
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
Ep. 44 - What Makes Northwest Arkansas Ripe for Pro Soccer?
Ever wonder how waste management and professional soccer intersect? Andy McNeil, a successful Arkansas entrepreneur who built multi-million dollar environmental service companies, takes us on an unexpected journey through both worlds in this captivating conversation.
McNeil's business savvy shines as he explains how he transformed small waste management operations into industry leaders, including Denali—the largest food waste recycler in America with over a billion dollars in invested capital. But it's when the conversation shifts to soccer that his eyes truly light up. From coaching youth teams for 18 years to attending multiple World Cups and once finding himself in Roman Abramovich's owner's box at Chelsea, McNeil's soccer stories reveal why the beautiful game creates such powerful connections.
What makes this episode particularly valuable is McNeil's unique perspective on why professional sports—and specifically Ozark United FC—matter for Northwest Arkansas's future. "If we could leap forward 20 years and reflect back on today, what would set up Arkansas to be one of the best states? I think one of those things would be pro sports," he explains. This isn't just about entertainment; it's about economic development, talent attraction, and community identity.
The discussion also explores the remarkable investment opportunity soccer represents, with franchise valuations skyrocketing and the sport showing tremendous growth across all metrics in America. McNeil provides fascinating insights into why business fundamentals remain crucial even while building community-focused sports organizations, and why Ozark United FC's mixed-use development approach represents forward-thinking planning for the region.
Whether you're a soccer fan, business enthusiast, or simply care about Northwest Arkansas's future, this conversation offers valuable perspective from someone who understands both the boardroom and the beautiful game. Subscribe now and join us as we continue to explore the journey from pitch to professional soccer in NWA.
Pitch to Pro is the official podcast of Ozark United FC.
Speaker 3: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.
Speaker 2:Pitch to Pro Podcast is proudly sponsored by PodcastVideoscom by PodcastVideoscom.
Speaker 3:Podcastvideoscom is Northwest Arkansas' premier podcast recording studio, equipped with industry-leading equipment. The recording studio and services save you time, money and hassle. They are dedicated to helping you create, record and publish high-quality podcasts for your audience. Be sure to check them out today at podcastvideoscom. Hello everybody and welcome back to the Pitch to Pro podcast. I'm your host, wes Harris, managing Director for Ozark United FC, northwest Arkansas' pro soccer club playing in the United Soccer League Today. I'm super excited about our guest, mr Andy McNeil. He's an Arkansas-based entrepreneur and investor in environmental services and just loves the game, the beautiful game, and has just made his way through and found Northwest Arkansas and all other places of life in the US and investment, and we'll talk about all of your background, man, but just Andy. Thank you so much, man. I think you have just a really fascinating background and so happy to have you on our show and thank you for your support.
Speaker 1:Wes, I'm super pumped to be on. You know perhaps the thing that I you know, when I think about just my whole, just life journey, soccer has been a part of the whole thing, and so soccer is just one of those sports that I that I love for many different reasons. I like lots of sports, but in particular, I like soccer, and so I'm very grateful for all the hard work that you guys are doing and I'm really I'm cheering you guys on to be, you know, actually get it on the field and get it over the line.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thank you so much. It's, uh, as we've told people. It's, and you know we've had Warren on Chris on a bunch of times. Uh, it is a process and it I think we've been a little bit more out in the public throughout the process than maybe typical. You know, markets as they come on board, they typically just kind of say, hey, stamp. Markets as they come on board, they typically just kind of say, hey, stamp here's, here's the owner, boom, um, and you know you have soccer in a year.
Speaker 3:Versus, hey, this is what we want to do, and it takes a village and we're going to bring you along for the ride and we want you to know what we're doing. And then they're, you know, out in the public and and along for the ride for those multiple years that these projects take, um, and so this is not, uh, warren's first rodeo by any means and he's been very successful, uh, and then you have that combo with the passion of Chris, the local guy, and and just the market growth and all the things you know we've talked about, and it's just a recipe for what is we know is going to set us ourselves up for great success. Um, but I really appreciate you joining me here on the show today to talk about you know you, your background, how you found the game and what's exciting about just soccer in general in the U? S and then our project as well. So I always start with folks uh, a little bit about you and your background, man, and just kind of your journey.
