Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Kelly Walker / Speaker A: Hi and welcome to Hustle and Pro, episode 204. I'm your host, Kelly Walker. Today we're going to come from you from Toyota Stadium. We're going to have a brief conversation with an FC Dallas player. We're going to look at what's going on at the stadium and talk about how they're kicking off their MLS season so far. Enjoy this episode as we talk to FC Dallas goalie Michael Collodi.
Do people call you Lode? Is that a nickname?
[00:00:27] Michael Collodi: One person has called me that.
[00:00:30] Kelly Walker: Do you have a nickname?
[00:00:31] Michael Collodi: No, it's just my. I'm just going by my last name normally.
[00:00:34] Kelly Walker: Okay.
[00:00:34] Michael Collodi: It's normally just Collodi.
[00:00:35] Kelly Walker: Tell me, just briefly, like, what. What's the path that you got to the MLS in your own words?
[00:00:41] Michael Collodi: Yeah. So I joined the FCLS Academy in. It was 12, so I think 2013, something like that.
[00:00:48] Kelly Walker: You were 12?
[00:00:48] Michael Collodi: Mm. And so I was there through 2019, in which I went to. I did four and a half years at Columbia just because Covid happened during it. So there's a whole lot of logistic stuff with there. Then I came backside with North Texas for the 2024 season and then signed with FC Dallas for 2025.
[00:01:08] Kelly Walker: Okay. And so we're here at the end of March, and you just got your first start. So was that Saturday? Just a couple days ago?
[00:01:15] Michael Collodi: Yep.
[00:01:15] Kelly Walker: And it was, I guess, a little unusual of a game. So. So what are you thinking when you're out there and like, what, 23rd minute there's a red card? And so how does that change your strategy and that, like, does it take, like, a little bit off of you for a second?
[00:01:28] Michael Collodi: I think naturally that's kind of what everybody's first reaction is. But it's kind of the idea is what. In what we had at halftime speech as well is kind of we can't let off because, I mean, you're still. You still have to play the game and you can lose the 10 men, and we've seen it happen before, so that was just something we wanted to make sure we didn't. An advantage that we didn't want to let go of.
[00:01:50] Kelly Walker: Right. As a fan, I saw. I'm like, oh, that's great. You know, great for you. But then it's kind of like you. That's also a trap, right?
[00:01:57] Michael Collodi: Yeah, exactly.
[00:01:58] Kelly Walker: Okay, now we can lay off a little bit.
[00:01:59] Michael Collodi: Yeah, you don't want to get comfortable with it.
[00:02:01] Kelly Walker: Right, Exactly. What's your support system here locally? Like, how long have you. Have you built a family and a Group in this. In Frisco. In this area.
[00:02:08] Michael Collodi: Yeah. So I grew up here. So I was. I was born in Plano and then I grew up in Frisco just 15 minutes down, down the way. And so my parents are still here in Carrollton, so they are around for everything. They flew out to Utah for the Salt Lake game, so they were there for that as well. So. But I mean a lot of went through high school here, so I have a lot of friends here. But a big part of it's just the club because I've known everybody in here since I was. Since I was younger, since I was a teenager. So that's a huge part of it.
[00:02:35] Kelly Walker: High school was Plano or Frisco.
[00:02:36] Michael Collodi: I went to Lone Star because of academy.
[00:02:39] Kelly Walker: Because you were in the academy by then. Yeah, yeah, I knew that. I should have known that. You said Plano.
[00:02:44] Michael Collodi: That's just the hospital. I was born. I lived in Frisco.
[00:02:46] Michael Collodi: I lived out of the southeast by Lake Centennial and all of them.
[00:02:49] Kelly Walker: So you claim Frisco.
[00:02:50] Michael Collodi: I am in Frisco. I was just born. Born in Plano, technically.
[00:02:54] Kelly Walker: Gotcha. So your family's able to come to matches and watch you?
[00:02:57] Michael Collodi: Yep, they come to everything they can.
[00:02:59] Kelly Walker: Just curious from your point of view, growing up here and playing here forever. So a couple things.
Is it game or match?
[00:03:08] Michael Collodi: I normally go with match.
[00:03:10] Kelly Walker: Field or pitch?
[00:03:13] Michael Collodi: Depends. It's. We grow up in the US So it's field.
[00:03:17] Kelly Walker: Do you say field? I do.
[00:03:19] Michael Collodi: I flip flop you do you sometimes.
[00:03:21] Kelly Walker: You do say pitch?
Michael Collodi: Yeah.
Kelly Walker: Cleats or boots?
[00:03:25] Michael Collodi: Boots.
