I'm a friend in the context that we helped fight a battle together for survival of the American Football League. But I don't consider myself close to Al in recent years. You just don't continually sue your business partners like he has.

Well, we've made huge strides since the 1990 World Cup, USA '94, and obviously since '98. Unfortunately, those strides only register with the public once every four years.

I get asked this a lot: Why has soccer not succeeded? My answer is, soccer has succeeded. It is already the fastest growing youth participation sport in the U.S. It has already succeeded at the youth level, no question.

I have kiddingly called it the 'Super Bowl,' which obviously can be improved upon.

It isnt easy to put all of the ingredients together and one of the key things is this is the first time theres been a real, significant governmental body participation. In our case, its Collin County and the City of Frisco, the Frisco Economic Development group and the Frisco Independent School District. Those bodies, and Hunt Sports Group, obviously, put money into the project, and that has helped make it work.

The equality of play was a surprise-it was the most competitive race in the seven-year history of MLS.

We're looking at ideas to remodel Arrowhead Stadium. It's 30 years old and it's not a good American soccer stadium. We're looking at ways to improve Arrowhead-which is oriented for NFL games--for our spectators.