Speaker 1:Excellent. Well, I guess I'll just start, you know, going back a little bit. So I've lived in Arkansas for a number of decades at this point, but I'm not really from here. I grew up in Atlanta, georgia, and Portland, Oregon. When I got out of college I moved to Arkansas. It just was going to be temporary. It was just going to be very temporary. It was actually for a large corporation and I was going to only be here for a few months and then move away. And I ended up meeting a girl. I said hey, don't marry me if you want to live in Arkansas, because I'm a big city kid. And then, of course, I've lived in Arkansas Pretty much all the time. That's a slight exaggeration how long, but pretty long. And so, at least from a business perspective and I'll make this short and then we can go into the soccer side so I've been pretty fortunate with the different things that I've done. I did management consulting after I got out of college and I lived in Europe for a while with that.
Speaker 1:When I was a little over 30, I moved back to Arkansas really to take care of a relative that was terminally ill, and again, that was supposed to be short term but it ended up being. I've lived here ever since then and really I joined up with a couple of small entrepreneurs and I've been broadly in the waste specialty waste recycling for a very long time. Since then I've had a number of different companies and I've been lucky with those. I don't know that you really have any reason to know any of these, but I'll mention a couple of them. So one of the more recent businesses is a company called Denali. Denali is a Russellville-based business but we operate throughout the United States. We are the largest recycler of organic waste or food waste in the US. It's actually become a fairly big business.
Speaker 1:I give Arkansas Business the magazine a little hard time because they don't include us in that magazine on their list of privately held businesses because we have capital from private equity firms and they have a controlling share at this point and so they don't count us as an Arkansas company. But if it was counted as an Arkansas company it'd be like the 24th, the 25th largest company in the state of Arkansas, which perhaps being on the list isn't all that important. But we're really proud about what we've all accomplished. Also, we had a trash business. That business now has morphed into a larger business called LRS, which perhaps in Northwest Arkansas. You've seen that I do a little private equity work and I still have a few little small businesses. So that's a little bit about the business side. Shall I tell you a little bit about the soccer side, unless?
Speaker 1:you want to know any more about the business side, because I can tell you a lot about that too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think give people a little bit more like that's such an interesting background, how did you get into the waste business? It's such an important industry and it's not one I think that's talked about enough. I want people to kind of understand what it is that you guys really do and focus on and how did you find that and kind of where is that going?
Speaker 1:So one of the things that happened when we think about waste just in general, historically, we've just gone to landfills, okay, and today, here today in the US, we've got landfill scarcity. It's about 1,200 landfills left in the United States. Very difficult to permit them. Look no further than the waste management Tontitown landfill in Northwest Arkansas. Right, that was under a lot of pressure. Will they extend the permit, will they not, etc. But there's not another landfill up there, you know, so you have to leave the state or go down to fort smith, um, and so, um.
Speaker 1:So a lot of things that have been in landfills historically are coming out of landfills, because we can recycle them, and, of course, anything that's a liquid or any hazardous waste it's got its own process, so I've been involved in a lot of different types of waste. Because we can recycle them, and then, of course, anything that's a liquid or any hazardous waste, it's got its own process, so I've been involved in a lot of different types of waste. The way that it started, though, was there was two guys that had a business, and this business was taking wastewater residuals, and what that means is it's the when you clean water and you turn, dirty water goes on a pipe into the black box, that cleans it and clean water goes into our watersheds. Well, you're going to have a byproduct that comes out the other direction, so you might call it sludge, bile solids. It has a lot of different names and there was a small little Arkansas company and this is going back 20 plus years ago, and there's two guys. They wanted a third partner and it was just sort of a fit, and so they made me a partner in their business.
Speaker 1:At the time I didn't know anything about any of these waste streams zero and so and what we were doing is we were taking these waste streams and when they had a beneficial reuse purpose, we used them as fertilizer on farm fields. And that's actually fairly complicated in the sense that you're looking at what's the conditions in the soil. So you're measuring all sorts of things in the soil mathematically, looking at the cover crop and then what you're going to use as fertilizer to mathematically calculate things like nitrogen, just as an example. And so that business morphed over time. We did things like nitrogen, just as an example, and so that business morphed over time. We did things like we invested in the Fayetteville Shale and we built a saltwater disposal well here. So that's taking fracking fluids and putting them down whole. We had a business where we're collecting fryer oil from restaurants.
