Welcome to Allocation Disorder. I am Sam Staskell, joined as always by Paul Tenorio, and we have a show for you today.

We are sitting here recording on Thursday, 48 hours roughly removed from the big announcement that, you know, unprecedented history making.

All of these things are accurate

and true, even though we toss them around lightly, lightly sometimes.

This time it's true.

MLS and Liga Emmaakis are coming together and forming a new, revamped, updated, expanded

Leagues Cup beginning in 2023.

Instead of just eight teams that we've seen in the first two editions of the tournament, there will now be 47 teams.

Every team from both leagues will participate.

Both leagues will take a month-long break from their regular season to hold this tournament.

You know, it's something we've never really seen before, at least something we've never

really seen before in terms of something that actually worked and came to fruition.

You know, even the European Super League, the botched attempt at that didn't have this level

of cooperation between two independent leagues.

So this is, you know, a pretty groundbreaking thing that has the potential to really shape

MLS and the sport in this country and how fast it grows and how fast it moves, particularly

ahead of the 2026 World Cup.

So we're going to get into all of that and maybe some other stuff, depending on how long we talk about

all that, but mostly talking leagues cups. So Paul, you know, you're kind of examining this

a little bit from afar. Give me like your one sentence. What was like the first reaction when

you heard about this? Wow. One sentence, I think it would be how will commercial

and sporting merge in this tournament? Yeah. Because I look at this as essentially a commercial

...