Matt Valentine: Signing Chicharito, Buying Dallas Trinity FC, and Two Clubs in One Stadium

Atletico Dallas chairman Matt Valentine reveals the signing of Javier Hernandez and explains why he now owns two professional clubs sharing the Cotton Bowl.

Valentine is chairman and founder of Atletico Dallas, which acquired Dallas Trinity FC from the league in June and now runs both clubs under USL Dallas LLC. He walks through why the operation will play 37 games in 38 weeks at the Cotton Bowl, and what he does and does not control in a stadium owned by the City of Dallas, where parking and food and beverage revenue largely stay with the city. He details the youth business underneath it: Renegades Soccer Club, rebranded Atletico Dallas Youth, now 180 teams, just under 3,000 players, and over seven million dollars in revenue at an eight to fifteen percent net margin.

The conversation gets into the parts that are harder to sell. Valentine says there are almost no savings on the sporting side, that Garland walking away from the stadium project was a real setback, and that municipal negotiation looks nothing like buying pipeline right of way in the energy business. He argues that investors outside Texas misread the market, that Dallas County holds 2.7 million people with FC Dallas 38 miles away in Frisco, and that division level matters far less than community and ticket sales. He also breaks the news, 48 hours ahead of Fabrizio Romano's exclusive, that Javier Hernandez has signed as the club's first player.

What we cover:
- Buying Dallas Trinity FC from the league rather than from the Neal family
- Why 14 player departures were expiring contracts and not a fire sale
- Where women's sponsorship could outperform the men's side in Dallas
- The Cotton Bowl tenancy, 37 games in 38 weeks, and the revenue the city keeps
- Garland's exit and the 15,000 seat Division One threshold
- Signing Javier Hernandez and what it does to jersey and ticket projections

Matt Valentine is chairman and founder of Atletico Dallas, a USL Championship club kicking off in 2027, and built Rimrock Midstream in oil and gas infrastructure.

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Chapters:
CHAPTERS

00:00 Welcome back and the World Cup
03:11 How the Dallas Trinity FC deal happened
06:33 Front office synergies and sporting costs
09:37 Why women's sponsorship could outperform
10:58 Cotton Bowl parking and food revenue
12:01 Soccer specific stadium and mixed use district
15:21 What the Trinity books looked like inside
17:16 The fourteen player exits explained
21:02 Hiring one man for two jobs
24:30 Buying Renegades and building 180 teams
28:20 Garland walks away from the stadium
36:11 What smart money misreads about Dallas
43:59 Signing Javier Hernandez as first player
49:19 A twenty year bet on demographics