Speaker 1:We ended up growing all these, selling them in pieces, and then I started businesses that were sort of similar, slightly different and, let's say, adjacent waste streams, and so one of those was food waste, and so 25% of what goes into the US landfills is food. Now, most all of it still goes into the landfills, but at scale. Grocery stores, hospital schools, prisons, casinos, things like that you're going to see start coming out of landfills, specifically in certain parts of the US. You might think about them as the blue and red states, but in these blue states there's not as many landfills in general, so there's more pressure to take things out. So that's what those materials are, and I can tell you more if there's any parts that you find interesting that you want to hear about.
Speaker 3:That's really, really interesting. I think the one thing that kind of rang true and you tell me if it's uh, if it's incorrect, but it it's. It's just another reminder, an example of you know, it's not necessarily the what, it's the who, um, that kind of helps make the world go around and just surrounding yourself with good people. You said you had no experience with waste whatsoever and you got introduced to these guys who you know were good folks that you surrounded yourself. They were looking for good folks and you try to do some good together.
Speaker 1:For sure it's a people business. I mean, I think that it's. It's. It's one of the things Wes, I would say too, is um, uh and, and I'm actually hoping to teach a class on this at the University of Arkansas.
Speaker 1:We're working that direction to talk about entrepreneurship and how you start some of these businesses, because people are, for sure, a huge element, just like what you guys are doing. Right, it requires all these different people, but it's more because you also have to really get the capital structures correct, you know. So the strategy's correct, there's all these little aspects, and so one of the secret sauces for what we're doing is just to give you a sense of this. Our business, you know it started off with just a few people and it's now got, you know, like you know hundreds and hundreds of people that work for the business. But formulating and putting the capital in the business is really, really important and, just using Denali as an example, it has over a billion dollars of invested capital in that business and attracting that capital.
Speaker 1:That's a hard thing to do and one has to understand, just like you guys are doing, for what you're doing right To get the capital to, because, as much as everybody wants pro sports. It's also not charity, right? You know everybody wants a return on their capital and they want to understand the game plan of how it works. It's no different places like Denali, you know. So you know you capitalize on trends by seeing the trends that are out there and you know servicing customers as best you possibly can with the best people with the right capital structure. So I think if you can do that, you can create businesses that aren't necessarily the sort of entrepreneur journey that is. You know that a lot of times we talk about where it's somebody starting a dot-com from scratch, you know, or a new product or something. These are existing businesses that we launch by doing all the things that I just said.
Speaker 3:And I love that and I was going to say this more towards the end, but it's here. These things navigate themselves a lot of the time in these conversations, which is great, but you hit on it is these are businesses at the end of the day, they're not charity projects and people invest in these things not because it's charitable and they want to see good come from it in the community. Yes, they do those things and they want to do good as sport through the vehicle, but they're investing in them because they're getting return on their investment. Um, at the end of the day. And so, from your lens I don't know how much you are watching or involved or not in the pro sports landscape, but as somebody who deals with large amounts of capital and handling that and watching deal flow and all of those things in kind of the VC world and being an entrepreneur and investor, Speak a little bit about, if you can, anything that you have seen from pro sports and maybe soccer in general from that lens.
Speaker 1:It's been an incredible transformation in pro sports over the last 30 years. No doubt about it. And who would have dreamed? Even if we go back and we look at what jerry jones did with the cowboys and I don't have these numbers memorized, but I think he put 250 million dollars, which people thought was insane when he did it, and you know, and I think it's one of the most valuable pro sports franchises in the world, you know, probably worth somewhere. You know, north of six billion dollars, just guessing, maybe even even more.
Speaker 3:Maybe it's even close to 10. Yeah, I think the last number I saw was like 9, 9.3 or something like that.
Speaker 1:And, as it relates to soccer, one of the things I think is super interesting to watch the growth is that you had I'm closing in on 60.
