Pitch to Pro
Pitch to Pro is the official podcast of Ozark United FC. This will be our platform to tell our story about the club and the special place that we call home, Northwest Arkansas. This is a journey. We want to bring you along for the ride. We'll share what's going on behind the curtain, help educate the community at large about soccer, Our league, and give updates on the progress of the club along the way.
Together, we'll explore and unpack our journey to professional soccer, the magic that is NWA, our community, and talk all things soccer from on the pitch to behind the scenes, telling the story of our club.
Pitch to Pro
Stoppage Time Special: The Magic of Community Through Soccer
In this special Stoppage Time edition of The Pitch to Pro Podcast, we revisit one of the most heartfelt and powerful moments from a past episode—an honest reflection on the indescribable magic of Northwest Arkansas and the unifying spirit of soccer.
You’ll hear a behind-the-scenes glimpse from Mayor Greg Hines into the intentional process of building a professional club that’s not just about wins and business metrics, but about people, place, and purpose. From grassroots beginnings to the visionary impact of Ozark United FC, this conversation touches on everything from Ted Lasso to community identity and what happens when a sport becomes a shared cause.
Whether you're a longtime local, a recent transplant, or just someone who believes in the power of connection, this short but moving segment captures why the beautiful game means so much more off the field.
welcome to the stoppage time edition of the pitch to pro podcast. This is a highlight reel of some of the best moments from the show so far, and every other week we will be bringing you a special five to seven minute segment featuring the best stories, tales and moments of the podcast well, I'm glad you find it as hard to describe as I did, because I thought maybe it was just me, um, but but that's, that's kind of uh, it's good to know.
Speaker 2:Actually it's comforting, I guess, to know that, that, um, it is just something special that's hard to put into words and and whether you grew up here or you transported here and you bought into it, it's still hard to figure out what it is.
Speaker 1:It's a feeling. Yeah, it is, it's. It's a magical feeling too, um to to be embraced and welcomed um, you know, by and large, by by the general populace. So um in in a way that is just so above and beyond, um being kind to your neighbor and I think that's kind of what y'all embody also.
Speaker 2:I mean, if you look at the organization, you look at the sort of the mission vision, not not legal, you know it's league wide. But even more specific to this footprint here is is the intentionality of just a community of it. It's it's. It's a professional sport. It's a huge deal, it's exciting to so I mean, it's as exciting to as many adults as it is children. But I mean, you just look across the spectrum, um, and I didn't play soccer. It just wasn't a sport that was widely played here.
Speaker 2:It is now, of course, and I've watched it, you know, watched it expand and it developed my own sense of you, know what it, what it means to be a fan.
Speaker 2:Of course, you know, ted Lasso probably helped all of us understand on a much bigger level, what, what soccer and how nuts it is um at the fan base but um, but I, but I think that's one of the things that I've really appreciated through throughout this process um, trying to get off the ground is it's just that, that it's it's.
Speaker 2:It's a business, it's a business right, and you're not running a non-profit, but at the same, there seems to be as much excitement and thought, real thought, put into how are we a part of the community as much as can we raise the capital, can this work? I'm hearing and what I've observed from you know, kind of your, your team, is that they know it doesn't matter if the, if, the, if it pencils out, that's great, but if you're not part of the community, it's not going to be sustainable. And so I, you know, I just think that's a, I think that's a, really, it's a testament to, to, I think probably what for me looks like this, this whole package management team, this, this kind of holistic approach, that that's what success usually is bred out of.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, and thank you, it has been very intentional. Yes, look, listen, at the end of the day, we are a business and we need to be such, to continue and make sure that we have this incredible offering to bring and be a part of the community. But we are not successful without the support of the community. And how do you? You know, and not just support from the community, but it's also about that's the what, but it's also about the how. About that's the what, but it's also about the how and being, as you've seen, very intentional along the way we continue to hit on it is this is not our club.
Speaker 1:Everybody wants to know what the name is going to be. That's probably what's the name going to be. What's the name going to be, what's the crest, what's the colors? And we've been very intentional about making sure that we get so much feedback so that we feel good about when we're asked why is the name this, why is the color this, why is the crest this? We can point back to our process, which has been involving the community at multiple stages, across multiple mediums, at different times, and truly trying to capture the voice of the different pockets and sectors of our community, across multiple backgrounds and peoples and that takes time, yeah, and to sift through it. What do people really mean? What do they want? Why do they love NWA? And I think we touched about a little bit about why you and I love Northwest Arkansas. It's that magic that we feel, that spirit about living here, along with many other things, but that is, to your point, very, very intentional and it's we're really. I'm a big soccer guys. I played soccer nerd self-professed.
Speaker 1:Ted Lassa does a really nice job, by the way, so don't ever feel bad about bringing him up and how much you loved it because it was, or you know if you didn't but, it that that show actually it's crazy because people joke about like, oh, I'm just a ted lasso soccer fan that show did such an incredible job of not just the drama and the action and like the great writing and show, but of of showing what soccer culture is and the highs and lows of kind of, you know, promotion and relegation, which is a whole other conversation about moving up and down.
Speaker 1:It's kind of foreign to american sports but, um, it did a really great job of understanding what soccer culture is and grassroots in that small pocket community, right, and that's what we're trying to bring here and so we're so excited about and and what gets us up in the morning at least you know our, our team today is impact that we can have off the field yeah, that's. And and the relationships that we can build with our communities off the field. I love and I'm so excited about people being passionate and excited about what's going to happen in the games and the matches and coming to the games and the chance and all those things. Being season ticket holders, we need those things, we want those things. Just know that it's, that's the, the meat of of what. Why, why is it exciting to do what you do us, or or Warren or Chris, and it's the power and impact of sport off the field and how we can help unify, uplift and propel our community, and that's what we're hopefully going to be able to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think soccer, soccer, uniquely above any other sport, really puts you in a place to have a conversation where it's a whole community coming together to support the team or to support cause. Um, and and and. There's just few. There's just few other opportunities that I, that I've been exposed to that sort of, from a broader perspective, bring everybody together in a common cause.
Speaker 2:And, god knows, in the environment we live in today, regardless where you fall on the political lines or religious lines or any of those things, there's just not a lot that we're all agreeing on and and and and coalescing towards.
Speaker 2:We can't even agree and coalesce towards. You know peace around the world and what that looks like. So you know, without taking it to that level, I'm this there's just few opportunities for for you know the someone in the C-suite at Tyson, you know Tyson, to meet up with someone that just started at their processing plant on Old Ridge Street and sit in proximity to one another and holler and scream and coalesce behind a team, and then how that translates off the field is that the exposure to and invitation to participate in community-driven events, um, and the passion to do that, may only be the hook to the team because you feel obligated, you feel like you owe your team, you know to, to get involved outside of and, and so whatever brings those people together and creates those conversations um, you know it, it really matters Not what started it, it's the product that that she ended up with at the end of the day.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us for this stoppage time special of the pitch to pro podcast. If you've enjoyed the conversation, you can click watch the full episode here. Be sure to tune in next Thursday for a new episode of the Pitch to Pro podcast, the official podcast of Ozark United FC, available on YouTube, instagram and everywhere you get your podcasts.