MLS next pro launched in March and is a professional men's soccer league that completes the player

pathway from MLS next through to MLS first teams.

I'm at the MLS headquarters in New York City and my guests today are Charles Altchick,

the president of MLS next pro and Oli Curtis, the league's senior vice president for

competition and operations.

Altchick worked in the MLS commissioners office the last eight years and you may know Curtis

from when he was the chief soccer officer for the New York Red Bulls and Toronto FC.

They both starred in NCAA soccer where Curtis was a two time national player of the year

Duke and Altchick was a two time Ivy League player of the year at Harvard.

Guys, congratulations on your new-ish gigs and thanks for coming on the show.

Thanks Grant. Great to be with you today. Thanks for having us.

So after that intro, I feel like I have to ask, have you two ever come into contact

on the soccer field together? Funny story. We were, I can't remember what year it was.

It was either 2014 or 2015. It might have been 2015. We were at the MLS summer offsite,

and there was a lot of activities going on, and I don't remember who started it,

but we had to have a staff game, of course. And I had been told the staff games had been canceled

years prior, because I think there was a time back in the day where the staff games were

what the outing was. And it was all about the staff game and everybody who played would

bring their cleats and their shin guards and their A-games and really get into it,

but I guess there were a few hard tackles, a few hard challenges that were not acceptable

for a staff game. And so that part of history was, you know, was, was, was, that was canceled.

And then we were at the, at the Barber Cue, and we got a game going, and I had known Ali

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