Speaker 1:And when I was in high school, both high schools that I went to I went to two different high schools had soccer teams, but plenty of people that I know that are my age went to places that didn't have soccer teams. Now that's not true today. I'm sure there's high schools in Arkansas that don't have soccer, but the vast majority of high schools all over the United States have soccer teams and most people that are younger generations played FIFA on an Xbox. They can tell you who Messi is, even if they don't love soccer. They still have some sort of working knowledge. If I went back to when I first started working in the 80s, if you had suggested at that time, let's take a customer out to a soccer game, that would not have been a thing. First off, you couldn't have done it. But let's just say you could have done it. You wouldn't have had guys that were running the things back then. The 56 year olds then would have been like, yeah, no, we're not going to do that. That's not true today, right? So that's a big change and just in terms of how people think about what they want to do and spend their time. But if we look at the MLS or even the secondary leagues, the USL, et cetera, these franchises have started off at small dollars. You could get into the MLS for 10 million bucks, not even that long ago Today, I think. San Diego I think they had to put $500 million up and build a stadium and I don't think they used a lot of public money on the stadium, but I could be wrong on that and they're doing it because they look at it and go this is the new frontier, and so I think it's super interesting in that regard.
Speaker 1:Let me say one other thing too. I think that's interesting as it relates to Arkansas, and this is true for me in a business sense, but I think it's true in sports too. I think that, look, if we could go leap forward 20 years in time and reflect back on today, right, and we just think like, what decisions could we make with, let's just say broadly, we're the governor of Arkansas, with all sorts of powers, let's say we can wave magic wands? What would be some of the things that we would do today that would set up Arkansas to be one of the best states in the United States. I think one of the things that we would do is have pro sports Right, because pro sports attract people to their neck of the woods, and I think that a soccer team makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1:And at least soccer even if we're saying okay and turning it into more common language for people, the minor leagues or the second league right, but it is one of the few sports where you could move up to the big times, right. It's got a possibility that doesn't exist in minor league baseball, right. It's not really a thing for basketball, nor is it really a thing for football, right, and so it is the gateway for us. So not only is it, it's good for Arkansas, it's a sport with a lot of trends. You know, it's something that you know, um, that we probably need if you were looking out 20 years.
Speaker 3:And that's such a huge thing. I mean even you know the Walmart uh local headquarter associate survey. You know, one of the most popular things uh over the last several years has been, you know, what are we missing? What do you wish you had? And this is, you know, I think, evident and showcasing across right. They just are the largest, probably the largest employer here in the state, but at least in Northwest Arkansas with their headquarter campus. And they what do you wish you had? Here Pro sports in their survey with the associates for the last several years.
Speaker 1:It's it's it's it really is important for the state. Yes, the state's not probably going to put a lot of money or any money into the program, but the state is a beneficiary, just to give you like another talking point on that. So I happen to be with some you know some a group of people that would be the type that would put money into the NIL programs at the University of Arkansas in a big way and they all looked at it interestingly as business development for the state. They love the Razorbacks but they viewed it as super important that the Razorbacks had, you know, good teams. They don't have to win the whole thing. It doesn't have to be like Alabama per se, although people might like that but if they're just consistently putting a high quality team on the field, whatever sport it is, that that's good for the state, and I think Ozark United is the same way.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it's really interesting.
Speaker 3:It's really interesting is to your point is how can these companies incentivize and and make it easier to recruit some of the top talent? Uh, you know, globally, not just in the U S, but I mean you're you're talking about global talent now and competing on the world stage. You know the more and more that Northwest Arkansas and Arkansas as a state is kind of showing up and you know good places to live, quality of life, all those things. You know that's great and it's it's kind of coming. But you know, as we kind of continue to evolve, what are those things that we're still missing or that we need, that aren't necessarily going to completely snap your fingers and solve like, oh, that's the number one place that I have to go to, but are they additional levers that you know you can point to and say look at the growth, look at all the things that we have now and and places to go, things to do, uh, and then things that continue to drive and build community and bridge some of those gaps that that exist.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, I don't think it is you know, so it's part of it for sure.
Speaker 3:Well, I love that and we talked a little bit about it, but how did you find the game? I always ask people this question, like how did you get introduced to soccer? What's your experience with the game? How did you either find it and grow up with it, or you found it later in life? What's your experience with the game?
Speaker 1:Well, so there happened to be a league close by my house when I was a little kid and I sort of played soccer when I was a kid and I played other sports too and I played, you know. So I played growing up, but what I would say was more of maybe more of an inflection point was when I was in my early twenties. I started playing with a group of guys in like a men's league Okay, Just, you know, a rec men's league but that meant so much as just an experience, you know, and so I would play every weekend. We had an indoor arena that we played at, and I have all of these fond memories and I had this opportunity to move to Europe and I got to play on a European team.