[00:03:25] Kelly Walker: Okay. So that's a no brainer. It's always boots kit or jersey kit.
[00:03:30] Michael Collodi: Match kit.
[00:03:31] Kelly Walker: Okay. Oh, do you say football?
[00:03:35] Michael Collodi: Yeah, I do sometimes. I like. I like using football. I think it's the correct term.
[00:03:38] Kelly Walker: So like if you were to meet a stranger and they say what do you do? What do you say?
[00:03:41] Michael Collodi: No, I say soccer. Because if he is in the US if you say football, I assume American football.
[00:03:46] Kelly Walker: Right, Right. Okay. So then with the World cup coming through next summer, who would you most want to see come through here and stay? Like a delegation that's going to be up here in Frisco. Like what delegation would you be most excited, Excited to see up here?
[00:03:59] Michael Collodi: The U.S. i mean, tried and true, but no, I mean I think any beat it'd just be fun to get out and get a. Get a match here or just have them around, whether it's using the training facilities, training here, whatever for sure.
[00:04:13] Kelly Walker: What goalies did you grow up watching and taking some, you know, tips from.
[00:04:19] Michael Collodi: Yeah. So my, I always go. So I have my like my three favorites of all time. So. So I have Casillas, who grew up watching him with Real Madrid and all that, Neuer and then Buffon. So those are my three favorite.
[00:04:33] Kelly Walker: What makes you like, maybe you pulled something from them, I don't know. But what's your signature? What makes you a strong goalie?
[00:04:41] Michael Collodi: I think something that I've worked hard to be really good at is just my ability to play with my feet and be able to play out and help and build out and stuff. So I think that's a very strong suit of my game.
[00:04:54] Kelly Walker: All right, let's look at where FC Dallas stands. We're six games into the MLS season and we are 32 and 1. So we beat Houston at Houston 21 with goals by Musa and Ulio. We possessed 44% of that game. We tie Colorado and Colorado 33 with goals by Padrino, Acosta and Moussa. We lose to Chicago at home 3 to 1 with that goal by Farrington. We actually possess 46% of that game. So more of the of the first two games, then we lose back to back games. We lose to Vancouver at home 1 0. Then we go to Salt Lake and win 1 0. That was the goal by Acosta and the red card in the 23rd minute that we referenced. So while we should have possessed a little more, we only had half of that game.
So 50% possession for the win over Salt Lake and then we finish out March with a 21 win at home against Kansas City with goals by Acosta and Leo Chu. So that puts us at 10 points and we are sixth in the Western Conference. Vancouver at the top of that conference and on the East Inter Miami is at the top of the Eastern Conference. So we'll check back in later on in the season.
I want to cover one more topic in this episode. It is the official kickoff for construction of Toyota Stadium's east side. The event to kick off happened this week and Mayor Frisco, Mayor Jeff Chaney, Moss Construction Senior vp, FC Dallas President Dan Hunt and FC Dallas Head coach Eric Quill were in attendance and had a few words to say about the kickoff for this construction event and I just want to make sure everybody knows where you can go find out more about it. Because this construction is a multi year project. The big obvious thing when you look at the renderings is the shade structures. So there's going to be coverings that are going to cover all seating areas to help give Shade during, during that nice hot Texas sun. There's going to be more concession stands, more restrooms, more clubs, elevated experience, even a new press box location and redesigned press box area. So when you head to newtoyotastadium.com that'll give you a ton of information, tons of pictures, a cool video, all that good stuff that you can see. So to wrap up this episode, I'm going to play a few clips from the speakers at the Toyota Stadium kickoff event this week. So hope you're excited about these renovations. It's going to be a little uncomfortable as we reduce capacity for the next couple seasons, but once it's done, it will be worth it. It will be an amazing venue for not only soccer, but football and all the other things that we use that facility for here in Frisco. So enjoy.
[00:07:46] Gina Miller: So on Tuesday, September 17, 2024, a lot of us in this room were across the street because it was a really, really big night. The Frisco City council unanimously voted to approve the $182 million public private partnership to renovate Toyota Stadium and begin development of the area surrounding Toyota Stadium, where we stand and Toyota Soccer Center. An incredible partnership like this would not happen without incredible leadership. And that partnership with the city of Frisco is the testament to and begins with incredible leadership. We are thrilled to partner with the city who has an incredible leader in Mayor Jeff Cheney and his team.
