I'm putting America on notice!

Are you ready for the Tartan Army?

A few things come to mind when thinking about the World Cup chat from the past few weeks. I’ll share them in a moment, but first to say…

I’m putting you on notice, my American friends, because a tartan army - the likes of which you haven’t seen since the Highland Clearances - is headed your way.

June next year, Scotland is coming for the World Cup, and our host cities have been confirmed.

We aren’t playing in co-hosts Canada or Mexico, which we certainly would have enjoyed as well. We are playing in Boston ( 13 and 19 June), and Miami (24 June).

I am going to do EVERYTHING in my power to be there. No, I WILL be there. But I may need help. If you live close to any of those cities and may accept a lodger, please let me know… 😊

Oh, and I’ll of course be vlogging the whole thing.

And I actually think Scotland will go beyond the group stages, meaning we will play in more cities beyond these dates, but we won’t know this until the time.

The World Cup chat has revealed a few things to me…

I think a lot of my followers don’t get it

What I mean is, football. Or soccer to you guys. For us in Scotland, it is literally everything - something between a religion and a cult.

When I talk about the World Cup, it seems as though many don’t understand how important it is to us Scots. Us qualifying for the World Cup is a HUGE deal, and we will be there in very big numbers, even if we cannot go to the actual games. Scotland fans are called the Tartan Army, and you’ll see why come next June.

Some of my followers say “we only watch American football, but go Scotland”. I actually think this will change.

Domestic soccer is soaring in popularity within the US, while younger generations are more tuned in to soccer than ever before. There’s a very real chance it will join the ‘big four’ sports within the US before long. The trends for some of those big four are actually in decline.

I saw that the President even suggested the NFL may need to rebrand, but I’ll not involve myself with such controversy.

Meanwhile, it’s said that the World Cup will be like 104 Super Bowls happening all within one month. That’s the scale of what’s happening.

Americans don’t seem as fazed by ticket prices

Maybe I’m wrong about this, but it does seem this way. This is set to be the most expensive World Cup ever, and by our standards, the ticket prices are absurd beyond belief, while many of my American friends kind of shrug their shoulders as if to say “that’s the price”.

Out of the box tickets, which sold out in seconds, are $400 and up. This is unreasonable for us. Meanwhile, on resale some of the final stage matches are going for tens of thousands of dollars.

I fear many members of the Tartan Army will be left disappointed, myself included. But, we’ll still be there.

There’s an unprecedented opportunity for connection

So many Scots coming to America and we are going to be in constant party mode. I’m often asked what we think of America, and there’s a huge opportunity for the two sides to come together and join the festivities.

It’s going to be fascinating to see how fans from around the world will get to know the America that I have spent a large amount of time traveling through and getting to know and love.

This word is overused, but there’s no other way to describe it: it’s going to be epic!

For Scotland, we don’t expect to do well. Getting beyond the group stages will be great, but beyond that it’s all just a bonus.

As long as England doesn’t win, we’ll be just fine and happy.

World’s Largest McDonald’s

My new vlog is out now on YouTube. We were in Orlando, saw that it has the largest McDonald’s in the world, AND that it also sells pizza, so we had to go there.

Some viewers question why I go to fast food places in America, and there’s a truth in there that I don’t often speak about.

When I’m in America for 2, 3 or 4 weeks at a time, eating becomes extremely expensive. From all of my experiments, when you include taxes and tips, fast food is by far the cheapest way to eat out in America. Financially, when I’m on these long trips, I have to make sure I’m not totally blowing up my bank account, and fast food is the best way.

Plus, I like to eat it as well. Don’t get me wrong - I LOVE good home cooked food in America at mom n pop places, but it’s just not always practical or sustainable.

Here’s the video:

Something else…

Ok, this is a niche one…

I love music of all kinds, but especially electronic music. I like 70s/80s disco, i like house, and I like techno. I stumbled upon a content creator from Hawaii who makes these live improvised daily ambient synth sessions, and I’m totally hooked.

He’s called Wunderfish, and he has this incredible collection of toys and gadgets - some of which take sounds from the vibrations of real live plants and turns them into music.

He uses all this to do daily live and improvised ambient and chilled synth jams, and I just really enjoy them. If that sounds like it might be your thing as well, go over and follow him, and let him know I sent you if you tune in to one of his daily live streams.

Lastly, my newsletter now has a leaderboard, meaning if you use the ‘refer a friend’ link below and share it, and your connections join us here, you can get free membership:

That’s it for this week - thanks for tuning in!

Shaun