Speaker 1:I had to try out for this team but it was still and we had a coach, but it was still like a wreck men's league. But I had so much fun with that. And then, you know, I always tease my kids. So my kids are in their twenties or at least most of my kids are in their twenties and I tease them. If I could go back and, like, hop into their body, I'd go play soccer Not that I couldn't necessarily play today, but I can't do the same things that I used to do. There's just no way. And then, as my kids grew, I wanted to be the sort of dad that coached, and so I coached soccer for 18 years. And if you coach especially if you coach like in Russellville Arkansas like in Russellville Arkansas you end up also having to ref, because we don't have enough refs, and so guys like me would ref your team if you were coaching at the same time. I had a great time doing that.
Speaker 1:I also coached other sports, but I coached soccer and there's a lot of things about that I took particular pride in. I had people on the team that made I know it's not a thing today, but they made the state team. That was part of the Olympic development program when it occurred, which is a program that sought to identify pools of people within a state, then within a region and then in the nation, and I coach players that did a really good job doing that. One of the legacies that I really like and you may or may not know this, but Russellville High School has won a lot of state championships under this coach, jared Fuller. In fact, they just won their fourth in a row and I got to thinking about this my oldest son's. When he was a freshman. He was on the team and that was the first year that this coach, jared, who was a younger guy at the time, took them to the state championship, and both of my sons got to play in state championship teams, which was really cool, and I am particularly proud that a lot of the teams that did really well were boys that I coached.
Speaker 1:So it's probably not true, but the story I'm going to tell myself is that I handed the Russellville High School coach a state championship team and he just got to inherit the team that we grew me and the other coaches that we worked with. Probably not true. If he was on this podcast, he would probably say that's not exactly true, although I think he would be thankful for guys like me. So not to make this too long, but I've also been a fan, so I've always felt like that for a sport that did a lot for me, that I owed it something back, more than other sports that I played. So I've always been one that has been. You know, I'll subscribe to apple, in this case to watch mls. You know, um, and I like other you know and, and you know I've had all these I can go into I'll I'll pause there, but I can go into all sorts of fandom things that I've done Soccer.
Speaker 3:Let's do it. I'd love to hear the stories. These are great. I tell people I was. You know, everybody knows I'm a massive Liverpool fan. I'm a massive Steven Gerrard fan and I spent much more than I should to go to Anfield for his very last match at Anfield.
Speaker 1:So I got I have two stories. I love these stories Two stories for you. So, um, so this is going back, I don't know, 15 years ago maybe, maybe a little longer. I can't exactly remember which year was the very first year, um, but so I made it a point, cause I lived in Arkansas, of course, so I didn't get to see a lot of the games live, to go to the MLS championship game each year. Okay, so, not the first year, I think, but maybe the second year. I happened to pick the hotel where all the media and the teams were staying.
Speaker 1:Okay, now, if you go back far enough, you could have arrived in that city and you would have never known there was a championship game going on. Okay, not like if you know, versus like if you go to like the Super Bowl is not a great comparison because it's in the different stratosphere, but but, but you know. So when I got there, they had like like the floor mats where you might have, like you know, like wiped your feet on and it said like mls. I was like, wow, this city's really embracing this and literally there was like a picnic table with like a banner over it that said mls vip and like had two girls sitting there and they had like some like little teeny blow up soccer balls. So I went over to say like, and I I just thought it was like a welcome for anybody who's in town. So I went over there, talked to them and they said, oh well, you know, you know, they just started explaining it and and I didn't quite understand. But what it was was, if you were an owner, maybe a player that wasn't playing media, foreign teams, whatever, you would have been invited to this pre-game event, which was a really nice tent set up outside the stadium and connected to the stadium. But, more importantly, they would drive you in a bus to the stadium and connected to the stadium. And, but more importantly, they would drive you in a bus to the stadium. And so I said, well, like. They said, well, hey, well, here's two extra passes. So I go to the MLS VIP and when I get inside, of course it's all the guys that were like not all, but I recognized all sorts of people that were on the 94 uh world cup team and um, and so, anyway, for years I went to this, but as time went on, I couldn't like my contacts had, by the way I took everybody's name that I met that worked for major league soccer, and I kept emailing the meet. You're like, oh hey, and they were wonderful. In fact, one year I couldn't get tickets and they got me tickets the last second and I went and watched one of the games. So anyway, I had this unique experience. I doubt they would consider me a VIP today and I probably couldn't get anywhere near the tent, but for a number of years I did that.
