty in that and I like the simplicity it offers.”
2026-06-09 · Masters of Scale · World Cup kickoff: Goals, greed, and geopolitics, with ESPN’s Sam Borden · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT