notlad

[Sam Mahmood @TheSammahmood_]

The U.S. soccer federation is a poor return on invested capital.

I played soccer for 20+ years.

Grassroots.
Academy.
D1 college.
Pursued professionally after.

And I’ll say the quiet part out loud:

The US soccer infrastructure is broken.

In America, we treat playing D1 soccer like it is the peak achievement.

For most families, clubs, coaches, and players, the entire youth soccer machine is built around one goal:

Get recruited.
Get a scholarship.
Play college soccer.

But if the objective is to produce world-class players, D1 soccer is a terrible development path.

From 18-22, some of the most important technical development years of your career, you are preparing for a 3-4 month season built largely around athleticism, direct play, set pieces, fitness, and survival.

Now compare that to an 18-year-old in Spain, Argentina, Morocco, Italy, England, or France.

That player has likely been in a professional environment for years.

Training daily.
Playing meaningful matches year-round.
Competing against grown professionals.
Getting thousands more touches.
Learning how to solve the game under pressure.

The gap is massive.

And it shows.

American players are usually athletic.
They are usually fit.
They usually compete hard.

But at the highest levels, that is not enough.

The biggest difference is technical comfort.

We do not move the ball like Spain.
We do not combine like Argentina.
We do not play with the same fluidity, rhythm, and confidence you see from countries where the game is embedded into the culture from childhood.

That comes down to volume.

Volume of touches.
Volume of street soccer.
Volume of futsal.
Volume of unstructured play.
Volume of high-level training environments.
Volume of meaningful games.

In the US, youth soccer is expensive, overly organized, overly coached, tournament-driven, and too often built around winning games at 13 instead of developing players for 23.

Parents spend thousands.
Clubs charge thousands.
Travel teams fly all over the country.
Showcases become the product.
Recruiting becomes the scoreboard.

But the return on invested capital is poor.

We probably spend more money on youth soccer than almost any country in the world, yet the technical output does not match the investment.

That is a broken operating model.

And like any business, if the output is weak, you do not blame the customer.

You inspect the system.

The US has talent.
The US has athletes.
The US has money.
The US has facilities.

But the foundation is wrong.

We built a pay-to-play, college-recruiting machine and confused it for a world-class player development system.

Those are not the same thing.

Until we fix the grassroots layer, increase meaningful touches, make development less dependent on family income, and stop treating college soccer as the top of the mountain, the US will keep underperforming relative to its resources.

I’m not saying this to trash US Soccer.

I’m saying it because I lived it.

And if we actually want to become a powerhouse, we have to be honest about the infrastructure first.

[Marc Andreessen 🇺🇸 @pmarca]

Many people are saying.

[notlad @notlad005]

@CoachDanGo Too bad you left out the best device. Garmin.

[notlad @notlad005]

@DustyLikins Whites or blues just curious

[JonathanYarwood @JonathanYarwood]

Rory is a Brilliant driver of the golf ball ⛳️👍👌🏼 here’s a couple of keys to help you improve 👌🏼Wind up into trail side>>>shift lower body first >>>>keep head behind it. (source vid @KraftyGolf_ )

[notlad @notlad005]

@Fit_For_Golf Is that what the alignment sticks are helping with? Not sure I understand. Thanks

[ProFootballTalk @ProFootballTalk]

Warren Buffett tells the truth about sports betting in the simplest possible terms: "It's a tax on stupidity." https://t.co/SCRAlbbsx1

[Joe Pompliano @JoePompliano]

Rory McIlroy is an investor in Whoop, wears one of the company's wristbands while playing, and allows the brand to share his data periodically.

Here are some of his Masters highlights:

• 24,000+ steps on Sunday
• 91,000+ steps during the tournament

Rory's heart rate spiked to 135 BPM during his tee shot on 18, dropped to 121 BPM during his approach shot, fell further to 105 BPM during his winning putt, and then jumped back up to 150 BPM during his celebration.

His resting heart rate for the week was 47-49 BPM.

Rory says he follows a strict routine during the PGA Tour season to ensure proper rest and recovery:

• No caffeine after 2 PM
• Last meal at least 2 hours before bed
• Magnesium and theanine for sleep quality
• Blue-light-blocking glasses in the evening
• Sauana or Epsom salt bath when available
• Cool room temperature for sleep

He follows the same three-hour routine before every round: arrive at the course → warm up in the gym → eat breakfast → hit balls on the range → putting green.

Rory says he believes his focus on longevity will help him play another 10+ years at a high level, and his physiological age on Whoop is now 1.5 years younger than his actual age.

Plus, it turned out to be a pretty good investment.

Rory initially invested in Whoop in 2020 when the company was valued at $1.2 billion. While we don't know exactly how much he invested, Whoop recently raised another round at a $10.1 billion valuation.

That's an 8.4x multiple in five years.

Not bad, not bad.

[notlad @notlad005]

@Fit_For_Golf If u want (accurate)data, wear a Garmin

[Fit For Golf - Mike Carroll @Fit_For_Golf]

It’s primarily a marketing company 🙂

[Ethan @EthanHoliday2]

John after beating Peter to the tomb

[Patrick Mahomes II @PatrickMahomes]

He is Risen! 🙏🏽✝️

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

Nike wiped out $200B+ in market cap since November 2021. And the chart actually understates how bad it is.

This company made one bet that destroyed everything: the direct-to-consumer pivot. During COVID, Nike's online sales surged, and management convinced themselves the stay-at-home economy was permanent. They pulled product from Foot Locker, Dick's, and thousands of wholesale partners to push buyers through https://t.co/QAXD8gsLJf and Nike stores.

That ceded physical shelf space to On Running, Hoka, New Balance, and every competitor happy to fill the void. By the time Nike brought Elliott Hill in as CEO, customers had already moved on.

The China numbers are staggering. Seven straight quarters of declining revenue. Greater China sales dropped 17% last quarter. Next quarter Nike expects a 20% plunge. Meanwhile Lululemon is posting double-digit growth in the same market. Anta and Li-Ning are eating Nike's share from below. Nike's China revenue contribution fell from 18.6% in 2021 to 14.2% in 2025.

Yesterday Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Bank of America all downgraded the stock on the same day. Net income fell 35% year over year. Gross margin has declined for seven consecutive quarters. And the stock still trades at 38x forward earnings, a premium over the S&P 500 average of 22x.

This is what a slow-motion brand collapse looks like with a luxury multiple attached to it. The turnaround keeps getting pushed further out. Management promised growth by early 2027. Wall Street priced that in. Now it's late 2027 at best.

The scariest part: Nike is still the #1 sportswear company by market cap. If this is what #1 looks like, the rest of the industry is running a different race entirely.