Speaker 1:My second story that I would say is that I also tried to go to a number of the World Cups. So in the 94 World Cup I joined the lottery and I got a lottery to watch the finals. I ended up getting sick and I had to give a ticket to my buddy that went to it for me. I went in France, I went in Korea, I went to Africa, I went to Qatar and so, like this last time in Qatar, I went and watched all the Mexican games, the US games and the Canadian games, and I don't know if you can see this picture behind me, but this is a number of years ago.
Speaker 1:But I was looking at waste facilities, just coincidentally, in France and with the CEO of this company. As we were finishing up, I was leaving, like on a Friday, and he said like hey look, do you think you can kick your travel back a day and do you want to go over to England and watch one of the championship the Premier League games? And I said sure I'll go one of the championship the Premier League games. And I said sure I'll go. And he asked me, like do you have a sport coat, which you know, like you might not carry a sport coat to wastewater facilities, but I did have a sport coat with me and what I didn't know was that this guy's company, the major investor, was, oh my God, the Russian oligarch that owned Chelsea at the time. Um, um, oh.
Speaker 3:Abramovich.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, roman Abramovich. So we actually sat and this is the game that Chelsea beat Watford to win the the the the league that year and Drogba scored that day Wow, and I'm in the box, and which is its own story, just like the box. So there's a lot to that story, but it was awesome to be out there in the owner's box for someone who really didn't deserve to be in the owner's box.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean, those are incredible and those are. I mean you'll remember those forever, you know, and people that you tell will remember those, and I think it's also an interesting thing to just where it's. It's incredible Sometimes the things that you can accomplish just by walking up and talking to people. You know your MLS story like and, and part of it is you may not have known any better and you're just like, oh cool, like all right, they're just welcoming people. But it's also things that happen just by chance and you're just walking up and being friendly and making conversation and saying hello and investigating things, right, and you never know what comes out of that. So I always tell people never say no to a conversation. Hardly anything harmful has ever happened from having a conversation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know one of the things that this is one of the things that's interesting too about just pro sports, specifically soccer, and this is another trend. Can I go back a little bit, is that okay? Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, and of course, maybe people talked about this as well with you. But what I find interesting is you know a lot of people that own like an NFL team also own a soccer team. So the folks that own the Patriots own the New England Revolution, the folks that own the Buccaneers also own Manchester United.
Speaker 1:The Glazer family, stan Kroenke, who owns the Rams, owns the Colorado Rapids, and I think he's also the major investor in Arsenal, and the list goes on right, and you also have the introduction of private equity capital into the space. So you've got a lot of people that want to be an owner, because if I could just dream up one of the things that I'd want to be, you know, I would love nothing better to be, you know, an owner of one of these major teams. Like how cool would that be? You know, and so you know it's, so it's. It's an interesting frontier in that regard, in terms of just ownership.
Speaker 1:I mean, heck, look no further than even like Rexham, right? I mean, like those guys bought it for a million dollars, you know, probably didn't hurt the, the, the publicity they put on it, but they still do invest capital, right? It's not free, I have, I didn't do this, but there was at this chance there's. There's a guy that I know that just bought, also for like a million dollars, bought a team that's a third division Italian team. That's also from one of the bigger cities, the city around the Croatian coast, right there, and just interesting watching what he's trying to do with it.
Speaker 3:Well, even you know, venezia is another example in Italy, como is another example in Italy that has kind of had resurgences with different investment opportunities.
Speaker 3:I mean now we can just start to get into like, okay, why is there so much capital flow into pro sports?
Speaker 3:And that is just the valuation growth is going like this.
Speaker 3:I mean we talked about it with the Jerry Jones example and soccer is really one of those things that is the right combination of growth but hyper growth but still early entry opportunity and relatively speaking to other, you know other assets in the sports asset class and you're just seeing a ton come into play here where you have the growth of the sport relatively still can get in early and then enjoy that ride on valuation growth and the continued growth of the sport. And there's been a few of those in Italian soccer over the last five to seven years where it's kind of struggled a little bit. But now is back on this resurgence a little bit here. And you've seen that in some of these other teams where they get in second, third tier and then they put in the capital. But you do have to invest. It's not a sure thing but if you can get the right people and coaching and all those things and, of course, to your point, the star power and the publicity that they got on the Erexim example.