[00:08:30] Mayor Jeff Cheney: Thank you. Another exciting day for Frisco. I think it's almost fitting that it's raining today because a big part of the improvements is this beautiful roof covering that's going in the comfort of our fans in the future to protect them from the elements during future games. So I think it was meant to be here today. My name is Jeff Cheney, Mayor Frisco. I'm honored to be here supporting. You know, the original groundbreaking happened 20 years ago here. Who was here 20 years ago for the original groundbreaking? A lot of people out here. It was the middle of nowhere, literally in a farm field.
Our communication staff sent me some photos and you can I think see the tollway in the background which is I think a two lane asphalt road leading out here. An incredible vision from Horses Hunt Sports Group to believe in what was going to happening in this community. And now 20 years later we're having effectively a re groundbreaking of this amazing facility. And it's no longer the middle of nowhere. This is the middle of where everything is happening in North Texas. The epicenter of growth. Main street will go flow all the way through. There's major city investments happening here and it's going to be the heart of this community.
On behalf of our City Council, we're proud to partner with you. Thank you for being just an amazing community partner. We crown champions here from hosting FCS championships. We've seen concerts, lots of memories here. We won't talk about may of what happened at Jimmy Buffett concerts here over the years or Edge Fest or Oz Fest or all the amazing things that have happened in this facility. But this is to look Forward to next 30 years and continue to have FC Dallas as one of our partners. World cup is coming to the region here very quickly and it's only going to grow the popularity of the sport. And we're proud here in Frisco to be the home of the professional soccer team of Dallas. And so behalf of our residents that love coming to games here, love coming to events here, thank you for continuing to invest in our community. Thank you for investing in the stadium. I don't want to steal too much of Dan Sumner, but I've heard him say many years what his father would always say, which is if you take care of your city, he may take care of you. And this is our efforts to really lean in to make sure we're taking care of FC Dallas, our professional soccer franchise right here in Frisco, Texas. So again, thank you and congratulations.
[00:10:54] Gina Miller: As Mayor Cheney alluded to, you've seen some great events here at Toyota Stadium and you're going to see many more when Toyota Stadium fully reopens. I'm just curious, who here has been to an FCW Dallas match? Players, you can reach your thank you. Michael Poloti. Thank you. Clean sheet Michael Poloti. By the way, who's been to an FCS Championship game. Yep. Awesome event. Thank you council members. A Dallas cup match.
Pretty cool stuff. You see the future in Dallas Cup. How about a high school football game? Yep, been there too. Covered many of them here. North Texas SC match, won a championship here. How about a Hall of Fame induction season ceremony?
Pretty cool moment too. If you have experienced those congratulations. Why? Because you've probably seen the likes of PSV Eindhoven striker Ricardo Pepe, who came through the FC Dallas Academy through North Texas SC and played for FC Dallas. Probably saw Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Nick Bolton, who played high school football at Frisco Lone Star and played high school football right here on Toyota stadium. Probably saw U.S. women's national team star Jaden Shaw, Frisco resident Frisco native who played Dallas cup matches here. You might have seen U.S. men's National Team star Clint Dempsey show. And I see Kelly Walker shaking her head show an incredible show of emotion during his hall of Fame induction speech. Something that you rarely see from Deuce or you've seen this incredible roster of FC Dallas players right behind you. Thank you for being here. Gentlemen do incredibly special and enormous things.
A man who is truly pioneering and shaping our modern sports landscape. Of course, I'm talking about Lamar Hunt. You saw his statue right there on the north side of the stadium, center of the concourse there.
Visionary, pioneering. All the adjectives really don't do that man justice. His vision, though, is now carried on by his sons, FC Dallas chairman and CEO CEO Clark Hunt, who couldn't be with us here today, but FC Dallas president Dan Hunt is and would like to share with you how Frisco got to host Toyota Stadium. FC Dallas, all of us and much more.
[00:13:06] Dan Hunt: Thanks, Gina, and thank you for being here today.
I would be first remiss, not to mention John Wagner. Where are you? You're somewhere around here. There you are. Jimmy Smith, Billy Ray Johnson. Billy Ray is here. These guys have been with us for a long time and are really spearheading this project. And John and Nancy sitting next to you, you get a big thank you too for always being by his side, supporting us. Without them and their hard work, projects like this would never happen.
And I'd like to say special thanks to Wes Pearson. Where you're around here some. There you are. You're doing a great job. You're doing a great job for this city and this community. And so thank you for all of your hard work. And obviously, Mayor Chad, without your leadership and council and CDC and EDC and school district, this place is so special. But I thought I would take you guys down a little bit of memory lane for us and how we wound up here. We originally were going to build a stadium in another city and it just didn't work out. And I knew my father was down and his health was failing at the time. And he read a story in the Dallas Morning News about this community, this great Frisco community. And the head of it was George Purefoy, you know, the city manager, who across the hall is the great George Purefoy City hall, which is an amazing city building. My father said, I read this article about George and and I want to go sit down and visit with him about the possibility of finding a home for the then Dallas firm. So they went, had lunch, La Hacienda Ranch, for those who remember it.
