What’s on Every World Cup Ref’s Head?🎥

I haven’t even left yet, and I’ve already made a crucial mistake ahead of my first-ever World Cup game. Typically, I’m a “wait until the last minute” to buy tickets type of guy. I find prices tend to get a little cheaper as the event approaches, and honestly, I’m addicted to trying to time the market to get the lowest price.

However, the one thing I wildly underestimated was how high demand would spike after the U.S.’s first game against Paraguay. For context, by the time you’re reading this, I’ll be in Seattle to watch the U.S. take on Australia.

I’ll let you guess how much I paid for a single ticket before I reveal the price at the end.

In today’s newsletter:

🗞 The Big Story: Why is an English Soccer Star Playing for Team USA?

📉 Biggest Loser: Why isn’t Minnesota hosting any World Cup matches?

🏆 Winner’s Circle: What’s This Thing on Every World Cup Ref’s Head?

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Why is an English soccer star, who was born to Nigerian parents, playing for the U.S. Men’s National Team?

Career Buildup: This is Folarin Balogun, and while most Americans probably had never heard of him before last week, he’s actually been a rising star in the soccer world since joining Arsenal’s academy at just 8 years old. However, not long after making his Premier League debut in 2022, Balogun had a tough decision to make.

Since both of his parents were born in Nigeria and given the obvious fact that he spent his whole life in England, the 20-year-old striker was eligible to play for both countries during the 2026 World Cup.

However, unbeknownst to most Americans at the time, Balogun was also eligible to play for the U.S. Men’s National Team, since during a 2001 vacation to New York City, his then—pregnant mother was denied the ability to fly home to London without a letter from her doctor. Resulting in her having to give birth to Balogun in Brooklyn, where he spent the first two months of his life before he and his mother were healthy enough to return home.

Tough Choice: And since the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to anyone born here, Balogun was technically eligible to play for Team USA too, but they were never the obvious choice, especially given how much better at soccer England is than the U.S.

However, that didn’t stop the U.S. Men’s National Team from trying to recruit Balogun to their side, starting back in 2023, when a supposed “secret meeting” in Orlando was accidentally leaked by Balogun himself, resulting in a full-on recruiting spree that involved Yankees spring training tickets, court side seats to the Magic and a barrage of American flag emojis under every one of his posts.

And although Balogun’s agent would later admit that his parents had been pushing him to play for the U.S. for years, Balogun himself says that it wasn’t until he saw the “full force of U.S. fans” that he knew he was meant to represent the country where he was born.

Why isn’t Minnesota hosting any World Cup matches?

Just think about it, they have a state-of-the-art stadium, located right in the middle of the continent, and have already hosted massive events, like the:

However, the reason why actually reveals a $430 million problem that no one seems to know anything about.

Expensive Requirements: Most fans might not realize it, but the bidding process for this summer’s World Cup actually happened all the way back in 2018. At the time, Minneapolis was one of 18 U.S. cities in the running to host matches this summer, but just one day before the U.S., Canada, and Mexico submitted their final bid, the city pulled out, citing “unacceptable demands” from FIFA.

But what were they asking for?

Well, once North America was selected to host the 2026 Men’s World Cup, all 16 host cities had to formally agree to spend upwards of $150 million each to pay for the logistics, security, and infrastructure required to host the world’s largest sporting event.

Footing the Bill: While some places, like Kansas City, spent over $86 million in taxpayer money to foot this bill, in Minnesota, state and local politicians were far more hesitant to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to host six World Cup games.

Which meant it would have been up to corporations and private donors to raise that money. The only issue was that, at the same time FIFA needed commitments to host the 2026 World Cup, Minneapolis was in the middle of raising $50 million from those same corporations and donors to host the 2018 Super Bowl, which it put on without any direct public subsidies.

Not to mention, FIFA was also reportedly requesting that a two-month “no-go” zone be created around U.S. Bank Stadium, where no other events could be held; meaning other massive sporting events being hosted this summer, ranging from WWE Summer Slam to the Savannah Bananas, likely couldn’t have happened.

Silver Lining: Still, that hasn’t stopped state and local officials today from asking “what if?”

In fact, two state legislators, one democrat and one republican, have even introduced a bill that would take the extra state sales tax revenue generated during sporting events and put it into an account that could be used to bid for future events, which they claim would help that state recapture an estimated $430 million in lost revenue from events like the the Men’s World Cup the state has missed out on hosting.

I guess there’s always the 2031 Women’s World Cup…

What the hell is this thing around every World Cup referee’s head?

Well, even though most fans might assume that it’s just some gimmicky camera, this tiny device could actually help solve one of the biggest problems in football.

Been There, Done That: Putting a camera on a sports official is actually nothing new. In fact, across almost every major sport, we’ve seen some version of a POV camera strapped to an umpire's helmet or a referee’s hat.

However, many of those earlier versions seemed to suffer from the same couple of problems. Not only are they often bulky and uncomfortable to wear, but because they can’t be wired directly into the broadcast, the footage captured is usually delayed, low-quality, and extremely shaky.

That’s why, for the past two years, a company out of Germany has been testing and developing a new kind of device, but what makes it so unique?

System Setup: While most referee cams have historically only been able to provide video footage as replays because of the delay and wireless interference caused by tens of thousands of devices being in one place, each “RefCam” being used in the 2026 FIFA World Cup actually connects to its own private network of 5G routers around every stadium — allowing the footage captured on these cameras to now be piped from a transmitter pack strapped to each ref’s arm or back, directly into the live broadcast.

But then there’s the issue of shakiness. Unlike baseball umpires or American football referees, who often stand in one place for long periods, World Cup referees are constantly running up and down the pitch, resulting in raw source footage that’s honestly nauseating to watch.

Clean Delivery: That’s why, before any footage goes out over the broadcast, it’s first routed through one of several on-site servers, each running its own machine learning algorithm to determine what the camera is actually looking at. Then, depending on what the camera sees, a specific smoothing algorithm for that exact background will activate, helping remove shakiness by 50%.

Still, that’s not even the coolest part.

Because, evidently, FIFA is so confident in this little camera, which actually only weighs 14 grams, that it’s not only using it during its live broadcasts to billions of people, but for the first time ever, World Cup referees are now being shown their own clips in post-game debriefs to review their performance with their bosses.

Meaning there’s finally a way for officials to be held accountable the same way players and coaches are.

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👋🏻 Happy Friday!

Before I tell you what I paid to see the U.S. play Australia, just know this wouldn’t be possible without the incredible people at TickPick. They’re literally the only place I’ve bought tickets for 5+ years, and they’ve been a huge supporter of me, allowing me to do once-in-a-lifetime things like see a World Cup game in person.

Ok, I spent $2,275 per ticket (I bought 2x).

Go U.S.A 🇺🇸