Speaker 1:it doesn't hurt. Well, and being a global market in soccer makes it also. It provides more opportunity, makes it also it, it provides more opportunity. Um, you know, there's, it's, it's, it's got its own unique, unique things about it, you know.
Speaker 1:And so when I have friends that ask me about major league soccer, and especially ones that don't really understand it, you know they'll, they'll have this view that like, okay, these stars, like messy, show up but maybe they're, like you know, like really in retirement, which which really isn't true, you know, like I mean, you take a guy like Messi, who went from, you know, player of the year, winning the World Cup and then moving right to MLS. But their point is valid in the sense that they're older guys, you know. But really, what the MLS league has done so successfully in the last number of years is taking guys that are 18, 19, 20, 21, developing them, and they basically own the contract for $1 and sell the contract for $10. And that's a good business model to be in. And I think that Ozark United can do that same thing, you know, because I think there's a market to continue to develop people and then sell those assets, you know, as as you also grow your business.
Speaker 3:It's sort of like a business within a business it a hundred percent is and there's even there's examples of clubs like this that do this really really well at all different levels of the game, all the way from the Premier League, uh, with clubs like you know, even though they just got relegated. Southampton is always known as a developmental club and their academy is super successful in growing those assets and developing them. Brighton, another one. That's been more recently in the last five years. Clubs like Louisville, like Orange County, that have kind of become known and have hit these you know seven figure deals on these players you know kind of for the first time over the last couple of years within the USL. So even within that you know these tiers and within our league you're starting to see this more and more and I think it's still got a ways to go and you know it's well.
Speaker 1:I think it'll continue to grow and get bigger. I mean, I think that when I look at the challenges of soccer, uh, from a business perspective, you know, I think that you know major league soccer, um signed a contract with apple which puts it behind a paywall, which I think that that um, I assume it's working for apple. But I think that what it doesn't do is give the casual fan or somebody who's not even a fan, access to it, so you don't find it playing at a bar, because just the way that what bars will subscribe to aren't necessarily an Apple package, that's just focused on that. But I do think we're going to move to a world where pretty much every sporting event is available to throw onto a TV, and I think it would be interesting to see what we do to attract those eyeballs and what the numbers are.
Speaker 1:But it's another thing that I think is positive about soccer it does continue to put butts. You know butts in the seat, you know. So if you look at major league soccer and I don't know all the trend at USL, but the games I have seen in USL look really, you know, like a lot of people show up at them. You know, so you know you're showing a lot of people showing up in person and then the viewership just creeps up. Now it's nowhere near football, but if you compare it to hockey, basketball, baseball, it's better or close to a lot of those sports. You know and so you know. So I think that you know, and if you were to put it on a graph right to show it over time, it's going the right direction.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the growth is just insane, to be frank, and especially if you look at it over the last, to be frank, and and especially if you look at it over the last call it 20 years um, both attendance, high school youth, participation, I mean there's all of that kind of stuff going on too.
Speaker 3:I mean the growth that we've even seen here in northwest arkansas, even though we're, you know, still young and maturing soccer market. The growth there has been incredible. I've been able to see it as a coach even in the last four years, with the numbers that show up to evaluations every year just growing, growing, growing, which is great, makes your job as a coach a little harder to get your eyeballs on all those players, you know that. But it's really, really exciting, and so I think it's a great time for us, both in the market that we're in and what we have going here, just as a region and the growth there, which I don't know if you, having lived in Arkansas, for not growing up here for a long time, can talk to some of the growth that you've seen in the region and just what's really stood out to you, and then also how that fits nicely with what we're bringing here with our project.
Speaker 1:Well, I think that a rural state, for almost any sport, is a difficult proposition. If we're focused on youth, for a second, you know. So you know one of the things that's different if you just take something like Dallas Texas. You know, in Dallas Texas, if you open up the paper, you know they'll have the youth teams scoring for the top, like 20 youth teams that play each other. So you got a much higher quality. That's all close to each other. I think that for Arkansas, you know, being a rural state, it's just tougher, you know. But I do think it's continued to improve and you know, and I would evidence that by to improve and you know, and I would evidence that by you know, more high school teams, more fields, more people playing and then just people that have morphed out of the system, you know, or matriculated up, that have done really well, you know. So I would love it if the University of Arkansas had a, a men's soccer team, I think.