And I remember waiting at our family office as my dad Came back in and I said, well, how did it go? And he said, we have a deal, Dan. He said, george Purefoy is a man of his word. We shook hands and we have a deal. And that really is Frisco, Texas. Right? That's what makes this place different and so special. And so you think about the good fortune of that and you know, we fast forward and Mayor Cheney referenced it, why we're at this point now is you take care of your stadium and it will take care of you. And this is a community that is thoroughly invested and thoughtful in doing that. And it's not just FC Dallas. It's all the great community assets. And that's again, when you have a council like this and a school district and different financial organizations like that that, you know, drive this economic engine that make this place so different. And then the final thing he said, as his health was really failing, was he said, guys, I put you in the right place. He said, I know where our. But I promise you this, in a number of years, Frisco will be the epicenter of dfw, he said. And I promise, he said, the toll road will also go to Oklahoma, which he was right about because it's headed that way. But he said, I promise you, you put it in the right place. And it wasn't because of the geography, right. It was because of the people. I look around the room and there's so many friends in this room and there's so much continuity when people, people have been working on this for so long. And so he was right about all those things. That was why he was such a visionary and he loved this game so much. He was so passionate about it. And this is really a hotbed. But, you know, we're getting ready to take the next gigantic leap forward in this. We're going to be building what I think is going to be the finest small soccer specific stadium in the entire world. All right? And I say that, you know, recognizing that this is a global game, but it will have more suites, it will have more club seats, it will have the largest video board. We're doing everything Texas size here. And as mayor, stole my thunder. We did cue the rain. That is why we are building a roof around this too today.
But, you know, so often I think back to these conversations I had with my dad and I'm sorry, thankful of the citizens of this city and this community, the taxpayers. Right. They deserve an economic return on what we're doing. We are going to literally program this thing to death. Right? He wanted as Many college football games as we could bring. He wanted concerts here. And so you have the promise from park myself that we are going to program this nonstop. You're going to continue to have MLS matches here. We're going to attract the national teams here, both the men's and women's national teams here. We hope to have a ton of playoff games and lift a lot of trophies here. But you know, as you think about the good fortune in life and circumstances, our great fortune was to wind up in a place that we feel loved and share the love back with such a great community. And the vision for this is to be the premier soccer in the entire world of its size. But I also comment on the fact, the vision of my dad to put 17 fields out there, it's been a total game changer. There are almost 2 million people a year that come through this facility and this truly is a factory of dreams. I look at our first team here and so many have come through the FC Dallas Academy and taken the pathway through either North Texas or to college in some cases, and come back home to have this opportunity to play professional soccer, the game that we love so much. And then I think about players like Nick Bolton at the Kansas City Chiefs, who's a star linebacker. I tell a funny story. I was with Nick recently, this last season, I said, hey, great news. We got stadium improvements improved at Toyota Stadium. Are you going to build a roof structure over? It was the first thing. And he said, you need, without even really looking at it, he goes, you need to build that roof in the northwest corner because that will shade the field and the stands on the east side. I guess that's why he's a Pro bowl linebacker and super bowl champion at different times. But this is just the beginning of this journey, right? And we have had an amazing 20 years, but we're long range investors and we're long range partners. And it's not about the next 20 years. It's now about what the next hundred years looks like and where this will take us and how we continue to grow FC Dallas, how we continue to grow North Texas, how we continue to grow the men's game, the women's game, support the school district, lift trophies here. Right. Because that's our number one objective and also ensure that the taxpayers receive a return on their investment. So I am so excited that you're here today to celebrate this great new beginning with us. I'm so thankful. I look forward to working with our friends at hks. They've done a fantastic job designing it. They've been our partner since day one. They built an unbelievable National Soccer hall of Fame. And I think this redo will be one of the nicest buildings. And, you know, selfishly, I look forward to supporting our first team players and hope that several of you represent your country in the upcoming World Cup 2026. So thank you guys for being here. Thank you for being a part of it. We have so many partners that we're so blessed to have. And as I tell everybody, I'm the luckiest person in the world. I have the greatest job. I get to grow the beautiful game that I love so much, and I get to do it with so many people that I love and care for. So thank you guys for being here today.
[00:20:26] Kelly Walker: Thanks for joining us for this episode of Hustle and Pro. Subscribe on YouTube and check us out on Instagram and we'll see you next episode.