Speaker 3:I think the only division one team we've got in the state is uca, you know yeah, and you see that a lot with, like, the sec, the big 12, the really big football schools, just because of title nine.
Speaker 1:I mean you know this, but yeah well, I think there's two sec teams to have soccer. So I think south carolina's got a soccer team and uh, I forget the other one, but I think there's two. So I think most of the Big Ten have a soccer team.
Speaker 3:Big Ten does. Big Ten does. It's more the Southern schools that are power five to seven conferences. It's just that's the way.
Speaker 1:But all of the SEC has vibrant women teams.
Speaker 3:Yes, very much.
Speaker 1:And I would say that's also a big growth area. There's just the women in the sport. I almost wish that when MLS and the USL, when they had a pro team, they just made a women's and a men's team, because I think it would just be another attraction. But because it's not set up that way as a business, it's a little bit more challenging.
Speaker 3:Yeah and you're right, but to be fair, just women's sports in general too, is just one of the hottest things right now, from an investment standpoint as well and viewership. It's incredible what's going on.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, and love what the USL is doing with the Super League. I mean, the growth of the NWSL is fantastic. I mean we have such a strong program here at the University of Arkansas with the women, and Coach Colby Hale has done an incredible job and they're, you know, top five, top ten in the country, typically on the field, but then also off the field in attendance, which is incredible, you know, so in the country it's awesome to see.
Speaker 1:Well, they've got great facilities. I mean, you know so, really nice facilities. I think that's probably. I mean I haven't been to all the SEC schools to look at their soccer fields, but I'm going to guess a lot of them have really nice soccer fields. You know just guessing, but I do think the University of Arkansas has really nice fields, you, but I do think the University of Arkansas is really nice fields. I've watched a number of games there over the years.
Speaker 3:It's a great atmosphere and if you're in Northwest Arkansas or in driving distance and you want to have a good time, very affordable for your family, go please. It's an incredible, incredible time. Andy, we're getting close to time here, so I'll just kind of wrap up with this. You've watched our development for a long time. We've several years been involved in conversations with you and just you're such a big supporter of what we're doing and we just can't thank you enough. What do you want to leave folks with in terms of what excites you about what we're doing?
Speaker 1:Well, there's a number of things that I like about what you guys are doing, you know, I think that you know, just beyond the soccer, I think that the, which there's a lot of nice things about that, you know, I like that.
Speaker 1:I'd love to see that in Northwest Arkansas, but I'm also pretty pumped about what the facility looks like. I think that's a really interesting aspect, because I think all of us can look at sporting facilities, even ones that were built 20 years ago now seem outdated, right, because how they function, how they work, they just morph, and so I like the idea that you guys have a stadium, but also sort of mixed use, other properties there. I think that sort of being with that much forethought, is going to be really good for the community broadly, in addition to just soccer, so other things that you could do there outdoor concerts or whatever, just events and just, but also just the shopping, the restaurants, et cetera. So, you know, um, and I think that I think that's a real positive thing. So I, you know, I listen, I applaud everything that you guys do and I'm, like I said, I'm cheering for it to actually come to fruition, because it is a big, bold project, no question about it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. And it takes a village, it takes people like you and your voices and leadership in the communities that you guys play in. So thank you so much again for your support and we'll do our darndest to continue to bring that to fruition.
Speaker 1:Wes, thanks for having me. I really appreciate it, and best of luck for uh and I'll do anything I can. I'll do more than cheer, you know.
Speaker 3:You know it's so anyway, no, thank you, Andy, and I can't wait, uh, to have you there with us for opening day. Man, so excellent. Andy McNeil, thank you again for joining me. Uh, that's going to do it for this episode of the Pitch to Pro podcast. Folks in Northwest Arkansas. Find us on pitchtoprocom, Apple, YouTube, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts. For more content Until next time, cheers Northwest Arkansas.
Speaker 2:Thanks for joining us on this episode of the Pitch to Pro podcast. Be sure to tune in again in two weeks for the next installment and check out the stoppage time series for a recap of today's episode. Be sure to find us at pitch to pro on youtube, instagram and everywhere you get your podcasts. Until next time, northwest arkansas cheers.